Web Hosting?

Choosing the right Web Hosting package for you can be a bewildering task. With so many packages, prices, terms, conditions, companies and countries vying for your business, it's important that you understand what you need, so you can choose a company who can give you what you want.

So here's a list of the major types of Web Hosting available on the market - what they are, and what they're suitable for. And to make it a bit easier, we'll follow the career of Dave*, a budding web entrepreneur making his first forays into the world of Web Hosting.

Free Hosting

Free Hosting is exactly that, and although the old adage 'you get what you pay for' doesn't exactly apply - as you are getting something, after all - Free Hosting is not recommended for anyone with any kind of serious aspirations for their site. Of course we offer Web Hosting so we would say that, right? Well, the two main things to consider when looking at Free Hosting are 1 - someone has to pay for it, and 2 - what happens if something goes wrong.

With regards to the first point, it's often the case that your Web Hosting is paid for by advertisements on your site, and as that is what makes the Web Host their money, they could well be as interested in advertising on your site as they are in getting you to use their service so they can have more adverts. This leads on to point two - what kind of support do you think you will get from a company that is giving you something for free? What kind of guarantees can you have that your Web Hosting is reliable or secure?

It is also common for Internet Service Providers (ISP's), amongst others, to offer Free Hosting as part of a package with other services (such as Broadband or Digital TV). These are better solutions as they obviously come attached to a reputable (well...) company, and will be able to provide support. Again, though, remember that it is their other service that pay for your Hosting - the Hosting is an enticing extra. Support may well suffer, too, if the company specialises in other products and services.

Some companies, for instance Blogger, will offer free online spaces for specific sites (in Blogger's case, you get a free online blog). However, you're limited to what you can do with the templates they give you, and you won't be able to expand your site or even have your own domain name. So, only go for Free Hosting if you are completely satisfied that the company will be able to provide you with what you want. We wouldn't advise choosing Free Hosting for a business-related site in any circumstance!

In Dave's instance, he has been given some Free Hosting as part of a deal with his ISP. Dave's never made a website of his own before, and he's certainly never had any Web Hosting. He's interested but a bit lost, and manages to build a basic, personal site with only a few difficulties. He stumbles across Wordpress and finds that he doesn't get any databases with his Free Hosting. As the Hosting is part of his package - and free - his ISP don't have any facility to upgrade his account. Dave decides he wants his blog on the Internet, and after talking to one of his friends on Blogger and thinking dreamily about maybe starting an online business, Dave contacts some Web Hosting companies to see what is available to him.

Shared Hosting

This is the most common form of Web Hosting available. A company sets up one or more servers to be used for Web Hosting, and their customers in turn pay for a portion of that server and share it with other customers. So a server may be responsible for several hundred web sites at a time.

Shared Hosting has many advantages. It is the cheapest form of commercial Hosting, as the cost of the server can be offset by the many customers who can use it at once. They don't require advanced technical knowledge to use and you only need to administer your account - at no point do you have anything to do with the server. As it is a paid solution you will have access to customer support, a contract, uptime guarantees and so on.

The disadvantage is that, as you are sharing a server with other customers, you are also sharing the resources of that server. The server, just like a home PC, has only so much memory, CPU and disk space available, and if other customers are using it heavily - or if the Web Host has put too many people on the server - or even if the server isn't particularly fast in the first place! - you may well find that your web site appears to be slow.

You will also find that Shared Hosting doesn't allow a lot of the advanced, powerful features that higher end options present to you. There is a slight increase in security risk, too, as you can never be sure how secure your 'neighbours' are - but bear in mind that the server will be very secure in the first place, and the risk is not something to be alarmed about.

So our friend Dave starts out with a very simple Web Hosting package, with a little web space and a database. He installs Wordpress and starts to blog seriously, and then decides he wants to start his online business. With his basic account he commissions a Web Design Company to build him an eCommerce site, with his blog built in as one of the features. As his store grows, he finds that he can expand his site fairly easily, without having to worry about any limits like he had with the ISP.

