Choose a Web Host
Choosing a web hosting company is one of the more important things you'll have to do when you're setting up an online business.
Not all hosting companies are created equal - there are vast differences in the areas that count, like service, performance, responsiveness and so on.
There are ways to make sure that you choose the right hosting company from the star, and more importantly, ways to make sure that you can switch hosting companies quickly and easily when you get let down.
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How To Choose A Web Hosting Company
- Many hosting companies expect you to pre-pay for 3, 6 or 12 months in order to get the low prices they advertise. Think about what happens to your money if they go out of business.
- Many hosting companies make extravagant promises about up-time.
- Hosting companies will promise you huge amounts of disk space and bandwidth - much more than you can possibly use. However, hidden away in their Terms of Service will be a list of things you can't do with the disk space and bandwidth. If you want to start the next YouTube, for example, you won't be able to do it on a shared hosting account. Make sure you know what the real limits are.
- Make sure that your web host supports CPanel. CPanel is the most popular 'back-end' control panel system. Although it is by no means perfect, it is easy to use and fast.
- You'll want a hosting account that allows you to use multiple domain names. That way, there's no increase in the monthly hosting fee when you add new domains.
Most importantly - Never, Ever sign up for hosting with the same company that registers your domain name. Why not? Because if your domain name is registered somewhere else and you have a problem with your hosting company, you can redirect your domain name to another host within hours. Of course, keeping up-to date backups also helps.
I recommend that as your business grows you consider splitting your money-making sites over a number of web hosts. Remember the maxim, "Two is One and One is None." Three is the smallest "safe" number of hosting companies.
I've been using Hostgator for the last 3 years, with very few problems. I also have accounts at ResellerZoom and A Small Orange.
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A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.
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