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Showing posts with label Web Hosting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web Hosting. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Multiple Site Hosting - Stop paying more than what's necessary

If you are looking for multiple site hosting in a web host package, you have plenty of options. There are literally dozens of web hosting companies that advertise multiple site hosting options. But what can you expect from these companies and what is it likely to cost? The cost will vary greatly, but there are lots of web hosts that advertise a web hosting package for less than $10 per month. What to expect from a web host depends largely on the host. Services, like price, will vary. Your specific needs will determine what you should expect from a web host service.

If one of your important requirements is multiple site hosting in a web host package, you should first determine exactly what you expect the company to provide. It's probably a fairly simple matter to have a single company sell you a web host package for each of the websites you plan to maintain. In some cases, you might find that a company offers discounts for having more than one website package.

In some cases, finding a company that can offer multiple site hosting in a web host package means that you want to maintain several websites on a single account. Some companies offer to provide that service at no additional charge. Others have a "per website" rate and will charge extra for each website maintained. You might want to look for a web host package that offers a specific amount of space for a specific price, and that price remains fixed for that amount of space even if multiple websites are established within the set criteria.

If you are looking for a web host package for a company, remember that the current needs of that company could be different from future needs. As you search for multiple site hosting in a web package, keep in mind that your business might expand. If your multiple site hosting package proves to be too small, will this particular company be able to meet expanded needs? If you are purchasing a web host package and expect to use all the space immediately, you could be faced with the dilemma of finding a new web host service provider very soon.

Whether you're looking for a company to host multiple sites or plan to establish only a single site, remember that comparison shopping is your best chance of finding the service you need at a competitive price. Even for multiple site hosting in a web package, look at total disk space, security, number of e-mail accounts and bandwidth before making a decision. If you find a company that has multiple site hosting in a single web host package, find out if a specific amount of space will be allotted to each website, or if a total amount is promised with you being allowed to use it as you please. For example, you might have one large site and two smaller sites, with the three easily accommodated by the total space allotted. However, if your service provider divides the space and allows only 10 megabytes for each website, you might find that the larger site is too big for the space provided.

Cheap Web Package Hosting - How to Minimize Costs

There are several steps you can take to help minimize costs with a web hosting package. Some require some effort on your part while others are simply a matter of common sense. No matter what your particular needs are, you'll likely find that there are companies out there offering web hosting with those needs in mind.

The first and arguably the most important step as you seek to minimize costs with a web hosting package is to shop around. Comparison shopping is always a good way to save money, and finding a good service for your web hosting needs is no exception. Online searches are probably your best bet for finding those great deals on web hosting, but don't give in to the temptation to simply pick a company from a list of hits and sign on the dotted line. Instead, take time to compare the services, prices and reputations of various companies. Finding the service provider that offers the best bottom-line price for web hosting might not be the provider that saves you the most money.

Especially if you aren't computer savvy, one way to minimize costs with a web hosting package is to find a company that offers free setup. While this is a fairly common part of web hosting for most companies at this point, you should be sure what it's going to cost you to establish the account. If you find a company that offers a great bottom-line price but has you pay an enormous fee up front to establish the service, it will probably take you a long time to recoup that fee in your monthly savings.

By the same token, finding a company that promises no fee to set up the service but then charges a significantly more expensive monthly fee to maintain the service isn't really going to save you any money either. If you want to minimize costs with a web hosting package, look for a happy medium between the two - a service provider that establishes the service for free and offers a reasonable monthly rate for maintaining the service.

While set up fees and monthly maintenance fees are pretty straightforward, you should also look for other fees that might be charged by a particular provider. Depending on your needs, you might find yourself paying extra for a service you expected to be provided in the monthly fee. There's no substitute for carefully considering your options as you search for a company to help minimize costs with a web hosting package. If you need services in addition to web hosting, look for a company that can combine all your Internet service needs - that could save you some additional money.

You should look for a company that offers a web hosting package specifically to meet your needs. You might be paying a significantly higher monthly fee for a plan that simply exceeds the needs of your company. If you don't need a larger space, don't buy a larger space. But with an eye to the future, know the company's stand on upgrading an account later if you should need additional space.

Finally, know the company. While it's a good thing to search for the most competitive bottom-line price, the best set up deal and a plan that fits your needs, it won't do you any good if you are constantly out of commission because of down time. Each time you find yourself without the web hosting service, you're running the risk of losing orders, clients and your own reputation - all potentially devastating to a business. Even if you truly want to minimize costs with a web hosting package, saving a few dollars is probably not worth the reputation of your own business.

Web Hosting Operating Systems Explained

A few time ago appeared a lot disagreements between opinions on the internet regarding, which is the best operating system for web hosting. There are people who hate windows, there are people who love FreeBSD and many others.

The thing is that the best system that suits you depends on what you are doing. The servers and the softwares, all run on a program named operating system. on a personal computer you will probably have windows ME, XP, NT or something similar to those. You can call this program the operating system. Any hosting server also needs running on an operating system. There are 3 different versions.

The first one powered by Microsoft is Windows. So, Microsoft also makes a system designed for servers. Microsoft products can trill integrate in this operating systems. It also allows web sites to run Active Server Pages. The Microsoft servers also allow the integration of SQL databases. The only problem of the Microsof web hosting servers is that they are very expensive. You will probably find one that costs several thousands of dollars.

