Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Web Hosting Considerations For The Small Business

If you are operating a small business and are currently in the market for a web hosting service then there are a number of things that you need to take into consideration. Of course the first thing that you need to take into account is that you need to get the best deal that fits your needs. Its easy for the larger business, because they can just shoot the works and if they end up paying for services that they don't even need its no big deal.

Lets face it though, unless you plan on remaining small you have to get the best bang for your buck that gives you exactly what you need, nothing more and nothing less. If your website is one-hundred or less pages and doesn't have any data intensive features such as streaming videos then you can easily get by with a budget or entry level plan from any one of the many web hosting services that are out there.

These plans will all be in the range of $5. If however, you have upwards of one-hundred pages and the pages are heavily laden with content and pictures you may want to opt for shared hosting which is going to cost you somewhere in the area of $10. It will have the added bandwidth and memory that you will be needing.

What you are using your website for can figure in inconsiderably when you are in the market for a hosting service. For instance, if you plan on using your website for Internet marketing there are a few things that you will want to take into consideration. The first thing that you will want to consider is the intense level of competition you will be facing with any Internet business and the level of sophistication that your competition is going to be using to compete against you.

Far too many Internet business people that are new to the game can be overly optimistic with regards to the level of success that you are expecting and the amount of time that it will take to reach that level. This means that if you are going to be competing on the Internet you have to take that into consideration when selecting a web hosting service and the features and options that they offer.

SEO or search engine optimization should be your main consideration and what it refers to is the process by which you enhance the positioning of your website in the search engines on the Internet. You have the option of simply paying a web hosting service to do it for you and many of them offer this service or you can do it yourself.

If you plan on doing it yourself there will be tools that you will need your hosting service to provide for you to do it. Take a little time to learn about SEO online, so you can determine what tools you are going to be needing and then you can find a web hosting service that offers them.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Web Hosting And Guaranteed Web Site Traffic

The availability of superior web hosting in today’s marketing environment can make a difference in obtaining guaranteed web site traffic or receiving little to no traffic at all. These dire predictions may seem implausible to the casual observer, but many online professionals recognize the importance of using a web hosting service that is reliable and trustworthy. Locating a web hosting company is certainly easy and is usually accomplished by searching on the internet, scanning industry related magazines, and referrals from satisfied customers. Finding the most appropriate hosting service that is suitable for a web site owner is challenging, but the search need not be in vain. In fact, there are several benchmarks that an online business owner can examine when attempting to choose the hosting service.

First and foremost, online marketers should seriously consider a web hosting company that enjoys a solid reputation within the industry. Searching in technical forums and conversing with fellow marketers can provide you with an ample supply of hosting companies that match your strict criteria. At this juncture, locating the hosting service that can provide a reasonable measure of reliability and the strong possibility of increased web site traffic should be effortless.

Some recommendations may lead you to hosting companies that offer a service that is very inexpensive. Several years ago, Nancy Mattox purchased such a plan for one year of hosting for her educational supplies site and had a less than stellar experience. “The offer was too good to pass up. Low price for web hosting seemed like the right thing to do. After a short period of time, glitches became the norm and there was considerable down time. I began to lose customers at an alarming rate. I switched hosts and my service improved substantially and spending the extra money was worth it. I had to aggressively buy targeted traffic to replace the customers that I lost with the lower priced service. It was a difficult lesson to learn”. It should be noted that many hosting companies with solid credentials have inexpensive plans that are suitable for a particular need, but Nancy Mattox’s experience is truly a lesson in “buyer beware”.

A good web hosting company can boost the prospects of guaranteed web site traffic, but the online business owner must devote an adequate amount of time that is required to find such a service. Inexpensive services can provide a good windfall or it can be a time consuming strain on resources. Choosing a web hosting plan that conforms to the web site’s goals should fit within the budget and provide a superior service.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

If You Can’t Manage (Let Managed Web Hosting Providers Do It For You)

There are three basic types of web hosting providers, at least in terms of the amount of control the user gets and the degree of responsibility the user must take to keep their website up and running consistently and smoothly.

Shared
The first and most prevalent, especially for individuals, organizations, and small businesses, are shared web hosting providers. With them, hundreds of thousands of websites rent web hosting space on the same server.

Dedicated
The second type of web hosting providers are dedicated hosts, and with them, you get to own the equipment (the server, etc.) used to run your website, and nobody but you gets to use it. Dedicated web hosting providers also, however, require you to maintain the equipment yourself and handle all technical issues that arise, including repairs, installations, and server administration, yourself.

This second option, dedicated web hosting providers, offered uses 100% control but with 100% responsibility for anything that happens along the way. The inherent problems with this mode of web hosting (that someone may not know how to or wish to administer to their own server despite that their business needs its very own server) led to the innovation of managed web hosting providers.

Managed
Managed web hosting providers are similar to dedicated servers in that you buy or lease a server all your own, but managed hosts take off from there -- offering you a wide selection of technical services (system monitoring, security updates, advice, testing and troubleshooting, etc.) and customer support options (administration, account management, upgrades, etc.).

Instead of paying for equipment and other costs and fees up front, customers pay managed web hosting providers either a flat fee for a package of service or component prices a la carte for solely those services they plan to employ.

The freedom and control with managed web hosting providers is the same as that with dedicated web hosting providers but with far less of the responsibility for keeping it all running smoothly all of the time. It’s like you’re outsourcing the most specialized tasks in administering to your website to the most qualified experts while at the same time retaining complete and autonomous control over the entire project.

Now of course managed web hosting providers cost a far prettier penny for all you’d be getting too. And that is why you only want to consider this VIP level of service if your business actually needs it. Otherwise it can be a lazy and frivolous expense. To merit upgrading to service with managed web hosting providers requires that your site consistently be receiving more traffic than you can handle with the clear signs of increased growth on the horizon.

Otherwise, just bump up on the disk space and bandwidth you’ve got with your current shared web hosting providers and hunker down to acquire a few new webmastering skills.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Dummy's Guide To Finding a Web Host

One of the terms that new Web users see over and over is "Web Hosting." A basic question we get from these folks is, "What is a Web Host?" and "What is Web Hosting?" This is natural for people who are new to the terminology of the Internet. They see the term "Web Host" pop up all the time on the Internet at various sites. Who better to ask for a definition than Web-Hosting-Reviewz ?
Definition
The term "Web Hosting" is simple, but the mechanics behind it are not. Web Hosting is a term that was coined to explain the services performed by someone that "hosts" a Web site on the World Wide Web. You already know that a host is someone that facilitates an event, or a function, like the host at a party, or an emcee on the radio or TV. In our case, a "host" involves a computer that is setup to control the networking and communications necessary to allow a Web Site to display specially formatted documents on the World Wide Web. Typically, these documents are formatted using a special language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) that supports mouse click connections to other similar documents on the World Wide Web. These HTML documents are normally called Web Pages, and you are looking at one such page now in your browser window. To keep track of these Web pages in an organized manner, individual and specific areas are set-aside for them called Web Sites. A Web Site may hold one Web page, or thousands. Web sites are stored on "host" computers that are connected to the Internet and setup to communicate their contents to the rest of the Internet. The people and companies that handle these special computers are called Web Hosts. The computers that handle the Web Hosting chores are called Servers, and they may serve any number of Web sites, one or even hundreds.
A Web Host ensures that the Web Servers that contain the Web Sites are functioning properly all of the time. That may include adding a customer's Web sites to the Servers, moving Web sites from one Server to another, deleting old Web Sites, monitoring the amount of Internet traffic and activity taking place and a multitude of other tasks required to ensure smooth operation. Web Host companies come in various shapes and sizes, and many specialize in certain types of Hosting. Our staff at Web-Hosting-Reviewz refers to these special Web Hosting types as Web Host Communities.
Impact
There is little argument in the fact that the Internet and the World Wide Web have changed the world forever. The Internet has greatly affected the economies of all the major industrial nations, and is beginning to have its affect on other nations as well. However, it is important to remember that the Internet would be nothing without the Web Host. Every single one of the millions and millions of Web sites, from simple one-page advertisements to e-commerce online super stores, reside on a Web Server that is administered by a Web Host in some capacity.
URLs, Domains and Addresses
Each Web site has a "home" on the World Wide Web and each home has an address. In fact, this is much like your own home where there is an actual physical area where each Web site resides. As mentioned above, this physical area is called a Web Server. A Web Server "serves up" Web pages and is actually somewhat similar to your personal computer except that it is capable of connecting to the Internet in a manner that allows the rest of the Internet to see the Web sites residing there.
In its simplest form, space is "rented" on a Web Server for a Web site, much like renting property. The Web Host facilitates the Hosting efforts by creating an "address" for the site on the World Wide Web so the Internet community can find it. A Web site address is generally called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). In fact, every page on the Internet has a URL, with the URL being the primary method through which you find the Web site.


