Sunday, June 5, 2011

Hosting Your New Website

By Gregory Trune


If you are taking the step into heading onto the World Wide Web for the first time, hosting a website for a business or perhaps you wish to impart your knowledge with the world, there are many things to be aware of. The World Wide Web has seen a huge surge in demand in recent years and it is impossible to contemplate running a business without having an online presence. There are so many things that a firm must have in place when they try to develop a new business and they include the infrastructure, sales and promotional and marketing activities. It is quite common for a new firm to have an extremely tight budget and this forces a firm to create and hot their own websites that provide value for money and great efficiency.

There is no doubt that the website of a firm has a large part to play in generating interest in potential customers, announcing the power of the company to the world, generate traffic to the site and place itself firmly in front of a specialized market. Of course, if your firm is only based on the internet then it is imperative that there is a priority to place your website on the internet.

There are many web hosting companies that offer special packages for the startups. The web hosting packages offered by them are designed keeping in mind the requirements of a new business and of those wanting to share knowledge. The SEO experts of these companies are specially to provide you with potentially strong techniques to drive traffic into your website

Steps for Web Hosting for startups:

It isn't necessarily easy for a first time website host but there are some guidelines that can be followed to make the startup process simpler. These tips should be followed to make the process of selecting a web host company easier.

* The initial task should be to search the internet and try to obtain quotes from a number of web hosting companies who specialize in providing services for startup companies.

* Make a choice depending on what level of budget you have available and one hist best suits your business requirements. Make an observation about the range of support, facilities and services that are offered by the web hosting company and compare the prices and products that rival firms offer.

* Having chosen your firm, sign up online. Go through the join up process and offer up the details that they request, which may include name, address ad credit card details.

* Wait for the approval which should arrive in a matter of days.

* With the application approved and a hosting account generated, start hosting your very own website.

What is a Web Hosting Startup package?

There is a growing number of firms who provide startup packages with the new website owners in mind. These new owners may be businesses or they may bloggers. The new owners don't usually have high demands or expectations but they also usually have a limited budget. These are the key factors that the web hosting companies keep in mind when they offer startup packages.

Features in a Web Hosting Startup package:

Although each firm will offer their own individual package the following issues will be common amongst many providers:

Web Management system - This includes a minimum of 20MB - 50MB disk storage space, at least 10GB monthly data transfer, full FTP Access and Anonymous FTP, Static IP Address and Secure Server (SSL) Transaction Encryption .

Email Features - This is an important feature in any web hosting package. Startup packages have around 10 Email (POP/Web) Accounts, Email Aliases & Forwarding, PGP Email Encryption, Personal SMTP Mail Server and Email AutoResponders

E-Commerce - A standard Web Hosting service for startups includes PHP4 Server-side Scripting, SSH - Secure Shell, Server Side Includes (SSI) and Password Protected Directories.

* Technical Support - Most new customers require the facility of 24 hour support, which can be offered through ticket support and it is common for firms to state they guarantee 99.9% uptime each year.

Website Monitoring - It includes the Daily Data Backups, Downloadable Raw Access Logs and Wusage 7.0 Graphical Statistics

Additional Software - The package may also include some additional software like Enhanced Support for FrontPage Extensions and Web Based Control Panel.

* Hardware & Network - There are many products that can come with these startup packages with a selection being Dual- 1 Ghz Pentium IV Servers, Custom Red Hat Server OS and Apache Server Software. There are also other products offered and these can include 10-T1, 5-DS3, and 1-OC3 Network Connectivity and Uninterruptible Power.

* Advanced Features - There are also a great deal of additional features of a more advanced nature that many web hosts are including in their startup packages. Some of these features include offering a 30 day money back guarantee, Custom Error Documents, Pico & Cron Tab, .htaccess and Joe. This is in addition to the following features: elm, vi, Pine, Emacs 20.4, Python & TCL Compilers, Java JDK, Perl, C and C++. And if that is not enough, some customers may also be offered CGI Bin, Custom MIME Types, bash, csh, tsh and Unix Shells.

Important tips for the Startups:

People starting a new business and those who are planning to host their website in the world web should always be aware about the goal of the website. They must be clear about what their website wants to archive. This clarification is essential before going ahead with hosting the website on the web world. Here are some of the important tips that the startups can keep in mind before hosting their website.

The attention span of a user is very short and hence the website for start-ups should look attractive and must be able to grab the attention of the readers. Ask self targeted questions like what will bring people to the website?

* Good use of search engine optimization facilities can be vital for any startup website and these should compliment the existing content on the site.

How do you want your company or the products to be marketed in the web?

* Being attractive to search engines is good but a firm needs to provide engaging content to keep customers coming back to the site.

* Think of how many other sites are starting up just now. You need to ensure your firm stands out from the rest of them.

* The promises offered by shared web hosting services may sound brilliant but be careful as they are unable to offer any strict guarantees.

* Fast connections are important to your site so make sure that the web host company is able to provide them.

Find out whether or not they have a back-up system in place to protect your data in case there is a power outage

* Be sure to ask questions of their customer support service.

* If you need a secure server for order processing, ensure this is offered by your firm. Also enquire if they have an online Web Site Manager or do they provide an online support manual.

Like all walks of life, creating a new website has many difficulties that need to be avoided. Having a structured website and utilizing search engine optimization techniques can bring growth and custom. As there are a number of web hosts out there, seek their advice about what you need and what services will best suit your requirements.




About the Author:



No comments: