Do you already have a web site and are thinking of upgrading or possibly moving to another web hosting company? This can be a difficult decision to make because you end up asking yourself; is this going to improve my site? Will this get any better? Am I jumping from the frying pan into the fire? Most hosting company’s will tell you that for only a few dollars that they will give you everything and the kitchen sink, but they also protect themselves by stating that while you have access to the resources that the package offers, you cannot impede on the resources of the server as it is a “shared” environment. This may sound like false advertising or misleading, but it isn’t. It is only logical as you may understand that as long as you do not affect other users negatively because you are hindering the performance of their web sites, you will be able to use as much as you need, within “fair use”. It becomes a problem only when you know your web site is highly used and you try to get away with something cheap. Be realistic and if you know that your web site needs better resources, then PAY for it.
When to upgrade or move to another web hosting company?

You may be using your web site for personal use or for business, but in the end you want the performance to be stable and not fluctuate up and down all the time. There are many web hosts out there that ONLY offer one service and that is shared web hosting. If and when you outgrow this or you are asked to upgrade because you are utilizing too many resources, you have no place to go, but to another company. Sounds simple? Not even close. This would mean countless hours of downtime and possible restructuring of your website (WHEN you finally do find a new web hosting company), not to mention the potential emails lost. Even with a smooth migration of your site, you will still encounter issues. Do you really want to put up with that? As you search through review lists of other web hosting companies, look for those that will handle your needs down the road. You may not ever need to upgrade or move to another web hosting company, but it is always nice to know that you don’t hit a dead end if the need arises.

Got a web site already? Have you ever wondered how much web hosting space you actually used? There are a lot of factors that will determine that. What do you do with your website, or what are your future plans such as a photo gallery or download availability of files? Photo files are a big part of your webspace availability and if you have an itchy trigger finger, you’ll find that you will have hundreds, if not thousands of photos before you realize it. It’s good to at least have an idea that you will be using quite a bit of webspace (storage) before looking for a hosting provider. A business based web site needs only as much storage as needed IF it has a large product line, but most businesses already know approximately how much they will require beforehand. Personal web sites are very ambiguous, so it is more difficult to gauge whether the web site will grow or maintain what it already has with minimal increase of storage needs.

Worrying about web storage is not the be all and end all in making a decision regarding which web host you should use. You do need to think about long term because it is not in your best interest to find a web host and find out there won’t be enough webspace for the future. Then that would mean finding a new host, then moving all your files. This is obviously not in any individual’s wishes.
Webspace, what’s it worth to you?

There are many companies out there that offer massive amounts of webspace, or at least seem to at a very very low cost. Many web hosting companies that offer this will play the numbers game and hope that 90% of the customers, only use 10% of the space and therefore, things even out. The average website barely uses 10% of the webspace given to them and more often than not, it does work out. If you want to be safe, choose a web host that costs a bit more and offers less space. This may sound really unorthodox, but realistically, it offers a fair service for a fair price and not something that MIGHT or might not have problems in the future. Do not get yourself into a situation where a problem can occur. It is always a good idea to prepare yourself and be cautious. After your decision is made, always retain a copy of your files as nothing in this world is 100% full proof and it would be a shame for you to lose your files permanently that might have taken you years to build up.

Joomla Hosting allows adequate robustness and bandwidth programming responsiveness and memory allocation to host updated Joomla applications and open source applications, Joomla installations, online Joomla web site portals, and Joomla front end features. Joomla functions with as many modules as a web hosting company can support . But inadequate Joomla web hosting in terms of bandwidth, memory, downtime, or ad placement can rout a website launch like no other element of online content management.

Joomla Hosting offers push button Joomla open source installation with Windows and/or Linux programming running underneath. The installation of an open source application like Joomla requires web hosting that supports and answers every line of Joomla code and can support as many users as the website can attract. Joomla is a popular web portal application because legacy users have grown used to Joomla's keyword and meta tag features, programmed article publications, guest editor and contributors, and specified Super User and administrator defined Joomla registered user group features.

Joomla web hosting must support the programmming of a given website and online portal at once, for ads, links, popups, content, images, formatting, and site presentation add-ons and specialized custom code. The Joomla hosting must allow for extended CSS editing and script hacking. Search engines index Joomla sites according to their uniqueness and variability from the base installtion profile. Thus the inability of a Joomla web hosting account to service programming changes to an initial Joomla installation makes the hosting irrelevent to the webmaster's purpose.

Access to Joomla administration features, Joomla web security updates, administration panels and editor and contributor logins require a functional Joomla web hosting with ability to refer traffic and service member logins and editing and administration capabilities. Consistent url request service and accurate versioning make a qualified Joomla web hosting account a must for accountable webmasters and site administrators. Online web hosting for Joomla websites must allow for adequate server response and burstability for sudden spikes in user interest and site visits. Joomla is known as a feature-rich CMS application for intermediate users to yield full benefit.

A qualified Joomla web hosting account must support PHP and MySQL as well as a quantity of site traffic requesting difference points of the content database and programmed feature catalog for that website. Joomla query and user experience optimization should be handled by qualified Joomla web hosting companies with redundancy and backup features. The indices and the search engine optimization setup for article keywords and programmed publishing requires consistently serviceable Joomla web hosting with a minimum of downtime tolerance.

Joomla hosting should be able to service newsletter functions to email lists of Joomla site members as well as stand up to security breaches with error reporting and 404 customized message handling. The ability to transition between themes must be supported by adequate programming and interface support by the Joomla web host. The referral and editing requirements of a Joomla web hosting account from the administration perspective must adapt to quick saves, updates, and programmable web publications of articles and other Joomla portal features.

The website core development from the Joomla web hosting account must allow for entire directories of images to be hosted and entire lines of code to execute from the resident directory without lag time or processing delay. Joomla web hosting must display custom headers and skins as designed by custom designers who must assume excellent Joomla hosting integrity for the Joomla website to efficiently operate. Premium Joomla web hosting will have automatic installation options and features inside an web hosting installation gateway.

Web hosting that is to slow or burdened with other traffic to support Joomla application portals will yield errors and issue untold problems upon installation attempts. Broken links, missing directories, or deleted databases are just some of the problems associated with inadequate Joomla web hosting. Competent webmasters and web site administrators avoid eradicated data and time consuming stumbling blocks by purchasing qualified Joomla web hosting. Error resolution for Joomla installations can be expensive and extremely problematic.

