Finding a reliable web hosting plan

There are more web hosting plans out there than you could shake a stick at. So how do you know which ones are the most reliable?

With so many different web hosting plans on the market, and all available at different prices, it can be tricky to know which one is right for you. But more than that, you need to know you can rely on your web host to keep your site live every hour of every day. If it doesn't you're faced with the hassle of having to uproot your site and go elsewhere. So it makes sense to find the right host from the beginning.

The first step to finding a reliable web hosting plan is to look for the web hosts that have been around for the longest amount of time. It's always safer to go with one that has a good track record compared to a new start up, as you have a much better idea of what you're dealing with.

You should also ask around to see what services other webmasters use. If workmates, friends or anyone in your family already has a website online, ask them what plan they use and who they are with. The longer they have been with that company the more they should be able to tell you.

Once you have narrowed your choice down to two or three you like the look of, visit a few online forums and ask around to see what other people think of those particular plans. It can give you an idea of what to expect.

You will want to know how reliable the web host is before you make any firm decisions; no one can claim to have 100% uptime as there are always technical hitches that occur from time to time. But you will find a large number of respectable firms who offer 99.9% uptime.

But reliability isn't just in the hands of the web hosting plan. You need to make sure you are buying the right plan for your needs as well. If you have good reason to think that your site is going to be popular and you will need a reasonable amount of bandwidth to cope with the traffic, it's asking for trouble to get a basic plan that won't provide you with the services you need. If you do this and the web host disallows the extra traffic they aren't really in violation of the contract you have with them.

You should also look into how secure the web host is. You don't want to have your website go online via their servers only to find those same servers get hacked into remarkably easily two days later.

In the end, some basic research on your part and a good track record on the part of the web host should lead you to a reliable one that can serve your needs. If you stick with these two rules you won't go far wrong.

Who Should Use Free Web Hosting?

Free web hosting is a very tempting offer to consider. But it's not suitable for everyone. Read on to find out who free web hosting is best suited to.

On the face of it, free web hosting sounds like an unbeatable offer. You get to go live on the web without having to pay for your website to be hosted.

But there are a number of disadvantages to this which make paid hosting a much better option for the vast majority of people. Some of them include severe limitations on what you can do, lack of space (sometimes you will get no more than a single page), sub-domain name instead of your own domain, the presence of the web host's adverts on your site, and many more besides.

However with that said, there are still a few occasions when free web hosting can be to your advantage.

Firstly they are ideal if all you want to do is create a personal web page - particularly if you want to use it to share news and updates with friends and family. In this situation it won't matter that you have a sub-domain instead of a top level one, and everyone you give it to will easily be able to find your site online. Even if you only get a single web page, it will often be enough for your needs under these circumstances.

It can also be sufficient if you want to create a single information page on a specific subject, especially if you want to do so as an experiment before building a complete website on the subject. You can also insert affiliate links in your content to see how well they perform. In this situation you can see whether or not there is an audience for your topic before going the whole hog and buying your own domain name and website. Be warned though - if your free site and hosting is a success you will have to go back to step one when you strike out on your own.

There is also a third use for free web hosting that supplies you with some free web space. Of all the reasons given so far, this is possibly the most constructive one of all.

You can quite simply use the tools you are given to polish up your html and page building skills without having to pay out for a domain name and your own web space and hosting. If you are a complete newcomer to site building you will find this the ideal ?playground' to put html into practice without worrying about building a proper website.

In short, there is a place for free web hosting online today, but you may find that you aren't one of the people who will benefit from it the most.

Determining Your Web Hosting Needs

Everyone has different needs when it comes to getting their website online. That's why it pays to work out what you need before you start looking for a web hosting plan.

Every website has a different reason for being online, and every webmaster has a different reason for creating that website. That's why choosing a web hosting plan can be difficult, because it has to match up to what you will require.

The most important thing for anyone to know is that their web host will be reliable. You want the maximum amount of uptime possible. No one expects to have a service that's available 100% of the time - anyone who claims such a thing should be viewed with caution as it is practically impossible - but you want to know that they achieve 99.9% uptime. Furthermore you will want to know what their track record is like in getting the service back if they do ever experience problems.

Next you need to think about what kind of website you have. There are lots of different hosting plans available and while many of them offer fantastic services, plenty of bandwidth and even shopping carts, not every website requires this kind of thing.

If you have a simple personal site that has no more than a few pages to it, then you won't need too many services as it's unlikely that you will be getting thousands of visitors a day. You may not even want to optimize your site to be found by the search engines if your only audience is going to be the people you tell personally.

At the other end of the scale are the sites that are expecting to receive a lot of visitors and that sell goods over the internet. If you have this type of website you will need to make sure your visitors can pay securely. In this case you will need to look around to see what ecommerce hosting packages are available.

One of the key points with any kind of web hosting is the price. This kind of market is very competitive nowadays, so if you see a web host offering a package that would suit you that really seems too good to be true, that may not necessarily be the case. You need to examine exactly which services are offered within that package and see how many of them you really need before making a final decision.

