Getting set up with cheap web hosting can be a challenge these days in the world of web hosts that provide services like domain bundling, name registration, and free email to get users aboard. Many of these services end up costing you more than a traditional basic hosting account would in the first place, and therefore web hosting can be a hard thing to find for those looking for a bargain. Many people looking for cheap web hosting end up settling for a bundle deal that isn’t what they wanted. In order to get cheap web hosting one must first figure out what his or her needs are, and how best to meet them. This is not easy when it comes to cheap web hosting, because what your needs require may not be the same services offered by any given host. But taking the painful steps of identifying what your web hosting needs are will greatly enhance the ability and chances of finding the best deal in the end.
Most web hosts base their packages on bandwidth and storage space. This means that in order to get a deal on cheap web hosting, one must settle for less bandwidth, and less storage space. How much storage space do you need? Are you going to be hosting large files? Are you going to be hosting large amounts of email addresses, and various data? These questions need to be addressed before one can truly find cheap web hosting. Further, how much traffic you receive each day will have a lot to do with the cost of web hosting. If the traffic is moderate to light, you can expect to get a cheap web hosting deal without problems. If on the other hand there is a lot of traffic headed to your site, more bandwidth might be needed to keep it up and running.
Shopping for cheap web hosting is not an easy task simply because there are so many options today. Everything from basic beginner’s web hosting packages, to deluxe advanced web hosting packages for those running dedicated servers, and virtual servers as well. Making the most out of each package can be hard and therefore it makes sense to compare services.
One of the most popular hosting websites on the net today is godaddy. This website is the benchmark for cheap web hosting, and offers a variety of packages. The godaddy website is best known for its cheap domain registration. Godaddy also offers its users a variety of web hosting packages to fit most anyone's needs.
Another great web host is yahoo business. This website is based upon the need of small businesses looking for an easy way to host a merchant account ready website. This website hosting company provides cheap web hosting solutions for any small business that needs it.
In dealing with cheap web hosting it is important to compare all the options before making a choice. A good spot to compare services is Review Place, a website based on customer reviews of products and services. At Review Place you will be able to look at the different services, and figure out which one works best for you. It is important to compare prices and see what is offered. It will be easier to make an informed choice about what it is that you need, and which service you want to sign up with.
Friday, September 5, 2008
What is UNIX Hosting?
UNIX hosting is the most common web hosting platform today. The term UNIX refers to a computer operating system which provides the base operating system architecture for many open source companies including Solaris (Sun), Linux (GNU) and others. UNIX has been around for years and is the choice language for mid-frame computer users. UNIX hosting solutions is considered more available due to open source distribution of its operating system. LINUX hosting is a version of UNIX that has gained popularity because of its stability as an operating system. You will find these two terms being used interchangeably, which effectively refers to the same type of hosting solution.
When it comes to choosing between UNIX and Windows hosting, the main thing to look for is what functions and programming languages that will be required by your website. Primarily, it is a choice between PHP and ASP, in which the former comes with UNIX hosting while the latter comes with Windows hosting. In addition, for plain and ordinary web sites which uses HTML pages with no or little database or dynamic pages, in most cases UNIX hosting would be the best option. UNIX should also be the option should your web site requirements include the use of PERL, PHP or Python.
UNIX hosting is associated with reliability, security and high-performance. UNIX hosting is an open system, which means that its source code is publicly available for free from various web sites. In addition, UNIX hosting providers usually provide free tools and applications that have been written primarily for the UNIX community. These companies are also more technically oriented and most of the systems on offer are custom designed. In terms of complexity, UNIX hosting is a very cost-effective choice, due to its efficient use of hardware. This enables an increased web sites per server ratio, resulting in a decrease of cost of hosting. Naturally for this reason, UNIX hosting is normally cheaper than Windows hosting.
For those concerned on e-Commerce solutions, most UNIX website hosting plans come with features such as free shopping carts. Websites hosted in UNIX web hosting services normally have very high up-time in the order of 99%. Therefore, UNIX website hosting for e-commerce is the logical choice and has become a trend in the market.
