You may not enjoy thinking about this, but if your site is down or redirects poorly, it is not your host that your users will blame. You will be the one that takes the heat. This means that you should make your choice very wisely.

At no time is that more true then when you are choosing a web host for a site that will need to use a high volume host. Of course, before we begin to talk about how to evaluate a high volume web host, we need to cover some basic ground. If you’re familiar with these topics, feel free to skip ahead. 

What is a web host?

A web host is, for our purposes, a service that you hire to make your site available to your end users. The cost is usually annually or monthly. Web hosts vary by quality and cost. Some people do set up self hosting for their website, but that requires a server capable of handling the traffic and some specializedsoftware setup. There are some articles that explain this setup information available through the Developer Shed family of web sites.

What is a High Volume Web Host?

A high volume web host will be, for the most part, a package that you choose from a hosting service. It will be one that is designed to accommodate both a high volume of users and a lot of data transfers at the same time. The exact details can vary from host to host. Choosing a high volume host can have its pros and cons. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Pros

• You are less vulnerable to having the site down because you are over capacity. Anyone who uses Twitter regularly can tell you how annoying this can be for your end users.
• You will be able to accommodate a higher number of users on the site.
• You will be able to handle a greater number of streaming media hosted on the site. No more embedding your videos via You Tube to get them onto your site.

Cons

• A high volume hosting package will cost you more than a standard package. This means that you may lose money on a hosting package even if you are not using the extra bandwidth.
• Sometimes the sites with the most users are the sweetest targets. Someone who breaks the server may choose to take down all high volume customers. It is a rare occurrence, but one that you should be aware of before you buy.

So, when deciding whether you should go with a high volume hosting plan, you should pick with the future in mind. That is not to say that you will need to buy the more expensive package right away, but that you should pick a host with the full range of needed packages. This way you can start out small and move up to the larger package when you need it.

Sure, you could change it later on, but moving a domain name can be complex. By thinking about the long term now, you can save yourself a lot of grief, and possible down time down the road. There is no point ton losing all of your traffic because of a snafu.

What if I Need to Expand Now?

If you need to expand on your current hosting, then your best option is to look to your current host, provided that they are reliable and offer what you need. If not, then you are going to have to think about switching over. That means independent evaluations. Either way, having a good working knowledge of how different hosts stack up, both in terms of their cost and their service quality, will be a tremendous asset to your decision making.

How is Shopping for A High Volume Host any Different From a Regular Host?

In a lot of ways it is similar. You will be looking for indicators of quality and a set of useful features. What is different is the level of research. Since you are investing on a larger scale, you need to be absolutely sure of your decisions.

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This long overdue article is the follow-up to”How to Set Up a Simple Website”that I posted back in 2007 and have gotten great feedback about ever since. Because of this, I decided to write a bit more advanced article that focuses on taking your simple website to the next level.

This article will show you how I took my simple website that I talked about in the first part and obtained inexpensive web hosting, switched over to the WordPress CMS (content management system), and started generating thousands of unique visitors per month quicker than you may think. 

If you have a website that is sitting dormant, gathering dust on a free hosting account and getting zero search engine traffic, this tutorial is perfect for you. I’ll show you how I turned my tiny website into a blog that is quickly becoming an authority in its niche.

If you recall from my first ”How to Set Up a Simple Website”article, the domain that I chose to use is http://promotehealth.info. If you notice the screen shot of my website from “part 1″ of this series compared to how my site looks now, you’ll see a substantial (understatement!) difference in the design.

I’ll try and show you how I went from point A to point B; it really only took a weekend to get it all set up. If you have some knowledge of the WordPress CMS and/or PHP, CSS, and other scripting languages, you can get it done muchfaster than I did. Since I had very limited knowledge of these types of things going into my website makeover, I used a lot of trial and error throughout the process, which is effective, but time-consuming.

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There will be certain costs to operate a website.  First, there is the cost of training.  Free to thousands of dollars is about the range of online training available.  I purchased one of those thousand dollar courses online.  After they receive your money, you are nothing.  You do all you are told to do and have a rotten website to show for it.  Most money made by gurus is teaching you, not off their websites.

