Right Platform

The first and most foremost 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.

Right 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 remembers to take your time and make sure your new web host is going to provide you with everything you need.

Budget

Often budget 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.

Remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, think about the total cost of ownership (TCO). 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.

Customer Service

Customer service is another aspect that is often not forgettable while choosing a great web host. 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.

Support

An extensive knowledge base can be a real time saver as well as being an indication of the level of customer service supports 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.

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.

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.

Hence, it’s not a rocket science; just a little research and investigating that can save a lot of heartache in the future and can offer you a great web host.

Author Richa Sinha is associated with a web hosting company [http://www.vexat.org/host.html] Vexat from India. Vexat also provides the cheapest domain name registration. For more information please click here.

Author: Richa Sinha
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Website Hosting … Our Bread Milk and Butter
Our robust, all-in-one hosting solution includes everything you need to put your business or personal site online — and to manage it for years to come.

100% Wind-Powered Web Hosting
Our offices and our data centers are all 100% powered by wind energy. You can be proud that the machines hosting your website and email are fully eco-friendly!

Point & Click Site Building Tools
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There are many companies out there that offer both domain name registration and web hosting. You have quite a range of choices. Check into using a different company for domain registration than you use for hosting, though, if you are on a budget.

Generally, a company that does just the hosting will offer you a fantastic price. This is because of the huge amount of competition out there.

On the other hand, maybe cost isn’t an issue for you. Maybe what you are looking for is that your domain hosting be easy and convenient. In that case, choose one company to provide both services.

If you do this, you obviously will only have to do business with one company. Any problems with your website can be taken care of with just one company to contact.

It’s easier as far as paying your bills, too. Sending off a single payment to a single company for both services is easier than sending off separate payments for each service, and having to send these to two companies.

Bear in mind though that there is no regulation for how much companies can charge for these products and services. They can charge whatever they want, it is pretty well driven by what the market will bear.

It’s up to you to do some research and comparison shopping. Check out server space, hosting fees, and domain registration. If you don’t, you have no way to make sure you won’t be vastly overpaying for the services you need. That would be foolish, especially when you consider that you are not going to want to change over to a new domain host to save money after your website is already up and running on your original host server.

Author: Alex Ryan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Web Hosting Essential Plan:

1) An Essential Hosting Solution. Robust, all-in-one hosting solution includes everything you need to put your business or personal site online—and to make it for years to come.
2) Beginner Ready Tools to Build and Design Your Site: Create a professional-looking website with just a few clicks, using a variety of dynamic themes and templates. No programming or HTML experience needed!
3) Marketing Tools and Advertising Credits: Get the word out about your great new site with credits for major search engines, including Google and Yahoo! Some companies give you as much as $75 right up front in free advertising.
4) 1 Click Installation of Blogs, Photo Galleries and Much More: Simple to use install wizards provides step-by-step instructions for adding a variety of applications to your site–photo galleries, blog software and more!
5) Email Accounts: Customize your email address (you@yourdomain.com) to enhance your professional image.
Award-Winning, Customer Support: very important. If you have questions, the web host you choose should have a friendly support team that is available 24×7 via phone, email and online chat.
6) Online Stores and Selling Tools: A set of free variety of tools to help you sell online: shopping carts, catalogs with coupons and sales option, PayPal integration, etc
7) World-Class Technology: A solid, secure network infrastructure that is comprised of a pooled server environment, which gives the ability to access Website files when a request occurs.

And that’s not all. A checklist of what should be of interest to you could also include:

Web hosting features

* Unlimited hosting space
* Unlimited data transfer
* Host unlimited domains
* Free domain
* Free SiteLock security suite
* Free point & click site builder
* Free online store
* Free blog
* Free script library
* Good Support Service
* Outstanding reliability
* Marketing Tools
* And Much More

As you can see, it is not as easy as you may think and as part of our quest to help people narrow down their options, we have selected two available options that are highly reliable, includes all the essentials above and best of all, very affordable.

