Archive for the ‘Web Hosting’ Category
Low Cost Reliable Web Hosting
There’s one nice thing about the internet these days- low cost reliable web hosting is no longer just a dream. You can get great low cost web hosting service for less than $10 a month — sometimes even a lot less!
When I created my very first website, the cheapest hosting I could find was $30 a month; and for that I pretty much got nothing except 30 MB of space for my hosting. No instructions, no real help.
Time went on and web site hosting got cheaper, but so did the services! Downtime was all too often, and to make matters worse, my entire website vanished not once, but twice!
Fortunately, things have come a long way. There are quite a few low cost reliable web hosting services that balance a small price with the capabilities you need. But before you buy that plan, know what questions to ask!
First: Your Domain Name
If you don’t already have a domain name for your website, be aware that some low cost web services include a free domain name when you host with them. BlueHost has such a service — free domain with $6.95 per month hosting package. If you don’t already have a domain name, this can be an added benefit.
Even if you don’t want to buy a plan from a low cost reliable web service that includes a domain name, it’s definitely easier when you purchase your domain name at the same place you plan to host your site. Trust me on this one — you don’t want to be dealing with the hassle of getting the DNS addresses pointing in the right direction! Buying your name where you plan to host takes care of that for you.
Who Does the Backups?
It’s very important for you to know how often the hosting service performs backups of your website. Some services do it daily, some weekly…some not at all. You need to know this in advance.
Here’s an example. Say you have your website hosted at company “x” and you use their WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor to create your web pages. That’s so convenient, but it also means that because you did it on their system, you don’t have a backup. Instead, you’re trusting the host to keep your data safe.
What happens if one of the servers goes down and they have to restore your website from a backup? If they backup the data daily, perhaps the worst you would lose is one day’s worth of work. But what happens if the host only backs up weekly? Or not at all?
What’s that to you in lost business?
Low Cost Reliable Web Hosting: What’s in a Package?
If you’re looking strictly for low cost and don’t need anything beyond very basic service, there are three internet hosting providers I recommend from personal experience. Each of these low cost reliable web service has plenty of disk space and bandwidth allowances that are more than enough for most people.
Next is BlueHost, who has reliable, affordable business hosting.BlueHost is my next choice for a great low cost reliable web hosting service; I’ve never had an issue with downtime.
Finally, there is 1&1, who has the corner on the ultra-low cost. Plans start at $3.99 month and you can click here to save 50% off hosting. If you’re just looking to host a very basic site, or perhaps just host some graphics or mp3 files, 1&1 is a definite consideration
(Of course if you want to build a website that generates traffic, check out the options with a managed web hosting service — it’s a lot less expensive than you think.)
What About Free?
If you are really serious about your home business, don’t bother with free web hosting. Either you will be bombarded with banner ads, you will have uptime problems or you will have a tacky domain name. The only free hosting I might recommend is something like PhotoBucket.com that hosts images for you.
Low cost reliable web hosting services are available for less than $50 a year, so it makes sense to do it right the first time.
Managed Web Hosting
A managed web hosting service might be right for you. For example, do you have the time needed to build a successful website (i.e. one that attracts search engine traffic)? Do you know how to build HTML pages? Are you familiar with optimizing your pages so that they end up on the main search page? And what about graphics?
Finally: do you have the time needed to devote to getting a website up and running? It’s more than slapping a few pages together and calling it good. No, today’s successful websites are based on good content, and lots of it!
Solution 1: Managing the Website’s “Back End”
If you’re a whiz at writing content, but don’t know the first thing about how to set up automated site maps or RSS feeds, how about choosing a managed web hosting service that just handles the technical “back end” services?
Back a few years ago, building a website pretty much just relied on being able to create great content. The biggest worry was finding the right website background graphics!
Not so these days; everything has gotten more technical. The search engines want XML site maps and optimized pages. You need to let the search engines know you’ve updated your site by “pinging” them. RSS feeds are more and more common, and require setup. And what about creating meta tags? Yikes!
Your solution: choose a website hosting services that manages all the technical back end services, so you can concentrate on writing great content!
Solution 2: Website Optimization Service
Perhaps you’ve found a service that takes care of the back end for you — or maybe you can do it yourself! So what’s the next step? It’s called website optimization.
