Web hosting is an essential component of any web site, without the right web hosting service to back up your website you could end up loosing valuable time and money. Today there are so many web hosting companies online that it has become increasingly difficult to keep up with the latest developments and also figure out how to choose the right web hosting company for your web site. In fact with server storage costs plummeting, the cost of web hosting has come down considerably, and sites like http://www.5shadeshosting.com are actually offering quality web hosting for as little as $6 a month!
When it comes to web hosting, there are few things that you as a webmaster have to keep in mind before you actually choose a web hosting company. The first thing to do is to determine your requirements, how much space do you need? For how long do you need the web hosting? Do you want to enter into a long term agreement or one that is for a limited duration of time? How many email ids do you need? Once you have the answers to all these questions you should then start looking for website hosting services.
The first factor that should influence your decision in choosing a web hosting company is flexibility, most web hosting companies usually have 3 or 5 different plans designed for various users, some offer unlimited space, while others offer limited transfer of data. If you have a regular website that does not have any databases or other similar e-commerce functions then 5GB of web space should be sufficient. Make sure you shop around and find a web hosting company that is offering web space that is close to your requirements.
Another fact to keep in mind is that there are limitations on the amount of data you can upload and download, the minimum amount is close to around 250GB, if you are thinking of frequently making changes to your site, and are not sure how much data you will need, then choose a web hosting plan that offers large amounts of data transfer without charging the earth.
The final fact that will definitely influence your decision in choosing a web hosting server is the kind of operating system you require, sometimes e-commerce sites require dedicated operating systems, for example if your site is using .NET then you will need a windows based server, as Linux does not support .NET hosting. It is therefore essential for you as the webmaster to understand your site’s requirements clearly and then choose a web server that meets all your requirements.
There are other important features that usually influence the decision of choosing a web hosting service, but the essential factors by and large are space, operating system and data transfer, if you have these three factors catered for then the chances are that you have picked the right web hosting company to host your site. Also make sure you shop around before you make your decision, the more you shop around the better the chances of you finding the ideal web hosting company for your needs.
Choosing a Flexible web hosting company
There is no telling what your requirements will be in a month’s time or a year’s time, you might want to switch to another plan, or make changes to your existing plan. Usually most web hosting companies allow flexible web storage, and usually have add-on services like emails, SSL certificates etc. If you are not sure about the way things will go for your site, and might need to make changes rapidly, then using companies that have limited tie in periods allowing web hosting services for shorter durations of time like 2 months or 3 months is a good idea. Not only can you reassess the situation in time but you can also make sure you have the best deal when the time comes to upgrade or downgrade your web hosting plan.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Technique of Web Hosting
The technique that allows computers or servers to host web sites is known as web hosting. The facility of web hosting is provided by various service providers. Web hosting is important as it enables a user to access any site in the world. Also, it allows one to store textual and visual information, apart from other Internet matter on the website mediums.
There are various kinds of web hosting services from which you can choose from. Some companies provide you web hosting services for free, while some charge the user. There are certain drawbacks of using free web hosts. This is because there are certain limitations regarding the services they provide. Moreover, a user is not provided with customer service, and is not provided uptime guarantee. The limitations on bandwidth, advertising and edit sites may hamper the growth plans of a company.
Thus, it is advisable that you pay for the web hosting service. However, a user should take into consideration his needs before selecting a web hosting service provider. Depending on a users data transfer, disk space and other necessities, the service can cost him anything between $10 to $5000 per month according to his usage is extensive. Also, the payment can be done on monthly, annually or semi-annually basis.
In addition to your needs, web hosting reviews must also be taken into account before selecting a web hosting service provider. The reviews or ratings of the service providers are available on the Internet. Various service providers can be compared on the basis of price, traffic and space. One should also take into account the bonus or additional features provided by the web hosting providers. It is advisable that one should read the blogs regarding the web hosting service providers. They help you get a realistic feedback and thereby help you in selecting the best web hosting service provider.
Some of the other points that must be considered while choosing a top web hosting service are,
1. Bandwidth
2. Server Space
3. Control Panel
4. Support
5. Script access
The bandwidth capacity should be more than of 500 MB. However, it does not make sense to pay for capacity which you will not use. For people who run small businesses, bandwidth of one gigabyte is enough. The same holds true for server space. For personal use, 50 megabyte capacity is sufficient. Select the web hosting service provider that offers a user 24/7 customer service. This is because, in case of a problem, the customer centers will solve your problem. One can also visit their site and read the FAQ’s, since they add to the knowledge of a person.
The control panel provided by the service providers should be a simple version as will be easy to use. Make sure that the web hosting service providers facilitate you with script access. It may not be required at that moment but, may be useful for future purposes.
Since the best web hosting service adds efficiency and success to the business, due consideration must be given in selecting a service provider.
There are various kinds of web hosting services from which you can choose from. Some companies provide you web hosting services for free, while some charge the user. There are certain drawbacks of using free web hosts. This is because there are certain limitations regarding the services they provide. Moreover, a user is not provided with customer service, and is not provided uptime guarantee. The limitations on bandwidth, advertising and edit sites may hamper the growth plans of a company.
Thus, it is advisable that you pay for the web hosting service. However, a user should take into consideration his needs before selecting a web hosting service provider. Depending on a users data transfer, disk space and other necessities, the service can cost him anything between $10 to $5000 per month according to his usage is extensive. Also, the payment can be done on monthly, annually or semi-annually basis.
In addition to your needs, web hosting reviews must also be taken into account before selecting a web hosting service provider. The reviews or ratings of the service providers are available on the Internet. Various service providers can be compared on the basis of price, traffic and space. One should also take into account the bonus or additional features provided by the web hosting providers. It is advisable that one should read the blogs regarding the web hosting service providers. They help you get a realistic feedback and thereby help you in selecting the best web hosting service provider.
Some of the other points that must be considered while choosing a top web hosting service are,
1. Bandwidth
2. Server Space
3. Control Panel
4. Support
5. Script access
The bandwidth capacity should be more than of 500 MB. However, it does not make sense to pay for capacity which you will not use. For people who run small businesses, bandwidth of one gigabyte is enough. The same holds true for server space. For personal use, 50 megabyte capacity is sufficient. Select the web hosting service provider that offers a user 24/7 customer service. This is because, in case of a problem, the customer centers will solve your problem. One can also visit their site and read the FAQ’s, since they add to the knowledge of a person.
The control panel provided by the service providers should be a simple version as will be easy to use. Make sure that the web hosting service providers facilitate you with script access. It may not be required at that moment but, may be useful for future purposes.
Since the best web hosting service adds efficiency and success to the business, due consideration must be given in selecting a service provider.
Starting a Web Hosting Company
It seems many people today want to start a web hosting company. Just by typing in “web hosting” into a search engine such as Google, one can see that there are many people trying to break into this market. The concept of starting a web hosting company seems very simple – start with a generic template, get a reseller account, configure some things, and start making money. But things can become much more complicated than that very quickly. There are definitely some things to keep in mind before starting a new web hosting company.
The first thing that needs to be done is to get the website going. This includes getting a template, creating pages that describe the company, its plans, and its services. When that is done, a program such as WHM Autopilot needs to be configured. This is so that when someone orders the web hosting, the order will automatically be received. Not only do these things need to be done but they need to be aesthetically pleasing as well.
Then comes the more difficult part of starting a web hosting company – the selling. As mentioned earlier, this is a very competitive market. The company needs to find people who need the service and will check out the website. On top of that, they need to find the price reasonable. A marketing plan must be developed before taking this step as there are usually cheaper, more reputable companies trying to get those same customers.
Once the company has their website and has customers, customer support becomes a big issue. The first thing to keep in mind is that customers are going to want technical support available twenty-four hours a day. If the company can’t provide this, they’re more likely to look somewhere else. Also customers will usually be paying around ten dollars a month for the hosting service. This is not very much. Because of this, when customers need to be consulted or they have a problem that needs fixing, the rate of pay for the company can drop very quickly. Larger hosts usually hire technicians to deal with these sorts of issues but that may not be a possibility until the hosting company becomes a little more established.
When running larger websites, the hosting company will usually need to offer dedicated hosting services. This is due to the fact that shared hosting only provides for a certain amount of storage space and bandwidth and this is not often enough for the larger sites. The speeds are also much faster with dedicated services than they are with shared. However, there are challenges that come with dedicated servers. They require time, maintenance, and the cost is much more than that of a shared server. The lowest a dedicated server will cost is usually around one hundred dollars but quality servers will usually cost hundreds of dollars each month to own.
For companies that aren’t going to offer plans that have major requirements, a shared server will do just fine. If a company does want to offer those plans, the advantages and disadvantages of owning a dedicated server must be looked at in great detail to know if it is the right decision.
Starting a web hosting company is definitely possible. However before one takes the plunge, it’s important to look at all aspects of it. It’s also important to make sure that there is plenty of time available to run the business and to deal with customers
The first thing that needs to be done is to get the website going. This includes getting a template, creating pages that describe the company, its plans, and its services. When that is done, a program such as WHM Autopilot needs to be configured. This is so that when someone orders the web hosting, the order will automatically be received. Not only do these things need to be done but they need to be aesthetically pleasing as well.
Then comes the more difficult part of starting a web hosting company – the selling. As mentioned earlier, this is a very competitive market. The company needs to find people who need the service and will check out the website. On top of that, they need to find the price reasonable. A marketing plan must be developed before taking this step as there are usually cheaper, more reputable companies trying to get those same customers.
Once the company has their website and has customers, customer support becomes a big issue. The first thing to keep in mind is that customers are going to want technical support available twenty-four hours a day. If the company can’t provide this, they’re more likely to look somewhere else. Also customers will usually be paying around ten dollars a month for the hosting service. This is not very much. Because of this, when customers need to be consulted or they have a problem that needs fixing, the rate of pay for the company can drop very quickly. Larger hosts usually hire technicians to deal with these sorts of issues but that may not be a possibility until the hosting company becomes a little more established.
When running larger websites, the hosting company will usually need to offer dedicated hosting services. This is due to the fact that shared hosting only provides for a certain amount of storage space and bandwidth and this is not often enough for the larger sites. The speeds are also much faster with dedicated services than they are with shared. However, there are challenges that come with dedicated servers. They require time, maintenance, and the cost is much more than that of a shared server. The lowest a dedicated server will cost is usually around one hundred dollars but quality servers will usually cost hundreds of dollars each month to own.
