Choosing a Small Business Web Hosting Provider

If you are looking to have a web presence for your small business you will need a web hosting provider to host your website. It does not make any difference whether you are an individual who wants to share their hobby with the world, or a large company requiring e-commerce applications to sell your goods online, either way you will need a web hosting provider to make your site available on the Internet.Currently there are many thousands of web hosting providers out there all fighting for your business, this alone can make choosing a web hosting provider a confusing task. Below are a few aspects to consider that will hopefully relieve some of the confusion involved with choosing a web hosting provider.The first aspect that you must determine is the type of website or websites you are planning to make available on the Internet. This will greatly influence your choice in web hosts, if you are going to have a website of less hundred pages and will not be hosting any multimedia content such as streaming videos, a standard entry level hosting plan will more than likely provide more than you will ever need. Entry level plans can be found for less than $5 per month, there are many companies covering this segment of the web hosting market.A good option to consider for small business is shared web hosting, this type of web hosting is very affordable and can be found for less than $10 per month, most if not all shared web hosting providers these days offer good feature sets, as well as a generous amount of disk space and bandwidth. Features such as PHP and MySQL databases are the standard features offered by shared hosting providers running on Linux powered servers. The main thing to remember is not to sacrifice quality just to save a few dollars per month. Be sure to read reviews, check the hosting providers message boards if they have one for user feedback about a prospective host and arm yourself with as much information about a hosting provider before making your final decision.Other considerations that need to be taken into account are bandwidth and disk space. Bandwidth is the amount of data transferred from your site, although it is almost impossible to calculate the amount of bandwidth your site will require you can make an educated guess by working out the average size of your websites pages, and then multiplying this size by the amount of page views you expect to see in a month.It is crucial that you allow for more bandwidth than what your site will require, if at any point your site requires more bandwidth than your plan allows you run the risk of having your site shutdown by your web hosting provider to conserve bandwidth. Working out disk space usage is easier, this involves adding up the size of each page you will be uploading to your hosting space, if you will be using databases be sure to allow for this usage in your calculations.In summary, find out as much information about a web hosting provider you are considering as possible, find out their good aspects, as well as their bad aspects, be sure to allow more bandwidth than your site will require, and more disk space than your site will require, also allow for any growth in the future, either by allowing for growth when choosing your plan initially, or choosing a provider that allows you to upgrade your web hosting plan easily.David J. Smith is the owner and operator of Webhost Advisor has recently written a Bluehost review and they have been found to be a reliable web hosting provider which you should put on your short list when choosing your web host.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_J._Smith

Small Business Web Site Hosting Information - Bringing Your Offline Business Online

For the small business owner, one of the most cost effective ways to increase the exposure of their business is to take it online. The modern business environment requires even small businesses to expand their reach into markets around the world in order to remain competitive. By using the Internet, this task is made much easier. Small business web site hosting is your key to getting your small business "on the map" in today's online marketplace.There are several web site hosting providers that cater to small business customers. They typically offer several packages to choose from in order to accommodate any budget. This includes low-cost, entry-level packages with basic features that allow you to get your feet wet as well as more expensive, high-end custom packages that are geared towards the serious business owner looking to truly stake their virtual claim online.Regardless of the type of package you choose, the amount you are charged will be determined based on the amount of service offered by the hosting company as well as the disk space and bandwidth you have available for your account. It will also depend on the type of hosting you choose so it's a good idea to know the difference between the various options.You will also have several types of hosting to choose from to power your small business web site. The cheapest web hosting will be a shared hosting environment where you and several other customers all share resources on the same server. Since multiple customers are placed on the same server, the hosting company can offer services at a reduced cost (in essence, allowing several customers to share the total cost). However, those customers all share the server's system resources too, including memory, disk space and other resources. This can become problematic if one customer is doing something that causes the system to get "bogged down" since doing so will have an impact on your site as well.Shared hosting can be okay just starting out, but if your online presence becomes more critical for your business, a dedicated hosting account might be a better option. With dedicated hosting, you are the only customer on a particular server and are in full control. Dedicated hosting may or may not be managed by the hosting provider. If it is, then they take care of all the day-to-day maintenance of the server, security updates, software updates, and other routine tasks. If it's not managed, then you either have to take care of those tasks yourself or hire someone to do it for you. If you're unfamiliar with server administration, it's best to find someone that is or choose a hosting provider that includes management with the overall hosting plan. This can be one of the drawbacks to dedicated hosting and might keep some customers from choosing this option, at least in the beginning.Another drawback of dedicated hosting is that it's much more expensive than a shared hosting account. Therefore, a middle-of-the-road solution might be choosing a Virtual Private Server (VPS). This type of setup offers most of the benefits found in a dedicated server but at a reduced cost (though still more expensive than shared hosting). On a VPS, each server still hosts multiple customers but because of the way they're setup, it's less likely that one customer's actions will have ill effects on other people sharing the same server. VPS hosting can also be managed or unmanaged so the same recommendations made regarding dedicated hosting apply here too...if you're unfamiliar with server management, either hire it out or choose your hosting provider that can do this for you.If you're ready to get started getting your business a foothold online, the best thing you can do is start researching your options. A simple search online can put you a few clicks away from some of the top hosting providers available. The good news is that there are several high-quality companies to choose from which should allow you to make a smooth transition as you bring your offline business onto the global marketplace of the Internet.Get the most out of your webhost while keeping more cash in your pocket. Research top solutions for small business web site hosting, ecommerce web hosting and more in the resources section at OnlineWebHostGuide.com.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Nelson

