To get your website up and running in web hosting is required. This doesn’t mean that your web host has to actually be IN your town, in fact few web hosting companies actually are. Usually smaller companies will buy what’s called “reseller” web hosting, which as the name implies, allows them to “resell” the larger hosting company’s space under a private label.

I recommend these two:

• Midphase Cpanel
• ThinkHost 100% uptime guarantee

They are both excellent from my experience. Midphase uses Cpanel which is awesome, and Thinkhost offers a 100% uptime guarantee and runs on only green energy.

Web Hosting Explained

Look at your website as a bunch of text files with code on them on your personal computer. In order for those file to be visible on the Internet, they need to be transferred to a special computer that CAN be viewed on the Internet. Commonly called “servers”.

Companies offer you access to their “servers” so that your files can be “seen,” or “served up” on the Internet. Every time another computer views your files on these servers, data is transferred from the server to that computer viewing the files, allowing them to “see” the files the server has “served up” to them. This is “bandwidth”.

The more computers accessing the files on the server, the more data is being transferred, or the more “bandwidth” is being used.

Important Web Hosting Considerations

Key things to know about web hosting:

• Uptime
• Compatibility & Scalability
• Support

Web Hosting Uptime

The thing to worry about with web hosting is “downtime”. Downtime is, as it implies time in which for one reason or another your files are not accessible on that server. Lately this has also been referred to as “uptime,” which represents the amount of time they are “up” rather than the amount of time they down. You would want a host that has a verifiable “uptime” of 99.9% or higher.

Because we are in business, and downtime means we can’t get our information to our customers or visitors, we need to avoid downtime at all costs. So it is important that whichever Reno Web Hosting company you choose have as little downtime as possible.

Hosting Compatibility & Scalability

Another important thing to consider is compatibility. Some webhosting companies use a proprietary control panel. This means their control panel is specific to them and uses it’s own system.

I have learned this is a huge consideration. I have had to change web hosts many times, and have come to realize that proprietary means pain-in-the-rear when it’s time to move to a new host.

Cpanel is the most widely used server control panel on the web. It’s user friendly, but there is a learning curve, just like there is with any control panel. The difference is, once you learn this one, it will work the same on any other webhost you ever use that uses Cpanel. If you ever need to transfer, usually the new host will do it for you for free if your current site is hosted on a server that uses Cpanel. This process is called “migration”.

Web Hosting Support

Other than the obvious considerations like space and bandwidth, uptime, and compatibility, support has to be mentioned and is arguably the most important. Anyone that has any experience with web hosting will tell you support can make any hosting experience painless or a nightmare.

You want to have options. Ideally, your web hosting company will have multiple ways for you to contact them for support should you need help or if something goes wrong. Good hosts will have live chat, phone, email, and a support desk where you can fill out a ticket.

Hopefully, you will never need support, and if you do, you will usually only end up using one of these options, but it demonstrates a commitment to customer service for a host to have them all. Of course, they actually have to answer their phones, chats and tickets for these options to mean anything, so it’s always a good idea to try at least one of the options for a few pre-sale questions before you buy, just to check out the hosts response time and attitude toward your questions.

Finding a Web Hosting Company

If you are doing or hoping to do business online web hosting should be no more than $10 a month for the typical website. Hopefully the guidelines above can help you to make a good choice for your website’s home.

If you are having me build your website, I have to recommend Midphase. Overall, using Cpanel will pay dividends in the long run.

What Is Web Hosting is a post from: Small Business internet Marketing Done-For-You

It’s kind of amazing, but I still meet lots of small local business owners who don’t think the Internet is crucial for their success. “I’m just a small local business. I don’t think the Internet is necessarily the right place for me to focus my marketing efforts.” I’m still hearing this sentiment from many a small local business owner.

Hey, I was one of those people for almost a year with my own business. And I’ve set my stall out as a small business marketing guy.

Listen, whether you’re trying to get people’s attention from half-way around the world or just half-way around the block, you need to consider the power the Internet has on local businesses. More and more people are turning to the Internet BEFORE (or in lieu of ever) turning to the yellow pages. That’s true even when they’re looking for things in their own town.

It’s a place where people go to begin gathering information to make a decision. It’s the place where people prefer to start when someone has made a referral or recommendation. It’s the place people would generally prefer to go after they’ve met you at a networking event and were interested enough to know more.

The Internet is not going away. In fact, the trends show us that it’s becoming a more and more integral part of the communication media we depend on. Anybody notice how interested the cable companies, phone companies, and cell phone service companies have become in putting out products and services that work with the Internet?

Are you fully leveraging the power of the Internet with your marketing efforts yet? Do you have a web site? Email newsletter? Blog? Podcast? Vlog?

Does the mere mention of all these terms intimidate and overwhelm you? Don’t let it.

You don’t have to do all of these things at once. Make this the year that you begin leveraging the Internet to grow your small local business.

But, the power of the Internet is something you simply can’t ignore if you really want to take your small business to great new heights. Make a commitment to learn more about this powerful, ever changing medium called the Internet. And then pull out your marketing plan and figure out how to make it fit into your strategy.

Local Business Internet Marketing is a post from: Small Business internet Marketing Done-For-You