Web Hosting: Selecting the Right Host!Choosing a web hosting company is a very personal decision based on your own unique needs. Web hosting is what places your website into the World Wide Web, where anyone can access to it 24 hours a day. In other words, without placing your site onto a web hosting service, you won't get the visibility you want. Most small business owners will most likely go through a web hosting company rather than invest in acquiring their own servers, which is very expensive and difficult. On top of the expense that is involved with having your own server, you need to have a strong educational background to be able to deal with the technical aspects of implementing your own server, or having your own technical computer staff on hand to deal with the process. (And those programmers don't come cheap either!) If you're a new online business or looking for ways to expand your market reach, web hosting is definitely the way to go.
Which web hosting service do you select? There are two key things to keep in mind when you begin your search for an appropriate web hosting service: (1) Find a web hosting company that meets your needs for today, (2) Make sure that this web hosting company you choose can grow with you as your business expands. Another important factor you want to know up front about hosting services, is that once you choose one, and decide it doesn't pan out for you, to switch to another service will be a very painful and a lengthy process. It's just not worth the mistake to make!
Check out these tips in how you can select a web hosting service that has the most qualities such as flexibility, service, and growth capabilities along with a strong background in technical abilities that you're seeking, at a price you can afford.
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5 Steps To Choosing A Great Host
Breal Web Design
This article may be published electronically or in print, free of charge, without alteration to any content and the resource box at the end of the article is included in it's entirity without alteration. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.5 Steps To Choosing A Great Host ***********************************************************
Being online used to be quite expensive. You had to have the hardware to run a site, or pay a small fortune for hosting. These days, there are so many hosting companies it can be confusing. Different companies offer different plans, features, transfer rates and support levels, so how can you choose what's right for you?
Follow these 5 simple steps to find the right package for you.
1. Storage space and data transfer. A small information site or personal site will usually only require a few megabytes of disk space, however, data transfer depends on the size of the pages your are offering your visitors multiplied by the number of visitors. Therefore, a popular and graphics heavy website (such as online art gallery http://www.clickart-gallery.com ) requires a greater monthly transfer than a mostly text site (such as http://www.brealweb.com). You should look at a minimum of 2 GB (2000 MB) data transfer a month. Check with the company that they can upgrade your account if your site increases it's need for storage or monthly data transfer.
2. Added Features. Make a list of the features you want before you start your shopping. Many features such as e-commerce shopping carts and real time credit card processing will cost you a lot of money. Pre-installed scripts such as email scripts and page counters and use of a secure server (SSL) should be included for free. If you can get a browser control panel and browser mail, this allows you extra flexibility with your site. Browser based email lets you access your mail from any Internet connected computer. Be sure you know what's included in the cost of your hosting package. If in doubt, contact the company and ask.
3. Technical Support As most hosting companies offer inclusive technical support, you shouldn't pay extra for this. If you're not offered 24 hours/7 days you should look elsewhere. The test is to contact the company and ask questions. If they don't reply within 48 hours, or don't reply at all, consider another hosting company. A good company should reply within 24-48 hours.
4. Reliability. How reliable is a web hosting company? Most claim 99.9% uptime, but due to the nature of computers and communications equipment, outages will and do occur occasionally. You can contact a company and ask, but they will tell you they're very reliable. Instead, ask for a couple of sites they currently host, that you can check out for yourself. Not only will you see that the site is available, it gives you the opportunity to see how well they perform during peak periods too.
5. Price and Guarantee. If the previous four steps check out, then you need to consider price and this can vary widely. You need to consider setup fees, monthly fees, plan discounts and optional extras in your calculations. Some companies offer you ridiculously low or no monthly fees, but check the fine print before agreeing to anything. Free sites almost always have popups or require space invasive banners. Cheap hosting companies often fail on steps 3 and 4, so check them out first, or you may find your site is often not available to your visitors. Setup costs vary widely too. Basically, this is the cost that a company will charge to set up an account for you. This is justified if you are getting a lot of features included (see step 2). You should not need to pay over $50. If you can get a money back guarantee, then you know the company is concerned about it's customers. The longer the guarantee, the better. Seven days is not usually enough to judge if the company is suited to you.
So, if you follow the steps listed above, you should find the perfect hosting company for your needs. **********************************************************
Breal provides cost effective web site design and hosting with a full 30 day money back guarantee. Web hosting even comes with six months free hosting on yearly accounts. To find out more visit http://www.brealweb.com For a complete list of current articles, send any email to mailto:articlelist@brealweb.com
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| Did You Know? |
Hosting your e-business for free? Smart thinking Johnny... Yes, there are dozens of websites on the internet that offer free web hosting solutions, but before you place important information on Geocities or Freewebs, there's something you must understand:
Trusting your online name to a free web-host is almost always a bad idea
Why?
Not only do free web hosts often restrict your bandwidth, offer miserable http transfer speeds, place ads on your website, or severly limit functionality, but also they severly limit your potential in less tangible ways.
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