How Much Should I Pay

If your reading this article, chances are your just starting out. My suggesting to you would be to spend no more than $15 a month on a basic web hosting plan. You can view some of our basic web hosting providers here.

No need to look for a host that is going to give you 500 MB of disk space, unlimited bandwidth (note: be very careful when a web host says they are giving you unlimited bandwidth, there is a catch and there is a limit). If you are just putting up a basic website than 50 MB of space and 2-3 GB of bandwidth should be enough. Nowadays, some of bigger web host can offer you more space at same price as some of their competitors who offer a lot less space, these are best deals. Reasons for this could be that they are just trying to get more people to sign-up, or they have technology and money to offer these services to you.

Remember, you get what you pay for. Keep in mind 3 top services to look for in a web host and you should do fine with finding one that does all this and is less than $15 a month.

Ken Fishman Host Trail www.hosttrail.com

Traffic and Files Traffic (also called data transfer or throughput) is combined size of all files transferred from your web-hosting computer to your customer’s browsers. Depending on traffic that comes to your site, and how much detailing is involved in your html pages, determines how much cost of traffic fees you will be expected to pay. For example, adult sites usually generate much traffic, and because of this, many web site hosting companies have special and inflated pricing plans for these sites to handle number of visitors hitting on sites.

Email Accounts and Auto Responders You should know how many email accounts you can have on same domain name, where you would have one email account that allows customers or visitors to email you, another email account for another department such as billing or accounting, one for each of number of staff you have on hand. Make sure that they give you enough accounts, and what additional fees are to add on new ones if you’re staff base grows or you end up creating new departments within your company. This type of email address will reflect your company, www.companyname.com. It is important that you use your own domain name for all your mail. Do not use another source such as hotmail.com or AOL.com for your business emails. (It looks like you’re a very inexperienced website business owner, doing things half-assed!) Pardon my French. Auto responders are emails that are sent back automatically to user that has a standard response to anyone who queries them. It can be a simple message such as, “We’ve received your email and we are currently looking into your request. You will be notified shortly with assistance.” Sometimes auto responders are used for specific things, such as if you requested a pricing list, documentation, product specifications and photos, you would have a separate email account for each subject, and if a visitor inquired about one of these categories, and auto responder would immediately send them a spec sheet within 5 minutes or less. The possibilities are endless with auto-responders, and it’s a nice quick feature that meets customer’s needs right away. Find out how many auto responders are included in your package, and what additional fees are for more.

CGI Scripts CGI=Common Gateway Interface are small programming scripts that add functionality and interactivity to your web pages. Most hosting companies have libraries of standard CGI scripts you can use for free. Many web hosting companies will not allow you to input your own scripts, so if this is a specific area where you have some scripts that you would like implemented, then you obviously will need to locate a web hosting company that will allow you flexibility to do so.

Monthly and Daily Usage Statistics This is standard service of good web hosting companies. Run clear of any web- hosting companies that aren’t providing this basic service. Although each web hosting company has their own format and styles in how it’s presented, you will have to do some research to find which ones will be most useful and beneficial to your business plan.

Upgrades Make sure that web hosting company can upgrade your plan as your business grows. If you get big, some web hosting companies may not be able to handle your account on their servers. This is important to find out how reliable their servers are and what their capabilities are in regards to how many accounts and/or websites are they handling at any given time.

References and Check those References Get at least 3-5 references of online businesses that are using web hosting company you’re considering and find out exactly how they feel about that particular web hosting company. This will be your saving grace. Don’t skip this process.

You now have a serious decision to make about which web hosting service to go with. With these handy tips and questions in your hands, you should be able to find one that fits nicely within your budget and meets your business needs. It’s important that you find a happy home for your website, and establishing yourself as a real online business entrepreneur is a good place to start. As a matter of fact, it’s only place to start.

Story Description Ensuring that you choose a reliable web-hosting provider should be your number one priority. Selecting right web host provider will be one of most important decisions you will ever make. The wrong host can have a very devastating impact on your business and let’s make sure that you understand everything you need to know hot to go about picking right web host provider so you may never find out hard way.

How do I relate to story? Contacts and talking with people along way have given me opportunity to become acquainted with their horror web hosting provider experiences with some unfortunate consequences. There is so much detail and continuing education revolving around selecting appropriate web host provider that emphasizes how important it is to gather right facts and questions to begin your research.