Web Site Hosting
Web site hosting should be
reliable and affordable so choose a web host that offers ample
disk space, provides easy to use tools and scripts and has
responsive customer service. Here are some web site
hosting options to look for and popular web hosting
services, with more coming soon.
Web Site Hosting Options and
Considerations
• Free or Paid Web
Hosting?
If you are putting up a
personal website or just practicing, a free hosting is OK, just
keep in mind free that web hosting will place ads on your site
of which you have no control. Free hosting also has little to
no customer support, they have restrictions on using
scripts, smaller bandwidth and very limited disk space. The
servers can also be slow and will affect users on your site and
very often drive them away.
With paid hosting the hassles
of site ads, poor support, down time and slow servers are
virtually gone. Of course, paid sites can offer poor
service too but in my experience, a paid service
performs head and shoulders better than a free one.
Also beware of hosting sites
that offer unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth. Read the
fine print or you could be slapped with extra fees should you
go over your 'hidden' limit. Somewhere in the web host's contract or
terms of service is a tiny clause that says something like,
"Your account will be terminated if your bandwidth goes
over a certain amount." Sometimes this amount is
specified, but usually it's hard to find. Not everyone can have
unlimited space and bandwidth, they'd go out of business if
they did, so be sure to read the fine print.
• Web hosting disk space
considerations
Statistically, the
average website is about 5mb in size, that can be a site with a
little over 100 pages. Your web site will typically
consist of text, graphics, sound, or video files that occupy
disk space on a server. If you already have this data on your
computer, check the combined size of those files to help you
select a hosting package with enough disk space. You can always
buy additional disk space.
Most web hosting
companies offer anywhere from about 50-100mb on average,
my hosting company, Thirdsphere Hosting
offers an impressive
500mb, which is huge, I'll never run out of space.
I brag about their service because they've been the
perfect host. Miguel Alvarez and his staff have always
been quick to respond and truly know what GOOD customer
service means.
Just keep in mind that you
have a lot of choices so make it a good
one.
• FTP access (file transfer
protocol)
Free hosts, and the cheaper
hosts, only allow you to design your website using their online
builder. However should you wish to use a separate
website builder, you'll need FTP access so that you can
create your web page and transfer it to your host
• Bandwidth or Data
Transfer
This is the amount of
traffic your website can use per day and per month. This means
that if the pages on your site get beyond a certain amount of
visitors per day or per month, your website will be disabled.
So be sure your bandwidth is adequate or that you can
upgrade.
The minimum bandwidth for an
average business site starting out should be about
2-3 Gigabytes but again be sure you can upgrade should you
need to.
• Emails an
Autoresponders
There's lots of free
email services available however if u you have your own site
it's nice to have email addresses that contain your domain name
such as webmaste@yourdomainname.com.
•
Reliability
Look for a
guaranteed up time of at least 99%. Get references of
people that use the web host and make sure you feel
comfortable with their reliability. A guarantee such
as 99% up time doesn't mean much if they can't make good
on the claim. They might refund your money but you still suffer
a loss in site visitors, not to mention the logistics and the
hassle of switching web hosts.
• Customer
service
Is there customer service
24/7 and are they helpful? Be sure they offer an email address
or other method for contacting their technical support staff.
Any company that claims they have good tech support but offers
no way to get personalized help isn't worth your time (or
money).
• Site
Statistics
Site
statistics are a MUST. You need
to know how many visitors you have, where they are coming
from, how they found your site and what keywords they are using
to find you. All useful information in helping you
develop your site and drive targeted traffic.
• What software does the web
host provide?
Examples include
message boards, FrontPage Extensions (more about that in the
building your website section), shopping cart, web design
service or templates, sub domains, mailing lists, databases,
password protected pages, etc.
•
Subdomains
Perhaps you may want
to start another website, what will it cost to add a new
site or a subdomain?
• Snap In Scripts
Be sure to find a
web host that has up to date scripts that makes installing
other programs easier. For example, if you want to install a
blog or a forum.
When I installed my forum I
used 'PHPbb' and the install is rather complicated but
Thirdsphere hosting made it a snap, they had a script that
installed it for me.
It was the same for Wordpress
(blogging software) When I installed Wordpress, Thirdsphere has
a script for that as well, so again they saved me a lot of time
and effort by providing a nice install script.
Recommended Web Hosting Services
& Reviews
Thirdsphere Hosting
I've used Thirdsphere hosting for years and
they have all of the above features plus a few
more.
ThirdSphere includes BleepSoft, a
web-based, professional-level WYSIWYG (What You See Is
What You Get) HTML editor.
Your Third Sphere hosting account also
comes loaded with the amazing Automation Station. An
impressive array of completely integrated scripts that
work in total synergy behind the curtains and give you
the ability to quickly set up and automate your:
- Pre-sales process
- E-zines and newsletters
- Follow-up autoresponders
- Digital product downloads
- Electronic ordering system
- Back-ends and up-sells
- Affiliates program
- ROI calculation &
analysis
- Sales & advertising trackers ...
and much more!
Learn more about
Thirdspherehosting
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