Along with the name and path of the actual Web Page document, the URL includes a Domain name or a series of numbers called an IP address. Like your home address, the URL makes it easy for people to find any Web site on the Internet.
So what is an IP Address? This is a unique set of numbers that Web Servers connected to the Internet are identified by. An IP (Internet Protocol) address is composed of 4 sets of numbers separated by periods (such as 111.222.33.444 - sometime called a "dotted quad") and hence is fairly difficult to remember. IP Addresses are great for computers talking to one another, but most of us use normal words in our communication so we assign an identifier, called a Domain Name, to the IP address. The Domain Name makes it easier to remember and use.
You probably already know what a Domain Name is. It's the familiar "DOT COM" name you see in commercials. Web-Hosting-Reviewz and Yahoo are examples of Domain names. The IP Address hardly matters to us as long as we know the Domain Name.
Basic Kinds of Web Hosts
There are plenty of Web Host companies that will rent you space on a web server and there are a wide range of services available to you. Services can range from free hosting to buying your own Web Server for your private use. However, choosing a host is not an easy task. There are so many features, services and options to consider. The most important factor is making sure that the host you choose will provide everything that you need. For instance, if you wanted to build a, E-Commerce store on the Internet, you would consider a Web Host that could provide at least the following:
• The ability to gather data
• The ability to show data to mass quantities of people
• The ability to sell consumer products and services electronically
• The facilitation of ideas on a global scale
Web Host providers have four basic types. These four basic types are the foundation of the majority of all Web Hosting on the Internet.
Sub-Domain
Sub-Domains are web plans that do not have their own web domain name. They reside in a sub-directory of a primary domain. These can include both free and pay packages. On the whole, the price is cheaper and the sub-domain plans are easier to setup with no addition costs of registering a domain name. The major drawback is name recognition. Since they are but branches off of a larger tree, the URLs are longer and harder to remember. For e-commerce sites, the 'piggy-backing' of a electronic store to another domain gives a less polished feel.

Virtual
A step above sub-domains in both professional polish and complication, virtual web sites are the most common. A virtual web site is one that has a domain name off of a server, which incorporates multiple users. Unlike sub-domains, virtual Web sites have a slightly higher price do to the registering of a domain name, but there is a lot more freedom as to content, size, usage, etc. Virtual web sites are your standard-issue Web site.

Web Server/Dedicated Server
Explained in more detail later in this article, dedicated and co-located web sites are the heavy hitters of the web host world. A dedicated server is a server designed solely for either one or a few customers. Because of this, service, space, overall usage, and control are at an optimum level.Dedicated users get a great deal of options and garner a lot of tech support from the web host provider staff. For this, these power users get a highly polished, good quality site, with room for lots of data, and even separate programs for a high cost.
Co-Location Servers
Co-Location servers are almost identical to dedicated servers with on exception. The machine itself is owned by the user (not rented) and is located in the web host provider's server buildings. Co-located servers use the web host provider's links to the Internet and infrastructure investments such as UPS systems, diesel generators, and climate control systems. Users usually have to pay the price of buying a whole server and renting out the location and usage of Internet connections, however single user use and access is guaranteed.
Our Main Web Hosting Communities (See Our Web Hosting Community)
We took the most popular categories of Web Hosting and divided them up into nine Web Host Sections. The following text outlines these categories and gives a brief description of each.
Cheap Hosting (or Budget Hosting):
We classify Cheap Web Hosts as ones that provide a standard grouping of services and hosting plans for less than 7.95 per month. These hosts provide a key stepping stone for users looking to move from Free Web Hosting to paid hosting, but do not want to pay a large monthly fee.
Budget Hosting plans typically include the following features:
• Own domain name (www.yourdomain )
• 1 to 25MB of disk space
• 1 to 10 e-mail accounts
• FTP account
• Microsoft FrontPage Support
• Basic Technical Support

Typical Budget Hosting Customers are:
• Family sites (photo albums, etc.)
• Single-page brochure sites
• Hobby sites
• Small personal interest sites


Database Hosting
The use of web-enabled databases provides of means of changing the way Web sites can be managed, produced and scaled. The use of a database as a means of holding Web page resources is an efficient means of data storage, allowing for easier search operations and a cleaner means of presentation. However, to use web-based databases requires both an understanding of database software, Web usage, and, in some cases, different aspects of programming languages.
The rise of interest in full-fledge database accounts continues as the Web Hosting industry provides more Internet connectivity as well as old-fashioned networking (intranet) capabilities. Database storage design is such that easy access and transfer of information is making it the number one way of transport ideas across both inter and intranets.
Typical Database Hosting plans include the following:
• 25MB to 1GB + of disk space
• Support for database applications (SQL, mySQL, and others)
• Advanced technical support options
• Sub-domains and redirect capabilities

Typical users of Database Hosting include:
• Museums
• Libraries
• Collectors
• Auction Sites
• Catalog Sites

E-Commerce Hosting
With the rising growth of the Internet, businesses are learning new ways to expand their storefronts. Businesses across the board are finding that the Internet hosts a multitude of opportunities for success. However, the task of setting up an e-commerce Web site is often not as simple as it seems. The Internet is proving to be the great equalizer, allowing the smallest of businesses to access markets and present a presence that allows them to compete against the giants in the industry.
Most small and mid-size online businesses aren't candidates for hosting their own sites in-house. The cost of running an in-house operation as opposed to the profits one would make from such a venture renders the option unfeasible. Fortunately, there are alternatives. Companies specializing in E-Commerce Hosting abound, and enable even the smallest e-business to gain an online presence quickly and inexpensively.
Typical E-Commerce Hosting plans include:
• Own domain name
• 100MB to 1GB + of disk space
• 10 to 1000 e-mail accounts
• E-mail autoresponders
• E-commerce tools including storefront software
• Payment gateway and merchant service assistance

Typical users of E-Commerce Hosting include
• Stores
• Auctions
• Catalog Sites

Free Hosting
Fairly self-explanatory, free web sites are just that, free. Space, content freedom, and many other areas are severely limited. Technical assistance is virtually non-existent and the ability to make money off the site can be just as difficult. Free Web sites are good for dabbling in development and practice web creation as well as making personal or family Web sites, but not much else.
Typical Free Hosting plans include:
• Sub-domain (www.yourdomain.somehost )
• 1-5 E-mail accounts
• FTP upload support only
• E-mail only technical support

The typical users of Free Hosting include:
• Internet newcomers
• Teens
• Hobbyists


Full Service Hosting
A Full Service Host is a host that provides a thorough set of features and options. The technical staff also provides extra attention and care for its clientele. Items such as 24/7 technical support should not be unheard of. Features such as ASP, PHP3, CGI support, predefined CGI, Custom 404 pages, etc. should be standard.
Customers looking for full service sites usually require one or more of the following:
• More hard drive space
• More bandwidth
• Better Technical Support
• Need for advanced features
• Need for 'extended' services

Most Full Service Hosting plans will include:
• Own domain
• 24X7 Technical Support
• Advanced scripting support
• Database support
• Basic e-commerce support
• 25MB to 1GB = of disk space
Typical users of Full Service hosting include:
• Larger companies/organizations looking for stability
• Professional Web developers
• Small to medium sized businesses looking for a Web interface to existing systems

Friday, June 25, 2010

What Is Reliable Web Hosting?

Making your website available to the internet star is a whopper deal. No occasion what reputation of website you manage rather, it is a enterprise website or symptomatic website, what apropos would it complete if you did not have ingenuous web hosting. Most often, when we consider web hosting, we typically look at price and features. While a host may offer the best price and the best features, what good will any of that really do you or your website, if no one can see it? Reliable web hosting is perhaps the most important aspect of a host you should consider.

What is forthright netting

hosting? Well, credit this scenario. You have desired fed up a fit vivacity of ascendancy advertising this ostentatious promotion all over the internet, you have received a great response, and customers are ready to take advantage of it. The day comes and you find that you have not received any sales, so you visit your website, only to find that it is down. Then you call customer support, only to find that it is closed and no one is available to help you until Monday, and of course, it is Saturday. What happens? Well, you not only lose sales, you lose customers, and the trust of customers, all because you did not choose reliable web hosting.

The prosper venerable saying, you carry through what you long green for, constantly comes to mind. While garish is easier on your glean throw over at the moment, you intelligence good enough beans for it later, with constant downtime, lack of customer support, and lack of high security. Reliable web hosting, might cost you a little more, or it might not cost you much at all. The key to finding reliable web hosting is to do your homework. You should also ask your colleagues, friends, and family members about their opinions on reliable web hosting.

What should you slant for when looking for reputable web hosting? Reliable netting

hosting agency a feverish percentage of uptime. Reliable net hosting also influence twenty-four hour customer support. Reliable web hosting also means top-notched security features, protecting you from hackers. While looking at prices and different tools available with a particular host, you also want to look at testimonials, and what others have to say about their reliability. Doing your homework is the best way to find reliable web hosting.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

How to Chose a Right Web Hosting for your Website

Hosting Reviews Central today announced the much awaited Top 10 Web Hosting Reviews 2008 based on the current trends.  According to Mr. Andrew Michael, Managing Director, HostingReviewsCentral, “One of the toughest decisions you will make for your web site is where it will be hosted .With thousands of Website Hosting providers out there, it can often be hard to choose the one that will work best for you. With HostingReviewsCentral’s latest, honest and unbiased reviews, you can however pick out the perfect host.