The second version for web hosting servers is Linux. Linux was created and developed by some individuals who wrote the main part of the Linux operating system. After that, there were added some other parts to customize the operating system for the particular use of any user. There are many companies that market Linux, like Red Hat, Debian. The main advantage of Linux is that is compatible with PHP. Also it's very stable and has a great security. The best thing about it is that Linux is free.

The third version of operating system for web hosting servers is Unix. Unix is almost the same thing as Linux. If we think more, we will find more similarities than differences between the two programs. The most important difference is the way they came to the world. So let's make it clear. Linux is something like a cousin of Unix. There are two main Unix-based operating systems: FreeBSD and OpenBSD. The good thing about this systems is that they seem to be very stable once you manage to install them. But they are very hard to install. OpenBSD is also known to be one of the most secure operating system in the world. But with OpenBSd you will have to sacrifice some features for a plus of security. Again the best thing about these systems is that they are both free.

The best for you depends on what you are going to do with it. If you want great security, you should try OpenBSd. If you are looking for compatibility with all the windows products, then choose Windows. For compatibility with PHP programing language choose Linux.The fact is that one cannot tell which system is best, but employing and using it according to his needs.

Web Hosting Strategy for Managing Multiple Websites

If you are making a comfortable living from the Internet and the Web or have a plan to achieve that goal, it's likely that you are running more than ten websites. The websites are your virtual offices. You want to your sites to be up and running 365 days, 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. Managing multiple websites is a daunting task if running one website is a hobby.


Proposed Hosting Strategy for Managing Multiple Websites

The hosting strategy we propose is to host your multiple major websites with 3-4 different hosting companies, and open a reseller account with another hosting company for 1) small and new websites, 2) web development and 3) backup. Hosting with too many hosting companies will significantly increase the time and the difficulty of managing sites, and using a single hosting company isn't a smart choice either.


Justification of the Hosting Strategy

Cost - Cost of the Web hosting isn't an issue for running a single web site whether it costs $5 or $25 a month. The difference is only a few hundred dollars or less a year. It's always nice and smart to get the most out of every single dollar in doing business. At least, a few hundred dollars difference wouldn't make or break a business. If you run 10 or even 50 websites, the cost of Web hosting alone will define the success or failure of your online adventure. To cut the hosting cost, the option is to use a reseller hosting account to host as many small or new sites as you want for about $15 a month. You host one or 2 major websites with one hosting company. Shared hosting account costs under $10 a month, and dedicated server will cost $50 or more a month.

Uptime - If your bread-and-butter maker website is down for a few hours, you'll lose hundreds of dollars and more. Even though most hosting companies promise 99.9% uptime, it's not common to see a website down for a few hours. A site could be down for a half day or even more if a hosting company is doing a major update. The hosting company may do the update in a weekend or a major holiday, but that's when many family-oriented and travel sites generate their revenues. If you could afford the loss of revenues, many websites owners can't bear the psychological loss and pressure. Hosting your sites with a few hosting companies will reduce the risk of downtime.

Application Development - For simple web application, webmasters will do development on the same production hosting site. If your ecommerce applications are complex, doing development on the production site may bring down the live site especially if you're in the process of changing configuration files or install customized applications. The option is setup a website on your reseller account for development and testing, and move the applications to production account on another server after the completion.

Backup - If you're not happy with a hosting company, a hosting company is out of business, or the servers will be down for a day or two, you can easily temporarily or permanently switch from one hosting company to other since you're familiar with the site managing tools already. If you have a backup or secondary copy running on another server, all you need for the switch is the transfer of the domain, which will take no more than a minute.


Shop Before You Buy

There're too many hosting plans to choose from a large number of hosting companies - ASP Web Hosting, Budget Hosting, Dedicated Servers, eCommerce Hosting, FrontPage Web Hosting, Hosting With Templates ( http://www.web-site-hosting-n-tools.com/hosting-with-templates/ ) , Managed Web Hosting, PHP Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Shared Hosting, Unix / Linux Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, Windows Hosting or Co-location Hosting. Compare the cost, hosting features, tracking records of hosting companies before making your commitment. Good luck with your online adventures.

4 Tips to Find the Web Host That’s Right For You

Choosing to make a web site is a very big decision. However, even more important than deciding to make the website itself, is choosing your web host. There are many web hosts out there, and so it is very difficult to find the web host that’s right for you. In order to find the best web host, it is important to find as many options as possible, and have a clear idea of what you want out of your web host. Following these four tips will make your search for a solid web host a lot easier.

1. Use search engines. Search on Google and Yahoo using keywords such as “web host.” Carefully going through the results will give you an accurate idea of the web hosting options available. Some may say that the web hosts ranked the highest are clearly the best, but this is not always true. Taking the time to look at a large number of the results will give you an ample group of web hosts to compare.

2. Know how your site is going to work. This tip may sound confusing, but it is important to know what your goals will be for your web site. If you plan to have a great number of large files hosted on your site, then you want a web host that gives you ample amounts of space. Bandwidth should also be taken into consideration. Is the site a personal site, or a commercial site? If you plan on making money with your website, than a larger investment for more storage space and bandwidth is justifiable. If you are making your site a blog and hosting it with a service such as TypePad, you want a web host that allows domain mapping.