The Joomla application requires installation of plugins which rather tax the Joomla web hosting robustness. A weak web hosting account or overused servers will not establish a Joomla site presence equal to its full potential. Good full feature developed Joomla sites are good referral sources for qualified Joomla web hosting. PHP scripts and customized style sheets need a little extra support from originating request responses to Joomla sites. The polish and appeal of a Joomla website is a by-product of qualified robust Joomla web hosting.

Joomla web hosting must be redundant and support Joomla programming enough to operate functionally and display content and images while rendering custom themes and optional plugins. Ease of use for experienced Joomla webmasters and website administrators will always demand a Joomla web hosting account that can support all the Joomla features the application offers. Installation commands can fail and sample data can disappear. Joomla web hosting with installation features can eradicate Joomla package problems, local to remote server installations issues, and other portal challenges to non-Joomla web hosting.

Only qualified robust and tested Joomla web hosting can bear the brunt of a CMS content portal and a multiplicity of features like backup and restore capability in support of web site administration. Joomla installations can vary according to virtual hosting and web server organization and naming. Proven web hosting that supports Joomla will have the buges and problems weeded out. No combing through complicated and time consuming open source forums looking for answers. Qualified Joomla web hosting means no Joomla menu disappearances and no empty components or Joomla modules lost in web space.

Without seamless Joomla web hosting, site path convergence and shared virtual hosting can confuse programming and template issues. Hard path sequences, re-coding, and skins and CSS issues are avoided with efficiently powered Joomla web hosting. Without troubleshooting and Joomla package installation issues out of the way, every type of challenge from a database error to migration failure will occur. Joomla modules and themes may not render correctly or versioning updates and security patches may not program appropriately.

The complexity of the Joomla portal installation is mirrored by the rich optimizing result and functionality of its application offerings. But without qualified Joomla web hosting capable of launching and optimizing the Joomla visitor experience, a webmaster is likely to lose key productivity on avoidable installation and programming glitches. When customer vending tools and Joomla Mart modules, custom components and programmed optmization are needed, only qualified Joomla we hosting can serve the webmaster's site development utility best.

It is very common to see various types of people having their own website, based on their type of profession. Looking at others, you too may get inspired to own a website. So, you get a suitable domain name registered for yourself. But you must also be well prepared to decide on a suitable web hosting plan too. This post will provide you with the required information with regard to understanding web hosting. Before you even decide to register your domain name, you must also decide who your web hosting provider is going to be. It is easy to register a domain name but when it comes to understanding and selecting your web hosting provider, you need to think in the right direction before taking the final step.

You will need a server to host your website so that your website is viewed by many people, over the internet. It is the web hosting service provider who takes the responsibility of putting your website on a computer (server) which is connected to the internet. It is up to you to decide whether you want to host your website by using your own server or you can use an internet service provider to host. Mostly, it is advisable to take help of an internet service provider because they can facilitate benefits such as powerful server hardware, high speed connections and reliable server support.


There are basically two main types of web hosting concepts.


The first one is “shared hosting” and the second is “dedicated hosting”. If you choose shared hosting type of service provider for hosting your website, then the hosting package becomes affordable. This is because you will have to pay only a portion of the server fee, instead of paying for the entire server. Mostly, people host their websites by using shared hosting (virtual hosting)


If you choose a dedicated server, you then have to choose to rent the entire server for your own use. You can also choose to buy a server instead of renting it. But it is you who have to decide to take the right step towards your web hosting plan, depending upon your actual web hosting requirement.

By Joelene Orlando

Choosing a web hosting company is a very personal decision based on your own unique needs. Web hosting is what places your website into the World Wide Web, where anyone can access to it 24 hours a day. In other words, without placing your site onto a web hosting service, you won’t get the visibility you want. Most small business owners will most likely go through a web hosting company rather than invest in acquiring their own servers, which is very expensive and difficult. On top of the expense that is involved with having your own server, you need to have a strong educational background to be able to deal with the technical aspects of implementing your own server, or having your own technical computer staff on hand to deal with the process. (And those programmers don’t come cheap either!) If you’re a new online business or looking for ways to expand your market reach, web hosting is definitely the way to go.

Which web hosting service do you select? There are two key things to keep in mind when you begin your search for an appropriate web hosting service: (1) Find a web hosting company that meets your needs for today, (2) Make sure that this web hosting company you choose can grow with you as your business expands. Another important factor you want to know up front about hosting services, is that once you choose one, and decide it doesn’t pan out for you, to switch to another service will be a very painful and a lengthy process. It’s just not worth the mistake to make!

Check out these tips in how you can select a web hosting service that has the most qualities such as flexibility, service, and growth capabilities along with a strong background in technical abilities that you’re seeking, at a price you can afford.

By Alec Ellis

Imagine having a filing system that could withstand a nuclear war. Hmm, I wouldn't like to prove it, but in theory that is what the Internet could resist with its virtual existence. If you transfer files of information around the Internet, operating in virtual space, it would be difficult to lose that information if you had a mind not to.

Possessing a website has advantages for many varieties of users; serving a range of different purposes. For example, Net presence is of enormous benefit to businesses of all shapes and sizes. Conventional filing systems, where everything is stored as a hard copy, are cumbersome, and space consuming. With a website, all existing documents can be transferred one way or another, to the Internet and neatly organized using 'hyperlinks' (virtual pathways) for quick, easy reference. You no longer need to waste your time digging through a mile high pile of paper to find what your looking for, with your own website all it takes is the click of a 'mouse'.

A website wouldn't only save you space and time, but cost too. The Internet is worldwide and a website can be used as a powerful promotional and marketing tool, viewed by prospective clients around the world. One can see what you offer in Hong Kong and Madrid at the same time.

Imagine the money you'd save on promotional printing costs. Your website could reach the four corners of the globe and be available 24 hours a day. There is no longer a need to allocate high budgets to printing promotional material for prospective clients, they are able to access the information instantaneously, and download what they need.

Imagine, neatly organized links that move you, quickly to your destination. A website is your identity on the Internet, kind of like an interactive 'business card'. It can be the prospective client's first point of contact, presented by a knockout, easily updated, design, your site can sell you, your products and your services.