The main disadvantage of using UNIX hosting is that your provider may only allow access to your account via Telnet or SSH. Also, when considering the UNIX operating system and UNIX hosting, users need to consider their own technical abilities. A strong working knowledge of UNIX commands is an advantage in order to do customizations beyond the basic needs. There’ll be some minimal time required on learning the basics before you can fully utilize the advantages of UNIX hosting.
In conclusion, the UNIX hosting solution should be your choice if you are using PHP scripting for your website, and also if your website is pretty basic with mainly HTML language. It is also a more affordable option compared to Windows hosting due to its open-source concept. On top of all, it is widely regarded as more stable, secure and scalable.
When it comes to choosing between UNIX and Windows hosting, the main thing to look for is what functions and programming languages that will be required by your website. Primarily, it is a choice between PHP and ASP, in which the former comes with UNIX hosting while the latter comes with Windows hosting. In addition, for plain and ordinary web sites which uses HTML pages with no or little database or dynamic pages, in most cases UNIX hosting would be the best option. UNIX should also be the option should your web site requirements include the use of PERL, PHP or Python.
UNIX hosting is associated with reliability, security and high-performance. UNIX hosting is an open system, which means that its source code is publicly available for free from various web sites. In addition, UNIX hosting providers usually provide free tools and applications that have been written primarily for the UNIX community. These companies are also more technically oriented and most of the systems on offer are custom designed. In terms of complexity, UNIX hosting is a very cost-effective choice, due to its efficient use of hardware. This enables an increased web sites per server ratio, resulting in a decrease of cost of hosting. Naturally for this reason, UNIX hosting is normally cheaper than Windows hosting.
For those concerned on e-Commerce solutions, most UNIX website hosting plans come with features such as free shopping carts. Websites hosted in UNIX web hosting services normally have very high up-time in the order of 99%. Therefore, UNIX website hosting for e-commerce is the logical choice and has become a trend in the market.
The main disadvantage of using UNIX hosting is that your provider may only allow access to your account via Telnet or SSH. Also, when considering the UNIX operating system and UNIX hosting, users need to consider their own technical abilities. A strong working knowledge of UNIX commands is an advantage in order to do customizations beyond the basic needs. There’ll be some minimal time required on learning the basics before you can fully utilize the advantages of UNIX hosting.
In conclusion, the UNIX hosting solution should be your choice if you are using PHP scripting for your website, and also if your website is pretty basic with mainly HTML language. It is also a more affordable option compared to Windows hosting due to its open-source concept. On top of all, it is widely regarded as more stable, secure and scalable.
What is Reseller Hosting?
Reseller hosting is a type of web hosting package where we can split up the allocated bandwidth and disk space of a hosting account, and then resell to other individual users as separate hosting accounts. It effectively means that we can buy hosting space from providers in bulk and then subdivide it to be resold to other customers. It is a method for people to start making money of their own with web hosting. Interestingly, reseller hosting requires very little knowledge on how to get started. Hence, practically everyone who is comfortable with the internet can start their own reseller hosting business.
The reseller hosting concept is a rapidly growing industry. This is due to the simple fact that it is an inexpensive way for hosting entrepreneurs to start doing business in this field. This type of hosting is normally used by companies or individuals who want to start a small web hosting company, and also chosen by developers, designers or internet consultants. From the cost point of view, it is a cost-efficient method for webmasters who want to manage and host multiple number of sites with separate control panels. It definitely has the potential to be a very profitable business if the costs and margins are well-managed. Resellers are able to offer custom-made hosting packages for specific customers that perhaps not offered by any of the current hosting providers. This added by the fact that resellers can better control the quality of service since they can pick their servers of choice.
In most cases, the resellers will be given freedom by the hosting provider to create their own packages and offers. Alternatively, most hosting providers would offer predefined packages for resellers to directly sell to customers. Some hosting providers even provide ready sites for resellers to use as a platform to promote their products. To manage the hosting accounts, resellers will be given an interface called the Web Hosting Manager. From there, they can get access to features which typically include payment systems, forms, applications and others. From here, resellers can manage their tasks such as adding domains and setting up DNS entries.
Overall, reseller hosting is great for small businesses or even individuals who intend to generate online profit through the web hosting business. Fortunately, the amount of effort required for resellers to set up this business has been greatly reduced by the ready-made hosting packages and website templates offered by hosting providers. This enables resellers to immediately launch their business without too much start-up hassle and effort. Considering that the market for web hosting is huge, there will be no shortage of demand and there are always opportunities for you in this business.