Small Business Web Hosting Advice

For small businesses, a web host that ensures 99% uptime, offers at least 5GB bandwidth each month and one that offers various reports and statistics about the site is essential for the survival of the business. As the Internet continues to grow, increased competition, new marketing methods and ensuring excellent quality service to customers are all obstacles that business owners must face in order to turn a profit.When looking for a web host for your small business, keep in mind the following as these features can make running your business a little easier.Web Hosting and Web Design in One:If you have little web design experience, but can't afford to hire a professional web designer, you may have to invest in web design software or subscribe to a web host that offers design templates and more so you can create a website yourself. Many web hosts offer easy to use web site templates, decorative accents and the ability to upload CSS style sheets if you want to create an original look to your site.For those who are on a strict budget or those who don't have the time to learn HTML code or web design software, the convenience of using the tools provided by a web host are difficult to pass up. Once you design your site, you can easily upload files and make your site go live.Easy to Use Control Panels:Control panels and other administrative tools make it easy for you to update your site, upload files, manage email accounts and help you analyze where the majority of your web traffic is coming from. Choosing a web host that includes a control panel that's easy to use will save you time and allow you to have more control over your website.Encryption and Internet Security:Having the ability to encrypt certain areas of your site such as customer purchasing histories and order pages is one way to increase the security of your web page. Internet security options such as email and virus protection can help protect information you don't want to be seen by those other than yourself, business partners or employees. Investing in a web host that provides these security measures and more will make using your site safer for customers and allow you to protect email addresses, credit card numbers and other sensitive information from those who may want to steal it.File Backup:Some web hosts offer free daily file backup while others charge a separate fee. Depending on the number of new pages you add, download or want to save each day, this may be a good option for your business. Even though most people backup their personal files kept on their computer, file backup for your email accounts and other areas should be a priority as well.When choosing a web host, determine your needs first so you can find a host that will provide enough storage, disk space and bandwidth so your business will be adequately supported.David O Connell: Looking for the perfect web host? http://www.top5submitters.com - Links - Hostgator.How to get free targeted traffic to any website http://www.traffic-supersurge.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_O_Connell

Low Cost Business Web Site Hosting Services - How Can You Identify The Right One For You?

There are many low cost business web site hosting services that are not worthy of being called web hosts online. These low cost business web site hosting services simply get you to pay for their services only to leave you to your fate as their service begin to loose quality. Why waste your time building and marketing a website that won’t be available to potential visitors 24/7. This brings us to the reason why you need to carefully select the right low cost business web site hosting services for you.There are still low cost business web site hosting services that are reliable. All you need to do is to identify them. Choosing the right low cost business web site hosting services is the most important decision that a web business owner can make. If you make the wrong choice, your web business will fall flat.Most of the low cost business web site hosting services around claim to be the best. So how can you identify the very few low cost business web site hosting services that will offer you quality service? There are numerous factors that you have to consider. When these factors are present in any low cost business web site hosting service package, you can be rest assured that you will get quality service. There are two main features that determine that quality of low cost business web site hosting services. These two main features are so important that they can either make you or break you. You’ll definitely want to find out more about these two main features – won’t you?Sam Ayodeji has helped countless individuals to choose the right web hosting services. If what you search for is a reliable web hosting provider, then be rest assured to find the best one for you by visiting Sam Ayodeji's web hosting blog at http://1affordablewebhosting.wordpress.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sam_Ayodeji

How to Choose a Right Web Hosting Service?