Mr. Andrew commented, “These Web Hosts have been rated on the basis of Reliability, Uptime, Cost, Customer Service, Speed of Response, Disk Space, Data Transfer, Backup, Documentation, Technical Support, Control Panel, Multiple Domain Hosting, Track Record, Quality of Service, Free Site Builder, Money Back Guarantee and Customer Satisfaction.



John Martin, CEO explained that the main thing is to pick a Web Host that you are comfortable with and that works well for you. You'll know when you've found the one that's right for you - it will meet your website requirements, you'll feel comfortable with its support, you'll know you can afford it, you will have confirmed its reliability, and you'll know that its other clients are satisfied as well.

On the other hand those who are interested in VPS Hosting Reviews (Virtual Private Servers) or Dedicated Server Hosting will also find relevant information about VPS Hosting and Dedicated Servers. The options in web hosting have exploded in recent years. Web Hosts are now available at prices even the smallest businesses can afford.



Hosting Reviews Central Website categorically defines Hosting providers as Cheap Web Hosting Provider, Affordable Web Hosting Provider, Unlimited Web Hosting Providers, Personal Web Hosting Provider, Linux Web Hosting Provider, Windows Web Hosting Provider, FrontPage/Dreamweaver Web Hosting, Hosting with Web Site Builder and Web Templates, Business Web Hosting Provider services based Control Panel such as Cpanel, Plesk and Vdeck



Shelton Walker, Director of Business Development, explained the need and how Web exposure can change the visibility of an Organization globally. He highlighted the case studies based on the increase in annual turnover of some of the clients. Since its inception Hosting Reviews Central has worked for hundreds of clients and helped them to set up their global Web presence.

About HostingReviewsCentral

Hosting Reviews Central provide Expertise and Experience to: help the business grow, reduce the overall costs, and simplify the Web environment HostingReviewsCentral is committed to delivering results that endure.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Web Hosting On Shared Reseller Accounts

These days, everyone wants to build a website. Domain names are the latest craze when it comes to the virtual world. The story goes that one can make millions by just fidgeting on the computer. True or false, most people are ready to believe it. Everyone wants to make a quick buck, and if the Internet is the one making the offers, let us all just keep on lapping it up.

However, having a website is not all that easy. There are several things that one has to take care of. A successful website needs a lot of attention. After all, it is the online equivalent of any other business that you might have. You might be an online loan provider or you could be more interested in providing content. No matter what your motives, you are going to have to use the processes of the Internet world. And one of the first things that you are going to have to take care of is web hosting.

Now before you move off to actually finding a low priced hosting deal, decide what type of web hosting would suit you best. There are three basic types of hosting services. These are the free, shared, and reseller hosting services. Free web hosting should not be used if you want to have a very successful website. If you want services that offer you more facilities, you are going to have to pay for them.

A shared web hosting service uses the same server as several other sites. On the other hand, in reseller web hosting, the website owner himself can host his own sites. The web hosting service that you ultimately choose would come to depend entirely on your ability and resources.

When looking for a low priced web hosting service, look on the Internet for great deals. Fairly recently, I stumbled upon a site named Hostgator which provided web hosting services. While going through the site, I came across a lot of great deals which offered good discounts. I made sure that I checked out Hostgator shared hosting for I did feel that this was an option that required a lot less stress. Having done that, I also found myself studying the offers available at the Hostgator reseller hosting section.

Building a website is not child's play anymore. It is serious business. And if you want it to become profitable, you need to find the ideal web hosting service.

Do I Need Managed Web Hosting Or Shared Web Hosting?

There are many different choices to make when it comes to selecting the best type of web hosting for your particular needs. Shared web hosting is by far the most popular type of web hosting, and is ideal for most websites. However, many websites, such as those with very high traffic or form whom security of sensitive information is of utmost concern, managed web hosting just might be a better choice.

Shared Web Hosting
For smaller websites, purchasing a server or paying to leasing a dedicated server would be an unnecessary and very significant expense. Shared web hosting is an inexpensive and effective web hosting solution for most smaller websites. This type of hosting is referred to as shared web hosting simply because multiple websites share space on a single web hosting server.

Web host servers are large and powerful, and have sufficient room and bandwidth capacity to host multiple websites with ease. When you select a shared web hosting option, you purchase a package from a web hosting company that includes a certain amount of space and bandwidth on the company’s server. This option allows website owners to enjoy the power of a powerful web hosting server without having to pay for more than is actually needed.

The number of other websites with which your site shares a web host depends on the size and bandwidth needs of each website along with the capacity of the server. As long as your shared web hosting agreement includes a sufficient amount of space and bandwidth for your needs, you don’t have to worry about running out of room in a shared environment.

If your website grows faster than you expect, and you do find that it is outgrowing your current hosting agreement. You can always negotiate with your web hosting company to add additional space and bandwidth capacity to your current shared hosting agreement. Another option is to step up to a higher level of web hosting, which could mean getting a dedicated server with managed web hosting.

Managed Web Hosting
Websites that deal with highly sensitive confidential information, as well as those who receive a great deal of traffic are more suited for a dedicated web hosting environment than for shared web hosting. With dedicated web hosting, your website does not share a server with other websites. One web hosting server is dedicated specifically to your website.

Most companies who need the capacity of a dedicated web host decide to go with a managed web hosting solution. This is because the actual management and administration of a dedicated host can be very time consuming. If a website owner selects an unmanaged hosting option, he or she becomes responsible for every aspect of maintaining the web hosting server. Managing a web host is very time consuming, and involves everything from day to day maintenance to security issues.

Those who operate large websites are typically busy with other activities, and it is worth setting up their web hosting agreement so that the hosting company handles most of the task associated with managing the dedicated host. Another option for managed web hosting is simply to contract with an outside organization to handle the duties associated with managing the web host server.

Making a Decision
If your website is large enough to need a dedicated web hosting, it is certainly in your best interest to go with managed hosting instead of unmanaged hosting unless you employ a server maintenance expert who has the time to handle the large task of maintaining your web server.

However, before making the decision to invest in managed hosting, it is in your best interest to see if shared web hosting will meet your needs. Shared web hosting is significantly less than dedicated hosting options. Remember that shared web hosting is sufficient for most websites, so don’t take on the expense of managed hosting if it is unnecessary.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Web Hosting For Internet Marketers

Anybody researching the internet for web hosting services will find an abundance of hosting providers to choose from along with a multitude of plans available. You’ll also discover that the majority of providers will offer many of the same plan features. However, there are some hosting companies that offer additional tools directed towards internet marketers and the home business industry.

Even for experienced internet marketers, with the variety of companies and plans available, it’s not always easy to determine which web hosting service will best meet his or her specific business needs. With so many options, how do you know which hosting provider is best suited for you and your business?

One thing for certain is that whatever you decide, do not make the mistake of basing your decision on the price of hosting alone. One thing that has been substantiated time and time again is the old adage “you get what you pay for.” Well, this also applies to web hosting!

If you’re an internet marketer or own an internet home business, listed below are some common features you should be looking for in a web hosting package. Of course, it will be easy to find providers that offer more that what’s listed here (e.g. 1,000 MB of disk space, unlimited sub-domains, unlimited emails, etc), not to mention a number of additional features, so keep in mind that these benchmarks only represent a few of the minimum requirements:

- 300+ MB of Disk Space
- 10 GB or more of Monthly Bandwidth
- 50+ Email Accounts
- 20+ Sub-domains
- CGI-Bin
- 3+ MySQL Databases

In addition to these common features, there are some web hosting companies that cater to internet marketers and home business entrepreneurs by offering useful marketing tools as part of their hosting package. As you probably know, having access to in-demand marketing tools is a key ingredient in becoming successful on the internet. Some of the tools I’m referring to include:

- Unlimited Follow-up Autoresponders
- Resalable E-Book Collections
- FFA Leads
- Lead Capture Systems
- Ad Tracking
- Shopping Carts
- Scripts
- Affiliate Programs and Commissions

These tools are a great benefit to both new and experienced internet marketers. But, in addition to the tools, another very important difference I’ve found with these types of providers is their exceptional level of customer support. Whether it’s assisting with the installation of a script, a problem copying files to the server, or responding to a general question, the support staff tend to be very knowledgeable and can be contacted around the clock either via telephone, live chat or email.

Compared to some web hosting services, you may notice the cost of these plans to be slightly higher because of the extra marketing tools and the quality of customer support provided. However, with the growing popularity of internet marketing and the ever increasing number of new home businesses popping up on the internet, these providers can definitely give you an advantage over your competition. And, if you choose a provider that offers an affiliate program, you could even end up with free web hosting and a profit to boot!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

How To Effectively Choose A Web Host

The internet industry is getting to be a very big marketplace as more and more people and business start to sell their services on the internet. More and more web hosting companies’ pop-up offering packages and solutions. If a person does not know what he is looking for in a hosting company he might end up with a package that is either to large for his needs or is lacking in features.