The reseller hosting concept is a rapidly growing industry. This is due to the simple fact that it is an inexpensive way for hosting entrepreneurs to start doing business in this field. This type of hosting is normally used by companies or individuals who want to start a small web hosting company, and also chosen by developers, designers or internet consultants. From the cost point of view, it is a cost-efficient method for webmasters who want to manage and host multiple number of sites with separate control panels. It definitely has the potential to be a very profitable business if the costs and margins are well-managed. Resellers are able to offer custom-made hosting packages for specific customers that perhaps not offered by any of the current hosting providers. This added by the fact that resellers can better control the quality of service since they can pick their servers of choice.
In most cases, the resellers will be given freedom by the hosting provider to create their own packages and offers. Alternatively, most hosting providers would offer predefined packages for resellers to directly sell to customers. Some hosting providers even provide ready sites for resellers to use as a platform to promote their products. To manage the hosting accounts, resellers will be given an interface called the Web Hosting Manager. From there, they can get access to features which typically include payment systems, forms, applications and others. From here, resellers can manage their tasks such as adding domains and setting up DNS entries.
Overall, reseller hosting is great for small businesses or even individuals who intend to generate online profit through the web hosting business. Fortunately, the amount of effort required for resellers to set up this business has been greatly reduced by the ready-made hosting packages and website templates offered by hosting providers. This enables resellers to immediately launch their business without too much start-up hassle and effort. Considering that the market for web hosting is huge, there will be no shortage of demand and there are always opportunities for you in this business.
Beginner Guide to Web Hosting
What is web hosting? Whenever you visit a website, what you see on your web browser is essentially just a web page that is downloaded from the web server onto your web browser. In general, a web site is made up of many web pages. And a web page is basically composed of texts and graphic images. All these web pages need to be stored on the web servers so that online users can visit your website.
Therefore, if you plan to own a new website, you will need to host your website on a web server. When your website goes live on the web server, online users can then browse your website on the Internet. Company that provides the web servers to host your website is called web hosting providers.
A well-established web hosting provider sometimes hosts up to thousands of websites. For example, the ‘Best Web Host of the Year 2003’ award winner, iPowerWeb, is a web hosting company that hosts more than 200,000 websites. For that reason, a web hosting company need many web servers (essentially, these are computers) to ‘store’ the website. And all these web servers are connected to the Internet through high speed Internet connection and housed in a physical building called ‘data center’. In order to guarantee all the web servers are safe, secure and fully operational all time, a data center is a physically secure 24/7 environment with fire protection, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
What are the different types of web hosting?
There are different kinds of web hosting companies out there with different characteristics. The main types of web hosts can be organized into the following categories:
a. Shared Hosting
In shared hosting (or virtual hosting), many websites are sharing the space on the same physical web servers. Depending on the web host, a physical web server can hosts a few hundred to even thousand of different websites at one time. Since a physical web server is shared (diskspace, computer processing power, bandwidth, memory) by many websites, the web hosting provider can therefore afford to offer a lower hosting price. For the same reason, websites on the shared hosting would have to accept slower server response time. Typically, shared hosting plans start at $5 - $20 per month.
b. Dedicated Hosting
-In contrast to shared hosting, dedicated hosting assigned a specific web server to be used only by one customer. Since a dedicated web server is allocated to only a single customer, the customer has the option to host single/multiple web sites, modify the software configuration, handle greater site traffic and scale the bandwidth as necessary. Therefore, dedicated hosting commands a higher premium and typically starts at $50 per month and can range up to $200 - $500 per month. As a result, dedicated hosting is regularly used by high traffic and important website.
c. Co-location hosting
In dedicated hosting, the web server belongs to the web hosting providers and customers only rent the web server during the hosting period. While in co-location hosting, the customer owns the web server hardware and only housed their web server within the web hosting provider’s secure data center. In this way, the customer has full control over their web server and simultaneously benefit from the 24/7 server monitoring and maintenance provided by the secure data center. Depending on the monthly bandwidth and rack space required, typically co-location hosting range from $500 - $1000 per month.
d. Reseller hosting
In reseller hosting, a web hosting provider offers web server storage to third-party (i.e. reseller) at a discount price, who then resell the web server storage to their customers. Typically, resellers are web consultants including web designers, web developers, or system integration company who resell the web hosting as a add-on service to complement their other range of services.