Writing great content and managing the back end is only half the battle, unfortunately. The other half is something called search engine optimization, or SEO. Basically, it’s about tweaking your web pages so that the search engines pick up on them easier, and put you on the first page of a web search.
It’s also about how you choose your words. For example, if I wrote a page called “build a website”, it would be one of millions of pages. But if I choose “make your own website”, the odds just got way better for me — the competition is only hundreds of pages, not millions.
A website optimization service will give you guidance as to the best search phrases to use when building your website. If it’s really, really good, it will also provide you with a tool to tell if you’ve used your chosen phrase too much…or not enough.
Increased Website Traffic For Solutions 1 and 2…
…I recommend Site-Sell for incredible website traffic. The reason? Site-Sell does all the technical back end work for you, and gives you an extremely robust website optimization service, for one low price.
Instead of hosting your website in one place, then buying extra services and software to automate from other vendors, Site-Sell does it all for you in one neat package. Not to mention saves you money doing it!
You can compare Site-Sell features against some of the leading web hosting services, and see how much less you pay Site-Sell for so much more.
Solution 3: Complete Managed Web Hosting Service
Obviously, a complete managed web hosting service is the most expensive way to go, and a good service is definitely not cheap. However, it can reap great rewards down the line for your business!
Not only does it take care of the technical and optimization aspects, but it provides the good unique content for you as well! If you have the money but don’t have the time and you want to give your business the best chance for internet success, a complete managed web hosting service is the way to go.
Once again, I’ll recommend Site-Sell Services if you want a all-in-one solution. For a fraction of what other website creation companies charge, you’ll get a website that can compete with the best in its class. Click here to learn everything you need to know about Site-Sell Services.
In summary, the best managed web hosting service is the one that balances your money and time, and gives you the best return on investment.
Top of Managed Web Hosting Service Page
The Best Web Hosting Solution
Is there one best web hosting solution? No, no more than there is one best home business. Instead, there is what is right for your particular business!
You may want someone to build your site and host it for you. Maybe you like to do it yourself? What are some managed solutions, and what are some low cost reliable web hosting services? And…what about free site hosting — is it all that it’s cracked up to be? Free is good…but is it right for your business? Everyone’s businesses, not to mention their strengths, talents and time, are different. You may be fascinated with the idea of building and managing your own website, but if you don’t have the time, it won’t get done. (Or worse, it will be just partially done with a lot of half-finished pages.)
Reasons for Building a Website
The very best reason for building a website is that it gives your business a presence on the world wide web. It lets people know about you and your business. Another reason is to drive traffic to your business. It’s great when people know to type in your domain name and see your site! But what if they don’t know your name, but are searching for a solution you provide? That’s right, you want to be able to be found in the search engines. For more information on why you might want to have your own site, look at make your own website page.
A Managed Web Hosting Service
In a nutshell, a managed web hosting service is one that does the work for you. It can be anywhere from having someone else totally build a site for you, to having a service that does all the “behind the scenes” services for you (but where you write the pages). Want more information? Check out the page on managed web hosting
Low Cost, Reliable Web Hosting
There are quite a few low cost web hosts who also have very reliable service. There are also hosts that have low (and sometimes not-so-low) costs but have downtime issues. Or even worse — they lose your website! (And yes, I have had that happen…and learned a great deal from the experience, unfortunately.) Check out the low cost reliable web hosting page for more information.
Free Site Hosting – A Good Idea?
It is so very, very tempting to use a free site hosting service! But for most people, it’s not the best way to present your business. For one, your web address reflects their name, not yours (not good for branding your business). Because the service is free, they can change the rules at any time, and you may have to scramble for a new site…while losing traffic because your site had to move. While there may be some very specific instances where a free service may be right for you (like if you need images or mp3 file hosted), for a business website it is very, very rarely the best web hosting solution.
Choosing the Best Web Hosting Solution
Think about how much time you have to devote to a website. Do you have the software to create HTML pages? (Although there are some freeware HTML programs available, as well as web hosts that create the HTML for you.) Do you have writing skill? You don’t have to have gotten A’s in your high school writing class, but you do need to have decent grammar and spelling or you won’t look very professional. The best web hosting solution is the one that uses your strengths, balanced with the amount of time needed to learn about how to build a profitable web business. For some people, that’s a managed solution. For others, doing it yourself makes the most sense.
