Cheap Web Hosting Services: Some Key Guidelines

The user can try the given below guidelines to make the process of finding “cheap” hosting service a lot easier.

1. Act smart:

The user should keep his/her mind sharp while dealing for a use or rather acceptable use policy of that particular cheap web host. One can easily locate fair deal, due to immense competition prevailing in the cheap web hosting industry however if the user find a host offering features at an extremely cheap amount as compare to other hosts, then, BEWARE, user should never deal with such people.

2. Perform additional research:

A user should confirm about the host from several sources like reviews, related details from search engines, and even by verifying their experience in this particular sector. One should go to the support pages and see whether their provided support level matches one’s requirement or not. One cannot expect to receive best ever support for every mere little trouble which user receive through payment less than per month.

3. Check support:

These types of businesses would not survive as capable support personnel demands money. If one talks about larger companies and Windows plans then they are generally quite costly. It is a matter of fact that, cheap web hosts sell additional amount of space and bandwidth, predicting not total exploitation of it by the user. It is quite usual and there will be no negative impact on the user if he/she utilizes all the owed space and bandwidth. The user should be aware of the fact that, cheap web hosts often do not have full command over their servers and it is possible that they might have a dedicated server with another company in order to save their cost. Due to this reason only they are sometimes forced to depend on others to perform some physical tasks like replacing some hardware on the server or other sort of technical problem which they are unable to handle.

Review of Some Low Cost Web Hosting Services

I have reviewed some web hosting services that offer good quality hosting at reasonable price.  These are not the best hosting services  and they are suitable only for starters.

<b><u>GoDaddy web hosting:</u></b>
GoDaddy is basically a domain registration company, but they also  provide web hosting services. 

<u><b>Features:</b></u>
With a choice of Linux and Windows based hosting, they provide fairly large disk space and monthly bandwidth and their feature list is more than enough for starters.  Their <b>economy</b> plan, which is the base plan, offers 10GB of storage and 300GB of transfer per month.  You can also get a domain name for $2 with this plan. 

<u><b>Prices:</b></u>
<b>Economy</b> plan starts at $5 per month and the unlimited plan costs $15 per month.  Considering the features offered, the economy plan is quite cheap as compared to other hosting services.
One good thing more about GoDaddy is that you can pay bi monthly, avoiding any long term contract in case you change your mind later.  

<u><b>Support:</b></u>
There are mixed opinions about GoDaddy’s support.  Most of the people say they don’t get a response within a day.  While for some, their support has been good.  This is a negative point for starters, as anyone hosting a website for the first time will definately need support at some point.

<u><b>Promo/coupon codes:</b></u>
promo10 – 10% discount on your entire order.
promo530 – $5 discount on any order of $30 or more.
promo749 – $3 discount on .com domain registrations.

<u><b>Website:</b></u>
GoDaddy.com

<b><u>Namecheap Web Hosting:</u></b>
Namecheap is also a domain registration company.  It started web hosting business about a year ago and there have been a lot of positive reviews about it. 

<u><b>Features:</b></u>
Their <b>basic</b> plan offers 5GB disk space and 250GB bandwidth.  Their language support options are suitable only for PHP based websites.
But that can still support open source CMS and blogging systems.

<u><b>Prices:</b></u>
At $40 per year, the Basic plan is available only with annual or bi-annual contract, which is bad.  You don’t want to get stuck eith them for a year in case find them not up to your mark.
However, you can get a their <b>pro</b> plan for $7 per month with lots of more features.  They also give 14 days money back guarantee for all their plans.
If you are registering a domain name with them, you will get free privacy protection for first year.

<u><b>Support:</b></u>
Namecheap is reputed for good quality support.  Most people have said they received a quick response from their support.  This is extremely helpful for starters.

<u><b>Promo/coupon codes:</b></u>
SAVE7993 – 10% discount on new domain name registrations.

<u><b>Website:</b></u>
Namecheap.com

<b><u>A Small Orange web hosting:</u></b>
A Small Orange is a small and little known company but they have a lot of positive reviews.  Their shared hosting plans are best suited for starters.
<u><b>Features:</b></u>
The basic plan called <b>Tiny</b> offers <b>75MB space</b> and <b>1GB bandwidth </b> per month with a yearly payment.  The next one called <b>Small</b> is also suitable for starters, which offers <b>400MB disk space</b> and <b>10GB bandwidth</b> per month.
One good feature of A Small Orange is that they have a policy of “no artificial limits”, which according to them is placing no restriction on services that do not cost them, like adding domains, Emails etc.  They claim, other hosting service providers place restrictions on these services to charge extra when you need them. 
As a result, they offer unlimited databases, sub-domains, add-on domains, FTP accounts and email forwaders etc.
A Small Orange places restrictions on services that cost them, like disk space, bandwidth, memory size etc. 

