With thousands of website hosts out there, it can often be hard to choose the one that will work best for you. With a little bit of work, however, you can pick out the perfect host.
Focus on Your Needs
What is your website going to do? Do you need a lot of storage space and bandwidth? Or can you get by with just a little? Do you need email addresses @yourdomain.com? Or are you going to use a Yahoo! Mail account (or similar)? What about databases, and spam filters, and website builders?
Develop a list of all the features your site will use - this list will be your key to finding a website host that fits you. On this list, you also might want to include those things that you think your site will need in the not-too-distant future. While it's not as hard as it used to be, switching web hosts can still be pretty complicated.
What Kind of User Are You?
Next, you'll want to determine what kind of user you are. Are you new to the Internet? If so, 24/7 phone support may be best for you. If you're a power user, however, you can probably do just fine with a host that offers only email or ticket support. The more you know, the less you'll have to be in touch with your hosting company. Just make sure that there is indeed a way to get in touch with your hosting company if you need to. If you can't find any contact information on the host's site, this is a red flag and you should probably stay away.
You'll also want to make sure that you will receive a response from your host in a timely fashion - having to wait two or three days just to get an email back is ridiculous. Make sure that your host offers a response-time guarantee somewhere on its site, before you sign up with them. If you can't find it listed on their site, contact them and see how long it takes for them to respond. The ideal response time is a few hours - the absolute maximum amount of time it should take is a day.
Your Budget
How much can you afford to spend for your hosting account? As it is with buying anything else, you get what you pay for. That $1.95-a-month host may offer a really great value, but will they be there for you when you need them? Many of the ultra-low-priced website hosts are not turning a profit, and have not been in business very long - and probably won't be for much longer. To check and see how long your host has been around, enter their domain name here: www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jhtml. The Registration Date field shows when the domain name was registered, so you can tell how long they've been around.
That's not to say that every low-priced host lacks. HostGator and Site5 both have many happy clients and offer prices around the $6.95-a-month price point. And you can find good website hosts that offer service for $3.95-a-month or $4.95-a-month. But I don't recommend going any lower than that. Judging by posts on online communities such as WebHostingTalk, going with a cheap host just does not pay.
Reliability
Another important thing to find out is the uptime of any of the hosts you're looking at. Many hosts have an uptime guarantee that is usually around 99.9%. One thing you need to be aware of, however, is that this uptime guarantee does not apply to attacks such as Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks, or to acts of God. What these uptime guarantees do cover are things like hardware failure and server operating system crashes. If you can't find specific uptime information on a host's website, call them or email them and see if they'll share this information with you - if they do not, move on to someone else.
Where to Look for a Host
Now that we've covered the basic points of what to look for in a web host, it's time to talk about where you go to find the perfect host for you. There are many sites available for this, such as WebHostDir.com, TheHostingNews.com , etc. You can also conduct a Google search for 'website host' or 'website host directory'. In addition, visit a forum such as WebHostingTalk to see what other folks are saying about different website hosts. Many users come to WebHostingTalk to post both positive and negative reviews of their hosts.
Conclusion
The main thing is to pick a web host that you are comfortable with and that works well for you. You'll know when you've found the one that's right for you - it will meet your website requirements, you'll feel comfortable with its support, you'll know you can afford it, you will have confirmed its reliability, and you'll know that its other clients are satisfied as well.
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Ten Crucial Principles in Web Site Designing
Designing a website is not as easy as most people think it is , the concept that web site designing is relatively easy and you can do any thing with front page and dream weaver is unrealistic, you mustn't forget to follow the important basic steps.
Designing a website is a lot more than just knowing hypertext markup language or Ms Front Page. When it comes to your website, additional care and attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are ten crucial guidelines to observe to make sure your website performs well.
1 - Good Design or website theme/ template
Your website is the hub of your internet business enterprise; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like they could if they were dealing with an offline company.
Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good design comes in. If your site is designed shabbily and looks like a five minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not a professional person and you do not care about quality.
2 - Avoid Broken Links
If your website is full of broken links, it damages your web site credibility. broken links annoy visitors and look very unprofessional. But broken links to your site (called back links) can hurt you too. The time you spend building up "link popularity" is wasted.
