Internet

Website Design ? The Daunting Task of Choosing an ISP

One of the most often asked questions that I receive from clients, others in the throes of having and/or designing a website and even other designers/developers is, “How do I choose an ISP (Internet Server Provider)?” Your ISP is important because this is the company that hosts your website — in other words, provides the location on the Internet where your website lives and resides. If you do a search for “website hosting” you will find 4,600,000 links, and there are close to that many possible hosts.
Consider your purpose and needs.

If it is a personal site for friends and family, then the uptime, size and complexity of features are not as important. You can even use the free personal site that comes with your Internet connection. Some of these include advertisements (like Yahoo), but for a small fee, you can usually have the ads removed.
If, however, your website portrays your business, you want to make sure that the host chosen is up and running at least 99.9% of the time. When visitors to your site get the “this page cannot be displayed” message, they seldom return and form the opinion that you and/or your company are not professional.
If you have a large, complex website or plan to have your website grow into one, then you will want to choose a plan with the features that are important to you — or that can be easily upgraded in the future.

Decide what features are most important to you and your website.

Start by checking how much size is available. Depending upon how many graphics, scripting and content your pages consist of, most plans will provide sufficient space. For example, 250 MB should hold an average of 1,200 pages.
Will you need e-mail addresses (which I suggest, because every time you send an e-mail, your domain name appears)? Some plans offer unlimited e-mail addresses while others average around 20 to 40.
How about autoresponders? I love them because you can set up messages to be sent out when someone clicks a specific e-mail address. This is the way I handle my e-newsletter subscriptions. In these days of spam, if someone uses one of those e-mails who isn’t legitimate, they bounce back and I don’t add them to my distribution list. They are also handy for leaving an “out of the office” reply.
What about other features like databases, FrontPage extensions, forums, search engines, shopping carts, etc.? The list can be endless, but there are many features that you will never use — or, as you grow, will you?

Choosing a host may be one of the most difficult choices you will make. The good news is that there are many good ones out there to replace the one that doesn’t work out.

Chris King is a professional website creator / designer, storyteller, writer, free agent, and fitness instructor. You will find her business website at http://www.creativekeys.biz where you can sign up for her monthly Internet Tips E-zine. In addition visit Chris’ information website at http://www.creativekeys.net and her blog at http://www.curiositycubed.blogspot.com
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Save Money – Only Pay For The Options You Use To Host Your Website

Every Web Hosting Provider offers you a multitude of options, and if you’re new to the game of Hosting a Website, this can be a daunting task in knowing which options to choose from. I have often come accross people that are paying too much for what they’re actually doing with their website. If you don’t use a database, why pay for it?
Knowing what each option is for, can really save you from paying more than what you really need to pay.
HTML: Websites are written in a language called HTML, and this is the basic function that every Web Host offers you – without HTML, there is no web site.
HTML code tells the web server what the website should look like, where to load the images, and the links to other pages. HTML isn’t really difficult, and is fairly easy to pick-up. To learn more about HTML you can go to http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp which has some great tutorials on HTML. You can also use tools like Front Page and Dreamweaver to build pages,but having a basic knowledge of HTML can only help.
DISK SPACE: The size of the disk space is important if you’re going to have a big website with lots of pages. This is where your pages get stored, and you need space for them. I always like to start small, and then upgrade as my requirements grow.
BANDWIDTH: When ever somebody visits your website, information is being transferred from your website to their web browser. This transfer creates traffic that is and this traffic is measured as Bandwidth. As with diskspace you can usually upgrade this as needed. I have found that it’s better to go with a webhost that charges you extra whenever you go over the allocated amount as this usually ensures that your website stays up and running even if it costs you a bit extra.
PHP/ASP/CGI: Allows you to write various scripts into your website that does little extras that HTML cannot do on it’s own – Anything from allowing people to make comments on your website to creating full member areas. If you want a website that allows people to interact with your website, then you most probably will need some form of Scripting. There are alot of free scripts out there, with PHP being the most popular. It’s important to first know what scripts your website’s going to be running, before going for a webhost – as not all webhosts offer every type of scripting solution out there.
DATABASES: If you want to store hugh amounts of data to make available to your visitors, or run a content management system like Joomla, then you’ll need a database for this. You also need a way to get the data in and out of the Database, so you’ll need PHP as well – But, most web hosting companies will give you
both options bundled together.
CONTROL PANEL: There are various control panels that web hosting providers use, and they all perform the same function – allowing you to control your website. I have no real preferance for any specific control panel, as they pretty much all do the same thing.
DOMAINS: Most Webhost providers will register a domain for you at a extra cost. Be sure to check out registrars of domains, to see if you cannot buy it for cheaper. Registering a domain at something like Go-Daddy.com is pretty cheap, and pretty easy to do. What makes it sometimes better to go via the hosting company is that they will manage the whole aspect of the domain for you, where with a service like Go-Daddy it’s up to you to manage the whole domain – So, it’s sometime a cost saving option to go with the Web Host.
A lot of these options you can add to your website as you need them. It’s not always best to go for the most expensive package out there. Find out what you need, and then only purchase those options you need. You can save yourself some real money at the end of the day.