Indeed, choosing a right web hosting service for your website is not an easy task especially when there are thousands of web hosting providers all offering almost identical web hosting packages. Therefore, it is important to know few major considerations even before you start your web hosting search. Below are three major criteria for web host seeker:Web hosting features requirementThis is probably the most important consideration to start finding a host for your site. You need to decide the technical requirements for your website, this including:a) Server platform and hardware requirementsIf you plan to set up a website that uses programming environments such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic scripts, Cold Fusion or Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database, in this case, you will need to find a web hosting service that supports Windows platform such as Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers.Likewise, if you plan to use programming languages such as Perl, CGI, SSI, PHP or mySQL database, then any web hosting plans that support Unix/Linux platform should be sufficient to meet your hosting requirements. Once you have these server platform and hardware requirements in mind, you can decide the best web hosting plans for your need. For more information, you can read "How to select a web server and server platform?"b) Disk space & Bandwidth requirementHere is another technical requirement that you need to consider before selecting a web hosting plan, i.e. disk space and bandwidth. If you intend to publish a website that does not have a lot of contents (meaning, web pages), then the disk space requirement may not be a big concern to you. In general, a disk space with 200MB to 500MB should be enough to meet your hosting requirement. In contrast, if you plan to host a website with enormous amount of graphic pictures, mp3 or video files, then you should consider a web hosting plan that provide huge disk space, for example, 500 MB to 1,000 MB.Similarly, the bandwidth requirement will depend on your site traffic estimation. Obviously, a website that expect to attract high traffic will consume the monthly bandwidth allowance very fast. If so, you will need to find one web hosting service that offer huge bandwidth with 40 GB to 100 GB per month. Depending upon your website requirement, choosing a web hosting service that provide sufficient amount of disk space and bandwidth is crucial consideration to prevent paying extra costs in the future should you overuse the monthly disk space and bandwidth allowance.c) Other hosting featuresWhile the above requirements are utmost important, there are other hosting features that you have to consider too. Can web hosting provider support video clips on your website, if you have? Is the web hosting service compatible with Dreamweaver or FrontPage web authoring tool? Do you plan to set up a virtual store online? Can the host support the e-commerce features without adding extra cost to your monthly payments? On top of that, you may also want to find out the number of email accounts provided, number of FTP accounts, web statistic software (analyze your web traffic), type of control panel supported (manage your web hosting account), database and scripting languages supported and etc.Reliability and scalabilityA first-class web hosting provider offers reliable server uptime and fast Internet connection. You should only choose a web hosting service that guarantee at least 99% server uptime with high-speed Internet backbones using at least OC3 (Optical Carrier) lines (155 Megabits per second) or above instead of T1 or T3 lines. A reliable web hosting provider usually invests heavily on their data center infrastructure with high performance servers, high speed multiple backbones providers with fail-over redundancy, backup power generators and firewall software protection in place to ensure they meet the uptime guarantee specified in the terms of service.Similarly, you should choose a web hosting service with hardware facilities that designed for scalability, so that they can grow with your business. For example, if you need to increase more disk space, bandwidth or number of mySQL databases, you should be able to upgrade as needed without any problems.Customer service and supportThe last major consideration in choosing a web hosting service is to find a web hosting providers that offers excellent customer service and support. You should always search for a web hosting provider that offers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week technical support that fielded with highly experience technicians, so that any web hosting problems will be resolved within a reasonable amount of time. You may also want to consider to test how responsive is their customer support by sending few inquiry emails to the web hosting provider. In general, any response in less than 24 hours is considered acceptable. It is a sign of poor customer support if they take more than one day to response.In addition, a web hosting provider with excellent support should also provide multiple support channels, such as toll-free phone support, 24/7 email support, live chat, online knowledgebase, Interactive flash tutorials and FAQ.Above are few major considerations before you choose your web hosting service. In addition, how long has the web hosting provider in business and the number of customers that they currently have are also a good indication of the quality of their hosting products as well as the stability of the company. Even though cost of the web hosting service is also important but it should not be your major consideration. Because the price of a web hosting service has been declining over the years due to competition, as a result, the price of most of the web hosting services offering quality hosting features has been converging to less than US$10 per month. If you can't afford less than $10 per month, you probably isn't in the online business for the long haul. Therefore, price should not be a major deciding factor.On the other hand, it is more important to ensure the web hosting service that you choose is able to meet your website hosting requirements, guarantee your website is always accessible with satisfying speed, provide scalability to grow and expand your website as well as offer excellent customer supports. Depending on your web hosting requirement, you can take advantage of our site, Cheap Web Hosting Review to find the recommended web hosting services that can match the three major criteria above. Good luck to your search.Andrew is the owner of Web Hosting Services, a website that provides complete and detail reviews on web hosting services. You can visit his website at:http://www.lowest-price-web-hosting.com/Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Webb