Commonly, resellers can receive up to 50 percent discount on the price of a hosting account from the web hosting provider. And resellers are allowed to decide its own pricing structure and even establish its own branding (in other words, reseller setup its web hosting company on the Internet and start selling web hosting plans under its brand).
To the reseller’s customers, the reseller is the web host provider. In cases when technical problems such as server down and access problem arise, the resellers will have to correspond directly with the actual web host provider. Due to the communication process taken place between customer to reseller and from reseller to actual web host provider and back and forth, undoubtedly problems will take longer time to resolve. Unless you are running your own personal website or non-profit website and willing to take the risks of poor support from the reseller, reseller hosting is generally not a good option.
However, the web hosting market today is filled with resellers that sell lowest price web hosting plans. So, how do you tell between a genuine web hosting provider from a reseller? You don’t judge by the availability of toll-free number alone because some web hosting providers even offer their resellers with their own toll-free number for co-branded technical support. When the reseller’s customer calls the number for technical support, the web host uses the reseller’s name so the customer thinks that the support is coming from the reseller directly. Likewise, don’t be fooled by the professional designed website alone because it is extremely easy to create a professional looked business website nowadays.
Therefore, if you plan to own a new website, you will need to host your website on a web server. When your website goes live on the web server, online users can then browse your website on the Internet. Company that provides the web servers to host your website is called web hosting providers.
A well-established web hosting provider sometimes hosts up to thousands of websites. For example, the ‘Best Web Host of the Year 2003’ award winner, iPowerWeb, is a web hosting company that hosts more than 200,000 websites. For that reason, a web hosting company need many web servers (essentially, these are computers) to ‘store’ the website. And all these web servers are connected to the Internet through high speed Internet connection and housed in a physical building called ‘data center’. In order to guarantee all the web servers are safe, secure and fully operational all time, a data center is a physically secure 24/7 environment with fire protection, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
What are the different types of web hosting?
There are different kinds of web hosting companies out there with different characteristics. The main types of web hosts can be organized into the following categories:
a. Shared Hosting
In shared hosting (or virtual hosting), many websites are sharing the space on the same physical web servers. Depending on the web host, a physical web server can hosts a few hundred to even thousand of different websites at one time. Since a physical web server is shared (diskspace, computer processing power, bandwidth, memory) by many websites, the web hosting provider can therefore afford to offer a lower hosting price. For the same reason, websites on the shared hosting would have to accept slower server response time. Typically, shared hosting plans start at $5 - $20 per month.
b. Dedicated Hosting
-In contrast to shared hosting, dedicated hosting assigned a specific web server to be used only by one customer. Since a dedicated web server is allocated to only a single customer, the customer has the option to host single/multiple web sites, modify the software configuration, handle greater site traffic and scale the bandwidth as necessary. Therefore, dedicated hosting commands a higher premium and typically starts at $50 per month and can range up to $200 - $500 per month. As a result, dedicated hosting is regularly used by high traffic and important website.
c. Co-location hosting
In dedicated hosting, the web server belongs to the web hosting providers and customers only rent the web server during the hosting period. While in co-location hosting, the customer owns the web server hardware and only housed their web server within the web hosting provider’s secure data center. In this way, the customer has full control over their web server and simultaneously benefit from the 24/7 server monitoring and maintenance provided by the secure data center. Depending on the monthly bandwidth and rack space required, typically co-location hosting range from $500 - $1000 per month.
d. Reseller hosting
In reseller hosting, a web hosting provider offers web server storage to third-party (i.e. reseller) at a discount price, who then resell the web server storage to their customers. Typically, resellers are web consultants including web designers, web developers, or system integration company who resell the web hosting as a add-on service to complement their other range of services.
Commonly, resellers can receive up to 50 percent discount on the price of a hosting account from the web hosting provider. And resellers are allowed to decide its own pricing structure and even establish its own branding (in other words, reseller setup its web hosting company on the Internet and start selling web hosting plans under its brand).