It is best to know what people want in a hosting service in order for them to choose it wisely. Here are some of the most common questions that people and businesses ask in choosing a host service company:

Q: How long have these hosting companies been in existence?

A: This question is not that important although it could help in the choice of companies because the longer a web hosting company has been in existence means that it has a reliable service and already have a number of clients using their services.

Q: Can I have my internet provider host my website or will I get to a company that does web hosting for a living?

A: It is always a good choice to go to a web hosting company because they only provide hosting services and not internet access services like ISPs do. Web hosting companies concentrate all their bandwidth to hosting and not internet access which makes it a reliable choice in terms of cost and uptime.

But with all choices made a person has to delve in deeper in any service that is provided. One of the ways in making sure that a service is well provided is by going to their websites and looking at what it has to offer and their capabilities in providing hosting services.

Q: What type of broadband connection (ISDN, T1, T3) of a hosting company should I choose?

A: It is wise to choose a host service that has a T3 internet connection and has a major backbone connected to it.

Q: Should I go for a company that offers a money back guarantee?

A: When a hosting company banks on the quality of service that it provides their plans are usually inclusive of a money back guarantee because these companies are almost if not always certain that a money back guarantee will not be availed by a customer due to its quality.

Q: What are the added bonuses of a hosting company should I look for and favor over other add-ons?

A: Find out the space that they offer. A normal space offer would be 10 to 15 megabytes. If a hosting company offers more than the usual storage space then it is a bonus that must be considered because this would mean more expansion for you in the future at the same price.

Consider also the security that they offer. If you will be running a website that deals with online transactions it is important to note that people usually want to transact with websites that have excellent online security.

Lastly, always remember that the most important factor in choosing a hosting company is its integrity.

Monday, June 14, 2010

How To Build a Successful Web Hosting Business

When you start your own hosting business, there are many things you will want to take into consideration. One of the most important things you will need to figure out is how you will attract customers. There are four important factors you will need to know in order to build a solid customer base with your business. If you are a reseller, you will want to know which company to buy your package from.

You will also need to have the skills necessary to run a hosting business. The very first issue you will want to pay close attention to is the design of your website. This is the first thing a visitor will seen when loading your site, and you will want to leave a good impression. If they aren't impressed with the design of your site, they are unlikely to become a customer. Your website should have an easy navigation menu, because few people will take the time to figure out how to move around your site. You should also try to use a custom design rather than a template.

Thousands of websites use generic templates, and they all have the same look and feel. You will not be successful online if you try to blend in with everyone else. You have to find a way to stand out, and using a custom design for your site is the first step. You want to have a professional look. It is also important to provide a variety of different hosting packages which can accomodate clients on a budget. Whether you decide to offer customer service via phone, IM, or email, make sure you respond to questions quickly. If you take longer than a day, your service will appear to be poor.

If you have some money, don't be afraid to invest in a tech support department. It is well worth it, and will separate your company from the thousands of other hosting services available. You should also provide tutorials on your website which will help your clients learn more how to optimize or market their sites. If your target is clients with e-commerce sites, write articles about how they can build their business.

It may be helpful to start a forum where your clients can exchange ideas or information. This could function as a kind of tech support where clients answer each others questions and problems. At the same time, if you start a forum it is critical that you provide excellent service. If you make an error with a client, it won't be long before many of your other customers learn about it.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Choosing Internet Hosting Sites

If you are considering placing your business storefront on the Internet, then you will have quite a bit of work ahead of your in choosing Internet hosting sites that can be trusted. Many of the larger, and well-known Internet hosting companies are no longer in business because their success has opened the door to larger businesses buying their services for their own use.

When choosing Internet hosting sites, it will be a good idea to create a maxtrix of all of the services that they offer. Keep track of how many different servers they offer, for the different price ranges that they currently have in their databases. There are email servers that your business can use to store the email addresses of all of your customers.

It would be a good idea to check out the privacy policies of the Internet hosting services when choosing Internet hosting sites. If these people have a stated policy that they collect information, then that means that they are financially benefiting from the success of your business. They take your customer email addresses and sell those addresses to marketing companies.

There are other factors to consider when choosing Internet hosting sites. Some of these companies make it easy for you to do business. They offer all-in-one packages that are primarily arranged to fit the needs of small business. Some of these all-in-one packages might seem a bit pricey at times, but when you consider what you are getting for your money, they beat many other Internet hosting sites offerings hands down.

These Internet hosting sites features not only the basic Internet web page creation tools, but other tools that small businesses can use to grow with, such as software you can use to follow-up with prospective clients, encrypted software to enable you to operate a confidential financial transaction where credit card information can not be divulged, and marketing tools that will drive web traffic to your business website.

All of the long range goals of your company should be in place on the Internet services site that you are considering. When choosing Internet hosting sites, make sure that they have an adequate amount of servers and Internet speed connections to allow your customers to access your business website without delays. Any glitches that you experience when you are accessing the storefront that you have designed using the software that your Internet hosting site furnishes will be the same glitches that your customers will experience when they come to your web store.

When choosing Internet hosting sites, consider whether the Internet hosting site offers any Internet marketing software. These free tools, which you actually pay for through your monthly membership fees, can help you grow your business in areas that you might not have considered. Any Internet hosting site that is not concerned in the least, with how you operate your business, and market your business, will certainly not be concerned in how your business can grow.

This uncaring Internet hosting site is certainly not the right one when choosing Internet hosting sites for your business to use. There are numerous Internet hosting sites to choose from and with more research you can find the one that is right for you.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Web Hosting - The Internet Marketing Tool

An important part of doing any kind marketing today is definitely an effective Internet marketing strategy, and for that the first thing you need is reliable web hosting.

I know some people say that you can market this and that without having your own website, but I definitely disagree. Many affiliate programs and various business opportunities offer you "personalized web sites" that you can use without owning you own server space. However, replicated company websites and an often long and cumbersome affiliate link can only take you so far, with thousands of other people using the exact same material.

Another trick, that seems to be really in vogue these days, is people who want to advertise with Google Adsense or Yahoo using your money. Most often they make it sound like this is as easy as it gets, when it comes to making money online as an affiliate.

While Adsense and other pay per click advertising is definitely a viable option, one should remember that it requires thorough keyword research and continuous tracking in order to produce a good ROI. Additionally, according to Google's new Terms of Service, you can't point an AdSense ad directly to an affiliate link - the link must always point to an URL of your own. The very same thing goes for publishing articles in the popular article directories.

Finally, if you have your own company and product, your own high quality server space really is an absolute must these days. However, the big "dot-com bubble" was at least partially caused by people charging obnoxious fees for company websites that actually delivered very little results.

Done right, your online presense doesn't have to be that expensive, while still generating great revenue. The choice of web host is one of the crucial steps in turning your website into a great success.

Points to consider when choosing a hosting company

If you are serious about making it online you definitely need you very own web space, that you can do what you want with. As an affiliate you can, for instance, put up your own websites that offer some unique content to your visitors and pre-sells them on the affiliate product or business opportunity of your choosing. People do not like to be sold, remember - a friend with a genuine recommendation is always more welcome than a stranger with a business pitch.

So how do you choose a web host, then?

In my humble opinion you should be looking for the following:

* Reliability

* Support

* Integrated features

* Price

Exactly in that order. There are many services that provide you hosting space for free, I know, but if you are going to market in a professional manner you definitely need to get professional hosting. Besides, most free webhosts pack YOUR site full with THEIR advertisements.

When you are trying to build credibility with your audience this can easily be fatal.

The webhost I personally have chosen, fulfill the criteria I mentioned above. Their service is extremely reliable and their support is the best I have seen online anywhere - you can call, email or chat live with the friendly support staff 24/7/365.

I can not overemphasize the importance of this, because when working with websites, scripts and things like that, it is not a question of IF you will run into trouble but when. And unless you are a total guru yourself you will need help, the faster the better.

When it comes to features, it is naturally important to be allowed to run scripts like php, cgi, asp etc. Because these are widely used by shopping carts, sequential auto responders and other tools you may need.

Naturally, depending on your business strategy and goals, the features required of your webhost will vary. If you are an affiliate, promoting many different products, you need a web host that will allow you to set up many different domain names on the same server - creating separate web sites containing valuable information for your various target audiences.

If you are going to run a large web shop and/or send out large amounts of email, you should seriously consider investing in a dedicated or virtual server. Shared servers (which means you share a server with several other users) often place limits on how much email and bandwidth you can use per month.

