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.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
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.
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.
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.
******
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Pros and cons of shared hosting
There are a lot of various types of web site hosting. They can be classified by ifferent indexes.
There is Paid and Free web hosting; Linux/Unix-based and Windows-based (and other but they are no that popular); shared, dedicated and VPS. Every hosting type has its own advantages and disadvantages.
The key aim of this article is to acquaint you with main merits and drawbacks of shared hosting.
First of all we must give a definition of the term "shared hosting". So, what is shared hosting?
Shared hosting is such kind of providing space for web sites on the hoster's server when you share this server with other customers' web sites. All web sites use the same software and operating system. But unlike free web hosting which has the same conditions, with shared web hosting you have much more benefits.
Shared web hosting can be divided into two subtypes:
Free Shared Hosting is the best choice for trying some new ideas and not paying for hosting. This type of web site hosting provides you with everything necessary for floating your site. Of course you should not expect the best conditions for your site. Bandwidth and Disk Space is limited. This type of shared hosting may not ensure you with MySQL, PHP support. Web statistics is also poorly provided.
Paid Shared Hosting provides such necessary features, as multiply e-mail, MySQl, PHP are supported. You may use it if you want to host small business web site, intermediate or large professional site but don't need the whole server's space.Using shared hosting you get a good possibility to host your site on a powerful, well administrated server at a low monthly cost.
Shared hosting is in first-time webmasters' great demand, 'cause it can provide reliable web presence without having special technical skills.
So now we can pick out pros and cons of shared hosting:
Pros
• Low cost
• Good server administration
• Multiply e-mail, MySQL, PHP support
• You don't need some unique knowledge in web site and server administration
Cons
• Low security level
• Resource limitation -everybody uses the same memory, CPU and HardDrive.
• You can use only the software which is provided with your hosting company, and correspondingly you can't install your own.
• Some available ports and connections can be limited because of security policy).
The main feature of shared hosting is that you don't need to worry about about possible server problems. Your hosting company's support service is to fix all troubles. So, when choosing shared hosting you must carefully look at company support's quality, the better quality of support - the better conditions for your site.
With shared hosting you can also place several sites in the neighbour parts of the server.
Now when you are acquainted with all special features of shared hosting you can decide whether this type of hosting is appropriate to your needs and requirements.
More hosting articles you can also find here Web Site Hosting Reviews- http://www.web-site-hosting-reviews.com , Web Hosting Review- http://www.web-hosting-review.net and Cheap Web Hosting Directory - http://www.cheap-web-hosting-directory.com .
There is Paid and Free web hosting; Linux/Unix-based and Windows-based (and other but they are no that popular); shared, dedicated and VPS. Every hosting type has its own advantages and disadvantages.
The key aim of this article is to acquaint you with main merits and drawbacks of shared hosting.
First of all we must give a definition of the term "shared hosting". So, what is shared hosting?
Shared hosting is such kind of providing space for web sites on the hoster's server when you share this server with other customers' web sites. All web sites use the same software and operating system. But unlike free web hosting which has the same conditions, with shared web hosting you have much more benefits.
Shared web hosting can be divided into two subtypes:
Free Shared Hosting is the best choice for trying some new ideas and not paying for hosting. This type of web site hosting provides you with everything necessary for floating your site. Of course you should not expect the best conditions for your site. Bandwidth and Disk Space is limited. This type of shared hosting may not ensure you with MySQL, PHP support. Web statistics is also poorly provided.
Paid Shared Hosting provides such necessary features, as multiply e-mail, MySQl, PHP are supported. You may use it if you want to host small business web site, intermediate or large professional site but don't need the whole server's space.Using shared hosting you get a good possibility to host your site on a powerful, well administrated server at a low monthly cost.
Shared hosting is in first-time webmasters' great demand, 'cause it can provide reliable web presence without having special technical skills.
So now we can pick out pros and cons of shared hosting:
Pros
• Low cost
• Good server administration
• Multiply e-mail, MySQL, PHP support
• You don't need some unique knowledge in web site and server administration
Cons
• Low security level
• Resource limitation -everybody uses the same memory, CPU and HardDrive.
• You can use only the software which is provided with your hosting company, and correspondingly you can't install your own.
• Some available ports and connections can be limited because of security policy).
The main feature of shared hosting is that you don't need to worry about about possible server problems. Your hosting company's support service is to fix all troubles. So, when choosing shared hosting you must carefully look at company support's quality, the better quality of support - the better conditions for your site.
With shared hosting you can also place several sites in the neighbour parts of the server.
Now when you are acquainted with all special features of shared hosting you can decide whether this type of hosting is appropriate to your needs and requirements.
More hosting articles you can also find here Web Site Hosting Reviews- http://www.web-site-hosting-reviews.com , Web Hosting Review- http://www.web-hosting-review.net and Cheap Web Hosting Directory - http://www.cheap-web-hosting-directory.com .
Monday, May 3, 2010
Web Hosting 101
Hosting for your domain name on the world-wide web does not have to be like sending a Space Shuttle into orbit. With a little bit of research and using search engines to review a potential host you should have nothing short of a positive hosting experience.
The majority of people probably spend more time looking over a take-out menu and deciding what to order than they spend on researching their future web host.
The hosting market is saturated with companies both big and small, so how do you even begin to find a suitable company to host your web site?
Research:
You have all heard this before, research, research, research no truer words have ever been spoken when it comes to web hosting. A wealth of information resides on the internet regarding the performance and reliability of web hosting companies. From forums to search engines, all that is required is a little effort on your part.
Contact The Hosting Company:
First and foremost contact the potential company’s sales dept and ask the rep a few questions. Are you satisfied with the answers provided at the sales level? Then email their tech support department with some questions. The end result of this work will be a short list of prospective companies for you to carefully consider.
Valuable Asset:
The most important thing to keep in mind during your search for web hosting is that your web site and data are valuable assets. With that said it is important to finally choose a company that can both serve and protect your asset. The old adage you get what you pay for certainly rings true in the web hosting world.
With a little work and research your hosting experience will be a much better and enjoyable experience and you can rest assured that your web site is being served to the "world".
The majority of people probably spend more time looking over a take-out menu and deciding what to order than they spend on researching their future web host.
The hosting market is saturated with companies both big and small, so how do you even begin to find a suitable company to host your web site?
Research:
You have all heard this before, research, research, research no truer words have ever been spoken when it comes to web hosting. A wealth of information resides on the internet regarding the performance and reliability of web hosting companies. From forums to search engines, all that is required is a little effort on your part.
Contact The Hosting Company:
First and foremost contact the potential company’s sales dept and ask the rep a few questions. Are you satisfied with the answers provided at the sales level? Then email their tech support department with some questions. The end result of this work will be a short list of prospective companies for you to carefully consider.
Valuable Asset:
The most important thing to keep in mind during your search for web hosting is that your web site and data are valuable assets. With that said it is important to finally choose a company that can both serve and protect your asset. The old adage you get what you pay for certainly rings true in the web hosting world.
With a little work and research your hosting experience will be a much better and enjoyable experience and you can rest assured that your web site is being served to the "world".
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