Choosing an Internet Web Site Hosting Provider

While you can get free web site hosting, doing so is short-sighted, and a poor choice for an internet business, especially since you are only saving about $10 a month or less.   Using a free web site hosting plan will give your business a "cheap" look, and can cost you in other ways.   Affordable web site hosting is readily available, and the choices numerous.   There are several things to think about when deciding on a web site hosting provider:

• It doesn't matter where the web site hosting service is physically located. There is some minor advantage to using a hosting service that is physically close to one of the large internet "hubs", but for most of us, this is not really a consideraton.



• Just because a company designed your web site doesn't mean they should be your web site hosting provider. Some companies offer great site design but have poor customer service and are not prepared to handle technical questions.



• Your web site hosting provider need not be affiliated with your Domain Name Registrar. It's as simple as that. The two are unrelated. Most hosting providers offer domain name registration, but you need not use the same host and registrar. I keep all of my domain names with one registrar, but use several different hosting companies .
  
  
• Insist upon affordable web site hosting. You should not need to pay more than $10 a month for hosting a basic site. I pay $25 for one account because I can actually host several sites on separate domains with one account there. My sites are hosted for around $5 to $8 per month each.



• Look for a generous bandwidth allowance. A web hosting service may give a great deal on price, but give you so small a bandwidth allowance that as soon as you start to get any significant traffic, you outgrow your allowance and they can nail you for additional monthly charges that can really add up.

Recommended Web Site Hosting Providers

Third Sphere is the web site hosting service for Emarketingman.com and a couple of my other web sites.   You can host multiple sites on one account and not exceed their very generous bandwidth allowance. Third Sphere has one of the most attractive hosting packages out there. Their plan includes both single and sequential autoresponders, a web-based HTML editor, tons of scripts, a shopping cart that integrates seamlessly with most of the online credit card processors, self-expiring download pages, and tons more. The monthly fee may sound a bit high at first, but when you consider all the extras you're getting, and no longer have to pay for, plus their generous affiliate program which pays you for any hosting accounts you refer to them, this is really an incredible bargain. This is my hands down favorite web site hosting plan for e-commerce sites of any kind, or for operating multiple sites.

EZ Web Site Hosting is run by the man who introduced me to all the nitty gritty on internet businesses, and he's been in business online for many years. Sign up for one year of hosting and get a free domain name and free online "site studio" web site builder. They also have 60 scripts that you can install to your site in a matter of minutes.   Among the most unique things I've seen in hosting is their "rollover bandwidth" policy. If you don't use up your bandwidth allowance in a given month, it carries over to subsequent months. How cool is that? I haven't seen that offered by any other internet web site hosting service.

Infinology web site hosting provider is a very highly rated hosting company that is noted for both its customer service and high reliability. Generous allowances for storage and bandwidth and an extremely competitive price make this a logical choice.   Infinology is always highly rated in user polls, often ranked #1. You can't go wrong here.   I use Infinology to host my online bookstore at www.best-biz-builders.com

Lunar Pages offers an affordable web site hosting plan and ranks nearly as highly as Infinology on most user polls and independent reviews.   As with the other hosts mentioned here, generous bandwidth and storage allowances are available at very competitive prices, and both reliability and customer service are first-class. You will not go wrong here, either. This is top- notch, professional hosting at very competitive prices.