Website Hosting - How to Select a Good Company
by: Brad Stone
Trying to select a hosting package is much like purchasing a new car—there are many different types and ways to go, but in the end it really boils down to how you are going to get where you want to be and the features you’ll need to get there. You certainly would not buy a Honda Civic to make an off-road journey across the Mohave Desert. Nor would it make sense to buy a Hummer to just drive around town.
So in considering the type of hosting package and company to host your website, you should first assess where you want your website to go and what you’ll need to get there.
But first, let’s understand what web hosting is exactly, and the many different features that need to be considered.
The Internet is a vast network of interconnected computer servers which house or host various pages of information, called websites. Hosting a website means to store and maintain a computer folder of various web pages. Hosting companies offer this service by providing computer hardware and software services. These services vary as much as cars do.
Some very important hosting features that should be a must for your hosting package, much like the importance of having a car with a motor and wheels, are the following:
* Security – Protection from Internet hackers.
* Space – Ability to grow my site without size constraints.
* Speed – How fast my website will load onto visitors computers.
* Up Time – Dependability of the hosting servers from crashing.
* Back Up – Protection from loss of data from my website.
* Support – 24 hours support to handle problems.
* Administrative Tools – For making changes to your site.
* Email – The number and size of email accounts.
* Hosting Company – History and track record for support.
* Search Engine Submissions – Submitting to the major search engines.
Now, let’s consider where you want your website to go and what you’ll need to get there. Some questions to ask:
* Do I want my customers to be able to look up information on my website? If so, you’ll need a database driven website with a hosting company that supports it.
* Do I want movement on my website? If so, you’ll need a web design company that can program flash for your site, as well as the ability to host the flash program.
* What type and how much email traffic will I anticipate? This helps to determine the size and amount of storage you’ll need for your hosted website.
* How many web pages will I need? This also helps to determine the size of space needed for your hosting package.
* Will I want to make ongoing custom changes to my website? If so, you’ll need a hosting company that supports ongoing custom design changes.
* Will my website have a lot of images and movement? If so, you’ll need additional space for larger web files for these functions.
* Do I want Internet Traffic to my Website? In order to receive traffic to your website, your hosting company needs to offer this service, or you’ll need to hire a third party for this service.
* Will I need Internet marketing help and consultation? In this fast-changing Internet world, it is important to have professional help and consultation.
The Better Business Bureau offers this advice:
“Choosing a Web Hosting Service for your Business Web Site. Is your business web site down again? Does it seem to have more downtime than uptime? You may want to consider changing your web hosting service. One of the most important decisions you will make for your business web site is selecting which web hosting service will display your web pages to the Internet. Choosing the right Internet Service Provider (ISP) to host your business's web site may feel like finding the right day-care center for your kids these days: Are they reliable? Will they be there next month? Do they know what they are doing? What services do they provide?"
Basically, it is important to find the right hosting company that will partner with you for all your hosting, design and consultation needs. The cheapest hosting is typically not the best route to go. It’s cheap because it is a bare bones package, with little, if any support. That is a sure way to online business failure.
About The Author
Brad Stone is CEO of Heritage Web Solutions, a USA Based Company, specializing in Designing and Hosting Affordable Websites for Small and Medium Size Businesses. With a staff of over 160 employees, Heritage Web Solutions has grown to a multi-million-dollar company in just 4 years, achieving a Top 1% National Ranking as reported by WebHosting.Info. For more information, call 866-754-1474, or visit www.heritagewebdesign.com.
View their website at: http://www.heritagewebdesign.com
Select a Web Hosting Provider before Launching a Website
by: Amit Kothiyal
Select a Web Hosting Provider before Launching a Website
Now that you have completed the website and are launch it on the internet, you need to consider two main questions. First - where you will host your new site and what will be your domain name?