For companies that aren’t going to offer plans that have major requirements, a shared server will do just fine. If a company does want to offer those plans, the advantages and disadvantages of owning a dedicated server must be looked at in great detail to know if it is the right decision.
Starting a web hosting company is definitely possible. However before one takes the plunge, it’s important to look at all aspects of it. It’s also important to make sure that there is plenty of time available to run the business and to deal with customers
Web Hosting and E-Commerce
There are a host of opportunities available to anyone interested in having an online business and the first thing they should do is to consider web hosting and e-commerce for their websites. If you are not sure what e-commerce really means, well it is nothing but the act of making sales as well as purchases of goods through the medium of the internet. Thus, if this is what you need to do then you need to check out e-commerce web hosting which will be sure to throw up many different plans that will provide you with good support as far as your online business needs are concerned.
After you have built up your website you will need to make it run so that it brings in increased profits for you and the basic thing you will need is to organize yourself for e-commerce web hosting. This is especially important because the world of the Internet is increasingly becoming faster paced and there are all types of companies engaged in selling and buying online including small as well as large companies. Also, these companies need a lot of flexibility in their operations, and need to be secure and also appreciate great performance as well as reliability from their website and this is a very good reason why the need for e-commerce web hosting has greatly increased in recent times.
Using ecommerce web hosting, you can get the very latest in technology and make it suit the style of your company and it is also helpful in providing solutions for the website as far as its functioning and scale are concerned. The benefits to using ecommerce web hosting are felt by both the buyer and also the seller when they conduct business online and you can find many suitable e-commerce web hosting services. In fact, such services are of great interest to a wide range of people including web developers and most certainly to those who are engaged in business and who need to hone in the latest in commerce that is conducted electronically and this is most noticeable in the fields of finance and also retail selling.
What’s more, most of the websites hosting packages that are available today are pretty affordable and they also come with their fair share of web tools that help considerably in getting the most out of your website. And, with E-Commerce web hosting the online business will certainly flourish much more and you can use it for having wide-ranging catalogues that are stored online and which include all the goods and products that you are interested in selling and which can be searched or are just used for processing credit card sales and purchases that occur in real-time. That is where ecommerce web hosting will prove its worth to online business community. Ecommerce web hosting is thus considered as one of the top web hosting methods and with this new method of web hosting you can grow your online business and prosper and achieve all that you want to as far as online business transactions are concerned.
After you have built up your website you will need to make it run so that it brings in increased profits for you and the basic thing you will need is to organize yourself for e-commerce web hosting. This is especially important because the world of the Internet is increasingly becoming faster paced and there are all types of companies engaged in selling and buying online including small as well as large companies. Also, these companies need a lot of flexibility in their operations, and need to be secure and also appreciate great performance as well as reliability from their website and this is a very good reason why the need for e-commerce web hosting has greatly increased in recent times.
Using ecommerce web hosting, you can get the very latest in technology and make it suit the style of your company and it is also helpful in providing solutions for the website as far as its functioning and scale are concerned. The benefits to using ecommerce web hosting are felt by both the buyer and also the seller when they conduct business online and you can find many suitable e-commerce web hosting services. In fact, such services are of great interest to a wide range of people including web developers and most certainly to those who are engaged in business and who need to hone in the latest in commerce that is conducted electronically and this is most noticeable in the fields of finance and also retail selling.
What’s more, most of the websites hosting packages that are available today are pretty affordable and they also come with their fair share of web tools that help considerably in getting the most out of your website. And, with E-Commerce web hosting the online business will certainly flourish much more and you can use it for having wide-ranging catalogues that are stored online and which include all the goods and products that you are interested in selling and which can be searched or are just used for processing credit card sales and purchases that occur in real-time. That is where ecommerce web hosting will prove its worth to online business community. Ecommerce web hosting is thus considered as one of the top web hosting methods and with this new method of web hosting you can grow your online business and prosper and achieve all that you want to as far as online business transactions are concerned.
Technique of Web Hosting
The technique that allows computers or servers to host web sites is known as web hosting. The facility of web hosting is provided by various service providers. Web hosting is important as it enables a user to access any site in the world. Also, it allows one to store textual and visual information, apart from other Internet matter on the website mediums.
There are various kinds of web hosting services from which you can choose from. Some companies provide you web hosting services for free, while some charge the user. There are certain drawbacks of using free web hosts. This is because there are certain limitations regarding the services they provide. Moreover, a user is not provided with customer service, and is not provided uptime guarantee. The limitations on bandwidth, advertising and edit sites may hamper the growth plans of a company.
Thus, it is advisable that you pay for the web hosting service. However, a user should take into consideration his needs before selecting a web hosting service provider. Depending on a users data transfer, disk space and other necessities, the service can cost him anything between $10 to $5000 per month according to his usage is extensive. Also, the payment can be done on monthly, annually or semi-annually basis.
In addition to your needs, web hosting reviews must also be taken into account before selecting a web hosting service provider. The reviews or ratings of the service providers are available on the Internet. Various service providers can be compared on the basis of price, traffic and space. One should also take into account the bonus or additional features provided by the web hosting providers. It is advisable that one should read the blogs regarding the web hosting service providers. They help you get a realistic feedback and thereby help you in selecting the best web hosting service provider.
Some of the other points that must be considered while choosing a top web hosting service are,
1. Bandwidth
2. Server Space
3. Control Panel
4. Support
5. Script access
The bandwidth capacity should be more than of 500 MB. However, it does not make sense to pay for capacity which you will not use. For people who run small businesses, bandwidth of one gigabyte is enough. The same holds true for server space. For personal use, 50 megabyte capacity is sufficient. Select the web hosting service provider that offers a user 24/7 customer service. This is because, in case of a problem, the customer centers will solve your problem. One can also visit their site and read the FAQ’s, since they add to the knowledge of a person.
The control panel provided by the service providers should be a simple version as will be easy to use. Make sure that the web hosting service providers facilitate you with script access. It may not be required at that moment but, may be useful for future purposes.
Since the best web hosting service adds efficiency and success to the business, due consideration must be given in selecting a service provider.
Article Source: http://onlinearticles4you.com
There are various kinds of web hosting services from which you can choose from. Some companies provide you web hosting services for free, while some charge the user. There are certain drawbacks of using free web hosts. This is because there are certain limitations regarding the services they provide. Moreover, a user is not provided with customer service, and is not provided uptime guarantee. The limitations on bandwidth, advertising and edit sites may hamper the growth plans of a company.
Thus, it is advisable that you pay for the web hosting service. However, a user should take into consideration his needs before selecting a web hosting service provider. Depending on a users data transfer, disk space and other necessities, the service can cost him anything between $10 to $5000 per month according to his usage is extensive. Also, the payment can be done on monthly, annually or semi-annually basis.
In addition to your needs, web hosting reviews must also be taken into account before selecting a web hosting service provider. The reviews or ratings of the service providers are available on the Internet. Various service providers can be compared on the basis of price, traffic and space. One should also take into account the bonus or additional features provided by the web hosting providers. It is advisable that one should read the blogs regarding the web hosting service providers. They help you get a realistic feedback and thereby help you in selecting the best web hosting service provider.
Some of the other points that must be considered while choosing a top web hosting service are,
1. Bandwidth
2. Server Space
3. Control Panel
4. Support
5. Script access
The bandwidth capacity should be more than of 500 MB. However, it does not make sense to pay for capacity which you will not use. For people who run small businesses, bandwidth of one gigabyte is enough. The same holds true for server space. For personal use, 50 megabyte capacity is sufficient. Select the web hosting service provider that offers a user 24/7 customer service. This is because, in case of a problem, the customer centers will solve your problem. One can also visit their site and read the FAQ’s, since they add to the knowledge of a person.
The control panel provided by the service providers should be a simple version as will be easy to use. Make sure that the web hosting service providers facilitate you with script access. It may not be required at that moment but, may be useful for future purposes.
Since the best web hosting service adds efficiency and success to the business, due consideration must be given in selecting a service provider.
Article Source: http://onlinearticles4you.com
All About Professional Business Web Site Hosting
Latest in the information and communications technology is professional web site hosting. It is stirring big waves in this dot.com age because aside from the good turn-out of investments, internet has become now a necessity among people. Thus, web site hosting is not only an income generating business, it is also a sort of rendering service to what is being needed now by many.
The same with other businesses, professional business web site hosting also entails struggles in maintaining it and selling it to the target market. It is not just mere web hosting, it is totally professionalizing it to meet the demands of the high-end market. And to appear and market the dependability of the hosting company is not as easy as it looks.
Here are some tips that should be considered before jumping into the business of web site hosting (and to look it more professional and credible):
- Decide on the type of web hosting service you will sell to the market.
a. Shared hosting
In shared hosting, many customers (or web site owners) are sharing the space of one particular server. A physical web server can accommodate many different web sites at one time, depending on the capacity of the web site provider. This kind of hosting is not that applicable among those business type web sites which require a high-speed server response. And since many web sites are sharing one the same web server, it is most likely that shared hosting plans are cheaper than those plans that go for web server exclusivity.
b. Dedicated hosting
With dedicated hosting a specific web server caters to only one user. The server is solely owned by the user. Out of other types of hosting solutions, the dedicated server hosting commands a higher payment. It might be the most expensive, however, it is the most stable hosting service because only a single customer is under a web server - no one is sharing underneath.
c. Virtual private server hosting
This kind of web hosting is somewhat like a prelude of dedicated hosting. The user has still the most control in the web server even though there are a few others who are sharing with the server. The user still has the full control, such as installing anything in the site or uploading any video or audio files. Virtual private server is an ideal start for those who have just begun in professional business web site hosting.
d. Co-location hosting
Co-location is about the client buying only the space within the web hosting provider's secure data center. The client will be the one to own the web server hardware. In this set-up, the customer has the full control on the web server at the same time enjoying the 24-hour support system provided by the secure data center.
e. Reseller hosting
Reseller hosting is ideal for business to business. In here, the web host offers web server space to another individual or user at a lower price. This third party, on the other hand, resells the web server storage to their customers.
