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How do you choose a web host for you business?

• Search online?
• Word of mouth?
• Online advert?
• Printed advert?

Businesses are forever being told to invest in a website, a well designed site will generate business through sales leads both online and offline. Having your website provide you with constant web traffic is between you and your SEO company. Having your website visible online all of the time is between you and your web hosting company.

Providing your web site with a stable hosting platform to operate on is a key component of any business strategy. Without a suitable web hosting provider your business will suffer as potential traffic is denied to you through down time. In business reputation is everything and your presence online will be spoiled by inaccessibility errors.

Finding a good web host is important. Online searches only provide you with a fraction of the potential hosting suppliers available. Let’s outline 3 key components of a hosting company, get your pencil and paper ready.

Reliability

Your biggest concern is reliability, so choosing a company that provides a reliable web hosting service is very important. You want all of those potential customers to get to your web site. So look for a web host that provides a high percentage of up time.

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Support

Web hosting support is another important factor for your business. You need to know that any problem experienced by you or your hosting company is going to get fixed quickly. So 24/7 support by phone and email is vital. Any web host that does not meet these criteria ignore.

Web Hosting Package (domain name, hosting space, bandwidth, email accounts etc.)

Web hosting packages are starting to look very similar these days, which means that you need to pay more attention to the smaller details. Since you are looking for a web host you should make a few notes. Write a list of what you want to include in your website;

Think about what you want your site to be able to do. Once you have put together a list of your needs its time to go shopping. For your convenience if you wish to compare several web hosting providers then click here . This page includes a list of different web hosting providers covering those on a budget to companies looking for dedicated managed hosting. Each of these hosts have also provided a special offer so why not check them out and save yourself some money.

Who will design my website?

This is a very important step in your online endeavor as it will be the end result of all of your research and work.

There are a few options that you may want to consider:

- Pay a Web Designer – This will allow you to have a custom built website complete with all of the bells and whistles that you would like. While this option is the most flexible it can also be the most expensive. Custom web designs can start at $99 for a 5 page website to thousands of dollars for a website of 20 pages or more. Do your research and ask to view a company's portfolio, and ask for references before you decide.

- Website Templates – Website templates are pre-built websites complete with graphics and pre-built pages. All you will need to do is make a few changes to the graphics to add your logo, and replace the existing text on the pages with your own. You can download free templates from several websites that sale website templates. You can Google “Free Website Templates” and you should have a pretty good list to get you started. If you would like a larger selection of possible templates you can expect to pay from $29 for a standard template to upwards of $100 for a premium template.

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- Site Builder – A few years ago website builders were considered web based applications that built very cheesy sites with huge menu buttons on the left or top with huge banner headers. These sites were for individuals that wanted to have a website NOW! Or individuals or companies that absolutely could not afford to have a website designed by a professional. There has been a dramatic change in this area of website development. Today there are website builders that will allow an individual or company to build a professional website that rivals one built by a professional. You can usually pay a monthly price to use the site builder starting at $4.00 per month with web hosting included. Small Businesses and individuals can now have a professional site that will allow their company to project a professional image on the web and with a price that will not send them to the poorhouse. This is worth a look.

Who will host my site?

This will be the most important decision you make regarding your online presence as this is your online infrastructure. Your web host will store your WebPages on their server for potential clients and customers to access and view. Your host must be reliable, have a solid support system should you need assistance and their servers must be connected to a network that is fast and stable.

How will I know which web host is the best?

There are many web hosts on the internet. Many web hosts will offer a great deal of hard drive space and bandwidth for a very low price. Don't be swayed by these offers. To start you will not need more than 5GB (5000 mega bytes) of disk space and will require no more than 250GB (250000 mega bytes) of bandwidth. If you require more your web host should provide the ability to upgrade almost immediately. Your web host should not be chosen by how much they offer or by their rock bottom prices – a web host should be chosen by there support infrastructure and your ability to contact them when you need them.

Try calling their support phone number or email their support and test the response. A 24 hours response is acceptable for non-emergencies and if you should have an emergency you should have the ability to contact your web host via phone.

Establishing your presence on the Internet can be very exciting so enjoy yourself but also do your research before you take the plunge.