Once you have organised your web site and patted yourself on the back, that you have made your first flight into 'cyberspace', your next step is to have somewhere to 'dock' it, a place to put your website. A place such as M6.net - http://www.m6.net a 'web host' a place to 'host' your web site. A web hosting company provides a space for you to put your web page documents (FrontPage, Dreamweaver files), images (gifs, jpgs), and more advanced pages such as ASP's, those pages that have intelligence behind them creating such items as forms, news, bbs, chat; interaction. If the Host is clever enough, friendly, supportful; it will offer a whole range of facilities, that you or your webmaster can take advantage of, to create an interactive, humanised, mechanised and automated business presence, on the Internet.

For businesses in the new millennium there is no future without an Internet presence. Trade costs will lower; communication will get smarter and faster. Reliability will be greater. Thus there will be a vast gap between businesses with Net presence and those without. Every one will have a presence on the Internet some day, wether it is a corporate business, Aunty Flo's bric-a-brac stall, or the family's photo library.

By Alec Ellis

You have 1 or 2 seconds to make an impression, and 2 or 3 seconds more to make a sale, or forget the web hosting business!!

Web hosting as a business has taken off in the last 12 months, with a vengeance.

How many web sites are on the Web today? They all have to be hosted somewhere, the result being, there are now thousands of web hosts around the globe today. How do people decide to choose you?

Potential customers will talk to friends; perhaps ask a local web design group; or consult their ISP (Internet Service Provider); but this may result in knowledge of only one or two hosting companies. There are hosting directories, and review sites which may be governed by whoever pays for the largest ad or personal opinions that seem popular. The visitor will still have to make the final decision.

If these visitors make their own decisions, and there are thousands of web hosts to choose from, there are very few seconds to deliver your offer, which must be instantly obvious. What can you do to turn this streaming traffic into sales?

First View – The look of your web site

Are the design, content and delivery up to customer expectations? If the presentation has obviously been thought about; a conscientious effort to delivery and content; then it is likely the visitor will believe that the hosting company will also look after their site conscientiously. If the presentation is poor, then forget it, there are more than enough web hosts that look good. Of course, to the other extreme, if the web host’s site looks a million dollars, it is likely that the visitor will be expecting to a pay a ‘million’ too!

The Initial Offers – What are your best packages?

With the sudden growth of the web, the hosting industry has had to take a retail approach to content delivery. In the retail trade the offers are so many, that the customer has to learn to speed read, or speed view. Visitors to web hosting sites have not got the time to read all the details on each of every one of thousands of sites, so speed viewing is a must; or is it?

Web hosts who have nothing to sell usually hide this fact by showing columns of text, expecting the visitor to sort out what is good to them or not. The usual explanation for this is “ The visitor knows what they want and will find it without our hassling them.” The expectation is that with less hassle the visitor will more likely become a customer. Not true.

Web hosts that have special offers, great deals, or offer specialised packages for say private, business or corporate customers; will tell you just that. Think about it, why hide the fact you have a winner? By taking a retail approach to a very retail business, the real dealmakers are not ‘backward in coming forward’.

Obviously making everything on the site an ‘excellent’ offer is the other extreme. Most web hosts offer 90% of what their competition offers, so to point out every good point offered would be overkill. The likely result would be that you would show the visitor that you are new to the industry, and less experienced; not good in times of future support.

By pointing out the great points in the best reasonable packages, you will catch the eye of the traffic, until previously, zooming past you. What to do when they have stopped for a visit is another matter.

Congratulations on getting the traffic to stop and browse – What next?

Getting the zooming traffic to stop and browse is difficult enough. The look of your web site can catch that peripheral vision of theirs; in an instant they can decide, “I will stop here and have a look”. The offers of 3 or 4 of your accounts, too good to be true, or at least warrant further investigation, entice a visit.

These ‘highway signs’ make you stop and pull over. What happens once the visitors have pulled in? You will have to hold them there, before they up and leave just as quickly. The ‘restees’ have seen the site, they have sampled the best on offer; now what? You know you have a captured audience, all be it for another 2 or 3 seconds. Be careful not to send these valuable potential customers off clicking around your site. They clicked on your special package, the offer on the front page, so take them directly to it.

The visitor has been enticed to your web site; seen good offers and one or two of those are just what they are looking for. Take them direct to the page with the offer; include the price; include basic details that quantify very quickly the worth of the package; and, provide an order form. Do not smother these account pages in common details, or details of other accounts.

There should be only two main pages, the front page and the account package page, that which the customer clicks to. The front page is attractive and entices you to stay, the offer encourages you to spend a few more seconds on the account page consisting of title, offer, basics, price and order form; all this should be on a secure page ready to take credit card information.

No two visitors are the same. There are those that will just sign up straightaway and those that will ‘further investigate’. Put the remainder of your account packages’ details, along with the ‘about’ information, the ‘help’, the ‘support’ etc, on other pages, using links on navigation bars for easy access, keep the offer clean.

You have one or two seconds to sell your product, don’t use it to educate your potential customer, let someone else do that! Give them what they want, this is now a very retail industry, if you are stuck for reference material, then visit a supermarket or local store, retail research has been around for years.

By Jim Edwards

"What's your web address?"

From small "mom and pop" home-based businesses to mega- stores, people ask this question in business every single day. Even if you only operate a small, local business, if you don't have a website (or at least email) people honestly look at you funny.

A few years ago, website hosting was one of the largest expenses connected with setting up a website. Now, with dramatic drops in pricing, website hosting can actually present the least costly component of operating a website.

However, before you run out and sign up for $2-a-month website hosting and wake up tomorrow filled with regret, take 5 minutes right now and learn the main points to consider when evaluating any website host.

Total Storage

How much space do you get to store your website files? If you operate a small website with a handful of pages and only a couple of pictures per page, you can get by with 5-10 MB (megabytes) of disk space or less. However, if your site contains dozens of pages and hundreds of pictures, you may need a hosting plan with 10- 25 MB of space.

Data Transfer / Bandwidth

Here's where many people fall down and get run over by the Internet bus! Bandwidth represents the total amount of traffic the website host allows you to receive.

Successful sites that get a lot of traffic eat up more bandwidth than sites without many visitors. Honestly, bargain website hosting companies don't want you to get much traffic because your bandwidth costs them money.