3. Have a price range in mind. Knowing the general amount of money you are willing to spend will save you a great amount of time. If a certain web host is simply too expensive, then you move on to the next one with no issues. Additionally, if you set a specific price range, you can search for the best offer within that price range. Some web hosts may offer more space for $20 than others do for the same price.

4. Finally, make sure that you have web host support based on your needs. If it is your first web site, then you might want a web host that is willing to give advice on building new sites. Some web hosts offer a very “hands on” approach to new users. Other web hosts simply let users do whatever they want and no help is offered.

The most important thing when finding a web host is knowing exactly what you want. Your search for a web host will be a lot easier if you search for hosts using Search Engines like Google and Yahoo, and you know what you are looking for. Every web host offers something a little different than others. Simplicity and customer service should be high priorities when searching for a web host. Remember, the most expensive, and highest ranked web host may not always be the best web host for your needs. Beginning your web host search with a clear, informed mind is the perfect way to assure a successful venture.

What Some Web Hosts Don’t Want You To Know

Many start-up web hosts in their desperate attempt to get hosting business from you have plenty to hide. Here are some of the things they will never tell you. For some start-up web hosts, service does not exist. Low cost or budget web hosting services are the ones most likely to fall under this category. Some will not provide any information about their service while others will proudly announce that they provide 24/7 service. This is quite often not true.

Many of the low-cost web hosts have little experience in web hosting. A good way to find out about the level of service is to get the service telephone number and use it before you sign on. This should tell you a lot about the level of service you should realistically expect from the host you want to use.

The other common truth amongst many web-hosting enterprises is that they lack experience. Ensure before signing up that the company that you are going with has reasonable experience. How long has your host been in business? You do not want to be part of a start –up experiment for an important service.

One other thing you will need to be very careful with when using low cost or budget web hosts, is the fact that some of them are involved in many different businesses and not just web hosting. Ask what other businesses or projects your web host handles before signing up with them. You want a specialist not a generalist whose resources and time are bound to be so stretched that chances of you getting reliable services are very slim indeed.

It is also a fact that some small low cost web hosts do not offer the promised bandwidth. They should not advertise one thing and end up providing something else.

The best way to protect yourself from most of these nasty surprises is to go for a short term contract to begin with. You can for example start off paying on a monthly basis. That way it will be easier to change hosts when you discover something you don’t like.

Useful Tips When Applying For A Web Host Provider

Once you have considered the design for your website and it is ready to be hosted, there are some matters to be considered when choosing the adequate web host:

I - Accessibility of the site?

Once you have applied for a web host provider you should take several aspects into account such as the time it takes to load or the period of time it is up.These aspects are very important because if there are problems related to them, this can create extreme annoyance and renouncement of the possible visitors.

The same possible visitors can also have problems in finding your web page, as search engines do not show those who are always down or have difficulties in loading.

The best method to acknowledge if a server is usually up would be to take a look over the reviews written by other persons who have applied for the server before you.

II - Does the provider offer SSL??

In the case of a hobby websiter or, in other words, if you will not be making any transactions on that particular website, the SSL protection is not necessary.In the other case, if transactions should be made in the near future it is necessary for you to choose the webhost which includes the SSL protection upfront.

SSL is generally used for encrypting any piece of information such as:credit card codes, names, etc.

Deciding to subscribe to a webhost which does not comprise of SSL protection and choosing afterwards to have it installed, could turn up to be more expensive than having applied for a webhost which provides SSL in the first place.

Websiters which have Automatic SSL protection can be exemplified by www.powweb.com and www.ipowerweb.com

III - Is server side scripting available from the server?

Despite of the fact that these server side scripting is provided by almost all servers, it is still advisable to check out if they do.Pages changing in real time are given the chance to be created by the webmasters due to the server side scripting.

For instance, in the case of running a business and having all products arranged in a database, the server side scripting will give off the pages by means of the ranges the customers choose to see.

You should not think of using a server which does not provide functionality for a server side scripting. www.powweb.com and www.ipowerweb.com can also be shown as examples for sites which comprise of servers side scripting.

IV - Customer Support

The support given to customers is of an utmost importance when choosing a web hoser.Even in the case of an experienced webmaster, I am sure that there are still some questions to be asked when signing up with a website.Some of them have created special forums for frequently asked questions(FAQ-S).Actually the only one of this type I found up to now is www.powweb.com.

Even tough these aspects are widely known, the attention should be drawn anyway, for there are many persons who pay significant sums after having signed to a web hoster on the basis of having ignored these conditions.Taken this into account, the collaboration should be nothing but successfully.

How To Find A Profitable Web Hosting Niche

With the rapidly increasing competition amongst web hosting businesses, it is important to identify potentially profitable niches on which to base your business on. This will dramatically increase your chances of success because once you have identified a profitable niche you will then study it closely and figure out all the ways and methods of attracting business from that particular niche market.

