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Best Hosting Company

nigeljones123
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Joined: 28 Aug 12
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Best Hosting Company

I have built a site for The Top 10 Hosting Companies and have negotiated some excellent discounts and I would like to ask for some input please.

The ranking of the top 10 hosting sites is driven by customer reviews. If you are using or have previously used any of these companies could I please ask you to spare 2 minutes to write a quick review on them and give them a star rating.

This will significantly help others to make an informed decision when looking for the best web hosting. This website is totally dependent on customer reviews.

http://www.web-hosting-sites-review.com/

I really appreciate your help with this and also any constructive criticism.

Thanks, Nigel.
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hassel_lee
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Look it will take some time to review your website. I would review if you highlight few best points about your site. I have less time to explore you website so you just mention your website's best part and i would give review to your site.
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nigeljones123
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Thank you for your reply. The site is driven by customers who rate their web hosting company. The order of the ranking changes dynamically as new reviews are made.

For each company we show the customer reviews from the last 3 months to help people make a good decision when choosing a web hosting company. We have also managed to negotiate some very low prices for web hosting.

There are many experienced webmasters on Affilorama who use these hosting companies and it would be very useful if they could post a review of their experiences on the appropriate page of the website. It helps other people to make a good decision when obtaining web hosting.

Thank you in advance, Nigel.
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Site Admin
aletta
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Hey Nigel,

I'm not sure if you're looking for actual feedback on your site (or just reviews) but there is a LOT going on on that page and it's really hard to find the actual reviews/rankings/links to the sites, etc.

Comparison tables are neat, but they need to be clear. You've got those animated buttons on the left, big glossy buttons and icons of different colours... and then the actual link that people have to click to visit that host is just a tiny green arrow with a hard-to-read "visit" on it, right on the right of the page.

Maybe have a think about what you consider would be the 3 most important deciding factors for a hosting company, and make sure those have visual prominence. Then make the other features less leap-out-and-slap-you obvious.

Down the page there are a LOT of banners, and it makes the star ratings and comments less obvious.

Aside from those things, great idea! There are some awesome commissions to be earned from hosting providers, and this is wicked way to promote them.
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nigeljones123
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Aletta, thanks for the feedback. I agree 100%. I will make some significant changes on the comparison table, make the "Reviews" and "Visit" buttons more prominent.

Did you go through to any of the review pages? (either from the button or from the menu). I would value your opinion on those too if you have time.

I have put a great deal of work into this site so far and really appreciate your comments. Thanks very much. :)
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Site Admin
aletta
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Yeah I did take a peek inside.

First impressions based on http://www.web-hosting-sites-review.com/webhostingpad

* If I were arriving at this page from the search engines (eg searching for "webhosting pad review") I would like to see a clearer title to show me I'm in the right place. Eg, "Webhostingpad Reviews" right at the top, above the banner.

* I'm not a fan of times new roman as a font, it looks like the 90s to me. Arial looks more professional.

* Again, a lot of competing visual information on this page. There's a chick in teh banner, a chick in the sidebar, a whole bunch of stars in the sidebar, that green arrow, a banner in the top right corner, two different styles of stars, all those cpanel icons, etc. It's like Vegas. I'm waaay overstimulated and it's hard to concentrate on any one thing.

* There are a lot of asterisks. Like "the special price of only $1.99*" "cPanel apps*" "Extra bonuses*" -- Every time you add an asterisk to something it says to me "you're saying this, but there are conditions involved in me getting this". It's $1.99 with conditions. I get cPanel apps with conditions. Hosting features with conditions.

BUT you never tell me what these damn asterisks mean. This means I'm assuming there are hidden conditions / disclaimers that I'm not aware of, and it means I don't trust your information.