One final point - remember that even once you decide on your web hosting needs and you start hosting your site with a particular provider, you can always move your site to a new one at any point. The only drawback is that moving your site isn't always as easy as it sounds - so it makes sense that your choice is a good one right from the start.

The Jargon: Understanding A Few Basic Terms

Description: If you are new to the world of web hosting all the terms and phrases used can make it difficult to understand what you are being offered. The following guide should help you to clarify things.

It's extremely important that you understand what is being offered to you when you step into the world of web hosting. If you don't at least have a basic knowledge of what it's all about it is very difficult to know whether you are buying the right package for your needs.

Here is a breakdown of the most common terms used in web hosting.

Bandwidth

Whenever you buy a hosting plan you will be allocated a certain amount of bandwidth. This is what makes it possible for a number of people to visit your site and view the pages it contains.

If you think of the word ?width' in its normal sense it can be easier to understand. Let's say there is a corridor between your website and the web host you have chosen. If that corridor that is wide enough to let two people walk down it shoulder to shoulder, then that is the number of visitors you can have going to your website at any one time. Your web host won't allow you any more than that because you are only renting a small corridor (bandwidth).

But if you buy a much wider corridor (more bandwidth) you can have plenty more visitors at a time, and over the course of a month there is much more potential to receive more traffic. That's why it's important to consider how much bandwidth you need and rent enough to serve your purposes.

Disk space

This is the amount of space you can store your website on. Every website is made up from a number of files, and you need to make sure you rent enough disk space from the web host to be able to hold everything you have.

As a general rule the more disk space you need the more bandwidth you will need too. This is because bandwidth isn't only used according to how many visitors you get - it's used up according to the size of the web pages they visit as well.

FTP

FTP is short for file transfer protocol, and it is the process by which you transfer each web page (or file) from your own computer and upload it onto the server which houses your website.

When you perform this action you will go into a different web address than you would normally. Instead of typing http://www before the address you need, you would simply type ftp.

Secure server

The only difference between a normal server and a secure server is that the secure version will allow people to send credit card and other sensitive information via that server in a protected manner. An SSL - secure socket layer - is used to make this a reality.

When you enter a website which is secure in this way, the http:// which appears before the domain name will change to https:// to denote the security factor. A secure server is a necessary tool if you are running an ecommerce site.

Web stats

You will get access to these with virtually every web hosting plan you take out. These basically tell you how many people are visiting your site, where they are coming from and what they are doing when they get there.

Web stats are extremely useful to webmasters because they can help them to work out how to improve their website.

Shopping cart

An essential part of any ecommerce site. Many web hosts offer ecommerce packages that provide a shopping cart as part of the deal. It basically allows the website's visitors to place orders on the website and pay for their goods online.

Customizable error pages

Sometimes you will try and visit a website or a particular page within that site and not be able to access it. This can happen for a number of reasons. When it does happen you will receive an error page in return.

But some web hosts offer the possibility of customizing your error pages so you can redirect people back to wherever you want them to go - your home page for example.

By customizing these pages you can also make special offers or reveal information that will help to make up for the fact that your visitor didn't reach the page they wanted to, and so they can be useful in the context of your overall website.

Shared hosting

Every website is hosted on a web server, which in turn connects to the internet and makes it possible for people to see that site.

Shared web hosting is where your site is sharing the same web server with a number of other websites. This makes it possible for the web host to offer shared hosting at a lower price.

Dedicated hosting

As might be obvious from the concept of shared hosting described above, dedicated web hosting simply means that your website will have its own web server and won't be sharing it with any other sites.

This is a good idea if your site receives a lot of traffic and runs the risk of being down a lot on a shared server. Dedicated hosting is much more reliable for larger, more popular websites.

Email accounts

The majority of web hosts will offer a number of free email accounts with your web hosting package. It's a good idea to make sure you get a package which offers this as it means you can have dedicated email addresses which relate to your domain name.

This is particularly important for ecommerce sites, where professionalism is of the utmost importance.

Once you start exploring web hosting in some depth, you'll find that it isn't too difficult to understand. While some of the terms may sound confusing to begin with, they have a logic behind them which makes the world of web hosting much more accessible to the vast majority of people - even if you are a newbie.

Types Of Web Hosts

Description: Surely all web hosts are pretty much the same, right? Well no, not exactly. There are several different types of web host around today, and it's important to know the difference if you want to make sure you pick the right host for you.

There are lots of different web hosting services online today, and with so many different prices and services on offer it can be difficult to know which service would suit you best.

To make the decision easier, take a look at the different web hosting services that are on offer. While there are plenty of different kinds, these are the main ones you will come across.

Free web hosting

It sounds good but it comes with a host of disadvantages. Free hosting means you get a page or a site - depending on the host - and you don't pay anything to get it online.