3 - Avoid Irrelevant Contents
The content of your web site should be consistent. Although the World Wide Web has a lot of important non-textual, more graphical uses, most people who use it spend an overwhelming amount of their online time reading. So well written, well edited quality content are all important for the success of any website.
4 - Don't use Animated or still splash pages
Splash pages are the 1st page you see when you reach a website's home page. They commonly have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter".
As a matter of fact, they're simply that -- pretty vases with no real function. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
5 - Always provide simple / uncomplicated and clean website navigation
When you are designing a web page always keep in mind to offer a simple / uncomplicated and very straight forward website navigation menu so that even a newbie or a young child will know how to navigate to your website.
Never use complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors do not know how to navigate, they'll leave your website, Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means "abandon ship"! And always make a site map for the website.
6 - Avoid Page Counters.
Of course you must be concerned about traffic of your Web site, but Page counters, especially offsite counters, do not tell you anything useful. The page counter is of limited use to the reader and you can get the same information from the website stats option in your hosting control panel.
7 - Don't use unreasonable banner and text links for affiliates
Never make your web site a link farm, especially the home page. One or in some cases two banner ads are more than enough for the home page. So Instead of putting dozens of banners and text links on a single page, provide more valuable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.
8 - Avoid Excessive Javascript and pop up ads on your site
Roll over or other javascripts is your choice and your taste, I do not believe they do much for the user experience. With excessive javascript google spider always finds it difficult to crawl the pages. About pop ups - I will only say it’s the most annoying invention since blink tag.
9 - Avoid using music / audio and Flash on your site
If everybody is using T1 Line or at least one mbps data transfer then feel free to make flash sites. It will not scare your visitors away but for 56 kbps try to avoid flash pages.
About Music - If your visitors are going to stay a long time at your website, reading your content, you'll need to make sure they are not annoyed by some audio looping on and on, on your web site. Unless your site itself is music related, do not make the user jump for the volume controls. They might be at home with someone asleep in the room. Or worse, at work.
If you live and die for music, let the default be without music and let the user choose to activate the music / audio.
10 - A Few small things to consider before publishing the web page.
a - A web page must load in 10 sec or max 20 sec for 56 kbps
b - A web page should have no more than 30 kb in text and 30 kb in graphics.
c - HEAD, TITLE and META exists and must be filled out properly.
d - I must add - keep your pets away from your website. A picture of your Dalmatian is all very good on your 360, my space or any other blogs, but it will not look good on your business website.
Designing a website is a lot more than just knowing hypertext markup language or Ms Front Page. When it comes to your website, additional care and attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are ten crucial guidelines to observe to make sure your website performs well.
1 - Good Design or website theme/ template
Your website is the hub of your internet business enterprise; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like they could if they were dealing with an offline company.
Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good design comes in. If your site is designed shabbily and looks like a five minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not a professional person and you do not care about quality.
2 - Avoid Broken Links
If your website is full of broken links, it damages your web site credibility. broken links annoy visitors and look very unprofessional. But broken links to your site (called back links) can hurt you too. The time you spend building up "link popularity" is wasted.
3 - Avoid Irrelevant Contents
The content of your web site should be consistent. Although the World Wide Web has a lot of important non-textual, more graphical uses, most people who use it spend an overwhelming amount of their online time reading. So well written, well edited quality content are all important for the success of any website.
4 - Don't use Animated or still splash pages
Splash pages are the 1st page you see when you reach a website's home page. They commonly have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter".
As a matter of fact, they're simply that -- pretty vases with no real function. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
5 - Always provide simple / uncomplicated and clean website navigation
When you are designing a web page always keep in mind to offer a simple / uncomplicated and very straight forward website navigation menu so that even a newbie or a young child will know how to navigate to your website.
Never use complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors do not know how to navigate, they'll leave your website, Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means "abandon ship"! And always make a site map for the website.
6 - Avoid Page Counters.
Of course you must be concerned about traffic of your Web site, but Page counters, especially offsite counters, do not tell you anything useful. The page counter is of limited use to the reader and you can get the same information from the website stats option in your hosting control panel.
