| With so many hosting companies competing for | | | | database driven web site, you don't need more |
| your hosting dollar, the companies have had to | | | | than 1 GB of transfer allotment. Likewise, you can |
| stretch their imagination to come up with ways to | | | | estimate the amount of storage space you'll need |
| convince you that their company is giving you the | | | | by taking a look at how much space your files |
| most for your money, and consequently, the | | | | take up on your computer. Unless you're planning |
| most affordable hosting package for you. The | | | | to store a lot of images or large files, 20 MBs is |
| most typical way they've done this is to throw in | | | | more than sufficient for your needs. |
| a bunch of bells and whistles to create full | | | | You can find hosting packages free that offer |
| 'packages' so that you get everything you need - | | | | you 10-25 MBs of storage space, and for $5.95 |
| and a lot you don't - for one low, affordable price. | | | | and less per month that will give you 300 to 1000 |
| To the typical new web hosting customer just | | | | MBs. |
| putting up a web site of his own for the first | | | | Free Domain Name or Transfer |
| time, all the options available can seem like a bowl | | | | Registering your own domain name can cost |
| of alphabet soup: lots of letters with very little | | | | anywhere from $4.95 to $35 a year, depending |
| meaning. Let's take a look at some of the most | | | | on where you register and what top level domain |
| common bells and whistles that you'll find in web | | | | - what's after the dot - you choose. Transferring |
| hosting packages typically labeled as affordable. | | | | your hosting from one web host to another will |
| Storage and Traffic Allotments | | | | usually cost about the same. Free domain name |
| These are expressed in MBs and GBs - | | | | savings: 50 cents to a dollar a month. |
| megabytes and gigabytes. They're the basic | | | | Unlimited Sub-domains |
| building blocks of all hosting plans. Storage is how | | | | A sub-domain is a lower level directory in your |
| much room you have to store files on the hosting | | | | main directory - except it goes at the FRONT of |
| company's server. Traffic is how many bytes of | | | | your web site name instead of after the .com. |
| data you can transfer to visitors to your web | | | | Some hosting companies charge you to set each |
| site. | | | | one up, or limit the number you can host on your |
| How much do you need? It depends on what | | | | domain. With the number of otherwise identical |
| you're planning to use your web site for. Unless | | | | plans that allow you unlimited sub-domains with no |
| you'll be running a lot of applications, doing | | | | setup fees, there's no reason to pay extra for |
| streaming video or audio, or running a very large, | | | | them. |