- Know your target market. Identify their needs and expectations of their web host provider. In doing so, it will not be that difficult to conceptualize marketing strategies as well as features that can further entice the customers.
- Always stand on what were promised. Never lie to your clients about the kind of services your web hosting company is capable of giving. Do not give false claims. This will not just make the web host look unprofessional, it also give a bad impression about the company which can linger in the long run.
The same with other businesses, professional business web site hosting also entails struggles in maintaining it and selling it to the target market. It is not just mere web hosting, it is totally professionalizing it to meet the demands of the high-end market. And to appear and market the dependability of the hosting company is not as easy as it looks.
Here are some tips that should be considered before jumping into the business of web site hosting (and to look it more professional and credible):
- Decide on the type of web hosting service you will sell to the market.
a. Shared hosting
In shared hosting, many customers (or web site owners) are sharing the space of one particular server. A physical web server can accommodate many different web sites at one time, depending on the capacity of the web site provider. This kind of hosting is not that applicable among those business type web sites which require a high-speed server response. And since many web sites are sharing one the same web server, it is most likely that shared hosting plans are cheaper than those plans that go for web server exclusivity.
b. Dedicated hosting
With dedicated hosting a specific web server caters to only one user. The server is solely owned by the user. Out of other types of hosting solutions, the dedicated server hosting commands a higher payment. It might be the most expensive, however, it is the most stable hosting service because only a single customer is under a web server - no one is sharing underneath.
c. Virtual private server hosting
This kind of web hosting is somewhat like a prelude of dedicated hosting. The user has still the most control in the web server even though there are a few others who are sharing with the server. The user still has the full control, such as installing anything in the site or uploading any video or audio files. Virtual private server is an ideal start for those who have just begun in professional business web site hosting.
d. Co-location hosting
Co-location is about the client buying only the space within the web hosting provider's secure data center. The client will be the one to own the web server hardware. In this set-up, the customer has the full control on the web server at the same time enjoying the 24-hour support system provided by the secure data center.
e. Reseller hosting
Reseller hosting is ideal for business to business. In here, the web host offers web server space to another individual or user at a lower price. This third party, on the other hand, resells the web server storage to their customers.
- Know your target market. Identify their needs and expectations of their web host provider. In doing so, it will not be that difficult to conceptualize marketing strategies as well as features that can further entice the customers.
- Always stand on what were promised. Never lie to your clients about the kind of services your web hosting company is capable of giving. Do not give false claims. This will not just make the web host look unprofessional, it also give a bad impression about the company which can linger in the long run.
Creating a Web Hosting Business Plan
Creating a Web Hosting Business Plan
Like any other business, a web hosting business also requires careful planning and design as guide for the entire operation. A good web hosting business plan contains these essential elements: the objectives of the web host, its target market, the methodology of how the web hosting business will operate, and the company's profile and financial scheme.
The Objectives
Objectives are very important in directing the activities of the business towards a common goal. Laying down the objectives will guide the web host in the conceptualization of marketing strategies in order for it to sell its services to the market. Also, determining the web host's objectives or purpose enables the web host to delimit its company from exploring tactics that are unnecessary and off-tangent from the kind of services it promotes.
A good objective is also one way of advertising your company to clients. It gives the clients the complacency that the web host, indeed, knows how to go about its web hosting business (with relativity to its objectives).
Web Host Target Market
It is important that the target market of the web host should be made known and should be included in its web hosting business plan. Most companies invested efforts, money and time just to conduct surveys on the latest demands of its target market. This is called the consumer analysis. The results of these surveys will serve as the basis for the planning of the entire concept of the web hosting business. Also, knowing the profile of the target market will make the conceptualization of marketing strategies easier.
Methodology
Most of the planning takes place here. What can be found mostly in methodology are the tactical and strategic plans to promote the products and services being sold by the web host. It should also be taken into consideration that web hosting business plan varies, depending on the type of website that the client wants to project.
It is also in methodology where clients will know how the web host would execute the important factors needed in rendering its web hosting services. These factors include the capacity of disk storage, data transfer speed, domains, database functionality, FTP accounts, and security and reliability features. Advertising and promotion also fall under methodology. Most of the time, web host companies give free services to its clients for a few days trial. This is one strategy in attracting more clients.
Company Profile and Financial Scheme
Web host's company profile is also one important basis for choosing for a client. It is best to include the web host company profile (not failing to mention the office location) and the people (with their respective relevant experiences) who are manning it in the business plan.
In making a web hosting business plan, it is also necessary to point out how the flow of finances will go about. Professional financial projections are important items that require a lot of planning to avoid short-backs of finances and logistics in the long run.
Like any other business, a web hosting business also requires careful planning and design as guide for the entire operation. A good web hosting business plan contains these essential elements: the objectives of the web host, its target market, the methodology of how the web hosting business will operate, and the company's profile and financial scheme.
The Objectives
Objectives are very important in directing the activities of the business towards a common goal. Laying down the objectives will guide the web host in the conceptualization of marketing strategies in order for it to sell its services to the market. Also, determining the web host's objectives or purpose enables the web host to delimit its company from exploring tactics that are unnecessary and off-tangent from the kind of services it promotes.
A good objective is also one way of advertising your company to clients. It gives the clients the complacency that the web host, indeed, knows how to go about its web hosting business (with relativity to its objectives).
Web Host Target Market
It is important that the target market of the web host should be made known and should be included in its web hosting business plan. Most companies invested efforts, money and time just to conduct surveys on the latest demands of its target market. This is called the consumer analysis. The results of these surveys will serve as the basis for the planning of the entire concept of the web hosting business. Also, knowing the profile of the target market will make the conceptualization of marketing strategies easier.
Methodology
Most of the planning takes place here. What can be found mostly in methodology are the tactical and strategic plans to promote the products and services being sold by the web host. It should also be taken into consideration that web hosting business plan varies, depending on the type of website that the client wants to project.
It is also in methodology where clients will know how the web host would execute the important factors needed in rendering its web hosting services. These factors include the capacity of disk storage, data transfer speed, domains, database functionality, FTP accounts, and security and reliability features. Advertising and promotion also fall under methodology. Most of the time, web host companies give free services to its clients for a few days trial. This is one strategy in attracting more clients.
Company Profile and Financial Scheme
Web host's company profile is also one important basis for choosing for a client. It is best to include the web host company profile (not failing to mention the office location) and the people (with their respective relevant experiences) who are manning it in the business plan.
In making a web hosting business plan, it is also necessary to point out how the flow of finances will go about. Professional financial projections are important items that require a lot of planning to avoid short-backs of finances and logistics in the long run.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Definitions Of The Differences Between Unix And Windows Web Hosting?
There isn't a great many differences between Unix and Windows web hosting as many site designers already know. However this is a decision you are faced with when you have completed your design and you are ready to publish. You may have noticed there a many Unix options as there are Linux, but not so many for Windows based web server hosting.
Because we use Microsoft Windows at work, in the home and even in schools, most people have become familiar with it, the same applies to Windows Home and advanced Server editions. It is an incredibly easy system to use and this is the reason for its mass popularity. This is the goal was intended when it was designed, and Windows has certainly achieved this goal big time!
With Windows web hosting there is no need for the programmer to have command-line. Just as with all other Microsoft programs, a simple point the mouse and click will suffice for accessing folders!
Both Linux and Unix are open source operating systems, which means source codes are free, well documented and easily distributed. Unix is the older of the two and is unable to run with x86 PC's and this the only real difference. Linux is obviously more modern and is able to function with high powered servers.
Linux is a proven workhorse and is available in different flavors too. For example Mandrake Linux and Red Hat Linux are able to manage websites in the hundreds and millions of daily hits. Unix versions such as OpenBSD and FreeBSD are also available.
When working with web servers, office and home PC's are fine, they are easy to use and website design is generally completed mostly offline. System-specific programming that has to be undertaking whilst online is very advanced, and in this instance a difference between Windows and Unix based servers can be quite noticeable.
Both systems handle statistics, add-ons, chat and email, and can cope with websites that receive heavy traffic, the only very noticeable difference is in compatibility and the price.
Windows server has to have licenses renewed and this means it is constantly purchase so it makes offering web hosting plans more expensive as a rule. Unix or Linux plans offer more added value to the customer, such as free email, MySQL databases, statistics and community. In the case of Windows based servers all of these add-ns generally have to be purchase separately.
They are both able to run with all the popular computing languages, and Windows tend to be more secure if it is hosting active pages. Active pages can run with Unix and there are some glitches but these are barely noticeable.
If you are making use of Microsoft programming, in particular third party applications such as MS SQL 2000, or active server pages, you may want to play it safe and select a Windows based hosting plan. But before you sign up for any plan, ask all the relevant questions before you make a commitment. If you are still unsure, the technical or sales staff will help you to ensure that every facet of your web site's design will work with the plan they are selling you.
Because we use Microsoft Windows at work, in the home and even in schools, most people have become familiar with it, the same applies to Windows Home and advanced Server editions. It is an incredibly easy system to use and this is the reason for its mass popularity. This is the goal was intended when it was designed, and Windows has certainly achieved this goal big time!
With Windows web hosting there is no need for the programmer to have command-line. Just as with all other Microsoft programs, a simple point the mouse and click will suffice for accessing folders!
Both Linux and Unix are open source operating systems, which means source codes are free, well documented and easily distributed. Unix is the older of the two and is unable to run with x86 PC's and this the only real difference. Linux is obviously more modern and is able to function with high powered servers.
Linux is a proven workhorse and is available in different flavors too. For example Mandrake Linux and Red Hat Linux are able to manage websites in the hundreds and millions of daily hits. Unix versions such as OpenBSD and FreeBSD are also available.
When working with web servers, office and home PC's are fine, they are easy to use and website design is generally completed mostly offline. System-specific programming that has to be undertaking whilst online is very advanced, and in this instance a difference between Windows and Unix based servers can be quite noticeable.
Both systems handle statistics, add-ons, chat and email, and can cope with websites that receive heavy traffic, the only very noticeable difference is in compatibility and the price.
Windows server has to have licenses renewed and this means it is constantly purchase so it makes offering web hosting plans more expensive as a rule. Unix or Linux plans offer more added value to the customer, such as free email, MySQL databases, statistics and community. In the case of Windows based servers all of these add-ns generally have to be purchase separately.