When you have found a suitable web host, that can deliver all of the three first mentioned points according to your needs, you should start looking at prices. As the old saying goes, you generally get what you pay for. However, high quality hosting does not have to cost an arm and a leg these days. There are many excellent web hosts to choose from, and if you shop around a little you will find one that also fits your budget.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Different Kinds of Web Hosting

There are several different kinds of Web Hosting that is hosting your web page on one of their servers. What are the different kinds? There are several different kinds of Web Hosting.
Free Web Hosting Service -- A free web hosting service is a service in which it is free. No cost to you. No Money or Credit Cards needed. Most free web services support themselves by attaching advertisements to your page in the form of banners, texts-links and/or pop-ups. The majority of free hosting services assign sub-domain names such as (janedoe.forexample.com) or sub-directory like (www.forexample.com/janedoe) Some disadvantages are that you receive little bandwidth, advertisements, no guarantee of uptime, and doesn't allow some file types.
Shared Web Hosting Service – Shared Web Hosting Service can also be called virtual hosting. This is a situation where there are multiple domains hosted on the same physical server and all share the same IP address or a set of IP addresses.
Reseller Web Hosting – Reseller Web Hosting is a setup that involves you selling hosting as a reseller to your own customers. The Parent Hosting company then receives a portion of the hosting proceeds back to it.
Virtual Dedicated Server – Although there are companies who may call this shared hosting, it's true setup is where there are multiple domains on a series of machines not sharing an IP address, and many times the web master has shell access.
Dedicated Hosting Service – Dedicated hosting is setup for one domain for one and it's own set of IP addresses. This is the most common high-end host.
Managed Hosting Service – Managed Hosting involves a web site hiring a company to manage it's servers and to also manage the day to day routine of doing maintenance of the site like backups of the databases and it's cache files.
Co-location Web Hosting Service – The website owner would purchase a server and rent a spot in the rack location for the server to sit. They would then rent a block of bandwidth and a block of IP addresses to server their web hosting needs. This is often interwoven with Managed Hosting Services at the Co-location Web Hosting Service. This can be often times the most cost effective over a long span of time.
Clustered Hosting – This is the coupe' de gras of hosting. The end all to beat all. The Clustered hosting solution is for monster sites like MSN, Google, Yahoo, etc. In the most extreme cases, a company may opt for this, however it might think at this point to hiring it's own IT department and in house Servers.

Whatever hosting type your site needs, be sure to do a little background check on the company and try to talk to at least 2 of it's current or past customers. Also think about payment options and lastly about your needs.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

How to choose the right web hosting plan for your website

There are many factors involved in choosing the right web hosting plan for your new website. The trick is to weight the cost against the features provided. Of course it is easy to get the cheapest price web hosting plan with a XYZ company. But this plan does not have SQL or PHP functions, it has limited traffic bandwidth etc. So, really it depends on what your web site needs are.

To select a good web hosting plan, I recommend that at least the following features are included:

1. Big traffic bandwidth.
2. Supports SQL and PHP.
3. Supports sub domains.
4. Cpanel for easy control.
5. At least 5000Mb storage space.
6. Auto responders.
7. POP email accounts.
8. FTP accounts
9. Backup support

Then from all these features, select the price that is within your budget. Some hosting providers charge a one time setup fee, and some charge less if you pay one year fees in advance. Also look out for incentives like free domain names provided, this is a powerful draw which is quite common nowadays.

If you are planning to host multiple web sites, you need to choose a plan that supports multiple domain hosting on one single account. Some providers do support this and it is mostly 2 or 3 domains. I heard of others that support unlimited domains, but you need to analyze the price factor against this option.
The downside is that if the hosting provider server goes down, all your web sites will be down as well. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket so to speak.

Probably there are many other considerations before you decide on the web hosting plan that is most suitable for you. But time and effort spent on getting the right plan the first time round is worth investing in.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Choosing The Right Web Hosting Company

The number of firms performing their businesses on the internet has increased today. We can observe websites selling all kinds of stuff on the internet. If you are thinking about setting up on online sales store, an auction site or other business online business of your choice, the first and most important task for you would be to find a good web space will provision of all the additional tools you need.

Web hosting has itself become a major business in the recent years. There are such a large number of web hosting companies that it sometimes becomes impossible to determine which the right one is. A good web hosting company is that which sells or rents some space to you on their server and look after all the matters related to its technical maintenance. Hence, the client only needs to worry about building his online business now.

There is a list of things that you need to consider when selecting a web hosting company.

a) Uptime guarantee: Your web hosting company should provide a minimum uptime guarantee of 99%. If this is not the case, the web hosting company can be taken as unreliable.

b) Speed: The websites hosted on the web hosting company’s server must open and load fairly quick, otherwise the visitors will be drawn away due to long loading period. It should be easily accessible even through a dial-up connection to attract maximum visitors.

c) Popularity: the web hosting company should have a large number of clients, whose number keeps increasing consistently. Such companies have good marketing plans in place which can help you promote your online business.

d) Disk space offered: The web hosting company should provide enough disk space to set up a webpage with minimum graphics initially. It should also provide an option for upgrading to a bigger space latter.

e) Control panel: A control panel is the tool using which the user can control, access and update his website regularly. For instance, cPanel is the most popular control panel used by most web hosting companies.

f) Bandwidth: It measures the amount of data that can be sent or received in unit time. It regulates the speed with which data is transferred in and out of the server computer of your website.

Ability to handle huge databases is also another plus point. Apart from all this, the company should provide good customer support to all its clients who purchase server space from the company.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Web Hosting Concerns For Ecommerce Businesses

Ecommerce businesses have needs that many websites do not. Whether the site is a content management system (CMS) that has thousands of pages with advertising on them, or a shopping cart, or a member only site, the site will one day reach a level of success that forces the company to reconsider their platform.

Platform

A platform is the system the ecommerce business is built on. it could be something simple like a MS FrontPage generated ‘static’ website. Or, It could be a Drupal content management system, with all the bells and whistles, including shopping cart, chat rooms, newsletters, and a podcast.

Many ecommerce businesses start with ‘wizard’ or template generated sites. This type of short sited thinking can be extremely costly in the long run.

Every business should assume they will need a bigger platform. A small business may not have the time to manage a Drupal site, or the resources to hire a programmer who is familiar with Drupal. They need to start with something smaller, and build a bigger platform later.

Programmers

One of the biggest mistakes ecommerce businesses make is believing that all programmers who code in PHP and MySql can handle all CMS platforms. This is not true. Grace Publishing Media, a medium sized social networking business paid $8000 for a platform that never worked, they had to trash it. They hired programmers who were familiar with the software platform, and had a new site within two months, for less than $900.00.

Types of Web Hosting

There are four types of web hosting, community shared, shared, virtual, and dedicated.

Community hosting is free, and is on a site where everyone shares a similar domain name. This type of site is impossible to promote. It may be free, but it will never rank high enough on the search engine sites to generate enough sales to keep the business solvent.

Shared hosting is the most common. It costs about $5 - $25 a month. Each website has their own private space, and their own management panel. The most common admin panels are CPanel and Plesk. The bandwidth, CPU burden, and other web resources are shared.

The second type of hosting is good for a small start up business. The important thing to confirm is that they use up to date databases and they have excellent customer service. However, as the business grows it will cause more burden on the CPU as more people use the site at the same time. This can cause problems that will not only crash the ecommerce site’s website, but it may also cause problems with the adjoining sites.

The third and fourth types of hosting, virtual and dedicated, is more private. A virtual server is one that has been broken into sections. Each ecommerce business has their own section, databases, bandwidth, and admin centre, but the CPU is shared. The ‘burden’ on the system of each website is still controlled tightly. This can cost $25 - $100 a month.

The dedicated server is the same as owning your own server. Everything is private. The business is allowed to max out all their resources without worrying about being limited or suspended by the hosting company. This service regularly costs $50 - $250 a month.

Managed

The most important aspect of hosting for the ecommerce business is finding ‘managed’ hosting. Never opt for unmanaged. It can result in dramatic down times, corruptions, and even having a lost system.

Back Up

No ecommerce business should sign for any hosting service that doesn’t offer backup. However, take a ‘lesson learned’ from companies who preceded yours – also learn how to back up the company on a hard drive in your computer, or a zip file.

Hosting companies, even the big ones, go out of business regularly, losing everything on their servers.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Hosting Service Providers and Identity Theft

My Hosting Service, My Security Service: How much protection does your web host give you from identity theft...and how much can they?

There are laws now that protect us from identity thieves, sure, but oftentimes, by the time the law gets involved, the damage is already done. Your website may be defaced. Your name may be sullied. Your hosting service may have locked you out. You lose customers. You lose money. To recover, you have to regain lost ground, which also takes time and money. But what can you do to protect yourself? And can your web hosting service help?

In two words: they'd better. At the very least a hosting service in the age of spammers, hijackers, and hackers (oh my!) should at the very least have one or more firewalls protecting your data. They should also be able to offer you protection from Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, a common outcome of internet identity theft. Some hosting services may offer you a Virtual Private Network (at relevant expense, of course) for additional protection.

Your payment area should be completely secure, at the bare minimum promising SSL digital encryption of all incoming and outgoing data. You should also make sure the shopping cart your hosting service provides is compatible with the major online payment processing gateways, such as PayPal, NETeller, Citadel, FirePay Click2Pay, UseMyBank, and others.