7 - Don't use unreasonable banner and text links for affiliates
Never make your web site a link farm, especially the home page. One or in some cases two banner ads are more than enough for the home page. So Instead of putting dozens of banners and text links on a single page, provide more valuable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.
8 - Avoid Excessive Javascript and pop up ads on your site
Roll over or other javascripts is your choice and your taste, I do not believe they do much for the user experience. With excessive javascript google spider always finds it difficult to crawl the pages. About pop ups - I will only say it’s the most annoying invention since blink tag.
9 - Avoid using music / audio and Flash on your site
If everybody is using T1 Line or at least one mbps data transfer then feel free to make flash sites. It will not scare your visitors away but for 56 kbps try to avoid flash pages.
About Music - If your visitors are going to stay a long time at your website, reading your content, you'll need to make sure they are not annoyed by some audio looping on and on, on your web site. Unless your site itself is music related, do not make the user jump for the volume controls. They might be at home with someone asleep in the room. Or worse, at work.
If you live and die for music, let the default be without music and let the user choose to activate the music / audio.
10 - A Few small things to consider before publishing the web page.
a - A web page must load in 10 sec or max 20 sec for 56 kbps
b - A web page should have no more than 30 kb in text and 30 kb in graphics.
c - HEAD, TITLE and META exists and must be filled out properly.
d - I must add - keep your pets away from your website. A picture of your Dalmatian is all very good on your 360, my space or any other blogs, but it will not look good on your business website.
Are you searching for PHP web hosting?
Are you searching for PHP web hosting? If so, you probably have a website that calls for this type of hosting. But for some people, it can be more difficult than they thought to find a good PHP web hosting provider.
This is not always the case, but it is something that you should be prepared for. When it comes down to it, not all PHP web hosting companies are the same. You will find that some offer better response, more features, and much more. As you can imagine, you want to get set up with the host that is going to give you the best deal for your money.
So what should you look for when it comes to PHP web hosting? Although a lot of this has to do with what your website is calling for, there are some basic features that most webmasters do not want to overlook; not even if you are a newbie.
First off, take a look at what your PHP web hosting provider is offering in the way of disk space. You need to make sure that you get enough space to suit the type of website you are building. For most people, anywhere from 15 to 30 GB of disk space should do the job. But of course, this is solely up to you based on your needs.
Of course, bandwidth transfer is also important when shopping for PHP web hosting. You may be overdoing it with anything more than 500 GB, but you will never know until you actually have your site up and running.
When shopping for PHP web hosting you should also consider some of the smaller details as well. For instance, how many domains can you host on the same account? If you have more than one website, you may need to the ability to host them all in the same place.
You should now have a better idea of what to look for from a PHP web hosting provider.
This is not always the case, but it is something that you should be prepared for. When it comes down to it, not all PHP web hosting companies are the same. You will find that some offer better response, more features, and much more. As you can imagine, you want to get set up with the host that is going to give you the best deal for your money.
So what should you look for when it comes to PHP web hosting? Although a lot of this has to do with what your website is calling for, there are some basic features that most webmasters do not want to overlook; not even if you are a newbie.
First off, take a look at what your PHP web hosting provider is offering in the way of disk space. You need to make sure that you get enough space to suit the type of website you are building. For most people, anywhere from 15 to 30 GB of disk space should do the job. But of course, this is solely up to you based on your needs.
Of course, bandwidth transfer is also important when shopping for PHP web hosting. You may be overdoing it with anything more than 500 GB, but you will never know until you actually have your site up and running.
When shopping for PHP web hosting you should also consider some of the smaller details as well. For instance, how many domains can you host on the same account? If you have more than one website, you may need to the ability to host them all in the same place.
You should now have a better idea of what to look for from a PHP web hosting provider.
Low Cost Web Hosting
If you are an individual who wants to show off your interests, special qualities, hobbies, e.t.c. to your friends or anybody outside; then it is the best idea to go for a low cost web hosting or even a free web hosting.
Even for small businesses, low cost web hosting would be the best option to get the maximum exposure for their company, their products and their services. As we all know web hosting is the must for any type of business whether it is small or big. But putting in huge amounts in web hosting for smaller or start up companies is not viable in the most cases and hence cheap web hosting is the great solution for this problem.