What do all the asterisks mean anyway? P.S: Try saying "asterisks" out loud ;)
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hassel_lee
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Look nigel i would like to comment or review your website but you know that this will not be an actual feedback. So i have done this for you, you can check out it on webshosting hub.
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nigeljones123
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hassel_lee, Thank you for the review you left on the WebHostingHub page. It is appreciated. :)
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nigeljones123
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@ Aletta, once again, thank you very much for your observations. It is good to get feedback on my site. After putting in so much work it is easy to get "snow-blind". All comments are valuable. :)

I suppressed the page title because of the large WebHostingPad banner at the top of the page followed by an H2 WebHostingPad Voted #4 With 4.75 Star Rating. Is this not enough? Please let me know.

Font type, I will test with Ariel. It will probably look better.

I see what you are saying about too much going on here. I guess I overdid the visual but surely I need to keep the list of the top 10 best web hosts in the right column and the green "Visit" button is an obvious call to action, or am I wrong? I do see other ways to tone the page down but your advice is always welcome.

* The asterisks, there is a footnote at the end of every page on the site. This is to advise buyers to check all details on the hosting website before entering into a contract with them. Some of the hosting providers make changes to prices and features without informing us and then change them again a week later. We check the prices everyday but it is possible that they change them between our checks.

I guess I have been in the USA for too long (almost 1 year) and I am surrounded by disclaimers, lol. Once again you are 100% correct. Having asterisks is a bad idea as it takes away trust so I have removed them all but left the footnote.

After your advise I am working on improving the comparison table on the home page and look forward to your comments on how to change the other pages such as http://www.web-hosting-sites-review.com/webhostingpad

A question for you Aletta. Why do you only have 4 stars? You really do take the time to give extensive answers on this forum. It is VERY useful and valuable for members to get such feedback and opinions. I think 5 stars would be way more appropriate.

Nigel.
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Site Admin
aletta
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Hey Nigel,

Your site looks to be down at the moment, so I'll take a peek back a bit later. But in regard to the stars.... It's purely to do with the number of people who have clicked the "thumbs up" icon under my posts. I've argued that it makes me only look 80% trustworthy, but nobody else seems as concerned as me :)
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tankctrlr
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Thumbs up to Aletta for the paragraph
chick in teh banner, a chick in the sidebar... It's like Vegas.
, awesome.
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hassel_lee
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nigeljones123 wrote:hassel_lee, Thank you for the review you left on the WebHostingHub page. It is appreciated. :)

I have given you a review which looks real but as you can see it is not high rated and not even low rated so is it ok with you that i have given you 4 star.
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hassel_lee
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I may need a favor from your side in future and i would tell you when i need it. And i hope you will also give a good response.
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nigeljones123
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Thanks hassel_lee. All genuine reviews are very useful, just let me know. :)
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Last edited by nigeljones123 on 30 Aug 13 4:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
 

nigeljones123
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@ Aletta, I think people like your comprehensive responses and just forget to give you a thumbs up. It would look so much better ( more like Vegas ) with 5 stars and maybe an asterisk or 2. ;)

I have been making a few changes on the site and have more planned but I will wait for your next reply first.

Thanks Aletta. (5 star responder).
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Last edited by nigeljones123 on 29 Aug 13 2:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 

hassel_lee
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nigeljones123 wrote:Thanks hassel_lee. All genuine reviews are , just good Let me know. :)

Ok that's what i am expecting from you whenever i need your assistance i will tell you.
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Site Admin
aletta
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Hi Nigel,

I'm seeing a couple of changes (I think) to your page, mostly in that comparison table, but it's still looking way too busy for me to make any sense of it.

Handy hint: When you emphasise EVERYTHING you emphasise NOTHING. It is a shouting match.

If you were to put a heatmapping tool (eg CrazyEgg) onto a page with your comparison table, you would find that people are clicking on every single one of those icons in that table, regardless of whether they're clickable links or not. Because it's impossible to tell, and they're all competing with each other for visual prominence.

Ask yourself this: If your visitor only had the mental capacity to understand ONE item from that comparison table (eg, price, star rating, the fact that they can read reviews, or the "visit website" link).... which is the one you would want them to see and understand?