To start with the first thing- the Web Hosts. A Web Hosting Provider is a group that provides you with server space on the web for your web site. The space that is allotted to your website includes all your web pages, graphics, scripts and files, databases etc. The web host is the link between the browser and your website. When your web address is typed into a browser, the web host is the first to be contacted and requested to locate and display the requested page.
You can find a number of free web hosting providers and services on the internet. However, if in case you are planning to create a website with a business purpose in mind, then go for professionals web hosting providers instead of the free web hosting services. These professional web hosting providers ensure more credibility since web sites hosted on free servers are not taken seriously and suffer a serious loss of business due to varied reasons. Unfortunately, for those of us who are on shoe-string budgets that rely on free servers are not taken seriously and can lose business. In order to establish credibility, you must be willing to invest in a professional web hosting service.
While selecting your web hosting provider, do some research about the web hosting company as to how many customers do they serve, their uptime percentage visitors, set up fees, do they offer secure servers etc. Make sure you do your homework efficiently and ensure that the web hosting provider you select for your self offer exactly what you need for your website.
Apart from selecting your web hosting provider, a domain name is as important to select. It is used to relate the particular web site on the web and is that part of the URL that basically instructs the web browser to find a particular page from the search engine content. It is important in the sense that it has to create a brand among the consumers, and it should signify what your business is all about. A good domain name is one that will be easily remembered by the visitors, as it relates to something they are interested in.
Each of them has the same data base that contains all the domain names that have been already registered. You can register your domain name with any one of them. There are many companies available online that will help you out to register a domain name for your website and are efficient web hosting provider.
About The Author
Amit Kothiyal is operating a web hosting provider directory http://www.betahosts.com/ Here you can find a wide range of web hosting providers. Browse our website to find the best web hosting packages and the lowest prize.
Choosing a Web Hosting Service
by: Ray Herold
Given the sheer number of web hosting providers, making the decision as to which one to go with can become a daunting task. What many people don't realize is that the wrong choice can introduce a "single point of failure" into your otherwise successful online business. In this articles, I will discuss some of the major factors you should consider before you make that choice.
SPACE AND BANDWIDTH
The most common thing people look for in a hosting provider is the amount of disk storage space and "bandwidth" available to them. While these are certainly important, they should not alone be the deciding factors. Truth is, most providers today allocate more disk space and bandwidth than most people would need. As I explained in an earlier article, 5-10 Gigabytes (or more) of storage is A LOT of storage. Most people will never need this much. If you already have your website designed and ready to go on your own computer, simply right-click the folder and select properties to determine how much space it requires. Even if you use backend databases (e.g., MySQL, MS ACCESS), the vast majority of sites would never come close to requiring 5GB or more. As long as the hosting providers you are considering give you that 5GB or more, you will be fine in all but a few rare cases. If you discover you need more at a later time, make sure your provider gives you an easy upgrade path to a hosting plan with a higher allocation.
The same thing applies to bandwidth. Many, if not most, providers now give bandwidth allocatioins of 200Gb/month or more. That amount would be more than adequate for most small businesses. Let's look at an example. If each visitor to your site uses, on average, 1MB of bandwidth to surf through your pages, a 200GB/month bandwidth allocation would handle 200,000 visitors/month. Even if each visitor browsed an average of 10MB on your site (which is HIGHLY unlikely), you could still handle 20.000 visitors/month. Of course, if your business really explodes into a huge success, your failsafe fallback position is choosing a hosting provider that allows for a painless upgrade path.
SHARED VS. DEDICATED HOSTING
In a shared hosting environment, your site is placed on a server that also provides hosting for a number of other people. You have your own space, your own domain and the rest, but other people are also using the resources of that server for their sites. There is no risk of your pages showing up on the other person’s site, or vice versa. Each site has it’s own unique set of folders, logins, and so forth.
Besides the fact that shared hosting costs considerably less, the important consideration for most people is that the hosting company support staff administers the server. If there is a problem with the server, they have to fix it, not you. When the operating system or other system software needs to be upgraded, they do it. All you worry about is your own site and the pages contained on it.