If you plan to do any business online, make sure you get a bare minimum of at least 1 GB (gigabyte) of data transfer per month.

Email "Aliases"

Most web hosts allow you to set up email addresses connected with your domain, such as jim@thenetreporter.com, and have them forward to your email account, like yourname@aol.com. The ability to set up email aliases forms an integral part of any online business. Make sure your hosting company allows you to set up at least 5 email aliases.

Website Tools

If you want to do anything more than let people look at static web pages, you will need to have certain tools available. The two most important tools are CGI and website statistics. These allow you to run scripts and see who came to your site and when.

Tech Support

Make sure you understand any company's technical support policies and hours of operation. Don't wait until Saturday afternoon to discover your only help option is to wait and email them Monday morning.

Go to www.comparewebhosts.com and check out the tool for researching and comparing the offerings of over 9,000 different website hosting companies. Try the "Power Search" feature, which allows you to specify about 50 different variables, including price, company location, bandwidth, and number of email aliases allowed. It even lets you search by how often the hosting company backs up its servers to protect against data loss.

By Jonathan White

When building your website and getting it hosted online, you want your site to be up and running on the World Wide Web 24/7 without any hitches so that it is making you money all the time and all you have to worry about then is getting visitors to your site, doing seo, getting repeat visitors, maximizing your sites revenue, etc. You don't want to have to worry about your web hosting and it's stability.

So, when choosing a web hosting provider to host your website with, you want to try and get the best web hosting provider so that your site is always up and running smoothly on the World Wide Web.

So what makes a good Web Hosting Provider? There are many things that make up a good web-hosting provider. Some of these include good support, good uptime, good backup system in place, good hardware, offers loads of web hosting features including email features, scripting features and more.

So where can some good Web Hosting Providers be found? There are many places across the web where you can find some of these good web-hosting providers. A good place to start is probably using a web-hosting directory as you can easily compare these web-hosting providers against what other providers are offering that's listed within any individual web-hosting directory. For example, with http://www.1hostseeking.com you can easily find and compare a large amount of some of the top and most reliable web-hosting providers online. You can easily compare each web host against each other so that you can easily see what they offer for the amount of money that they charge.

When choosing a web host it is also best to choose one that offers free set-up and also a money back guarantee. This is because if you find that they don't quite offer what you need for your website, then you can easily get your money back and choose another web hosting provider.

Even if you found some web hosting providers from a web hosting directory like http://www.1hostseeking.com that offer the features that you need for your website, but you still would like further information about the quality of their service, then you could also go to a web hosting related forum and ask others about what they think about these web hosting providers that you have chosen.

After you have done all this, you should then have a good idea or a better idea of which web hosting provider you are most likely to choose to host your website.

By Daniel Punch

When you first start out trying to get a site on the Internet everything seems so confusing. Obtuse acronyms flow freely through the 'Beginner Friendly' information sites and definitions can be hard to come across. The main reason for this is that the Internet and the process of getting a website online is really very simple, and once people get past the first stumbling steps they rarely remember the difficulty they once had, which leads to them being unable to understand the next wave of dot com newbies.

So let's begin with defining some of the basic terms that are commonly thrown around when looking for a web host. You'll quickly realize that computer geeks like using big words for simple concepts. What do you expect from a group of people that decided to call half a Byte a Nibble?

Web Host: These are the people that supply your website with somewhere to sit and be accessed from. They're often a wealth of information, so when you're trying to find your feet it will often be worthwhile to contact their tech support and get your questions answered. Because of this, it's important to contact them BEFORE you sign up for any packages to ensure that you'll receive a timely response. Just fire an email their way and see what happens.

Disk Space: This is the same as the space on your own PC's hard drive. Web Hosts will allocate a certain amount of space to your website, usually in Megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). This determines how much you can store on your site.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be retrieved from your site within the bandwidth period. The bandwidth period is the length of time before your bandwidth gets reset once again, usually about a month. Bandwidth is measured in MB and GB, like disk space. Always find out the consequences of exceeding your allocated bandwidth before you purchase a hosting package.

Domain Name: The domain name is your personal identifier on the Internet. This is what gets typed into a web browser's address bar to reach your site. Some hosting companies will offer a domain for free, while others will have the facilities to provide one for a minimal cost.

SQL (MySQL, SQL Server etc.): Structured Query Language. This is the language used to interact with databases. Chances are that if you don't know about it when you start looking for web hosting, you're not going to need to know about it for at least a little while longer.

HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Basically, how the Internet works. It is the protocol governing the transfer of web pages from one place to another.

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language. This is (usually) what you'll be using to make your website, whether directly or indirectly. Don't be scared by the name, the 'language' is very easy to learn.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol. This is a method for sending pages and files from your home PC to a server. It is quite simple to use and your host will provide login information if this is the method that they use for file access. Typing "FTP://" into My Computer on a windows box allows you to use FTP as if your server were a regular windows folder.

POP3: This is a common email 'post box' system. It is use to store emails for retrieval.

SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. A common protocol used to send emails.

The beginner will not really need to know too much about the above two email technologies. If they're listed, good. It means you have email accounts with your website (i.e. the email name@yourdomain.com will reach you, somehow)

There are many 'languages' used to enhance websites, such as Java, Perl, ASP, .NET, PHP, etc. If you're just starting out you should try to learn simple HTML first before you worry too much about these more advanced languages. In general they're not too difficult to learn, but you'll want a solid grounding before you tackle them.

The Internet is a wonderful source of knowledge, so whenever you want information just fire up your favourite search engine and type in your problem. The Internet is full of sites about the Internet, so the information you want shouldn't be too hard to find.

Building professional websites takes a lot of time and skill, so many companies hire people to do it for them. If this is the situation that you're in, talk to the designer you're hiring about hosting, as they may have struck a deal with a webhost to provide clients with cheaper hosting packages. Also, the professional designer will know what features you're going to need in a hosting plan.

The world of web hosting is not as complicated as people would like to make out. Just make sure you do a little bit of research before diving in and you'll be less likely to get burned by a shifty 'here today, gone tomorrow' company. Check out the host's rankings on a few Web Hosting Directories, do a search for reviews of the company, contact the support staff before signing up and enjoy the world opened by having your own online presence.