Shared Hosting is the ideal solution for most sites and users. With a few exceptions, only people who want their own server and/or control over the contents of it will need anything else. So Dave, like many people, is perfectly happy, until he decides to quit his day job, and go full time with his eCommerce site. At this point, Dave, who is a bit more knowledgeable about Web Hosting now, considers if there is anything he can do to improve his site.

Reseller Hosting

Reseller Hosting is a generic term that applies to several different kinds of Web Hosting. It isn't a definition of the kind of Web Hosting on offer, as such, as the kind of person offering it.

A Hosting Reseller purchases a larger Web Hosting account from a Web Hosting company, and in turn sells portions of their account to their own customers. They are essentially providing the services of a Web Hosting company, without having to set up and finance the expensive hardware and the maintenance of it themselves. This kind of Web Hosting is popular with, for example, start-up Web Hosting businesses, companies with a large portfolio of sites, and Web Design companies wanting to offer Hosting to their clients.

A Hosting Reseller may be offering Shared, VPS or Dedicated solutions (see part two). Customers tend to benefit from cheaper Web Hosting as a Reseller often purchases their Web Hosting at a discount. The only major drawback with Reseller Hosting is that the Reseller is also a customer of the company they have bought their Hosting off of in the first place. The more advanced the Hosting they are offering, the more support the Reseller can give you directly - but as a customer of a Reseller, it is possible that you will contact the Reseller about a technical fault, who will then in turn have to contact his or her Hosting company.

Reseller Hosting is only of use to Dave if he decides to sell Hosting to other people, or expand his business with a large portfolio of other sites. If he wasn't looking to do either of these he'd probably stick with Shared Hosting - as it is the most common form of Hosting it is also the most popular, and he'd get more use out of it. For now though, Dave thinks he is happy with a single site, he would just prefer to have more control and performance as his site is getting quite busy and he has a few demanding redesign plans in mind. So, in the second part of this article, we'll look at some of the more advanced Web Hosting options available to Dave (and you, of course).

*Dave is not real. He is just for illustrative purposes only, and any resemblance to any Dave or any events that have happened to any Dave, living, dead or otherwise, is purely coincidental.

Ewan MacLeod NuBlue Web Solutions http://www.nublue.co.uk

How to Find a Dependable Web Host

Your new website is ready to upload, and now you need a web host. Or perhaps you already have a web host, but uptime and support are lacking. Of the thousands of web hosts to choose from, how do you find one that you can depend on? Know what can go wrong and what to watch out for, and research prospective web hosts carefully.

What can go wrong with web hosting

Too much downtime

Problems happen, and even when they don't, server maintenance results in a minimal amount of downtime. A dependable web host not only maintains servers well, but also monitors the servers and fixes problems immediately. With the type of web host you want to avoid, however, your site may be down for days.

Features that don't work

When your email doesn't work, your business shuts down. Problems with databases and other features can also slow down or stop your business. Most web hosts understand this, but some don't place a high priority on keeping not only your site online but everything working as well.

Poor support

Dependable web hosts answer tech support questions within hours. Other web hosts, however, have been known to take days. And when those responses come, sometimes they're canned responses that don't address the issue.

Poor communication

Support people with good communication skills help keep problems from becoming bigger problems. Being told, "Everything looks fine here, so the problem is solved," leads to frustration. So is having your site shut down because it used too many resources rather than the web host contacting you about the problem first.

Billing problems

Even after you cancel your account, problems may continue. Some less-than-dependable web hosts don't honor their refund policy. Others don't stop automatic billing after the account is cancelled.

What to watch out for

When you see the following at web host websites, consider them red flags to warn you of possible problems.

Unsustainable pricing

If the pricing looks too good to be true, it probably is. Is it enough to pay for server maintenance and tech support? You get what you pay for.

Unlimited bandwidth

Nothing is really unlimited. If you sign up for an account offering unlimited bandwidth and then use a lot of bandwidth, expect to have the plug pulled on your site. The web host may find another explanation for discontinuing your account, but "unlimited" typically means "as long as you don't use a lot."