The winner is iPage.com, a solid web hosting service, serving more than 1.000.000 websites and counting. The reason this is our monthly pick is because for a limited time only (month of May 2010), they have reduced their fees with a whopping 40% discount. Yes, for only $3,95 a month, you can have your own web host in minutes and enjoy all the necessary web hosting essentials as mentioned above. Don’t miss this one. If you want more information, just click the banner below.

If you missed this opportunity, you can still try them out or you can also check one of our favorite web hosting service company. This website is proudly hosted on BlueHost and it is as reliable and performing as it can be. Regular pricing is an affordable $6,95 per month and also offers all features as described above. For more information, follow the banner.

Thank you and if you need more information, just leave your comments here and we’ll provide you with our feedback.

The first thing you should do is make a list of what your current goals are. If you are making a professional site, you’ll need a secure and reliable host. For instance, if you know that your website will reach thousands of people within a few months, perhaps you should find a web hosting package that includes extra bandwidth. You need additional space, especially if visitors are constantly going to be accessing your website. On the other hand, if you are just experimenting, you should stick to the free hosting packages. Geocities or Angel Fire certainly provides a basic package, which will leave you satisfied. After all, you do not need bells and whistles if you aren’t serious about the website in the long run. If you do end up changing your mind, you can always switch services and transfer your website.

Once you have made your decision, you need to find a reputable service. While searching for hosting companies on Google may seem appropriate, it often stems bad results. It is important to remember that just because it is listed on a search engine, doesn’t mean it is 100% safe and legit. Therefore, if you do find a potential company, you should get a second opinion. It is usually smart to join a webmaster related forum like SitePoint to discuss such matters. This way you can hear about other people’s experiences and what companies to avoid. Additional references from friends or family would also be ideal.

After picking a host, you will need to provide your credit card information. For many users, 3ix.org is a favorite, as it rarely charges you much. Surprisingly, there are discount coupon codes you can acquire through the internet, to also help you with your initial fee. Due to the fact that you have to include your private information, it is absolutely crucial to make sure you find a legit business. The last thing you want is to lose any money. Therefore, you should google their name and check out the reviews from fellow users. This will most definitely make all of the difference, especially if you find out that they are a fraud.

For website beginners, web hosting doesn’t have to be difficult or even too time consuming. As long as you find reputable sources, second opinions, and a great easy to use package, you are well on your way to website success. With these instructions in mind, there should be no frustrations or year long debates on what company to use. It is quite simple, once you get in the webmaster’s frame of mind.

Copyright notice: This original article is the property of Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com). Web Hosting Geeks provides independent customer and webmaster reviews of top 10 web hosting providers. Top web hosting reviews, best web hosting awards, web host rating, web hosting articles and more.

Fortunately, there is a new trend in the web industry. Reseller Hosting, which consists of purchasing a web hosting package and reselling it for a larger price, has been making webmasters just a few cents richer. Although this sounds like a daunting task, it actually only requires a large amount of space. Once the webmaster acquires such a large server and bandwidth, he/she is able to divide it up among other people. As long as they are willing to pay a monthly fee, you will never get screwed over.

Regardless of how much money you want to make, purchasing this re-seller hosting does not cost much. For an average of $30/month, you can purchase enough space to make a profit. While all of these websites will be on a shared server, the majority of webmasters do not mind this downside. After all, not everyone can shell out thousands a month just to acquire their own dedicated server. Once you have found a few loyal customers who will not create any illegal material, you will be generating a profit every single month out of the year. Fortunately, until you stop your hosting, you will never be out of a job.

In order to sell this type of hosting, you absolutely need to network. Regrettably, there are many webmasters trying to follow the trend. For this reason alone, you should look in unpopulated areas. Try and find a website or forum that has not yet been tackled by other masses of website owners. For instance, find websites similar to your own. If you do not have one, look on webmaster-related forums such as Digital Point or Webmaster-Talk. These areas are populated with thousands of interested clients, who will be more than happy to jump on the bandwagon, if you do have a great deal.