They are both able to run with all the popular computing languages, and Windows tend to be more secure if it is hosting active pages. Active pages can run with Unix and there are some glitches but these are barely noticeable.
If you are making use of Microsoft programming, in particular third party applications such as MS SQL 2000, or active server pages, you may want to play it safe and select a Windows based hosting plan. But before you sign up for any plan, ask all the relevant questions before you make a commitment. If you are still unsure, the technical or sales staff will help you to ensure that every facet of your web site's design will work with the plan they are selling you.
Why Should You Consider Unlimited Web Site Hosting
There are lot of reasons that you might need web space of your own. Many people decide that they want to have web space of their own because they have a business to run and want to be accessible online. They also might want to have web space because they are trying to put together a family web site where they can share photographs and news with the world.
Unlimited Space
When you have unlimited web hosting, you are going to be able to find that you have as much space as you ever need. There are several places where you can buy unlimited web hosting, and these places are going to allow you to be able to store whatever you want to store online without having to worry about when you are going to be running out of space. If you have unlimited web hosting, there are going to be many benefits that you have not even thought of.
Benefits
First of all, with unlimited web hosting, you are going to be able to store everything you want to store online. That means that you can have your photographs and any information that you want to have on your web site. If you have a business, you can have every file that you would ever need for your business. unlimited web hosting is going to allow you to have as much space as you'd ever want.
There are other benefits to having unlimited web hosting as well. First of all, technology is always changing. When websites were first introduced, pictures weren't very common, and videos and music were still to come. Now, most web sites have pictures, and videos and music are found almost everywhere on the web. Because we have no way of knowing what kind of technology is coming, having unlimited web hosting will allow you to have enough space to incorporate anything that you'd like to add in the future, without having to buy more space.
This unlimited web hosting is a good idea for anyone who is considering having a web page, because it is going to allow you to do many things that you thought you weren't going to be able to do, such as put on pictures and videos. It is also going to mean that you are never going to have to be behind the times because you aren't able to compete with newer websites. You'll always be able to put anything you'd like online.
Unlimited Space
When you have unlimited web hosting, you are going to be able to find that you have as much space as you ever need. There are several places where you can buy unlimited web hosting, and these places are going to allow you to be able to store whatever you want to store online without having to worry about when you are going to be running out of space. If you have unlimited web hosting, there are going to be many benefits that you have not even thought of.
Benefits
First of all, with unlimited web hosting, you are going to be able to store everything you want to store online. That means that you can have your photographs and any information that you want to have on your web site. If you have a business, you can have every file that you would ever need for your business. unlimited web hosting is going to allow you to have as much space as you'd ever want.
There are other benefits to having unlimited web hosting as well. First of all, technology is always changing. When websites were first introduced, pictures weren't very common, and videos and music were still to come. Now, most web sites have pictures, and videos and music are found almost everywhere on the web. Because we have no way of knowing what kind of technology is coming, having unlimited web hosting will allow you to have enough space to incorporate anything that you'd like to add in the future, without having to buy more space.
This unlimited web hosting is a good idea for anyone who is considering having a web page, because it is going to allow you to do many things that you thought you weren't going to be able to do, such as put on pictures and videos. It is also going to mean that you are never going to have to be behind the times because you aren't able to compete with newer websites. You'll always be able to put anything you'd like online.
Optimal Website Design
Optimal Website Design
Optimal website design is the art of logical navigation.It will offer consistency while providing useful, quality information that is attractive to the eye and easy to understand. A well designed site will lead your viewers to the starting point and direct them through your site without confusing them.
While there are many ways to design a website there are a few basic design principles that will help you create a site that is user friendly and attractive.
1. Use lots of white space.
Don't feel that because you have a whole screen you need to fill it up with 'stuff'. Your page should follow a clean outline. Include your site name at the very top. Below that, list the subject of your page followed by information on your topic. Leave adequate space between each section.
Don't cram a lot of pictures and ads on your site. If you have an ad, keep it off to the side or subtly intersperse it between your text. The idea is not to overwhelm your reader with a lot of advertisements.
It's best to keep your text on a white background. If you do choose a colored background be careful that your text doesn't blend into the background making it difficult to read.
2. Don't use animation and flashing objects.
As advertisers we feel the need to get our viewers attention. This is important but we need to do it gracefully. Flashing objects and scrolling images distract your visitors and take away from the content. If your product is better demonstrated with animation, music or some other multi-media, allow your viewer to select the option. Don't force it on them.
3. Include an 'about' link.
Allow your viewers to find out about who you are and what you are about. Include a biography and some background on why you are in the business you're in or why you created your website. By helping them to get to know you, they will find it easier to develop a trust. If they can like you and trust you, they will feel a lot better about doing business with you.
Always include your business address, phone number and email address. This also lets viewers know that you welcome contact and are serious about your business.
4. Include a 'Privacy' Link
Reassure your visitors that you follow privacy guidelines by including a 'Privacy' page. This is particularly important if you are collecting names and email addresses. Visitors want to know that you will not sell or give away their information.
In these days of rampant spam, your privacy policy needs to be prominently displayed. Many viewers and business partners won't do business with you unless you have it.
5. Always keep your links in blue.
Internet surfers have long been accustomed to seeing links in blue. It's simply an expectation that viewers have. There's certainly no law that says your links must be blue, but people prefer consistency, therefore it's good practice to keep your links consistent and recognizable. If they're not, you may lose out on clicks.
6. Keep navigation consistent
The navigation scheme you create on your index page should be done the same way throughout your site. Don't force your viewers to relearn each page of your site. Keep your navigation bars, colors and fonts consistent for each page.
7. Use Understandable buttons and links.
Title your links appropriately. Don't use cute or misleading names. For example, if you have a link to 'cameras' don't label the link 'hotshots', label it 'Cameras'. Your viewers don't want to waste time figuring out what things are. Be clear with your text or you could risk losing your visitor.
8. Focus on the 'YOU', not the 'ME'.
Make it obviously clear to your readers that you are in business for them. Encourage feedback, provide useful information and keep advertisements to a minimum. Your objective should be focused on what you can do for your reader? Convince them that your main interest is how you can deliver what it is they're looking for?
9. Make sure your page loads fast.
If viewers have to wait for a page to load they will click elsewhere. If a page doesn't load in 8 seconds you could lose 1/3 of your visitors. Here's a great free tool to help you check your website's load time:
http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.loading-time-checker.htm
10. Use a site map.
A site map will give visitors a "guide" on viewing your site, especially with larger sites. it's a road map for your visitors to follow. Sitemaps are also popular with search engines and are often recommended to help ensure indexing.
Effective Webdesign
Effective Webdesign
Before starting on how to design a website effectively, how about clearing some basic web design concepts? Designing Effectively
Now that you know what web design and related terms mean, lets get down to the real thing: Designing Effectively How to balance artistic design with practicality and functionality.
Use of graphics and content
Unless your website is all about graphics, how to make them, edit them or just a bunch of links to graphics websites, I suggest you use graphics sparingly, especially the flashing, twirling kind. They not only detract readers from the content, but they also take ages to load. You do not want your readers to leave your website because your graphically attractive page does not seem to load fast enough. Then again, too much text is boring. So mix and match the graphics and text on your page, having enough white space so that the page is not plain annoying.
Layout and design
While designing, keep in mind that poor layout and design will make your pages unreadable and difficult to keep your visitors on your website for long. Some of the things that make a poor design and layout:
Some of the things that make a webpage stand out from the crowd:
Planning
Most of the time, all it takes to design your website effectively is a little planning. When designing a website, it needs to be clean, uncluttered, attractive and easy for users to read and find what they need. Begin with a webdesign plan:
Follow the above steps to get a website that speaks for itself and your business. You can always contact me for suggestions and webdesign projects.
What Hosting Companies Dont Tell You, Could Hurt You?
What Hosting Companies Dont Tell You, Could Hurt You?
Did you know that hosting companies overcrowd their servers despite all the issues caused by servers running hundreds of accounts? Are you aware of what happens if your website is hosted on a server that's overcrowded? You're probably thinking to yourself, "what do you mean overcrowd their servers?" Overcrowded servers mean big money for your hosting company, but also big problems for your website.Hosting companies are willing to sacrifice the success of your website in order to build their own profit. The more accounts hosted on a server, the more revenue they can generate. Greed takes priority to a hosting company. Sure the plans they offer sound good, but do you really know what's going on behind the scenes? After they take your hard-earned money, what happens next? Unless you're a system administrator or network engineer, you probably have no idea how your website functions on an overcrowded server.
If you've reviewed or researched hosting companies you will notice they all look the same. They offer similar packages, claim they provide support, and appear to have a network worthy of the highest caliber websites. But what they don't tell you is the type of disk space or bandwidth your website will be using. They don't mention possible security risks. And they especially don't mention how many accounts they create per server.
Avoiding the problems associated with overcrowded servers is extremely easy?
A Simple Guide to Web Hosting
A Simple Guide to Web Hosting
Personal Computers, Servers Or ISP?You need a server to host your site so that it can be viewed over the internet. This server can either be an Internet Service Provider or of your own. Most websites are hosted by an Internet Service Provider because they can provide powerful server hardware, high speed connections and reliable server support.
Most providers have very fast connections to the Internet such as a full T3 fiber-optic (45 Megabytes per second) connections which is about 1000 high speed (56 Kilobytes per second) modems combined.
For those who are looking to set up their own servers and host their own websites, a personal computer is often not powerful enough to do the job. As the name suggests, a personal computer can hardly handle multiple visitors to your website- servers are needed to handle these visitors simultaneously.
Getting Your Web Hosting
There are thousands of companies that offer web hosting for your website. Which to choose and what to look out for? With the multitude of features and terms in each hosting plan, it can be puzzling for those who are just starting out. The golden rule in choosing your website: Nothing beats reliable web hosting. Many web hosting plans offer more space, more benefits than others. The decision to your web hosting should be based on reliability. We have seen too many disappointed website owners who chose benefits and space over reliability.
Criteria of Choosing an Ideal Web Hosting Company
Criteria of Choosing an Ideal Web Hosting Company
Before we talk about what it takes to be a cheap and good quality web host, let's get to the fundamental first.
What is a Web Host?
