Many people, especially newcomers, when they register their domain names, are convinced to sign up
for a hosting account with the company that registered their domain name. That could be godaddy.com,
yahoo.com or any number of other domain name registering companies. That's really unfortunate, because
the hosting services those people usually get don't generally meet the needs of an online entreprenuer.
Those hosting accounts just lack the functionality you really need to promote your business.
Here's what happens - the domain name registering companies will make you an offer of a low level
hosting plan. Since the customers that are registering the domain names are usually beginners, they
aren't aware of all the hosting choices that are readily available elsewhere. They think that just
because the company they're dealing with can register domain names, they must have the best hosting too.
To make a large story short, people that buy into the hosting that's offered when they register their
domains are usually disappointed once they get started with their new online business. Although they got
what seemed like a low price, they'll find out later, when they compare it to other offers, that it really
wasn't such a good deal.
But that's only part of the problem. As they become more and more involved in running their new online
business, they discover that there may be some special software that they want to run on their website.
Perhaps it's a shopping cart or maybe a content management system. When they look at the requirements of
the software and compare those requirements to their hosting account, they'll see that their hosting account
won't support the new software. You see, most marketing related software will use PHP or mySQL databases.
If your web hosting account doesn't support PHP and mySQL, you're just out of luck.
Of course, these customers can go back to their hosting provider, who will explain to them that the features
required for support of the new software are available to them, but they'll have to 'upgrade' their hosting
account. And the upgrade isn't free, by the way. Their original hosting may have cost only $7.95 a month,
but the new, upgraded hosting will cost them $25 or $30 a month. Now, all of the sudden, that great hosting
deal doesn't seem so great anymore.
Don't waste your time and money with 'bargain' web hosting that won't do the job.
Another mistake is trying to run your business with free hosting. First of all, if you're looking for free
web hosting because you're not willing to spend a small amount of money for your own web hosting account,
you might as well just give up right now. If you want to do everything for free, you're not looking for a
real business, you're looking for a hobby.
Usually, when you go with free hosting, your website URL will end up being something like
"freehosting.megacities.com/18987/~parkavenue/1793" If your only interest is in having a place on the web
to display your family photos, maybe the free hosting is right for you. But if you're trying to run a
business, the free hosting can be a big handicap. For one thing, the URL doesn't look very professional.
And the free hosting companies tend to display their own advertising banners on the pages of your website.
How does that look to your potential customers? Just imagine that if you're trying to operate a family oriented
business and when prospects visit your website, banners advertising "Adult Chat Rooms" are on your pages.
Types of web hosting - Primarily, there are 2 different types of web hosting. One is Microsoft Windows based
and the other is Linux/Unix based. My personal recommendation is to stay away from the Windows based hosting.
I've had friends that went with Windows hosting, and then later found out that much of the software they wanted
to run wasn't compatible with the Windows server. Most all web based software that is used for marketing purposes
is designed to run on Linux servers, so I wouldn't recommend anything other than Linux based hosting.
As we've established the need for Linux based hosting and that you shouldn't get hosting from the same place
you registered your domain, the question is - Where do you get hosting?
I'm going to let you in on a small secret - all those banner ads and email messages you probably see pitching
hosting deals - IGNORE THEM. The absolute best hosting I've seen is available at dirt cheap prices on Ebay.
Yes, Ebay, the online auction.
Just go to www.ebay.com and search for "web hosting reseller" By getting a reseller's hosting account, you'll
get all the hosting you'll ever need. Here's how it works - A reseller's hosting account gives you the ability
to sell hosting accounts to other people. One of the benefits of a reseller account is that you can usually host
an unlimited number of domains.
Right now you may be thinking this isn't for you because you're not interested in selling hosting to other people.
You just want hosting for your own business. That's OK, you don't need to sell hosting with the reseller's account.
You can just use it for yourself. You can use it to host the new domain that you recently registered and then,
later on, if you register more domain names, you can host those also - without paying any more money for hosting.