To the reseller’s customers, the reseller is the web host provider. In cases when technical problems such as server down and access problem arise, the resellers will have to correspond directly with the actual web host provider. Due to the communication process taken place between customer to reseller and from reseller to actual web host provider and back and forth, undoubtedly problems will take longer time to resolve. Unless you are running your own personal website or non-profit website and willing to take the risks of poor support from the reseller, reseller hosting is generally not a good option.
However, the web hosting market today is filled with resellers that sell lowest price web hosting plans. So, how do you tell between a genuine web hosting provider from a reseller? You don’t judge by the availability of toll-free number alone because some web hosting providers even offer their resellers with their own toll-free number for co-branded technical support. When the reseller’s customer calls the number for technical support, the web host uses the reseller’s name so the customer thinks that the support is coming from the reseller directly. Likewise, don’t be fooled by the professional designed website alone because it is extremely easy to create a professional looked business website nowadays.
3 Benefits of Cheap Web Hosting to Get Your Site Up and Running
If you're thinking of signing on with a virtual host for cheap web hosting, you might receive more long-term benefits than you realize. Cheap web hosting is more readily available today because there is so much competition in the web site hosting arena. You can still find great domain hosting for only a fraction of what companies once paid. Even with low cost web hosting, the benefits are tremendous if you choose the right virtual host. Here are three benefits of cheap web hosting.
1. Save Money for Now and the Future
When comparing cheap web hosting plans, you should carefully consider the cost of your virtual host payments. You'll likely be paying every month or year for many years to come if you plan to build a solid online business. Therefore, you'll need a host that's dependable as well as affordable. The benefit of cheap web hosting is you will save money every month or year over a long period of time.
If one company charges $9.95 per month and another virtual host charges $6.95 per month with similar features, then you'll save $3 per month by choosing the cheap web hosting. In one year, you'll save $36. In five years, you'll save $180. It doesn't seem to be much, but from a business standpoint, any savings are worth the effort! You can also save even more if you need more than just basic web page hosting.
2. Minimal Overhead Costs with Cheap Web Hosting
Where else but the Internet can you open a store for only a few dollars per month? Imagine opening a store on Main Street in your town. You could incur thousands of dollars in monthly bills (rent, water, power, repairs, etc.)
With cheap web hosting, you can open a store for only a few dollars per month and add pages to it any time you wish with very little or no increase to your web page hosting bill. It's the lowest overhead you could ever have, and the profit potential is tremendous. Even using features such as PHP and MySQL integration for databases adds very little (if any) extra to your monthly bill.
3. Reseller Hosting Benefits
No matter what type of business you own, you might benefit by offering reseller hosting. Reseller hosting enables you to sell cheap web hosting packages to your customers. You can sell all types of hosting, but be sure to narrow your ads to reach your target audience. For example, if you own a wholesale candy store, you can advertise to your customers (candy retailers) that they can have their very own candy website. Of course, they can choose a low cost web hosting plan from your site, and you earn hosting payments every month! You might even provide web design templates they can use to get their site up and running quickly. The possibilities are endless.
These benefits and more are valid reasons to search for dependable but low cost web hosting. Start saving with cheap web hosting today!
1. Save Money for Now and the Future
When comparing cheap web hosting plans, you should carefully consider the cost of your virtual host payments. You'll likely be paying every month or year for many years to come if you plan to build a solid online business. Therefore, you'll need a host that's dependable as well as affordable. The benefit of cheap web hosting is you will save money every month or year over a long period of time.
If one company charges $9.95 per month and another virtual host charges $6.95 per month with similar features, then you'll save $3 per month by choosing the cheap web hosting. In one year, you'll save $36. In five years, you'll save $180. It doesn't seem to be much, but from a business standpoint, any savings are worth the effort! You can also save even more if you need more than just basic web page hosting.
2. Minimal Overhead Costs with Cheap Web Hosting
Where else but the Internet can you open a store for only a few dollars per month? Imagine opening a store on Main Street in your town. You could incur thousands of dollars in monthly bills (rent, water, power, repairs, etc.)
With cheap web hosting, you can open a store for only a few dollars per month and add pages to it any time you wish with very little or no increase to your web page hosting bill. It's the lowest overhead you could ever have, and the profit potential is tremendous. Even using features such as PHP and MySQL integration for databases adds very little (if any) extra to your monthly bill.