For a large number of small businesses, shared hosting is more than adequate. In a shared hosting environment, there is no need for you to have technical knowledge of Windows or Unix server administration. That’s not your core business so why would you want to take that on?
In some cases however, there may be specific reasons why someone needs to administer their own server. These usually involve people who have specialized requirements. In that case, a dedicated server would be the option of choice.
In a dedicated server environment, you have full control over everything. You configure the server the way you want it. You install operating system upgrades and patches, and you fix things when they crash. You determine what components run on the server (e.g. ASP .NET 1.1 or .NET 2.0). You determine if the server runs CDONTs or some other mailer program. It’s almost as if the server were in your home or place of business, except that you are administering it remotely.
Again, in the vast majority of cases for a small business, shared hosting would be the preference. In those cases where a dedicated server is required, most hosting companies provide that, along with the headaches.
COST
It is amazing to me what some hosting providers charge for their services. It is even more amazing that so many people pay these prices. Let's consider a few of the "low end" hosting plans offered by some of the "big boys" in the web hosting sector.
One of them charges $9.95/mo for their basic service. They also require a $25 setup fee. For that, you get 2GB of storage space and 20GB of bandwidth. Another charges $14.95/month. With that, you get 500MB (MB, not GB) of storage, and 30GB of bandwidth. Are you kididng me?? There are thousands of hosting providers that will give you 10 times these amounts for $5/month or less. And if you compare other features, you will find that in most cases, these other providers also give you more in terms of email accounts and other "freebies". It pays to compare. For those who want to spend double, or even triple, for domains and web hosting, go right ahead. It is your money after all.
Of course, you can always go with a “free” hosting account. You can’t beat the price. But that doesn’t normally allow you to use your own domain. You just become an extension of someone else’s’ (e.g., somehostingservice.com/yoursite). That doesn’t do much for your branding. With free sites, you can also expect a boatload of ads that the hosting company puts there. I doubt that is really the image you want to portray to your customers.
HOSTING PROVIDER VIABILITY
Many people overlook this consideration, but doing so can be a critical mistake. The last thing you need is to get a great site online, start receiving a ton of visitors and sales, and then have your hosting company go belly-up on you. It’s happened all too often.
It is to your benefit to make sure that whoever you host with will be there tomorrow, next month, next year and five years from now. You would be surprised how many hosting companies are run by a single person out of the basement of their home, or how many of them are operating on a shoestring.
Don’t be afraid to ask a potential hosting company where their servers are located, or how many people are on their staff. I have stated in other articles that it is vitally important for all businesses to have a Business Continuity Plan. Ask your potential hosting company if they have one. Ask them what happens to YOU if there is a fire in their server complex. And don’t be afraid to ask them what happens to the company if the owner gets hit by a beer truck on the way to work. It happens.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Depending on the needs for your online business, there are several other factors to consider when choosing your hosting provider:
- how many email accounts do they provide?
- do they provide "Blog" software or do you need a 3rd-party plugin
- do they provide "Discussion Forum" software, or do you need a 3rd-party plugin?
- do they provide a "shopping cart"?
- do they provide "merchant accounts" if you don't already have one?
- do they provide "SSL" certificates for secure transactions?
- what is the upgrade path for adding features at a later date?
- do they provide robust traffic statistics?
You may not need all these features, but if you do, it's easier to go with those that are integrated into your hosting plan. Determine what YOUR needs are, then select the hosting provider that gives you the best combination of price and features.
About The Author
Ray Herold has a 30+ career in the Computer Information Technology (IT) field. He has been a Systems Analyst, DB and Network Administrator, Website Development Manager, IT Architect and Director of IT. He has owned several successful online businesses. He is also the author of several books related to technology and business.
http://www.webhosting-123.com
http://www.wantanonlinebusiness.com
3 Reasons to Secure Your Own Domain Name - Even if it means Buying Cheap Web Hosting Services
by: Chris Robertson
When starting an online business, you might be tempted to use one of those "free" web page hosting services. You should beware of these plans if you want to build a successful web business. Having your own domain name is extremely important - even if it means buying cheap web hosting services! Here are three solid reasons you should secure your own domain name.