What are you going to call your website?  Keyword research is next.  There are other articles to explore this topic.  You are just concerned for our purposes of obtaining the actual name.  This new name is a domain name.  It consists of two parts.   There is an address and extension you probably know as the now famous dot com.   Domain names are great to purchase on Go Daddy.   Why them and not another provider?  Fair question.  First of all, they have sales more often on the most popular extensions.  The dot net and dot info and the like extensions can be found cheaply on many sites.  Go to such a site.  Compare their prices on the co and com extensions.  Big difference.  Now compare Go Daddy prices on the same extensions.  And I have been told that the com and co are the most popular and liked the best by the big three search engines. 

Domain name is set.  Just because you might purchase the domain in a specific website does not mean that it has to stay parked there.  The domain name can travel.  That’s another reason for Go Daddy.  They allow the name to move.  Let’s go hosting site shopping.  I consistently hear website gurus recommending Host Gator.  Host Gator features the Baby Plan.  Why is it so special?  Well, currently you are charged less than seven dollars a month.  It is great because you are given unlimited domains, unlimited disk space and unlimited band width.  I have another website that costs me over ten dollars a month just for the one spot.  You can buy 500 domain names from Go Daddy and park them here for the same one monthly fee.   You can have 10,000 domain names there with no increase.  Yes, all 500 domains for one fee.   And you may install blogs for them and use the traffic software free.   I currently have ten domains with websites and two blogs attached per domain.  I could add ten more per website if I want.

It is a great start to making your websites profitable.  Good luck!

You must assure that your current business needs a dedicated server or not, as this type of server is expensive and similar work can be done over a shared server as well, which is usually a cheaper option. The up-time average of your web host server must be 99.9% as a lesser rate would be detrimental to your business. You should opt for a service provider which offers a money-back policy in case you decide to pull out of a particular venture. A simple practice to find out the credentials of the web host is by comparing the information given to you in the different forms of media like e-mail, telephone and fax. If there are conflicting statements, it is best to steer away from the company. The bandwidth you require for your website is also of prime importance as going in for a greater bandwidth than you actually require can prove be a simple waste of money. For an average business, a bandwidth between 500 MB to 1 GB will be more than enough. Unlimited data transfer at extremely low prices usually is accompanied with some clauses which we often tend to ignore. So you have to be careful while paying for this feature.

A company providing the best web hosting will offer a 24/7 support for your site and it is a good thing to confirm it at the time of contract signing. Moreover, reading web hosting reviews will also help you in choosing the right provider so you must dedicate some time to it before finalizing your deal. The control panel offered for your site must be simple to use for better visitor convenience. The reputation of the service provider must be carefully checked so that you don’t have to suffer later with a bad deal coming your way.

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The first thing you should do is make a list of what your current goals are. If you are making a professional site, you’ll need a secure and reliable host. For instance, if you know that your website will reach thousands of people within a few months, perhaps you should find a web hosting package that includes extra bandwidth. You need additional space, especially if visitors are constantly going to be accessing your website. On the other hand, if you are just experimenting, you should stick to the free hosting packages. Geocities or Angel Fire certainly provides a basic package, which will leave you satisfied. After all, you do not need bells and whistles if you aren’t serious about the website in the long run. If you do end up changing your mind, you can always switch services and transfer your website.

Once you have made your decision, you need to find a reputable service. While searching for hosting companies on Google may seem appropriate, it often stems bad results. It is important to remember that just because it is listed on a search engine, doesn’t mean it is 100% safe and legit. Therefore, if you do find a potential company, you should get a second opinion. It is usually smart to join a webmaster related forum like SitePoint to discuss such matters. This way you can hear about other people’s experiences and what companies to avoid. Additional references from friends or family would also be ideal.

After picking a host, you will need to provide your credit card information. For many users, 3ix.org is a favorite, as it rarely charges you much. Surprisingly, there are discount coupon codes you can acquire through the internet, to also help you with your initial fee. Due to the fact that you have to include your private information, it is absolutely crucial to make sure you find a legit business. The last thing you want is to lose any money. Therefore, you should google their name and check out the reviews from fellow users. This will most definitely make all of the difference, especially if you find out that they are a fraud.

For website beginners, web hosting doesn’t have to be difficult or even too time consuming. As long as you find reputable sources, second opinions, and a great easy to use package, you are well on your way to website success. With these instructions in mind, there should be no frustrations or year long debates on what company to use. It is quite simple, once you get in the webmaster’s frame of mind.