Identity thieves will often try to access your hosting service account using the "fruits" of their thieving. Once inside, they can hijack your domain away from you or delete important files from your hosting service. If this happens to you, one thing to do is check the server logs of your hosting service to figure out the exact date and time that the theft occurred. Note the IP addresses involved in the action and contact the associated ISP. This alone won't resolve the problem. But it's a start.

If your email address is stolen, you may find you start receiving returned messages that you appear to have sent but which you know for certain you did not. Print each and every one of those messages out immediately and make copies -- they're evidence. Not only may they come in handy in tracing the source of the theft, but they may be the very things that keep your hosting service from terminating your account (if, for one hypothetical example, a thief uses your email address to send X-rated material).

The other immediate action to take if you ever suspect yourself of being a victim of internet identity theft is notify your hosting service, your ISP, and your domain name registrar. Any instructions they give you, follow. You could also file a police report (and probably should, at least to get the crime on record), but as it's unlikely anything will come of it (at least not immediately), this should really only be done after you've first contacted your hosting service, ISP, and registrar.

******

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Cheap Web Hosting Companies and the affiliate system

Customers searching in a search engine query for web hosting reviews are bound to find websites offering many similar companies and portraying identical layouts of web hosting reviews and comparison charts. Customers browse between many identical hosting service providers across a large spectrum of different web hosting review websites, and feel perplexed by having to distinguish which hosting providers are the best when all reviews are covering equivalent web hosting companies.
What’s the reason for the similarity in web hosting companies, cheap prices, and the amount of benefits? That’s simple, affiliation.
So just what is an affiliation? Affiliation is what the top web hosting companies do to control the web hosting industry by setting-up a “retailer” like environment across the internet. It is a modern day version of how corporations franchise themselves globally. In this scenario, a normal person can set up their own website and affiliate themselves with any of their review website’s self-proclaimed “top 10 web hosting companies”.
How is this affiliation system trustworthy when it is so widespread across the internet? The affiliation system allows web hosting providers’ greater access to their target market without the necessary work to expose their sites online. Through search engine optimization and letting people accomplish the work for them, hosting providers become increasingly popular for customers seeking the best web hosting companies. The affiliation strategy also creates a shakeout in the web hosting market; smaller web hosting companies cannot afford to compete or pay people to affiliate and are thus back shelved in the lower ranking pages on search engines and therefore never seen by customers.
Although the affiliation system portrays web hosting review websites as a scam, that is not the case. The affiliation system permits web hosting review sites to create a site which is based upon the best top web hosting service providers. If these hosting companies didn’t have the money to spend on affiliation, they certainly wouldn’t have money to spend on customer service, greater benefits, high quality servers, and hosting millions of websites across the internet yearly. This affiliation is what allows review sites to create a site solely constructed around all the benefits, and cheap prices, as well as coupons and deals (such as a free month off) .
If it wasn’t for hosting affiliation, review sites (and SEO specialists) wouldn’t combine to bring you solid reviews concerning the top web hosting providers on the market. In today’s world is everything is profit oriented, but that is the flexibility which creates these review websites and allows you to purchase a company which fits your financial needs and attain benefits which support your website structure.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Aspects For Consideration When Comparing Web Hosting Services

Of course now that your website is nearing completion you will need a web hosting service for your website as soon as it is done. If you have already taken the time to scout around on the net for a web hosting service you may have noticed a few things and one of them is that there is a massive quantity of web hosting services available on the Internet.

It is virtually impossible to determine just how many hosting services that there are on the net, because new ones are constantly making their debut and many of them are destined to fold up in a matter of time due to the intense level of competition in the web hosting business.

So, what are the requirements that you will want to look for in a web hosting service that you can use in making your final decision? One mistake that many people make when choosing a web hosting service is that they focus exclusively on the technical aspects of a web hosting service. They will look at their amount of bandwidth and gigabytes to the exclusion of all other aspects that should also be considered.

This is due to the fact that too many people are overly optimistic with regards to the projected level of success that their website is going to have. They assume that it is going to take off and run off of its own momentum and there will be little or no need for promotion. The fact of the mater is that the Internet is a very competitive place to do business in and no matter what genre your website is in you will be competing against others.

This is why you should give future search engine optimization or SEO consideration when selecting a web hosting service. SEO is simply the description of the process or processes that are used to better the position of your website on the various Internet search engines. The optimal place of course is the top of page one and the least optimal position is the last place on the last page.

It is for this reason that there is therefore more then just the price and technical aspects to consider when examining a web hosting service. The first tool that you will want a web hosting service to have for you is a tool for researching and analyzing your competition on the Internet and for planing the use of your keywords.

Another thing that you will want to look into is whether or not a web hosting service currently creates site maps and if they automatically ping Google, Yahoo and Ask after you have upgraded or added a page to your website.

This is important, because if they don't you will have to do this yourself which can be somewhat time consuming. One more tool that you will need to have at your disposal is a tool that will review your web pages and make suggestions for changes that will better your position with regards to SEO.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Affordable Php Mysql Hosting Is Within Your Reach

Gone are the days of expensive web hosting. There was a time, just a few years ago, when hosting was not as cheap as it is now. Lets see why.

Hosting is all about storage on a hard disk (which resides on the web server) and bandwidth for your data. Till a few years ago, hard disk storage was not as large as it is now. Now-a-days hard disk drives come in a typical 400 GB to 500 GB capacity ranges. Even the smallest ones for home computer usage come in over 100 GB sizes. Compare that with a 40 GB hard drive just a few years ago.

A few of these 400 GB to 500 GB range hard disk drives in a typical Linux powered web server with 4 Intel Xeon Central Processing Units gives more than enough processing power and storage capacity to host hundreds of websites on one server, all of them running happily.

Throw in open source (free) Apache + PHP + MySQL combination and you have a recipe for hosting a real working dynamic website at very low costs. What was once a premium combination is now very standard and very cheap and very affordable. It is not uncommon to find hosting plans as cheap as just 99 cents per month, which come complete with all features including PHP and MySQL and enough storage + bandwidth.

There is, thus, no reason for anyone who wants to host anything from a personal homepage or a home business / small business wanting a dynamic website for their online business, to go only for simple HTML websites. No. That is long gone.

Shared web hosting has become very affordable for every kind of use and application. As storage and processing technology advances, hosting will be available with even better capacities and more powerful features. It makes complete sense to use the power of PHP and MySQL when it is well within everyone's reach.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

A short intro to becoming a web hosting company

Have you ever wondered how you can start your own web hosting company? Are you a web designer that needs more features or more control in the web hosting you resell to your clients? Don't yet need a dedicated server? Then a private label virtual server is your solution. With a private label virtual server you can set your own prices to control your profits, and earn unlimited income.

There are a lot of companies on the internet where you can register for a hosting reseller account. But do your homework well, otherwise you might regret it later on. Do some research before you register with any hosting company. Check for how long they are in business and if they are reliable. You do not want your customers to join today and leave tomorrow.

One big issue. PLEASE REGISTER YOUR OWN DOMAIN NAME. You must have full control over it. YOU must be the owner of the domain.
YOU must be the administrative contact for it. YOU must be the technical contact for it.

To run your own reseller hosting company is like running a normal website. Believe me, not much experience is required. Since you are responsible for billing your customers, you ultimately determine the profit margin and manage all your customers accounts through one main control panel.

You are responsible for marketing, sales, billing and support activity for your customers. You retain the ownership of your customers. The hosting company has no contact with your customers.

Dedicated Server or Reseller Account:

Dedicated server or reseller account? That is the question. Most people who are ready to start a web hosting business ask this question. There are however different benefits for each solution.
You should choose a reseller account if you are a new business owner who does not know how to manage a dedicated server. Managing a dedicated server can be time consuming if you are not proficient at server management. With a reseller account a team of experts manages the server that your web sites are hosted on. A reseller account is also a fraction of the cost of a dedicated server. Usually a reseller account is a good place to start because you can upgrade to a dedicated server at any time.

Another benefit of a reseller hosting account is that you have no software or hardware maintenance costs. In-house managed solutions require the purchase of hardware (and more as your business grows), maintenance contracts, and software ( with its related maintenance.) Using Private Label Virtual Servers, you don't have to purchase hardware or software, regardless of the number of customers you have.

You buy wholesale and sell retail, thereby ensuring your monthly profit margin. No unpredictable costs like professional fees or hardware costs (should something go wrong with your in-house service). When your business gets successful, there won't be any additional data center, network, hardware, or software costs.

A virtual private server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted. This usually gives you root-level access to the hosting companies machine, so that you can install almost any software that runs on the chosen OS.

One more thing. You are free to use this article on your website provided that it stays unchanged and the links in the resourcebox is live, search-engine friendly links.

7 Simple Steps For Choosing A Great Web Host

There are thousands of web hosts around today with thousands of plans to choose from making what was once a simple procedure seem like a daunting task for both newbie and pro alike.