To find profitable niches you can focus on for your web hosting business, one option you can use is to take a close look in an industry or occupation that you know well. For example if you have been in human resource management in the past, then that is a good area to look for a good niche you can focus on. The advantage of identifying a niche to focus on includes the fact that you are able to fully understand all the needs and requirements of that particular market. This makes your marketing effort a lot easier as you know all the hot buttons that will attract businesses and individuals in the industry who require a web host.

Another method is to use popular keywords and concentrate your efforts on a popular and growing area. One of the advantages of selecting a keyword that is growing in popularity is the fact that chances of you coming across websites that suddenly find that they require more bandwidth are high. This is easy business to get because most websites change their web hosting service when they require more bandwidth.

Yet another method of identifying a profitable web-hosting niche is to look at your existing clients and identify the ones whose referrals will lead to lucrative new business for you. You can then offer special incentives to those clients to refer business to you. Or alternatively you can give them an incentive to answer a special questionnaire that will help you understand the niche market better and therefore be in a better position to create a successful marketing plan and strategy to secure the business.

How to get repeat visitors to your site

When you have a website online it is important for you to try and get new visitors to your site, but it’s also important to take care of the visitors that you actually already have. This is because you will want your existing visitors to keep returning to your site again and again.

There are many ways that you can do this. Some of these include the following:

1. Updating your Website content continuously
This is an important factor to consider if you want your visitors to keep returning to your site. This is because if you keep on updating your sites content, then every time your visitors come back to your site they will see something new every time, which should then interest them even further. If you don’t update your content on a regular basis, then your visitors will end up getting bored of your site and will then go elsewhere.


2. Making your site more sticky
Giving your site more stickiness will make it more addictive to your sites visitors, which will in return make them want to come back to your site.
This can be done by many different approaches. For example, you can add games to your site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/games/gamdir.html
You can even give free things away on your site. For example, you can give away free coupons, free scripts, free web hosting, etc. You can even offer your visitors free re-printable articles so that they can add them to their own site like http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php


3. Checking your site for broken links
This is very important when having a site. If your site does not function properly, then your visitors will not even bother with it. One of the most annoying things when visiting a site is when it has continuous broken links.
If you find it hard to manually check your site for broken links, then a good piece of free software to use would be the REL Link Checker Lite, which can be downloaded from http://www.relsoftware.com/

4. Getting other people’s opinions
When having a site, other than your own thoughts, it is also a good idea to get other people’s opinions. For example, the colours of your site, what parts people like on your site the most, what parts people dislike the most, etc. Getting opinions from your visitors like this will help you to find out what most people dislikes about your site, which means you can then improve these parts, making it better for your visitors in return.

Web Hosting: Price vs. Quality

As the Internet expands, demand for different web-hosting services increases proportionally. Additional numbers of people are joining the web world every day with personal sites for their business or organization. Many people choose low-cost solutions to host their web site, but it if your web site is important to you, you should consider quality as much as price.

For instance, putting your site on a low costs web host can affect the speed at which customers access it. Many surfers on broadband connections get annoyed when site’s server does not keep up with their connection. If it does not offer fast access and downloads, people will be reluctant to revisit the site. They would leave the place with a negative impression about you result in long term economic loss.

A well-established web host may charge more for the facilities but in the long run they may offer better and latest services complying with the trends in the market. Some high quality hosts even offers free add-ones and promotions. The features like free web site builder or support for MySQL databases ensure that the ultimate cost involved in building a productive website are a lesser amount. These facilities may not be available when one goes for a cheaper web host – or you may have to pay extra for them!

The cheapest web hosts may not always have a good reputation, either. Reputable companies in the web hosting business have a well-established infrastructure that ensures better services. Their servers tend to be down less frequently and they are less likely to go out of business (and take your data with them!).

Thus it is advisable to check out a host’s reputation and quality as well as its price. The good news is, there are some web hosts that offer both outstanding service as well as competitive prices. Don’t sell yourself short with anything else!

IT Support Services in London

At Netstaruk, we provide a range of IT support services in London. We provide telephonic and remote support to our clients, onsite visits on a schedule or during an emergency, remote monitoring of servers and auditing of LANs. Our engineers can help you set up and monitor your network. They can help you protect your network using firewalls, antivirus and antispam software, and can also help you back up your data remotely. They can enable you to set up an actual network to connect three or more computers, or a virtual private network (VPN), so that you or your employees can work from home.
Netstaruk's telephonic support service is offered at a fixed cost, as and when required by your business. We provide comprehensible support via phone and e-mail, so that your problems are solved quickly. We also provide downloadable software that enables us to remotely monitor your computers in an emergency. At least 92 percent of the emergencies we deal with are solved remotely or via telephone. In case telephonic or remote support does not solve the problem, we send our engineers to solve the problem onsite. We also send our engineers onsite to resolve support issues, help with network administration, work on minor projects and install and configure software.
At Netstaruk, we provide an initial LAN audit when we first set up your network, to ensure that all devices are working as promised and expected. We also monitor your server remotely, a service that was till now provided only to large corporations. Our engineers also pay scheduled visits to clients, to ensure that all is well and to take care of minor problems before they snowball into major issues.
Netstaruk also enables you to set up firewalls, and use antispam and antivirus software to protect your systems. Firewalls prevent unauthorized break-ins into your computer systems, antispam software ensures that you do not receive junk mail and antivirus software ensures that your systems are not affected by Trojans or internet worms. We also enable our clients to encrypt and back up their data over the internet-at present, we safeguard at least 200 GB worth of client data.
In case you are looking for a web hosting service, we have various packages to suit your needs. We can provide a wide range of broadband services for small office-home office (SOHO) and business networks, as well as domain registration services.
For more details, visit www.netstaruk.com

