Web Hosting Guide | Best Web Hosting | Web Hosting Service

Get Cheap Web Hosting

2011-11-19T17:57:00.000-08:00

To advance on the internet with more domains and more hosting accounts has been a stumbling block for many because of the expense; hosting being the bigger expenses. But if you plan to operate with more sites in the future then perhaps this article will help you bring your plans forward. The sooner you own more of the internet the sooner your profits will increase.

As you progress your own understanding of the internet you'll come across the need to have more than one website for each project or niche. You may find a need to have explore that niche further and have a different website for each sub-niche. Rather than sit back and wait for just one website to do the business, you'll need perhaps six other websites that each try and dominate their sub niche to get traffic. If necessary they can send the traffic to the main website. Understanding this principle will increase you traffic ten-fold.

Many people and I have been guilty of the same thought, set up a different web hosting accounts for each new domain name they purchase. The only real advantage of this is if you plan on having say 60 sites and want to spread them over 6 hosting accounts. Otherwise you'll save huge amounts of your online budget by hosting new domains within your own current hosting account.

Some of the smaller hosting providers can confuse you to believe that each new domain needs a new hosting account. This is not true... and as such you should explore the internet further if I cannot explain the simplicity within this article.

Many so called bigger 'providers' have realized that to compete in the bigger market place they need to offer good deals. Such deals will include up to hosting 10 domains on one account, to hosting 25 domains on one account; and the more sophisticated businesses are now offering unlimited domains on one account.

It would seem prudent then to pool your resources and instead of having more than one account, use one provider and pay just the one fee. Furthermore you will find that these providers will give you one free domain for just signing up with them.

It should be pointed out that, like every business, your virtual company will evolve on the web, so you need to be prepared for evolution. You may, for example, upgrade you web site to include a variety of interactive properties or implement a sophisticated shopping card to drive your ecommerce store, all these amendments and upgrades will steal a little more web space each time. Moreover, your business will be developing and growing so you will want to reflect this within your virtual company.

I worked with one hosting provider from my early days in 2001 and would have suggested them to everyone as I thought they were excellent. Good customer service, pretty much reliable and my websites were seen on the internet. No qualms, no problems and no hesitations.

Everything was hunky dory and I accepted the $80 per month for all my sites. Then when I read more I found that you can now find hosting providers that allow multiple websites in one account. Today most multiple providers suggest 10 websites for one monthly fee. Yet even better news is that because of competition some hosting providers allow unlimited websites. Initially their costing was that little bit higher, but even that has come down to compete with the mainstream providers.

Keyword Domain 301 Redirects For Search Engine Optimization

2010-03-05T04:57:00.000-08:00

We tend to all wonder if fitting domain names with keywords to redirect to your webpage if those words help in search rankings or not? Well we have a tendency to are here to discus the execs and cons to a 301 redirect. There are lots of different reasons why you would wish to set up some domain redirects pointing at your webpage, mispellings are the foremost common and make great sense to set up and maintain the domains to shield your brand while not counting on individuals to invariably get it right everytime or for a number of us SEO's continuously dreaming up ways in which to try and do just a step additional than your competition would do venture out and buy a whole bunch of keyword-rich domains and purpose them right at our optimization website hoping for a little help in keyword recognition. Regardless of what your reason for redirecting is it's invariably smart to understand specifically why your doing it BEFORE you go and obtain the domain names! Thus let's speak about the mispelling for starters; as an example, I personally have noticed 3 ways that individuals mispell my name, therefore I have been able to get a pair of/3 of those as domain names and set them up to redirect. There are a few terribly fascinating things that I have noticed once I imlemented these redirects; not solely have I noticed in my WordPress stats that one amongst the mispellings was one of my high search queries also noticing that it showed up as an entry purpose to my website through my Google Analytics stats as well. So at some point I felt like running a take a look at and here's what I found: The correct spelling of my name is Jonathon Hewitt, thus I happen to own my personal blog located at jonathonhewitt.com where as most individuals would spell Jonathon with an (a) rather than an (o) towards the top thus I attempted to buy jonathanhewitt.com with no luck, however some other common mispellings with my name were johnathonhewitt.com and johnathanhewitt.com, each were out there and I purchased both of them with plans of buying the other one in 2012. The foremost fascinating of things happened once I was wanting at my first and solely post thus so much on my personal blog with the complete url of jonathonhewitt.com/social-media/new-social-media-welcome/ and as I chose to enter the full url of that exact post with one in all the mispelling domain names I had already founded to redirect johnathonhewitt.com/social-media/new-social-media-welcome/, certain enough it recognized the 301 permanent redirect that was founded and also recognized the top of the url matched a post that was on that webpage /social-media/new-social-media-welcome/ with or without the mispelling in the domain name brought you right to the identical place. With this I spotted that we have a tendency to are addressing a highly subtle however nevertheless very easy engine or if you will, file system, when managing url's. This is able to additionally justify once I sucessfully set up the "My Whole" Feedburner url for my web site at jonathonhewitt.com/seo-blogger rather than the feedburner address using the identical extension /seo-blogger that the origional Feedburner address had set up. Without it all it does is land on my signed in list of burned Rss feeds however after you add it it works perfectly. I own a ton of domain names and have been making an attempt to sell as many that I'm not going to use as attainable thus I founded a simple webpage with a contact form that goes on to me for all of my additional domains to redirect to incase they wish to contact me directly concerning the domain sale. I probably had sixty domains pointed at this one website, I chose to line up Google webmaster tools to play with it as I was not too familiar. Some weeks later I check on the stats of my webmaster tools, as a Google SEO I forever am trying under Google's list of keywords that they associated with my webpage was some words that sparked my interest enough to recollect them. One was somerly, what the heck is somerly? Well I don't very know, my father purchased it years ago and its simply there, The point of it is that we tend to owned somerly.com and I had it founded to redirect to my contact web site incase anyone was interested, Google was somehow associating the keyword "somerly" with my webpages keywords. Another domain name that we own is norlite.com as it was the name for my grandma's recent campground in Alaska, I also noticed "norlite" in concert of the prime referring search terms pointing at my contact page! However wait! We have a tendency to have never had a web site up under norlite.com!?!?! How will Google associate those words with my webpage? Where do they see it? At the time I used to be too nieve to really realize what I had came upon but have since realized the importance of redirecting, for both mispellings and keywords helping to boost your web site or blogs presence in the search results. I have since purchase multiple domain and set them up to redirect as a result of I am currently conviced that they do help in some ways. There are some things to keep in mind when getting and fitting these domain redirects:

* Search Engine's have penelized websites for having too several redirects(thousands), blacklisting them from the search results.
* The shorter the domain name the better, therefore-you-do-not-want-to-get-too-long-of-a-domain-name.
* Get a number of keywords in the domain name as an example: search-engine-optimization.com or florida-real-estate.com and purpose them at your site (w/ and w/out the www!).
* Make positive that the keywords that you just go for are relevant to your web site's content and not simply wishfull thinking.

I've got conjointly founded several straightforward to remember ways in which of getting to certain pages or profiles connected to my individual websites, ie: twitter.seosport.com redirects to my company's Twitter account, feed.seosport.com redirects to my company's Rss feed, contact.seosport.com/ redirects to my company's contact kind, etc. There are such a lot of ways that that can create navigation through your social content and your webpage so a lot of easier to remember. I recommend you are trying creating a number of these settings yourself and it even makes it easier for you to remember! Well, I hope my experiences with dns settings and all of my very own trial and error has helped your understanding of how a tiny but necessary piece of the World Wide Web works and proves benificial to you in your future web endeavors. Please let me apprehend your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below, thanks for reading!

LunarPages: How Using Their Web Hosting Coupons Can Help

2009-07-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Lunarpages Web Hosting was created in 2000 from Add2Net, and has grown over the years to include more and more services - like reseller hosting, dedicated server hosting and more. They currently have data centers around the county - in Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

With over 150,000 customers, they pride themselves on their dedication to service with a staff of more than 100 people. Their website describes the company as a family. As we all know, there are good and bad family members. Smile. Lunarpages comes from the good side of the family, though, and likes to 'adopt' new people into the family all the time.

Lunarpages offers great web hosting deals through coupon codes to attract new customers and sometimes treat their current customers to an extra special deal or promotion. As the web hosting market battles it out in competition for your business, the offers and coupons fly fast and loose, benefiting you, the consumer.

Whether you're new to the Internet in general, or new to publishing on the Internet, or you want to try to supplement your income with making money online, saving money when buying server space is part of the new smart way of doing business - spending less than you make, which is really just common sense. Web hosting coupons might not seem like a big thing, but every dollar you save can be used to accomplish something else.

Lunarpages' dedication to helping out their customers, their family, is apparent in the way they pay attention to small things like saving a little money here or there. While they're likely to take a small loss in revenue by giving you a discount, if you become a loyal customer, they'll gain money in the long run. Web hosting coupons might not seem like a good way for companies to make money, but if you think about the big picture, they make sense.

That they make sense to consumers is rather obvious. In today's economic climate, every dollar a company saves is a dollar that can be directed toward some other aspect of the business. Whether you're new to doing business online or have been doing it for years, saving a buck or a hundred by going with a new web hosting company (a trusted leader) is something that's good for business.

Unlike holding up other customers in line at a shopping center using clipped out coupons for food, using a web hosting coupon with a company like Lunarpages is a seamless process that requires you to type in a coupon code: that’s it! Your website visitors never have to know you saved money by using a web hosting coupon. There's no embarrassment in using a web hosting coupon to get a great deal on hosting. No matter what server package you go with, you'll get great service on top of the savings in cost - as long as you have the right web hosting coupon code.

Web Hosting - How to Get Cheap Web Hosting

2009-03-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

Windows Hosting versus Linux Hosting

2009-02-27T15:55:00.000-08:00

Mainly you can choose between web hosting based on Windows, Linux or Unix operating systems. A brief description and analysis of the different systems will narrow the list of options to only two.

Microsoft’s Windows server operating systems (NT/2000/2003) have a rather friendly and familiar user interface, making IT teams to easier in this aspect. Another plus is given by it’s excellent integration capabilities with other applications developed by Microsoft and let’s face it their range is absolutely impressive. The main key point of Windows based hosting is its support for .ASP (Active Server Pages) or the advanced ASP.NET. This language for web development was created by Microsoft to facilitate the creation of dynamic web pages linked to SQL databases. It also provides capabilities for integration with other systems.

It can be said that Unix is the OS that powered the beginning of the Internet era and due to his qualities is still used today. Linux OS was developed having Unix as starting point and this is how the two share many features. Today the Linux version of the Unix system is more common on web servers and this has to do with the higher licensing costs and with the rather specific hardware requirements for Unix. This is why we will continue with Linux only, but Unix is taken into account as well. Linux hosting has its strong points in fulfilling one’s requirements for a good web server and Web serving, file serving, mailing, and streaming are only a few. It proves itself is a very cost-effective choice from using hardware efficiently, and allowing an increased web sites per server ratio, this ultimately resulting in a decreasing the cost of hosting per account.

So here are our two choices Windows and Linux:

Reliability

In the past Linux OS were seen as more reliable over Windows. However with the release of Windows 2003 server Microsoft has gone a long way and closed the gap in this area.Linux servers are compatible with certain Microsoft extensions and applications and the same is true for Windows.

Web Programming

Even if trying to host a simple personal web site, your might want add some simple scripts to spice up your pages. The issue gets bigger when you are looking to host an e-commerce site supported by some serious server-side programming. So how are our two contenders doing in this aspect?

Supporting java scripts is not a topic to be argued upon as they are executed on the client side (the user’s web browser) and both Linux and Windows have no problem feeding this content to your visitors.

It is a whole different matter when discussing server side scripting. For web site owners trying to implement forms on their site it is common knowledge that ASP is supported by Windows and PHP is the tool to do just that under Linux. However both developed solutions to support each other’s programming language for web development. This support is not perfect and its limitations recommend Linux for a good PHP support and Windows for ASP, especially when it comes to hosting web sites that require the full use the advantages offered by PHP or ASP.

Linux offers a support for FrontPage extensions. Windows has a weak point in offering only limited CGI/Perl support, so if Perl is the scripting language of your choice, you should opt for Linux.

Databases

Dynamically driven web sites require some sort of databases. Beyond sites employing databases, most frequently you will encounter mySQL or MSAccess. If your web site is relying on mySQL, then you’ll have no problems hosting it on either Windows or Linux. For MSAccess databases, look your only option is Windows.

Price

Linux web hosting is cheaper. The reason must be searched in licensing costs, that are lower that for Windows, and in the ability of Linux web servers to support a higher web sites per server ratio without compromising the quality of service.

Although Windows hosting cost a bit more, you will get something for your money. It’s reduced development time and functionality.

As the option of one over another depends basically of your actual needs and of the plans you have made for the future of your web site. For example will it move from a rather static web site to one relying heavily on server side scripting? And if it is so what would be the programming language used: PHP or ASP? Consequently your web site will be set up on a Linux or on a Windows web server.