Finding the right Web Site Hosting Provider is important. Read reviews of Web Hosting Providers at Web Hosting Provider Review
Gerard Korsten is a Web Master who uses various Hosting Companies and runs the website: http://www.HostingProviderReview.com
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Web Hosting 101

The Internet is probably one of the most valuable tools of communication that man has ever invented in the last decade. Since time immemorial, man has been constantly in communication with the world around him. From his dear relatives, to his favored peers, and even with the environment that he lives in. And this would not be possible without the people equipped with the knowledge of web hosting.
Because of this, man is in perpetual communication. Since then communication has always been associated with the words time and urgency. This was true because the time element in delivering the post was crucial especially during the great American Civil War. Responses were held at a minimum of two weeks for the replenishment of arms and men, and the element of time was always taken into consideration.
And because of this need, man further developed and pushed forward with the ultimate goal of delivering messages at the fastest time possible. Through the hardened effort of the people inside and outside the field of communication various ways of reaching people and places were invented and discovered throughout the development of the modern society.
Telegrams and telegraphs, Morse code messages, short wave radio frequency, and eventually the telephone, the mobile phone, the computer and of course the Internet. Throughout the ages, the internet was the most real time form of letter delivery system man has ever invented. Emails or electronic mails can circumnavigate the world over a hundred times in just one day. And the number of people being connected by the World Wide Web is truly enormous.
Because of this, there are certain times of the day when the internet service providers here and around the world are forced into disallowing some people access to the connection because of the massive traffic the information superhighway has to carry on a single line. This technology has reached far more people than what was originally thought of. Since a lot of people regularly go online to surf the net, shop, research, meet people and just plain hang out and chill, the idea of putting your business online is a very practical idea. On a regular day almost half of waking world go online at the almost the same time. What this could possibly mean to a business person is that the market they are after can be reached at a bigger scope at one time. And that being the case putting a SALE sign on the information superhighway would make lots and lots of waves for your business. The key there is to go online and find a company that can do web hosting for your business.
Web hosting by the way, is the way of uploading your web site or webpage to the internet. This is done by looking for a web hosting service and having your webpage uploaded through their server. The server will carry your webpage just like putting up a store or a house on a vacant lot. Web hosting is the lot. To have your webpage web hosted instead of putting up your own is the most practical way to do it.
One because, maintaining a running server for your website alone can cost more than what you really want to spend. But to look at the brighter side of things, having a web hosting firm do this for you can transform those internet surfers into potential sales. The advantages of having your business hooked up online through web hosting companies are numerous; one is that web hosting is actually much more practical than to launch an all out advertising campaign through conventional and traditional means.
Just try to remember some of the important things when trying to look for a good web hosting company. Look closely at the web hosting contract because some of these offer a trial period so make sure you take advantage of the free web hosting period.