Information on Domain Names: Multiple domain hosting, Domain parking, Sub domains, WhoIs Record, Domain Renewal

It’s been two years since John started his online business. He is very much satisfied with his current web host whose services he acquired one year ago. Today John is relaxing in his chair and thinking about the initial days when he spent many hours on the Internet collecting information related to web hosting. Like him there are many John’s out there who are in search of information everyday, visiting this and that website hoping to find the most illuminating advice. The problem is that common topics of interest can be found on most of the websites whereas other relevant issues are not dealt with everywhere. This article is going to touch on one of those areas: various concerns related with domain names.

What is multiple domain hosting?
Many times you will see that a web host offers multiple domain hosting. In simpler words it means that on buying an account you will have the ability to get multiple websites. For instance, if the plan provides you with five domain names, you can use one domain for your website and you will still have four domain names leftover to use. The advantage of this scenario is that you can resell these four domain names to your clients.

What is Domain Parking?
If you are planning to build up a website and have decided on a name for it you then must purchase that domain name from a domain registrar: i.e. your domain name gets placed on a name server so that you can use it later on. This is known as domain parking. Even if your website content is not ready, it’s better to park your desired domain name. Otherwise, it might be possible that in future somebody else acquires that particular domain name.

What are sub domains?
Sub domains are ‘third level’ domains in the sense that they are used solely to organize your website content. They are simply folders under your root directory, but to access them a special URL is used.
For instance, http://www.m6.net is a regular URL without a sub domain.
http://features.m6.net is an URL with the sub domain name: "features".
Here the:
.net: is the first level domain,
m6: is the second level domain,
features: is the third level domain

For how long does a domain name belong to you?
Generally when you register a domain name it is registered for a minimum of one year. However, you can register it for more years, as there is no hard and fast rule as such.

What is Domain Renewal?
After one year you need to renew your domain name so that your website doesn’t get lost. Generally when your domain is about to expire your domain registrar will send you a reminder mail regarding the domain renewal.

What happens when your domain name expires?
When your domain name expires you can renew it within one month. If you don’t renew it in this period it goes into a redemption phase. It stays in this redemption phase for 15 to 30 days before it is then available for purchase again at a normal price. Getting a domain name out of redemption phase is like buying fifty domains as it can cost around $200!

How to find out the owner of a domain name?
To find out the owner of a domain name, use the WhoIs search tool on the Internet .For E.g. Go to http://centralops.net/co/ and type the domain name under Domain Dossier. It will show you the name of the registrant/domain’s owner/web host.

What is WhoIs record?
WhoIS record is a domain name search engine/Internet program where users can enter an Internet entity (e.g. a domain, a network, some hosts) and it will give detailed information on the domain registrar, the owner of the domain, and respective DNS records.

Low Cost Web Hosting Services - Don't Forget About Uptime

Once you have your company's web site up and running, it is vital that you do everything possible to keep it that way. Nothing sets off alarms in a customer's head faster than a non accessible web site or one that has features which do not work. A web site is literally your company's window to the world and every aspect of the site; including the design, content, accessibility, ease of navigation, and uptime, says a lot about your company.

A fully functioning, attractively designed, feature-loaded web site spells professionalism and expertise, while a poorly designed and inaccessible site reflects very poorly on your business. Still, the best designed site on the web; one loaded with impressive features and clever design tricks means absolutely nothing if your customers can't get to it because it is down. Unfortunately, if your site is hosted by some other company and resides on their servers, downtime may be largely out of your control. When your host's servers go down, your site goes down and there's not a thing you can do about it. There are a few things you can do, however, to ensure that your site stays up as long as possible.

Choosing Your Web Host

There are thousands of low cost web hosting services out there and they are all offering a thousand different deals for web hosting. Choosing the right one can be a daunting task, especially if you don't know a lot about internet hosting and what you should be getting for your money. There are a few things you should look for in a web host - some of which will help you get the best deal and others which will help you determine whether you should expect to have a problem with downtime.

To cover the business end of web hosting, find out how much bandwidth and storage space you get for your monthly fee. Bandwidth is especially important because the more popular your site becomes the more visitors it will have and the more bandwidth it will use. If you are using too much bandwidth, two things will happen. You'll be charged for anything over the amount you're contracted for and the site could easily experience downtime due to receiving more traffic than it can handle.

You will also want to look at the host's server information. Most web hosting services will post the specifications of their web servers on their own web sites. This allows customers to get a good idea of the host's stability. If you don't understand the technical jargon that these informational pages contain, get someone from your own IT department to look at with you. They'll be able to tell if it looks like the host has a stable server system.

Check Your Site

To help ensure stability, you should check the site yourself (or make sure someone in your company is checking it) several times per day. This is the best way to make sure that everything is in working order and to resolve problems that do occur as quickly as possible. If you find that the site is down, a quick call to the host can often resolve any issues or at least let you know if there's a problem with just your site or their entire server.