Bueford Copeland is a Technology Consultant and has been managing computer networks on the Windows and Linux platforms for 10 years. To obtain web hosting, website builder services and for affordable domains names please visit 561Design Group .

The plans you see listed on most web hosting sites look very similar. They provide details on web storage and transfer rates. They will also provide tier

pricing and a variety of web tools. After awhile they all begin to look alike, but are they?

If this is your first time at website development you may be very happy with the first site you work with until you have technical issues. It's at this point that you begin to learn whether or not your web host provider has the ability to stand by their promises.

The problem is, not all web hosts are created equal. Hundreds of frustrated customers have horror stories about downtime and lack of promised or nonexistent support.
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What if you could take the guesswork out of selecting a web host for your small to medium sized business?

XplanHosting is a cutting edge of web host and they continue to raise the bar for other web hosting sites to aspire to.

XplanHosting is keenly aware that it is what happens after you select a plan that really means the most to you. After all, what good is a website if no one can access it?

That's why XplanHosting provides 24 hour tech support geared to the needs of the customer. Support is easily obtained using either phone support or email.

Hundreds of businesses already trust XplanHosting and while the reasons are many, customers rely heavily on the 100% uptime guarantee. Xplanhosting is so committed to this guarantee that they were compelled to install a 235,000 watt diesel generator along with special modifications to their hosting center to assure your web-based clients are never disappointed in a failure to connect. We all know that if a customer can't log on they can easily find another supplier with a few clicks of a mouse.

Unlike other web hosts, XplanHosting also places a mandatory limit of domains that each of their customized servers can host. It is not uncommon among other hosting sites to find 500-1000 domains on one server. XplanHosting allows no more than 256 domains per server preserving the overall health and connectivity of the site.

The technology used by XplanHosting also works to help avoid traffic jams by rerouting online traffic away from high internet traffic areas making the transition between your site pages as seamless and responsive as possible.

Many hosting sites demand long term commitments of six months or more. At XplanHosting you will find it easy to leave if you need to. The month to month contract is designed for ease of use, but it also demonstrates XplanHosting's commitment to the quality and value of their service. Should you desire a longer term contract, XplanHosting rewards you with an attractive discount.

Even first time users will find the variety of templates appealing and user friendly, and monthly fees start as low as $5.95.

XplanHosting is proving that low costs and high expectations can be achieved and they have satisfied customers to back up their claims.

Because time is always an issue, XplanHosting provides tools to make the administration of your new website virtually hands-free. Functions such as account creation and billing can be automated. A practical web interface lets your technical staff take care of your XplanHosting system from any internet-ready computer.

It may be difficult to know before you sign up whether a web hosting company is going to be there for you and if they are there for you, will they take care of future hosting issues or will you have to go it alone?

Well for one, your web host will have all your html pages, all graphics, scripts etc. What happens when your host goes offline? Does your website stay up or go down? It goes down. When your website goes down, you lose customers, no sales during the downtime meaning a loss of potential income.

Take time to find a good host that will suffice every aspect of your business. Do some research and ask some questions.

If you are looking for a shared hosting solution, find out if the host is overselling its servers. Overselling is when a company packs too many customers on one server, putting strain on the server resources. Shared hosting is not recommended for business type sites that need performance for its users, but it will suffice a business just starting out.
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Another type of hosting solution is a dedicated server. A dedicated server is a server dedicated to only you. It is the most expensive out of hosting solutions, but will provide the most stable environment. No one else has an account on the server, so all server resources are for you. A managed dedicated solution is when your host will install operating systems, upgrades to software, or security fixes for you. You can call them any time to fix a problem because that's what you pay for.

A step below a fully dedicated server is what is called a VPS or Virtual Private Server. A VPS is almost like a dedicated server but the physical server will have a few other users on it. You still have full control over your section of the server, you can install anything you want or upgrade. The server resources are shared among users, but many web hosts guarantee you a fixed amount of resources dedicated to your account.

If not wanting to shell out a pretty big check on web hosting for a starting business, I would recommend at least starting out with a virtual private server. Once you outgrow the VPS you can move onto a dedicated server of your own.

Before signing up to any web host, do some research! Find several hosts that have what you are looking for and search for reviews, your internet business depends on it. Cheaper is not always better at least in webhosting!