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There are way too many specific types of web hosting packages in the world today to really tackle them all in detail, but for the most part you can actually figure out what the prices of related items should be based on the price knowledge of just two or three different kinds of web hosting. So, without further ado, those three types of web hosting are discount web hosting, Windows web hosting and Linux web hosting.

Ultimately, discount web hosting is of course going to be the most popular type of web hosting in today’s world, simply because there are so many people nowadays looking to start a business online. If you are interested in starting a business online, chances are that for the most part you don’t have a lot of money to begin with and therefore the discount web hosting plan is going to be the one for you. Discount web hosting is very cheap and for the most part very cost efficient. The cheapest discount web hosting plans are going to run you around $5 to $6 a month and at the most a good discount web hosting plan should not cost you more than $10 a month. If it does end up costing you more than $10 a month, you are likely not dealing with an honest web hosting company.

Some people might consider the above to be harsh, but really the reason it is true is because when you get to the $10 barrier, you are actually into both some Windows and some Linux hosting packages that have benefits far in excess of what you could ever hope to get from a discount plan. Therefore, it makes no sense to pay that same amount of money for a discount plan when you could simply take the Windows or Linux plans and get all of the added support that you would not get under a basic plan. Support under Windows plans includes things like support for ASP and MSSQL; things that would perhaps not be there under most discount plans. Windows and Linux plans can both be found for in the $10 to $15 range per month for their basic incarnations and then if you want more space, more bandwidth or anything else, it just increases from there.

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First of all, you will need to know exactly what your requirements are, not only now, but also what you may need in the future. This will allow you start cutting down the number of choices from the start, especially if you know that you will be using some of the more advanced features available that may not be offered by smaller companies.

The support provided by the web hosting company is very important, especially for new or inexperienced users. Try to see how quickly a company responds to you by sending an email question to them – if you get an answer back within 24 hours then you can be fairly confident that your questions will be answered quickly. See if telephone support is available too, and test that. By the way, don’t expect telephone support to be free – some companies do charge for that, though if they do then you should expect that their email support is faster than the average.

Do some research around the Web. There are many forums, blogs and message groups that discuss web hosting. See what sort of reputation the company you are considering has amongst users. Remember though that people complain far more easily than they compliment – don’t let one user sour you on a company that otherwise has good reports.

The operating system that is used by the web host may matter to you. There are two choices, either Unix/ Linux based or Windows based. For some, either choice would be fine, as the end-result will be identical. However, if for instance your database used MS Access, then a Windows based server would be a better choice for you. Similarly a database created using MySQL would be better hosted on a Linux server. Since Linux is free, web hosts that offer this are normally cheaper than the Windows servers. By the way, don’t let the type of software used to develop your site influence your choice – sites built using Front Page will run happily on Linux servers. However, it may be easier to write and test scripts on a machine that runs the same type of software as the server that runs the scripts.

Check what the company claims as its uptime, usually expressed as a percentage. Beware – some companies will claim that their uptime is the time that the server is powered on, rather than the time that the server is actually connected to the Internet.

Take a close look at their web site. See how responsive it is – if the hosting company’s own web site seems slow and sluggish, that does not bode well for yours. Look at the design and lay-out – does it look professional, or is it full of misspellings, mistakes and dead links. If so, it may show a lack of professionalism that may carry through the entire company.

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You cannot operate a website free in many places, but you can limit your spending.  The cost of training is a must.  There is free online training.  And you make pay thousands for some.  I purchased one of those thousand dollar courses online.  They forget about you when your money is all paid up.   And your website still has not made a sale.  Most gurus make their money teaching you, not off their websites.

Next, you will need to find a name for your website.  Keyword research is next.  There are other articles to explore this topic.  For this article, we will be concerned about getting the name.  The name has two parts and is referred to as a domain name.   The extension is like the dot com you hear all the time.  The other part is the address.   One of the best places to purchase your domain name is Go Daddy .   What makes them so different from other providers you may ask?  Good question.  First of all, they have sales more often on the most popular extensions.  The dot net and dot info and the like extensions can be found cheaply on many sites.  But check out the prices on the com and co.  Go Daddy will put the competitors in the dirt every time.  Many true website gurus have told me the big search engines favor the com and co extensions. 