A web host is a service provider that places your web site on a computer which is connected to the internet. The term for this 'computer' is called a server.
A web hosting provider will typically have a fast connection to the Internet and they may host thousands of web sites on many servers. The web host essentially rents out space to you so that you can get your website up on the world wide web.
With a well-managed web host, you can free yourself from worrying the up-keep of complicated server technology and proper technical maintenance. That's the whole purpose of the web hosting companies. You should leave the technical work to web hosting professional while you focus on your own internet business.
Let's begin...
Feature Offered
The features that web hosting companies are offering are getting quite standard nowadays.
The followings are some of the common features you'll see in most web hosting plans:
- Control Panel
Control Panel is an interface where you can access your site on the web server, allowing you to set-up and subsequently update and customize your web site. Though cPanel is by far the most popular control panel, some hosting providers customize their own so that they can up-grade and expand it at will. - Diskspace
A vast majority of sites that don't have tons of graphics, sound and video clips or downloadable files easily fit in 50 MB of disk space. You should always leave yourself some room for growth or check if the host has a bigger plan in case you need to upgrade. - Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data transmitted or received through a unit of time. In web hosting, bandwidth is consumed when visitors make requests for files on your web site and download them to their personal computers. - Email Account
With POP3 email accounts you can check email from Outlook, Netscape Mail, Eudora or any other Email software. - Scripting language
As all our top 10 listings are using Unix and Linux platform, php, perl and CGI are the languages we are talking about here. It is best to choose a host that supports the latest version to maximize the latest web technologies for the fee that you pay. - Database
If your web site is going to store a lot of data that should be dynamically accessible (like user accounts, stock prices, maps, Interactive news, message boards and forum etc.), you'll need to look for an account that offers a database. MySQL is a powerful and most popular database program that runs on the Linux operation system. It is able to handle million of entries all at once. Its flexibility and speed allow you to also store logs and pictures. MySQL is designed to scale well under heavy traffic conditions and is ideal for database-intensive or e-commerce-enabled Web sites.
No matter if you are an expert or a novice in web hosting, you need a web host with good customer support system. What is the criteria of an excellent customer support? Let us explain.
- How big is the knowledge base?
This is particularly important for those who want to search for quick answer without seeking direct assistance from customer support staff. Due to the huge database, normally it's searchable. Some web hosting providers will even make your life easier by making a video tutorial guiding you step by step in setting up your new account. Very useful for beginner.
- Responsive customer service staff.
If you are too lazy to find the answer out of a big pool of database, get the direct answer from someone who knows it. Direct customer support comes in a few forms.
a. Email support
b. Phone support: Normally, sales and technical support uses separate phone line. A good phone support staff knows what your problem is and answers with relevance.
c.Web Host like Lunarpages and Globat even have live chat support. However, it's not how many support channels that are available but how responsive it is of the staff. You can find out the hosting reviews and ratings of each of our Top 10 Cheap Web Host.
Are you paying too much for your Web Hosting Plan?
Having done the research on hundreds of web hosting companies, in general, we've come to this conclusion: the more disk space and bandwidth you are getting, the more expensive is the monthly price.
To help you understand which price is competitive enough for you to take up the offer, we have categorized 5 different price range. For each price range, a score of maximum of 10 is assigned. To understand the concept behind this, please refer to the details here.
Popularity
A web host might have the best feature offered, unbeatable customer support and reliability in place but without an effective marketing plan, it will go bust too. Let's face it. If a web hosting provider does not have sufficient members and steady growth of new members, it's very difficult to survive in this highly competitive industry.
We judge the popularity of a particular web hosting provider by looking at the number of awards won, the reviews of other websites and the Alexa traffic ranking.
All the hosting providers listed on our Top 10 Cheap Web Hosting Directory are among the top 40,000 most visited websites in the world.
Reliability, Speed and Uptime Guarantee
Nothing can hurt you more than this: your visitors come to your web site only to find that it's not accessible. You lose credibility and possibly even a sale. If your web host does not guarantee at least a 99% uptime, leave the web host now!
To ensure maximum uptime, installation of redundant back-up systems is essential. Each web host has their own management systems to minimize downtime. "Redundant" means that if any of the Internet connections get interrupted, the alternate Internet connection will take over.
We use Alertra software to monitor the uptime of each of our top 10 web hosts.
As for speed, even though routing, web server set up and local area networks play a part in determining the speed of a site, the main concern of how fast your site is depends very much on the types of network connections.
Many hosting providers still connect to the Internet through T1, or T3 connections. This is not the case for our top 10 hosts- they are using OC (Optical Carrier) lines.
A T1 line will offer data transfer rate of 1.5 Mbps (megabits per second), while a T3 line can supply data transfer rates of 43Mbps. OC-1 refers to a circuit that transmits 51.85Mbps. Higher levels are multiples of that speed. Ultra-High Speed OC3 and OC12 lines offers 155Mbps and 622Mbps respectively. Some hosting providers have connections to major internet backbones at the speed of OC48 (2488Mbps) and OC96 (4976Mbps).
Web Hosting Data Transfer: How Much Is Too Much?
Web Hosting Data Transfer: How Much Is Too Much?
Bandwidth in its simplest terms refers to the amount of data that flows across a network wire in a given time period. For most web hosting providers, that time period is measured in a month. Web hosting providers are charged a certain amount per month or per year for an allocated amount of bandwidth from backbone providers and wholesale data centers. That cost is then passed on to the consumer in the form of web hosting plans.How much bandwidth will my website use?
With so much variation among web hosting companies, it can sometimes be difficult to know how much bandwidth your website will need. So, how much is a gigabyte of bandwidth anyway? Let's put it in perspective. If an average web page, images and all is 50 kilobytes in size, your website could be viewed 20,000 times! For the average hobby website, that is more than enough. Let's further put that 20,000 in perspective. If each visitor to your website viewed an average of 4 pages per month, it would still represent over 5,000 unique visitors to your website every month.
Beware of bandwidth usage when offering file downloads
While offering simple web pages doesn't use up much bandwidth, the same can't be said about downloading files. If you plan on allowing people to download music files, pdf files, flash files, or video files, you can eat up bandwidth in a hurry even with a relatively small number of people visiting your website. If your website offers an adobe .pdf file that is 1 megabyte in size, with one gigabyte of bandwidth, you will only be able to serve up one thousand downloads. This does not including the html needed to get people to download the pdf in the first place.
Video files eat up even more space. A one megabyte video file represents only seconds of video. For a half hour presentation, your video file could easily be over two hundred megabytes in size! At that size, one gigabyte would only allow you to offer five downloads to your visitors. What you plan to do with your website most definitely will affect how much monthly bandwidth you anticipate needing.
Overselling bandwidth is common in the web hosting industry
Because more people use only a fraction of their allotted bandwidth per month, most web hosting providers price their plans knowing that most people will only use a fraction of the resources available to them. In fact, with most companies, if you did use the maximum bandwidth available to you each month, you would most likely be shut down. If you go with a shared hosting account, your website can be hosted with hundreds or thousands of other websites. If your website starts to use a significant portion of the server's resources, you may find them pulling the plug on your website. If you know your website is going to need significant resources, you should probably consider getting yourself a dedicated server.
Knowing what you plan to do will allow you to know how much you need
By knowing what you plan to do with your hosting account, you can have a pretty good idea of how much bandwidth you're going to need. If you anticipate that you will be needing to serve lots of multimedia including video, music and large amounts of flash powered pages, you may need to consider going with a dedicated server. If your website is just starting out and you have little money and no real idea of how much bandwidth you're going to need, pick a company that gives you more than you think you'll need at a reasonable price. Make sure you also find out how much they will charge you for any bandwidth you use above and beyond what comes in your hosting package. If it is one dollar per megabyte and you've already exceeded a twenty gigabyte bandwidth limit, changes are, you'll get one hefty bill at the end of the month. When shopping around and looking at bandwidth, keep the overage cost in mind as well and you'll do fine.
Why Dedicated Hosting?
If you're reading this article, you might be interested in getting a dedicated server, or simply learning more about dedicated hosting services.
First of all, please note, that a dedicated server is rather expensive service, and you shouldn't waste your money if you don't plan to use it in full measure.
But if you really have a serious website, and want to run a successful business - you cannot do it without a dedicated server.
Of course it's just mere words, so let's enumerate the facts!
Freedom and security
Dedicated server will give you a freedom. You will not need to share it with other websites. It will also give you additional 3rd party security for your site and emails. A dedicated server will allow you deep access to your server to configure and optimize your server anyway you need. You're able to choose the software to install.
Power and functionality
With a dedicated server you get on average 50-100 Gb of hard drive, plus about 1,000 Gb of data transfer. You may customize the configuration and choose any CPU, RAM, or whatever you need. A dedicated server reduces your dependency on the web host; and bypasses time delays and possible expenses incurred from these.
Respectability
You simply CAN NOT run a popular website on a shared hosting. It's not serious.
Summary
If your website turned into a popular and reliable resource; if you have tons of daily visitors; if you work B2B; if you need additional security and functionality, power and freedom - go ahead and buy a dedicated server. Don't be sorry about the money you spent! Think about the future!
First of all, please note, that a dedicated server is rather expensive service, and you shouldn't waste your money if you don't plan to use it in full measure.
But if you really have a serious website, and want to run a successful business - you cannot do it without a dedicated server.
Of course it's just mere words, so let's enumerate the facts!
Freedom and security
Dedicated server will give you a freedom. You will not need to share it with other websites. It will also give you additional 3rd party security for your site and emails. A dedicated server will allow you deep access to your server to configure and optimize your server anyway you need. You're able to choose the software to install.
Power and functionality
With a dedicated server you get on average 50-100 Gb of hard drive, plus about 1,000 Gb of data transfer. You may customize the configuration and choose any CPU, RAM, or whatever you need. A dedicated server reduces your dependency on the web host; and bypasses time delays and possible expenses incurred from these.
Respectability
You simply CAN NOT run a popular website on a shared hosting. It's not serious.
Summary
If your website turned into a popular and reliable resource; if you have tons of daily visitors; if you work B2B; if you need additional security and functionality, power and freedom - go ahead and buy a dedicated server. Don't be sorry about the money you spent! Think about the future!
How to Choose a Right Web Hosting Service?