3. Reseller Hosting Benefits
No matter what type of business you own, you might benefit by offering reseller hosting. Reseller hosting enables you to sell cheap web hosting packages to your customers. You can sell all types of hosting, but be sure to narrow your ads to reach your target audience. For example, if you own a wholesale candy store, you can advertise to your customers (candy retailers) that they can have their very own candy website. Of course, they can choose a low cost web hosting plan from your site, and you earn hosting payments every month! You might even provide web design templates they can use to get their site up and running quickly. The possibilities are endless.
These benefits and more are valid reasons to search for dependable but low cost web hosting. Start saving with cheap web hosting today!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Choosing a Web Hosting Service
Given the sheer number of web hosting providers, making the decision as to which one to go with can become a daunting task. What many people don't realize is that the wrong choice can introduce a "single point of failure" into your otherwise successful online business. In this articles, I will discuss some of the major factors you should consider before you make that choice.
SPACE AND BANDWIDTH
The most common thing people look for in a hosting provider is the amount of disk storage space and "bandwidth" available to them. While these are certainly important, they should not alone be the deciding factors. Truth is, most providers today allocate more disk space and bandwidth than most people would need. As I explained in an earlier article, 5-10 Gigabytes (or more) of storage is A LOT of storage. Most people will never need this much. If you already have your website designed and ready to go on your own computer, simply right-click the folder and select properties to determine how much space it requires. Even if you use backend databases (e.g., MySQL, MS ACCESS), the vast majority of sites would never come close to requiring 5GB or more. As long as the hosting providers you are considering give you that 5GB or more, you will be fine in all but a few rare cases. If you discover you need more at a later time, make sure your provider gives you an easy upgrade path to a hosting plan with a higher allocation.
The same thing applies to bandwidth. Many, if not most, providers now give bandwidth allocatioins of 200Gb/month or more. That amount would be more than adequate for most small businesses. Let's look at an example. If each visitor to your site uses, on average, 1MB of bandwidth to surf through your pages, a 200GB/month bandwidth allocation would handle 200,000 visitors/month. Even if each visitor browsed an average of 10MB on your site (which is HIGHLY unlikely), you could still handle 20.000 visitors/month. Of course, if your business really explodes into a huge success, your failsafe fallback position is choosing a hosting provider that allows for a painless upgrade path.
SHARED VS. DEDICATED HOSTING
In a shared hosting environment, your site is placed on a server that also provides hosting for a number of other people. You have your own space, your own domain and the rest, but other people are also using the resources of that server for their sites. There is no risk of your pages showing up on the other person’s site, or vice versa. Each site has it’s own unique set of folders, logins, and so forth.
Besides the fact that shared hosting costs considerably less, the important consideration for most people is that the hosting company support staff administers the server. If there is a problem with the server, they have to fix it, not you. When the operating system or other system software needs to be upgraded, they do it. All you worry about is your own site and the pages contained on it.
For a large number of small businesses, shared hosting is more than adequate. In a shared hosting environment, there is no need for you to have technical knowledge of Windows or Unix server administration. That’s not your core business so why would you want to take that on?
In some cases however, there may be specific reasons why someone needs to administer their own server. These usually involve people who have specialized requirements. In that case, a dedicated server would be the option of choice.
In a dedicated server environment, you have full control over everything. You configure the server the way you want it. You install operating system upgrades and patches, and you fix things when they crash. You determine what components run on the server (e.g. ASP .NET 1.1 or .NET 2.0). You determine if the server runs CDONTs or some other mailer program. It’s almost as if the server were in your home or place of business, except that you are administering it remotely.
Again, in the vast majority of cases for a small business, shared hosting would be the preference. In those cases where a dedicated server is required, most hosting companies provide that, along with the headaches.
COST
It is amazing to me what some hosting providers charge for their services. It is even more amazing that so many people pay these prices. Let's consider a few of the "low end" hosting plans offered by some of the "big boys" in the web hosting sector.
