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Word count: 589

Summary: When a business owner chooses to move some or all
of their marketing to the Internet, choosing a hosting
service can be a major production. This article gives
new domain owners a look at what is truly important.

==========================================================
Choosing a Hosting Service: A Primer

For a website to appear on the Internet, you require a
“server” that is usually provided by a web hosting company.
Hosting companies are paid monthly, quarterly or yearly.
Some companies come with guarantees, too. Recommendations
from other business owners and web designers are excellent
ways to find a good hosting service.

One of the primary features I recommend is that the hosting
companies can grow with you. If they only offer one package,
and you need more, your web site maybe down for up
to 2 days and/or you may have to change the code on
any forms you use to match the new “server settings”.

Don’t be afraid to read a hosting service’s subscriber
information, FAQs (frequently asked questions), note areas
or bulletin boards on their sites.

A good hosting company offers as many of these basics as
possible:

o This is a hosting company I can easily afford.

o They offer a Money Back Guarantee.

o They have information on their site about server
uptime/downtime.

o The company contacts me, at my primary email
address, when/if there are any server problems.
(Could be problems when they’re updating their server,
hurricanes, etc.)

o They offer your own IP address
http://postmaster.aol.com/info/ipexpl.html

o They provide at least 5 POP email accounts
(example yourname@...)
Your email accounts should include Alias Accounts, which
look like a POP account to the person sending you an email;
however, the address is actually an “alias” that's forwarded
to any other email account you choose. And when you send an
email back to the original sender, it is the forwarding
email account, NOT the yourname@... that the
sender receives.

o There is a Web-based Email system (a place for you to read
your email online). If not, my favorite is www.e-mol.com

o An easy system for email forwarding (and vacation notice) capability.

o 24-hour customer service, by phone, even if it’s a long distance call, is
best!

o 50 mg space (the space you need for a 100 page website
with each page being approx. 8x11)

o 2 Gig Data Transfer/month (this will be enough for quite
a while!)

o Front Page Extensions – only necessary if you create a web
site with MS Front Page

o Cgi/PHP/MySQL (or asp availability). Check with your
designer to see what you’ll require for forms to be
created).

o Easy Control Panel: This feature is especially important
if you want to maintain your site or have someone else
easily maintain it. It's the one place to visit when making
changes to your site, add addresses, etc

o Statistics - Does your hosting companies plan include
monthly and yearly statistics on each of your web pages?
Will you know how someone found each of your web pages?

o Secure server, Shopping cart (and other things you’ll need
to set up a merchant account system)

o Server type: The type of server a hosting company you
choose, should take into consideration the programs you will
run for things like your shopping cart, affiliate program,
web site pages, etc. If you're using ASP, JSP, PHP, CGI,
PL, or CSS, these programs will influence the choice of a
server and vice-versa. Your hosting service may use Windows
(which for example accepts ASP but not PHP), Linux or
Unix-based (Apache/FreeBSD/etc.) servers.

o Password Protection – If you have plans to create a
membership are or client’s only area of your site, this is
something to consider.

o Newsletter or announcement list

o Auto-responders (not usually available on very low cost
hosting packages)


Special thanks to wise-women.org and
HTML-on-the-WEB@yahoogroups.com for some assistance with
this list.


© 2004 Maria Marsala, Business Builder and former Wall
Street Trader. "Powering-UP service busine$$es and
their owners". Providing articles, tips, classes, and
resources for owners of service businesses. Learn
more at http://www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com