Wayne Haines makes it easy to find and understand web hosting, quickly & easily. To learn the essential keys to web hosting that you must know visit be a web host then further your knowledge at advanced web hosting
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Business Web Site Hosting and Automation

Business web site hosting plays a huge role in the automation of
your internet-based business. Business web site hosting plans
generally offer a lot of options that are not common to standard
web hosting services. In order for an internet business to be
automated, sometimes advanced web hosting features are necessary.
Advanced services offered through business web site hosting
programs may have extra costs associated with them, but the
availability of such options is necessary in many cases, even if
you intend to start with a small, simple website and gradually
automate your online business processes.
The most common processes to automate for the benefit of an
internet-based business are the sales and customer service
processes which can be incredibly time consuming. As an internet-
based business owner, you will find that the more tasks you can
automate, the better off you will be. Your time is much better
spent building your business than it is handling day to day
monotonous tasks. When reviewing and comparing business web site
hosting services, keep in mind not only the current, but also the
future automation needs of your business.
Sales processes are generally automated through the use of
various ecommerce solutions which enable customers to place
orders and to pay for them via the internet. Some common sales
automation tools that should be supported by your business web
site hosting company include the use of online catalogs,
electronic shopping carts and automatic payment processing
systems. The availability of email options such as setting up
auto-responders to send order confirmations and shipping
confirmations are also important features for business web site
hosting that have the potential of improving your customer
service while saving you time.
Automating confirmations helps to meet customer expectations
without taking time away from important matters that you need to
be concentrating on. Depending upon your shipping methods,
sending shipping confirmations can sometimes make it possible for
your customers to enjoy the benefits of tracking their own
packages rather than calling on your customer service
representatives to check the status of shipments.
The use of auto-responders as a follow-up marketing method, made
possible through some business web site hosting plans, is also a
great way to increase your sales. Whether email addresses are
collected from browsers or buyers, auto-responders can bet set up
to be sent to customers and prospects periodically which keeps
your business and your products or services fresh in their mind
while encouraging repeat business and referrals. Auto-responders
can also be used to answer commonly asked questions.
Some business web site hosting services charge a small fee for
each auto-responder that you send; however, some business web
site hosting packages allow you to send an unlimited number of
auto-responders without extra costs associated with them. When
reviewing and selecting a business web site hosting plan, this is
a feature to be taken into consideration.
Another thing to consider in regard to automating your sales
process is the options offered by a business web site hosting
service relating to scripts and software. For some sales
automation tools and website features, the business web hosting
that you select may need to support Real Audio, Real Video,
Shockwave, Java and other scripts and software. The required
support and compatibility between your business web site hosting
solution and your ecommerce solutions such as shopping cart
software, merchant account processing, and other real time
processing features should be considered.
Another feature of business web site hosting that may be
important to your business relates to various types of access
capabilities and fees associated with them. For instance, if you
share files with others via the internet or if your customers
need to have the capability of uploading information to you and
downloading information provided by you, FTP (file transfer
protocol) access is necessary to automate these processes. SSH
(secure shell) access may also be important to protect the
contents of files that are shared during the process of
transmission.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope,
fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing
advice you’re getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing,
or a website owner who wants to make more money from your
website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your
internet business at http://BiznessTips.com
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Does Discount Web Hosting Compromise Customer Service?