One of them charges $9.95/mo for their basic service. They also require a $25 setup fee. For that, you get 2GB of storage space and 20GB of bandwidth. Another charges $14.95/month. With that, you get 500MB (MB, not GB) of storage, and 30GB of bandwidth. Are you kididng me?? There are thousands of hosting providers that will give you 10 times these amounts for $5/month or less. And if you compare other features, you will find that in most cases, these other providers also give you more in terms of email accounts and other "freebies". It pays to compare. For those who want to spend double, or even triple, for domains and web hosting, go right ahead. It is your money after all.
Of course, you can always go with a “free” hosting account. You can’t beat the price. But that doesn’t normally allow you to use your own domain. You just become an extension of someone else’s’ (e.g., somehostingservice.com/yoursite). That doesn’t do much for your branding. With free sites, you can also expect a boatload of ads that the hosting company puts there. I doubt that is really the image you want to portray to your customers.
SPACE AND BANDWIDTH
The most common thing people look for in a hosting provider is the amount of disk storage space and "bandwidth" available to them. While these are certainly important, they should not alone be the deciding factors. Truth is, most providers today allocate more disk space and bandwidth than most people would need. As I explained in an earlier article, 5-10 Gigabytes (or more) of storage is A LOT of storage. Most people will never need this much. If you already have your website designed and ready to go on your own computer, simply right-click the folder and select properties to determine how much space it requires. Even if you use backend databases (e.g., MySQL, MS ACCESS), the vast majority of sites would never come close to requiring 5GB or more. As long as the hosting providers you are considering give you that 5GB or more, you will be fine in all but a few rare cases. If you discover you need more at a later time, make sure your provider gives you an easy upgrade path to a hosting plan with a higher allocation.
The same thing applies to bandwidth. Many, if not most, providers now give bandwidth allocatioins of 200Gb/month or more. That amount would be more than adequate for most small businesses. Let's look at an example. If each visitor to your site uses, on average, 1MB of bandwidth to surf through your pages, a 200GB/month bandwidth allocation would handle 200,000 visitors/month. Even if each visitor browsed an average of 10MB on your site (which is HIGHLY unlikely), you could still handle 20.000 visitors/month. Of course, if your business really explodes into a huge success, your failsafe fallback position is choosing a hosting provider that allows for a painless upgrade path.
SHARED VS. DEDICATED HOSTING
In a shared hosting environment, your site is placed on a server that also provides hosting for a number of other people. You have your own space, your own domain and the rest, but other people are also using the resources of that server for their sites. There is no risk of your pages showing up on the other person’s site, or vice versa. Each site has it’s own unique set of folders, logins, and so forth.
Besides the fact that shared hosting costs considerably less, the important consideration for most people is that the hosting company support staff administers the server. If there is a problem with the server, they have to fix it, not you. When the operating system or other system software needs to be upgraded, they do it. All you worry about is your own site and the pages contained on it.
For a large number of small businesses, shared hosting is more than adequate. In a shared hosting environment, there is no need for you to have technical knowledge of Windows or Unix server administration. That’s not your core business so why would you want to take that on?
In some cases however, there may be specific reasons why someone needs to administer their own server. These usually involve people who have specialized requirements. In that case, a dedicated server would be the option of choice.
In a dedicated server environment, you have full control over everything. You configure the server the way you want it. You install operating system upgrades and patches, and you fix things when they crash. You determine what components run on the server (e.g. ASP .NET 1.1 or .NET 2.0). You determine if the server runs CDONTs or some other mailer program. It’s almost as if the server were in your home or place of business, except that you are administering it remotely.
Again, in the vast majority of cases for a small business, shared hosting would be the preference. In those cases where a dedicated server is required, most hosting companies provide that, along with the headaches.
COST
It is amazing to me what some hosting providers charge for their services. It is even more amazing that so many people pay these prices. Let's consider a few of the "low end" hosting plans offered by some of the "big boys" in the web hosting sector.
One of them charges $9.95/mo for their basic service. They also require a $25 setup fee. For that, you get 2GB of storage space and 20GB of bandwidth. Another charges $14.95/month. With that, you get 500MB (MB, not GB) of storage, and 30GB of bandwidth. Are you kididng me?? There are thousands of hosting providers that will give you 10 times these amounts for $5/month or less. And if you compare other features, you will find that in most cases, these other providers also give you more in terms of email accounts and other "freebies". It pays to compare. For those who want to spend double, or even triple, for domains and web hosting, go right ahead. It is your money after all.