Whether you're looking for your first host or looking to move on to a better one there are 7 simple steps you must follow to succeed in choosing a great host.


1. Platform
The first and most crucial step in choosing a web host is determining the platform the web server should run, usually a choice between Unix/Linux and Windows.

Your choice is largely determined by your website and the technologies used to create it, generally a website created with Microsoft technologies (ASP, VB) will run on Windows servers while most other sites using open source technologies (PHP, Perl, Python etc) will run on Linux based systems.


2. Features
Once you've chosen your platform the next step is determining the features you'll need from your web host. Take your time with this step as the feature lists of web hosts are getting longer and longer every day and while some plans may look similar on the surface, a good look at the feature lists may tell another story.

Only you can determine the specific features you'll need, but some key things to keep an eye on are:

Disk Space
Bandwidth
Backups
Uptime
Money Back Guarantee
Domains Allowed
Databases (Number & type)
CGI, PHP, Perl, Python, SSI
Cron
Email accounts

The list goes on and on, just remember to take your time and make sure your new web host is going to provide you with everything you need.


3. Cost
Often this is the only thing people consider when choosing their first web host, funds are usually tight and on the surface most hosts look very similar. Sometimes you get lucky and choose a good host, but more often than not it turns out to be a horror story.

I can't stress enough that choosing a web host based on price alone is asking for trouble, remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, think about the total cost of ownership. TCO includes lost sales due to downtime & slow speeds, downtime rebates, extra bandwidth charges, setup costs, extra feature costs, and your monthly fee.

Many hosts will require you to pay yearly to get the best price available though there are some that allow you to pay by the month and still get the best price, it's really a matter of personal choice as to what payment method works best for you.


4. Customer Service
Customer service is another aspect that is often forgotten about until it is too late, something breaks and you need it fixed and those wonderfully handy sales people who were more than helpful in taking your money are now nowhere to be seen, all the while you're losing out on sales every minute.

You shouldn't settle for anything less than 24/7/365 service, your website needs to be running all the time so it's no good if your hosting company doesn't work during the holidays. Don't take the web hosting companies word for it, they all claim 24/7 support but few back it up with consistent performance. Be sure to test them out at various times of the day and night via phone, email and live chat if they offer it.


5. Support
An extensive knowledge base or faq can be a real time saver as well as being an indication of the level of customer service support and expertise you can expect to receive. Spend some time browsing the support sections of the website and see for yourself the level of support provided.

Are questions in the knowledge base answered thoroughly? Are real solutions provided or are they just “cut and paste” replies?


6. Longevity
Do a whois on the web host's domain name and find out the creation date, anything less than a year ago and the risk that they won't be around next year increases. They could be a great host, but considering more then 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year that really isn't something you should be taking a chance on.


7. Uptime
It's a fact of life that a web host cannot be online 100% of the time, servers need to be rebooted for security and software updates and any web host that doesn't get updated faces the increased risk of being successfully hacked.

99.9% uptime guarantees are pretty standard in the industry however a guarantee is only as good as how it is defined and the company behind it. Look for no less than a full months free hosting should they not meet their guarantee, a prorated refund based on the amount of downtime is virtually worthless. Say you pay $10 for a month of hosting and your site is down for 24 hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime which ends up being about 33 cents.


There you go, 7 simple steps for choosing a great web host. It's not rocket science, just a little research and investigating that can save a lot of heartache in the future.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

5 Common Web Hosting Mistakes

Mistakes aren't necessarily a bad thing, but if you can learn from other people's mistakes it can save you from having to deal with them yourself. When it comes to web hosting, there are basically two kinds of mistakes - technical and general business.

Technical mistakes usually come up because of a misunderstanding of the internet and how it actually works. The first mistake many people make when creating a website is to cram as much information, photographs, images, etc. on each page as possible.

This makes the site take longer to download, leading to many visitors just moving on and never actually looking at the site. It also makes it more difficult to find what they're looking for if the page is unorganized.

Another common error is creating a web site that isn't search engine friendly. If the search engines can't determine what your site is about, they aren't going to be able to send you people who are searching for what you offer.

A mistake that many people make when starting out is to choose a host solely based on price. This is obviously an important factor, especially in the beginning, but if you choose the cheapest host you may be limited in your scalability as the website grows in popularity and traffic.

On the business side of things, the most common mistake is trying to be everything to everyone. You should have a plan for your website - a purpose for its existence - and build according to that plan.

Choose your target market and stick with it. Advertise in places they would see. Market in ways that would be of interest to them. Resist the urge to branch out into other areas just because something catches your eye. A site that tries to do everything usually ends up achieving nothing.

Another common business mistake is following the competition's lead. You'll obviously want to keep an eye on them to see what they're up to, but if you copy everything they do you'll always be one step behind.

Use your creativity and come up with unique ways to stand out from the rest of the websites in your market.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Locally Hosted Email Responders

Locally hosted autoresponders are autoresponders that you host through your own web server. Normally, they are either scripts or programs that you need to have installed on your web server. They often require you to have a database, such as SQL 2000 or mySQL. They will also require you to purchase or lease programs or scripts that were written in ASP, Perl, or PHP http://www.BestBuyVisa.org

Once the installation has been completed, you’ll need a web browser to start using these programs, to set them up, and run your subscriber list. You don’t need to be an expert with these programs, although you will need a working knowledge so you can operate them effectively. There are several autoresponders out there, many of which are flexible and offer you powerful features. If you are a webmaster with your own site, a locally hosted email autoresponder is a great investment.

If you are in the internet marketing business and have a large subscriber base, locally hosted email autoresponders are a great choice - especially when you compare them to autoresponders that are remotely hosted. Locally hosted programs will also provide you true flexibility, involving no third parties. You don’t have to worry about any company hosting your autoresponder – simply because you will be doing everything yourself.

One of the best things about locally hosted email autoresponders is the fact that you own the program. Once you have purchased the software, you own it for the rest of your life. This way, you don’t have to worry about any other charges. You won’t have to pay a company to run it, which will save you a lot of money in the long run. There are no monthly charges involved either, which makes locally hosted email responders that much better than remote hosted responders.

Providing the licensing condition allows it, you might be able to run the email responder on multiple sites. Some will let you run multiple copies on several different websites, while others require that you pay a small fee to upgrade first. If you are planning to run multiple copies, you should first find out how many copies or how many websites you are able to use the software with, before you make a purchase. This way you’ll be able to determine the true cost of the software and whether or not it is right for you.

Considering the fact that you’ll be running locally hosted email responders yourself, you’ll have more control than you would with a remote email responder. Locally hosted email responders give you more control over the database, and a better range of customization features. This way, you can set things up to your liking and rest assured that you are in total control.

Some locally hosted email responder programs will allow you to further customize the script to fit your needs. You can do this yourself if you know enough about scripting languages, or simply pay someone to do it for you. If you the program you are using or plan to use allow customization, you can pretty much fine tune it to your liking.

All across the Internet, there are several locally hosted email responders that you can get. Some of the best include Post Master, Send Studio, and Intellisponder Pro. There are other great programs out there, although they will cost you money to use. Once you buy them though, they are yours for as long as you use them. When you consider what’s best for your online business – you can’t rule out the power and features that a locally hosted email responder will provide you with.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

How To Choose A Quality Web Host

There are thousands of web hosting services available online, and some of them are more reliable than others. When you are looking at the number of options available, it is easy to become overwhelmed. It is important to look at potential problems with hosting companies prior to using them. This can save you a lot of time, money, and headaches.

You should avoid hosting services which have servers which are constantly down. A good hosting company should be able to monitor its servers and quickly fix problems. Some hosting services may be down as long as a few days, and these are companies you will want to avoid. It is also important to make sure all the features offered by the company work. If your email is down, this prevents you from being able to run your business. This is something you can't afford, and you will want to make sure you stay away from companies which do this.

Another thing which is important for you to look at is tech support. How long does it take the tech department to answer your phone calls or emails? A good company should answer within a few hours. Some hosting companies take many days to answer your questions, and the answers they give you may not solve the problem. Hosting companies like this should be avoided. You should also look for hosting services which communicate well with their customers. A lack of communication is one of the leading causes of business failure. You don't want to do business with companies that don't effectively communicate.

Sometimes when you cancel your account, the hosting company will continue billing you. This is a very frustrating situation, and you may have to file claims with your bank in order to get your money back. Most hosting companies take out automatic payments, and you will want to do research to make sure they stop billing customers once the service is cancelled. When you look online at hosting companies, always look at the price. If it is too good to be true, it probably is. The prices charged should be enough to pay for their service maintenance and other fees.

Any hosting services which advertise unlimited bandwidth should make you suspicious. If you use a lot of bandwidth, you may have your website taken down. Hosting websites which don't look professional should also raise red flags. Websites with lots of spelling errors or no information about the company are unlikely to provide quality service.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Web Hosting: Brave And Quiet Heroes

Web hosting is not a glamorous occupation. Being a web host isn’t one of those things that cause friends to ask lots of questions about what you do. Pretty girls will not likely say, “That’s fascinating,” and mean it.