Almost all serious web-hosting providers will offer you the choice between Linux and Windows.

There is no winner of this contest, at least not yet. In today’s terms, your preference of one system over another should be given only by your requirements and the needs of your visitors.

Selection Tips For Web Hosting Package

2008-12-05T09:08:00.000-08:00

til the Finding an inexpensive scheme place hosting organisation is a must for newborn businesses or established businesses that are on a budget. Of course, as with most things, this is much easier said than done.

There are tons of hosting companies out there that verify to offer liberated or inexpensive scheme place hosting, but many of them hit hidden fees or low quality services. A supposedly inexpensive scheme place hosting organisation crapper apace turn into a costly nightmare if you aren't careful. This is ground it is essential that you do your homework and research a sort of hosting companies before making any final decisions.

Comparing Costs

If you are looking for inexpensive scheme place hosting, then you module obviously requirement to study the costs that are charged by assorted hosting companies. Specific costs to countenance at when intelligent for an inexpensive scheme place hosting organisation allow place ordered up fees, monthly or annual maintenance fees, and any other fees that haw be associated with the plan.

It should be noted that whatever hosting companies offer liberated set-up. If you crapper encounter a scheme host who is substance this in constituent to low monthly hosting fees, you module of instruction be much better with this host versus another who makes you pay for the same service.

Features

Things to study in constituent to the cost when looking for inexpensive scheme place hosting services allow the turn of storage space conventional with the plan, the programming languages based by the scheme host, and the turn of client hold offered. Some hosting companies module offer every of these features in their basic or most inexpensive scheme place hosting plan, and others module not.

You module also want to take a countenance at the other services offered by the scheme hosting companies that you are considering. Some inexpensive scheme place hosting companies provide additional services such as field study registration and scheme antiquity tools. If you haven't purchased a field study ease or if you requirement hold antiquity your website, you haw want to check to see if these services crapper be compounded with the company's most inexpensive scheme hosting plan. This could spend you an large turn of money.

Other Considerations

If you hit institute a inexpensive scheme place hosting organisation that has every of the features you requirement to build your scheme site, there are ease a few other things that module requirement to be condemned into kindness before you sign on the speckled line—the most essential existence reliability.

Some hosting companies who offer an inexpensive scheme hosting organisation hit digit field downfall: they aren't ever reliable. Because you requirement the scheme place to work when people try to access it, reliability is feat to be a must. This is ground you should ever ask hosting companies about downtime before signing up for inexpensive scheme place hosting. Last, but not least, you requirement to make sure that you module hit every of the hold you requirement if you choose the most inexpensive scheme hosting organisation that is existence offered to you. Specific things to ask about allow theoretical hold response instance and client assist allegoric availability.

Why Are You Still Searching For Your Dedicated Server?

2008-11-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

If you have been looking around a while now for a dedicated server, then you are starting to realize there is hundreds to pick from. Prices range from cheap to out of site.

You need to give some serious thought to why the big differences in prices? Hopefully you have now come to understand the differences between shared and dedicated hosting. You also know that the dedicated hosting is considerable more expensive than the shared.

So what is the reason for such big differences in the cost of the dedicated versus the shared hosting? The dedicated server will be hosting your website only. Therefore the shared server will host many sites, thus the term shared server.

With the dedicated server, you have complete or almost complete control, as this server has only one website, yours. Ok, with the this server you are able to control the bandwidth , the space and, the security of the server. You can count on having the equipment you need as long as you stay with the host and their service.

So something eels to consider is how you are going to pay for the server? Quite possibly you will be able to get a much better deal on your dedicated server if you pay the rental on an annual or yearly basis.

The big problem with that is what happens if you pay the host company annually and a couple months later your server stops working because the provider becomes insolvent and goes out of business?

What if all of a sudden the equipment becomes old and outdated? This is the inherent dangers of paying an annual fee, but there is no getting around this. If you pay monthly it is going to cost you a lot more than if you pay annually.

What will you do if you become unhappy with the service the provider is giving? If you are on a monthly deal, you can get away from it quickly .

What happens if his customer service goes sour? You will quite probably find yourself stuck with them for close to a year. Not good, but such are the chances. Pay monthly and pay a lot more.

In order to find the very best dedicated server, you need to do a lot of shopping around, and you will find the caliber of service given should be your number one consideration.

Does the servers customer service department provide prompt and fast service in the event your server goes down? This is a must, the longer your server is out of whack and not working the more it is going to cost you in sales. As everything stops when the server goes down.

Many of the budget providers will offer very attractive deasls. No start up costs and other stuff, in order to get your website up and running. Your website will have to be uploaded to the server. Most of the providers are going to charge a substantial fee for this service.

The amount to get your website up and running can also be costly. Some people may decide not to make the changes when they see akk these charges. You should keep in mind that these fees will only be onetime charge. Once you have got it all running you should only have the monthly or annual costs.

Maybe you might feel that it is better to keep your costs down as low as possible when just starting out with a new dedicated server, however, it is for sure this is one area you certainly will want to avoid and do not want to sacrifice good customer service in order to save costs. All of your better servers are very reliable.

They also have excellent customer service departments as well as large bandwidth and space. Just be very cautious as you may get a cheap deal with one of these budget servers and then discover that you have less space and bandwidth than you had with your shared server. Some offer a very low monthly rate and not much space. If this is the case you need to keep searching.

In conclusion, you will need to shop around on the internet. Talk with friends and other website owners that you know and see what they might be able to recommend. Just bear in mind that one of the most important things is to have good customer service.

You will find this to be one of, if not the most crucial aspects of the maintenance of your business, just as much so as the increased space and bandwidth offered by a dedicated server.

Beginners, Make Your Own Website For Under $400

2008-11-24T18:58:00.000-08:00

Many beginners have no idea what needs to be done to get a website up and running but they know they want one because everyone else has one.

So, if you're a beginner to website design and want to get a website created from scratch I'll go into some detail here to map out exactly what to do step-by-step, as well as the potential prices involved. I will also give you a suggestion of the best place online that is both beginner friendly and completely robust - filled with everything you'll ever need and more to create the best website possible for you and your readers.

The very first thing you need to do before you make a website is to decide what you want your website to be about. Sounds simple doesn't it but you'll be surprised by just how many people skip this first important step. "And how do I do this", you ask. Make a list of things you like. What are you interested in? What are your hobbies? What kind of things do you like to read about? Talk about? Think about? Put them on your list.

It 's not necessary that you be an expert in the topic that you create your website about but I would suggest it be something that you're really interested in otherwise you'll lose interest in it quickly and your website will die. For your website to prosper, you'll have to write content and make revisions and changes fairly frequently and if you're not really a fan of the topic you've chosen you'll never follow through. So, look at the list you've made and chose the best topic for you.

It is also a good idea to be completely sure of the type of audience your website will be geared toward since this will have a lot to do with the type of website you'll ultimately build. Is your website just for your family and friends? Is it going to be geared toward a certain readership - such as purebred Akita lovers, people interested in vintage Camaro 's , trout fishermen, etc? Or do you want to build a website business to make money online? Cost - $0, but some of your time.

For this article, I will assume that you are building a website geared toward one of the types of audiences as listed above. Now that you've decided what your website is about and who you plan to build the site for, it 's time to start building the actual website. What I would encourage you to do first is to find a web host and buy a domain name. You can do these two things separately or you can do them at the same time, it 's up to you. What I would suggest beginners do would be to get both at the same place to cut down on a few steps down the road.

"What are domain names and web hosts and why do I need them?" Good question. This is a very important step in the website building process. In answer to your question you can think of it this way: a web host rents you space on their computers to put all your websites files. It 's kind of like renting an apartment or house to put all your stuff - you pay them a monthly fee to keep your website files safe and your website up and running all day long.

Even if you didn't know it, you do know what examples of domain names are. Have you ever heard of "ebay" or "apple"? How about "Google" or "Yahoo"? I thought so. Your domain name is a name that is unique to you and your website - kind of like a phone number, but in name form since most people can remember names better than a long list of numbers. This name is what visitors type into their browser windows to find your actual website.

If you don't have a website host or a domain name you can't have a website. It 's that simple. You can get a free website but I would not recommend you ever going that route if you want to be taken seriously online. This boils down to an issue of credibility.

So, with that in mind, I suggest you go the paid route. Charges vary from host to host and among domain name registrars. If you shop around you can often find a reputable web host that will offer you a free domain name as a part of their plan. If you decide to buy them separately prices typically run anywhere from $8 to $30+ for domain names per year, while web hosting prices can vary from $6 to $20+ a month for a basic website, depending on which you choose.

Cheaper is not always better. Let me repeat that: cheaper is not always better, so research a few web hosts before deciding on a plan. Compare plans, email the host to ask questions ahead of time and see what kinds of responses you get. Good customer service and technical help is tremendously important and you want to pick a company that you can have a good and long lasting relationship with right from the start.

It 's a real pain to have to switch around later if you don't make the right choice the first time out. It costs you time, effort, and can cost you money if you have a business website - so choose very, very carefully.

One company you might want to check out that is absolutely excellent in all respects of web site hosting is SiteBuildIt (SBI). SBI offers an all-in-one package that is fantastic for the website designer - whether you are a beginner or not.

They have it all - colorful website templates, the ability to create newsletters, blog functionality, brainstorming and research tools, domain name, unlimited great customer support, webmail account, point and click site-building, a form builder, a money back guarantee and much much more.

Website Hosting - How to Select a Good Company

2008-11-10T22:53:00.000-08:00

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.

Website Basics-Choosing a Hosting Plan

2008-11-10T22:45:00.000-08:00

Once your website has been created, it is time to make it go live on the internet. In order to do so, you will need a hosting plan. A hosting plan is different from a domain name. You own your domain name but you rent a hosting plan. A hosting plan in it’s simplest terms is paying a company to broadcast your website onto the internet. This article covers what to look for in a hosting plan.

SERVICE The number one thing to look for in a hosting plan is service. It does not matter that a multitude of features are offered or if the price is low if the service you will be getting with your hosting plan is sub par or even worse, nonexistent. Once your website is live on the internet you will want it to be up all the time. Therefore should a problem occur it is important to select a hosting provider that is readily available and will resolve the issue in as timely a manner as possible.

UPTIME What is the hosting company's "uptime guarantee". Many guarantee 99% uptime for their servers. That sounds great, but it does mean that your site could go down for 1% of the time, which means over 7 hours out of each month! If you can, choose a host guaranteeing 99.9 uptime.

SIZE How large is your site? Most sites do not require much space but if you're planning on having a large site with a lot of multimedia content or an ecommerce site selling multiple items, you'll probably need additional disk space.

DESIGN How was your Web site designed? For example, if you designed a website using ASP or ASP.NET, you'll need to find a Windows hosting plan. If you have a Web site that uses CGI or PHP, you'll need to get a Linux hosting plan. For the novice user who is building a simple website the above may not be a consideration at first, but may become important later on as you become more experienced and add more features to your website.

TRAFFIC How much traffic or how many visitors do you expect monthly? The more visitors or traffic you expect on your site, the higher the bandwidth you will need.

At www.startmywebsitetoday.com we offer 99.7% guaranteed uptime and service 24/7, and a variety of shared hosting, virtual dedicated hosting, and dedicated hosting plans with either Linux or Windows operating systems for every need and budget ranging from the small personal website to large online multimedia sites to those interested in ecommerce website building. Check us out HERE.

Web Hosting Explained. Not All Hosting Providers Are Created Equal

2008-11-02T01:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Website Hosting Companies. Understanding How Hosting Poviders Work

2008-11-02T01:16:00.000-07:00

Website Hosting - How To Select A Web Host Provider That Wants You To Succeed

As with a lot of purchases, your first urge when choosing website hosting is to go with the cheapest. After all they are all similar, so why should you pay more?

There are a number of objective standards which separates one website hosting company from some others, and money is only one of them. And it should be made clear that the cost should not be the most crucial one.

Choosing a website hosting company based on price alone is equivalent to selecting a builder or electrician on price alone. Certainly, they might maintain or fix your house cheaper, but will your house be safe?

The first consideration is power. Will the website hosting company have the capability to provide and deliver adequate performance? Most web hosting companies advertise that they are able to provide massive bandwidth and hundreds of dedicated servers, and they are usually telling the truth.

However, there is a big difference between existing capacity and usable capacity. Think of it this way; If a website hosting provider has thousands of websites with millions of visitors per day, the usable free capacity would be much lower. Here is a simple example; A delivery truck may have the capacity to carry 8,000 lbs. But not if it is already carrying 7,999lbs!

The experts would advise you ask about available capacity, and have the hosting company back up their proof with reliable numbers. And of course, if you cannot read the data they provide, find somebody to help you do so.

Next, and a very close second, is dependability. A lot of power is worthless if it is cut or goes down often.