By Jonathan White

When building your first site the main things that you will probably think about is what types of content you will be adding to your site, how you are going to get visitors to your site and how you are going to generate good revenue from your site.

Well, all of the things mentioned above are crucial things to consider, but then again, what's the point in thinking about them if you can't even get a good Web host to host your site with. If you choose a Web host that has a poor service then it can do more damage to your site than good. If your sites host goes down often then your site will also go down and your visitors will get annoyed and will go elsewhere. Your sites earnings will decline and many people online will ignore your site, as people will start to think that your site is down more than what it's up.

So now you are probably thinking to yourself, "where and how can I find a good Web host to host my site with, which is also reasonably priced?"

If you need a Web host that is reasonably priced so that you can make more profit from the turnover of your site, then a good place to start looking is by using a few Web hosting directories. You could start by using http://www.1hostseeking.com.

Ok! Now your probably think "why would I want to use a Web hosting directory as they contain many Web hosting providers and not all of them are likely to be good."

The main reasons why you should use a Web hosting directory to find a Web host is so that you can easily find and compare a large amount of Web hosting providers that offer the services that you need to run your site successfully. You can also compare each Web host's prices against each other and then you will be able to find a reasonably priced Web host.

Once you have narrowed down your search to a few Web hosts from the Web hosting directory, you could then go to your chosen Web hosting providers sites and check them out to have a better understanding to what they offer. If they look good, then the best thing to do is not to purchase any hosting from them until you have checked them out more virally. Checking a Web host out to see if they are reliable can be done by searching through some of the major search engines for reviews on your chosen few Web hosts and also you can check through some of the larger forums that discuss Web hosting topics. If you can't find any information about the few Web hosts that you have narrowed down and chosen within any of the forums that you use, then you could always bring up that topic yourself and ask others what they think about your chosen Web hosts and if they have had any experiences with the them.

Once you have received other people's opinions about the Web hosts and you have also read a number of reviews about them, you will then have a better understanding of what Web host should be the best to use for you Website.

By Mary Hedden

Switching to a new web hosting company can be a difficult task, but we have provided you a list of things to do that can make your transition much smoother.

1. Before you sign up for your new web hosting services, make sure that your new plan offers all of the same features that your web site is currently using. Do you have enough disk space? Does your new plan offer enough bandwidth? Is it using the same operating system (Windows or Unix)? Also make sure that your new plan supports any programming languages that you are currently using.

2. Once you have researched the company and verified that the new web hosting company will support your website, go ahead and sign up for your new web hosting plan.

3. Set up your existing e-mail accounts on your new server. Make note of the new POP3 and SMTP that you will soon need to start using.

4. Upload your website files to your new server. Since your domain name currently points to your old hosting account, you will have to use your new IP address to do this.

5. Test to make sure that your site looks good and functions properly on your new server. Most web hosting companies can provide a link to preview your site before the domain name has been transferred over.

6. Once you are satisfied that your site looks and functions OK, you can go to your registrar and change the DNS settings to point the domain to the new web host's nameservers. You should be provided this information after signing up for your account.

7. You will see your site on the new server 24-48 hours after you modify the DNS settings. Your e-mail will also start going to your new account at this time.

8. Modify your e-mail client with your new POP3 and SMTP e-mail settings.

9. Verify that your new website is working OK. Make sure that all of the files were loaded properly and that all scripts are running fine.

You have now successfully switched to a new cheap web hosting company!

By Priyanka Agarwal

John's online business is expanding. His customers are increasing day by day. However, he feels very frustrated at the moment as he finds his website is 'down' about every 4th day. Whenever he calls up the support team of his web host, he gets the same old answer that his problem will be rectified soon. If the problems do persist it will surely hamper his business. He has been with his present hosting provider for the last year but now he feels he has to find a new web host as soon as possible because his present hosting package is also not able to meet up with his growing demands. This is not a one-off occurrence that has happened only to John, it happens with many people like him. Changing the web host might become a cumbersome task if John and other people like him don't know the correct procedure of doing it. So, let's have a look at the following easy and simple steps:

First of all, it's very important to have a backup of your website and everything related to it, like databases, scripts etc. It will be very helpful in case there is data loss because of any unforseen reason. Save at least 2 copies of everything and store them separately, so that you can work with one and the other one will function as a backup. You can take backup in various ways. One is by using software programs like a FTP program (e.g. Smart FTP http://www.smartftp.com/) for downloading data. Now, the time is to look for a new web host that meets all your requirements and provides better technical services than your previous host. Since you have already been through the search procedure it won't take you much time to come across a reliable hosting company.

Once you have taken a new web-hosting plan and you are ready to upload your web pages, databases etc., check that you have received an IP number, FTP or FrontPage login, and password from your new hosting company. Now, upload all your files to the new server; you are just repeating the same procedure that you've done in the past when you uploaded your files for the very first time.

Only a few more steps more and you will be completely done. Before transferring your DNS servers over from your previous host to your new one, debug and test the new site from an individual IP number. Check that all the web pages exist, the links point to the right pages and that all your scripts are running. One important point which people always forget is their domain name expiration date. If you plan to move near the expiration date, it could cause you lots of problems. To be on the safe side, make sure that you have at least 3-4 weeks in hand before the domain name expires, or just renew it for another year.

To transfer domain name service to a new host identify registrar using "WHOis" lookup http://domreg-m6.net/domains/WHois.asp, verify registration of your domain name, identify the name server information for the host your are transferring to, and make changes in the DNS information at the registrar. During this DNS transition period new DNS information has to be propagated throughout the world's DNS servers. This propagation might take 2-4 days as an International root name server will firstly have to check all the various Domain registrars for updates, and then every ISP provider will update their DNS setting to show the new changes. Not only this, even Internet, i.e. Internet routers and caching engines have to update/clear its DNS cache as well. During this propagation period, you keep your old site running so that the visitors whose ISP provider haven't updated can still visit your website.

It's advisable that you don't cancel your old hosting service during the transition period, as you will need to check your mail from both the hosting providers, as some will direct e-mail to your old server whereas other Internet regions will send mail to your new server. After one or two weeks you can annul the account with your old host.

On the very first notion it sounds like a painful task to find a new web host and make all the necessary changes, but with the steps known, people like John will not find this procedure problematic. With so many automation software packages available, it has now become easier to switch over your web site from old host to new host. If both hosting providers have the same operation system platform, the procedure will become even simpler. But remember, the most important task in the whole host-changing scenario is to find a host that meets your requirements so that you don't have to go through this entire procedure again in the future.