Discount web hosting may sound like a great deal when you first
hear about it, but there are definitely some things you need to
know about discount web hosting and free web hosting before you
choose a web host for your website. While some discount web
hosting options may be good for business, many discount web
hosting and free web hosting services are more intended for
personal websites rather than for business websites because their
capabilities and reliability are not necessarily suited for the
business user.
With any business time is money, even for internet businesses and
home-based businesses. For a retail store, any time they are not
open for shoppers, they are missing out on potential sales and
related revenues. One of the main benefits of internet business
is that when your business is internet-based with an automated
sales process, your business can be open twenty-four hours a day,
seven days a week, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year, even
on holidays.
Since your website is your “store” so to speak,
anytime your website is down it is literally like your store is
closed. Plain and simple, closed stores result in lost sales.
Thus, it is critical to an internet business for your web host to
be reliable with at least ninety-nine to one-hundred percent
uptime, even if you use discount web hosting.
Many new website owners make some pretty simple mistakes and
unknowingly, they actually jeopardize the effectiveness of their
website which diminishes the website’s potential. One of the
major mistakes is not taking important things into consideration
when selecting a web host. Discount web hosting and free web
hosting usually sounds like a good idea and many think that
hosting their website through their internet service provider is
a logical option. However, there is much more than cost to
consider when choosing a web hosting service.
Some discount web hosting packages may be sufficient for your
business. The only way to make an informed decision regarding
your web hosting options is to review the options and to compare
the costs, benefits and potential problems. When comparing web
hosts here are some things to find out about:
1. The speed of the web hosting servers and the bandwidth
provided through the hosting packages
2. The space provided for
various hosting packages
3. Whether or not the web host provides
a control panel for self-serve, web-based administration of your
website
4. The availability of server logs and reports that will
aid you in managing your website and marketing efforts
5. Email
services and email limitations
6. The web host’s back-up policies
and procedures
7. The web host’s data retrieval policies and
procedures
8. The web host’s reliability in terms of uptime and
relative downtime
9. The web host’s longevity in the business of
web hosting and their reputation
10. The availability of options
such as CGI, SSH and FTP access and compatibility or availability
of various scripts and software
Generally, a company that specializes in commercial web hosting
for businesses is more reliable and offers greater web space,
speed, reliability and options than do free or discount web
hosting services. Internet service providers often offer discount
web hosting services to internet service subscribers as a method
for adding value to their standard services. Since the discount
web hosting is a secondary, and not the primary service they
offer, their web hosting services are not generally as advanced
as those provided by web hosting specialists and frequently
discount web hosting provided by internet service providers is
not incredibly reliable because the internet service provider’s
bandwidth is stretched thin since its primary purpose is to
provide internet service, not to host websites.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope,
fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing
advice you’re getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing,
or a website owner who wants to make more money from your
website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your
internet business at http://BiznessTips.com
Bangladesh – CELL Phone Cards 3.9

Do You Need to Consider FTP Web Hosting for Your Web Development?

FTP is an abbreviation for the term “File Transfer Protocol”
which is a method used to transfer files from one computer to
another over the internet. HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is
used to display web pages and related files, but not to transfer
them. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is used to transfer
email via the internet, but not files. While there are other ways
to transfer files from one computer to another via the internet,
FTP is the simplest method for transferring electronic files as
it uses the TCP/IP protocols of the internet to complete the
transmission. FTP functions are actually complementary to HTTP
functions due to the fact that web pages that are uploaded to the
internet to be displayed using HTTP are generally uploaded via an
FTP process. So, is FTP web hosting necessary for your internet
business?
Well, the importance of FTP web hosting to your business is
largely dependent upon whether or not you will be transferring
files via the internet. If your internet business involves the
sharing of files – if you provide customers with large documents
or graphic files, or if you receive large documents or graphic
files from other sources, FTP web hosting can be pretty useful.
Of course, you can email large files back and forth between two
computers; however, if you’ve used email for very long, you are
probably aware of the limitations of some email accounts and
email service providers. More often than not, email servers have
a limit on the size of file that can be received via email. FTP
web hosting is an alternative to having to deal with email
limitations.
With FTP web hosting capabilities, you can actually develop
directories of files that are stored on your web hosts servers
allowing for easy access to the files through the internet.
Others can access and download the files via the internet. With
FTP web hosting, others can also upload files to you via the FTP
technology. You may be thinking that you wouldn’t want just
anybody to have access to your files. This is certainly something
to consider when reviewing, evaluating and choosing a FTP web
hosting provider.
With FTP web hosting, security is essential. When your website
has FTP web hosting, and relatively, FTP download and upload
capabilities, you have the ability to organize your files on your
FTP site and to determine which files will be publicly accessible
and which ones will remain locked. User names and passwords can
be set to limit access to files on your FTP website that you do
not want to be publicly accessible. For public FTP websites, it
is standard for the user id to be “anonymous” and for the
password to be the email address of the individual attempting to
access and download from, or upload to, the FTP website.
With FTP web hosting for your site, your site visitors will be
able to access the FTP connection using common web browsers like
Netscape or Internet Explorer; however, downloading files through
FTP access is more efficient and more secure if a software
application called FTP Client is used. FTP web hosting that uses
FTP Client is best because of the security potential it provides
along with other features like resume capabilities which are
rather crucial if an interruption in the internet connection
occurs during a download.
Most web hosting companies offer FTP web hosting with the
capability of transferring files from your computer to your web
server as a standard feature, but sometimes you have to ask to
have the capabilities enabled. For FTP web hosting with public
access capabilities, some web hosts charge extra for it. When
selecting a web host for your website, whether or not you foresee
the need for FTP web hosting, it is a good idea to select a web
host that provides FTP web hosting with both uploading and public
access capabilities without added fees.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope,
fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing
advice you’re getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing,
or a website owner who wants to make more money from your
website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your
internet business at http://BiznessTips.com
Cyprus – CELL Phone Cards 4.0