Power outages are actually a normal part of business. Even Microsoft, yahoo and google go down on occasions. The difference is, with decent website hosting companies, it seldom happens and a decent provider would have failover plans, which means if their system does go down it is either up once again instantaneously, or you never see the drop because a backup system sets in automatically.

A good rule of thumb is to grill the website hosting company closely about their up time. Most quality hosting providers will say they run at 99.5%, or higher. However, like the infamous on-time estimates of airlines, those figures can sometimes be considered shady by adjusting the definition of up time.

When it comes to website hosting, what should really matter is whether your visitors will be able to reach your site at any time, 24 hours a days should they want to.

Again, the experts would suggest to find out what back up systems, both human and technical the hosting provider has in place to address failures of all sorts. It is a fact that servers can go down, networks do fail, hard disks could become defective and data lose is an absolute fact, and believe me, these conditions can dramatically mean the difference between success and failure for any website owner.

The result is your website becomes unavailable, which is not good for business. As far as a quality website hosting company, the hosting provider must be equipped to deal with any eventuality and have your website up again as quickly as possible.

Last, but not least, is website hosting security.

With the continuing prevalence of computer viruses and the dreaded Spam problems, you need to guarantee the website hosting company you choose has an array of techniques for addressing them. This basically means the hosting provider has excellent technical plans in place and experienced staff available 24 hours a day who are well-educated in addressing with those problems.

There is a very old saying that goes: one ounce of prevention is worth at least one pound of cure, and when it comes to your website, it is vital you understand the meaning.

All these website issues are paramount to locating a website hosting provider that can deliver the best services you need.

Subsequently, once those criteria are fulfilled by a number of prospects, then you are able to begin narrowing down the hosting companies by price.

Cheap Webhosting - Is It For You?Several weeks ago I got a call from a web designer friend of mine.

2008-08-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago I got a call from a web designer friend of mine.

"John," He said "You won't believe this".

He went on to tell me about a Plastic Surgeon he was redesigning a website for. This client was paying $600.00 per month for his webhosting account.

"The incredible thing is" He related, "I can't get the current host to return my phone calls or emails".

After looking at this clients needs, I was shocked to find that there was nothing special about his site that justified his being on anything other than a basic shared webhosting plan. We quoted him a monthly rate of under five dollars.

In this case, the client was being raped by an unscrupulous host who was not only overcharging him, but not even providing the basic support he needed.

This is an extreme example, no doubt, but it all to often characterizes the poor deal which most website owners fall into.

Several years ago, there was no such thing as a webhosting industry. Nearly all websites were hosted by local ISP's. The average monthly cost for hosting a website was $20.00 per month. Often, if you called the ISP with a technical question, they would tell you to buy a book or take a class.

Around 1996, we saw the emergence of a few "webhosting" companies. These were companies which were strictly committed to hosting websites. Using the economy of scale, they were able to offer incredibly useful webhosting packages for around $10.00 per month. What's more, some of these companies provided useful tech support which was geared towards meeting a website owners needs.

Fast forward to 2005 and we now see the emergence of a new type of web host - the cheap webhosting provider. These are companies which offer hosting for less than $5.00 per month.

Generally, cheap webhosting providers are newer companies. There's a reason for this. It's extremely difficult for the older companies to lower their prices when they already have a large customer base which pays higher prices. They'd be slashing their gross, and most companies just can't afford that.

So how do cheap webhosting providers offer such a low price to begin with?Part of it is that servers, hard drive space and bandwidth are much, much less expensive than they were several years ago. Cheap webhosting providers capitalize on this.

Another part is that cheap hosting providers use a different business model than the older providers. Webhosting is a very competitive business. Until recently, web hosts attempted to compete by providing the most tools and features. The problem with this model is that not everyone needs everything. Most web hosts provide free backup services to all of their clients. Backups are costly, and not everyone needs or wants them, but everyone pays for them because they're built into the cost of the package.

A cheap webhosting provider, on the other hand, might give you the basic features that everyone uses, but offer weekly backups as an available add on feature, putting the cost of backing up websites on only those customers who want that service.

This all sounds great, I know, but what about service? Will I get competent and fast customer support from a company which charges me $4.

00 per month?The answer, surprisingly, is usually yes. Obviously, not all cheap webhosting providers will give you great service. But not all expensive webhosting providers will give good service either. Our Plastic Surgeon friend couldn't get his $600.00 host to return his emails.

But, with a cheaper providerComputer Technology Articles, the key for the providers success is customer retention. A savvy web host will endeavor to please his existing clients by providing the best support possible.

Simple Tips To Choose Right Web Hosting Plan

2008-07-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

As a blogger or internet marketer, you need to buy your own domain name and web hosting. Let me share with you the tips that you need to consider when you want to buy for a web hosting plan.

First, there are basically two types of web hosting services: free and paid. Free web hosting provides you free web space to post your web pages. But there’s a trade off. You’ll not only be limited in the amount of web space and traffic you receive, your website wills typically contain advertisements from the company hosting your web pages. And often times, these advertisements appear in the form of large, annoying banner ads at either the top or bottom of each of your web pages. This might not be such a big deal if your web site is only a family or hobby site. Please avoid it if you are involved in business.

Second, if you desire a web hosting solution for business purposes, then you’ll want to consider paying for your web hosting services. And the first option you’ll want to consider is whether you want “shared” hosting – which means that you’ll be sharing web hosting space with other users, or whether you want "dedicated" hosting – which means you’ll have an entire computer dedicated to hosting your web pages..
Third, you’ll need to decide which payment plan makes the most sense to you. Typically, you can pay by the month, every three months, yearly or a one-time fee for lifetime hosting. 24/7 customer support also is very important. It shows the professionalism of a web hosting company.Implement what I shared with you. Spread if you think it is useful for everybody.

Top 10 : Web Hosting Service Providers

2008-07-09T07:01:00.000-07:00

These Ratings are determined on

1.How many people use this services and how happy they are with it.

2.The Rates and Services included

3.Server up time and Maintenance Problems

4.Reviews from websites such as top10webhosting.com, web-hosting-top.com, webhostinggeeks.com, top-10-web-hosting.com

5.The past Records of the service providers counts too

6.Free services like free domain name schemes to just sell the hosting are NOT counted

#1.Hostmonster

#2.BlueHost

#3.LunarPages

#4.Yahoo Web Hosting

#5.GoDaddy

#6.IX WebHosting

#7.StartLogic

#8.PowWeb

#9.Dot5Hosting

#10.HostGator

Note - We have selected / reviewed 10 best web hosting companies from some of the world top webhosting companies. All the hosting services we reviewed are reliable web hosting company supporting Apache, Python, PHP 4 or 5, MySQL 4, Microsoft FrontPage extension and email (including webmail). Most runs on Linux and Windows. Web Hosting services is a very competitive industry, some hosts are giving very cheap web hosting rate (as low as $4.95! ), including reduced first year fee, free months, discount coupon, free fist year, rebate and etc. You can easily find a very cheap hosting from $4~$10 per month. Listing below are the best web hosting services support PHP, MySQL, Python, FrontPage web hosting and almost all of it are linux web hosting. Web hosting companies has been selected based on popularity, performance, feature, support quality and price. Higher rating hosting are usually has better feature over price ratio. All hosting plan below can host any domain name including .com, .org, .net, .co.uk, .co.jp, .tv, .ws , .com.au, .com.sg, .it and etc. and etc.

Basic advantages of Linux server hosting and windows server hosting

2008-06-30T09:40:00.001-07:00

The entire purpose and total features of your website are the formative factors between choosing Linux hosting and Windows hosting. Here are some advantages of Linux server hosting and windows server hosting are discussed for your help to choose your perfect hosting type.

When you are going to hire a hosting service to build your website for your small business then you need to know the basic things of web hosting. You are the best person to judge that what required features are and what about your budget.

Commonly, this choice to host your website depends upon the scripting language that is used in your website. If languages like PHP, MySQL, or Perl are used in your website, Linux server hosting is preferable. But if you are thinking for ASP.Net scripting language then your finest choice would the window hosting.

If you need some interactive facilities like chat or searchable database, Linux may not be the best choice. Also, a Linux-based web server is not fully acquiescent with Windows technologies. If you are using any Windows-centric technologies like Visual Basic, then Windows-based servers would be the required choice for you.

Advantages of Linux server hosting

1. Linux is an open source software product and thus it does not need the high licensing fees that other operating systems do; you can freely download and use it at no cost.

1. A Linux website can easily be converted to a Windows website without much hassle. Also, the website can easily be changed as the requirement of the user grows.

1. Linux web hosting is very economical as Linux is a free operating system. Usually, only the cost of distribution is borne by the host or owner.

1. When the scripting language like PHP, MySQL, or Perl etc. are required for your website then Linux server hosting is the most reliable and cost effective solution for you. Unless heavy load of scripting language, this will not be traceable.

1. There are many kinds of databases that run on Linux hosting, but the most widespread most likely among web host providers are mSQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL. These databases are relational by nature, and permit vastly optimized communication with your website for rapid reclamation of data.

1. By lots of circles Linux hosting is supposed to be much securing than Windows hosting, and for that reason only Linux server hosting is also the more popular choice for web designers and programmers.

Advantages of windows server hosting

1. .NET technologies like ASP.net VB.net are available on this platform. If you have a website built with Microsoft .NET technologies then you will have to choose a Windows server hosting plan.

1. If you need an enterprise class database there are some different features that run on a Linux platform but if you need Microsoft's MSSQL database, a Windows hosting plan will be your best choice.

1. Access Databases are only obtainable with a Windows server hosting plan. Access can only run on a Microsoft Windows platform and thus it is unavailable on a Linux hosting. If your site needs particularly this feature then you will have to accept windows server hosting.

1. If you are using some of the Microsoft's Sharepoint services a Windows Hosting plan is only reliable choice for you.

1. Windows plans typically much costly because of the license costs compulsory by Microsoft.

Normally, Linux server hosting plans are at least 20% economical than windows server hosting plans. If you need not to have any unique features for your website, like cart, searchable database etc, Linux server hosting is a finest alternative for your needs.

When you are required for specific Microsoft technologiesArticle Search, Windows hosting plans generally will be your favorable think. But for all small business owner needs Linux hosting plans will generally perform quite well for its cost effective features.

Cheap Web Package Hosting - How to Minimize Costs

2007-12-30T10:58:00.000-08:00

The first and arguably the most important step as you seek to minimize costs with a web hosting package is to shop around. Comparison shopping is always a good way to save money, and finding a good service for your web hosting needs is no exception. Online searches are probably your best bet for finding those great deals on web hosting, but don't give in to the temptation to simply pick a company from a list of hits and sign on the dotted line. Instead, take time to compare the services, prices and reputations of various companies. Finding the service provider that offers the best bottom-line price for web hosting might not be the provider that saves you the most money.

Especially if you aren't computer savvy, one way to minimize costs with a web hosting package is to find a company that offers free setup. While this is a fairly common part of web hosting for most companies at this point, you should be sure what it's going to cost you to establish the account. If you find a company that offers a great bottom-line price but has you pay an enormous fee up front to establish the service, it will probably take you a long time to recoup that fee in your monthly savings.

By the same token, finding a company that promises no fee to set up the service but then charges a significantly more expensive monthly fee to maintain the service isn't really going to save you any money either. If you want to minimize costs with a web hosting package, look for a happy medium between the two - a service provider that establishes the service for free and offers a reasonable monthly rate for maintaining the service.

While set up fees and monthly maintenance fees are pretty straightforward, you should also look for other fees that might be charged by a particular provider. Depending on your needs, you might find yourself paying extra for a service you expected to be provided in the monthly fee. There's no substitute for carefully considering your options as you search for a company to help minimize costs with a web hosting package. If you need services in addition to web hosting, look for a company that can combine all your Internet service needs - that could save you some additional money.

You should look for a company that offers a web hosting package specifically to meet your needs. You might be paying a significantly higher monthly fee for a plan that simply exceeds the needs of your company. If you don't need a larger space, don't buy a larger space. But with an eye to the future, know the company's stand on upgrading an account later if you should need additional space.

Finally, know the company. While it's a good thing to search for the most competitive bottom-line price, the best set up deal and a plan that fits your needs, it won't do you any good if you are constantly out of commission because of down time. Each time you find yourself without the web hosting service, you're running the risk of losing orders, clients and your own reputation - all potentially devastating to a business. Even if you truly want to minimize costs with a web hosting packageFeature Articles, saving a few dollars is probably not worth the reputation of your own business.

Web Hosting Companies

2007-12-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

With thousands of web hosting companies in the market it can be difficult if not impossible to know which web site hosting companies truly provide an excellent hosting solution at an excellent price. When you have an established domain name with a good web hosting company, you can get reports on your traffic and which of your pages your customers are visiting most often, as well as many other statistics.

Your web host will charge you a fee for monthly service that ranges from $10 or $20 to the more expensive $50.00 per month. Plan to pay between $300 and $500 per year to your web host.