Build and Maintain Websites For Profit

Even with limited knowledge and experience, you can
build and maintain websites for profit. Here are
just some ways you can do so.


1. Develop Websites for Local Businesses


Approach local business persons and sell them on the
necessity and financial benefits of having a
professional website. Local advertising may get you
started as well, but expect to get a large portion of
your business from referrals.

Charge your clients for the initial design and setup
of the website. Work with them to develop a theme for
their site based on their unique advantages over the
competition. Keep the site simple to start with so
that the cost of producing it is not prohibitive to
the business and you can complete it profitably in a
short time.

In this business, you can also make money on the
maintenance and ongoing support of the website.
Charge recurring monthly fees for such services needed
as web hosting, updates and improvements to the site`s
content, search engine optimization and submission,
increasing traffic, traffic analysis, mailing list
production and maintenance, and much more.

You don`t have to be a master Internet programmer to
provide needed, additional services. There are many
free and low cost sources of scripts and other resources
available to you on the Internet. Offer your clients
(and charge extra for) flash introductions, animated
graphics, syndicated content, traffic counters,
submission forms, chat rooms, pop-up windows,
autoresponders, and more.


2. Sell Websites on the Internet


Build web stores, search engines, shopping portals, and
other websites and sell them on the Internet.

Some develop sites from templates sold by others.
Others build websites from scratch. These websites have
been sold on the Internet as turnkey businesses through
eBay and other websites.

Another option is to take existing free services and
resell them. For example, you could take advantage of
free web stores available to you on the Internet.
Register a suitable domain name, obtain free or low
cost web space, and host that free store at your
domain on your web space. Promote your website and
increase traffic. Finally, sell your website to the
highest bidder on eBay. Be sure that either your
Reserve Price or Opening Bid is high enough to make it
profitable to you. You will need to transfer the domain
name to the buyer.


3. Become an Internet Marketer


Build your own unique website based on a niche theme
that has a sufficient market. Then tie in your content
with appropriate affiliate programs and your own as well
as other peoples` products and services.

To increase commissions and sales, you will need to
regularly maintain your site by updating content,
increasing targeted traffic, adding appropriate products
and services, et cetera.


These, then, are just a few ways that you can profit
financially from building and maintaining websites.

Beware of the hidden perils of low cost hosting

Some folks classify low cost web hosting on the same level as free web hosting and while this may seem a little harsh, there are certain factors one needs to be very careful about when going for low cost web hosts.

One of these is downtime. There is really no point in spending so much time and money constructing a good site and then ending up in a situation where people cannot access your site. So when choosing your web host from the thousands of low cost web hosts out there, there are a few things you should do to ensure that downtime does not kill your business as you use a low cost web host.

Beware of the bandwidth time bomb

It is important to digest properly how much bandwidth and storage space you are getting for your monthly fee. Bandwidth is a real time bomb because one day your site will become very popular and attract very high traffic that will require more bandwidth. This could happen sooner than you expect and it makes plenty of sense to find out exactly what your options are when you suddenly need a lot more bandwidth. Otherwise you risk having extended downtime when it is most critical that you do not have it, so as to retain the high traffic that you are attracting.

Get technical and you will know if the host has a stable server system

Most good web hosting services will post specifications of their web servers on their sites. Analyzing this information will help a client get a good idea of how stable the web host’s server system is. The more stable, the less the likelihood of frequent downtimes. Most people are not technical, but almost everybody knows somebody who can help them analyze the technical jargon at the web hosts’ site.

Check your site several times during the day and the night too

Most webmasters get so busy that they hardly have the time to check their own sites. It is absolutely critical that this is done. It is even worth the effort and cash of hiring somebody to do it for you on a regular basis through out the day. Not only should you get your site’s accessibility regular tested but you should also test everything on the site and make sure that it works. This is the only way your visitors are going to gauge you and what sort of business you run, so take the trouble to make sure that your site is not only up all the time, but that it is also running properly.

In conclusion, it is possible to get a low cost host who delivers, but it will require a lot of work and checking from your end. A web host directory will obviously be very useful here.

Overselling Web Hosting: What does it mean to you?

Overselling is a big trend in the web-hosting world at the moment. It’s an easy way to get more out of your servers than normally is possible. The basic idea of overselling is that the majority of your clients are only going to use a fraction of the resources allocated to them so there’s going to be a lot of wasted bandwidth and space. Overselling involves taking a gamble and selling more than you can handle assuming that the unused resources will cover it.

Let’s say for example that a server hard drive is 80GB and has 1200GB of bandwidth. The hosting company has a look around and decides that to be competitive they need to offer plans with 2GB of disk space and 40GB bandwidth. With these figures they can only offer 30 hosting packages per server. This leaves quite a bit of wasted disk space and after a few months the company will probably notice that their users aren’t using all of the available bandwidth. Because of this the company then assumes that it can safely sell at least 10 more packages on the one server. If the original number of customers already covers general costs then the extra packages provided by overselling are pure profit.