<u><b>Prices:</b></u>
The <b>Tiny</b> plan is available for $25 per year.  The “Small” plan is available for monthly price of $5, still very cheap.
A Small Orange is not a domain registrar but they register domains through <b>eNom.com</b> for $10 with free privacy protection, a service for which most domain registrars charge extra fees.

<u><b>Support:</b></u>
Fast and friendly support is something A Small Orange is reputed for.
Although their quality of support has gone down due to increase in accounts, but still they are better than most of other web hosting services. 

<u><b>Promo/coupon codes:</b></u>
15percentdiscount – Get 15% discount on every purchase.
5bucksdiscount -  Get $5 discount on every purchase.

<u><b>Website:</b></u>
<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://refer.asmallorange.com/19071″ target=”_blank”>asmallorange.com</a> 

<b><u>1and1 web hosting:</u></b>
1and1 is a reseller hosting company and they have been quite problematic for some people.  If you so some search about them, you will find that most of the reviews about them are bad.
But being a 12 year old company, they are quite well known too.

<u><b>Features:</b></u>
Looking at their features and knowing the fact that they have a large customer base too, there is little doubt that they are over-sellers.
The basic plan called <b>1and1 Beginner</b> offers <b>10 GB storage</b> and <b>300GB transfer per month</b>.
They also provide free private registration.  There are a host of features that are not available for the basic plan, they are only available for higher plans.

<u><b>Prices:</b></u>
The basic plan is available with a 6 months contract only at the rate of $4 per month.  Its not good to have a 6 month contract with a company that has bad reputation.
They register domain for a reasonable amount of $7.  If you buy a domain name with a hosting plan, you will get free private registration.

<u><b>Support:</b></u>
Their reputation for support is worst as it can be.  But if you are you can tackle minor hosting problems by yourself, then their support should not be a big concern for.  You are looking for a cheap solution after all.

<u><b>Promo/coupon codes:</b></u>
<i>Not Available</i>

<u><b>Website:</b></u>
1and1.com

Some Basics About E-commerce Web Hosting

E-commerce is has grown to unseen proportions these past years, and this is seen in the amount of buying and selling of products and services over the internet and other computer networks. E-commerce is starting to turn into a way of life for most people, since more and more people are now starting to do their buying or selling online. If you are planning to jump into the e-commerce bandwagon you need to have a reliable e-commerce web hosting service, as well as other important things.

First things first. You obviously would not be thinking about putting up an online business if you have nothing to sell. Most people who think about going into e-commerce usually already have some selling experience off-line, and want to do the same thing with their products online. The amount of products that you expect to sell on day-to-day basis will have some say on the type of web hosting package that you should get.

If you are expecting to sell a maximum of 20 items online, you can do well with a small hosting account. If you are expecting to sell hundreds of items per day you will definitely need a larger account, with a larger disk space, bandwidth, and a secure connection for financial transactions.

Doing e-commerce necessitates a web site with a secure connection so that you can send and receive important data like PIN numbers, account numbers, passwords, etc. across the Internet without the fear that it can be intercepted and read by anyone on the net. A secure connection means that your website address has an https before it. If your website address does not have this, web-savvy potential customers will surely stay clear of you and your business, since they know that important information like credit card or bank account numbers won’t be safe on your site.

To get a secure site you need to get an SSL, or a Secure Sockets Layer certificate, which will be installed on your website for a small fee once you have complied with the requirements for the certificate.

If you find conducting and managing financial transactions on your web site too much of a hassle you can opt for third party gateways. They can manage your financial transactions for you and you can direct your customers to them for payments. A popular third party gateway like PayPal is free to set up although it takes a small fee from each sale that you make a small price to pay if you want people to trust you and your business.

Shopping carts is also another important feature that any e-commerce venture cannot do without. These are scripts which are installed in your hosting account that will basically provide a structure to your site and will allow your customers to navigate your site easily.

Shopping carts organize your products into categories, which makes it easier for the customer to find the product that he wants. Shopping carts also keeps you posted on returning customers and the products that they have bought, allowing you to make suggestions about other items that they may need.

Some Of The Most Important Issues You Need To Consider When Choosing A Web Host Company

The vast array of new web hosting services on the market today can be more than a little overwhelming. There are thousands of web hosting services from which to choose. Because of all the choices, it has become increasingly difficult for the beginner to decide what web host will serve them best. Choosing your e-commerce hosting service basically comes down to the features the company offers and their customer service, which, especially for people new to setting up web sites and blogs, is extremely important. This article endeavors to cover some of the important issues you need to be aware of when choosing a web host.