Always avoid free or very inexpensive web hosting services, because you may experience bouts of server downtimes and you are likely to have significant limitations in storage, number of email addresses, FTP upload etc.

Be sure your web host can accommodate e-commerce and storefronts, wireless capability, bogs, forums, chats, online interactive helps and anything else you want to add onto your site.

Estimate what your growth needs are and ensure that this web host can serve you as you grow. The last thing you want to do is change host mid way unless you absolutely have to do so.

Check your bandwidth capability to be sure that, if your website traffic grows rapidly, your customers will not have to wait to download or view information. Three things to look for in a web hosting company are:

1. Excellent Customer Support: Your hosting provider should be there for you 24/7 and give you instant access to the technicians you need to solve your problem. Ask them how long it takes for them to typically respond to your problem. A good test is to call them in the mid night to check if you get to a live, level 3 support.

2. A Sound Infrastructure: Check whether they offer a multi-homed network powered by multiple bandwidth providers to ensure redundancy. Some offer a 100% guarantee on its network availability or network uptime.

3. Financial Stability: If you're running very critical operationsBusiness Management Articles, you can't afford to be with a hosting company that may not be in business in a few months.

An Affordable Web Hosting Primer

2007-07-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

Not all web hosting plans are created equal. How do you find an affordable web hosting plan that will meet your needs and still be economical? There are several issues that you’ll want to consider.

Price is always an issue. If you’re just getting your site up and running, you don’t have extra capital to spend on web hosting, so you’ll want the most bang for your buck. Look at several providers and compare characteristics.

What kinds of traffic allowances do the affordable web hosting plans you’re considering offer? Some of the most affordable plans have more generous allowances than higher priced plans, and some have less. Make sure that you choose a plan that will allow your site’s traffic to grow. Don’t box yourself into an upgrade the minute your traffic starts to pick up. There are plenty of web hosting sites out there that will allow moderate traffic with no additional cost.

What kind of disk space do they have available? Don’t tie yourself to a plan that won’t support the volume you hope to do. Compare the statistics. Many affordable web hosting plans have plenty of capacity and don’t cost too much.

What is their service record? Are they down a lot, or infrequently? This is a major consideration, because nothing discourages traffic more than “this page is currently unavailable.” That message means lost traffic. Of course, every web host needs maintenance time, so expect some time offline, but compare outage records.

You’ll want to be able to review your traffic statistics. Choose a web hosting provider that has a meaningful traffic statistic reporting feature. You need this information to target your advertising and analyze your traffic to keep your site growing. Many of the most affordable plans have simple to use, effective statistical programs that will provide almost every user the information they need to effectively manage their site.

There are many other features that you may be interested in. Many web hosting sites, including the affordable, low cost choices, offer domain name registration and renewal as part of their service. This eliminates one more step from your responsibilities. If they offer it, take advantage of it!

There are many outstanding affordable web hosting companies on the internet. One of the most highly rated is HostGator.com. For a modest fee of $9.95 per month, you not only receive reliable service and a 30 day money back guarantee, but you’ll be able to host unlimited sites for this price. They also have a program called SiteStudio that helps you set up your website without HTML or FTP.
Even more exciting, there is not setup fee.

Another popular choice is StartLogic.com. They offer several plans that vary in price depending on the length of the plan you choose. Plans start at $6.50-$12.50 per month. They include a marketing guides manual with each plan to help you get started promoting your site. Although they are one of the newer providers, they are growing rapidly on word of mouth, reliability and great customer service.

Of course, there are many other choices out there when you’re looking for affordable web hosting services. Compare plans and remember to consider your site’s growth when you’re choosing a provider. Remember, you’re only there to increase your trafficFeature Articles, so be sure that your affordable web hosting plan can handle it!

3 Ways to Extend Your Web Hosting to China

2007-07-30T00:19:00.000-07:00

This article will analyze 3 key factors that blocks Chinese to purchase web hosting service from US companies. We also give out some example about which US web hosting service providers have make the progress to attract more sale from China.

China is a growing market, everyone want to win the customers there. Not like some other commercial companies which are restricted by export or import law, web hosting as a service, you can sell it all around the world online, and China is included definitely.

To win the customers there look easy. A web hosting package which cost you $100 per year from Chinese web hosting service provider, you will get about 250M disk space and 1 G bandwidth. But what you can get from US service provider, 300G disk space, 3000G bandwidth. It looks quite attractive, right? And another factor pushes Chinese to use US web hosting service is that the service of Chinese web hosting provider are quite worse.

But winning the customer in China is not an easy thing even most of the Chinese web site master know the great value price of US web hosting package and the great service they can get. So, what are the obstacle there.

First is about the payment method, most of the web hosting companies provides the payment method like Credit Card or Paypal, but both of two are not popular in China. For credit card, Chinese are still not comfortable with the security to give those information online and money will be charged without a password. And for Paypal, eBay create a new e-wallet web site in China which is totally different with Paypal, and this is failed in China (it’s beated by a Chinese local company). So, who has done great job in adding more payment options in their checkout process, that’s Lunarpages, the most amazing thing is that Lunarpages can support the payment like Debit Card used in China. So, there is no surprised that Lunarpages have won a lot of customers from China.

Secondly, most of Chinese customer will have to purchase a Dedicated IP eventually since it’s quite common that the IP of their web server are banned by Chinese government due to some illegal web site are created in the same IP. Right now, only IXWebHosting provide free Dedicated IP with fast connection, which has brought IXWebHosting considerable customers from China and it’s another winner here.

Last one is about the connection speed, since when Chinese host their web site in US, their target visitor might still come from China. A fast speed is what they expect. According to a survey I have done in China, BlueHost and HostMonster provide the fastest connection for Chinese customer. This is might not true, but if we only look at the market segment like shared web hosting or low cost web hosting, I believe HostMonster and BlueHost have done great job so far.

So, according to above analysis, Lunarpages, IXWebhosting, BlueHost, and HostMonster have become the biggest winner in Chinese web hosting market. And what about the other web hosting service provider, do you want to win the customers from China? If yes, you need to take action now: add more payment method, provide dedicated IP and increase the connection speed between China and your data center. The earlier you do it, the more you will win.

Using Free Web Hosting For Your Business... Sure, Why Not?

2007-07-30T00:17:00.000-07:00

Really, is there anything wrong with using free web hosting? Find out the good (and the bad) things that free web hosting does for your company's web presence.

Having a web site is no longer an option for your company -- it is a necessity. A web site enables your business to reach more customers at anytime and anywhere. With more than one billion people worldwide going online, your business will be missing out on a large portion of the market without a web presence.

In order to establish a web presence, one of the issues you will need to look into is getting a web hosting service for your web site. With technological progress and market competition, web hosting services are becoming more affordable, and better yet, many providers are now offering web hosting service for free. Yes, that means you don't have to spend even half a cent to get your business online.

Apart from the obvious fact that it's free, here are a few reasons why you should consider using free web hosting for your business:

+ Test ground for your budding web skills

If you are thinking of becoming your own webmaster and want to get your feet wet in web building, you probably won't be ready to invest much on web hosting yet. Free web hosting services will give you the freedom to test out your skills, to see what does or does not work in your site, and can better visualize the cost and effort needed in creating and maintaining your company web site. Free web hosting also allows you to try the hosting provider's service for an initial period; once you're confident that the service provider is reliable enough for you, you can upgrade your company web site to the service provider's paid package that is better and with more frills.

+ Convenience of built-in features

Most free web hosting companies, such as Bravenet, Yahoo!Geocities and Tripod, provide easy-to-use web page builder, as well as tools such as guestbook, hit counter, email forms, and others that can enhance your web site. You will be able to build your company web site in just a few simple steps, while providing you with a more than decent web site in just minutes. The extra features frees you from having to hire programmers just so that you can have online applications to capture visitor feedback, setting up of polls and survey, as well as building up your subscribers for your online newsletter.

+ Positive return on investment

You get free web hosting, you design your own web site, and you have fancy tools added into your site to give it extra functionality, all without having to spend a single cent. Add these up, compare with the potential new customers that you will be getting, and you find that your ROI for establishing a web presence for your company would obviously be satisfactory. You can now reach out to your online market and hopefully your online strategy can effectively increase your revenue.

On the other hand, the downside to using free web hosting is also numerous and comes in the form of hidden costs to your business:

- Lack of flexibility and control

Be sure to read the web hosting provider's Terms of Service before registering for your free web hosting account. Some free web hosting providers restrict the use of certain file types, content, or even languages. In addition, they can also overload your web site with unneeded and irrelevant advertisements in order to support their services. When bombarded with such annoyance, visitors to your site are going to take the effort not to visit your web site ever again. You will also find that some advanced tools needed to operate a fully functional e-commerce presence are not possible with the use of free web hosting, such as shopping carts, secure ordering system and online payment gateways. You may have to upgrade or switch to a paid hosting service provider if you decide to use them, which will require not just the extra effort but also the extra cash.

- High risk of downtime and no guaranteed support

To be honest, there is no such thing as a zero downtime, whether it be for free or paid web hosting. Downtime refers to the period of time or a percentage of a time span that a machine or system is offline or not functioning, making your web site inaccessible (source: Wikipedia). However, the risk of free web hosting having frequent downtime is more than likely to happen than with paid hosting. Free web hosting providers more often than not won't provide any guarantee to their services due to the cost of maintaining them. Other than the risk of downtime, free web hosting accounts are mostly subjected to low priority bandwidth, thus affecting access to your site by making your web site load slowly. Responses to support requests can be slow or next to nothing, and you are solely responsible for backing up your own web site files. These problems cause visitors looking for information on your company feeling frustrated. Ultimately, this can jeopardize your reputation, and your current and potential clients would view your company as an unreliable provider.

- Loss of credibility

Internet marketing strategists place unprecedented importance on the use of domain names for your business. A domain name (or web site address) is one of tools used to establish your company's online branding and image. Most free web hosting providers offer subdomains as addresses for your web site. A subdomain is a web site address whereby your business name is appended onto the free host's domain name, such as http://yourbusiness.freehost.com/ or http://www.freehost.com/yourbusiness. Seldom do you see free hosting providers that support actual domain hosting (such as http://www.yourbusiness.com), or at least not without a catch. A subdomain name as your business web address is harder for your clients to remember than a domain name. Furthermore, one serious drawback to not having your own domain name is the fact that subdomains sounds less professional. Without one, your business may be regarded as disreputable or even illegitimate, and tend to be avoided by web-savvy customers.

In the end, it's your choice. While some sacrifices needed to be done when using free web hosting, try to look at your need for web hosting service just as you would your budding business. Start small, dream big. Weight the pros and cons of free web hosting versus paid web hosting. If you have to, begin with using a free web hosting provider. Once your needs and resources grow, you can then upgrade to a more advanced web hosting service which you can afford to pay.

So don't worry for nowScience Articles, especially if you are a small business or are just starting one. No one will shoot you in the head for using free web hosting -- at least I won't.

Business Web Hosting: Which is Right for You?

2007-07-30T00:14:00.000-07:00

Reliable web hosting

Business web hosting must be reliable. The last thing you need to worry about is that the provider's service becomes unavailable for long stretches of time. What kind of uptime guarantee do they provide you with? How long have they been in business?

Hosting support when you need it

What level of support does the company offer you? You may not need 24x7 service but is their support desk open reasonable hours? Beware of companies that only offer email web hosting support. Some of these companies will tell you that they only offer email hosting support in order to keep costs down. What they often don't say is that they are doing the business part time and can't possibly be available to answer the phone. When you need help, you may have to wait days to get service.

Ecommerce web hosting

Do you plan to sell online? If so, does the web host have shopping carts available? Are they included for free or are they extra? Get the names of the ecommerce shopping carts they provide, and research their capabilities to be able to determine which one is best for you.

Website response times

Be sure to ask the hosting provider for a list of websites that are hosted on their servers. Enter a few of them into your browser and pay attention to how fast they come up. If all of them take a long time to load, this may indicate that the hosting provider's servers are overloaded. Doing a ping on the website addresses is another way to measure the time it takes for the server to respond. Keep in mind though, that a ping test will be more of a measure of a bandwidth bottleneck than a server problem.

Web Hosting bandwidth: How much do you get?

How much bandwidth does the web hosting service provide you with every month? If it is only 500mb per month and your website is 50 kilobytes in size, this will only allow 10,000 visitors per month to hit your website. If you expect to need more, make sure you can live with the extra charges the hosting provider will levy. If you website traffic explodes, you may be on the hook for large bandwidth overage charges.

Small business web hosting that is reliable is a vital part of any success your company will experience online. Doing your homework ahead of time will save you lots of grief later on.

Why IXWebHosting Reduces its Web Hosting Price

2007-07-30T00:13:00.000-07:00

One interesting things happened on IXWebhosting recently: IXWebhosting raised the price of its most popular plan, Business Plus, from $6.45/month to $7.95/month in Late April and changed it back to $6.95 in early June quickly. As one of the leader in web hosting industry, IXWebhosting is famous for providing budget web hosting solutions for their customers: huge disk space, huge bandwidth, Host 8 domains in one plan, 2 domain for free, and 8 dedicated IPs. Compared with other web hosting provider, this plan is very attractive even we set the price to $7.95/month. But what make IXWebhosting change the price back?