A future online marketing guru located at eZineTimes
My directory.
Recommended hosting.

Your blog should have some interesting information to attract your web hosting affiliate program sales leads.

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How To Get Enough Traffic For Your Web Hosting Affiliate Program Blog The next challenge will be how to get some respectable traffic flowing in the direction of your web hosting affiliate program blog. The simplest way to do this is to ensure that you are constantly creating one way links pointing at your blog from other high traffic sites. This is simpler to achieve than you may think, as you will find out in a moment. Remember that reciprocal links will not be as effective as one way links because you want the whole exercise to ultimately impact on your search engine rankings and to thus get you even more traffic through leading search engines.

Christopher Kyalo is a successful online entrepreneur who runs a simple system that is capable of helping any blogger or webmaster quickly acquire a high number of quality one way links pointing at their site. To qualify to join the program you will need to subscribe to his affiliate insider secrets newsletter. Simply send a blank email now to Affiliate-insider-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Virtual hosts may or may not allow access to non-public directories, these are directories used for storing files that are not meant to be accessed via the word wide web. Small sites that hold sensitive data should check for this facility. SSH/Telnet are important for site owners that wish to communicate directly with the servers and run queries on the databases.

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In terms of security, websites can get compromised even when there are no lapses on their part; carelessness on part of neighboring websites on a virtual server can lead to the server getting hacked into and every website may be at risk. However, choosing a good host with solid security will mitigate this risk.

Dedicated hosting: With dedicated hosting, all the resources of a server are made available to the site owner exclusively. Dedicated hosting is best suited for sites that attract a lot of visitors and have a high bandwidth requirement, ecommerce sites that may need special software, or web sites that hold sensitive information and therefore need greater security.

Dedicated servers allow unlimited domain names and greater freedom in managing the website. Dedicated hosting is divided into managed and unmanaged hosting. Managed hosting implies greater support from a technical team that performs regular technical updates and routine maintenance without the site owner having to look into it. Unmanaged dedicated hosting is cheaper than managed dedicated hosting but additional support can be an added cost.

Dedicated servers are accessible only by the host and the site owners; by using features such as secure FTP and encrypted terminal sessions, site owners can be assured of greater security. Webmasters who run multiple sites can also host all their sites on a dedicated server; this enables better management and may work out cheaper than hosting the sites separately on different virtual servers.

Paul Hanson recommends Net Explorers for reliable UK web hosting .

WebHostManager(WHM) is a common linux based tool for managing websites on a server. cPanel is a common control panel to manage an individual website. It allows you to add email accounts, view stats, make backups, install programs, etc. These 2 tools are the most inexpensive set used commonly to manage hosting accounts, and you will find them very prevalent in the budget shared hosting world. It usually adds about $20/month to the cost of a dedicated server but provides most of the features of the more expensive tools.

Whenever you order a dedicated server from a datacenter, you will receive a welcome email with details of the server including the server name, ip addresses, and root password. This information will allow you to setup and configure WHM so that you can host websites and use your own custom Domain Nameserver instead of a raw IP address.

The first thing you need to do is the setup of WebHostManager(WHM). This includes configuring the default Domain nameservers, main IP address, and server contact email address.

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1) Login to root WHM ( http:// <Ipaddress>:2086) 2) In the left margin, click Next to run the setup wizard 3) Agree to the end-user license agreement 4) Edit setup a. Server contact email address: info@yourdomain.com b. Default Cpanel theme: x c. Default home directory: /home d. Home directory prefix: home e. Main shared virtual host IP: xx.xxx.xxx.xx (should be main IP of server) f. Hostname: server.yourserver.com g. Primary nameserver: dns1.yourserver.com h. Secondary nameservers: dns2.yourserver.com i. Leave everything else unchanged j. Click Save

Next, you need to setup the system quota. To do this follow these instructions: 5) Click Next Step in left margin - system sets up initial quota. No need to wait for initial quota to setup....Click Next Step again 6) DO NOT enable namesever. Click Next Step again

Now we need to setup the Resolver. This is specific to your datacenter and the information will be provided in the Welcome details for your dedicated server. 7) Resolver setup: a. Click Continue b. Primary Resolver: xx.xx.xx.xx (this is datacenter specific) c. Secondary Resolver: xx.xx.xx.xx (this is datacenter specific) d. Tertiary Resolver: leave blank e. Click Continue f. Click Next Step 8) Not necessary to enter a MySQL root password 9) Click Finish