Still desperately trying to find other ways to market? Many website owners advertise through blogs and buy text link ads. As a result, people will be more apt to find what you are offering. If this doesn’t work, you could even start marketing in a local newspaper or a newsletter that goes out to professional companies who are always looking for alternatives. Nevertheless, there are plenty of consumers out there. You just need to be creative and put in the effort, in order to get anywhere.

For years web hosting has been flooding the market. However, it has just recently become a form of revenue for webmasters who just don’t own their own web hosting company. It is a wonderful alternative to an additional part time job, especially if this is what you love to do. Networking with others, controlling a server, while working on your website certainly sounds like the perfect occupation.

This original article is the property of Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com). Web Hosting Geeks provides independent customer and webmaster reviews of top 10 web hosting providers. Top web hosting reviews, best web hosting awards, web host rating, web hosting articles and more.

Choosing the right kind of web hosting service can be a very daunting task at times as there are some very important features that you need to make sure of. Here you can find below what exactly to look for when choosing the best web hosting service.

Amount of web space: A web hosting service provider would usually assign you a certain amount of space on their server. You need to ensure that does it have the right amount of space for your website and your business requirements. You might want to expand your online business tomorrow and would require much more space. So it’s imperative for you that the web hosting company should be able to provide you with ample of space especially if your website is rich in graphics or has video clips.

FTP access: FTP access is very crucial since it provides the ability to upload new pages. Some web hosting service providers allow you to just design your web pages with their own personal web builder. This may be useful for beginners however you need to ensure if they provide you the facility to expand later when you enhance your online business capabilities.

Degree of reliability, security and speed of access: Speed, security and reliability are extremely important for the success of any online business. While choosing a reliable web hosting service you need to ensure that this is taken care of. A site that is not available, not updated on time or is down, will lose many online visitors. If an online visitor finds your site listed on a search engine, and he tries to access it but finds it down, he is sure to move on to the next link and you lose an important customer or visitor. Even slow working websites are very frustrating. So how do you know if a hosting company is reliable or not? By word of mouth or feedback from others! If that’s not possible then you can yourself try accessing your site during peak hours and non-peak hours too. Your site has to be secure of intruders at the same time, especially if it’s an ecommerce website.

Dependence and support: Does the web hosting service provide 24×7 supports? Do they respond rapidly to your issue? Can you depend on them? If you need 24-hour technical support that larger companies need then expect to pay substantially more. In fact, people are much more expensive than machines.

Pricing plans : Price is also one factor that you should look out for when choosing the best web hosting service. It’s not necessarily true that the most expensive hosts are the best. Simply compare prices and services before you finalize one.

Data transfer (Bandwidth): You also need to see if the hosting company provides you with sufficient bandwidth for efficient data transfer. After all it’s your website and you need to ensure that you are getting the best services for the money you invest.

This article is provided by Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com). Web Hosting Geeks provides independent customer and webmaster reviews of top 10 web hosting providers. Top web hosting reviews, best web hosting awards, web host rating, web hosting articles and more.

Trying to identify a web host can be a very daunting task especially when there are so many available nowadays and all of them promise one thing or another. Hence, it is crucial that before you jump in, you do your own homework or research for selecting the most appropriate web hosting company for your website.

With the changing trend of technology, web hosts are also changing. Most of them provide various services in addition to their basic ones. Say if you are running an e-commerce website, then of course you need high end security and a medium through which you can manage your web content efficiently. There are many tools that facilitate this, however if your web hosting service is not reliable then you can miss out on serious revenues and prospective clients.

Once you have determined and identified what web hosting services you require for your online business, it is then time to enlist certain web hosting features and options you must consider. You can find below some of the most important aspects of web hosting:

Disk space and bandwidth

You should know how much space your website would need and approximate data it will generate. When we talk about disk space, well, it’s actually the amount of storage assigned to you by the web hosting provider. The bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to access and leave your website. In case your website has a lot of graphics then you would require higher storage area and greater bandwidth.