We have the domain name.  The domain name does not have to be parked at Go Daddy.  You may move the domain name.  That’s another reason for Go Daddy.  They allow the name to move.  Shopping for a hosting site is next.  Host Gator seems to be preferred by many website gurus.  Host Gator features the Baby Plan.  What is so great about it?  Less than seven dollars a month is the current charge.  You get unlimited domains, unlimited disk space and unlimited band width.  I have another website that costs me over ten dollars a month just for the one spot.  You can buy 500 domain names from Go Daddy and park them here for the same one monthly fee.   You can have 10,000 domain names there with no increase.  Yes, all 10,000 domains for one fee.   And you may install blogs for them and use the traffic software free.   I currently have ten domains with websites and two blogs attached per domain.  I could add ten more per website if I want.

It is a great start to making your websites profitable.  Good luck!

There will be certain costs to operate a website.  The cost of training is a must.  There is free online training.  And you make pay thousands for some.  I personally purchased such a personalized training course.  After they receive your money, you are nothing.  You do all you are told to do and have a rotten website to show for it.  Most gurus make their money teaching you, not off their websites.

What are you going to call your website?  You next will do keyword research.  That is a whole other topic to be covered in other articles.  We will just cover the part after you have determined your website’s name.  The name has two parts and is referred to as a domain name.   There is an address and extension you probably know as the now famous dot com.   Go Daddy is a very good place to purchase your domain name.   Why are they different from other providers?  Fair question.  The most popular extensions are on sale more consistently on Go Daddy.  The dot net and dot info and the like extensions can be found cheaply on many sites.  Go to such a site.  Compare their prices on the co and com extensions.  Big difference.  Now compare Go Daddy prices on the same extensions.  Many true website gurus have told me the big search engines favor the com and co extensions. 

Domain name is set.  The domain name does not have to be parked at Go Daddy.  The domain name can travel.  That’s another reason for Go Daddy.  They allow the name to move.  Shopping for a hosting site is next.  I consistently hear website gurus recommending Host Gator.  Host Gator features the Baby Plan.  Why should I choose it?  Less than seven dollars a month is the current charge.  You get unlimited domains, unlimited disk space and unlimited band width.  I have another website that costs me over ten dollars a month just for the one spot.  You can buy 500 domain names from Go Daddy and park them here for the same one monthly fee.   You can have 10,000 domain names there with no increase.  Yes, all 500 domains for one fee.   And the blogs for each website are free.   Traffic data is free.   I currently have ten domains with websites and two blogs attached per domain.  I could add ten more per website if I want.

It is a great start to making your websites profitable.  Good luck!

You cannot operate a website free in many places, but you can limit your spending.  The cost of training is a must.  Free to thousands of dollars is about the range of online training available.  I admit it.  I was sucked into one of those thousand dollar courses.  They forget about you when your money is all paid up.   And your website still has not made a sale.  Most money made by gurus is teaching you, not off their websites.

It is time to name your website.  Keyword research covered by other articles should be explored.  You are just concerned for our purposes of obtaining the actual name.  The name has two parts and is referred to as a domain name.   There is an address and extension you probably know as the now famous dot com.   Domain names are great to purchase on Go Daddy.   What makes them so different from other providers you may ask?  Good question.  Go Daddy has sales more often and more consistently on the most popular extensions.  The dot net and dot info and the like extensions can be found cheaply on many sites.  Go to such a site.  Compare their prices on the co and com extensions.  Big difference.  Now compare Go Daddy prices on the same extensions.  Com and co extensions consistently add ranking points to your site by the big search engines. 

Domain name is set.  The place you purchase the domain name is not necessarily where you want to park it.  The domain name can travel.  That’s another reason for Go Daddy.  They allow the name to move.  Let’s go hosting site shopping.  I consistently hear website gurus recommending Host Gator.  Host Gator features the Baby Plan.  Why should I choose it?  The charge is now less than seven dollars a month.  It is great because you are given unlimited domains, unlimited disk space and unlimited band width.  I have another website that costs me over ten dollars a month just for the one spot.  What this means is that you can buy 500 domain names from Go Daddy and park them here for the same one monthly fee.  Yes, all 500 domains for one fee.   And you may install blogs for them and use the traffic software free.   I currently have ten domains with websites and two blogs attached per domain.  I could add ten more per website if I want.

It is a great start to making your websites profitable.  Good luck!