I bought a hosting reseller's account on Ebay about 3 years ago. It's full featured, reliable, and the service
and support is great. I pay $139 a year and I currently have about 95 domains hosted. Do the math - that works
out to a little over a dollar per year for hosting that has everything I need. I think that's a pretty good deal.
If you don't want to get a reseller's account, you can get by even cheaper. I have another hosting account
I bought at Ebay that only hosts a single domain, but it only costs 75 cents a month. This 75 cent account
supports PHP, mySQL, has unlimited space and bandwidth, unlimited email accounts and just about everything
else you could think of.
I strongly recommend that you check out the hosting offers on Ebay before you make any other commitments. Here
are the features you want to make sure your hosting has -
1) Linux based web server
2) CPANEL admin control. This is the web based admin where you can check traffic stats, setup mySQL databases,
setup email accounts and a whole lot more
3) Fantastico - This is an installation aid that's really handy to have. It allows you to automatically install
several high powered software applications with just a single mouse click. Want a WordPress blog? Click and you
have it, ready to roll. Want an online forum - same deal, click and it's there. Catalog and shopping cart -
You guessed it, click and you'll have it.
It goes without saying that you should check the the seller's feedback on Ebay before you make any
commitment. See what other customers have to say about the service. You want to make sure you're dealing
with someone that's reputable.
• Where did all the free web hosts go? 4 Apr 2007 at 10:33am
A long, long time ago free web hosts were the coolest thing on the internet
and most, if not all, non-commercial websites were hosted by one. You don't
hear that much about free hosting anymore so I though it would be interesting
to check out what has happened to the free web hosts that I have used.
• .mobi landrush begins 26 Sep 2006 at 4:53pm
The landrush period for .mobi domains begins, which means that you can now register
.mobi domains at a premium price for the next two weeks.
• Hostgator hit by 0-day Cpanel exploit 26 Sep 2006 at 3:31pm
Hostgator was recently hit by a 0-day exploit in the popular control panel Cpanel.
The exploit was used to redirect websites to web pages that contained code for exploiting
an unpatched security hole in Internet Explorer and infecting unsuspecting surfers with trojans.
• Good Web Hosting Info gets a dictionary 16 Aug 2006 at 4:29pm
The latest addition to Good Web Hosting Info is a dictionary, of course only with words related
to web hosting and explanations from a web hosting perspective. The dictionary is also connected
to the articles so you will find links to explanations of words related to the articles you are
reading and the other way around.
DemoDemo.com Launches Monthly Subscriptions for Web Hosting Tutorials HostSearch.com - 9 hours ago COM) ? DemoDemo.com has launched monthly subscriptions for web hosting tutorials, it was announced recently. The Canadian company, which bills itself as ... DemoDemo Launches Monthly Subscriptions Web Host Industry Review DemoDemo.com Launches Monthly Subscription Tutorials MyHostNews.com (press release) all 3 news articles
• Web Hosting Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Instituted, at Host ... - TheHo... 6 Jan 2009 at 9:35am
Web Hosting Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Instituted, at Host... TheHostingNews.com (press release), OR - 5 hours ago Union City, New Jersey - (The Hosting News) - January 6, 2009 - Web hosting provider, Host Department, has debuted the launch of its upgraded Microsoft SQL ...
• Web Hosting Application Security Upgraded, at FireHost - TheHostingNews.com (... 6 Jan 2009 at 9:57am
Web Hosting Application Security Upgraded, at FireHost TheHostingNews.com (press release), OR - 4 hours ago FireHost, Inc. is based in Dallas, Texas and focuses on delivering enterprise quality fast and secure managed web hosting to SMBs. ...
• Web Hosting Provider JBW Series Hosting Solution Boosts Reseller Plans - Host... 6 Jan 2009 at 4:54am
Web Hosting Provider JBW Series Hosting Solution Boosts Reseller Plans HostSearch.com - 9 hours ago COM) ? Web hosting provider JBW Series Hosting Solution has announced a boost in the resources available through its reseller web hosting plans, ...