1. Build Trust with Customers
When visitors arrive at your site, they want to know that your company is legitimate and that it is there to stay. With your own domain name you reveal that you are in it for the long haul. For the mere price of cheap web hosting through a virtual host, you can have your own domain name and site up and running for as little as $20 or less as an initial investment. Some low cost hosting packages are as low as $5 or $6 per month!
It's well worth the investment to establish your own domain name and pay a small monthly fee for cheap web hosting. When you gain the trust of visitors, it's much easier to turn them into paying customers.
2. Freedom in Your Web Design
With your own domain name, you have total freedom to design your site the way you want. Even virtual hosts that offer cheap web hosting will give you the freedom to use the type of web design that will work best for your business. If you need to use PHP in your web design, you can easily find a low cost web hosting package that offers PHP integration. If you need to add MySQL databases to your site, you can find web site hosting packages with this feature included.
Another reason you need freedom to design your site is so you can test different designs and presentations to see which gets the most response from your visitors. Even with cheap web hosting, you can test almost unlimited presentations any time you want!
3. Maximize Your Promotion Efforts
When you secure your own domain name, you have complete freedom in your promotions. Many search engines, directories and other promotional sites will frown at "free" hosted sites. When you use a free web page hosting service, your site pages are placed on a website along with many other types of businesses. The search engines will not recognize your site as being a unique entity. They might even lump your site into categories with other sites that are using the free service. This wounds your promotional efforts tremendously, and you end up wasting time and money.
You'll actually save money in the long run with your own domain hosting. By securing a domain name and taking advantage of cheap web hosting, you can promote your site to the fullest.
Even with cheap web hosting packages, you can still receive a wealth of features and benefits such as email accounts, auto responders, PHP and MySQL capabilities, password protected directories and even reseller hosting opportunities.
Use these tips to start building your web business today!
About The Author
Chris Robertson is a published author of Majon International. Majon International is one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing and internet advertising companies on the web. Visit their main business resource web site at: http://www.majon.com
To learn more about subjects like cheap web hosting please visit the web site at: http://www.avahost.net
For more information and informative related articles and links about this subject matter and content, please visit Majon's Internet directory: http://www.majon.com/directory/Internet
Top 3 Free Web Hosting Services
by: Ricky Lim
Nowadays, there are many free webhosting services available on the Internet. Sometimes it can be difficult to choose which one is best for you. First of all, you need to bear in mind free wehosting usually have some limitations such as not allowed email accounts, no mysql databases, no perl etc. It varies from each web host.
There are sometimes hidden cost as well for free webhosting. For example, you need to register a domain name from the web host before you can have free web hosting. Other place restriction on bandwidth, disk space and if you exceed them, expect to pay some money.
Another type is some web host will place banners, text links etc on your webpage. Some only occupy a small amount of screen space while others can be as large as one-third. Geocities.com is an example of a free webhosting service that places banners, text links on your webpage.
With that said, if you really have no money, then there is no choice but to get free webhosting. It is also useful if you are new to web design and can use it for testing purposes. I still have one hosted on geocities with my first designed personal webpage.
There are literally thousands of free webhosting services out there but I will recommend the top 3 which I have used before.
#1 Champshost.com
Champhost is in my opinion is the best free webhosting service. They give 1000MB diskspace, no ads on your webpage and allows php, cgi, perl. The only thing they ask for is you contribute some post to their forum which isn’t so hard.
#2 – 100webspace.com
100webspace get my vote as the second best. They offer 100MB space, all full features as a paid web hosting, that includes, email, ftp, php, mysql etc. The only thing I did not like they have ads on your webpage but it isn’t too big to be a distraction.