An unprofessional-looking website

Consider how much effort the web host put into providing a usable website with informative content. Does it give you confidence in the web host, or is it full of unsubstantiated statements and grammar and spelling mistakes? A web host doesn't need to be a spelling expert, of course. But if the company hasn't put much effort into telling you about their services, will they be conscientious about meeting clients' needs?

How to research web hosts

Finding web hosts is easy enough. Search engines can take you to the websites of thousands of web hosts. But after you've narrowed down your list by features and price, how do you find out which web hosts are dependable?

Read web host package details and TOS

If the hosting packages offer huge amounts of disk space and bandwidth for very low prices, consider yourself warned. Don't expect the company to have enough money for maintenance and support.

If you want to be sure that you can get a refund if you want one, check what the Terms of Service (TOS) says about refunds.

Read the web host forum

What is the ambience in the forum? Are clients' questions answered satisfactorily? Don't be concerned if you see problems; instead, be concerned if you don't see any problems. Some web hosts remove posts that don't show their company in a positive light. If posts about problems remain in the forum, you can observe how the host handles problems.

Read web host reviews

Client feedback at the web host's site may or may not be valid. It's possible for hosts to make up feedback, and some have even copied feedback from other sites. Look for feedback with links to the clients' sites, and check via http://www.Whois.sc to see if the particular web host actually hosts that site.

Numerous forums allow people to post web host reviews. When you read reviews, consider the poster's credibility. Some people bash their hosts just because they're unhappy about something. If the host posts in response to a problem, observe how the host tries to resolve it.

Check the company background

The "About Us" or "Company Background" page at the web host's site should answer these questions.

How long has the company been in business? A new company may be excellent, but it's good to keep in mind that a lot of businesses fail within the first year.

Does the company publish a privacy policy? Does this policy clearly protect clients' privacy?

Where are the servers located? Ideally, they should be in a datacenter, and not in someone's basement.

What are the server uptime statistics? If the web host doesn't publish a link to a server uptime monitor, ask for a link to one. Uptime of about 99.7 percent or higher is generally considered good.

Does the company publish an address? You may never need it, but when you're placing your company website in another company's hands, you want to know that the company is legitimate and accessible.