By Daniel Punch

Overselling is a big trend in the web-hosting world at the moment. It's an easy way to get more out of your servers than normally is possible. The basic idea of overselling is that the majority of your clients are only going to use a fraction of the resources allocated to them so there's going to be a lot of wasted bandwidth and space. Overselling involves taking a gamble and selling more than you can handle assuming that the unused resources will cover it.

Let's say for example that a server hard drive is 80GB and has 1200GB of bandwidth. The hosting company has a look around and decides that to be competitive they need to offer plans with 2GB of disk space and 40GB bandwidth. With these figures they can only offer 30 hosting packages per server. This leaves quite a bit of wasted disk space and after a few months the company will probably notice that their users aren't using all of the available bandwidth. Because of this the company then assumes that it can safely sell at least 10 more packages on the one server. If the original number of customers already covers general costs then the extra packages provided by overselling are pure profit.

The advantage of overselling for the host is that they make more money off each server than they otherwise normally would be able to. The advantage for the client is that this extra revenue is usually transferred on (at least in theory) by cheaper hosting packages with more features. The problem is that these features are often 'smoke and mirrors'. A few users would be able to use their entire allotment without any trouble, but if every single client were to build their website up to maximum capacity the host wouldn't be able to handle the sudden increase in demand without adding extra hard drives, buying more bandwidth, or perhaps even another server. This would most likely lead to a fair amount of downtime.

Web hosts aren't going to advertise the fact that they oversell. It's not something that will gain them customers and it's likely to drive away a few. In general however, they're likely to get away with it without any real problems. The reason the idea even exists is that it is true that the majority of websites don't use all of the space that's allocated to them. The problem is that it's not a particularly honest way of dealing with clients. It's a little like the 'Emperor's New Clothes' where the host is just hoping that no one notices the fact that a package is in fact a little nude.

Overselling will generally not be a problem unless a host gets too greedy and ends up selling much more than they could possibly provide for. On the other hand, it's not even necessary as the host can usually make enough money to make ends meet without overselling. It will generally be quite difficult for you to find out whether or not a host oversells unless they specifically advertise it, or they're well known for having problems due to excessive overselling. Just make sure you do some research and choose a reliable host, not necessarily the one that appears to offer ridiculous amounts of bandwidth or disk space for far too little money.

By David Haskin

Most small businesses these days try to use the Internet to compete more effectively. The trick, however, is to accomplish that goal without spending too much of your precious money and time.

That's becoming increasingly possible, according to some experts. You still must hire somebody to create and update your website. However, prices for hosting your website are falling rapidly, which will enable small businesses to create sites that are more sophisticated. Hosting services provide the computers, or servers, on which your Web site is located.

Most small businesses typically use so-called shared servers in which your website shares a server with the sites of other companies, according to Steve Dauber, vice president of marketing for Ensim. Shared servers typically cost between $10 and $50 a month, he noted.
A better solution is to have your own, dedicated server, but that previously was too expensive for many small companies - typically about $200 a month, according to Dauber. His company develops software to help manage both shared and dedicated servers.

"Now that price is coming down to as little as $100 a month," Dauber said. "And I'll bet it'll get even lower."

Dedicated servers have many advantages, Dauber said. But, he cautioned, they also create new challenges.

By Alec Duncan

We all need web hosting whether our sites makes $100,000/day or $0/month, however, we don't always have to pay full price for it. Now I know there are several hosting companies offering such low hosting plans that some people might feel that it doesn't matter if they pay or not but I will assume you are not one of those people since you have continued to read past the title of this article :-).

A common misconception with hosting companies is that they will only offer deals and discounts on their small hosting plans, this is not true. Hosting companies are in business to make money just as most of us are and they weight the Pros and Cons of business arrangements just as we do. If something makes sense to them then there is a high chance that they will do it whether it be a budget hosting plan or a top notch dedicated server.

How does this work? Well, it is very simple really, all you need to do is contact your web hosting provider, try to speak with the person in charge of business development or billing and let them know that you are currently hosted with them and would like to know if they would be interested in a barter arrangement where you add "Your Site Name hosted by Your Host Name" with a link to their website on all pages of your website.

This can be a very attractive offer to a host since a referral from a website that is currently being hosted by the hosting company is far more convincing than many of the alternatives such as searching through web hosting directories or using search engines. If you have loyal followers of your site then the "hosted by" message becomes even more powerful as a means to provide additional business to your host.

Have a few bits of information on hand when calling your host:

• Prepare a brief summary of your website and its audience. Make this as short as possible and keep it in a regular conversational tone.
• Have your traffic stats ready as this is one of the main things your host will be interested in find out to help determine if the deal will make sense for them or not.
• Know your Google PageRank. Your host may be interested in knowing this to help determine the reputation of your site.

If your host seems a bit reluctant to go ahead with your offer you can suggest a trial period during which they can track the results and see if the deal will infact be beneficial to them.

As simple as this strategy seems the beautiful thing is, it works! So give it a shot and let it work for you. Good luck!

By Lee Creek

Whether you're a small business or a large corporation, if you're going to have a web site, you'll have to have a web host. Lee Creek offers sage advice on how to find the host that's right for you. At times, finding a good host for a web site is like discovering a fat guy appearing in an advertisement for a fancy health club -- it never happens unless they need a "before" model standing next to the well chiseled "after" guy. Sure, there are plenty of good web hosts out there, I'm told, but it can be difficult to find one that is right for a user's particular purpose. What may be an excellent choice for one user could be a major mistake for another. And that, my friends, is the first factor to consider when searching for a web host. What exactly do you need?