How to Choose a Right Web Hosting Service?
Indeed, choosing a right web hosting service for your website is not an easy task especially when there are thousands of web hosting providers all offering almost identical web hosting packages. Therefore, it is important to know few major considerations even before you start your web hosting search. Below are three major criteria for web host seeker:Web hosting features requirement
This is probably the most important consideration to start finding a host for your site. You need to decide the technical requirements for your website, this including:
a) Server platform and hardware requirements
If you plan to set up a website that uses programming environments such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic scripts, Cold Fusion or Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database, in this case, you will need to find a web hosting service that supports Windows platform such as Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers.
Likewise, if you plan to use programming languages such as Perl, CGI, SSI, PHP or mySQL database, then any web hosting plans that support Unix/Linux platform should be sufficient to meet your hosting requirements. Once you have these server platform and hardware requirements in mind, you can decide the best web hosting plans for your need. For more information, you can read "How to select a web server and server platform?"
b) Disk space & Bandwidth requirement
Here is another technical requirement that you need to consider before selecting a web hosting plan, i.e. disk space and bandwidth. If you intend to publish a website that does not have a lot of contents (meaning, web pages), then the disk space requirement may not be a big concern to you. In general, a disk space with 200MB to 500MB should be enough to meet your hosting requirement. In contrast, if you plan to host a website with enormous amount of graphic pictures, mp3 or video files, then you should consider a web hosting plan that provide huge disk space, for example, 500 MB to 1,000 MB.
Similarly, the bandwidth requirement will depend on your site traffic estimation. Obviously, a website that expect to attract high traffic will consume the monthly bandwidth allowance very fast. If so, you will need to find one web hosting service that offer huge bandwidth with 40 GB to 100 GB per month. Depending upon your website requirement, choosing a web hosting service that provide sufficient amount of disk space and bandwidth is crucial consideration to prevent paying extra costs in the future should you overuse the monthly disk space and bandwidth allowance.
c) Other hosting features
While the above requirements are utmost important, there are other hosting features that you have to consider too. Can web hosting provider support video clips on your website, if you have? Is the web hosting service compatible with Dreamweaver or FrontPage web authoring tool? Do you plan to set up a virtual store online? Can the host support the e-commerce features without adding extra cost to your monthly payments? On top of that, you may also want to find out the number of email accounts provided, number of FTP accounts, web statistic software (analyze your web traffic), type of control panel supported (manage your web hosting account), database and scripting languages supported and etc.
Reliability and scalability
A first-class web hosting provider offers reliable server uptime and fast Internet connection. You should only choose a web hosting service that guarantee at least 99% server uptime with high-speed Internet backbones using at least OC3 (Optical Carrier) lines (155 Megabits per second) or above instead of T1 or T3 lines. A reliable web hosting provider usually invests heavily on their data center infrastructure with high performance servers, high speed multiple backbones providers with fail-over redundancy, backup power generators and firewall software protection in place to ensure they meet the uptime guarantee specified in the terms of service.
Similarly, you should choose a web hosting service with hardware facilities that designed for scalability, so that they can grow with your business. For example, if you need to increase more disk space, bandwidth or number of mySQL databases, you should be able to upgrade as needed without any problems.
Customer service and support
The last major consideration in choosing a web hosting service is to find a web hosting providers that offers excellent customer service and support. You should always search for a web hosting provider that offers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week technical support that fielded with highly experience technicians, so that any web hosting problems will be resolved within a reasonable amount of time. You may also want to consider to test how responsive is their customer support by sending few inquiry emails to the web hosting provider. In general, any response in less than 24 hours is considered acceptable. It is a sign of poor customer support if they take more than one day to response.
In addition, a web hosting provider with excellent support should also provide multiple support channels, such as toll-free phone support, 24/7 email support, live chat, online knowledgebase, Interactive flash tutorials and FAQ.
Above are few major considerations before you choose your web hosting service. In addition, how long has the web hosting provider in business and the number of customers that they currently have are also a good indication of the quality of their hosting products as well as the stability of the company. Even though cost of the web hosting service is also important but it should not be your major consideration. Because the price of a web hosting service has been declining over the years due to competition, as a result, the price of most of the web hosting services offering quality hosting features has been converging to less than US$10 per month. If you can't afford less than $10 per month, you probably isn't in the online business for the long haul. Therefore, price should not be a major deciding factor.
On the other hand, it is more important to ensure the web hosting service that you choose is able to meet your website hosting requirements, guarantee your website is always accessible with satisfying speed, provide scalability to grow and expand your website as well as offer excellent customer supports. Depending on your web hosting requirement, you can take advantage of our site, Cheap Web Hosting Review to find the recommended web hosting services that can match the three major criteria above. Good luck to your search
How to Transfer Your Web Site to a New Web Hosting Service?
How to Transfer Your Web Site to a New Web Hosting Service?
There are various reasons why an online business owner like you has decided to switch to a new web hosting providers. Your old web hosting provider probably has very poor technical support, or their web server is always down, or may be your old web hosting provider cannot meet your hosting requirements anymore or you could have discovered a cheaper web hosting service?and etc. Regardless of the reasons, now you have found a new web hosting service and you need to transfer your website from your current web host to the new web host. Below is the step-by-step guide that you can follow in order to achieve a painless and error free of moving to a new web hosting provider.Transfer Schedule
Ideally, you should plan the transfer one month before you terminate your old web hosting plan in order to have sufficient time to perform a smooth transfer. Doing the transfer in less than one month time frame will put your website in risk of inaccessible.
New web hosting service registration
Now, sign-up your new web hosting service once you have decided the termination date mentioned above. Depending on your new web hosting provider, your new web hosting account usually will be set up within 24 hours.
Files Backup
While waiting for your new web hosting account to be created, it is time to backup all your web files on the old web hosting provider. In most cases, you already have all the files of your website on your local computer. However, it is still a good idea to backup all your files from the old web server. In addition to the normal HTML files, you may need to backup any script files, databases files, and even server logs files if it is necessary. You should create a directory structure that is similar to the directory structure on your web server and download the files into the respective directory.
Files uploading
Once you are notified that your new web hosting account has been created, you will receive a notification email from your new web hosting provider. In that email, it contains all the information required to set up website, this including the FTP server information. With that FTP information, you can now FTP to your new web hosting server and upload all your files. You should start by first creating the directory structures on the web server, and then upload all the files to the respective directory.
It is the time to install any script files or databases if there are used in your website. Likewise, it is a good time to set up all the email accounts through the administration panel.
Once you have finished uploading all the files and installed the script files or databases, you can now use the temporary URL to test your site. The temporary URL can be found in the notification email from your new web hosting provider. The temporary URL could be in the following format: http://viola.lunarpages.com/~your-webaccountname
Testing
Using the temporary URL directory, you can now test your web site online. Due to the fact that different web hosting server may require different server environment to execute. Therefore, you need to verify all the scripts (such as CGI, Perl) are working accordingly. In addition, you should test all the hyperlinks in the normal web pages if possible to ensure no broken links. While you are testing through the temporary URL directory, your website hosted on the old web hosting provider is continue operating.
Transfer domain name
Once you have finished testing your new website on the temporary URL and verified it is working perfectly. The next step is to contact your current domain name registrar (i.e. the company where you register your domain name) to change the old DNS (Domain Name Server) to point to the new DNS of your new web hosting provider. Usually, the DNS information is sent to you through email after you register successful with the new web hosting provider. Alternatively, you will be able to find the DNS information from the website of your new hosting provider.
Domain name servers control how a domain name is resolved. Typically, the domain name servers are in following format:
NS1.YOUR-NEW-WEB-HOSTING.COM
NS2.YOUR-NEW-WEB-HOSTING.COM
Some domain name registrar requires the IP addresses of the DNS. In this case you have to provide the IP addresses of your new DNS. For example:
NS1: 216.193.194.212
NS2: 216.193.207.106
Typically, it will take about 24-72 hours to get the DNS record to change and propagate through all the WHOIS servers. You can use Whois tools on the Internet such as whois.com to monitor the status of the DNS transfer. Once the transfer is completed, you will notice the change to your new DNS. Alternatively, you can make a minor modification to your home page (for example, adding a new image or symbol) and upload to the new web hosting server. When you access your home page through the normal domain name (www.your-website.com) and you notice the new home page, then you are sure that the DNS has been transferred successfully.
Final Testing
Now, your website on the new web hosting provider is officially transferred and online. You should repeat all the tests to ensure it is fully functional. Once you are confirmed the new website is working correctly, you can go ahead to terminate your old web hosting account.
A Beginners Guide to Web Hosting
What is web hosting? Whenever you visit a website, what you see on your web browser is essentially just a web page that is downloaded from the web server onto your web browser. In general, a web site is made up of many web pages. And a web page is basically composed of texts and graphic images. All these web pages need to be stored on the web servers so that online users can visit your website.
Therefore, if you plan to own a new website, you will need to host your website on a web server. When your website goes live on the web server, online users can then browse your website on the Internet. Company that provides the web servers to host your website is called web hosting providers.
A well-established web hosting provider sometimes hosts up to thousands of websites. For example, iPowerWeb is a popular web hosting company that hosts more than 300,000 websites. For that reason, a web hosting company need many web servers (essentially, these are computers) to 'store' the website. And all these web servers are connected to the Internet through high speed Internet connection and housed in a physical building called 'data center'. In order to guarantee all the web servers are safe, secure and fully operational all time, a data center is a physically secure 24/7 environment with fire protection, HVAC temperature control, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
What are the different types of web hosting? There are different kinds of web hosting companies out there with different characteristics. The main types of web hosts can be organized into the following categories:
Shared Hosting
In shared hosting (also known as virtual web hosting), many websites are sharing the space on the same physical web servers. Depending on the web host, a physical web server can hosts a few hundred to even thousand of different websites at one time. You may wonder if a physical web server is shared by so many websites, will the performance of the web server deteriorate? In fact, web servers are usually equipped with high-end powerful computer, therefore it can support up to a certain number of websites without any problem. But when the web server is overloaded and exceeded the reasonable number of websites that it can support, then you will begin to experience a slower response from the web server.
