Many webmasters pick their hosts based on the price alone. And even if that is not the sole decision-making point, bandwidth rates are almost always a consideration. It is often the experience of a webmaster to get into a contract or open an account with a provider that appears to be the lowest priced only to find another provider at half the cost 6 months later.

So, what are webmasters supposed to do? First, it is important to explain what effects hosting prices. With most hosting providers, they are usually buying their bandwidth from a high-end fiber carrier. These carriers provide large amounts of bandwidth at low prices. The hosting provider purchases the bandwidth and then attaches their servers to that bandwidth. When a webmaster opens an account with a hosting provider, they are often not actually buying bandwidth from that provider. They are buying a hosting service that uses another carrier's bandwidth. The hosting provider will mark up the cost they are paying to the carrier, add some costs for labor and equipment, and then you have your hosting rate.

The artistic value of the Internet business model and website design may be questionable, but the necessity for consistent creativity is undeniable. Yet the industry as a whole seems to be declining swiftly to nothing more than more of the same. How about this excuse: "Well all the good ideas are already taken, so I might as well benefit from the ideas of others." We've all heard that one, and to some degree, we might as well call it a legitimate excuse. We can't all be innovators. As much as I would like to tell all those who can't come up with an idea of their own to kindly excuse themselves from the business, it's just not realistic.

But there is a redeeming aspect to it all, and it's this... Those who consistently innovate their own ideas can keep themselves one small step ahead of the replicating masses. That's right. Think of new, original ideas, and you have a slightly better chance of getting a jump on your competition.

Back on http://www.php-scripts.com/php_diary/1/09/2001.php3, I showed people how to make a simple counter using a flat file data system and over time this has proven to be one of the more popular diary entries (by reader rating) that I've ever written. One thing you couldn't do with that particular script was to have more than one counter (unless you modified it considerably). So what if one wanted to have counters on multiple pages on the website using one script? Today let's create a script to do this using mySQL. The first thing we need to do is plan out our mySQL table structure.

I believe that good web design has much more to do with the ideas the site is trying to convey than with the actual techniques involved in graphics and coding. I see quite a few sites that make great use of dynamic HTML, fancy animations, mouseovers, Flash animations, and interactivity, but yet are still quite unappealing and ineffective. One of the fundamental ideals to be considered is to always keep your page designs balanced. You should look at your screen as a painter looks at his canvas. Design your page as if you are painting a picture.

With that in mind, how many unbalanced paintings go on to be considered masterpieces? The placement of objects and colors in a great painting are never unbalanced or sloppy. In the same way, you don't want your site to be unbalanced.