Also if it's your first website, a personal page or many other factors you may choose to go the lost cost web hosting route. In order to have a good website though, there are some things you need to be aware of and look for in a low cost web hosting provider. They are:
1. Storage:
Especially if you want images with your low cost web hosting solution, storage is important. Many low cost hosting services are free for the first 10mb and then start billing you in order to get more storage. Find a host that has at least 50mb of storage so that you don't risk running out. While 50 MB might not sound like a lot, many of the sites you visit each day likely aren't much larger then that in size. For starting out this is more then adequate space.
2. Advertisements
Being a low cost web hosting solution, the ISPs some how have to make money, so ads are expected. Lots of low cost web hosting solutions though go overboard with Popup and float-ins, as well as banner ads and plenty more. Try and find a low cost web hosting provider that has non obtrusive advertising. Generally the number of ads goes hand in hand with just how low the price is. So a Dollar a month web hosting or free hosting you can expect a lot of ads.
In short, you need to find a safe low cost web hosting solution that provides you with plenty of storage and no over the top advertising. This way you are ensured to have pleasant experience having your site with low cost web hosting. Also don't forget it's not just your experience but those of your visitors as well, if you're limited to what you can have on your site, or there are hundreds of ads flying at your visitors screen, you'll have a hard time stopping them from clicking the back button.
Even for small businesses, low cost web hosting would be the best option to get the maximum exposure for their company, their products and their services. As we all know web hosting is the must for any type of business whether it is small or big. But putting in huge amounts in web hosting for smaller or start up companies is not viable in the most cases and hence cheap web hosting is the great solution for this problem.
Also if it's your first website, a personal page or many other factors you may choose to go the lost cost web hosting route. In order to have a good website though, there are some things you need to be aware of and look for in a low cost web hosting provider. They are:
1. Storage:
Especially if you want images with your low cost web hosting solution, storage is important. Many low cost hosting services are free for the first 10mb and then start billing you in order to get more storage. Find a host that has at least 50mb of storage so that you don't risk running out. While 50 MB might not sound like a lot, many of the sites you visit each day likely aren't much larger then that in size. For starting out this is more then adequate space.
2. Advertisements
Being a low cost web hosting solution, the ISPs some how have to make money, so ads are expected. Lots of low cost web hosting solutions though go overboard with Popup and float-ins, as well as banner ads and plenty more. Try and find a low cost web hosting provider that has non obtrusive advertising. Generally the number of ads goes hand in hand with just how low the price is. So a Dollar a month web hosting or free hosting you can expect a lot of ads.
In short, you need to find a safe low cost web hosting solution that provides you with plenty of storage and no over the top advertising. This way you are ensured to have pleasant experience having your site with low cost web hosting. Also don't forget it's not just your experience but those of your visitors as well, if you're limited to what you can have on your site, or there are hundreds of ads flying at your visitors screen, you'll have a hard time stopping them from clicking the back button.
An Introduction to Domain Names
Simply put, a domain name is a "front" - they are word sequences users enter in their browser’s location bar to visit your site, but are not a Web site's true address.
Domain names are attached to DNS (Domain Naming System) servers, which are used to translate numeric addresses (known as IP, or Internet Protocol, addresses) into words. Each site you visit on the net has a numeric IP address behind its name, which represents the site's true address on the Internet.
Domain names are typically categorized by their extension, which is their identifying code. The three most popular types of Top Level Domains (TLDs), which are domains that are not
associated with a country, are:
.COM: Short for .commercial. Domain names with the .com extension are by far the most popular, and can be purchased by any individual or business. .
.NET: Short for .network, this domain extension was originally designed to be used by technical Web sites. However, domains using this extension can be registered by anyone.
.ORG: Short for .organization. Originally designated for non-profit firms and any other organizations that did not fit under the .com or .net extension, any individual or business may now register a .org domain name.
Country Level Domains
Domain names can also be assigned using country extensions. Each country has its own domain extension; Canada, for example, is .ca, while Japan has been assigned .jp. Most countries have specific rules surrounding exactly who can register domains using their extension and for what purpose; it’s therefore important to look before you leap.