Unfortunately if you opt for this service your site will probably have the web host's adverts all over it and the number of things you can do with it will be limited. It's also not the option to go for if you want an ecommerce site. You may also find search engine optimization harder because some search engines frown on sub-domains when it comes to listing them in their results.

Shared web hosting

This is the type of web hosting that most people use. What it basically means is that your website will share a server with lots of other websites, all connecting to the internet at the same time.

The advantage of this service is that the shared aspect makes it much cheaper and within the range of almost everyone to be able to afford.

Dedicated web hosting

As the name might suggest, if you opt for dedicated web hosting you will have a web server all to yourself instead of having to share it with other people.

This will mean that you will have far more in the way of bandwidth and web space available to you, which is why many growing businesses end up having to switch over from shared hosting to dedicated hosting, because they outgrow the facilities that shared web hosting offers.

Colocation hosting

This kind of hosting is for the bigger businesses who want more control over how their website connects to the internet. They provide their own servers and can locate them in more than one place too if they wish. This can add to the versatility and safety of the whole system.

In this case the webmaster may also pay the web host a further fee to maintain their own system for them. This is often an easier option as they will be on site to deal with any problems in a much faster time.

Ecommerce web hosting

This is perfect for anyone who has an online business which takes orders over the internet. From a small home business to a major going concern, ecommerce web hosting provides all the solutions you need to be able to process orders online without having to worry about safety.

It will include the use of a secure server and it also usually provides shopping cart technology for you to integrate into your website. The facility to integrate PayPal into your site should also be offered.

As you can see choosing a web host isn't just a case of finding one that offers a service at a decent price. It's vital to ensure that your web host can provide for all your needs all the time, to ensure the relationship you have will always be a happy one.

Domain Registration from JustHost Web Hosting

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Choosing The Best Domain Name

Description: Your domain name represents your online business and it will stay with you for a long time. That's why you need to make sure you choose the best one you can.

The domain name you choose essentially acts as the storefront for your online business. If it looks good people will naturally want to know more about the site that bears the name. If it looks strange, unintelligible or people think the site owner is just trying to be clever, then you could live to regret choosing a domain name that simply doesn't do its job properly.

Even though a domain name is basically just a single line of words and a relatively tiny part of a whole website, it carries with it a lot of weight. It can and should give people a good idea of what to expect when they enter your website. Don't forget that some people come across your website address in a variety of places - they might see it printed on your business card, in a newspaper, on a forum, in the signature line you have on your emails, and a hundred other places. You need to make sure that wherever they see it they will have a reasonable idea of what the subject matter of your site actually is.

So how do you go about choosing a good domain name?

First of all you need to consider what your site is about. If you are selling e-books then it's a good idea to have the word ?e-books' somewhere in your URL. If you run an information site about the weather, then make sure you have the word ?weather' somewhere in your URL. The point is obvious - you need to make sure your URL is relevant to your site if at all possible.

There are several reasons for this. Firstly it ensures that your website address more accurately represents your business. Secondly and perhaps even more importantly it will help your website perform better in the search engine results. Search engines can send you an awful lot of traffic if you know how to get ranked highly, and choosing the right - and relevant - domain name can help you enormously in this respect.

This is why you should think about incorporating keywords into your domain name if possible. For example, with the e-books website you may only specialize in selling e-books with resell rights. A quick spot of keyword research might reveal that thousands of people regularly look up the term ?e-books for resale' - which in turn would be an excellent name for a domain that would also bring in its own stream of traffic once your site is established.

While single word domain names are more difficult to get hold of than they used to be, some are still available and if you have a particularly strong word that describes your website perfectly then you might want to use it. You can usually get better results from using two or three well chosen words however, as they will still be quite easy to remember and people quite often search for specific phrases via the search engines rather than a single word.

Of course if you already have an established business - you might have a traditional shop in a shopping mall, or even a shop on eBay - then you will do better to keep your domain name exactly the same as your existing business name. People often look up a business name online and if your domain name matches it exactly they will find you even if they don't have your exact web address.

There is a lot of debate over whether you should use hyphens or not when you have more than one word in your proposed domain name. It's true that a domain name without hyphens is a lot easier to actually say to people, but sometimes it just doesn't look right on the page. Try writing down your preferred domain name with and without hyphens and see which one looks better.

You also need to consider whether you want your domain to end in .com, .net, .biz or one of a number of other possibilities. The dot com name is probably the most sought after, but if you only trade in your own country - such as the UK for example - then buying the relevant domain (in this case ending in .co.uk) will suffice.

When you have finally decided on the domain name you want, don't hang around - buy it straightaway. Thousands of domain names are being bought for every minute you delay, so don't run the risk that the domain name you have worked so hard to create disappears out from under you.

Finally, remember to keep a note of when your domain name comes up for renewal. Some people don't realize than you never actually buy a domain name - you are only renting it for a specific period of time, usually one or two years. If you forget to renew it before it expires someone else can quite legally jump in and buy it out from under you, effectively damaging your website along with it.

So make sure you renew your domain name in time.