When you are asked for specifics you may likely be able to spout a laundry list of technical jargon that may only have meaning for you.

However, if it weren’t for the web hosts of this world ecommerce would not be a reality for the millions who love to shop online. We would not see information sites or game sites. Sports and news would be relegated to talk radio or 24 hour news channels on TV.

Without the advent of wide spread web hosting the Internet would be a series of techno-codes for an elite group of university professors and students. Web hosting has taken what was once a format for science and mathematics and simplified it for the rest of us.

A web host takes care of hardware and software issues, they assure the uptime on your website and they take what may be difficult to understand and simplify it for all of us to use.

Web hosts are the business partners of worldwide commerce. These experts quietly assure continued operation of a website that has the potential to bring wealth to the site owner.

I have said before that using a web host is a bit like buying an office, but it’s really more than that. You are responsible for the business part of your operation, the web host is responsible to make sure your office runs smoothly. That makes your web host a business partner and office manager. Not bad for someone so quiet.

We tend to attach celebrity status to actors, sports stars and singers, yet many of us would never hear about the latest news of these icons if it weren’t for web hosts on the job to allow the information to be available online.

Web hosts are heroes in their own quiet way, yet they don’t mind monitoring equipment, replacing servers, and installing new software to make your online experience the best it can be.

The World Wide Web has opened up a world of opportunity for ecommerce and web hosting has led the way in making an online presence not only a possibility, but also an affordable means of fulfilling the dream of business ownership.

Consider this a hearty salute to the brave men and women that keep our websites running and rarely receive the gratitude they deserve.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Choosing Between Free or Paid Web Hosting

There are a number of things to consider when choosing between a free or paid web hosting service. Setting aside cost for a moment, lets look at some factors that will help you make an informative decision.

The very first thing you must consider is the intent or purpose of your website. Are you looking for a convenient way to share photos of family and friends? Or, are you considering something a little more complex such as adding multiple pages with different content on each? How about a website to promote a product or business?

The purpose of your website will act as a key component in determining which type of web hosting service is best suited for you. For example, if your website will be used primarily for personal postings, your file sizes aren’t very large and you don’t expect a lot of traffic, you won’t require a lot of disk space or bandwidth for your hosting.

If this is the case, a free web hosting service may meet your needs. Free web hosting services are also useful if you’re inexperienced in creating web pages. This type of service can provide an excellent opportunity for you to learn and practice your html skills. You could even use a free service as a test site before uploading your web pages to your live website.

Keep in mind that most free web hosting services provide limited features compared to paid web hosting services, but normally offer enough disk space and bandwidth to host a small website. To help offset costs, though, most free providers will place advertisements on your web pages.

With paid hosting, you’ll find a variety of available plans to choose from. These plans allow more disk space and bandwidth, and usually include a number of other features such as free domain names, free sub-domains and unlimited email accounts. Some of the more advanced common features are a CGI-Bin, MySQL databases and Microsoft FrontPage extensions.

Compared to free web hosting, you’ll also find that the services provided by paid web hosting companies are much more reliable, not to mention offering a higher level of customer support.

Cost wise, there is no charge to register for a free web hosting service, although you may be required to purchase your own domain name. For a basic paid service, you can expect to pay anywhere from $5 to $10 per month – a very small price for the improved service, support and features you receive.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Web Hosting Options For Online Business

Once you have registered your domain, it is time to look for a home for your future Web site. Before you build your site, you should find a hosting company that is right for your business. Hosting has become inexpensive in the past few years. If you spend more than fifteen dollars per month, you are spending too much.

Most small businesses should host their sites with a hosting company as opposed to hosting in house. Hosting in house requires and IT staff and expertise. It is expensive, and it will never be as reliable as a professional hosting solution. There are so much that could go wrong in your business, don’t add another headache to your already hectic schedule. Let the pros do it for you.

Shared – The most popular option for small business is shared hosting. Web servers running as shared hosts can house several hundreds of Web sites. It is a great way to get your domain online and save.

Pros – Shared accounts are inexpensive. Quick and easy set up.

Cons – Limited bandwidth, shared IP address, limited storage, slower server response, more crashes, limited support, resource limitation

Price – Could be as low as a few dollars per month.

Dedicated – High traffic web sites require high performance dedicated hosting servers.

Pros: Dedicated servers are all about contraol. You are in full control of the server. You can customize it any way you like. You can only blame yourself if your web site becomes unavailable! Because the server is dedicated to your site, your site will load quickly. It is ideal for high bandwidth use such as streaming video. Freedom to install any program you wish without restrictions.

Cons: More expensive than shared hosting.

Cost: Several hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars depending on specific needs.

Colocated Hosting

A very similar concept to dedicated hosting with one major difference. While you rent a server with a dedicated hosting account, you own the server with a collocated account. Instead of renting the server, you rent the rack space. The collocation service provider provides you a connection to the Internet and optional support. You pay a fee for maintenance and bandwidth.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Cheap Web Hosting With Godaddy

Often times those seeking to create their own webpage with a unique domain name encounter a little difficulty when identifying a web hosting provider suitable for them. Many providers charge a hefty price for domain names and the services they provide, which are frequently inadequate. However there are numerous web hosting service providers who offer a great variety of benefits at affordable rates. One such provider that presents superior cheap rates is GoDaddy. Simply visiting http://GoDaddy.com just once will enable you to view the many services and advantages of hosting with GoDaddy and also browse through an abundance of available packages and domain names.

Being one of the world's largest and most popular hosts, one would expect GoDaddy to present quite an extensive array of services and options as is the case. With every single package offered by GoDaddy you get the promise of continuous monitoring, maintenance and security that has essentially made GoDaddy such a reputable and sought after provider. The world-class data center allows this provider to constantly watch over your webpage and the constant presence of a top-notch firewall serves to make your website extraordinarily secure. Along with the benefit of cheap rates and the aforementioned advantages of hosting with GoDaddy, users can also receive custom support, thus you can truly receive a remarkably accommodating service with GoDaddy.

There are a fair number of providers offering very quick setup free of charge but none like GoDaddy. Their free rapid account setup is virtually unmatched. Browsing the website one will also notice the ease with which one can find a suitable package for them and also contact GoDaddy if necessary. Finding information about building your website and web hosting in general is also quite easy on the GoDaddy webpage. What's more sections of the website actually explain how to go about performing specific tasks that you may need to carry out when building your site.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Reseller or VPS, which to choose?

With the emergence of VPS's and with it currently being widely offered by a number of web hosts. sometime at low prices, the question that comes to our mind is, what should I choose? a VPS or a normal reseller plan, to help you with the decision we will mention the pros and cons for both sides, which would help you better understand both of them and thus help you make the most suitable choice for your current needs.

We will start with the pros and cons of a VPS, a Virtual Private Server is basically like a reseller plan in terms of disk space and bandwidth, you would usually find reseller plans come with more disk space and bandwidth, but a VPS has allot more benefits over a reseller, the 1st one would be Root access, with a VPS you have root access which is not available with almost all reseller plans, some would say and why would I need root access, in some cases you could be right, if your looking only to resell shared hosting plans you probably wouldn't need root access, but if your looking to install some custom software, learn some system administration on a remote machine, a VPS would be the perfect solution for that instead of investing in a dedicated server which would cost allot more than a VPS. A VPS also can be loaded with a number of operating systems depending on what the provider supports, for example of you were to choose a VPS on a linux platform you would be able to offer linux web hosting plans, which can also be measured on the windows platform.

The 2nd and most important advantage for a VPS is the privacy and isolation you have from other clients on the server, in a shared reseller environment, your account and your hosted accounts could be damaged because of someone else's fault on the server, for example if another reseller on the same server your placed has a client running a loopy script which would eventually crash the server, your account will suffer from downtime because of that, which wouldn't happen with a VPS environment, if a VPS where to crash on the server your VPS is placed on your VPS wouldn't be effected at all.

The 3rd advantage would be the dedicated resources each VPS usually comes with, each VPS usually comes with a minimum guaranteed CPU and memory usage for your VPS, which means no one can abuse the server resources or manipulate it for his account, in the worst case you would have your guaranteed CPU and memory to use.

VPS would be the best choice between a reseller plan and a dedicated server, a VPS would give you more reliability and room to expand with your web hosting business. At PremiusHosting, although we do offer a wide range of Affordable windows web hosting plans, but we currently don't offer windows reseller plans, which is not the case with a VPS which can be loaded with any operating system you want as long as we support it (currently either Windows server 2003 or fedora core 1)

Reseller Plans also have some advantages over a VPS, with a reseller plan you usually don't have to worry about the server security, keeping your software up to date and the general management of the server which is usually taken care of from your provider.

My Advice would be, if your not experienced with running a server, just starting out or you just don't have time to take care of a VPS, I would recommend a reseller plan, otherwise a VPS would be a smarter choice.