Alternative Domain Names
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for the administration of TLDs worldwide, recently approved several new extensions that are not specific to any country. These are:
* .areo
* .biz
* .coop
* .info
* .museum
* .name
* .pro
Each has been designed for a specific use, and is accompanied by certain restrictions. You can find more information about these TLDs here: http://www.icann.org/tlds/
Other Domain Extensions
In searching for your domain name, you may encounter Web sites offering extensions like .xxx, .free and .mp3. These are not true extensions endorsed by ICANN; rather, they rely on software solutions to guarantee their accessibility to users. Because ICANN has not approved any of these extensions, however, users that do not have the correct software cannot access sites using these names; therefore, they should be used for supplemental purposes only.
Although .com, .net and .org are typically the most visible and talked-about extensions, they are not the only ones available for use. From a functional perspective, country-level domains work just as well as any TLDs, and alternative extensions work just as well. Therefore, don’t necessarily settle for a mediocre TLD when you can get a better one using a different extension.
Domain names are attached to DNS (Domain Naming System) servers, which are used to translate numeric addresses (known as IP, or Internet Protocol, addresses) into words. Each site you visit on the net has a numeric IP address behind its name, which represents the site's true address on the Internet.
Domain names are typically categorized by their extension, which is their identifying code. The three most popular types of Top Level Domains (TLDs), which are domains that are not
associated with a country, are:
.COM: Short for .commercial. Domain names with the .com extension are by far the most popular, and can be purchased by any individual or business. .
.NET: Short for .network, this domain extension was originally designed to be used by technical Web sites. However, domains using this extension can be registered by anyone.
.ORG: Short for .organization. Originally designated for non-profit firms and any other organizations that did not fit under the .com or .net extension, any individual or business may now register a .org domain name.
Country Level Domains
Domain names can also be assigned using country extensions. Each country has its own domain extension; Canada, for example, is .ca, while Japan has been assigned .jp. Most countries have specific rules surrounding exactly who can register domains using their extension and for what purpose; it’s therefore important to look before you leap.
Alternative Domain Names
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for the administration of TLDs worldwide, recently approved several new extensions that are not specific to any country. These are:
* .areo
* .biz
* .coop
* .info
* .museum
* .name
* .pro
Each has been designed for a specific use, and is accompanied by certain restrictions. You can find more information about these TLDs here: http://www.icann.org/tlds/
Other Domain Extensions
In searching for your domain name, you may encounter Web sites offering extensions like .xxx, .free and .mp3. These are not true extensions endorsed by ICANN; rather, they rely on software solutions to guarantee their accessibility to users. Because ICANN has not approved any of these extensions, however, users that do not have the correct software cannot access sites using these names; therefore, they should be used for supplemental purposes only.
Although .com, .net and .org are typically the most visible and talked-about extensions, they are not the only ones available for use. From a functional perspective, country-level domains work just as well as any TLDs, and alternative extensions work just as well. Therefore, don’t necessarily settle for a mediocre TLD when you can get a better one using a different extension.
Choosing a Free Web Host for Your Business
What's On Offer - An Overview
You are running a business. Perhaps you want to test the waters before shelling out large sums of money to set up your commercial web-site. Or perhaps you simply want to save as much money as possible. Whatever the reason, you have probably at some stage seriously considered using a free web host. If so, then you this overview may go at least some of the way in helping you make your choice.*
All of the hosts surveyed below offer virtual domain hosting, email, and (approx) 20-40mb storage space, along with some version of online forms processing ability (eg through Frontpage extensions or cgi-scripts). Most require banner advertising be placed on users' web-sites, though they do also allow users to upgrade to banner-free hosting for a fee.
These, then, are the commonalties. Now to the differences. What sets these hosts apart, and why would you choose one over the other?
It really depends on your priorities….
If you are seeking support and the opportunity to network with others, your first choices would probably be hypermart.net or bizland.com
Hypermart.net is an "all rounder" [www.hypermart.net], which offers a very full range of site hosting features., including cgi and Frontpage support. It also has a wide range of free support facilities and web-tools.