How To Avoid Problems With Web Hosting Companies

The best way to determine the quality of a hosting company is to use their services. Some of these companies will cause many headaches for you, and you want to avoid this at all costs. In this article I will describe certain problems you could have with a hosting service, and how to avoid it. Because your websites rely on hosting services to keep them running, what they do can effect you, whether it is for the good or bad.
One of the most common problems people run into when dealing with hosting companies are server downtimes. When the server goes down, this is a big inconvenience to everyone who uses the service. What really makes it bad is when it takes days to get a response from the tech support department. Some companies don’t even answer their emails. Hosting companies which do this have bad customer service, and should be avoided. You should also let others know about their service so that they can avoid it.
Another problem which webmasters will run into is hosting companies which like to hold their domain hostage. When you build a website, and decide you want to sell it, you may find out that the hosting company will not allow you to. They will make up some excuse for why they don’t allow it, but basically they want control over your domain. This is a big headache, and to avoid this problem you should always ask if you can transfer your website to other servers if you decide to sell it. If they tell you this can’t be done, look for another service.
I’ve talked to many webmasters about this, and most will not buy a website if they can’t transfer it over to their own server. If you plan on selling your website, it is critical that you use a web hosting service which will allow you to easily transfer over your domain without any problems. Even if a hosting company offers excellent service, if their servers are constantly down, you will have problems. When you ask them about this, they will almost always tell you that they have a 99.9% uptime. My advice is to not take their word for it.
Sign up for webmaster forums and ask questions. Get more than one answer, because many webmasters own hosting companies and will refer you to their services to make money. While nothing is wrong with this, you will want to make sure you get a bunch of opinions about a particular company before using it.
Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Michael Colucci is a technical writer for $2.99 Hosting – Complete web hosting services at only $2.99 per month.
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Is Your Commercial Web Hosting Service Killing Your Reputation?

Many businesses, including internet-based businesses, strive to
provide “service that exceeds customer expectations”. In fact,
that is a common phrase used in mission statements for both
online and offline businesses. For an internet business, having a
website that loads quickly and is available all the time is
crucial to meeting customer expectations. To exceed customer
expectations, the website must be user-friendly and easy to
navigate as well.
Considering these necessities of service that exceeds customer
expectations many website owners look to their web designer or
website developer to make their website fully functional as an
advertising, sales and customer service tool. Website designers
and developers certainly play a huge role in crafting a website
that works and fulfills customer expectations. What many website
owners do not realize; however, is that their commercial web
hosting service can truly make or break their website in terms of
it meeting customer expectations.
There are four things that are common with inexperienced
commercial web hosting service providers that can literally bust
the earning potential of an internet-based business. These are
commercial web hosting services that experience frequent or
unreasonable amounts of downtime, commercial web hosting service
providers that go out of business leaving you high and dry,
commercial web hosting service providers who don’t back-up their
servers regularly, and commercial web hosting service providers
who do not provide adequate security measures to prevent your
website from being hacked.
If you own a website that generates revenue, every second that it
is down can result in lost revenues. If your commercial web
hosting service goes out of business and takes your website
offline, you may lose all of the files associated with your
website and the expensive web development features that were put
into building your website. Relatively, if your commercial web
hosting provider doesn’t make frequent back-ups, all of your
website information and features can be lost forever.
Inadequate or non-existent security measures on the behalf of
your commercial web hosting service can result in your website
being hacked by competitors or ornery people which can result in
downtime for your business. Inadequate security measures can also
decrease customer confidence in regard to conducting online
transactions with your company. In a nutshell, the instability or
poor business practices of a commercial web hosting service has
the potential of totally destroying your company’s reputation as
an internet business that provides service that exceeds customer
expectations.
So, this brings to mind the question – “What should I look for in
a commercial web hosting service?”
Important aspects of commercial web hosting services to be
considered and compared in the analysis and selection of a
commercial web hosting service provider include:
1. The capabilities of the commercial web hosting service
provider’s servers
2. The access options of the commercial web hosting service’s
hosting packages
3. The features that the commercial web hosting service offers
for email
4. The back-up procedures practiced by the commercial web hosting
service
5. The experience and longevity of the commercial web hosting
service
6. The reliability and relative downtime of the commercial web
hosting service
7. The services and software options made available by the
commercial web hosting service
Other things to consider when choosing a commercial web hosting
service is the commercial web hosting service’s reputation in
regard to technical support. The reports provided by the
commercial web hosting service that can be used by your company
to analyze your website’s performance and the source of traffic
to your website is also of some importance as is the web-based
administrative tools such as an online control panel that enables
you to effectively manage your website.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope,
fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing
advice you’re getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing,
or a website owner who wants to make more money from your
website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your
internet business at http://BiznessTips.com