First, let's look at the data in WebHostingClue.com, we can easily find that the sale of IXWebhosting is down significantly after increasing the price. And this number goes up very quickly after the price is reversed back. This means the customers vote "No" to the increasing price.

So what's the key reason behind it? Let's look at the market sector IXWebhosting target at, the main customers of IXWebhosting are small business companies and individual, who are also the potential customers of a lot of mid-size and small web hosting companies. Most of them set the price of their plans to be below $7/month, like $6.95/month (Lunarpage). And some even lower, such as HostMonster ($5.95/month), Startlogic($5.95/month) or PowWeb($5.77/month). All those has made the consumer to set their expectation of the price to be blow $7/month when hosting their individual web site or small business web site. But what IXWebhosting has done recently has broken this bar and then it was punished by the market consequently.

But any way, IXWebhosting is back on the right track now. Hope this change can bring more customers to them since it's really a great company and the plan is very cost-effective.

SimpleHost Web Hosting

2007-07-30T00:09:00.000-07:00

SimpleHost has been providing reliable hosting services since 1996, and have grown to become an industry leader hosting over 10,000 clients world-wide. SimpleHost was launched to make web hosting simple for the novice and expert alike. We offer powerful web hosting solutions in one simple package for small to medium size businesses. We make it simple enough so that the novice user as well as advanced user can take advantage of all the Internet has to offer. Since our initial release we have been striving to raise Internet standards.

SimpleHost is committed to providing quality reliable hosting solutions for your business. As our name implies, we strive to make the hosting experience as simple and straightforward as possible. The simplicity of our service allows beginers to get online with ease while our technical superiority provides excellent service for the more advanced. Whatever your level of expertise, our support staff will be there to assist you as needed. Our top priority is to provide high-quality reliable services and top-notch customer service to all customers.

We may focus on making web hosting simple for our clients, but the technology behind the scenes is definately not simple. Our network is maintained by redundant OC-3/OC12 backbones and state of the art equipment. Our servers run the Unix/Linux operating system for unsurpassed performance and reliability. All of our equipment is kept in our data network facility and monitored by our advanced alert system. We are notified of problems within seconds and are able to respond immediately to take corrective actions. As a resultFind Article, we are able to provide a 99.9% uptime.

Learn more about Simple Host.

How To Select A Good Website Hosting Company

2007-07-30T00:06:00.000-07:00

I constantly encounter people that want me to design or update a website for them, and they are already signed up with a hosting company. The only problem is that many of these people should never have signed up with that particular hosting company. I'm dealing with a client now who is paying almost two and a half times more a month than she should, and the service the hosting company provides is substandard.

I run into many problems with hosting companies, including:

* Prices being too high. I often see people paying $15 to $25 a month, when the average is $9 or less. The $15 to $25 fee is okay, if you are getting monthly updates, or some other service, from a website designer.
* Very important features are missing, such as form handling and some e-mail features.
* You can only post websites that you make using their design software. This means you must stay with them or completely redesign your website if you decide to go to another hosting company. If you can't recreate your website you will wind up paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to have someone else do it.
* Terrible technical support. I have called technical support at several hosting companies to get some needed information only to be told, "We aren't going to help you with that." You usually hear this response from companies that really don't care about their clients.
* The hosting company has listed themselves as the owner of the domain name. This means that they own your domain, you don't. This is considered very unethical. It can take months to have your name put on as owner, if they will do this at all. Do you own your domain name? Go to http://www.WhoIs.com and do a search for your domain. You should be listed as the registrant. If this is not the case, then you don't own your domain.

The features offered by web hosts vary widely, as do their costs. Following are the minimum features a decent hosting company should offer, in my opinion.

* A minimum of 500 MB of storage space. This is equal to about 500,000 pages of text. Yes, this is more space than you will probably ever use, but quite a few web hosting services offer this amount. I have almost 150 pages on my website and over 300 graphics, but I only use 38 MB of disk space on the server.
* Unlimited POP3 E-mail Accounts. This lets you have an unlimited number of e-mail accounts so you can keep e-mails separated for different departments or personnel.
* 6 GB (Gigabytes) of data transfer (bandwidth) per month. This is equal to about 6,000,000 pages of text. If you have a website that contains 10 pages, and each page is a MB (Megabyte) and a person goes to each of your pages, then that person would have used 10 MB of your bandwidth.
* No long-term contract. You should be free to pay monthly, quarterly or annually. The longer you sign up for the less it will cost you. Also check into what happens if you want to cancel the hosting service. Will you get any unused money back?
* Technical support should be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You should be able to contact technical support by phone (with a toll free number) and e-mail.
* Unlimited e-mail autoresponders, so you can set up links on your site that will automatically send information via e-mail when a person clicks on the link.
* A control panel or site manager so you can control all the aspects of your website, including e-mail, backups and software installation. You should also be able to check your site statistics to see how many hits each page is getting.
* Mail list manager, so if you have an ezine you can manage your list of subscribers.
* 30-day money back guarantee. Many hosting companies don't offer this, but many do. The hosting company I use is Westhost (www.Westhost.com), and they offer all of these features, and more.

Avoid Free Hosting like the plague. These hosts don't charge a monthly fee, but they do put ads on your site. These ads may run across the top, the side or pop-up anywhere on the screen. People find these ads annoying and distracting. Using a free hosting service will put many people off and you will lose visitors. Customers will also be more reluctant to buy any products or services from you. Would you buy something from a business that couldn't afford to pay $5-$10 a month for website hosting? It will also be more difficult for people to remember you web address. Instead of www.Acme.com, your web address may well be www.TheFreeSite.com/acme.html. And if the company goes out of business, then your site is gone and all the listings you have on search engines will no longer work.

Free sites may also change the rules about what you can have on your site. You may suddenly find that one or more of your pages are banned because of their content. I started out with free hosting years ago, but soon outgrew it and had to buy my own domain name, create a new website and start all over again getting my pages listed with search engines. When my free site was removed, all the links on search engines to that site no longer worked.

Avoid a hosting company that gives you Shared or Virtual Hosting. Shared hosting means that the server, the computer where your website resides, is shared with possibly hundreds of websites who all use the same server software. The hosting company gives you a certain amount of storage space on the server's hard drive for your site, and that hard drive stores as many sites as space allows. The problem is that since all the websites are sharing the same server software, if one website is attacked by a virus or hacker and the server software is damaged, then all the websites on that server will be affected the same way that single site is affected.

Look for a host that offers a Virtual Private Server. This means that your website resides in a partitioned section of the server and has its own server software. I've used Westhost for several years with no problems. They have great tech support and constantly improve the features they offer. You can find a banner link to them at the bottom of my page at http://www.creativecauldron.com/WebsiteDesign.shtml

To look for other web hosting services try these links.

* Compare Web Hosts http://www.comparewebhosts.com/BudgetWebHosting.asp
* Consumers Review http://www.consumersreview.org/webhosting.html
* Host Index http://www.hostindex.com/
* Web Hosting Reviews http://www.web-hosting-reviews.org/
* Web Hosting Unleashed http://www.webhostingunleashed.com/
* Web Site Hosting http://www.web-site-hosting.md/
* Webhosting Top 10 http://www.webhosting-top10.com/us32/

As you check out web hosting services you will encounter some words that you may not have heard before. Here's some useful terminology that will clear things up for you.

* Auto Responder - An automated program that, when it receives an e-mail, sends out an e-mail with a message and/or attachment to the person who sent the e-mail. This is often used with websites that sell ebooks and other electronic information. The person clicks on an e-mail link for the ebook they want and the autoresponder sends it to them. It's a real time saver.
* Bandwidth (Data Transfer) - This is the amount of data that you or others upload to your site and download from your site. A typical site uses less than 5 GB (Gigabytes) per month.
* CGI Bin - the Common Gateway Interface bin is where programs are stored that let you put things on your site like a guestbook and bulletin board.
* Control Panel - This is an interface that lets you control the tools, settings and utilities that your web host provides.
* Disk Space - This is the amount of space you have on the server's hard drive to store your website. Unless your site is loaded with graphics, which it shouldn't be, then you don't need a lot of space.
* FTP - File Transfer Protocol is a common way to upload and download your website pages and files.

Once you find a few place you like, check them out at the Better Business Bureau at http://bbb.org/ and do a search on Yahoo and Google to see if anyone has posted anything bad about them.

It can be difficult to know what to look for in a hosting company if you're new to the Internet. The best solution is to do a lot of research, talk to people you know who have websites and start trying different hosts who offer a 30-day money back guarantee. As long as you own your domain name, and you have created your own website, or had someone create it for you, then you will be fine. With these two things doneScience Articles, you can take your site to almost any host without any problems.

Cheap and inexpensive hosting service - choosing the right one for your needs

2007-07-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

A reliable hosting company is everyone’s lookout while setting up an online business; however, with the multitude of cheap web hosting services available today, the task becomes all the more difficult...

Add to this the options like disk space, bandwidth allowance, control panel and operating system and pricing becomes a phenomenon that confuses; therefore, it is essential to find a suitable host who, on the customers’ behalf, shall determine the individual requirements and still won’t burn a hole in the wallet. We are, then, talking about low cost web site hosting or a cheap website hosting plan.

General Introduction:

After deciding on the requirements, the first action that needs to be taken is to make a list of the cheap website hosting services available; the lowest ones charging around $6 a month. Of course, there are far more cheap website hosting options available, but most of the times they are not worth depending upon. The best way to know these cheap website hosting concerns is to check their response time by emailing; receipt of consistent responses even without signing up proves that they are reliable. Testimonials shall reinforce the confidence further.

Choosing the right cheap and inexpensive hosting service:

A good but cheap website hosting service offers speedy Internet connection, proper security measures, feature-rich hosting, and reliable server uptime. And there are over a 100 types of features that a cheap website hosting service can offer, including - FTP, PHP, Perl/CGI-BIN access, SSI, .htaccess and telnet, though some commercial web hosting plan do not allow installing PHP and/or CGI scripts without their approval. Therefore, it is recommended to find out about these intricacies before signing up with one.

At certain times, especially, while putting up an online business, a few things that are required are SSL (secure server), MySQL and Shopping Cart; these facilities may hike the price by a few steps. Additionally, a few other factors that may attract higher charges are Emails, Auto responders, POP3 and Mail Forwarding.

But like everything else, there is also a downside to cheap inexpensive web hosting service, especially with the free ones. These web-hosting plans put advertising on the site and the user has no control over what ads or pop-ups that keep on appearing from time to time.

What To Consider With Web Hosting Plans And Services?

2007-07-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

There are many important aspects to consider with web hosting services and plans. Choosing the wrong web hosting plan can cause a real problem down the road with your business. This in turn can cost your business lost customers and sales. If you take some time to compare the different options available to you, and to see what is the best web hosting plan for your situation, it can help you in the long run.

Are You Going To Have A Personal Home Page Or A Business Site Hosted?The first thing you may want to consider with the web hosting service is the type of website you are going to have hosted. A small business may not need the options that come with larger hosting plans. On the other hand, if you are going to plan on having a large ecommerce site hosted, you may want all the bells and whistles that are provided from some web hosting services. When you have decided on what type of website you will have hosted, you can then figure how to compare the web hosting services and plans.

How Much Data Transfer And Disk Space Is Offered From The Web Hosting PlanSome of the aspects you will want to compare are the disk space and bandwidth to see if the hosting plan can handle the data transfer from your business promotions that can cause large amounts of traffic. On the other hand, if you have a simple home page you will not need much disk space and bandwidth. Only you can decide on what you will really need from the web hosting service, options and plans that are offered.

Aspects To Consider For Your Web Hosting NeedsSome of the aspects of the web hosting service you may want to consider are, the cost and fees, customer support, control panel, POP email accounts, FTP transfer limits and if you have unlimited space transfer.

Web Hosting Costs And Possible Setup Fees?When you compare the cost of the web hosting plan, be sure you understand what the costs are, before you sign up. Make sure you know what the setup fees might be, if any.

What About Customer Support From The Web Hosting Company?Customer support is very important because you don’t want your site or sites down for long periods of time. Be sure to see if they offer 24 hours a day customer support and what experience they have with customers in the past. You can easily check with the BBB to see how the web hosting company rates with customer service. This simple consideration can help save you from hassles and lost revenue.

Is A Control Panel Available?Some people do not have much experience with web hosting control panels. You may want to see what type of control panel the web hosting service offers to see if it is user friendly and that it will fit your needs. An experienced webmaster may not need a control panel, but a control panel is a must for the rest of us.

Are POP Email Accounts Available?Another aspect of web hosting service plans you may want to consider are, the POP email accounts that may be offered. Most business plans will need email service from their web hosting plan. Check to see how many are available to you, if you think you will need access to email accounts.