Finding the perfect host should begin by analyzing what is needed for the web site. If a host doesn't offer the services needed, then nothing else makes it worth bothering with, including price. Knowing what you need can also eliminate wasted time looking at hosts that do not offer services matching your needs. For individuals and some small businesses, the solution sometimes is as simple as storing the web site on the space they got when they chose their internet service provider. Those sites usually cost about $20 a month and come with a limited amount of space or data transfer allowance. Frequently, however, that allowance is too little, and/or the host may not offer other services that a small company may require, including e-commerce or CGI-bin access or even customer service. Further, the ISP may also charge a punishing fee for those who exceed their allotted storage and usage amounts. That is why it is important to not only consider current needs but to allow for future growth. Another thing to think about is the location of the hosting company. While brick and mortar businesses are sometimes limited geographically, internet businesses have the world in reach at the touch of a button. Thus, if you cannot get a good local company to meet your hosting needs, look around for the company that best suits your needs and billfold, and don't worry about location. However, you do want to make sure they have a toll-free number to use to contact them. People are often lured by free web hosting sites, but that comes with a cost that is sometimes too high. The dollars may be right, but users are forced to build their site with the hosting company's online builder, costing time to make changes, more difficult, and often virtually impossible to customize. Another factor with free web hosting is that it can require the user to put up with ads or aggravating watermarks that appear on all the pages on their sites. To eliminate that problem, users should choose hosting companies that allow 24/7 FTP access. Changes that need to be made can be made as the user needs, and they can be customized to the user's desires. Is the host reliable?

The next item to check out are the ISP's downtime history, for obvious reasons: If the server is down, so is your web site. My current host site was great at first, but recently the server has been down almost as much as my stock shares; thus, I am on the lookout for a good ISP (and an even better stockbroker). It is very frustrating to pay for something you don't get, and how many of us have gotten home from the local fast food restaurant only to discover the beef is missing. That is probably the same feeling users have when they (or anyone else) cannot access their web site or e-mail. When considering a host site, ask them what their uptime percentage is, and it should be just under 100 percent. Any lower than that, you'd be better off posting your web site at that fast food restaurant. Clearly, failure to stay up and running can be costly to e-commerce businesses, but it is just as costly to companies that depend on the web for part of their advertising and public identification. One way to get a true reading on a hosting company's reliability is to check with some of its existing clients to determine what they think about it. Any one of them can be an eye opener, so make sure you check with several to get a real picture. Give your host a call - if you can!

Free telephone support from your web hosting company is critical. Why? If the server is down, there goes your e-mail capabilities, too. I recently found a company of interest to me, but when I asked them for their 24/7 telephone support number, they said they only offered e-mail support. Perhaps they are expecting users to write letters to report their problems when the server is down, but I'll never know because I immediately scratched them off my list. Some companies may not have a toll-free number to call, but at least the support itself is free. Others charge for the support, which means you pay that in addition to the cost of the telephone call. Perhaps the best way to determine how reliable a web hosting company's support is, is to send an e-mail to them on Saturday night. If you don't get a response until Monday, then you will know that in the future that if problems occur early in the weekend, your site will probably stay down until the work week begins on Monday. That could be quite costly. At this point, if your ISP has not met the criteria discussed above, it may be time to be looking for another home for your web site. Moving to another site can be a pain, but your domain registrar can usually be of help, and so can the host you choose to replace the old one.

By Michael McCarthy

If you're in the process of finding an appropriate host for your site, you'll probably ask yourself "Why should I pay for hosting when I can get it for free?" The answer depends on the nature of your site. A paid hosting plan is essential for some sites, while for others a free host might offer all the facilities you need. But which should you choose?

Free Hosting Pitfalls
If you've been developing Web pages for over a year, then chances are that you're considering the move to paid hosting, if you're not already on a paid plan. As an experienced coder and designer, you're probably familiar with the frustrations involved with hosting your site on a free server…

1. Advertising Overload
Probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of free hosting is the proliferation of unwanted ads on all your pages. Unfortunately, many free hosts rely solely on these ads to earn money, so very few offer services that are free of forced advertising. The end result? Visitors to your site see a 468x60 pixel banner ad on the top of each of your pages. Or maybe they're hit with a pop-up banner after each click-through. Whatever the case, these ads can severely reduce the professionalism of well-designed pages.

2. More Downtime
Downtime plagues many free web hosts. The fact that their subscribers don't pay for services means that many free hosts feel less than obligated when it comes to dependability. Free hosts are rarely bothered if some of users are dissatisfied with the service - this small minority are of little or no real benefit to the host anyway.

3. Poor Customer Support
The majority of free hosts don't have the funds to hire customer support teams. If you experience problems, you can find yourself relying heavily on the host's Frequently Asked Questions page - after all, the chances of receiving any live or email support can be almost non-existent.

4. Limited Space
If your site is large, then you might find free web hosts quite limiting. Most free hosts only provide customers with 5 to 10 MB of space, so you'll never be able to expand your site beyond your allotted disk space without moving to a paid host.

5. Restricted Ad Revenues
Many free hosts don't allow you to sell advertising space on your site. This might be fine if you're simply maintaining a personal homepage, but can severely impact on revenues for business Websites. For these sites, a paid service may be the only viable hosting option.

6. No Secure Server Access If you plan on building an online store, you'll need a secure server to enable secure online credit card processing. Most free hosts don't support secure web servers, and, given customer fears about fraud, privacy and security, the lack of secure serving can make it virtually impossible for an online store to survive on a free service.

7. File Type Restrictions
Many free web hosts don't support file extensions other than .html, which can be really limiting. For example, if you build a large web site with the same navigation on each page, you might use SSI, which gives you the ability to alter the navigation style on one page, and have that same alteration automatically carried across all pages. SSI can save you a great deal of time and frustration, but is produces files that end in .shtml. To cater for these files, you'll need an SSI-enabled server, which can be almost impossible to find through a free host.

8. Long Domain Names
Paid hosts allow their customers to use their own domain names, while most free services require you to take a subdomain off the host's name. In the case of Geocities, a typical URL could resemble "http://www.geocities.com/Area51/ Shadowlands/ 2719/ Food/ pizza.htm." Domains like this almost entirely prevent users from visiting your site from memory - they'll need to bookmark your site, or be able to find it easily through a search engine or other linked sites. Obviously, this can seriously affect the traffic your site receives. Free or Paid? It's up to you.

As you can see, in most cases, a paid web host provides a significantly better service than do free hosts. Free Web hosting might be ideal for personal homepages and sites that don't rely on online advertising or sales revenues. But for those in business, whether they're selling online, or simply wish to present a professional Web presence, paid hosting is typically the only option worth considering. Maybe the old saying's true: You do get what you pay for

By Mitch Keeler

When moving from house to house, you have to pack up all of your belongings in the old house before you can move, right? The same could be said when you are moving from web host to web host. The first and most important thing you can do is backup your web site and get it ready for the move. Remember to grab all of your static files. This would be all of your non-dynamic pages, images, templates and more. The exact files that you do backup might change depending on how your site is setup.