Puerto Rico – CELL Phone Cards 1.5

Starting your Web Hosting Business

People start a Hosting business for various reasons. Some treat it as a second source of income. Some prefer it as a Run from home type of job. Some choose it for its reasonably low startup costs.
There are some reasons though, why you shouldn’t get into the Hosting business. Do not come into this business if you want a stress free life. Someone’s site going down is certainly not a piece of cake, especially when the customer is on the phone with you. This business is stressful, if you are a small business or if you have a million dollar hosting business. Web Hosts who have grown big are still stressed out, even if they have employees to take care of things.
Do not come into this business if you have strict time restrictions. This is a 24/7 business. Be prepared to sacrifice your social life if need be. Customers have problems at all times. Servers can go down anytime. Hackers are working on cracking your servers overtime. A Web Host doesn’t sleep easy.
Do not come into this business with visions of making big money in no time. A frighteningly large percentage of Web Hosts go bust or become dormant because they haven’t gotten their Return on Investment (ROI). Many are those who have underestimated the cost or overestimated the ROI. These Web Hosts quietly fold their businesses and suffer the losses. If money is your motivation, then prepare to be demotivated. Money doesn’t come easy in this business and requires a lot of work to get a decent amount.
What should you bring to the table
Ideally a new entrepreneur would bring in some Business experience to the table. If you have run some sort of Technical business such as computer sales, ISP, website design or E-business, it can give you a good start, because you would already know about how to run a Company in your area, accounts, taxes and legalities. If you have every owned a Website and have managed it, that would be pretty useful. If you have been working in a 9-5 job, you may want to brush up on Business basics, before you go further. This link can help you get started http://www.bankrate.com/
Technical knowledge would be a must. The hosting industry is filled with 14 year olds running their hosting companies quite successfully. What they have primarily is Technical knowledge. You should have preferably installed and studied about Linux and Windows. You should have some understanding of the various technical components of a Internet server and control panel software. If you have an idea of HTML and some scripting, it would be very useful.
It goes without saying that you should be a avid Internet surfer and be comfortable with running your business in front of your computer. A stable broadband connection is also needed for you to be online full time.
Choosing your Server
The real estate of the Web Hosting business lies in the servers you lease or own. Space on your server is what you sell. For example if your server has 50G of Disk space, discounting the Operating system and Control panel software, you can resell maybe 30G of it.
When you start your business, you need to get a Server so that you can host websites on it. Many newbies get confused here. Should they lease a server, should they go Colo, or should they start as a basic Reseller.
Your choices centre around Co location hosting (where you put your server in a data-center. The data-center provides bandwidth and physical space.), Dedicated server (lease a managed server from the Data-center) and Reseller hosting ( A reseller is a middle-man who sells web space on somebody else’s server. The most common form of reselling is something like this – Say the actual price of a hosting account is $10, the reseller gets it at $5, and can resell at whatever prices he wants. )
If you are starting on a budget, and have lesser than best Technical knowledge, you would be best taking on Reseller hosting. Its cheap, starting on an investment of under $100 for a reseller account. You would be managing the front end technical support of your clients, but will be spared the high end technical administration of your server. On the flip side though, you have no real control of your and your clients websites. Should the server go down, all you can do is tell your Web Host and patiently wait, all the while fielding calls from your clients.
Once you cross around 100 domains, you could graduate to Dedicated servers or Colo. In case you are getting into Web Hosting big time, it would be advisable to always buy a Web Hosting business. You get a ready clientele and can be spared initial hiccups. The going rate for a web hosting business is generally 1x to 2x times revenue. Make sure to check that the customers are happy, that they are all on monthly or quarterly plans, there is competent technical support in place and the servers are stable.
Remember your entire business plan is based on the Disk space and bandwidth that you are selling. No matter what server you are purchasing, remember a server can hold up to 300-500 accounts. This is the ideal figure. DO NOT base your business model on the premise that you can squeeze in 1000s of accounts into one server. Keep aside about 10% of your disk space and bandwidth for emergencies. The equation for disk space works like this
Saleable disk space = Total server space – 10% free space – Space for Operating system and software
Choosing Software
You need Control panel software, Billing software and Helpdesk software.
Control Panel software helps automate several Administration tasks. A large number of WebHosts use control panel software and customers expect to have a Client side control panel by default. Control panels available are Plesk, cPanel.net, Hsphere.com, Ensim.com and more. http://www.bobcares.com/ has a Cost and Features Comparison available to help you choose. Anyway, expect to spend $500-600 a year per server on your control panel. Of course, if you are a reseller, this cost is borne by your Hosting provider.