#3 – Neopages.net
I like neopages because they are actually one of the few webhosting services that do not make any kind of money from offering free webhosting. They offer 150MB space, no ads as well as PHP, cgi, mysql, email, ftp etc.
The only issue is approval is on a case by case by members voting and you must have an existing website published already. It is pretty hard to get in since they only allow 3 each week.
As you can see, these 3 are just my favorites and there are a lot more free webhosting services available. Do remember to read the terms and conditions carefully to make sure you are actually getting free web hosting
Also, once you have some money do consider upgrading to paid hosting as they offer a lot more features and better support. You can go to any web hosting or webmaster forums where from time to time, webhosting companies offer big discounts for web hosting.
About The Author
Ricky Lim runs a cheap web hosting reviews site. Visit his site http://www.epromote.info for more information on free web hosting services and cheap web hosting services.
Web Hosting Explained. Not All Hosting Providers Are Created Equal
by: John E Adams
Web Hosting. Some Basic Facts To Consider Before You Take The Plunge!
Web hosting Companies which offer Internet-connected servers that provide space and bandwidth for websites, are called Web Hosts. Big companies deliver private electronic networks which allow for them to host multiple domains on their own equipment and IP address range.
However, for the bulk of beginners that desire an online presence, a rented web host is essential.
There is a broad assortment of hosting plans available. A few are free, other hosting companies charge up to a hundred dollars or more per month. Some companies supply nothing but a small amount of disc space and minimal network bandwidth.
The website owner is on their own for anything else. Others providers offer an array of services, including server and electronic mail administration, backups, website design help, troubleshooting and many other services.
In the world of web hosting, you might frequently discover yourself sharing a server with anywhere from one to one thousand or more other websites, which allows web hosting companies the ability to keep equipment and staff expenses at a lower cost.
Many websites are simple and low-volume enough that this agreement works best.
When you or one or more of the other members grow, it might be helpful to consider a dedicated server. A dedicated server, as the name indicates, hosts only your domain. You can put one website on it, or as many any way you want. You control the access.
You may also consider taking over much of the server administration yourself. That may save you money on support costs, but cost you considerable time. If you do not have the expertise, it may end up costing much more money than you save!
In order to execute those administrative procedures yourself, it is desirable to have some technical knowledge.
Some of that knowledge will be of value, even for daily projects apart from addressing emergencies. FTP, electronic mail administration, backup techniques and additional technical areas are amongst the more common areas you will need to be at least somewhat acquainted with.
As your internet site develops to a certain size and degree of complexity, you will begin to find it worthwhile to consider implementing a database. However, that brings with it a higher level of ability.
Applying a database can be comparatively simple. Designing one which provides what you want, with adequate performance and maintenance that does not become a nightmare, will call for some careful thought.
Not everybody has the disposition for that type of work, particularly those who favor graphical design, content creation or development, and the numerous other Internet site chores that are part of every implementation.
There are other, more low level administrative matters; Managing disc space, maintaining domain names, dealing with registration and alterations, and a number of other functional tasks are not every bodies cup of tea. Some understanding of how domain name server works, in addition to the design of the Internet itself, are helpful. That allows a good context for understanding the role of some of those tasks.
Once you begin to seek out a web host to implement your website, consider all these factors. What kind of web hosting you should go after is determined by a combination of who you are and what is being being offered. Always take the time to research a hosting company before you commit your time and money.
Remember, not all hosting providers are created equal.
Some providers just want your money, whilst other better hosting companies actually want you to succeed. Which one you choose to help you get your website ideas online is paramount to how quickly you taste success.
About The Author
Copyright John Adams. Honest Home Business. Web Hosting Explained - Get As Much Honest Information As You Can Before You Take The Plunge. Free Advise Is Here; http://www.honest-homebusiness.com/Site-Build-It.html