What is the MOST IMPORTANT column in that table?

Now I'm going to be a bit more generous. I'll actually let you have THREE important columns. THREE pieces of information that would allow them to make a decision on which host to read more about. Which are the most important? What do you think your readers are MOST concerned about?

I'm not saying you have to ditch all the rest. I'm saying that they need to be de-emphasised. Made smaller. Made less brightly coloured. Made less 3-dimensional. Made to look less like a button. Perhaps even turned into words, rather than icons that require an additional brain step to interpret. They're there for anyone who is interested, but they're not the main focus.

De-emphasise the UNIMPORTANT things so that the IMPORTANT things stand out more.

Now take this same theory and apply it to your whole page. What are the MOST IMPORTANT things that you want to draw people's attention to? Imagine you only get to choose five things. Imagine you have to pay your visitor a buck for each place you want them to look, and you've only got five bucks to spend. What are the FIVE most important things you can get them to look at that will help you get that sale? Some ideas:

1) Something that lets them know that they're in the right place
2) Something that lets them know what they can do on this page (read reviews? Compare hosting providers?)
3) Something that they can click to visit the product you're talking about
4) Something that tells them why it's good
5) Something that tells them they can trust your opinion

I'm mixing my analogies like nobody's business, but I hope you get what I mean. If I need to spend too much time trying to figure out what in the sam hill you're wanting me to look at, I'm just going to hit the back button and try to find some page with something easier to understand.

Your homepage is the worst offender here, rather than your actual review pages. SOOOOO many banners! SOOOOO many chicks! I'm counting twelve female faces on your homepage, and a couple of good-lookin dudes as well.

I have nothing against good-lookin chicks or dudes, but a face is going to draw anyone's attention at the expense of the surrounding content. That's why so many banners and websites use pictures of chicks and dudes.

So the TL;DR of this is: Simplify your page so I can actually understand it! Once I understand it, THEN I'll be interested in clicking through to check out your recommendations. At the moment all your good content is getting lost in a sea of bright shiny objects.
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nigeljones123
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Thanks so much Aletta. Excellent advice.

Handy hint: When you emphasise EVERYTHING you emphasise NOTHING.


The first thing the customer is looking for is price. By de-emphasising the 3 cols for free domain, unlimited space and support it has made the price stand out much better.

The second most important is getting the visitor to click to read reviews on whichever host they are interested in. The third is to get them to click through to the hosting site. For these I have made prominent buttons and very clear as to where they are going. The new buttons will need to be changed again, they were just a quick fix. I will do that tomorrow.

I will also start work on the rest of the page below the comparison chart following your advice. I think there will be further alterations to the other review pages also. I will post again when the other work is completed.

Let me know what you think when you get chance. Your comments are always valuable. Thanks. :)

P.S. This site is up and running and earning good money for the last month. I am sure these changes will improve the conversion rate. Tweaking and testing is the way forward.
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aletta
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Wow, that comparison table is looking a lot better already. My eyes breathed a sigh of relief, if you believe that confused metaphor.

If I were you I'd might see what it looks like without using the hosting banners as the host name on the left of the column, and just change the host name to text. At the moment they are the most obvious things for me, BUT.... they might be helping your visitors to know that they're in the right place, and lending credibility to your page.

(Eg, "I know the GoDaddy brand, you have the GoDaddy logo right here, therefore I know that you're talking about something I've heard about, therefore it makes you seem more credible." That's just what my lizard brain is saying.)

Something that might be really interesting for you (particularly if you're getting a reasonable amount of traffic to your page) is to use CrazyEgg on it like I mentioned.

https://www.crazyegg.com

It's really easy to set up and you'll see where people are clicking. Often where people click is a fair indication of where they're looking, as well as what they expect to be clickable. You also get scroll indicators showing how far down the page people tend to read, and which sections they spend more time examining.

It's 30 days free, and even after that it's just $9/month for up to 10,000 visitors a month. (If you stick around long enough on their pricing page they tell you that, just not up front).