Email pre-sales questions

Answers to your pre-sales questions tell you a lot about the web host. You'll see how fast the company responds and how well they communicate. Ask questions about any of the above points as well as questions specific to your needs.

~~~~~

Finding a dependable web host takes time, but dealing with problems and moving your site takes more time. The time spent looking for a dependable web host is a worthwhile investment.

About the author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.

What You Need to Know to Start a Web Hosting Business

Want to be a web host? What you NEED to know!

After a good amount of time in the business of web hosting, I have come to realize many things. Learning these things has helped me in my business more then anything else! It wasn't any costly SEO company, it wasn't any overpriced Google or Yahoo ad program. It was hard work, it was hours and HOURS that turned into days and then weeks of time spent working on the website, editing the website (then editing again), making sure my keyword relevancy was up to par using my favorite keyword analyzer at Submit Express, checking to make sure my packages were priced to compete with other host's that offered the same quality services that I provide (not the kiddie host's that offer 25gb disc space and 200gb bandwidth for $5.00 a month), and also taking care of my clients to ensure they got anything they wanted or needed.

So anyway, let's get on to what has worked for me. Some of you other host's may disagree with me, or have had different experiences then I, so again, this is only what worked for me, and is my opinion only.

I started my first web hosting business in November of 2004. I can't disclose the name of that business due to the agreement of sale, but I can tell you that it was a very successful host, and was on track to be a big player in the web hosting game. I just burnt out and had to sell! I was working 16-20 hours a day taking care of clients via Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, AOL, Skype, PHPLive, and any other live chat program I could use, email, and phone. This leads me to my first assessment, and bit of knowledge to pass on.

1. Support : This is (in my mind) the most important part of a web hosting business, and can make or break a starting business FAST, either way. If you offer TRUE 24x7 support to your client's, and the support they receive is fast, accurate, and friendly. Your brand (host name and logo) will spread like wildfire, in time, you just have to be consistent with the support. You can't let tickets lay around because you had to go to school, or you had to mow the lawn, or your girlfriend wouldn't let you, or you just didn't feel like dealing with it.

This can prove to be a very difficult task after awhile. The first few customers you get will submit a few tickets a month. Then, when you have a few more, maybe 25, you will start to have tickets, live chats, emails, pre-sales questions, all of it pouring in at once. Then you get up in to the 50-100 client range and you are swamped. This is when you start to loose sleep and begin to burn out quick!

If you have 50-100, or ever 30 or so, you should look into an outsourced support solution. I have used BobCares and have found them to be the most professional and reliable for the package they offer resellers, and starts at $24 a month to cover 12 clients 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Some hosts, and customers, frown upon outsourcing support, but until you have the money to hire your own support staff, I suggest you look into outsourcing. Another company I have heard good things about is Root Support, though I haven't tried them, I have noticed that they have some very good prices, and as I said, good reviews.

So that's the upside, the bad side is easy. You don't offer good support, and you find yourself in 3 months telling the 500 FREE hosting clients, and no paid clients that you have, that they need to find another host because you are shutting down.

2. Choosing a host: When you are searching for a reseller , or VPS host, you may be tempted by the low prices of some overselling host (run by a 15 yr old kid) that offers the world or, my favorite, "Unlimited"..LOL. You show me a host that has a hard drive with unlimited space, and I'll show you some pictures of Big Foot that I took in Buck Snort Tennessee! If you choose a host by price alone you are destine to fail. You will end up with nothing but downtime, nothing to tell your clients when it happens because your host is no where to be found, and when the server IS up, it will be so overloaded that it will run like an epileptic chicken!

I heard it described best on a forum, "There is no perfect host, there is only the host that is perfect for you". I suggest you look at Web Hosting Talk.com. Be sure to look in the "Advertisements" section, there are always a few good offers there for whatever type of hosting you are needing. You can also Google the words "web host review." That will bring up hundreds of different resources for use in choosing a web host. This can be quite overwhelming also, so try and be as specific you can in your search terms.
When looking at the prices offered by offered a host, ask yourself a few questions.

A. Does the website look professional, or does it look like something you could have made when you were 13? This is not always the best way to determine your host, so again, do not base your decision on the website alone either!