What About FTP Transfer Limits?Again, be sure to look into the FTP transfer limits with the web hosting services you are considering. You want to make sure the web hosting plan offers FTP transfer for your business needs. Most web hosts do not have limits on FTP use.

Check out the web hosting plan to see if they offer unlimited space transfer. Read the terms of service to see if you can upgrade, if you need more space in the future. You do not want to have a problem with the web hosting service if you use too much space on the server.

By taking the time to shop around and compare web hosting plans and servicesBusiness Management Articles, you will know you have made a well informed decision.

Dedicated Web Hosting Explained

2007-07-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

When you have one single web server is rented to a single customer by the web hosting provider, you have dedicated web hosting. There are two similar solutions quite common too in the web hosting industry: virtual dedicated servers and co-location web hosting.

To make it easier to grasp the concepts, a virtual dedicated server shares the resources of a web server computer with other customers of the web hosting provider. You don’t get an entire computer just for you in virtual dedicated server hosting plans.

Co-locating web hosting also shares some similarities with dedicated web hosting. The main difference is that while in dedicated web hosting the web server computer belongs to the web-hosting provider and is only rented by the customer, in co-locating web hosting the customer owns the web server computer. The web-hosting provider only houses the web server computer and sells bandwidth to the customer.

Real dedicated web hosting a single web server is rented to a single customer.

Dedicated web hosting is the ideal solution for businesses that work with high traffic. The functionalities of your web site as well as the application required for its operation will fall under your precise control.

But with dedicated web hosting there are even more advantages.

Your hosting provider handles all concerns regarding the maintenance, the security, and the reliability of your web server. As your rent the computer, not purchasing it you don’t have to bother yourself with maintaining the hardware and the connectivity of the computer. This frees you from replacing the component or solving the problem, as all these fall into the provider’s responsibility. Many web hosting providers will even offer you compensations as part of the Service Level Agreement (SLA). Usually, in the event of such failure you will be reimbursed with the cost of your hosting plan for a month or a fraction of it, depending of the severity of the failure. Looks quite good compared to having to pay for the component and for the technical support required for actually replacing the component, all this while your web site in not online. At the end of the day you will only pay for functional hardware.

Think what your business could do with all the resources you have just saved on the above maintenance issues.

As the costs of administering and maintaining the web server you have rented vary depending on your web hosting provider, you can choose between “managed” or “unmanaged” service levels.

Should you feel uncomfortable with the technical expertise required by the management of a web server computer, you could opt for “managed” dedicated hosting. This means that you will have available a “control panel”. The control panel allows you to perform all the essential tasks required by the proper functioning of your web server via a simply point-and-click user-friendly interface. This way you won’t need to know or type any command lines, or poses no in depth knowledge of the operating system, while still being able to setup, administer and maintain all the web sites on your web server.

The “unmanaged” option is recommended only for those with great degree of technical expertise in mastering a web server as it provides root access to the server. This in turn, offers complete server administration, thus the possibility to configure every service on your web server. Of course, not having the necessary services are configured properly, may result in serious system failure. These are the reasons that make unmanaged dedicated hosting only recommendable for people with solid server administration background or for web developers that need custom applications for their web sites, or a customized environment.

Having a dedicated server means that the stability of the computer will not be prone to the plagues affecting shared web hosting solutions. Just think at overload, server being crowded with applications and components required by the other customers, or even errors in programming usually made by the beginners. Add to that the fact that on a shared web server the processor time and the installed memory is shared with the software applications needed by the other users.

Managed or unmanaged, dedicated web hosting makes it easier for you to provide instant support to your own customers when it is required. This would not be possible on a shared hosting plan or you will be faced with delays and possible additional technical support fees. Needless to say a prompt support service on your side also means happy customers and business growth.

For those running a business in web design for example, the advantages of having their own dedicated web server are invaluable. This is true not because his studio will be able to offer pure hosting services, but because he will able to offer them packaged with the web design activity. Modifying a web site for a customer or uploading a new one is a matter of minutes when you have around-the-clock access to your web server. Another advantage comes from the fact that once a complete web presence solution, design and hosting, is offered by the studio to a customer, there is a higher chance for having that customer become a regular.

The benefits of a good dedicated web hosting solution for businesses translate into sales growth, better customer relationship, improved company image, reduced cost compared with in-house web hosting solutionArticle Submission, and the list could go on. A dedicated web server means that you can run a better business and better business reads profit.

Walk the (Web Hosting) Line

2007-07-29T23:57:00.000-07:00

Every business decision is a balance between cost and benefit. For the neophyte webmaster, it's easy to forget this principle and blindly follow the well-intentioned advice of industry veterans. Normally, this is a good thing to do. But no advice should be followed blindly, especially when it comes to your business. For all their experience and expertise, none of those gimlet-eyed webmasters have the perspective to say exactly what is right for your particular set of circumstances.

Before you cast aside cheap web hosting as a viable option for your site, consider this: Very few eCommerce sites see much traffic at all in their initial start-up period. Much of the work you’ll be doing over the coming months and years will be largely experimental – testing traffic and consumer response from a number of different advertising sources, honing and tweaking your site, and generally figuring out how to build your business.

During the initial phases of any new online venture, I always host my sites on a cheap web host. For me, there's no need to buy an expensive dedicated server or rack space for a project that very well might not pan out at all. Even if it does pan out, I find very little benefit in paying the additional cost in those early months when my traffic is practically nil. The key for me is choosing a low-cost hosting plan that has a decent reputation for uptime and service, and leaves room for growth.

In short, I walk the web hosting line. I don't overbuy hosting for any of my web sites, I buy what they need. For a new site, this generally means shared .NET hosting in the $10 per month range. As the sites grow, I add on a-la-carte features such as SSL certificates. When traffic or disk space begins to stretch the bounds of the original plan, I look to upgraded packages wherever I might find them. With a bit of shopping around, you can sometimes find really good deals on hosting – I recently found a VPS plan that was cheaper than my current shared plan.

Which brings me to my next point – Don't be afraid of migrating to a new web host. When done properly, the switch can be made quite seamlessly and with no downtime (I'll cover the exact procedure I follow in a later article.) Being able to change web hosting providers easily and effectively is one of the simplest ways a webmaster can shave dollars off of his or her hosting budget. I recently had a site hosted on a shared Windows server for $4.99 per month with unlimited bandwidth. That sounds like a great deal unless you happen to know (as I do) that this particular hosting company has a tendancy to shut sites off that consume too much bandwidth. When I found that my site was starting to garner more and more hits per day, I simply switched it over to a new host. The money I had saved in the meantime allowed the site to be profitable, and that always makes me feel good. And the best part is that I accomplished this with no interruption of service and very little effort.

The bottom line is that cheap web hosting isn't necessarily bad. If your site isn't pulling in that much revenue, your hosting costs could be the only thing that stand in the way of profitability. All it takes is a little research into the hosting company you plan on using. Make sure that it has a good reputation as being reliable (look it up on my web hosting review site to help with that) and that it gives you JUST enough of what you need to start out. Make sure you keep a very close eye on it, and have your next move planned already when it gets close to migration time.

I have just one final note to offer. Don't for a minute assume that because a plan is priced higher than a competitor it is automatically more reliable or robust. In my many hours of comparing, aggregating, and reviewing hosting plans I have found that price is usually the least reliable means of comparison. Always look to quality above all elseFree Reprint Articles, and your site will be the revenue producing machine you've always envisioned.

Advantages of Reseller Hosting v/s Shared Hosting

2007-07-29T23:55:00.000-07:00

Its time you choose a good reseller hosting plan from a professional hosting company, who can take care of your complete hosting needs.

Other than this reseller hosting packages can really help you around with account management, here are a couple of advantages that you will enjoy by choosing a reseller hosting mode.

Advantages of Reseller Hosting Plans

* The price of reseller hosting plans are lower than shared hosting plans.
* The inventory you get in reseller hosting plans are much higher when compared to shared hosting.
* outsource the reseller hosting supportFree Reprint Articles, you will have more time to focus on your work then spending time on hosting support.
* There is better manageability of account with reseller hosting as you have one hosting account to manage all clients.
* Reseller hosting accounts can be re branded to say that you are the hosting company who is providing these services to end user.
* A reseller hosting account can also be integrated with packages like modernbill / H-sphere to have a better billing system.
* Reseller hosting plan are the most affordable and unique hosting reseller plans which offer higher inventory than shared hosting plan.

so go ahead and find your self a good hosting company professional enough to give you the extra mileage your business deserves

Pros and cons of shared hosting

2007-07-29T23:52:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of various types of web site hosting. They can be classified by different indexes. There is Paid and Free web hosting; Linux/Unix-based and Windows-based (and other but they are no that popular); shared, dedicated and VPS. Every hosting type has its own advantages and disadvantages. The key aim of this article is to acquaint you with main merits and drawbacks of shared hosting. First of all we must give a definition of the term "shared hosting". So, what is shared hosting? Shared hosting is such kind of providing space for web sites on the hoster's server when you share this server with other customers' web sites. All web sites use the same software and operating system. But unlike free web hosting which has the same conditions, with shared web hosting you have much more benefits. Shared web hosting can be divided into two subtypes: Free Shared Hosting is the best choice for trying some new ideas and not paying for hosting. This type of web site hosting provides you with everything necessary for floating your site. Of course you should not expect the best conditions for your site. Bandwidth and Disk Space is limited. This type of shared hosting may not ensure you with MySQL, PHP support. Web statistics is also poorly provided. Paid Shared Hosting provides such necessary features, as multiply e-mail, MySQl, PHP are supported. You may use it if you want to host small business web site, intermediate or large professional site but don't need the whole server's space.

Using shared hosting you get a good possibility to host your site on a powerful, well administrated server at a low monthly cost. Shared hosting is in first-time webmasters' great demand, 'cause it can provide reliable web presence without having special technical skills. So now we can pick out pros and cons of shared hosting:

* Pros
* Low cost
* Good server administration
* Multiply e-mail, MySQL, PHP support
* You don't need some unique knowledge in web site and server administration Cons
* Low security level
* Resource limitation -everybody uses the same memory, CPU and HardDrive.
* You can use only the software which is provided with your hosting company, and correspondingly you can't install your own.
* Some available ports and connections can be limited because of security policy).

The main feature of shared hosting is that you don't need to worry about about possible server problems. Your hosting company's support service is to fix all troubles. So, when choosing shared hosting you must carefully look at company support's quality, the better quality of support - the better conditions for your site. With shared hosting you can also place several sites in the neighbour parts of the server. Now when you are acquainted with all special features of shared hosting you can decide whether this type of hosting is appropriate to your needs and requirements. More hosting articles you can also find here Web Site Hosting Reviews - http://www.web-site-hosting-reviews.com Computer Technology Articles,Web Hosting Review - http://www.web-hosting-review.net and Cheap Web Hosting Directory- http://www.cheap-web-hosting-directory.com .

Types of Web Site Hosting

2007-07-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

First of all we must determine the meaning of the word “hosting”. So, what is hosting?

Hosting origins from the word “host” which has different meanings that are familiar to you. Hosting means providing place for your website on the web hosting company’s servers and makes it viewable in the Internetand floating it.

Why can you once need hosting?

Imagine that you have created a website and now you are wondering howyour friends and acquaintances can see it. You place it in your personal computer, but then you come to know that it’s dangerous for your computer’s safety and needs permanent Internet connection. So it causes a lot of inconveniences for you. To avoid them there is web site hosting.

There are different kinds of web site hosting. Let’s have a good look at them:

1. Shared or virtual hosting
2. Dedicated hosting/ server, Co-location
3. VDS/VPS –Virtual Dedicated Server/Virtual Private Server

Before choosing some type of web hosting it’s necessary to consider the way you are going to use it.
Free Shared hosting

If you want to host some non-profit-making or your personal web site it’d be more profitable to use basic shared hosting for no fee. This type of web site hosting is a rather logical choice if you are a junior in web site building or if you want to try some new idea and don’t want to pay. But of course you don’t have to suppose it to grant your site the best conditions, such as proper bandwidth and disk space. Some other features can also be limited, I mean MySQL, PHP support. It often also provides poor web statistics.
Paid Shared hosting

Almost all small businesses, intermediate and large professional sites use shared hosting, ‘cause they don’t need the whole server’s space and besides the whole server costs much. With shared/virtual hosting such necessary features, as multiply e-mail, MySQl, PHP, are supported. The main disadvantage is decrease of your site’s security.
Dedicated hosting /Server

This type of hosting is the best choice for those, who need much storage and bandwidth, and are good in server administration. You’ll be able to use all necessary software, but if you don’t have enough knowledge to administrate your server it will be a little bit difficult for you.
Co-location

It’s a sub type of dedicated hosting and can be compared with your own house which was built specially for you, with your favorite furniture and all. It’s built on your hoster’s (ISP) ground. This service is implied to fulfill only your tasks and is designed for your needs alone. And it’s cost is correspondingly high.
VDS/ VPS

Virtual private server is a type of web site hosting that is based on dividing a physical server into several virtual ones. It costs less though gives same possibilities as Dedicated server. Now, when we’ve examined different types of hosting servicesFree Articles, you can decide which type of hosting is the most suitable for you.More hosting articles you can also find here Web Site Hosting Reviews - http://www.web-site-hosting-reviews.com and Web Hosting Review - http://www.web-hosting-review.net.

