Why is it important to research your web host provider?

Are you starting an online business? Then you need a reliable host! We have been running online businesses since 1999 and here are some of our favorite hosting services.

As we have grown our businesses, one of THE most important factors in running an online business has been the hosting service.

Having a clear idea of what your business needs are AND what your budget is, are the first steps in choosing a web host provider.

What kind of web hosting plan is right for you?

Do you require

• large site - if you are following an online plan like SITE SELL you shld choose a hosting plan with a lot of space



• Do you have or plan on having a lot of sites? If you are following a plan such as the one outlined in Michael Campbells revenge of the mini-net you will want to look into web host providers that will allow you to host many sites on one account and can provide you with seperate IP#s for those sites. Many hosting providers sell additional IP#s for about $25 a year



• How is your HTML ? Many web host providers now have a script called Site Studio that comes w/ your plan. You don't have to know any HTML and many of these sites have Flash Intro pages. Personally I think the sites are nice looking, (here's the one my cousin set up using it), but I don't think they are very search engine friendly. If you don't know HTML and don't want to learn it, you may want to use Dr. Andy Williams SEO website builder. You don't need to know HTML and they are EXTREMELY search engine friendly



• Where is your hosting service provider located? We have one site that is hosted on a Canadain hosting provider. MSN.ca loves the site, but since our clients & services are just for US citizens, it doesn't do us any good. Many people say it doesn't matter where you host your site, this is just our experience. We now host only with US based hosting providers. If your service or product can be sold internatinally than an international hosting provider shouldn't pose a problem for you.



• Bandwidth - will your business require a lot of downloads? Make sure you have plenty of bandwidth available.



• Make sure your web hosting provider has a phone # that you can call and speak to a human. Don't go with a hosting company that you can only email.. You are just begging for trouble



• All web hosting providers have some sort of statistics package available. Many come with your package, there are some hosting providers that will actually charge you.

Hosting a single domain

Professional Web Hosting Solution for low cost ($7.95/mo)

I Powerweb is a great host, we haven't experienced an outage in about a year on the sites we host with them. This company is really popular . With sign up they give you $25 towards running an Adwords promotion for your website. Hosting packages start at $7.95 offers 3,000 MB storage, and 50 GB bandwidth. Also has a free marketing package to help you optimize and submit your site.

1000MB of storage and 40GB of transfer for only $7.95 - Lunar pages

So far we are happy with this service. We have only been hosting with them a few months though so I don't feel like I can write much about them except so far so good. They give you 1000MB storage and 40GB bandwidth for $7.95

Host Multiple Domains

These hosting providers will allow you to host multiple domains on the same plan. These are true domains (ex. www.xyz.com, and www.abc.com etc) and not sub-domains (ex. blah. xyz.com or blah.abc.com)

Hostgator

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED We love hostgator and host most of our sites on this service. Its extremely easy to add domains, subdomains, databases and is just loaded with features. Best of all it has fantastico which allows us to add all kinds of really cool features like CMS systems, project management systems and just to many programs to list.

We love to create sites and so with unlimited domains and unlimited databases, we have been able to create numerous content driven sites. I can't recommend this service highly enough. Their customer service is great you can speak to someone online or call their toll free number for help.

1 & 1 Hosting

Hosting Made Easy. Order 1&1 Microsoft Web Hosting from the World’s # 1 Web Host. Get up to 5 FREE domains!
You can host up to 5 different domains. They also have a new service called dynamic content, which will allow you to easily add data feeds to your site. 1&1 E-commerce Websites made easy. Selling online made easy! eShop Hosting starts at $9.99 Order today.
this is their ecommerce hosting package. If you are setting up shop on the net, here is a quick easy way with everything you will need included.

Infinity Host- $6.95/mo. Hosting

For $6.95 you can host up to 3 domains with them. They offer 1 static IP and you can purchase more. 400 MB space and 15 GB bandwidth

Domain Registration

Oh, and don't forget your domain registration. Many hosting providers are offering to register your domain for you free. All the hosting providers listed here on our site that provide free registrations, will let you keep the domain if you choose to move to another hosting provider. There are some hosting companies that will keep your domain name if they register it for you. Make sure you read the fine print before esstentially tying yourself to them for life.

We have all of our domain names registered thru www.GoDaddy.com . They have great prices, usually $8.00. They also have all the little extras you can purchase at the time of registration. For example, you can purchase your name, hosting (their hosting starts at $3.95), securirty certificate, privacy, etc. Whats even better is they discount their prices if you buy more than one service at a time. Recently I brought another domain for my cousins new site. The domain name was only $3.99 after we purchased the privacy plan (privacy means when someone does a whois, they won't be able to tell who owns your domain. The only thing that shows up is the Proxy service)