Of course, you can always go with a “free” hosting account. You can’t beat the price. But that doesn’t normally allow you to use your own domain. You just become an extension of someone else’s’ (e.g., somehostingservice.com/yoursite). That doesn’t do much for your branding. With free sites, you can also expect a boatload of ads that the hosting company puts there. I doubt that is really the image you want to portray to your customers.
Blog Hosting on WordPress
Blogs have become quite popular within recent 2-3 years. As of September 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 106 million blogs. More and more people nowadays start the blog on a stand alone domain name. Blogs help people to express themselves, it is a perfect tool to start personal on-line diary or professional blog related to any subject.
Apparently blogs are one of the easiest ways to create a website. With WordPress preinstalled, it literally takes a few moments to have a professional looking site up and running and available for millions of visitors from all round the world.
Creating a blog on WordPress does not demand any technical experience or knowledge from you. A great number of design templates will help you to customize your blog and make it to look attractive and professional.
WordPress allows you to post blog content online, thus there is no need use FTP connection from your web hosting provider.
As well it allows you to update your blog content from any place of the world by just loginging to blog admin area which will look like http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/. All you need is to remember your admin login and password. WordPresss automatically updates the order of the posts, archiving older posts by post date and moves the most recent posts to the top of your blog index page.
When you set up stand alone blog on paid web hosting it has more chances to be well indexed and crawled by search engines, since stand alone blog has individual URL and can obtain Google page rank. It is necessary to choose the right keywords in the post title and body.
When stand alone blog is indexed and crawled the chances of blog monetization are preety good. Having a high page rank you may sell text links, banners that will allow you to make profit and pay for the web hosting services.
WordPress also allows your blog visitors to leave comments and in this way interact with the author of the blog, that is one of the most important parts of the blogging process.
Despite of the fact that there are some excellent services that offer free blog hosting services, more and more bloggers prefer to use paid blog hosting. And certainly there are several reasons for this.
When you sign up for a paid web hosting services to create your stand alone blog on a separate domain name you get reliability and some guarantees, such as uptime guarantee. You get in most cases perfect professional and responsive technical support that will help you to answer questions and resolve technical issues when you need this help. This is of great importance if you are newbie and this is your first time setting up blog on WordPress.
Generally for Blog hosting Linux web hosting services are more preferrable. Since Linux web hosting is cheaper and more reliable. However this is you who decide!
Apparently blogs are one of the easiest ways to create a website. With WordPress preinstalled, it literally takes a few moments to have a professional looking site up and running and available for millions of visitors from all round the world.
Creating a blog on WordPress does not demand any technical experience or knowledge from you. A great number of design templates will help you to customize your blog and make it to look attractive and professional.
WordPress allows you to post blog content online, thus there is no need use FTP connection from your web hosting provider.
As well it allows you to update your blog content from any place of the world by just loginging to blog admin area which will look like http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/. All you need is to remember your admin login and password. WordPresss automatically updates the order of the posts, archiving older posts by post date and moves the most recent posts to the top of your blog index page.
When you set up stand alone blog on paid web hosting it has more chances to be well indexed and crawled by search engines, since stand alone blog has individual URL and can obtain Google page rank. It is necessary to choose the right keywords in the post title and body.
When stand alone blog is indexed and crawled the chances of blog monetization are preety good. Having a high page rank you may sell text links, banners that will allow you to make profit and pay for the web hosting services.
WordPress also allows your blog visitors to leave comments and in this way interact with the author of the blog, that is one of the most important parts of the blogging process.
Despite of the fact that there are some excellent services that offer free blog hosting services, more and more bloggers prefer to use paid blog hosting. And certainly there are several reasons for this.
When you sign up for a paid web hosting services to create your stand alone blog on a separate domain name you get reliability and some guarantees, such as uptime guarantee. You get in most cases perfect professional and responsive technical support that will help you to answer questions and resolve technical issues when you need this help. This is of great importance if you are newbie and this is your first time setting up blog on WordPress.
Generally for Blog hosting Linux web hosting services are more preferrable. Since Linux web hosting is cheaper and more reliable. However this is you who decide!
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