Bizland.com [www.bizland.com], like hypermart.net, bills itself as a community as well as a web-host. Bizland also provides a free shopping cart.
If you hold a foreign (non-US) domain, then Netfirms (www.netfirms.com) should probably be your first point of call. Netfirms can host any country specific domain name.
If your priority is to set up an online shopping cart and merchant account, then look closely at freemerchant.com [www.freemerchant.com] , which specialises in providing shopping carts for small business merchants. Freemerchant.com also allows users to attach free shopping cart functionality to their existing web-sites. It does not require banner ads -- a big plus. On the other hand, the reliance on templates for developing sites can limit the ability to customise the design of one's site
All of the hosts we have mentioned so far are Unix-based. If you, on the other hand, prefer working in a Windows environment, then atfreeweb.com [www.atfreeweb.com] is seriously worth considering. Notable features include support of Active Server Pages and Frontpage extensions.
Free Hosting - What to Watch Out For
We have looked at some of the benefits of using a free host, and listed some of the important players in the free hosting market. In this part we will list of some of the major drawbacks of using a free host for your business.
1. Limited Support
Your free host's primary source of income will be their advertisers, and this is where their primary loyalty will lie -- not with the user. In addition to this, many free hosts have lots of users - after all, they need a big user base to support their advertising! So, whatever support services they do offer will probably be thinly spread. These two factors - primary focus on advertising revenue along with a large user base -- mean that you will probably get less support from them than you will get from a host for whom users are the primary revenue source.
2. Unreliability of Software and Servers
Servers may be slower due to the numbers of users hosted, or simply because top quality servers are not a high priority. Email may be unreliable. In such cases, you the user will often will have no rights or recourse.
3. "Fishooks" in the Terms
Many free hosts will limit your use of their servers in ways that could present problems, and in some cases will even terminate your account if it is not used. As an example, hypermart.net's terms state that:
"HyperMart-hosted Web sites are subject to removal if there is no activity (hits or edits) on the site for fifteen (15) days. HyperMart reserves the right to delete any site it deems unacceptable for any reason without prior notice. "
So if no-one visits your site, and you do not edit it, in a 15-day period, tough luck, your account will be removed! This will not do your business any good! And, of course, you have very few rights here - again, the primary loyalty of these free service providers will be the advertiser rather than you, the user.
So, study the host's terms of service closely!
4. Limitations on Use of Web-Space
Most free hosts require that a banner ad be placed at the top of each page on your web-site, and you will have little control over what type of ad is placed. The content of the banner ad may clash with the image your web-site is presenting; and, of course, if obtaining advertising funds of your own is a planned source of revenue, then obviously this banner be a problem for you!
Free hosts will often rule out certain types of trading altogether. For instance, if you plan to resell web-space, or host a banner exchange, you will not be able to use hypermart.net, as its terms of service rule out these uses of its servers. Similarly, if you plan on gaining a large part of your revenue from affiliate programs, or commissions gained from selling other merchants' products, then freemerchant.com is not for you, as it explicitly rules out creating links to affiliates.
In conclusion, if you are running a mission-critical site, free hosts are not the best places to go. (But, then, you probably knew that already!) However, if you are simply testing the waters or experimenting with a site to see whether your business idea works before fully committing to it, then by all means, try a free host - but keep your eyes open!
* Note: Because there is such a huge selection of hosts to choose from, I have been somewhat selective: reviewing only the better-known hosts, or those who can offer something unique which 'sets them apart from the crowd'.
You are running a business. Perhaps you want to test the waters before shelling out large sums of money to set up your commercial web-site. Or perhaps you simply want to save as much money as possible. Whatever the reason, you have probably at some stage seriously considered using a free web host. If so, then you this overview may go at least some of the way in helping you make your choice.*
All of the hosts surveyed below offer virtual domain hosting, email, and (approx) 20-40mb storage space, along with some version of online forms processing ability (eg through Frontpage extensions or cgi-scripts). Most require banner advertising be placed on users' web-sites, though they do also allow users to upgrade to banner-free hosting for a fee.