They do not have an affiliate program or I'd give you my link :) Hah!

We use it here quite a lot, and it's way more exciting than looking at Google Analytics stats.
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nigeljones123
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Yes, I had a look at CrazyEgg today and a few other options in between making tons of (good) changes on my site, lol. It looks really interesting and worthwhile but I have little traffic so far. I came to the conclusion that most of the traffic is myself and that would not tell me much right now but I will look into it more. Only a little over 1,000 clicks to my site in June, July and August but 8 sales.

The little banners need to stay for all the reasons you mentioned above. They are basically just a logo now. Obviously much better than the banners I had there before with all that movement and flashing lights. Damn near gave me a migraine. (Missing Las Vegas though).

I also made changes to all the short posts below the chart, got rid of the additional style of stars and changed the sub-headings. Still a lot of work to do there. I also made similar changes to the inner review pages. Only one star style running through the site now.

So much for the 3 day holiday weekend here (Labor day). I have worked straight through and still lots to do. lol
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nick38
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Great site and idea! I have followed the thread and agree with most comments, especially the font used. :)

My comment is do all these companies really get/deserve 5 stars? The problem I have is that its difficult to choose a product when they all rate so high. I am actually lookign for new hosting right now and this hasn't helped me choose.

Are your users saying all these hosting companies are perfect? (not even the iPhone is perfect!)

People want to feel they are picking a clear winner when they make a decision to buy. I know I do.

Hope this helps.

Nick
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nigeljones123
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Hi Nick, thank you for your comments. It all helps when building a site. Constructive criticism is so valuable.

I understand the dilemma. The star ratings are customer driven when they write a review and they are not the only factor to consider when choosing a hosting company. To make a good choice it really depends on what you need. There is no clear winner suitable for everybody, it really depends on your own requirements. The important details for making a choice are in the individual pages for each host from the main menu.

Are your users saying all these hosting companies are perfect?
This is NOT the case at all. There are some TERRIBLE reviews on the site. A couple of examples, lol.

http://www.web-hosting-sites-review.com/hostgator#comment-2702
http://www.web-hosting-sites-review.com/godaddy#comment-840 SO FAR FROM A PERFECT REVIEW. HAHAHAHAHA.

The next 2 pages I am creating are "Choosing A Host" & "Moving Hosting" to make it easier.

Personally, I would not stray outside the top 3 because they all have everything you need from a host and my choice between them would be made based on these factors.

Q1. Is this for a new site or are you moving from another host?
Q2. How many sites do you need to have hosted?
Q3. Are you anticipating a large amount of traffic (1,000 plus visitors per day)?

A1. If you are moving from another hosting company both WebHostingHub and InMotion have a free service to move your site(s) to ensure an easy transition.

A2. If you are expecting to host multiple websites on one account both Hub and BlueHost allow unlimited sites for $3.99 and $3.95 respectively. InMotion allow two on the Business Class Launch @ $5.59, six on the Power Plan @ $7.19 and 25 on the Pro Plan @ $13.99.

A3. If you anticipate heavy traffic then InMotion would be the best choice. Their Max Speed Zones with multiple data centers will make your website run up to 6 times faster. Here is a direct link to the Max Speed Zone page. Take a look at the sample data and the download tests.
https://secure1.inmotionhosting.com/cgi-bin/gby/clickthru.cgi?id=HostingRev&page=24

For multiple sites with normal traffic load I would choose WebHostingHub for $3.99 per month. (2nd choice BlueHost).
For 1 or 2 sites with very heavy traffic I would pay the extra for InMotion Business Class @ $5.59 per month.

I appreciate your comments as it helps me to look at the site through your eyes. I will get the other pages completed soon but I hope this helps for now. :)
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Last edited by nigeljones123 on 05 Sep 13 11:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 

Site Admin
aletta
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Nigel: That's an awesome, seemingly honest editorial opinion :)

Not sure if you've got anything like that on your site already, but I bet that's the kind of info people would love.