B. What type of server specs (CPU, RAM,) does the host say that your account will be held on? If you do some further research, you'll see that a reliable server with even a single P4 3.0GHz HT server with 1gb RAM is going to cost $150 AT CHEAPEST, and if you go up into the dual CPU servers, the price of a single server can go up to $300 a month EASY. So, if the host is offering 5gb disc space and 100gb bandwidth for $5 a month, you can be pretty sure you are not getting as good a deal as it may seem!

C. Check their support link, does it even work? If they offer live chat, use it, send them an email and ask questions specific to your needs, ask as many questions as you want, in as many different emails or tickets as you want, it's a very important decision, be SURE you get what you need from a provider that will GIVE you what you need.

D. Uptime: a lot of hosts offer shared hosting plans for as cheap as $1.00 for the first month. I suggest you sign up and pay for one month. Tell the host what your intentions are, and that you want your account to be placed on the same server that your reseller will be placed on so you can review the resources. Then place a free uptime monitor such as DotUptime on it and see what the uptime is like in a 1 month time period. Spending a couple of dollars to make sure you get what you want will save you a TON of headache in the future!

E. Search as many web hosting forums and / or Google pages as you can for "whateverhost". Look and see what others have to say about the host. But, keep in mind also that no host can please EVERY customer, and some people just can't be pleased.

F. Finally, is it within your budget? Don't be afraid to spend some money if you can, but don't go overboard either. Remember, you have to spend money to make money. I am one to go all out from the start. I believe that the more you put into a GOOD host, the more you get back, and the happier your clients are, in turn attracting more customers. So we have our servers at LiquidWeb.com . They have proven to be the most reliable in terms of managed dedicated servers.

3. Choosing a billing system : There are many different billing systems available, and searching for one that's fits can also be a wearing task. There are the first few big name scripts such as ModernBill, WHMAutoPilot, ClientExec, and Lpanel. Most of these options allow for automated account creation, meaning when a customer signs up and pays, it automaticly creates their account and emails the customer their login information.

It isn't wise to use this feature though, unless you also pay for a fraudgate to check all your orders before setup. If you allow instant (automated) account creation without a fruadgate, you will find yourself swamped with spammers and fraudulent orders that result in charge backs, in no time at all!

ModernBill is by far the best in my opinion, and goes for about $25 a month. It keeps track of everything you can think of, ands some very key features that others don't have, such as the ability to update package price depending on the upgrades they choose. WHMAutoPilot is the next step down at the same price ($25). It is still a very powerfull billing system, but lacks a few small features that ModernBill has. ClientExec is the best choice for a beginning web host, and starts at $12 a month. It is all you need to get ready to sell and keep track or your clients. It also has a built in support desk (most good billing scripts do). When you choose your billing system, be sure you read the description of that package. Some of them charge per client after a certain amount, and that can get costly.

4. Advertising : It's no secret that any websites success depends on the amount of traffic it receives. So, in order to get traffic you have to let people know that your website and packages are out there!
Some good ways I have found for doing this are:

A. Forum posts: Register at as many web hosting forums you can find in Google. Most web hosing forums have "Requests Hosting" sections, so you can post offers to requests there, and you can also post offers in the "Offers" section usually. Be sure of the forum rules BEFORE posting your offers though. If you post an offer and it is edited by a moderator and only reads "Read the rules" your not going to look like the most trustworthy host. Remember to put a link to your hosting website, and maybe a little sentence or 2 about your services in your signature on the forum. Try and make it eye cacthing, add some color, or some symbols (>> +ll whatever).

B. Look on web hosting forums for people offering ad space. I use WebHostingTalk.com for my ad searches, and it has worked very well. Don't buy ad space on just any website. Try to only buy ad space on websites that pertain to yoru market. For example, you wouldn't put ads for a hunting website on an animal rights activist website! Try to only place ads for your hosting business on design sites, or hosting search forums, hosting directories, script development websites, anything that they might need a web host for!

C. Banners: Some say banner ads are dead, but I disagree. I know when I go to a website and see an eye catching banner ad, I tend to click on the ad to see what it's all about. Whether this results in a sale or not, it is still a great avenue for brand awareness. So, if you decide to do some banner advertising, be sure to have an ad that looks professional, and eye catching. Otherwise you have an ad that no one notices.