However, a reputable and experience web hosting provider will constantly monitor the performance of the web server and will add new web servers when deem necessary without sacrificing the benefits of the website owners. Since a physical web server is shared (diskspace, computer processing power, bandwidth, memory) by many websites, the web hosting provider can therefore afford to offer a lower hosting price. For the same reason, websites on the shared hosting would have to accept slower server response time. Typically, shared hosting plans start at $5 - $20 per month.
Dedicated Hosting
In contrast to shared hosting, dedicated hosting assigned a specific web server to be used only by one customer. Since a dedicated web server is allocated to only a single customer, the customer has the option to host single/multiple web sites, modify the software configuration, handle greater site traffic and scale the bandwidth as necessary. Therefore, dedicated hosting commands a higher premium and typically starts at $50 per month and can range up to $200 - $500 per month. As a result, dedicated hosting is regularly used by high traffic and extremely important website.
Co-location hosting
In dedicated hosting, the web server belongs to the web hosting providers and customers only rent the web server during the hosting period. While in co-location hosting, the customer owns the web server hardware and only housed their web server within the web hosting provider's secure data center. In this way, the customer has full control over their web server and simultaneously benefit from the 24/7 server monitoring and maintenance provided by the secure data center. Depending on the monthly bandwidth and rack space required, typically co-location hosting range from $500 - $1000 per month.
Reseller hosting
In reseller hosting, a web hosting provider offers web server storage to third-party (i.e. reseller) at a discount price, who then resell the web server storage to their customers. Typically, resellers are web consultants including web designers, web developers, or system integration company who resell the web hosting as a add-on service to complement their other range of services. Commonly, resellers can receive up to 50 percent discount on the price of a hosting account from the web hosting provider. And resellers are allowed to decide its own pricing structure and even establish its own branding (in other words, reseller setup its web hosting company on the Internet and start selling web hosting plans under its brand).
To the reseller's customers, the reseller is the web host provider. In cases when technical problems such as server down and access problem arise, the resellers will have to correspond directly with the actual web host provider. Due to the communication process taken place between customer to reseller and from reseller to actual web host provider and back and forth, undoubtedly problems will take longer time to resolve. Unless you are running your own personal website or non-profit website and willing to take the risks of poor support from the reseller, reseller hosting is generally not a good option.
However, the web hosting market today is filled with resellers that sell lowest price web hosting plans. So, how do you tell between a genuine web hosting provider from a reseller? You don't judge by the availability of toll-free number alone because some web hosting providers even offer their resellers with their own toll-free number for co-branded technical support. When the reseller's customer calls the number for technical support, the web host uses the reseller's name so the customer thinks that the support is coming from the reseller directly. Likewise, don't be fooled by the professional designed website alone because it is extremely easy to create a professional looked business website nowadays.
In general, resellers can be distinguished from their hosting price and company information. In most cases, a genuine web hosting provider has solid company information such as iPowerWeb.com where they publish its financial background, offices and data centers. In contrast, resellers usually do not have solid company background (here is just an example out of thousands out there). Moreover, the hosting price by resellers is generally below $5 per month. So, why settle for resellers when you can find genuine web hosting providers offering superb quality web hosting at the hosting price ranging between $7 - $10.
Therefore, if you plan to own a new website, you will need to host your website on a web server. When your website goes live on the web server, online users can then browse your website on the Internet. Company that provides the web servers to host your website is called web hosting providers.
A well-established web hosting provider sometimes hosts up to thousands of websites. For example, iPowerWeb is a popular web hosting company that hosts more than 300,000 websites. For that reason, a web hosting company need many web servers (essentially, these are computers) to 'store' the website. And all these web servers are connected to the Internet through high speed Internet connection and housed in a physical building called 'data center'. In order to guarantee all the web servers are safe, secure and fully operational all time, a data center is a physically secure 24/7 environment with fire protection, HVAC temperature control, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
What are the different types of web hosting? There are different kinds of web hosting companies out there with different characteristics. The main types of web hosts can be organized into the following categories:
Shared Hosting
In shared hosting (also known as virtual web hosting), many websites are sharing the space on the same physical web servers. Depending on the web host, a physical web server can hosts a few hundred to even thousand of different websites at one time. You may wonder if a physical web server is shared by so many websites, will the performance of the web server deteriorate? In fact, web servers are usually equipped with high-end powerful computer, therefore it can support up to a certain number of websites without any problem. But when the web server is overloaded and exceeded the reasonable number of websites that it can support, then you will begin to experience a slower response from the web server.
However, a reputable and experience web hosting provider will constantly monitor the performance of the web server and will add new web servers when deem necessary without sacrificing the benefits of the website owners. Since a physical web server is shared (diskspace, computer processing power, bandwidth, memory) by many websites, the web hosting provider can therefore afford to offer a lower hosting price. For the same reason, websites on the shared hosting would have to accept slower server response time. Typically, shared hosting plans start at $5 - $20 per month.
Dedicated Hosting
In contrast to shared hosting, dedicated hosting assigned a specific web server to be used only by one customer. Since a dedicated web server is allocated to only a single customer, the customer has the option to host single/multiple web sites, modify the software configuration, handle greater site traffic and scale the bandwidth as necessary. Therefore, dedicated hosting commands a higher premium and typically starts at $50 per month and can range up to $200 - $500 per month. As a result, dedicated hosting is regularly used by high traffic and extremely important website.
Co-location hosting
In dedicated hosting, the web server belongs to the web hosting providers and customers only rent the web server during the hosting period. While in co-location hosting, the customer owns the web server hardware and only housed their web server within the web hosting provider's secure data center. In this way, the customer has full control over their web server and simultaneously benefit from the 24/7 server monitoring and maintenance provided by the secure data center. Depending on the monthly bandwidth and rack space required, typically co-location hosting range from $500 - $1000 per month.
Reseller hosting
In reseller hosting, a web hosting provider offers web server storage to third-party (i.e. reseller) at a discount price, who then resell the web server storage to their customers. Typically, resellers are web consultants including web designers, web developers, or system integration company who resell the web hosting as a add-on service to complement their other range of services. Commonly, resellers can receive up to 50 percent discount on the price of a hosting account from the web hosting provider. And resellers are allowed to decide its own pricing structure and even establish its own branding (in other words, reseller setup its web hosting company on the Internet and start selling web hosting plans under its brand).
To the reseller's customers, the reseller is the web host provider. In cases when technical problems such as server down and access problem arise, the resellers will have to correspond directly with the actual web host provider. Due to the communication process taken place between customer to reseller and from reseller to actual web host provider and back and forth, undoubtedly problems will take longer time to resolve. Unless you are running your own personal website or non-profit website and willing to take the risks of poor support from the reseller, reseller hosting is generally not a good option.
However, the web hosting market today is filled with resellers that sell lowest price web hosting plans. So, how do you tell between a genuine web hosting provider from a reseller? You don't judge by the availability of toll-free number alone because some web hosting providers even offer their resellers with their own toll-free number for co-branded technical support. When the reseller's customer calls the number for technical support, the web host uses the reseller's name so the customer thinks that the support is coming from the reseller directly. Likewise, don't be fooled by the professional designed website alone because it is extremely easy to create a professional looked business website nowadays.
In general, resellers can be distinguished from their hosting price and company information. In most cases, a genuine web hosting provider has solid company information such as iPowerWeb.com where they publish its financial background, offices and data centers. In contrast, resellers usually do not have solid company background (here is just an example out of thousands out there). Moreover, the hosting price by resellers is generally below $5 per month. So, why settle for resellers when you can find genuine web hosting providers offering superb quality web hosting at the hosting price ranging between $7 - $10.
Unlimited Wealth Creation Through Reseller Hosting
Web hosting can be an exciting business start up for aspiring entrepreneurs. All you have to do to set up your business is become a hosting reseller, i.e., provide hosting facilities to website owners. Here as a business owner, you are buying space from a big hosting company, and redistributing the hosting space to other website owners.
Resellers are nothing but entrepreneurs acting as middlemen, offering you hosting services by leasing time and space from another Web host's server rather than owning their own. Most of the times, the quality of services offered by resellers are so good that consumers do not even have the idea that they are dealing with resellers who do not have servers of their own. Resellers, since they can pick and choose their servers, are basically in a position to provide the customers with the best of services.
Reseller hosting business can be quite a profit making venture once you understand the figures and profit margins involved. Let us go through them. One can buy around 1000 MB space from a major web host at a cost of $25 per month. This 1000 MB space that you now own can in turn be redistributed to site owners who need space for uploading their site. Here you can give about 25 MB space for around $5 per month. Which means your monthly income comes to around $200 when you sell 40 hosting packages. Want more. some hosts allow you to oversell the space and do not charge you extra unless the actual usage of your account exceeds 1000MB. It is seen that a typical user uses less than half of the allotted web space. which means you can double or even triple sell your quota and make unlimited wealth.
And mind well, this income is residual income. It will keep coming to you month after month, year after year. You do the work once. and get paid for it over and over. All you are doing is buying space from a major web hosting company and becoming a reseller host. Your efforts are focused towards selling hosting space and the rest is handled by your web host. Some of them even handle customer service to your customers for a nominal fee. which makes it even easier for you.
If this is not enough. you can earn additional residual incomes by adding recruiting more resellers through you. By doing this you will earn regular commissions on their monthly sales. isn't this smart business. The profit margins in the business of reseller hosting is quite good and you can start on this exciting business venture even if you do not have the required expertise and access to funds for setting up the required infrastructure. Strange as it might sound, there are also times where a reseller can also be more scalable than a typical hosting firm. A true Web host is limited by its hardware; if a client suddenly requires an upgrade the host is not prepared for, the only way the host will be able to satisfy the customer is by upgrading its hardware - expensive and time consuming for both sides. The reseller host, however, can simply choose to locate with a different Web host that will better suit the customer's needs.
Happy Wealth Creation!!!
Ninad Gupte is the Founder, CEO of www.linuxresellerhosting.com. He has trained as an Electronics Engineer from Mumbai University, and has a Diploma in Advanced Computing from CDAC. He has served as the Director Technologies in Webmoney India Pvt. Ltd. He has executed several turnkey B2B Web application projects like House layouts, Maharashtra State Electricity Board and portals & sites like McDonalds India, Air France and RPG Raychem. To take his dreams forward of forming a technology oriented diversified company, Interpole Solutions was formed in March 2001. The company was setup with a strong base of skills and a deep understanding of technologies mastered by Ninad.
