| Finding the Best Web Hosting for Your Online | | | | Parked Domains and Redirect URLs. With good |
| Business: 10 Key Elements of Web | | | | Domain management, you can putseveral domain |
| Hosting: | | | | names under one URL, but your web hosting |
| - brought to you by In the quest to find the best | | | | provider must offerthese features. |
| web hosting solution, look for Reliability and | | | | 7) Web Statistics: Full statistical analysis of your |
| Customer Service rather than the Cheapest Price | | | | site lets youunderstand your traffic, what |
| Finding the best managed hosting solutions is a lot | | | | keywords are used to find our site, as well |
| like finding a new car. | | | | asbrowser types, country visitors are from, which |
| Ultimately, your web host needs to get you from | | | | pages they visited and muchmore. With good |
| point A to point B, butunderstanding which | | | | statistical analysis programs, you should also be |
| features are important to you as a consumer | | | | able to view |
| makes thedifference between buying a lemon or | | | | Raw Access Logs for your Site, Disk Usage, |
| a Ferrari. Deciding which are the importantfeatures | | | | Bandwidth Usage, Web Traffic |
| and components can be a confounding task. | | | | Statistics, Error Logs and visitors demographics. |
| How do you decided on the best web hosting | | | | 8) Email hosting: Email is always a crucial part of |
| solution for your online businessneeds? examines | | | | running a website. Youwill need the ability to |
| the key elements of thisimportant decision, and | | | | create proper business email addresses. Auto |
| helps you make the best choice with ease. Let's | | | | responder, |
| have alook under the hood. | | | | POP3 & Mail Forwarding is a must. Email |
| The first step in finding the best web hosting | | | | management can be easy if you have theright |
| solution is understanding yourbusiness needs. | | | | tools. At a minimum, you will want to have control |
| Here are some important questions you should | | | | over adding andremoving Email Accounts, Setting |
| know the answers to in order tomake the right | | | | Disk Space Quotas, Read and send mail through |
| choice: | | | | Web mail Interface, Manage Email Forwarders and |
| - What are you going to be doing with your site? | | | | Auto-responders, as well as |
| - Will your site have just a few pages? | | | | Email Domain Forwarding. Make sure you have this |
| - Will it offer downloads? | | | | type of control over youremail, or you will be at |
| - Is it a database driven? Will you have a mailing | | | | the mercy of the person who is. If you have |
| list? | | | | never donethese types of email management |
| - Is your site commerce enabled? | | | | tasks, don't worry, it is a lot easier than itall |
| - Who is managing your site? | | | | sounds. |
| - Will you need FTP access to upload your files, or | | | | 9) Costs: How much will you pay per month? Are |
| will you publish using FrontPage(TM)? | | | | there additional fees forgoing over the bandwidth |
| Once you know the answers to those questions, | | | | limits? Most web hosting packages range from |
| start to examine these 10 keyelements of web | | | | $4.95 to |
| hosting: | | | | $9.95 per month, and provide all the services you |
| 1) Customer Service: Top of the List! Can you | | | | will need for a basic website. |
| reach the web hosting supportdesk easily and are | | | | This is a buyers market, and there are many |
| they responsive? Try it before you buy it! | | | | great choices out there. But pricingshould not be |
| Regardless ofyour technical skills, in most cases | | | | the determining factor in your choice. It is a good |
| you will need to communicate with your | | | | ideaunderstand the bonuses that many of these |
| webhosting provider. Find a company that is | | | | hosts provide. One of my favoritefreebees is a |
| reachable and responsive to yourrequests. It's | | | | $25 Google AdWords Credit. currently offers this |
| always a good idea to make sure the hosting | | | | AdWords |
| provider has a Toll | | | | Credit. With a free $25 AdWords Credit, you can |
| Free 800 number, and that they actually answer | | | | promote your site and experimentwith Pay Per |
| their calls. Before you sign upwith anyone, pick up | | | | Click Advertising. Well worth the effort. |
| the phone and call them. One tip to remember, | | | | Looking for Free Web Hosting? Remember the |
| the salesgroup almost always picks up the phone, | | | | old adage "there is no such thing asa free lunch." |
| so call the technical support number andtry to talk | | | | The is also no such thing as free web hosting. If |
| with them. Try calling at odd hours, and see what | | | | you are seriousabout your online business, free |
| you get. This isalways a good way to gauge how | | | | web hosting is not an real option. Free Web |
| easy it is to get them on the phone, and if | | | | Hosting costs a lot more than you think. I recently |
| theyare the right web hosting provider for you. | | | | tried a "free web hosting"deal with one of the |
| 2) Reliability: Are the servers that host your | | | | major domain companies. They included a fun little |
| business up? Are youguaranteed server uptime as | | | | popunder advertising window for all of my |
| part of your hosting agreement? How long have | | | | visitors, and at the same time, made itimpossible |
| theybeen in business? Most good hosting groups | | | | for me to promote my site via Google AdWords, |
| guarantee a certain amount of "uptime" with your | | | | as Google would not letme advertise due to their |
| contract. In addition, some companies charge | | | | policy against annoying pop-under ads. So, "Free |
| more for better "uptime" guarantees. For | | | | Web |
| example: the $5.95 per month package delivers | | | | Hosting" comes at a high price, don't pay it. |
| 95% uptime,while the $9.99 per month package | | | | 10) Advanced Hosting Features: If your looking to |
| delivers 99.9% uptime. Higher monthly fees | | | | build a modern website,you need some advanced |
| mayput you on a better network. Something to | | | | tools to make that happen. Look for features |
| consider when you're pricing potentialhosting | | | | such as |
| providers, or if your thinking about free web | | | | MySQL and phpMyAdmin, PostgreSQL and |
| hosting. | | | | phpPgAdmin, PHP, Perl, CGI, Python and |
| 3) Control Panel: The heart of a websites features | | | | Tomcat. If you are new to web hosting, you |
| and the place where youcontrol many of the | | | | probably won't need all thesefeatures. Some |
| features needed to run a proper website. With a | | | | hosting packages come with serious extras |
| good controlpanel, you can Block IP Addresses | | | | including Shopping |
| from Accessing your Site, Password Protect | | | | Carts, Guestbooks, Image Galleries, Forums and |
| Directories, Prevent Image HotLinking, Prevent | | | | Wiki's, Blogs, Counters, Clocks,chatrooms and |
| Bandwidth Leeching and much more. | | | | more. |
| Cpanel is an awesome control panel package that | | | | As a web consultant for over 10 years, I have |
| is intuitive, and really easy touse. Many managed | | | | seen all kinds of hostingscenarios; free web |
| hosting solutions utilize it. I host several sites | | | | hosting, the classic "$9.99 per month" packages, |
| withhostgator based on the fact that they have | | | | to serverfarms run by in house system |
| Cpanel. | | | | administrators. The majority of web |
| 4) Disk Space: How much storage capacity do | | | | hostingshoppers are looking for the same thing, a |
| you require? If your going toload the server up | | | | web hosting solution that isreliable, inexpensive and |
| with MP3's and large files, be aware of the Disk | | | | easy to manage. |
| Spacelimitations. If you know your going to use a | | | | Managed hosting solutions have evolved over the |
| lot of disk space, that needs toplay a factor in | | | | years. Many of the smallermom-and-pop shops |
| your decision. | | | | have dropped off, and a new pack of web |
| 5) Bandwidth: The amount data that you | | | | hosting provides nowoffer comprehensive hosting |
| broadcast from your website on amonthly basis. | | | | plans that get the job done. |
| Most packages allow you to upgrade if you need | | | | managed-hosting-solutions.comrates several of |
| more. | | | | today's top hosing providers, and has selected 7 |
| 6) Domains: Do you need a single domain name, | | | | of theindustries top hosing providers for you. You |
| sub-domains or unlimiteddomain hosting. Domain | | | | can't really go wrong with any ofthese top 7 |
| Management includes tasks like Managing | | | | groups. There are however, a few elements that |
| Subdomains, | | | | separate the topselections in our list. |