Backing up Isn’t Fun To Do

If your using a content management system, then you might search the official site for that CMS to find the best way to backup the information it stores. Often you can also backup you databases (MySQL, MSSQL, ect). Control panels can really come in handy when it comes to backing up too. All of the major control panels that your hosting account could come with should have a backup function built in.

You should also always keep a backup of your web site in my opinion (make one at least one a month) no matter if your moving or not. That makes this job easier to manage and getting everything moved from the Web to your computer shouldn’t be such a big job.

Put Your Moving Pants On…

Next step you are going to want to take is to take all of those files, folders, databases and more from your computer to the new web host. Before transferring the information over, check with your new web host to see if you will be able to view your web site as it should be seen with the temporary URL they give you. Often if they give you a URL like this:
http://www.dummyurl.com/~yourname

You will not be able to execute JSP, PHP and other advanced code types. If that is the case, see if they can set you up with a temporary real domain or sub domain. Most web hosts will be happy to do so - but it will be a service you need to ask for. Then you will know your web site will be able to be viewed by your domain name (with the old web host) or your temporary domain name (with the new web host).

They give you a domain such as testsite.testermctesttest.com. Now that you have a temporary domain that works with your new hosting plan you are ready to transfer over (via FTP) all of your static web site files.

Syncing Content, Keep it Static

Once the files are uploaded with your new web host - go back to your older web host and disable your databases and put up a nice message saying, “Web site going through move, will be back soon.” or something to that effect. You need to turn off any dynamic content generation (like with forums or blogs/comments) so that your information moving from the old host to the new host will not be out of sync when your done.

Now let us go back to your new web hosting account and upload your scripts, services and databases that need to be restored. Each script will have it’s own way of doing this so best to check with the script provider to see what the best method might be.

Take a break. At this point you should have two working versions of your web site. They are: the web site with your domain name at the old web host and the web site with the temporary domain with the new web host. Both should be static, so that no content can be added or removed from them at this point in the move.

If all systems are go, then you are ready to move to the next step in the process.

Domain Names and Nameservers

Now you need to get your domain name to point to your web site with your new web host. To do this, login to the place where your domain name is registered and update your nameservers. These should be supplied to you by your new web hosting company and are what tells the domain name to point to the new hosting account and away from the old one.

Note: If you talked your new web host into giving you a temporary domain, now you will probably need to tell them you want to go back to using your actual domain name.

Now this nameserver update will take some time to complete. I would say give it 24 to 48 hours. After that time has gone by your domain name should be pointing at your new hosting account. While the change over it taking place, people will be taken (most often) to your web site with your old web host or your web site with the new web host.

Once your domain starts pointing at your new web hosting plan, you are almost all done. Turn back on your dynamic content, forums, blogs, comments, and more. Break open some of the good bubbly stuff too because you just completed something that most people dread. I would put moving a web site from web host to web host right up there with doing your taxes. It is no fun at all. I would give it a week or two there before you cancel your old hosting account so that if you forgot to backup something you still have time to grab it before you old web host deletes it for good

By Earl B. Hall

After you've selected a great domain name and you're ready to get started, the next step is choosing the "right" web host for your business needs.

Your web site will be the very foundation of your Internet presence. Selecting the right web hosting service is critical to your success. I am sure you have heard the old saying, "you get what you pay for". This usually rings true on the internet, as well as in the real world.

Consider your choices:

1) Free Websites. A few megabytes of storage space, slow servers, usually no customer support, can't use your own domain name, bogged down with their advertisements, are not indexed by most search engines, and none of the features you'll need to make money.

2) Low Cost Web Hosting. Often unreliable, bare essentials, little or no real technical support, lacking in features, not really for a serious online business.

3) The Right Choice. Lots of storage space, super fast servers, real people to speak with in case of problems, all the features necessary to make big bucks. (your own cgi-bin for interactive features, autoresponders, form mail, secure server, etc.)

If you are serious about your online business success, the choice is obvious. Why not use a web hosting service that allows you to take full advantage of the Internet's capabilities. You will most likely, not be able to compete and will be losing big money as a result. Here are the essential features you should be looking for in a quality web hosting package:

1) Fast Servers - Quality hardware and redundant OC3 or T3 connections. How fast your web pages load is directly proportional to your income. Don't let anyone tell you a server can be too fast.

2) Domain Name Support & Registration Services - Your web host must allow the use of your own domain name. They should offer free registration and work closely with Internic to get things done fast.

3) No Bandwidth, No Access, or Hit Charges - There is absolutely no reason to use a web host that charges for bandwidth, access, or hit fees. Unless you have an adult web site. The best hosting services offer unlimited bandwidth with standard packages.

4) Unlimited CGI Access (FTP/Telenet) - You will need CGI scripts at some time or another. Make sure that you have your own cgi-bin and the ability to upload any scripts you want. Never use a web host that limits you to the their scripts only.

5) Unlimited Technical Support - A good web host should have live humans to speak with on the phone. Insist on free, unlimited technical support via both email and telephone. You'll be glad you did.

6) Control Panel or Web Based Administration - Most quality web hosts have some type of interface that allows you to manage your server via the web. This is not necessary, but can be very handy for many who don't consider themselves to be the technical type.

7) Secure Server - If you plan on selling anything directly from your web site, you'll need secure server capabilities. The best offer low or no additional setup fees, and a low or no monthly fee for SSL.

8) Email Services - Your web host should offer full email services. Including, POP mailboxes, unlimited email aliases, and a generous supply autoresponders. Do not pay extra for these features.

9) No Minimum Contract - Don't ever sign a long term contract. It's not necessary. If something should happen and you decide to switch hosts, being locked into a long term contract could be very costly.

10) Money Back Guarantee - A quality web host offers a 30 day money back guarantee. You should insist on it! It is the sign of a professional company that will stand behind it's service.

Don't make the common mistake of sacrificing quality and essential features just to save a couple of dollars. The simple truth is that using an inferior web host will not save you money at all. You will inevitably end up paying a lot more due to down time and lost profits.