First, a caveat regarding free web hosting: you may be tempted by free web hosting but these services offer very little in the way of features and almost nonexistent customer support. Good customer support cannot be stressed enough when you’re starting out in e-commerce. You will have problems and you’ll need a real live person who can help you. Cut-rate and cheap web hosting services aren’t much better. If you want to be successful you’ll avoid these kinds of web hosting services. Diving into e-commerce requires enough effort as it is; you don’t want added hassles from your service provider. If you’re serious about e-commerce on the Web, you need to start off with the right tools. The company you choose to provide your web hosting is one of these tools, and it can be the difference between failure and success.

Again, your web host’s customer support can make all the difference in the world. Quality customer service can make or break you. It’s what separates a good host from a bad host. One of the things you should look for in a hosting company is if it provides customer support 24 hour, 7 day a week availability with a toll-free number. You have to be able to get help whenever you need it. If you have just a few simple questions, the answers should be easily locatable on the web host’s site. If time isn’t of the essence, then you should be able to email customer support and receive a response within a day, if not hours. If you have more involved questions, there should be a toll-free number and friendly informative staff available at all times. Many hosts offer online support in the form of instant messaging. Being able to “chat” with a customer service representative is an excellent feature.

The next thing you need to determine is how much disk storage and bandwidth you’ll need for your online enterprise. If it’s a relatively simple affair then you should select a relatively small plan. Someone who just wants to put up an informative page about their business won’t need as much from their host as someone who intends to supply images, video, and audio. As always, it’s important to decide what you need and then base your decisions on that.

Remember, you’ll also want to give yourself room to grow. Read the company’s user terms and policies. If you’re contracted to stick with a certain plan for a certain amount of time, make sure that it gives you room to expand your site. Maybe your site will be more successful than you planned. How bad would it be if your site starting getting tons of visitors but you had a cheap plan, with little storage and bandwidth, and then your host shut it down for exceeding its limits? If you’re not sure what you’ll need, start out with the low-level plan from a good company, but don’t sign on for a year or two at once. Stick with monthly plans or make sure you can change yours at any time so you can adjust to unforeseen popularity.

Along with the amount of disk storage and bandwidth, make sure you check your hosts data transfer rate and uptime. It won’t do you much good if you choose a service with slow speeds and frequent crashes. Reliability and speed are of the utmost importance when doing business on the internet. It’d be like if you had a great store but the power kept going out and you closed randomly.

Another feature to look at is the control panel offered by the company. The control panel allows you to manage your web site and keep track of activity. It allows you to check your bandwidth and disk storage. It also lets you see what your customers are doing. The control panel should be intuitive and informative. It should provide more information than the novice knows what to do with so it can grow with you, but it should be easy to interface with at the same time.

The web hosting company you choose should be well-established, have the right hardware, and it should provide the appropriate tools for their clients. Research the issues and avoid second-rate web operations. Once you get past the initial bump in the learning curve, you’ll find that doing business on the web can be easy and extremely profitable.

Some Important Points to be Taken Care of Before Dealing With the Web Hosting Plans and Its Services?

One should act very smartly or can say intelligently while making decisions regarding web hosting services and plans. One who is serious for his/her business can suffer later on, if his/her decision of choosing web hosting went wrong. Due to inefficiency of the web hosting plan one can face loss by decreasing of sales as well as loosing the customers. One should not make decision in haste while choosing the web hosting plan rather he/she should study all the options and compare all the advantages as well as disadvantages, then make the decision accordingly .If the decision is made after studying every aspect then only it will prove very fruitful for the business.

What are the requirements of the user? A Personal Home Page or a Business Site Hosted

Before moving further the user should be very clear about his/her requirements and one of them is what type of the website he/she desires and want to have hosted. User should choose the plan as per his/her needs as if the user is running a small business then he/she does not require the larger hosting plans. If the user is going to plan on having a large ecommerce site hosted, then small hosting plan will not fulfill his/her obligations and the user have to move for the web hosting services providing all the bells and whistles. After deciding about the type of website one can easily host and compare all the services and plans and then can opt for the most suitable one.

Amount of Data Transfer And Disk Space Offered From The Web Hosting Plan:

While deciding about the plans, user should be very clear about the disk space and bandwidth he/she requires and then compare all the plans and choose the hosting plan that can easily manage the data transfer from his/her business promotions that can cause large amounts of traffic. This is very clear to the user that if he/she is going to deal with a simple home page then he/she will not need much disk space and bandwidth. When the user is clear that what he/she actually requires from the web hosting service, options and plans, then only he/she is able to make decision.