Initial setup is done, and you should now be able to login to root WHM. Now you can create the accounts needed to setup the nameservers that you want to use on this dedicated server. 1) Login to root WHM again 2) "Create a New Account" (this is to be the main account: yourserver.com). Do not give this account a dedicated IP.... It will use the main server's shared IP address. 3) Under "IP Functions", click "Show IP address usage". If only the main server IP is listed, that means you have to add the additional IP address to the server. Click "Add a New IP address", and enter: xx.xx.xx.xx-xx Leave subnet mask unchanged, and click "Do It" 4) Click Show/Edit Reserved IPs, and check an IP to reserve it, and enter a reason (i.e. dns2.yourserver.com) 5) Under "DNS Functions" click "Edit DNS Zone", then select yourserver.com and click "Edit". Use the main IP address for the first 2 lines and the next IP address assigned to the server for the third line. a. Under "Add new entries below this line", enter: server 14400 IN A xx.xx.xx.xx (leave far right box blank) dns1 14400 IN A xx.xx.xx.xx (leave far right box blank) dns2 14400 IN A xx.xx.xx.xx (leave far right box blank) b. Note: The above entries are DNS entries for the two nameservers being created, and the sever name dana.hostyourself.com. Once you've enter the three entries, click "Save" 6) If you get an "Error reloading BIND" error, go to "Restart Services" and click "DNS Server (BIND)", then click YES to restart Bind.

That's it! Now the server is all setup and ready to host cPanel hosting account with the nameservers dns1.yourserver.com and dns2.yourserver.com. Of course you still need to go to your registrar and register these 2 new nameservers and wait for normal propagation of 24-48 hours until the new nameservers will work.

If this is a server being setup for a dedicated customer, be sure to tell them: 1) IP addresses of nameservers so he can register them with his registrar 2) Root login information 3) Login info of main account you created for him 4) Tell him NOT to delete the main account, since doing so will also delete the DNS zones you setup above 5) New DNS zones should be added to the old server to help with DNS propagation.

If you follow these simple instructions once you get your server from the datacenter, then you will be ready to load websites and hit the internet. With cheap outsourced support companies available and world class datacenters providing under $99 servers there is no reason not to tackle the world of dedicated servers and web hosting for yourself.


Rodney Ringler is President of Advantage1 Web Services, Inc., which owns a network of Web Hosting Websites including HostedToday.com, Roundberry.com, and HostingKnowledge.net. Rodney has over 15 years industry experience from programming to web hosting. 

And of course, we finally come to the main theme of our article: web hosting. No matter how great your website looks or how effective your SEO strategies are, if you don't have the right web hosting plan, none of those would see the light of the day because your web hosting plan simply prevents them from being properly uploaded and viewed.

Web hosting is integral to your plans if you want your website to have its own niche in the Internet so do read carefully what we're about to teach you.

You have mainly two choices when it comes to web hosting – you can get it for free or you can spend for it. Naturally, it would be lovely if web hosting would be free for all of us but understand that all the needs of your company website must be met by the free web hosting plan if you want your future to look rosy.
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In order to determine whether your company website could do well even with a free web hosting plan, here are some key issues to address.

Are you willing to put up advertisements that may take too much space or would have an irritable effect on your readers? These ads are often required by free web hosting plans because it's the only reason they can continue letting people enjoy free web hosting.

Are you okay with low bandwidth access and minimal web space? Because of these constrictions, you may not be able to create a website that's exactly to your liking.

Are you capable of some basic software troubleshooting? Most free web hosting plans do not offer any free live customer support so you might be forced to solve a problem or two on your own when something wrong happens.

If you're not ready for the situations enumerated above then perhaps it's better that you go for a post paid web hosting plan so that all your worries would be over.

Michael Colucci is a technical writer for $2.99 Hosting - A site that offers different web hosting packages starting at $2.99 per month.

Free Web Hosting Service

This is the most basic kind of Web hosting that you can get. Free Web hosting is typically advertisement-supported and offers limited features. This is the best option for those just starting out and only interested in hosting a small personal site that will be light on traffic.