D. Word of mouth: Without a doubt, the BEST type of advertising! When you provide good service and support to a client, he goes and tells his friends " Hey, I got this host you guys should check out". Then, those friends tell their friends, and their friends tell their friends, and their....You see where I'm going with this!

E. Local Market: Never underestimate your local market. You can start by making some fliers to post around town, or place some business cards on post-it boards. Ads in your local paper or ad magazine are sometimes good also. You can also think about sending a little packet of information about your business and what you can do for a client to small businesses in / around your area that might need a website and/or web host. If your budget allows for it, radio and tv ads are great sources, but can be very costly.

5. Prices: Don't try to be the cheapest host on the block, you will only run yourself into the ground over time. If you look at the "Big Boys", or as I like to call them, the "Oversellers who can", you will see that if you tried to beat their prices you would be out of business within 2 -3 months.
Instead, take a look at your hosting package, whether it be a reseller, VPS, or Dedicated Server, and do a little math:

Lets say you have a reseller package with 10gb disc space, and 100gb bandwidth (a little large for a starter reseller I know, but it's an easy round number to use J ). We'll say your reseller costs you $25 a month.
You can look at your costs in a couple of different ways, here's a couple that I use:

Disc Space Cost (monthly) Bandwidth
10GB $25.00 100GB
5GB $12.50 50GB
2.5GB $6.25 25GB
1.25GB $3.12 12.5GB
612MB $1.56 6.25GB

Or, you can split the costs and look at it like this:

Disc Space Cost Bandwidth Cost
10GB $12.50 100GB $12.50
5GB $6.25 50GB $6.25
2.5GB $3.12 25GB $3.12
1.25GB $1.56 12.5GB $1.56
612MB $0.78 6.25GB $0.78

Or, do a little chart like this:

Disc Space 10GB 5GB 2.5GB 1.25GB 612MB
Bandwidth
100GB $25.00 $18.75 $15.62 $14.06 $13.28
50GB $18.75 $12.50 $9.37 $7.81 $7.03
25GB $15.62 $9.37 $6.24 $4.68 $3.90
12.5GB $14.06 $7.81 $4.68 $3.12 $2.34
6.25GB $13.23 $7.03 $3.90 $2.34 $1.56

Remember to ad in your other costs, such as your billing system, your sitebuilder (if you have one), processor fees, and any other cost you may need to add.

After you have added up all of your costs, then decide what you think is a fair price to charge OVER your costs. So if a package costs you $5 a month, then maybe you would charge $8 - $7 - $6 a month. Just be sure to allow for enough profit to upgrade when you need to.

Again, don't try to be the cheapest, you'll be shooting yourself in the foot for sure!

6. Overselling : Overselling is the practice of selling more disc space and/or bandwidth then you actually have. So for an example, lets say you have 1 apple, you tell 8 people that you will sell them %25 of the apple. So if the people actually eat all of their apple, you are in trouble! Some overselling is ok, not a lot, you don't want to overload your reseller or VPS, or dedicated server. You can safely assume the following (usually).
If you have 10gb disc space, and 100gb bandwidth, you can sell it as if you had 12gb disc space, and 120gb bandwidth. It's a small percentage, but can help to increase profits. But be sure to keep a close eye on things, and upgrade when / if needed.

7. Professionalism : When you are posting an ad on a forum, replying to a pre-sales email, talking a to customer in chat, or replying to a support ticket, you must always maintain a professional attitude through your speech, or typing. A person looking for hosting isn't going to be interested in a post that reads like a 12 year old wrote it. Try to use proper punctuation, I am not the world's best at that (as you can see), but I try J.

Never discuss business matters or private customer information in public situations such as forums. This can lead to serious legal issues!

8. Free Hosting: A lot of hosts offer free hosting in hopes that the user will eventually upgrade. The truth is, only about %5 of your free hosting customers will upgrade to a paid plan. Also, it is usually those seeking free hosting that have no idea what they are doing and send hundreds of support tickets a month. Or, they sign up with a free host, send out a few thousand spam emails, and then move on to the next free host.

So to make a long story short, free hosting isn't worth the time or frustration. Instead, maybe offer a small, shared package for $1.00 a month. This is low enough to reel them in, and then have them upgrade.
If you do decide to offer free hosting, be sure to put free hosting customers on one server or reseller, and paid clients on another reseller or server. That way if one of your free clients overloads the server, your paid clients are not affected at all, and you have no worries of loosing them!

9. Firm, Fair, and Consistent: I have found that you have to be fair overall, but you must also be firm, and consistent with your clients. If they are late on their payments all the time, start to penalize them with a late fee, their payments will soon show up on time for sure. I don't mean to penalize them $100 for the first time their late, but there should be some sort of "push" to make them pay on time.

If you have a client who is requesting a refund because of an extended amount of downtime, you would want your money back to, so give it to them, always be fair.

Stay on top of your billing system and system resources, and when you come across a problem, take care of it right then, don't wait!