Web hosting needs should be considered earlier:

The points to be considered by the user of the web hosting services are, the cost and fees, customer support, control panel, POP email accounts, FTP transfer limits and if the user have unlimited space transfer.

Economic factor: Cost of Web Hosting and Possible Setup Fees?

Economic factor matters a lot for all kind of users as every one want best services at the most reasonable price. The user should be well aware before paying for the services as he/she should know that what he/she is paying for. Before making the payment user should compare the costs of the web hosting plans, and should know what the actual costs are, before signing up .User should have the complete knowledge about the prices as well as of the setup fees.

Support provided From The Web Hosting Company to its customers:

Before signing any hosting plan user should look at the support provided by the company to the customers .Customer support is very important aspect which can not be ignored as customer can need the company’s support any time. If customer support is not provided at proper time then in result his/her site will remain down for long periods of time. A company is said to be a reliable company if it is able to provide the support service of 24 hours a day customer support. User should also study about the experience of the company and also the support provided to its customers. User can easily check with the references to see how the web hosting company rates with customer service. If customer is aware of all these aspects it will be very helpful for him/her for making decision and can save himself/herself from the time and money loss.

Services available -Is Control Panel Available or not?

The new entries in this web world don’t have proper knowledge and much experience with web hosting control panels. Due to this reason they can suffer from severe problems many times. So before moving to any decision the user should collect all the complete information such as-

1. What type of control panel the web hosting service offers?

2. Is it user friendly or not?

3. Last but not the least that it suites all the requirements?

Control panel is not required by an experienced webmaster may not need a control panel, but it is necessary for rest of the users.

What about the availability of POP Email Accounts?

There are some other aspects as well which user can’t afford to miss. One such aspect is POP email accounts being offered by the provider. E-mail service is the service that is needed by many business plans from their web hosting plan. User should look out for the availability, if he/she desires access to email accounts.

Plans offering FTP Transfer limit as per requirement:

User should be sure enough about the FTP transfer limits with the web hosting services he/she is going to opt for. User should also watch out that the web hosting plan he/she is choosing offers FTP transfer according to his/her business needs. He/she should save himself/herself from those web hosts that do not have unlimited FTP use.

Some more things to be known by the user about the web hosting plan are:

1. Does they offer unlimited space transfer?

2. What are the terms of the services regarding upgradation?

3. Availability of the space if more needed in the future.

If the user does not look out for the terms of the space availability in its web hosting service then he/she can suffer from the problems regarding space, as if the user needs more space later on he/she will not be getting it.

User is able to make the proper decision of choosing the web hosting service only after having the complete information of each and every services provided by the web host.

Expired Domain Gains- Some Simple Tips To Monetize Your Domains

For all domain traders, the most important goal is to monetize their expired domains to create sizeable online income. In fact, the big buck lies in how you flip and empower your domains. Domain traders also understand and accept the reality that a large inventory of expired domains is a wasteful expenditure and wastage of time. The real money lies in how you enable your domains as viable commercial units and not in maintaining them by spending lot of invaluable cash. You will need to look for ways and methods that can limit wasteful expenditure, while you are holding on to the domains. Here are some of the simple and effective techniques that will help you monetize your domains:

Using technique of creating type-in type of traffic: The most precious thing with an domain is the existence of type-in type of traffic. In essence, an domain based on a great keyword will receive plenty of type-in type of traffic. An intelligent domain trader will ensure that he or she will place the domain on a beneficial PPC program just to utilize or exploit the accumulated type-in type of traffic. There are domain traders who make more than $500 with a single top and premium expired domain! This is a better way of flipping your domain, instead of just holding on to a domain. Once you add enough value to a good type-in type of domain, you can consider selling it at a premium price. A type-in type of expired domain can help you recover all overhead expenses incurred in maintaining and managing domains.

Using advantages of parked domains: A number of service providers allow you to utilize the services of domain parking by adding useful content and promotional banners over a simple web page. When you display a well designed landing page, you can milk all the positive benefits of domain parking to their maximum possible extent. However, you will need to try out a number of different combinations of promotions and advertisements to derive the best possible returns. Different domain traders use different types of methods and promotions to float their parking pages. Most of the parking agencies provide you simple default type of landing page that may not be really efficient to derive the best results.