Free Web hosts will give you a subdomain (yoursite.example.com) or a directory (www.example.com/~yoursite). They include a small amount of bandwidth and storage and tend to offer little to no support for MySQL, PHP, multiple e-mail addresses, and site statistics.

Shared Web Hosting Service

Shared hosting is the most popular kind of Web hosting service. Virtually all small businesses, medium to large Web sites, and professional sites see shared hosting as the perfect solution to their hosting needs. None of these entities require anywhere near all the resources of an entire Web server, not to mention the fact that it would be very costly for them to purchase and run one.

As the name suggests, shared Web hosts allow more than one site to be hosted on the same server. These hosts provide system administration, which is good for users that do not want to deal with the hassles of running a server along with a number of other users.

Although it depends on the specifics of the hosting plan, most server features will be readily available to the user, including PHP or ASP, MySQL, multiple e-mail addresses, and more bandwidth and storage than a free host. One downside is the possible security risks that are inherent with sharing a server with a number of other sites.

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Dedicated Web Hosting - Unmanaged

This is a great option for users who want more bandwidth, storage, and other server features that free or shared hosting cannot offer. Having a dedicated server means that there are unlimited numbers of databases and e-mail addresses that the user can create, not to mention bigger bandwidth capabilities. Normal dedicated server plans give the user about 500 to 1,000GB of bandwidth per month, and if extra storage is required, a new hard drive can be purchased for the server.

For some users, the one big downside of having an unmanaged dedicated host is that you must be your own server administrator. If you do not know how to deal with this task, there are two options: learn about how to be a server administrator, or just go for the next Web hosting option.

Dedicated Web Hosting - Managed

So, if you want the big-time capabilities of a dedicated server but you do not want to deal with the hassle of learning about server administration, then this should be the perfect option for you.

Going this route means that you will have help in getting your server up and running, and you will have assistance readily available to you if something should ever go wrong. That being said, it is best to get a referral from a close and trustworthy person, or to at the very least do some diligent research on the Internet.

Pricing varies depending on how much reliability, security, and depth of support you want.

Web Hosting

There are several factors that you will need to evaluate before making your short list of hosting providers, below I will outline the most important aspects that you will need to cover.

1. Firstly you will need to evaluate the requirements of your website. Will you need shopping cart facilities, what type of content will your website be providing, what methods of payment will you offer, you will also need to think in to the future as well, will you need the ability to expand the site, taking a business online is a very big step and should be a long term step as well so you will need to think long term with your planning. Write a short list of what your website will require to properly function.

Details you will need to account for. Disk space and bandwidth. Disk space refers to the amount of storage your web host will provide you to store your website. You will need to account for the current size of your website now, and also allow for what disk space you will require in the future as your website grows.

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Bandwidth refers to the amount of data (pages, files) served from your website to your customers, if your website will be subject to high traffic, you will need to take the amount of bandwidth the host provides.

Also you will need to check what programming languages your website will require, languages such as PHP, Perl/CGI, JSP, Cold Fusion and ASP may be used on your website to perform certain functions, your chosen web host will need to support the programming languages that your site requires.

Now that you have a list of your requirements, it is time to narrow down your list of providers that support all the features required.

2. Contact each of the hosts you have on your list, confirming what they offer and if it meets your requirements, also ask for a list of references you can contact, some of the best information about a web host can be gleaned from its customers, the question you should ask an existing customer is; "how reliable is the host?". This question is the most important; it refers to two things, reliability of their hosting when it comes to serving of your website, and also refers to reliability of their mail system. Reliability of their mail system is just as important as serving of your website.

3. Technical support, test it out, call the web hosts technical support line at various times of the day and check how long it takes to get through to support staff, also send technical support an email to test how long it takes to receive a response. If you are on hold for 30 minutes waiting to talk to support about a problem with your website, that is 30 minutes that your site is offline, and also 30 minutes of your own time wasted with which you could be performing more productive jobs.

Finally you should choose a host that meets your expectations and with whom you feel comfortable with, approach choosing a web host the same way you would any other major business decision, because after all it is your money paying for the service.

David Smith writes about Midphase Web Hosting at http://www.webhost-advisor.com/midphase.php