I hope some of this helps some of you!

Owner of My-E-Space.com. A web hosting business offering reliable hosting, and excelent support.

Mike Brown
My-E-Space.com
http://my-e-space.com

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, 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.

Bruce Zhang has over 10 years of experience in web development, database design and managing web servers. He currently manages dozens of websites using ASP Web Hosting, Budget Hosting, Dedicated Servers, eCommerce Hosting, FrontPage Web Hosting, Hosting With Templates, Managed Web Hosting, PHP Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Shared Hosting, Unix / Linux Hosting for web hosting needs.

Shared Web Hosting Service Explained!

The next concern for you after designing and developing web pages is to get your web site hosted on the Internet. But with so many web hosting companies offering various types of web hosting packages - shared web hosting, dedicated web hosting, managed web hosting, which type of hosting should you choose?

As a general rule, it is a good idea to go for shared web hosting if you are a small business owner and cost is your major concern. But before you make your hosting decision, let us first understand what is shared web hosting service and what are the advantages and disadvantages of shared web hosting.

What is shared web hosting?

Shared web hosting service is a convenient and economic way of hosting web sites if you do not require extremely high performance and high bandwidth. As its name suggests, in shared web hosting service, the web server that hosting the web pages are shared by many other websites. The number of websites on a shared hosting server can go up to thousands at times. Due to one large and high performance web server is shared by hosting many different websites on it, web hosting companies providing shared web hosting service could offer them at an economic rates.

Even with so many websites hosted on a web server, you can be rest assured that the web hosting providers will not compromise on any kind of security and performance issues on the shared hosting servers. Moreover, shared hosting web servers are operated, monitored and maintained around the clock by IT professionals to ensure minimum server downtimes.

Technically speaking, shared hosting servers are run on Unix or other multi-user operating system and each website hosted on the web server is given a separate account in the operating system. Typically, websites hosted on shared servers are given a shared IP addresses and allocated a fix amount of web resources.

Let's examine the advantages and disadvantages of shared web hosting before you consider shared web hosting service:

Advantages of Shared Web Hosting Service

Economical: As many websites are hosted on a single web server, web hosting providers are able to offer low cost shared web hosting services. In general, you can expect to pay $5-10 per month for shared web hosting services. Today, due to stiff competition in the web hosting industry, you can even discover many web hosting companies offering huge web space and bandwidth (as high as 1000 MB disk space and 40 GB bandwith).

Convenience: Shared hosting web servers are managed and maintained by professionals who are highly skilled with specialized knowledge of the field. As a result, you can concentrate on your web business and let these professionals worry about the maintenance and uptimes of the web server.

Customization: Even though web resources are shared, web masters can manage their website using control panel or similar tools provided by the web hosting company. They are free to upload files, remove web pages, add database, check web statistic and etc. Also they are allowed to create domain name specific e-mails accounts.

Efficiency: Today, shared web hosting service comes with web space and bandwidth that are more than sufficient for small business websites. However, you can always add more resources should you overrun the web space or bandwidth usage.

Disadvantages of Shared Web Hosting Service

Slower Responses: Given that a physical web server is shared, websites in the shared web hosting have to accept slower server response time if compare to dedicate server hosting.

Reliability Issues: In most cases, web hosting providers may take care of the security and performance of the shared server. However, it may happen that some of websites hosted on the shared server run a malicious program or script or over-utilize the resources, can bring down the web server. Your website would have to suffer downtimes and inaccessibility as a result.

Sharing Issues: Moreover, you just need one "bad" website in your shared web server to get your website banned altogether by ISP or search engine due to shared IP address (Note: you can always pay extra to get a dedicated IP address to avoid this problem).

Security Issues: Shared web hosting is more risky and opens up potential security issues as other web masters having an account on the same web server could hacked to your sensitive data.

Before you decide to ink a deal on shared web hosting, be sure to consider all the pros and cons of shared web hosting services above. After all, selecting a right web hosting services may be one of the most critical business decisions for your online business.

Andrew is the owner of Affordable Web Hosting, a website that provide complete and detailed review of affordable shared web hosting reviews. You can visit his website at: http://www.lowest-price-web-hosting.com/