Perfect Web Hosting

2007-07-29T23:47:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest concerns for many companies that do business online is web hosting, and the services that web hosting services provide. Trying to find the best deal that is economical and reliable whether you are a small business, a SOHO business, mid sized or large business in Hong Kong can be a challenge. This is where Website solution can help.

A big problem for many customers looking for web hosting is to ensure that things like spam and email problems are reduced to an absolute minimum. This is especially important for companies that do the majority of their business online because email is usually the primary way they communicate with their customers. Spam email is one of the largest problems when it comes to email. When looking for a web hosting service look for a company that provides you with the most spam protection you can find. Look for reasonable rates and make sure that it has all the features that you are looking for. There are many different plans and options available. Each having its own set of features and various options, the types of features that you might be looking for are different based on the skill level and size of your business. FTP access is a good feature this allows you to upload things including whole pages onto your site easily. POP3 and SMTP services and enough bandwidth and storage space to handle your website. Another good idea is to check with companies that are already using a web hosting service that you are looking at. You can do this by contacting the web hosting companies and asking questions about issues or problems, how much down time is there or how are they at handling customer service.

The most important thing to ask yourself is, are the features you getting worth the price you are being asked to pay. It is also a good idea to make sure you carefully read the terms of service since many times what determines a good web host from a not so good web host will be listed in their terms of service. You will want to make sure that the relationship you have with your web host is a good and solid one. In order to do that you need to make sure that you agree with the terms of service and that the web host company has been in business and successful for a decent amount of time, down time is limitedFree Articles, features are available that you need and at a reasonable price.

Finding a web host service that can provide you with the features you need at the prices you want can sometimes be a difficult challenge. Taking the time to research exactly what you need and project your needs as best as you can into the future can ensure that you have the web hosting service that is right for you. Email support is also important so make sure that the web hosting service you use has enough accounts to handle your business and that they have adequate spam protection.

Web Site Hosting – An Easy Guide

2007-07-29T23:43:00.000-07:00

Web Hosting – Made Simple

Web pages basically consist of text and images. Generically, the information contained by these files is called content. The look of the web page is called design.

In order to be accessible to online users, all these files must be stored on a web server. You can think of web servers as computers storing the files of tens or hundreds of web sites. These computers are all connected to the Internet through high-speed connection. When you access a web page, your browser connects to the web server that stores that page and downloads it to your computer.

So a web server is a must when you plan to share your web site content with online users via the Internet. There are thousands of web servers in the world, and there are companies that own them. Such a company is called web-hosting provider.

A web-hosting provider can have dozens of web servers hosting thousands of web sites. The web server computers are found usually in large numbers and are all housed in special buildings or sections of buildings called data center. Apart from the high-speed Internet connection, these locations are set up to ensure the optimum operational conditions and security for the web servers. HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, & Air Conditioning) control, fire protection, virus protection, data backup facility, power backup, even autonomy in case of disaster. Another term for the web servers in the data center is a web farm.

To be able to run your site properly you need a space on the web server to store your data and an Internet connection to it. The amount of data available to you on a web server is simply referred as space and is usually quantified in MB. The Internet connection needed so that your web site can be accessed online is referred as bandwidth and is also measured in MB or even GB.

Having the glimpse of the basics, it must be said that different web-hosting providers offer different space and bandwidth. Space and bandwidth are usually the main characteristics of a web-hosting plan.

The terminology associated with web hosting can be quite dazzling: virtual web hosting, dedicated hosting; co-locating hosting, shared hosting reseller hosting.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting or virtual web hosting are two terms for the same thing. Shared web hosting means that on a web server are hosted many web sites that all have a defined quota of HDD space and bandwidth. They all run simultaneously and there can be from hundreds to thousands of web sites on the same web server. Given the high number of web sites should you worry about exceeding the performance of the web server, issue better known as slow server response, meaning that your visitors will have to wait too long for your web pages to load.

That is usually not a real problem when dealing with serious web hosting providers, because the operational parameters of the web servers are monitored and appropriate actions will be taken in order to maintain the level of service contracted.

The greater number of web sites sharing the resources of a web server (HDD space, bandwidth, memory, CPU time), the web hosting provider can afford to offer its services at a lower cost. A minus would be that, even with high level of service, you will have to accept a slower server response time when choosing shared web hosting.

Reseller Web Hosting

When web-hosting providers offer their services, typically with a discount, to a third-party (a reseller that will thus become a web-hosting provider itself) and the latter subsequently offers web-hosting services under his branding. Indeed technically the reseller web hosting is very similar to shared web hosting, as many web sites end up sharing space and bandwidth on the same web server. The resellers usually are web designers or web developers who offer web hosting services as part of their integrated services. As the web-hosting provider offers resellers important discounts, the price they can offer is among the smallest in the industry.

Compared with the shared web hosting, this system has technical support problem. It takes time and communication problems may occur on the course of your problem from the reseller to the web-hosting provider. Unless your site is a personal web site or non-commercial one, this poor support issue is enough to not consider this your primary option.

Continuing this line of thought, how can you distinguish a reseller from a real web-hosting provider? It’s not the professional design of the web site, not even the support contact facilities offered as may resellers might have contracts with the provider on the technical support and the person taking your calls might be working for the provider and identify himself to you as an employee of the reseller. Solid company information is made available usually only by serious providers. The price, that can get as low as under 5$/month is another hint, but you should consider it carefully with prices dropping through the industry.

Dedicated Web Hosting

In dedicated web hosting one single web server is rented to a single customer.

Although this is the common belief, web-hosting providers usually divide a single web server computer between up to three customers. On the other hand there are web-hosting providers that actually give an entire web server to a customer. Even with three customers sharing the web server, the dedicated web hosting option offers the customers the option to host more than one web site, configure the software to best meet the needs of his site or scale the available bandwidth.

The high prices combined with the availability of resources recommend this type of web hosting for highly important web sites such as e-commerce sites.

Co-location Web Hosting

Co-locating web hosting is similar with dedicated web hosting.

The main difference is that while in dedicated web hosting the web server computer belongs to the web-hosting provider and is only rented by the customer, in co-locating web hosting the customer owns the web server computer. The web-hosting provider only houses the web server computer and sells bandwidth to the customer. This gives the customer using co-locating web hosting full control of the web server combined with the security of the data center.

Now you should be equipped with the necessary information to decide on you web hosting. You shouldn’t try and find the lowest price possible, but give some extra thought to the quality of service you are buying and to the support offered by a web host provider.

Where to Get Cheap Web Hosting

2007-05-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

First, to see if you can use cheap web hosting you need to know how much disk space you will need. How large is your website? How many pages, video files, music files, etc. do you need? Second, a cheap web hosting company will need to know how busy your sight will be. If your site is going to have a lot of visitors, cheap web hosting may not be for you. Third, how many email accounts do you need? Cheap web hosting companies do not usually provide many. Lastly, how much are you willing to spend? Cheap web hosting is not as technical as the more expensive web hosting.

If you go online, you can find a list of the top 10 cheap web hosting companies. The top 10 cheap web hosting companies are rated by their price, quality, and service provided. The cheap web hosting companies are priced between $4.95 and $19.95 a month. The cheap web hosting company's price varies on what kind of things you need. The disk space provided can be from 3000MB to 5000MB. The bandwidth varies from 40GB to 300GB. If this is not enough for you, then a cheap web hosting company is not an option for you. Most of these cheap web hosting companies offer free set up. This will make things much easier for you. Be aware of cheap web hosting that offers unlimited disk space. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

The top 10 web hosting companies reviewed are: Blue Host, Power Hosting, Pages Garden, Pro Logic Hosting, Easy CGI, Gigabyte Package, Yahoo! Hosting, iPower Web, Lunar pages, and Dot5 Web Hosting. All of these are very cheap web hosting companies. You will find them listed at top10webhosting.com. At this website you will also find customer testimonials and thorough listings about the cheap web hosting company's services they offer to you. For those of you who still think that this is not cheap web hosting, you can also find free web hosting. It still comes with a price, however. Comcast offers free web hosting to anyone who subscribes to their internet service. You still have to pay for the internet service, but the web hosting is free. That's the best that can be done about cheap web hosting. Weigh the oddsFree Web Content, and see which route is best for you.

Reliable Web Hosting is Everything

2007-05-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest challenges for companies in today’s wired world is how to bring their products and services into the realm of the internet through e-commerce. It not only allows them the benefit of faster interaction with customers but also provides an additional way to market and advertise. Support is also simplified due to the ease by which it could be provided through on-line tutorials, on-line help and other on-line publication that could provide more extensive up to date documentation of products. The amount of savings in terms of manpower and training along with the necessary equipment and software to develop e-commerce systems is prohibitive which tends to steer most away from e-commerce. On alternative to this problem is on-line hosting which could lessen investment on development and implementation. It takes away much of the costs associated with software and hardware development and maintenance. It also lessens if not totally eliminates the need to re-train or worst hire dedicated personnel to develop, implement and maintain the software and hardware once it is in use. Many firms could be found online through the internet, who offer such hosting services that could be availed of for through many different packages types and services.

These companies offer the convenience of e-commerce without having to invest in the necessary hardware and software along with training and personnel related costs. In providing these services they allow customers to focus more on running their businesses and improving products. The firm handles most of the support and maintenance of your web page as your requirements evolve and change. They offer and guarantee a 99.9% system uptime with respect to network and offers 24/7 FTP accessibility. They provide lighting fast networking with high reliability that gives you the edge with your e-commerce applications. Their system is easily configured through a control panel that allows easy e-mail management and monitoring through the use of URCHIN-5 monitor that analyzes and tracks in real time web usage.

Hosting product packages of some offer 15,000 MB of disk space, 250 GB bandwidth, cPanel Pro/+23 language support and utilizes Fantastico deluxe. This service is possible with the utilization of Dual core Opteron servers that is contained within rock-solid data centers within the continental US providing the reliability and supportability. This gives way to faster return on investment on their move to develop an e-commerce system for their products. Also their huge focus on support allows them to work with clients as partners rather than the normal company-client relationship which tends to take away the human factor lessening development of business relations. Some firms also offer Turbo or High Assurance Secure SSL Certificates at low prices, not only protects your customer’s information as it travels through the internet. It uses 256-key encryption, which is considered to be one of the most robust among encryption standards to date giving unsurpassed security and integrity. It is recognized by browsers 99.9% of the times and has a limited warranty along with a seal on your site that tells clients of the measures you take to protect the information that is sent through your Web Site. Most offer refund options with money back guarantees that give you the security of non-satisfactory services if you so decide.

Windows Hosting versus Linux Hosting

2007-04-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

The matter of choosing between the operating system (OS) running the web server hosting your web site as old as the web hosting business. The OS controls all the functions of the web server hosting your site, so it comes naturally to pay special attention when choosing one over another. But what are really the options you have?

Mainly you can choose between web hosting based on Windows, Linux or Unix operating systems. A brief description and analysis of the different systems will narrow the list of options to only two.

So here are our two choices Windows and Linux:

Reliability

Web Programming

Linux offers a support for FrontPage extensions. Windows has a weak point in offering only limited CGI/Perl support, so if Perl is the scripting language of your choice, you should opt for Linux.

Databases

Price

Although Windows hosting cost a bit more, you will get something for your money. It’s reduced development time and functionality.

Almost all serious web-hosting providers will offer you the choice between Linux and Windows.

There is no winner of this contest, at least not yet. In today’s terms, your preference of one system over another should be given only by your requirements and the needs of your visitors.

Tips To Select A good Web Hosting Company

2007-04-25T00:49:00.000-07:00

I run into many problems with hosting companies, including:

Prices being too high. I often see people paying $15 to $25 a month, when the average is $9 or less. The $15 to $25 fee is okay, if you are getting monthly updates, or some other service, from a website designer.
Very important features are missing, such as form handling and some e-mail features.
You can only post websites that you make using their design software. This means you must stay with them or completely redesign your website if you decide to go to another hosting company. If you can't recreate your website you will wind up paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to have someone else do it.
Terrible technical support. I have called technical support at several hosting companies to get some needed information only to be told, "We aren't going to help you with that." You usually hear this response from companies that really don't care about their clients.
The hosting company has listed themselves as the owner of the domain name. This means that they own your domain, you don't. This is considered very unethical. It can take months to have your name put on as owner, if they will do this at all. Do you own your domain name? Go to http://www.WhoIs.com and do a search for your domain. You should be listed as the registrant. If this is not the case, then you don't own your domain.

