Build a Small Business Website: Get Web Hosting

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Build a Small Business Website Get Web Hosting From Jennifer Kyrnin, your Guide to Web Design / HTML Getting a domain name is just the beginning. Just because you have the address doesn't mean that you have any space at that address to store your Web pages. For this you need Web hosting. The easiest way to get Web hosting is to use the hosting provided by your Domain registrar. Then you don't have to worry about where the domain is pointing, the registrar will handle it all for you. But if you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket, or you think you're going to need more features than your registrar's hosting offers, then you'll need to get a Web hosting provider. As with your domain name, you'll need to spend a little money on your Web hosting. While there are lots of free Web hosts available, the benefits in security, support, and freedom from advertising make a paid host important to a small business. You can expect to spend something like $10-30 per month on Web hosting. Help With This Class This class is sent as an email message with text and links. For best results, you should read the entire email message and then follow the headline links in order in the message. Feel free to browse within the site. When you feel you have enough information from the Web page(s), come back to this email and go to the next link. There are many more articles and information on the website than can be included in this class. Lost Lessons If you didn't receive a lesson you can go to http://webdesign.about.com/c/ec/110lost.htm to get it resent to you. This URL will be included in every email for the class. To stop receiving the class, scroll to the bottom of any lesson email and click on the unsubscribe link. Differences Between a Domain and a Web Host What is Web Hosting To use a real estate analogy, the domain name is the postal address of your website. The Web hosting is the actual house. In real estate, it is possible to put your house onto a truck and move it to another postal address. The address is assigned to a fixed place in space. On the Web, your address or domain name isn't fixed. You can point it wherever you want. So, even if you don't get a Web host today, if next year you feel you need to move, you can just get a new host and have your domain point to the new location. Note in the linked article above, I recommend using GeoCities as a hosting provider. This is only for personal websites. I don't recommend using any free Web hosting for small business domains. How to Find a Good Web Host Before You Choose a Web Hosting Service There are many different options you have for Web hosting. Some of them you may already have access to, such as ISP hosting. And don't assume that just because a hosting option is inexpensive or free that you can't run your business on it. It is often possible to point domain names to ISP and free hosting services. Finding a Web Hosting Provider You should think about all the issues around your hosting provider, specifically looking into what you need from a Web host. Price is important, but so are issues like ease-of-use, bandwidth, and space. What Options Are There Types of Web Hosting There are many different types of Web hosting. The most common is standard Web hosting, and that's all most small businesses will need. Differences Between Linux and Windows as a Web Hosting Opera The most commonly used operating system for Web hosting is Linux, but you can put your pages on a Windows host, and there are even some Macintosh Web hosts (although, they are very rare). Learn why you might want one operating system over another. Web Hosting Reviews 10 Best Web Hosting Providers These are the hosting providers that About.com customers like the best. 10 Worst Web Hosting Providers These are the hosting providers that About.com customers like the least. Web Host Reviews You can also read reviews from other About.com customers about various different Web hosting providers. More reviews are added every month. And if you must use free Web hosting, here is a list of some good ones: Free Web Hosting. Next: Get software to edit your pages. This email is written by: Jennifer Kyrnin Web Design / HTML Guide Email Me | My Blog | My Forum   Missing a lesson? Click here. About U. is our collection of free online courses designed to help you learn a new skill, solve a problem, get something done, or just learn more about your world. Sign up now, and we will email you lessons on a daily or weekly basis. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the About.com 'Build a Small Business Website' email. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2010 About.com   Advertisement