Archive for HOSTING
How to Find the Right Hosting Company
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Let’s talk about finding the right hosting company today. This is a critical step in web designing, as if you don’t have the right hosting then your site will suffer for it in the long run.
Too many people think about now and not about the future with hosting, it’s important to find the right hosting company that will grow with your website/business. And let me tell you, not all hosting companies are the same!
There are a few things you Must consider in your hosting company, here are just a few to look out for -
1. They Must have enough space available for your website to grow. Make sure they will upgrade your space when you need to add more to your website. Some hosting companies will either let you purchase more space on your current package, or they will let you upgrade your package to a more robust one.
2. They Must provide you with c-panel (Control Panel) access. You must be able to access your admin area of your website via a c-panel. This will give you more control and flexibility to manage your website. You can add a word press blog, forums, content manager system and much more through a c-panel, you can also be able to track your website stats and see how things are going for you.
3. They Must provide good quality support! This is a Must with any hosting company, especially if you are new to all this stuff. Support is the first thing you must look for! To see how well a company’s support is, find their support link, submit a quesiton, and see how long it takes to get an answer, and see just how well they answer the question for you. Most hosting companies should answer your question within 48 hours max! Do they have a forum you can post a question? Go ahead and post one to see what kind of response you get. Check out their FAQs how well do they explain the answers, can you understand the answer?
4. What kind of features are you getting? This is probable another important thing to look for in a hosting company, just what are you getting for your money. You want to make sure they provide enough space for your traffic and your website, to get started you should be fine with no more than 300GB and 360GB bandwidth. It’s not too important you understand this, but it is within reason to have at least this amount. Can you add more domains later on? You want to make sure the package you choose, will let you add another domain name later as you grow. So see that this is available in the package you decide.
5. The Price? Make sure your budget can handle the monthly cost of your hosting. For what I’ve described about it should not cost you any more than $5 to $10 a month. Just make sure you can upgrade later easily and most hosting companies will help you with the upgrade so you won’t have to do anything.
A good rule of thumb here is to choose at least 3 hosting companies and do a comparision on them, write down the pros and cons of all of them, then choose the one that best fits your needs and your budget!
Again, you can do a search for hosting companies on your favorite search engine, but I highly recommend Hostgator.com they meet all the above and more.
To learn more about hosting and how to set it up, grab your copy of Introduction to the Basics to Web Designing today, it will walk you through step by step on choosing a hosting company to purchasing your hosting.
I will be posting more how to articles regarding website designing so you need to subscribe to my RSS so you won’t miss one. Just click the big orange button and subscribe.
Until next time Take Action and get yourself a Hositng today!
Laura Miller
ps
Please leave any comments or questions you have regarding this article below!
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Where does your website live?
Posted by: | CommentsI know strange title for a blog post, eh?
Well that’s how I look at my website domain name and hosting. Your website domain name is the address of where it lives, like www.lauras.com where lauras is the address.
And the hosting is where is resides the property so to speak.
I’ve had some folks say they don’t see why the need a domain name or hosting for them to build a website. Well this is probably true, you can of course use Notepad or even Wordpad to build a complete website with HTML. But what they don’t realize is that by doing this no one is going to see the website but them or if someone is standing behind them and looking at the computer.
So it is essential to have both a domain name and hosting to have a functional website. There are of course, just like everything else, research has to be done. You have to find just the right domain name that explains what your website is about, not just any name either, take your time to really think about what your website is about.
And of course if you intend for others to visit your website and learn what you are about and what your website has to offer them, you need hosting.
Think of hosting like you think of your rent or mortgage, you have to pay it monthly or you will lose it. The one difference is that with a hosting company you can pay for a year at a time, or up to 6 months, where I don’t know of a mortgage company or landlord that allows this, but you get the idea.
Just like when you are looking for just the right mortgage company or landlord, you investigate them and their company, you have to investigate the hosting company also, Not all hosting companies are a like. Don’t always take what is on a website to heart, anyone can write anything, Investigate them!
You can do a google search for the company name, see how it ranks.
Look to see what others are saying about them in the testimonials
Is there a Real address and not a po box
Is there an actual phone number you can call and talk to a Real Person not some voice mail stuff, do they offer email support. If they do call them and/or write the support desk, how do they respond. How long does it take them to respond.
A good reliable hosting company will usually respond within24 hours, the max is 48 hours and with curtious and friendly people not some automated stuff either.
There are thousands of good hosting companies online, it take time to research and find the right one for you and your needs. Think not only of your needs now, but of your future needs as well. Will the hosting company provide you with all the support you will need and be able to grow with you and your business.