Resellers are nothing but entrepreneurs acting as middlemen, offering you hosting services by leasing time and space from another Web host's server rather than owning their own. Most of the times, the quality of services offered by resellers are so good that consumers do not even have the idea that they are dealing with resellers who do not have servers of their own. Resellers, since they can pick and choose their servers, are basically in a position to provide the customers with the best of services.
Reseller hosting business can be quite a profit making venture once you understand the figures and profit margins involved. Let us go through them. One can buy around 1000 MB space from a major web host at a cost of $25 per month. This 1000 MB space that you now own can in turn be redistributed to site owners who need space for uploading their site. Here you can give about 25 MB space for around $5 per month. Which means your monthly income comes to around $200 when you sell 40 hosting packages. Want more. some hosts allow you to oversell the space and do not charge you extra unless the actual usage of your account exceeds 1000MB. It is seen that a typical user uses less than half of the allotted web space. which means you can double or even triple sell your quota and make unlimited wealth.
And mind well, this income is residual income. It will keep coming to you month after month, year after year. You do the work once. and get paid for it over and over. All you are doing is buying space from a major web hosting company and becoming a reseller host. Your efforts are focused towards selling hosting space and the rest is handled by your web host. Some of them even handle customer service to your customers for a nominal fee. which makes it even easier for you.
If this is not enough. you can earn additional residual incomes by adding recruiting more resellers through you. By doing this you will earn regular commissions on their monthly sales. isn't this smart business. The profit margins in the business of reseller hosting is quite good and you can start on this exciting business venture even if you do not have the required expertise and access to funds for setting up the required infrastructure. Strange as it might sound, there are also times where a reseller can also be more scalable than a typical hosting firm. A true Web host is limited by its hardware; if a client suddenly requires an upgrade the host is not prepared for, the only way the host will be able to satisfy the customer is by upgrading its hardware - expensive and time consuming for both sides. The reseller host, however, can simply choose to locate with a different Web host that will better suit the customer's needs.
Happy Wealth Creation!!!
Ninad Gupte is the Founder, CEO of www.linuxresellerhosting.com. He has trained as an Electronics Engineer from Mumbai University, and has a Diploma in Advanced Computing from CDAC. He has served as the Director Technologies in Webmoney India Pvt. Ltd. He has executed several turnkey B2B Web application projects like House layouts, Maharashtra State Electricity Board and portals & sites like McDonalds India, Air France and RPG Raychem. To take his dreams forward of forming a technology oriented diversified company, Interpole Solutions was formed in March 2001. The company was setup with a strong base of skills and a deep understanding of technologies mastered by Ninad.
Budget Web Hosting - Are They All Created Equal?
Choosing a budget web hosting company can be overwhelming. In fact, choosing any web hosting company can be a challenge due, in large part, to the fact that there are so many of them. Do a search for "web hosting" with the quotes around the keywords on Google, and it'll return over 5 million documents! That doesn't mean there are 5 million web hosting providers but there very well could be at least 1 million! That's a lot of web hosts. How can you choose one that meets your need?
What is Budget web hosting anyway?
Budget web hosting is generally defined as any hosting service that is below $10 per month. The budget comes from the low price. Now, most companies in the budget web hosting category only offer one year plans. Most budget web hosting companies however, will quote you the monthly fee you would pay if you divided the annual fee by 12 months. Keep that in mind when you are comparing one company with another. The other thing to look out for is the setup fee. Do they charge you a setup fee to get started?
Evaluate your general impression of the company.
The first place to start evaluating budget web hosting companies is their front page. Does their website give you a sense that they are professional? Is it easy to find all of the information you need? Take a look at their contact information. Do they list a physical address, an email address and a phone number to contact them? If they don't provide any contact details, that has to throw up a red flag. If you run into problems setting up your website, and you have no proper contact information, how are you going to get service from that company?
Do they have a toll free support number?
Does the budget web hosting company provide a toll free number for you to contact them? If they are based in Atlanta, Georgia and you are in Seattle, Washington, you don't want to be paying long distance to them if you need to get them on the phone about a concern you have. A toll free number also speaks to their willingness to deal openly and honestly with their customers.
What kind of guarantee do they offer?
Choose a budget web hosting company that offers a good guarantee. Most budget web hosting companies don't openly publish their satisfaction guarantees. If you have to look in their terms and services agreement to find out where they stand with regard to giving you back your money if you are not satisfied, you should look elsewhere.
What is the uptime guarantee of the site in question?
Uptime guarantee refers to the amount of time the server is live and serving your web pages. An uptime guarantee of 99% means that the host guarantees that their servers will be up and operational 99% of the time. Over the course of one year, 99% uptime would represent a downtime (the one percent) of around 87 hours in a year or an average of 7 hours per month. An uptime of 99.9% would involve only 8 hours of downtime for the entire year.
What kind of after sale support can you expect?
While there are many other factors you could consider, the final one I will deal with is after sale support. What kind of resources do they make available for you. Find out if the budget web hosting company offers free scripts. Do they have any marketing tools they can make available to you? What kind of support for setting up your account can you expect from the budget web hosting company? All of these factors must be taken into consideration.
Just because a company offers a budget web hosting service, doesn't mean you necessarily have to compromise on features, quality or service. All three will only be found, however, if you make sure to do your homework to find a budget web hosting company that is a good fit for you.
This article was written by Joe Duchesne, president of http://www.yowling.com/, a business web hosting company that specializes in helping online business owners increase their website traffic. Copyright 2004 Yowling. Reprint Freely.
What is Budget web hosting anyway?
Budget web hosting is generally defined as any hosting service that is below $10 per month. The budget comes from the low price. Now, most companies in the budget web hosting category only offer one year plans. Most budget web hosting companies however, will quote you the monthly fee you would pay if you divided the annual fee by 12 months. Keep that in mind when you are comparing one company with another. The other thing to look out for is the setup fee. Do they charge you a setup fee to get started?
Evaluate your general impression of the company.
The first place to start evaluating budget web hosting companies is their front page. Does their website give you a sense that they are professional? Is it easy to find all of the information you need? Take a look at their contact information. Do they list a physical address, an email address and a phone number to contact them? If they don't provide any contact details, that has to throw up a red flag. If you run into problems setting up your website, and you have no proper contact information, how are you going to get service from that company?
Do they have a toll free support number?
Does the budget web hosting company provide a toll free number for you to contact them? If they are based in Atlanta, Georgia and you are in Seattle, Washington, you don't want to be paying long distance to them if you need to get them on the phone about a concern you have. A toll free number also speaks to their willingness to deal openly and honestly with their customers.
What kind of guarantee do they offer?
Choose a budget web hosting company that offers a good guarantee. Most budget web hosting companies don't openly publish their satisfaction guarantees. If you have to look in their terms and services agreement to find out where they stand with regard to giving you back your money if you are not satisfied, you should look elsewhere.
What is the uptime guarantee of the site in question?
Uptime guarantee refers to the amount of time the server is live and serving your web pages. An uptime guarantee of 99% means that the host guarantees that their servers will be up and operational 99% of the time. Over the course of one year, 99% uptime would represent a downtime (the one percent) of around 87 hours in a year or an average of 7 hours per month. An uptime of 99.9% would involve only 8 hours of downtime for the entire year.
What kind of after sale support can you expect?
While there are many other factors you could consider, the final one I will deal with is after sale support. What kind of resources do they make available for you. Find out if the budget web hosting company offers free scripts. Do they have any marketing tools they can make available to you? What kind of support for setting up your account can you expect from the budget web hosting company? All of these factors must be taken into consideration.
Just because a company offers a budget web hosting service, doesn't mean you necessarily have to compromise on features, quality or service. All three will only be found, however, if you make sure to do your homework to find a budget web hosting company that is a good fit for you.
This article was written by Joe Duchesne, president of http://www.yowling.com/, a business web hosting company that specializes in helping online business owners increase their website traffic. Copyright 2004 Yowling. Reprint Freely.
Choosing a Quality Web Host
If you are anything like me, you'd probably like to have a website on the Internet but you just have no idea how to go about it. All this talk of web hosting, bandwidth, disc space, and other jargon can cause one to say, "This is too complicated and technical, I just wanted to have a place to put all of my favorite skateboarding photos, cool information on ramp designs, and the best places to skate!" To get a website on the Web you have to go through a web host. The question is how do you find the web host for you? If you type 'web host' into your search engine like Google you will get thousands of sites. Hit on one of these and like any product on the market you will see all sorts of persuasive propaganda to incite you to use their company; that is if you can decipher any of the technical jargon that only computer-heads can comprehend. Some web hosts offer free business cards with an account; some probably offer free watches?like all consumer industries you the buyer must beware. I'm a writer so I'll use the analogy of a writer's journal. The journal I like must not be too big or small in book size. It also must have a good amount of space allocated to each day, again not a whole page but not just a few lines. Of course I also want it to be cheap but of a good quality that won't fall apart while I'm using it, and I hope it would last for posterity. I just want the diary, some nice pictures in it are O.K. but unnecessary especially if it adds to the price. It's the same with a web host and web site scenario. You want to get the right deal for you, enough space and enough access to the public that you wish to associate with. As a novice who doesn't understand all the jargon this can pose a problem. Are you an individual, small business, blog, or a big time corporation? What do you need and how do you get it? As far as I can tell the web hosting business is a lot like the fast food business. The big corporations have strict guidelines, will offer you special deals, and have monthly 'cheeseburger specials'. But, I've always been more interested in the 'Mom and Pop' small time diners who have that real caring human approach. You know you are a customer and a person, not just a number on a sales receipt. I believe the hosting companies are the same. A smaller hosting company will probably treat its users with more honest integrity as well as having more flexibility in dealing with your individual situation. They can often tailor web site packages to accommodate exactly what you are looking for as well as the ability to update them quickly when your needs change. My advice is to contact a few of the smaller companies. Look for ones with good reputations or just arbitrarily email them and compare results from different places. Which one do you feel most comfortable with? Go for it; ask as many questions as you can, see how the different hosts differ in their answers. Try one; if it doesn't work out try another, it's really easy to move around. Don't be afraid, you've got nothing to lose except the fear itself!
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