Blue
Red
Gray
Picking a Host – The First Step to Getting Your Business Online
The internet has changed a lot of old, set habits – the way we communicate, the way we consume content, and the way we shop. These dramatic and remarkable changes have happened within the span of 10-15 years – a stunningly short span of time when you consider how dependent we’ve come to be on the internet.
One of the biggest challenges businesses have had to face in the 21st century is making the transition online. Even today, major businesses and industries (such as the publishing industry) haven’t found the perfect way to move online. The internet has completely rewritten the rules and made it very easy for upstart organizations to go up against entrenched older players and steal their market share.
Therefore, if your business hasn’t moved online, now is the best time to do so. The internet is still in its infancy and it will only penetrate deeper and develop further as a platform. Even if you start today, you will have a serious advantage over firms who haven’t yet made the transition.
One of the first things you will need to move online is a reliable web host. Web hosting is a much misunderstood subject. Once you start reading about it, you will be overwhelmed with the number of options at your disposal. Web hosting companies are a dime a dozen, and at first glance, all seem to offer the same features at usually the same price. However, once you dig deeper, you will realize that a lot of them are basically hosting resellers – the equivalent of a mom and pop store selling a big retailer’s personally branded products. To get the best possible deals, therefore, you should go to the very source – the big hosting companies themselves.
Hosting can be divided into two broad categories – dedicated, and shared. With dedicated hosting, you get a dedicated server which is used by just your site(s). In a shared hosting plan, as you may have figured out, you share the server with a number of other members.
Dedicated hosting is ideal for sites with a lot of traffic or sites that may experience spikes of traffic in the near future. If you are starting out online, you will hardly fall in this category. This kind of hosting is quite expensive, usually starting at $50+ per month. You should stay off dedicated hosting until your site becomes large enough to warrant a dedicated server.
Shared hosting is ideal for new businesses. Most of the big companies such as HostGator, DreamHost, JustHost, etc. offer plans starting as low as $4.95/month. Ideally, you should get a plan that allows you to host unlimited domains. This way, you can expand whenever you want to without any restrictions. Most such plans start at $8-10 per month – a very low price for something that will reap many benefits.
The most important thing to consider with a host is its customer service. Most of the big hosting companies offer roughly the same services at the same price, so you could pick any one that you like. The only differentiating factor is the customer service. Companies such as JustHost, DreamHost, HostGator are renowned for their service and are a great bet for anyone starting out with his website.
You can find more of my writing at my latest blog about iPod Accessories at the link below:
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Newcomb
How to Find the Best Cheap Web Hosting
Looking for the best cheap web hosting for your website?
When we talk about best and cheap, we mean the most reliable and affordable. And to find the most reliable hosting is not easy, however the affordable ones are very easy to find.
Therefore, many of those who are looking for the best cheap web hosting, jump into the most affordable hosting that are not reliable.
So is there a way to get both reliable and cheap hosting?
The answer is yes. This is simply from experience.
However before we go on to that, let’s talk about what kind of website are you intending to build?
1) Blog
2) Ecommerce
3) Service
4) Membership site
…and more
Different type of websites has different needs. For example, if you are running a site that store downloadable products like MP3, video or Image hosting, then you will need a bigger web space and bandwidth. Web space is the amount of space you can store whereas bandwidth is the measurement of how much bytes of data can be transfer to visitors. Of course, the price will be slightly higher than other type of hosting but reliable and cheap.
However if you are running a blog or content site, and sell ad space to earn revenue, then you will not need a lot of space. From experience, blog entries hardly reached 1GB in term of space. So you do not need a lot of space.
If you are offering services like video submission or any site that requires automatic process, then you will need a very reliable hosting that has enough server memory to support the service you are providing.
Therefore, you will need to identify your type of website. The definition of best cheap hosting is simply the most reliable and affordable hosting.
So after you identify your website type, visit Choose Right Hosting to see which web hosting company suits your website needs.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_K_James
You Should Be Looking For a Good Reliable Hosting Company
You will want to pick a good reliable hosting company, because this can make the difference between making or breaking your business. There is nothing worse than having potential customers come and visit your site, and finding out that it is down yet again. I have had this happen to me. I found out that they were in the process of moving to different servers. This did not help me. I was never warned that this would be happening, and it took their support desk over 24 hours to inform me that this is what happened. Needless to say, I went out looking for another host. We cannot afford for this to happen. We should have been warned about the move and the support desk should have responded to me much more quickly.