The advantage of overselling for the host is that they make more money off each server than they otherwise normally would be able to. The advantage for the client is that this extra revenue is usually transferred on (at least in theory) by cheaper hosting packages with more features. The problem is that these features are often ‘smoke and mirrors’. A few users would be able to use their entire allotment without any trouble, but if every single client were to build their website up to maximum capacity the host wouldn’t be able to handle the sudden increase in demand without adding extra hard drives, buying more bandwidth, or perhaps even another server. This would most likely lead to a fair amount of downtime.

Web hosts aren’t going to advertise the fact that they oversell. It’s not something that will gain them customers and it’s likely to drive away a few. In general however, they’re likely to get away with it without any real problems. The reason the idea even exists is that it is true that the majority of websites don’t use all of the space that’s allocated to them. The problem is that it’s not a particularly honest way of dealing with clients. It’s a little like the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ where the host is just hoping that no one notices the fact that a package is in fact a little nude.

Overselling will generally not be a problem unless a host gets too greedy and ends up selling much more than they could possibly provide for. On the other hand, it’s not even necessary as the host can usually make enough money to make ends meet without overselling. It will generally be quite difficult for you to find out whether or not a host oversells unless they specifically advertise it, or they’re well known for having problems due to excessive overselling. Just make sure you do some research and choose a reliable host, not necessarily the one that appears to offer ridiculous amounts of bandwidth or disk space for far too little money.

Linux vs. Windows web Hosting, does it make a difference?

One of the most confusing decisions someone new to web hosting will have to make is which platform their server should be on. There are a number of different choices out there but the main two are Linux and Windows web servers. There are also a lot of sources of information about hosting, but the majority of them are tainted by the author's biased personal opinion unfortunately confusing the issue. Having just put in some solid hours researching the topic I have come to the conclusion that in general it quite probably does not matter which server you use. For the majority of people it will be far more important to choose a really good web host than to worry about the server-type that they implement.

Microsoft developed and owns the Windows operating system. Linux is open source and generally free. This means it can often be more expensive to set up and run a Windows server. However, this fact doesn't really affect you unless you are actually setting up a server for yourself and if you're reading this article then I'm guessing that it's safe to assume you're not. This article is going to offer information for those trying to decide which hosting company to go with. The cost involved in running a server does not affect the cost of a web-hosting package as much as you may think. Despite the general opinion that Windows servers are more expensive to run, buying a Windows hosting package can often turn out to be just as cheap or even cheaper than an equivalent Linux hosting package.

Some people naturally assume that because their PC runs Windows they need to buy a Windows hosting package. This isn't true. Access to your web account will most likely be through FTP or a control panel and both servers support these methods. The main difference is that some of the FTP commands are slightly different between Linux and Windows and some FTP programs will be designed with one or the other in mind. This means you may occasionally find that when you try and get your FTP program to do something it returns an error message, but it won't happen very often.

Your choice of server platforms should be dictated by the use to which you intend to put it. The majority of web features run fine on both platforms including PHP, mySQL, POP3 etc. If you intend to create your site using ASP, FrontPage, the .NET environment, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any of the other Microsoft proprietary technologies then you probably need to use a Windows host. There is limited support for a number of these technologies in Linux, but they can be expensive and are usually lacking in features. It is probably worth considering the fact that if you use server specific technologies and then change hosts you'll have a much harder time of it than if you use technologies that can be run on any system. Having it run generic technologies removes the need to focus on specifics and allows you to focus on the quality of service itself.

The reliability and stability of the different platforms have been the topic of many long arguments. The main reason that Windows is seen as being insecure is that it is the most widely used operating system for home PC's. People spend more time looking for flaws in the most common system. With Linux being the most common server type, it has a surprising number of successful hack attempts made on it. In the end the security of both platforms comes down to the competency of the system administrators. If you are security minded then you'll do better to make sure that the hosting company is reputable and highly skilled than to worry about the server they use.

In terms of performance there's not a huge difference between the two servers. Linux reportedly performs faster because Windows (as usual) attempts to offer an 'all in one' package instead of the extendable Linux implementation. You'll generally not notice a difference but if performance is of utmost importance to you then maybe this will influence your decision.

I've come to the conclusion that unless you are specifically using features that are unique to one platform or another your time will be much better spent looking for a really good quality host than a really good quality server. Developers are constantly improving both Linux and Windows so they should be fairly close in terms of features, security, and reliability for a long time. It's the people implementing them that you should be basing your decision on.

Reseller Web Hosting - A Cheaper Alternative ?

There comes a time when the internet bug hits us all and we tend
to acquire a wealth of domain names and web sites to feed our
frenzy.

We start out with the best intentions, set up a personal home
page with a few details about ourselves, then create more for our
family, then our business and before we know it we have several
domain names and web sites spread across several web hosting
companies.

A more convenient approach would be to set yourself up with a
reseller account with one hosting company.

Most people assume that to have a reseller account, you need to
be in the business of selling hosting. This is not true. Anyone
can set up a reseller account and enjoy the benefits of saving
money and also having the convenience of only dealing with one
company for all your hosting needs.

I'll take my hosting reseller http://www.HostingRevolution.com as
an example. They provide a very competitive reseller account
priced at $35. Their Reseller's Package allows you to host 100
Domains. You are allowed to give every Domain you host up to
20GB's of monthly transfer and up to 2.5GB of storage.

