Home Business Web Site Hosting

A guide to selecting your web host

Your choice of home business web site hosting is a very important step in establishing your online business.

Building an internet business requires first selecting your niche, then registering your domain name. Once you have done both these things, you are ready to move on to selecting your web host.

Your web host will provide two essential services for your home internet business: it will provide hard drive space to store your web pages and associated files, and it will provide bandwidth (in other words, a high speed internet connection) to enable people to access those files.

In addition, your web host will provide access to software that allows for increased functionality on your website, for instance database software that allows you to conduct polls or collect information submitted by your site visitors.

If you are planning on running an online store, your home business web site hosting provider can provide the software that allows your customers to make purchases online, including an online shopping cart and payment processing.

What to look for in a web host

There are literally thousands of web hosts out there, ranging from high cost to free. So how do you choose the best host to fit your needs?

There are several items that are vital to consider when you are shopping for your web host:

Website "down" time or reliability
The advanced functions offered by the web host
Disk space allowed
Monthly bandwidth allocation
The cost and contract terms

Of course, it is tempting to simply pay attention to the last item - cost - especially when you are just starting off on building a home internet business.

But choosing a cheap web host without considering the other major factors can be a huge mistake.

Unreliable web hosts can lose you web page files, have problems with failing web servers, name servers, disc drives, and poor quality bandwidth (internet connections).

The last thing you want several months down the line, once you have established your business and are attracting visitors is for your site to fail or go offline due to a poor quality web host.

But this doesn't mean you have to pay an arm and a leg to get acceptable quality in a home business web site hosting provider.

Two of the best low cost web hosts

Of the many low cost web hosts out there, two that really stand out from the pack are Dreamhost and Lunarpages.

I have used Dreamhost for a couple years now and have found them to be, for the most part, exceptionally reliable. They also offer hosting of an unlimited number of sites for as low as $7.95 a month, and the bandwidth included with this plan is incredibly generous too.

I have arranged for a special offer for visitors to this site - you can get $50 of your first year at Dreamhost (with no setup fees if you sign up for one or two years). To get this deal, enter promo code "GET50BUCKSOFF" when you are signing up for your Dreamhost account .

However, Dreamhost tends to be geared towards people with a bit of site building experience. Therefore, if you are very new to building a home internet business, you might find that Lunarpages is better for suited to your needs.

Lunarpages website control panel is a bit easier to navigate, and they also include a free sitebuilder with your account that makes it easier for a novice to build a site (without knowing any html).

Between Dreamhost and Lunarpages, there is a good, quality low cost host for everyone from novices to experts.

Once you have chosen your home business web site hosting provider, the next step in building your internet business is constructing your website.

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