These, then, are the commonalties. Now to the differences. What sets these hosts apart, and why would you choose one over the other?
It really depends on your priorities….
If you are seeking support and the opportunity to network with others, your first choices would probably be hypermart.net or bizland.com
Hypermart.net is an "all rounder" [www.hypermart.net], which offers a very full range of site hosting features., including cgi and Frontpage support. It also has a wide range of free support facilities and web-tools.
Bizland.com [www.bizland.com], like hypermart.net, bills itself as a community as well as a web-host. Bizland also provides a free shopping cart.
If you hold a foreign (non-US) domain, then Netfirms (www.netfirms.com) should probably be your first point of call. Netfirms can host any country specific domain name.
If your priority is to set up an online shopping cart and merchant account, then look closely at freemerchant.com [www.freemerchant.com] , which specialises in providing shopping carts for small business merchants. Freemerchant.com also allows users to attach free shopping cart functionality to their existing web-sites. It does not require banner ads -- a big plus. On the other hand, the reliance on templates for developing sites can limit the ability to customise the design of one's site
All of the hosts we have mentioned so far are Unix-based. If you, on the other hand, prefer working in a Windows environment, then atfreeweb.com [www.atfreeweb.com] is seriously worth considering. Notable features include support of Active Server Pages and Frontpage extensions.
Free Hosting - What to Watch Out For
We have looked at some of the benefits of using a free host, and listed some of the important players in the free hosting market. In this part we will list of some of the major drawbacks of using a free host for your business.
1. Limited Support
Your free host's primary source of income will be their advertisers, and this is where their primary loyalty will lie -- not with the user. In addition to this, many free hosts have lots of users - after all, they need a big user base to support their advertising! So, whatever support services they do offer will probably be thinly spread. These two factors - primary focus on advertising revenue along with a large user base -- mean that you will probably get less support from them than you will get from a host for whom users are the primary revenue source.
2. Unreliability of Software and Servers
Servers may be slower due to the numbers of users hosted, or simply because top quality servers are not a high priority. Email may be unreliable. In such cases, you the user will often will have no rights or recourse.
3. "Fishooks" in the Terms
Many free hosts will limit your use of their servers in ways that could present problems, and in some cases will even terminate your account if it is not used. As an example, hypermart.net's terms state that:
"HyperMart-hosted Web sites are subject to removal if there is no activity (hits or edits) on the site for fifteen (15) days. HyperMart reserves the right to delete any site it deems unacceptable for any reason without prior notice. "
So if no-one visits your site, and you do not edit it, in a 15-day period, tough luck, your account will be removed! This will not do your business any good! And, of course, you have very few rights here - again, the primary loyalty of these free service providers will be the advertiser rather than you, the user.
So, study the host's terms of service closely!
4. Limitations on Use of Web-Space
Most free hosts require that a banner ad be placed at the top of each page on your web-site, and you will have little control over what type of ad is placed. The content of the banner ad may clash with the image your web-site is presenting; and, of course, if obtaining advertising funds of your own is a planned source of revenue, then obviously this banner be a problem for you!
Free hosts will often rule out certain types of trading altogether. For instance, if you plan to resell web-space, or host a banner exchange, you will not be able to use hypermart.net, as its terms of service rule out these uses of its servers. Similarly, if you plan on gaining a large part of your revenue from affiliate programs, or commissions gained from selling other merchants' products, then freemerchant.com is not for you, as it explicitly rules out creating links to affiliates.
In conclusion, if you are running a mission-critical site, free hosts are not the best places to go. (But, then, you probably knew that already!) However, if you are simply testing the waters or experimenting with a site to see whether your business idea works before fully committing to it, then by all means, try a free host - but keep your eyes open!
* Note: Because there is such a huge selection of hosts to choose from, I have been somewhat selective: reviewing only the better-known hosts, or those who can offer something unique which 'sets them apart from the crowd'.
Why Free Hosting Isn't Really Free
I want to yell at someone or give 'em a good poke in the nose for this! How could they do this to me? What gives them the right to blow off my best customers, to rob me of potential business and make my clients angry at me? How dare they do this!! I'm just fuming and ready to explode! Don't get too close to me right now!