Maybe you could do some segmentation: Figure out what the main kinds of people are (multiple sites, lots of traffic, need XYZ features, etc) and make a series of recommendations for each type of user?

You could maybe (eventually) even do like some of those credit card "wizards" do: Build some widgets where people can say how important certain factors are, and then generate a recommendation based on that.

Probably need some programming wizardry to make that work, but could be a cool feature that people would end up sharing with their buddies.

Ideas, ideas!
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nigeljones123
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Thanks Aletta, I really needed some more work. hahaha

I had already started a draft for the "Choosing A Host" page and came to the conclusion that it is just a flow chart based on the customers individual needs. Most of the top hosting companies provide a lot of the same features plus a number of variations.

I think a widget for host selection is very possible. I will work out all the variants and get a flow chart down on paper (screen). I will take a look at how much wizardry it would take to make it work...

It really would be a great way for people to find out exactly which host (or choice of hosts) would be best for them. Like I said to nick38 above, there is no " best one to suit all" but this would be a fantastic way to choose.
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nick38
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Hi Nigel. Sorry about the late reply. Been at my day job ;)

Thanks for the detailed response. As Aletta says it would make a good piece of content for your site if positioned correctly.

As for my requirements, I need something fast, multi-domain and with Apache and cpanel. I am in the UK and already have good UK hosting (I recommend Vidahost if anyone needs a decent UK based service) but want a completely fresh US server to host new sites on.

Thanks for not recommending Hostgator or Godaddy!

Of them all, Hub may be the one as they seem to have what I need but I am also tempted to try JustHost as they are just so cheap! A few people here in the UK rate them for basic hosting.

Can I ask how you built your site - is it on wordpress?

Also, a good differentiator for the package matrix on the homepage would be to have a "number of domains option". This is something I was looking for.

Nick
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nigeljones123
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Hi Nick, it sounds like webHostingHub would be the ideal for you.

I don't have anything against JustHost except I find their support response times unacceptable. The support on Hub is amazingly fast and that is important to me. I don't have time to wait around for a hosting company to get back to me.

for $1 per month more Hub will give you everything you need with lightening fast support. That is your "clear winner".

Yes, my site is built on WP.

Number of domain options - I will put it on the chart today. Thanks a lot for the feedback. :)
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Last edited by nigeljones123 on 04 Sep 13 7:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 

nigeljones123
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Nick, Column for "Domain Limit" took 30 minutes to put on the chart. I guess it will take a lot longer to make it look nice. lol

Let me know if you have any other questions Nick. If you prefer we can chat on my website. Just click on the pretty girl "Live support - Chat now" and ask for Nigel. 10am to 10pm ET - 3pm to 3am UK time.

http://www.web-hosting-sites-review.com/
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galen
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beyondhosting.net Hands down the best hosting I have tried. Most of the standard cheap hosting out there is shared hosting, so if you get a large volume of traffic the website can load very slow , malfunction, and not track sales as a result.

You want to go with beyond hosting because it is a VPS Virtual Private Server. This will ensure that you website loads extremely fast even over a very high volume of traffic.
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nigeljones123
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99% of people are not looking for VPS because it is way too expensive and unnecessary until you have built up a very significant amount of traffic.

Many of the shared hosting plans can be slow once you reach 1,000 visitors per day but there are a couple which are still very fast.

InMotion Hosting is the fastest shared hosting. http://www.web-hosting-sites-review.com/inmotion

WebHostingHub is also fast and a lower price. http://www.web-hosting-sites-review.com/webhostinghub

If you are concerned about speed but still need low prices then I would highly recommend these two.
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rbproviders
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That's a good niche! I am founding a site too. where did you find your front page review skin?
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Amazing WP Affiliate Theme (Amazon, Ebay, CJ) For Only 47$
www.covertstorebuilder.tk





 
roddanielmartin
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I liked Godaddy.com. Please checked.

https://godaddy.com/
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