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03-29-2008, 04:38 PM
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  Old  Picking The Right Host For You

Are you ready to start your own web site? Not sure what to look for when starting? In this article I will help you find the right service for your website.

Growing Websites
Almost all websites grow and continue to grow unless there owner doesn’t promote and lets it die out. Make sure that the web host you choose is right for your website growth and you will not outgrow their services and have to change hosts. This can cause some downtime and may make visitors choose not to come back to your website.

Customer Service
This is a must for all web owners no matter how much of an expert you are on websites, There can always be problems with your host from software issues to general errors with your purchased service. Try and find a host that offers not just email service but Live chat, support tickets, email, and possibly a phone number which is good if you need to contact them for an urgent problem.

Uptime
This is how much their servers are up and able to have visitors viewing websites hosted by them. I personally turn away from any host that does not have a 99.9% guarantee. If it is 99.6% I will turn away cause if you are like me you don’t know how long that .3% was it could be 3 minutes, hours, days, months, years (unlikely to be days/months/years) but you never know.

Choices
The type of server you will need depends on the programs you want to run for things like your shopping cart, affiliate program, web site pages, etc. ASP, JSP, PHP, CGI, PL, CSS programs will influence the choice of a server and visa versa. Your hosting service may have windows (which for example accepts ASP but not PHP), Linux or nix-based (Apache/FreeBSD/etc.) servers.

Emails/Email Accounts
Do they allow email accounts on your website such as POP3 emails? Basically, these are email accounts where both the to and from accounts are your domain names. The other type, you don’t want as a business owner are “alias” accounts where the to account is your domain name, then it’s transferred to your ISP/DSL account. Outgoing mail does not include your domain name account You want to know how many you want or how many you are going to need. Most hosts now offer unlimited which I love as I have 50 emails on one website at any given time, as I sending out hundreds of emails daily from one email can result in your email being marked as a spammer and can cause all emails from that email to go into the spam folder of the person who is receiving your emails.

Security
If you plan/want to have a shopping cart, make sure that your website is as secure as it is able to be. (almost as secure as US airports these days) Make sure it is encrypted and has the programming capacity that allows you to produce a shopping cart, too.

Web Statistics
Does your web host provider offer plans including monthly and yearly statistics on each of your web pages? Will you know how someone found each of your web pages?

Easy Mange/Install
Does your hosting package include a simple to understand control panel? This is especially important if you want to maintain your site or have someone else easily maintain it. It’s one place to visit when making changes to your site, add addresses, etc. How about easy install scripts? If your host providers cPanel which I recommend as an easy to understand control panel does it come with Fantastico or any other program like this? This will allow you to install almost any kind of software that you want within just a few seconds and saves you from having to download files, upload them using FTP, and then install it by hand which can takes hours.

Protection
Is easy to password protect a page or area of your web site? This is becoming more important as web owners develop client, subscriber and note areas of their web sites.

Web Email
Can you easily read your messages on line, when you travel, because it has a Web-based Email system?

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Does your host offer FTP (File Transfer Protocol) for free or an additional item? Most hosts offer it for free but I have seen some where you must pay for it. I recommend you get a host with it for free as it is a must! I use FTP daily to upload pictures, files, and lots more of different file types. If you want to install a script that is not included in Fantastico (if your host provides it) then I recommend you use FTP to upload it instead of using the control panel and spend hours uploading it manually.

Disk Space/Bandwidth
Don’t overwhelm yourself with lots of space and bandwidth to were you will have lots of space unused as it will cost more then what you should spend for smaller space which is all that you really need. You will always want lots of bandwidth as this is how much data can be transfered from your website to your visitor’s computer(s). But as I said with disk space do not overwhelm your with lots of it, leave it at what its set with to start with and if you end up needing more then you can always upgrade. Don’t use hosts that offer “Unlimited Space” or “Unlimited Bandwidth” as this is simply not possible nobody is able to provide this no matter what they say, This tells you that they are overselling there services. What does overselling mean? It means that they sell more space/bandwidth that is physically available to them and that if everybody uses lots of space on there website then the entire server will overload on space and you will lose all your data on your website and will generate downtime and discourage visitors.

Upgrades
Does your host make it easy to upgrade your web plan, add-ons, space, disk space, and other things? I always use hosts that have no upgrade fees and are easy to upgrade with as If you need more space, bandwidth or add-ons you know it can easily be done without being charged more.

Recommend Hosts
The following is a list of hosts that I personally recommend and that I have personally used.
LogicWeb.com
Brius.com
Nixism.com
HostGator.com
SteadCom.com
Note: These are affiliate links as If you sign up using them you will help me pay for SaneBlogger hosting and other future features that I have planned.

Discouraged Hosts
This is a list of hosts that I do not recommend you use along with a reason why I do not recommend them.
*******.com (Horrible support and takes to long for them to fix things that are wrong with your account)

Until Next Time.

Best Regards,
Randy Cram

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Original Article:
SaneBlogger.com