I would suggest that you start out with the smallest plan available, and see how your websites fare. Are they up for over 98% of the time. This is a bench mark for good hosting. With the hosting servers being more reliable, I would increase the up time to 99%+.
Many hosting companies allow you to terminate your contract without any penalties, make sure that this is the case with the company that you are considering. You do not want to be locked in with a fly by night hosting company.
Make sure that you can upgrade with the company in case you find the company that you like, when you need some more bandwidth or disk space. This is usually not a problem, but who knows. It is a very competitive market out there when it comes to hosting, so you should be able to find a good hosting deal.
Richard McDuff has been selling on the internet for 9 years. He has a web hosting business at Midnight Hosting where his hosting plans start at 4.95 a month for 10 GB of disk space and 150 GB of bandwidth. He also sells websites and domain names, at Mid Night Hosting so check it out and see if you like any of the websites.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_McDuff
What is the Cost of Free Web Hosting?
You need hosting if you want to have your website under own domain. That’s the fact. There are a lot of cheap offers around. Anybody can afford to pay few dollars per month for some decent hosting plan. But why pay if there are also free offers? Some companies offer free hosting and in exchange a small banner will appear on your pages. But you can also get free account with no additions to your page. You only have to be a member of some forum or some other simple task. But is free web hosting really free?
You should ask yourself why do you need hosting. Do you need it because it is cheap or because it provides some useful service? Can you afford to be off-line for one day? Will you need some support if you will have problems with you web page? The answers are pretty simple. You have a website because you would like to show something to the world. Websites are nothing without visitors. But in order to be able to visit a website, some web server has to deliver web pages.
And the web server is a crucial element in any web hosting. The fact is that there is no free lunch. The same applies to hosting. Every company has to pay for servers, computers, internet access and people. Where do they get money if they offer the service for free? Well, there are many ways to make money. The question is in what relation is this free service to other services. Is this a real service with some (limited) support or just a fancy thing to attract customers?
A good hosting means having a reliable web server, some stuff to support clients, fast connection to the internet, established system for periodic backups, and much more. There are very few websites that can afford to be off-line for a longer period. Therefore, you are looking for a reliable hosting with prompt support and affordable prices. Even if free hosting providers offer some support, this can not be compared to a paid service. It is simply not possible to offer the same level of support and response times.
But for some project a free web solution is just fine. If you are new to the online business or would like to set up your first website then choosing free hosting is not such a bad choice. You will be able to make first steps in configuring a domain account and preparing a simple website without spending any money. And once you are ready for the real thing then you will know what to look for and you will easily find a good and cheap web hosting.
The author uses reliable hosting for all websites including his latest project http://hydronicfloorheating.org/ which addresses various aspects of hydronic floor heating.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jan_Pascal
Best Web Hosting – What it is and Where to Find It
Which is the best web host? Before we can answer this questions, we have to take a look at what the term “best web hosting” actually entails. For me, this is both a question of reliability and if the web host offers services with an acceptable price tag. Also important is the quality of the customer support.
Let’s take a look at reliability. This is an issue with many web hosts, no matter if it is small or large. I’ve been with multiple companies over the time, and I have to say all of them except for my current host had noticeable downtimes. If you are running a business, frequent service interruptions, no matter if you notice them yourself or not, are a big problem. Let’s say you are driving paid traffic to your website – any downtime will be a complete waste of money, since your visitors won’t even be able to reach your site.
Slow servers are also very common, I can tell you that! And I have noticed the effects that are associated with slow servers. For one, my rankings dropped on the slow servers and improved when I moved to a reliable host. Second, your bounce rate will be a lot higher on slow servers, since most visitors are not willing to wait even five seconds for your site to load. A slow server response is a guaranteed click on the “Back” button, before your site is even fully loaded and has had a chance to convert a visitor into a customer. Again, if you are driving paid traffic, this can eat up a large part of your budget.
The quality of the customer service is an important factor, too. You may not always use it, but when you need support, you need it fast and efficiently. While some web hosts take their sweet time to answer inquiries, I can’t say how impressed I am with my current host for responding and executing the requested tasks within a matter of maybe 10 minutes after my first email. That’s what I call customer service!
Is all of this available at an affordable price? Absolutely!
In fact I am paying less now for my reliable hosting than I was for my unreliable service. Talk about a humorous twist. Do you want to learn more about my hosting company? Click here to find out what web hosting company I use and read an in-depth report on my website: http://www.MakeAWebsite101.net.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Benjamin_J._Thomas
