How To Shop and Save
Money On Website Hosting Plans
Affordable website hosting and how to
compare website hosting plans for your site
"What's your web address?"
From small "mom and pop" home-based businesses to mega-stores,
people ask this question in business every single day. Even if
you only operate a small, local business, if you don't have a
website (or at least email) people honestly look at you
funny.
A few years ago, website hosting was one of the largest
expenses connected with setting up a website. Now, with
dramatic drops in pricing, website hosting can actually present
the least costly component of operating a website.
However, before you run out and sign up for $2-a-month website
hosting and wake up tomorrow filled with regret, take 5 minutes
right now and learn the main points to consider when evaluating
any website host.
Total Storage
How much space do you get to store your website files? If you
operate a small website with a handful of pages and only a
couple of pictures per page, you can get by with 5-10 MB
(megabytes) of disk space or less. However, if your site
contains dozens of pages and hundreds of pictures, you may need
a hosting plan with 10-25 MB of space.
Data Transfer / Bandwidth
Here's where many people fall down and get run over by the
Internet bus! Bandwidth represents the total amount of traffic
the website host allows you to receive.
Successful sites that get a lot of traffic eat up more
bandwidth than sites without many visitors. Honestly, bargain
website hosting companies don't want you to get much traffic
because your bandwidth costs them money.
If you plan to do any business online, make sure you get a bare
minimum of at least 1 GB (gigabyte) of data transfer per
month.
Email "Aliases"
Most web hosts allow you to set up email addresses connected
with your domain, such as jim@thenetreporter.com, and
have them forward to your email account, like yourname@aol.com. The ability to
set up email aliases forms an integral part of any online
business. Make sure your hosting company allows you to set up
at least 5 email aliases.
 Website Tools
If you want to do anything more than let people look at static
web pages, you will need to have certain tools available. The
two most important tools are CGI and website statistics. These
allow you to run scripts and see who came to your site and
when.
Tech Support
Make sure you understand any company's technical support
policies and hours of operation. Don't wait until Saturday
afternoon to discover your only help option is to wait and
email them Monday morning.
Go to www.comparewebhosts.com
and check out the tool for researching and comparing the
offerings of over 9,000 different website hosting companies.
Try the "Power Search" feature, which allows you to specify
about 50 different variables, including price, company
location, bandwidth, and number of email aliases allowed. It
even lets you search by how often the hosting company backs up
its servers to protect against data loss.
 About Jim: Jim Edwards is a syndicated
newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new
ebook that will teach you how to use free articles to
quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your
website or affiliate links. Simple "Traffic Machine"
brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for
weeks, even months... without spending a dime on
advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com |
Source: http://www.reprintarticles.com
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