A business site can range in price anywhere from low end of $40-$50.00 all way up into thousands of dollars per month. Features that usually catapult price range are things like dedicated servers (especially if they are on high end hardware wise), and bandwidth capacity.

Choosing a web host for your business needs is absolutely one of most important decisions you can make. If your site is down, your business is down, end of story. Below is a list of some of important questions you will want to make sure you ask any prospective hosting company before signing on dotted line.

1. Do they offer a money back, no questions asked guarantee? 2. Do they offer an uptime guarantee? (as in, if there is a outage, are you compensated?) 3. What types of backups do they offer (tape back ups, CD rom storage) 4. Do they have redundant backbone connections to internet (are they connected to internet by more than one provider, and are those providers major backbone providers) 5. Do they offer 24-7 technical support (including phone support, or is it only via email) 6. How long have they been in business for and can they provide some business references of other sites that they currently host? 7. Can you pay month to month or do they require an annual contract? 8. Is it easy for you to upgrade/downgrade services you may or may not require as time passes?

One place to start your search for your business provider is:

http://www.itsallnet.com Happy hunting!

About the author:

Jonathan Caputo is the CEO of itsALLnet, Inc. He created the Internets first web host directory called Web Host List and founded the Internets first Web Host Consortium called the Web Host Guild. As a result he appeared in the NY Times, People Magazine, Wall Street Journal, on CNN, and CNBC as well as various other TV and print mediums.

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 tool for researching and comparing offerings of over 9,000 different website hosting companies. Try "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 hosting company backs up its servers to protect against data loss.

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co- author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...