Some control panels, do not come with a good Billing software . If so you need to buy or lease Billing software. ModernBill and Ubersmith are some well known Billing softwares which can be integrated with popular control panels.
You may need Helpdesk software if your control panel doesn’t have them. Cerberus, Kayako, Ubersmith and Perldesk are some good Helpdesk software. Helpdesk software help you track and solve issues that your customers send.
Technical support and maintenance
Once you start your Web Hosting biz, you will get customers calling with complaints like “my email is not working”, “the website has gone down” or Requests for help like “How do I get my PHP script up and running”, “How do I use Frontpage and ftp to upload my website”. The kind of questions you can expect to get can range from the absurd to the most complex.
Make no mistake about this. If you don’t know Internet server troubleshooting and Linux/Windows in detail, DO NOT go about playing on the server. It can cause unacceptable Service downtime and worse.. Loss of Precious Customer data. Many Web host owners learn tech skills on their servers and customers(This is a scary thought). Such people actually play with the trust that their customers place on them.
If you are not a trained and Experienced Sysadmin, you can either hire local Sysadmins to help you, or you can outsource at a relatively cheaper cost to Outsourced Tech support companies like Bobcares.com. These companies have trained Engineers (Bachelors in Computer Science) who will take 10 mins to do something an untrained person may take over an hour.
24/7 Technical support with average response times of 1 hour or less is the expected Industry standard. In the dog eat dog world of Web Hosting, the only way you can differentiate yourself is through your customer support. If you choose to Outsource your support, take a good long look at the Testimonials and Plans of the provider. Cost shouldn’t be the only criteria when you choose to outsource. To save a few dollars, you may push your unsuspecting customers into Tech support nightmare. To check for Quality, look for company certifications like the ISO 9001:2000 standard which ensure that you get what you are told.
Credit card charges
If your clientele is global, expect to get paid via Credit cards online. Web Hosting providers generally use 3rdparty Payment Gateways like WorldPay.com, Authorize.net, Paypal.com and 2Checkout.com to accept credit cards. These Gateways provide an interface for your customers to securely enter the credit card information. In many cases, as a merchant, you won’t even see the credit card numbers, which makes it safer.
If you are a US business, your credit card fees should be around 2-3% of your transaction volumes plus a per sale value(like $0.50 cents a transaction). Some have monthly fees as well. International business will typically face a higher transaction value of around 5%-6%. However as your volumes go up, the rates come down.
Marketing your website
Once you put up your site, you need to effectively market it, if you need to be seen anywhere above the millions of hosts who are already out there.
Submit your site to dmoz.org, Yahoo and hundreds of Hosting directories like www.websitehostdirectory.com , hostreview.com, thewhir.com (there are many more).
If your site is the same every time google comes to your site, It’s going to crawl it a lot less frequently – because it realizes you don’t update it as often – and there is no need to come a lot. So Make sure your site has a lot of relevant information, a lot of links and information has to be added and changed at least once a week. Adding a news section shows that your site is regularly updated.
Another way to promote your website is to use Pay Per click programs like Google ad words and Overture. Hosting is an expensive keyword and expect to pay $2 or more per click.
One interesting method that Web Hosts can inexpensively use is giving away Free Web Hosting to Popular websites in return of them displaying your link on their main page. This is a great way to generate Back links from popular pages, and is an easy way to push you up the Google ranks. Popular websites rarely pay for their Hosting charges, because Web Hosts line up to sponsor hosting for them.
If your client base is local, you could give away free hosting to locally popular institutions like Churches or schools.
Minding the Competition
There are thousands of Web Hosts out there and too many of them play the Cheapest host card. If this is your business plan, then stay away from Web Hosting. You’ll get your fingers burnt real quick. One Web Host famously said that he went from being the cheapest web host to the most expensive web host in One year without even changing his plan prices. Thats how bad things are.
The best way would be to identify Niche areas of hosting and be the masters of that niche. For example, Web Hosts provide Application hosting, like Oracle hosting.
Others provide Service hosting like Email or Data hosting.
Some others provide Hosting to certain Special needs customers. For example, Speciality hosting for Churches, Hosting for educational institutions.
The best thing about Niche Hosting is that you can establish your brand faster, and spend lesser on marketing. Many web hosts have different websites for various Niches areas. for example nicheareaoracle.com or nicheareaemail.com or whatever. Always find a way where you are special and different and be the best in that niche.