Redirecting traffic from a parked page to your web site: If you own a full-pledged web portal, then you can use the power of parked pages to import additional traffic to it. This simple action will allow you to monetize your web portal with additional income as well. What you need to do is to simply redirect the traffic from your parked pages to the web portal.

Using Web 2.0 community: One of the newest trends in expired domain industry is to use the positive benefits of Web 2.0 community to advertise your domains. When you convert your domains with traffic into useful Web 2.0 community, you can supplement the value of your domains.

There are several other ways and means that can help you monetize your list of expired domain names. You may need to assess and evaluate each one of them before using them to monetize your domains.

Some Of The Factors To Consider When Choosing The Best Web Host For Your Website

Choosing the right Web Host for your Personal Website is important for your future business. This is why you need to do a lot or research and comparative study before opting for a web host.

Some very important criteria for choosing a web host include the facilities of data storage and the data transfer. The kind of business you are in would define your requirements. Simple content and static designs require less space than the dynamic flash oriented sites.

If your site has backend or ASP then you would need higher bandwidth to support these activities. Bandwidth allows data to be transferred in a specified time and quality. The higher the bandwidth, the better the transfer capabilities of your site. You need a very professional web host server to handle your needs who will not only be required to provide excellent service and maintenance but also guide you on the necessary upgrades for you r future expansion.

You can get a fair idea of of the various web hosting facilities from the free ISPs like GeoCities, Homestead, ICQ, IVillage, Cybercities, Gurlpages, Tripod among others. Service varies from one host to the other. This is why you need to do a thorough research before choosing a host. Do not be pressurized into taking a more expensive offer if your needs are simple and basic just because the web hosting company wants to make better profits. You need more than a seller in this case. An ideal web host is one who will constantly monitor your business needs and advise accordingly as to which plan should suit you best.

Opt for a free web hosting option if you want to test waters first. If free web hosting does not provide you with the necessary features you require then you can opt for the basic options where you have no enhanced features but your initial work will get done. There is absolutely no point in spending a large amount on hosting if you cannot make proper utilization of the data transfer or storage scope.

If you want your website to be a success then make sure that the content is lucid and precise. People have zero patience for online reading. The idea of what you are all about should be immediate and effective. This would go a long way to increase traffic on your site and get more specific inquiries or leads, which could be successfully converted into closed sales.

Once you have the right web host for your personal website you will be ready to fill your site with all the most important information about you, your business, or your family. Fill your website with whatever information you want the world to have.

What Are Some Good Free Web Hosting Sites?

i’m trying to help my friend set up her site, but we cant find any free web hosting ones that arent complete crap =(
i dont care if there are ads on the page, but we want one that we can make our own layout to. thanks!

Some Web Hosting Basics

Web Hosting allows individuals and companies to reap the benefits of Internet publishing and marketing. In order to publish content in any format, be it text, images, videos or music, or for even uploading files to be downloaded later, seeking a web hosting facility is a must.

There are professional companies that specialize in providing web hosting via offering space and accounts on web servers that they maintain. Their clients can then upload their websites on these servers, which are located in a data center that is well connected to Internet backbones via high-speed lines.

Web hosting is of many different kinds and comes with different type of tools and packages. The basic web hosting facility, which many companies either call cheap web hosting or budget web hosting, comes with a web space quota, FTP access and email accounts.

Users are able to upload their web pages via the File Transfer Protocol software and can send or receive emails through the provided email account. This kind of simple arrangement works fine for many businesses where the requirements are straightforward.

However, for websites that are not as simple as that and require the availability of particular software or support for a programming language on the server, special web hosting plans need to be selected. For example, if your website includes a database part which is built on MS Access, and ASP scripting language has been used throughout the code, you must opt for a special Windows based web hosting plan.

For websites that take direct orders from the customers, providing transaction security is a must and hence the requirements will include either the ability to install, or availability an SSL certificate. Web hosting plans that are called ?Ecommerce Hosting Plans?, often include the availability of an SSL certificate.

Apart from these hosting plans that are specific to the tools and software available on the server, you?ll also come across many other types of hosting plans. The most searched for is ?Free Web Hosting?. However, as they say, there?s no such thing as free lunch and free hosting also comes with banner or text advertising on our website by the host firm. The features provided on free hosting plans are also very minimal.

Image hosting, which is also offered for free by many providers, not only allows one to store images on the web but also arrange them in a gallery like fashion. It?s the ideal way to share pictures with family and friends or to display your photography portfolio.

Shared web hosting refers to the setup where multiple websites are hosted on the same server, resulting in low cost of operation for the hosting firm and reduced hosting fee for the customer.

Overall, the options are good in number and you should research your choices before making a decision.