I’ve been online for a few years now, and believe me I’ve been through a few hosting companies, some good and some absolutely terrible. And for the ones I’ve worked with the best one as of today has got to be Hostgator.
Hostgator is always there with quick responses, usually less than 24 hours. They work with me until the problem is solved. They are patient and curtious and don’t treat me like a dummy. They’ve been able to accomadate my needs with my business as it grows.
So if you are looking for a good reliable hosting company I would definitely recommend you take a good look at Hostgator put them through the test and see for yourself just how reliable and good they are.
Just remember not all hosting companies are the same!
I hope you’ve learned something from this post and will leave a comment below to let me and others know.
Web Hosting – Do You Need it
Posted by: | CommentsWhen it comes to deciding to putting a website online, there are things that most don’t seem to think about. Web Hosting is one of them. In order to have a website you must have it hosted. Now what does this really mean?
Think of it in these terms – getting web hosting is the small as renting a home or apartment. Your new website needs to live somewhere
You are basicly paying for your hosting the same way you pay your rent or mortgage each month. It is a necessity.
Web hosting, just like any apartment or house, you can get it with all the bells and whistles or with nothing at all.
It doesn’t matter at all how big or small your website will be or become, you Must have web hosting. This also gives you your own email address associated with your domain name.
In my other post/article I talked about the 6 features of hosting and what to look for, but the most important thing you must make sure your web hosting provider has is tech support. You are going to need it. Even if you know a lot about hosting and the programming end, there are times when things are just out of your control and you must speak with them.
The most important thing you need to do is research, not all web hosting companies are same and offer the same support or features. As most hosting companies do offer email addresses, and ftp access, some actually do not give you access to a cpanel or provide the greatest support.
On the web today more and more people are turning to Blogs, and for good reasons, if you wish to have a blog on your website you need to make sure that you have access to your cpanel where you can install your blog free.
I for one have been around for a long time now and have had many web hosting providers, I still find Hostgator to one of the best online. They have outstanding support, one time I had an issue with them at 10pm PST and I called them, (they are 3 hours ahead of me) you know what, a real live person answered the phone, and within minutes fixed my problem 
I strongly recommend too that you avoid the free hosting companies out there, they just aren’t reliable and there is usually no support available for you. Also, as you build your website and need more bandwidth or space, they don’t provide it unless you upgrade and start paying for it. Why do this when you can just get good reliable web hosting to start out with.
In close, just remember that if you want your website to be live online where others can find you then consider getting web hosting that you can count on.
Laura
from Laurasbasicstowebdesign
6 Important Features in Choosing a Web Host Provider
Posted by: | CommentsDid you know it is important to research what web host provider you choose?
This step can cause you a lot of time and money if not researched properly. A good hosting provider needs to be there for you and your busines. You will depend on them to keep your website live on the internet so you can build your business and make money.
When it comes to choosing a good reliable web host proiveder you need to keep these features in mind and make sure they will meet your needs for your business.
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- 1. Email Access – This is very important as this how your customers will be able to contact you. It’s important you understand how you can use your email accounts and how you access them.
2. Disk Space – This refers to the amount of space you have for your website. Make sure they offer enough space for your entire website. Getting somewhere around 1 gig would be fine to start with, but make sure they will allow you to add more space or upgrade to more space as your business grows.
3. Bandwidth – This is how much traffic is sent to your website. Most hosting providers will allow enough bandwidth for a lot of traffic. Keep in mind that not just traffic uses bandwidth, when your send/receive emails, people click on links to arrive at your website, and when you or someone uploads or downloads from your website all these things will use bandwidth. Again, see that the hosting provide will allow you to purchase more bandwidth or upgrade if need be.
4. FTP Access – it’s important that your hostin provider allow FTP access via a 3rd party program. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol
5. Scripts/Databases – If you are a bit advanced and understand how to install and use scripts and databases, make sure the hosting providers allow this. Some hosting providers will allow scripts and databases but they will limit on what types of scripts you can use. So please read all their terms of services.
6. Support – This is probably the most important feature to look for, especially if you are new to hosting and websites. It is vital that the hosting provider provide good quick support to help you get things done. The one way to find out is to click on the support or contact link and submit a ticket asking a question find out how fast their turn around is. It is standard today that you should receive an answer with 72 hours Max!
These tips should help you in choosing a good hosting provider to help you with all your website needs now and in the future. Also ask questions you should always feel comfortable with their support system and how they handle these requests.
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