Sangeetha Naik heads http://www.bobcares.com/ , a tech support company for webhosts and ISPs. She is the co-founder of Poornam Info Vision Ltd., a software and IT services company which specializes in Linux based solutions for Webhosts and ISPs. Poornam Info Vision is an ISO 9001:2000 certified company with a team of over 100 engineers.
Sangeetha is a Computer Engineer based in India and has over 7 years of experience in the hosting industry. Her articles have been published both online as well as in print in magazines.
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Choosing Your Web Host

These days, there are so many web hosting companies out there. All of them offer roughly the same options, but what makes a great web host? The indirect answer is that it depends on your needs. The purpose of this article is not to discuss the aspects of most hosting plans, but to discuss what you should be looking for.
The Name of the Game: Customer Service
Since most hosting companies provide the same hosting options, the more important topic is customer service. It’s easy to throw together a few servers, get a dedicated connection, add some more hardware, design a web site, and call yourself a web host. Buy what’s behind that web site?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a new to web hosting or if you’re a seasoned professional, everyone needs to contact technical support sometime. A good web host will offer a “knowledge base” or “frequently asked questions” on their web site to give answers to the most common questions. This is helpful for you because you don’t have to pick up the phone or email tech support if your question is there.
If you’re question is not covered on the web site, a good web host will have multiple ways for you to contact them. The most common form of communication is email or telephone. The downside of email support is that it can take time to get your questions answered. If you’re new to web hosting, putting your question into words could be a problem in itself. Tech support by phone is usually quickest, but it also has it quirks. After calling the toll free number, you have to press 1, then 3, then 2, and then have to hold for the next available representative. If you’re lucky, the person that answers the phone speaks coherent English and actually has a clue about their services. A new form of tech support is “live support” where the company will have an icon on their site for you to click that will open an instant messenger window. This is great because you get to talk with the representative in real time without making the phone call. You still have to put your question into words, but at least they can help you clarify you problem.
To test their customer service, spend some time navigating their support web site. If it seems to be lacking, move on to the next host. Do some research on the web to see if there are any complaints against the company. There are many forums on the internet dedicated to that subject. Check out there links: http://www.webmaster-talk.com/.You can also try to giving their toll free number a call to ask questions. Get a feel for what their company is like over the phone.
Another Solution
If you are using a web designer for your project, check to see if they offer hosting. They probably offer the same packages that the bigger companies offer at close to the same price. The biggest difference should be the customer service. Because most web design firms are small companies, you should get personal service that is catered to your needs. At my firm we offer hosting exclusively to our clients. The difference we provide is that when you email us, we guarantee a response within one hour. If you call our office, a real person will answer the phone. In a saturated market such as web hosting, giving the best service to the client is the only way to do business.

Eric Friese is President of Tiger Web Solutions, a web design firm located in Auburn, Alabama. He can be reached through the Tiger Web Solutions web site at http://www.tigerwebsolutions.com.
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