The features offered by web hosts vary widely, as do their costs. Following are the minimum features a decent hosting company should offer, in my opinion.

A minimum of 500 MB of storage space. This is equal to about 500,000 pages of text. Yes, this is more space than you will probably ever use, but quite a few web hosting services offer this amount. I have almost 150 pages on my website and over 300 graphics, but I only use 38 MB of disk space on the server.
Unlimited POP3 E-mail Accounts. This lets you have an unlimited number of e-mail accounts so you can keep e-mails separated for different departments or personnel.
6 GB (Gigabytes) of data transfer (bandwidth) per month. This is equal to about 6,000,000 pages of text. If you have a website that contains 10 pages, and each page is a MB (Megabyte) and a person goes to each of your pages, then that person would have used 10 MB of your bandwidth.
No long-term contract. You should be free to pay monthly, quarterly or annually. The longer you sign up for the less it will cost you. Also check into what happens if you want to cancel the hosting service. Will you get any unused money back?
Technical support should be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You should be able to contact technical support by phone (with a toll free number) and e-mail.
Unlimited e-mail autoresponders, so you can set up links on your site that will automatically send information via e-mail when a person clicks on the link.
A control panel or site manager so you can control all the aspects of your website, including e-mail, backups and software installation. You should also be able to check your site statistics to see how many hits each page is getting.
Mail list manager, so if you have an ezine you can manage your list of subscribers.
30-day money back guarantee. Many hosting companies don't offer this, but many do. The hosting company I use is Westhost (www.Westhost.com), and they offer all of these features, and more.

Avoid Free Hosting like the plague. These hosts don't charge a monthly fee, but they do put ads on your site. These ads may run across the top, the side or pop-up anywhere on the screen. People find these ads annoying and distracting. Using a free hosting service will put many people off and you will lose visitors. Customers will also be more reluctant to buy any products or services from you. Would you buy something from a business that couldn't afford to pay $5-$10 a month for website hosting? It will also be more difficult for people to remember you web address. Instead of www.Acme.com, your web address may well be www.TheFreeSite.com/acme.html. And if the company goes out of business, then your site is gone and all the listings you have on search engines will no longer work.

Free sites may also change the rules about what you can have on your site. You may suddenly find that one or more of your pages are banned because of their content. I started out with free hosting years ago, but soon outgrew it and had to buy my own domain name, create a new website and start all over again getting my pages listed with search engines. When my free site was removed, all the links on search engines to that site no longer worked.

Avoid a hosting company that gives you Shared or Virtual Hosting. Shared hosting means that the server, the computer where your website resides, is shared with possibly hundreds of websites who all use the same server software. The hosting company gives you a certain amount of storage space on the server's hard drive for your site, and that hard drive stores as many sites as space allows. The problem is that since all the websites are sharing the same server software, if one website is attacked by a virus or hacker and the server software is damaged, then all the websites on that server will be affected the same way that single site is affected.

Look for a host that offers a Virtual Private Server. This means that your website resides in a partitioned section of the server and has its own server software. I've used Westhost for several years with no problems. They have great tech support and constantly improve the features they offer. You can find a banner link to them at the bottom of my page at http://www.creativecauldron.com/WebsiteDesign.shtml

To look for other web hosting services try these links.

Compare Web Hosts http://www.comparewebhosts.com/BudgetWebHosting.asp
Consumers Review http://www.consumersreview.org/webhosting.html
Host Index http://www.hostindex.com/
Web Hosting Reviews http://www.web-hosting-reviews.org/
Web Hosting Unleashed http://www.webhostingunleashed.com/
Web Site Hosting http://www.web-site-hosting.md/
Webhosting Top 10 http://www.webhosting-top10.com/us32/

As you check out web hosting services you will encounter some words that you may not have heard before. Here's some useful terminology that will clear things up for you.

Auto Responder - An automated program that, when it receives an e-mail, sends out an e-mail with a message and/or attachment to the person who sent the e-mail. This is often used with websites that sell ebooks and other electronic information. The person clicks on an e-mail link for the ebook they want and the autoresponder sends it to them. It's a real time saver.
Bandwidth (Data Transfer) - This is the amount of data that you or others upload to your site and download from your site. A typical site uses less than 5 GB (Gigabytes) per month.
CGI Bin - the Common Gateway Interface bin is where programs are stored that let you put things on your site like a guestbook and bulletin board.
Control Panel - This is an interface that lets you control the tools, settings and utilities that your web host provides.
Disk Space - This is the amount of space you have on the server's hard drive to store your website. Unless your site is loaded with graphics, which it shouldn't be, then you don't need a lot of space.
FTP - File Transfer Protocol is a common way to upload and download your website pages and files.

Once you find a few place you like, check them out at the Better Business Bureau at http://bbb.org/ and do a search on Yahoo and Google to see if anyone has posted anything bad about them.

It can be difficult to know what to look for in a hosting company if you're new to the Internet. The best solution is to do a lot of research, talk to people you know who have websites and start trying different hosts who offer a 30-day money back guarantee. As long as you own your domain name, and you have created your own website, or had someone create it for you, then you will be fine. With these two things done, you can take your site to almost any host without any problems.

How to choose a web hosting service

2007-04-25T00:27:00.000-07:00

When you need a web site for your business, personal use or even any other task there are several important factors you should take into consideration. Web hosting is not about large space or huge amounts of bandwidth. It is mainly about the quality of the service a web hosting provider extends to its customers. After designing a top quality website the next most important task is to find a top quality and reliable web hosting service provider in order to place your web site on the World Wide Web. And what is web hosting..? Web hosting is a service that allows users to post web pages to the Internet. A Web host, or hosting service provider (HSP), is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for Web sites to be viewed on the Web. Following are some of the most important factors you must take in to consideration before you make your investment on a hosting service.

Having a clear understanding about your hosting requirements.

This is the number one rule that you should observe before purchasing web hosting for your site. Make sure you have a clear understanding of what exactly you need. These requirements differ from person to person and company to company and therefore it is vital to precisely determine your needs and wants. Failure to do so can end up with having the wrong web hosting plan with features, that you need for the proper function of your web site, missing and spending money unnecessarily for something that does not fit into your needs and wants. So you must have a clear understanding about your hosting requirements

The level of customer support being offered.

This is another important factor that you should take into account when you are choosing a web host. Nowadays customer care plays a major role when it comes to any business; "Customer is the king". So you should go for a web hosting company which treats its customers extremely well with careful attention to customer's needs. Goviphosting.com is a web hosting company which considers the customer satisfaction as it's key priority.

There are several more secondary features a customer should look for in a professional web hosting company as far as the customer support is concern,

-The level of sales support offered

-The level of technical support offered

-Responding time for a help ticket (ie.the average response time is within 60 minutes)

-A fast, friendly and dedicated customer support team who are well trained to treat customers with due attention and regard

A guide for choosing the best web site hosting service

2007-04-25T00:25:00.001-07:00

General Introduction:

There are certain factors, which, put together, enables people to choose the best web host from a plethora of other similar service providers. As per the industry standards, the best web host should beat others in terms of both service and options as well as should be able to solve any problem immediately that their clients may face. Apart from these, the best web host must have the courtesy to communicate and keep the client updated on the current status regarding solving their problems.

Choosing the best web site hosting service:

Quality of Service is the first criteria that a person must look for while shopping for the best web host; since the current trend is to go online, therefore, it is easy to fall into the traps set by the $4.00 hosting companies offering 1000 Mb of server space along with 24/7 technical support. People often consider such a company to be the best web host making excellent services available and do not recognize the truth, which could be just letters and numbers. So, before making a decision on signing up with the best web host, it is always advisable to find out the most intricate matters in detail; like the claim 24/7 technical support can be a subject to a lot of interpretation and may mean that a person needs to wait for 48 to 72 hours before the problem is solved. 24/7 means that the customer shall be able to reach a live person when he/she calls the support number, so this is something to be found out while selecting the best web host. A good service provider should take around one hour to respond back if communication is established through e-mail.

Analyzing the billing process of the provider’s hosting service plans is another method to find out whether the service provider can qualify as the best web host. So, if the answers come positive (at least, satisfactory) for enquiries regarding handling the billing process (whether it’s done by an outside company or the same company selling the hosting service), the process for resolving the billing issues (either through a support number or by mail), the payment modes, online account management platforms and credits for referrals, expect to reach a level of comfort with the service provider, whom you now know to be the best web host that you can find.

Web Hosting Guide

2007-04-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

What is web hosting anyway? What do I get when I buy a web hosting solution?
To make thing clear from start let’s just say how it all works.

Web Hosting – Made Simple

Web pages basically consist of text and images. Generically, the information contained by these files is called content. The look of the web page is called design.

In order to be accessible to online users, all these files must be stored on a web server. You can think of web servers as computers storing the files of tens or hundreds of web sites. These computers are all connected to the Internet through high-speed connection. When you access a web page, your browser connects to the web server that stores that page and downloads it to your computer.

So a web server is a must when you plan to share your web site content with online users via the Internet. There are thousands of web servers in the world, and there are companies that own them. Such a company is called web-hosting provider.

A web-hosting provider can have dozens of web servers hosting thousands of web sites. The web server computers are found usually in large numbers and are all housed in special buildings or sections of buildings called data center. Apart from the high-speed Internet connection, these locations are set up to ensure the optimum operational conditions and security for the web servers. HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, & Air Conditioning) control, fire protection, virus protection, data backup facility, power backup, even autonomy in case of disaster. Another term for the web servers in the data center is a web farm.

To be able to run your site properly you need a space on the web server to store your data and an Internet connection to it. The amount of data available to you on a web server is simply referred as space and is usually quantified in MB. The Internet connection needed so that your web site can be accessed online is referred as bandwidth and is also measured in MB or even GB.

Having the glimpse of the basics, it must be said that different web-hosting providers offer different space and bandwidth. Space and bandwidth are usually the main characteristics of a web-hosting plan.

The terminology associated with web hosting can be quite dazzling: virtual web hosting, dedicated hosting; co-locating hosting, shared hosting reseller hosting.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting or virtual web hosting are two terms for the same thing. Shared web hosting means that on a web server are hosted many web sites that all have a defined quota of HDD space and bandwidth. They all run simultaneously and there can be from hundreds to thousands of web sites on the same web server. Given the high number of web sites should you worry about exceeding the performance of the web server, issue better known as slow server response, meaning that your visitors will have to wait too long for your web pages to load.

That is usually not a real problem when dealing with serious web hosting providers, because the operational parameters of the web servers are monitored and appropriate actions will be taken in order to maintain the level of service contracted.

The greater number of web sites sharing the resources of a web server (HDD space, bandwidth, memory, CPU time), the web hosting provider can afford to offer its services at a lower cost. A minus would be that, even with high level of service, you will have to accept a slower server response time when choosing shared web hosting.

Reseller Web Hosting

When web-hosting providers offer their services, typically with a discount, to a third-party (a reseller that will thus become a web-hosting provider itself) and the latter subsequently offers web-hosting services under his branding. Indeed technically the reseller web hosting is very similar to shared web hosting, as many web sites end up sharing space and bandwidth on the same web server. The resellers usually are web designers or web developers who offer web hosting services as part of their integrated services. As the web-hosting provider offers resellers important discounts, the price they can offer is among the smallest in the industry.

Compared with the shared web hosting, this system has technical support problem. It takes time and communication problems may occur on the course of your problem from the reseller to the web-hosting provider. Unless your site is a personal web site or non-commercial one, this poor support issue is enough to not consider this your primary option.

Continuing this line of thought, how can you distinguish a reseller from a real web-hosting provider? It’s not the professional design of the web site, not even the support contact facilities offered as may resellers might have contracts with the provider on the technical support and the person taking your calls might be working for the provider and identify himself to you as an employee of the reseller. Solid company information is made available usually only by serious providers. The price, that can get as low as under 5$/month is another hint, but you should consider it carefully with prices dropping through the industry.

Dedicated Web Hosting

In dedicated web hosting one single web server is rented to a single customer.

Although this is the common belief, web-hosting providers usually divide a single web server computer between up to three customers. On the other hand there are web-hosting providers that actually give an entire web server to a customer. Even with three customers sharing the web server, the dedicated web hosting option offers the customers the option to host more than one web site, configure the software to best meet the needs of his site or scale the available bandwidth.

The high prices combined with the availability of resources recommend this type of web hosting for highly important web sites such as e-commerce sites.

Co-location Web Hosting

Co-locating web hosting is similar with dedicated web hosting.

The main difference is that while in dedicated web hosting the web server computer belongs to the web-hosting provider and is only rented by the customer, in co-locating web hosting the customer owns the web server computer. The web-hosting provider only houses the web server computer and sells bandwidth to the customer. This gives the customer using co-locating web hosting full control of the web server combined with the security of the data center.

Now you should be equipped with the necessary information to decide on you web hosting. You shouldn’t try and find the lowest price possible, but give some extra thought to the quality of service you are buying and to the support offered by a web host provider.