Previously I had over ten domain names and associated web sites
that were costing me around $5 - $10 a month to host. The average
months hosting costs were around $50 - $60. Therefore, by setting
up a reseller account and transferring my domains and web sites
over to my reseller account I made an instant saving of $15 a
month.

Now, another extension of this would be to start selling hosting
to your friends, after all, you have a reseller account. So if
you have ten friends, ask them if they would like web hosting on
your server, maybe offer it free to them and ask them to
recommend your services to their friends, these can then become
"paying" customers. Now YOU can get people to pay for hosting and
make back the monthly reseller fee. Just sell ten accounts for $3
a month and you have instant income of $30 to offset the $35
reseller fee you are paying. So you get hosting for $5 a month
for as many domains and sites as you like.

So, with the reseller account you have helped yourself, helped
your friends, and possibly started making money as well.

Web Hosting Providers Rule The Web

It has been reported there are currently more than a staggering 50,000 web hosting providers all competing for the honour of hosting your website.

Every day dozens of new web hosting compaines are launching and struggling to get your attention and your web hosting business.

Even though the web hosting industry is really quite young, it is certainly one of the most competetive and cut-throat industries on the web today. Yet the growth of this marketplace is assured for the forseeable future.

Now each and every week it is estimated more than 50,000 websites are launched and need to be hosted somewhere online. This figure continues to grow and grow.

In fact the current monthly count for the number of searches at Yahoo for the term 'web hosting' is a whopping 2,149,851. That's right, over 2 million!

Also just recently it was reported that the popularity of blogs was seeing tens of thousands of new blogs launched each and every day. While many of these are hosted freely, the more serious bloggers each require an account with a reliable web hosting provider.

Of course every paid web hosting account usually requires at least one domain name registration. Here are some amazing domain name figures for you:

The registrar holding the largest number of domain names is said to be WildWestDomains. They may be better known to you as Godaddy. They currently hold over an estimated 5 million domain name registrations!

The registrar holding the second largest number of domain names is estimated to be Enom. The registrar holding the third largest number of domain names is estimated to be Networksolutions.

Domain Name Registration Growth:

By far the most popular top level domain is the .com There are currently over an estimated 40 million of these registered.

The .com top level domain currently holds over an estimated 70 percent of the domain name marketplace.
The .net top level domain currently holds just over an estimated 10 percent of the domain name marketplace.

The good news for web hosting and domain name customers is that incredible deals have become available as competition increases among web hosting providers.

In fact the price of web hosting has plumeted to just under $10 per month for a quality service. Domain names that cost up to $35 just a fews years ago can now be bought for as little as $4.99.

This is a winning situation for both the web hosting providers and their customers. The quality of service continues to grow. The new web hosting providers must impress their customers to compete with more established organisations.

There has never been a better time to find a web hosting provider and establish an internet presence of your own.

Domain Registration: How Many Extension Should You Register

When it comes to selection of a domain name, people are often inundated with several questions. One of the most important of them is which extension should I choose - dot-com or dot-net or dot-biz?

There are circumstances when you will think it is fit to register more than one extension. This article is aimed at helping you to make the right decision.

A common problem is that people usually type in .com all the time on net and land up on various other sites. This could be troublesome both for the business and the customer.

When you select a domain name, you are always given a list of different extensions to choose from. These extensions can help specify the type of products or services you are offering online or your geographical location.

To begin this article, I am giving some basic definitions of the extensions you can choose from:

* .com signifies "commercial". It is the most well-known extension and preferred by all commercial enterprises. The acute scarcity of unforgettable .com domain names has led to creation of several other extensions.

* .net signifies “network". It is generally used by internet service providers, web hosting companies, or other firms related to network or internet services.

* .org signifies "organization". It is commonly used by non-commercial web sites. But, at present, many businesses register their matching .org extension to their .com domain names.

* .biz signifies “business”. It is used for business web sites. There are more chances of you getting this extension because of its low current penetration.

* .info signifies “information”. It is generally used for information sharing web sites. This too like .biz is gradually growing in popularity and there is more likelihood of you getting it.

Your first aim should be to get a perfect domain name for your business. Once you have done that you should then consider registering other extensions for the same domain name.

It is up to you to decide which extensions are most relevant for your business. It depends a lot on your customer base, range of products/services, and also your brand image.

You should always use domain forwarding service to redirect visitors from your other domains to your primary domain. This is quite essential since visitors may get confused about your web site address and may reach your competitor’s web site. For example, you domain name is home-appliances.net and your potential customers may reach home-appliances.com, which is your competitor.

Prevention is always better than cure. So, instead of buying a rival domain name from someone (at a high cost), it is always preferable to register that domain name yourself (at a low cost).

We find that name protection and greater coverage are the two key forces driving the need for registering more than one domain name. The accessibility of the site increases by registering more than one extension for a domain name.

There are other advantages of multiple domain name registration. It helps in creating a demand for similar domain names due to people realizing that so many domain names are available related to the primary one.

But some observers in the industry have a different viewpoint. They think that having more than one domain extension is very confusing for the visitors to these sites.

In conclusion, I would like to say that your primary target should be .com and thereafter, find out the relevant extensions for your business and try to register them also. I recommend you to register all relevant extensions so as to guarantee maximum coverage and minimum misguided competition.

Amung

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