Programming tools and the OS

You need to be sure that your website is uploaded through secure servers using the latest Operating System. Most web hosts run on a UNIX based operating system, usually Linux or BSD. For the running of various web applications you would require ASP, .NET, MS SQL, SBS and for these you need a Window based host.

Pricing Aspect

You need to compare pricing before you finalize a web hosting service. Some may provide you better services but at low pricing. It’s not always true that the best hosting services are always the most expensive. Do your research and then finalize.

Support, Security, Guaranteed uptime and Backups

Security and backups are two very important aspects that you need to consider. You should always choose a web hosting service with reliable telephone support. Some also offer 24/7 support through local or toll-free numbers. In case you are running an ecommerce website then security is one aspect that you just cannot discard. Your web hosting service provider should be such that they can monitor things round the clock and ensure no unwanted intruder can hack your site. After all it’s your website and it is really worth looking into this aspect of web hosting.

This original article is the property of Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com). Web Hosting Geeks provides independent customer and webmaster reviews of top 10 web hosting providers. Top web hosting reviews, best web hosting awards, web host rating, web hosting articles and more.

Recommended by WordPress, here is what they have to say:

There are hundreds of thousands of web hosts out there, the vast majority of which meet the WordPress minimum requirements, and choosing one from the crowd can be a chore. Just like flowers need the right environment to grow, WordPress works best when it’s in a rich hosting environment.

We’ve dealt with more hosts than you can imagine; in our opinion, the hosts below represent one of the best and brightest of the hosting world.

BlueHost:

“WordPress Auto-Install — new WordPress updates are made available within 24 hours! Unlimited disk storage, Unlimited monthly data transfer, host unlimited domains on 1 account, 1 free domain name for as long as you host with BlueHost, 2500 POP / WebMail addresses, 50 MySQL databases, free control panel, free Fantastico, free SimpleScripts, 24/7 network monitoring, 99% uptime guarantee, mirrored storage backups, no hidden fees, voted best support in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008!”

There you go. The features are so extensive it is difficult to mention all of them here. If you are interested and yet to be convinced, you can find here, more about BlueHost Webhosting Solutions

But what is a dedicated server exactly?

It is a server that only host your website and does not share with others. This simply means, that the server is dedicated to you and your website alone, so you have the entire control over all actions on the server, like server admin and also any hardware or software applications. When looking for a server host, you have to know what these guys are offering you and where you need to look to find a good dedicated hosting service.

So what operating system do you need for your website?

Most people go with the most common system we all know, Windows. This is quite simply because the majority of people work with windows and obviously have windows applications for their website. Some of the techie guys out there will opt for Linux. Linux is an absolute multi tasking system and is really beautiful for safe and fast surfing on the internet. However, Linux is really for the experts because it can be pretty daunting if you are running windows applications with a Linux system. Linux is a little complicated in comparison to good old microsoft windows.

So what’s with the Bandwidth?

With a dedicated server you should never have problems with your bandwidth because you have the whole server to yourself. Hence the description “Dedicated Server”. It is exactly the same with your disc space you need for your website as well. You have the entire space to yourself.

Back Up for your website.

You must have a back up system set up for your website. Look for hosting that has this function in their package and they will automatically keep your data safe. This option pays off because if something really major happens and everything crashes, your data can always be restored. Of course you can do your back ups manually but that will steal your time and patience big time.

Last but not least. Look for a hosting company that do all the maintenance on your website automatically. Most of the good hosting companies out their do this for you with their tools anyway. You really do not want to be getting your own head round these things when someone is there that can do it for you in a quarter of the time it would take you to do it. Always outsource the nervy stuff! There is always someone out their that just loves to do the things you do not want to do, so let them sort it for you. All maintenance and monitoring of your server and website can and should be done by the experts at your hosting company. With most of the companies, this service is all inclusive anyway.

This post courtesy of Geoffrey Hadley