Why I oughtta . . . what? Complain because a free service isn't available? Threaten to sue them for having troubles of their own? Why don't they have backup servers? Well, I guess it's possible that *I* could at least provide a secondary free service to cover my assets. Those clients that planned to spend an hour of their valuable time to chat with me in the first place. Maybe I should have prepared for the worst so I don't have to go apologize to everyone when the free chat services suddenly became unavailable.
OK, so maybe I ought to upgrade that chat room to the premium version, the one that costs a few bucks a month, the one without the advertising banners, the one with the customer service and support. The one that WORKS when I've invited over 3,000 people to come to a Grassroots Internet Marketing Forum and chat!
Maybe this will teach me that you can't rely on free services. What does it cost me to fail to deliver on my promises?
The web has got us all relying on free services to run businesses and expecting those freebies to be trouble free and convenient at all times. I upgraded from the free internet access when I tired of their glaring ads across my web pages. I upgraded from the free autoresponders when they stopped working during a major promotion launched via press releases and direct mail campaigns. *That* cost the good-will of my clients that didn't get responses from me as promised.
I will now upgrade to the paid version of the chat room with all the additional benefits of a paying customer, including the right to complain and lay blame and threaten the provider because they cost me potential new business and lost me those existing clients.
Take a look at the free services you use online and analyze them to see how a failure to perform would affect your bottom line.
How important are those free services you rely on? Are they risks to your business future? Note that 'Terms of Service' on the vast majority of free services online tell you outright that providers have no obligation to serve your needs if there are problems and that you have no recourse should your business fail because the FREE service has it's costs after all.
We all have a budget to work within to operate a site profitably but would it cost you more if that free web host went down than it would cost to pay for your web hosting? If your email doesn't get delivered because your free email account suffers from a system failure, would it hurt your sales or customer relations? If that online fax service stopped working when you were waiting for a big contract from a new client, would you be better off upgrading to the paid version of the service with more benefits?
We'll reschedule that chat, now that we've paid for it -- DOUBLE! Whatcha want fer free? GRRRRRRRR!!!
Why I oughtta . . . what? Complain because a free service isn't available? Threaten to sue them for having troubles of their own? Why don't they have backup servers? Well, I guess it's possible that *I* could at least provide a secondary free service to cover my assets. Those clients that planned to spend an hour of their valuable time to chat with me in the first place. Maybe I should have prepared for the worst so I don't have to go apologize to everyone when the free chat services suddenly became unavailable.
OK, so maybe I ought to upgrade that chat room to the premium version, the one that costs a few bucks a month, the one without the advertising banners, the one with the customer service and support. The one that WORKS when I've invited over 3,000 people to come to a Grassroots Internet Marketing Forum and chat!
Maybe this will teach me that you can't rely on free services. What does it cost me to fail to deliver on my promises?
The web has got us all relying on free services to run businesses and expecting those freebies to be trouble free and convenient at all times. I upgraded from the free internet access when I tired of their glaring ads across my web pages. I upgraded from the free autoresponders when they stopped working during a major promotion launched via press releases and direct mail campaigns. *That* cost the good-will of my clients that didn't get responses from me as promised.
I will now upgrade to the paid version of the chat room with all the additional benefits of a paying customer, including the right to complain and lay blame and threaten the provider because they cost me potential new business and lost me those existing clients.
Take a look at the free services you use online and analyze them to see how a failure to perform would affect your bottom line.
How important are those free services you rely on? Are they risks to your business future? Note that 'Terms of Service' on the vast majority of free services online tell you outright that providers have no obligation to serve your needs if there are problems and that you have no recourse should your business fail because the FREE service has it's costs after all.
We all have a budget to work within to operate a site profitably but would it cost you more if that free web host went down than it would cost to pay for your web hosting? If your email doesn't get delivered because your free email account suffers from a system failure, would it hurt your sales or customer relations? If that online fax service stopped working when you were waiting for a big contract from a new client, would you be better off upgrading to the paid version of the service with more benefits?
We'll reschedule that chat, now that we've paid for it -- DOUBLE! Whatcha want fer free? GRRRRRRRR!!!
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