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Choosing the right
Web
hosting Package is one of the most important
elements to consider when building a successful
online business. There
are however a few things you need to know before
you decide on which web hosting provider to go
with.
Web hosting tip 1: Space
What amount of space are you requiring?
Are you looking at setting up simple one page websites, or are you wanting
to develop your own product with audio downloads? I recently put an e-book
and audio product together and could not understand why I couldn't download
any of my audio. I was over my disk space and this could make or break your
business.
*Please note: Keep your files tidy and
delete whatever you don't need because extra files take up valuable space -
lesson learnt!
Web hosting tip 2: Bandwidth
This is the amount data that you are
allowed to broadcast from your website each month. Your needs will differ
significantly depending on whether you are running basic websites or a
complete multi media experience.
Web hosting tip 3: Customer Service
This goes without saying! Before
choosing your web hosting provider contact the support desk or give them a
call to see how responsive they are. If your website is down for some reason
you want to get this sorted out as soon as possible. All
the
hosts we reviewed have 24/7 support.
Web hosting tip 4: Extra Features
If you are new to the internet your
initial needs will not be as demanding as the more experienced user. Extra
features may include free scripts, PDF writing software, web audio
features...and much more. Check our
quick review to see exactly what is available from each Host.
Web hosting tip 5: Domains
A domain or URL is your website address.
If you are planning on having a number of different websites then you will
want a web hosting provider to offer unlimited domain hosting. Most of the
time you will have to pay a minimal charge to transfer your domain name to
your web hosting provider. However, 8 of our 10
recommended hosts offer
Free
Domain Names. Having additional domain names on one hosting
account will also use up your disk space and bandwidth a lot quicker so this
will be a factor when considering a
web hosting provider also.
Web hosting tip 6: Subdomains
Subdomains give you
the ability to add pre-addresses to your domain name. For example we are
www.yourdomainuk.com if we needed to add a sub domain it would look
something like this www.anything.yourdomainuk.com.
Most good web hosting providers offer unlimited Subdomains
which is great because you don't have to keep
buying a
new domain name each time you want to set up a new website.
Subdomains should not be
confused with subdirectories. These
are the extensions you add to
your domain name, such as
www.yourdomainuk.com/quick-review.
'quick-review' is the subdirectory.
Web hosting tip 7: Statistics
Good web hosting providers will offer a fully functional statistical
analysis of your pages. From this information you will be able to see how
much traffic you have had, what keywords people are typing in to find your
page, what country your visitors are from...and so much more. Internet
success is about testing and tracking and you can get a lot of this
information from the statistics packages offered.
Web hosting tip 8: Website developing software
Some web hosting providers offer a
complete package that include web design software so if you are looking to
create your own website a great cheap alternative is to have this included
within your package for a minimal extra charge. The great thing with this is
that you will have the support from your web hosting company whenever you
run into any problems. They will be able to look at your entire back office
to help rectify any problems.
Web hosting tip 9:
Email, Autoresponder, POP3 & Mail
Forwarding:
If you are serious about building a
successful online business then you will want to automate your business as
much as possible and also have the ability to create proper email addresses
that are related to your website, such as
sales@yourdomainuk.com
rather than
anyoldrubbishorbs@yahoo.com Forwarding
is a great feature also, that allows you to have a
number of different email addresses that go to the same account.
ie contact@ yourname@ etc.
Web hosting tip 10: Control Panel
This is the panel that will allow you to
administer many of the features that I have
mentioned above. Some are more user friendly than others. The first time I
saw one I was a little overwhelmed as there are a lot of features. If you
are a beginner there are some options that offer a basic user experience,
but overall, with practice, and as experience is gained they will become
second nature.
Conclusion
Hopefully the above
information will have given you some thought as to your Web Hosting
Requirements.
Now it is time to give some
serious thought to who will be your Web Hosting Provider. If you haven't
already, take a look at our
comprehensive review. Here our team of webmasters
have taken an in depth look at the
10 major web hosting companies and compared
them individually according to pricing, reliability,
performance, features and service.
Good Luck
YourDomainUK Team  | 