Yahoo Small Business - The Perfect Web Host for Your Small Business Site

Web hosting is not a luxury for your small business. If you do business online, exclusively or as part of an overall business strategy, you need a reliable, affordable, unlimited hosting plan. Yahoo Small Business web hosting is designed specifically to meet the needs of small businesses who rely on their web sites for their income.Unlimited web site hosting is a must for your business site. The unlimited hosting plan from Yahoo Small Business allows you to store as many files as you like on your server, including video and audio files and PDFs full of information for your customers. When you experience a surge in traffic, you'll know that your unlimited bandwidth Yahoo web site is continuing to serve properly to these additional visitors. And you can rest assured knowing you have unlimited email storage to keep all of your communications with customers, in up to 1000 email accounts. Unlimited hosting from Yahoo Web Hosting lets you run your business without worrying about "using up" your hosting storage.Yahoo Small Business Makes Web Site Hosting EasyWebsite hosting should be easy. You should not have to study web design or learn a programming language or devote hours to learning how to upload and manage your files. And with your Yahoo hosting account, it is easy. You can build your Yahoo web site in no time with simple design tools and professionally designed templates. If you design your own site or have a designer build it in Front Page, Dreamweaver or another editor, you can easily upload those files to your Yahoo website hosting account. And if you use server side code such as PHP to make your site interactive, Yahoo Web Hosting supports that as well.The web design tools included with your Yahoo web site hosting account are extraordinary in their power and simplicity. If you've never designed a web site and wouldn't know where to start, you can use the checklist in your YSB account to plan and design your site. You'll find professional templates ready for you to customize. You may even find a template already designed for your industry and ready to go once you plug in your information.Yahoo Small Business Hosting offers top-notch customer supportAll hosting platforms run into problems from time to time. You may have a question, or an issue may arise with your Yahoo web site. Yahoo understands that web site hosting customers need excellent support, and Yahoo web hosting provides that excellence in technical support. Representatives are available twenty-four hours a day to assist with any questions or problems you may have and resolve them quickly in a professional manner.One of the most important aspects of Yahoo Small Business hosting is that it's priced for small businesses. With no setup fee and monthly rates starting under $9 for the first three months, Yahoo Small Business is designed to make your hosting affordable. Yahoo understands that small businesses rely on their web sites, and Yahoo web hosting is dedicated to helping small business owners set up, host and maintain their own web sites, with unlimited hosting, excellent tech support, and great pricing for the best features available.Russell Blanc is an expert in the web hosting industry and Yahoo Small Business and manages an information-rich web site about Yahoo Small Business and Yahoo Web Hosting exposing the features and benefits of Yahoo Small Business products.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Russell_Blanc

Small Business Web Hosting - What To Look For

Small business web hosting is important to how successful your company will be online. Small business web hosting is one of the largest market sectors in the web hosting arena. With the revolution of the internet, smaller companies are able to reach a more global audience with their website.Website hosting is not expensive and finding the right company is easy on the internet. Companies build their products with every user in mind, including the most novice webmaster. This article is going to cover a couple issues when searching for the right host for your small company.Hosting AccountsHosting plans support particular operating systems such as Windows Hosting, Unix Hosting or Linux hosting. The difference between the three comes down to what you are comfortable working with. You can look at getting a dedicated server or shared hosting. You are for the most part renting a place to put your site on the internet whether you do shared hosting or a dedicated server.A dedicated server will give you more bandwidth than a shared account. A shared hosting account is good for small business owners that are just starting out. There are services that will host it for free but the catch is that you lose out on features and the service is not as good as if you were to pony up the extra dollars for at least a shared hosting account.Domain NamesA majority of web hosting companies include domain name registration with your account. Domain names are very important today more than ever. Finding the right domain name will separate you from your competition and brand your name. Some companies will give you a free domain name.The down side to a free domain name that it will be attached to the web hosting companies name. It is worth it to pay the extra $9 for your own domain name. By purchasing the domain name you own it and can always transfer the name to a new company if you don't like your current one. Try to set up your website with domain names that match what your product is about. It will help in the search engines and people will understand it more.Best Small Business Hosting CompaniesIf you are new to the the online business world,Yahoo is a great place to start. The Yahoo brand name is known worldwide and you can feel confident working with them. Yahoo small business web hosting claims they can provide business owners with the most efficient and inexpensive web hosting. They have a dedicated server with easy upgrades along the way. Yahoo has tech support available 24/7.Yahoo hosting offers great features such as a streamlined interface and a free domain name. Yahoo does all the work for you and can even collect the sales you make through your website. They also give you website building tools to help you design and make the site your own. They currently hosts over 30 million websites on their servers along with their free accounts. The company is by far the most popular small business web hosting service. They make it easy to get your website up and running. A majority of companies such as GoDaddy and IPowerWeb offer similar services and can be other resources to compare prices and features for your organization.If your starting out small for your website, a shared hosting is a good place to start. Its affordable and will let you concentrate on building your business. Try to stay away from the free hosting accounts. Some companies offer free domain names. Search for a domain name that ties into what your website will be about. Hosting your website with companies such as Yahoo, GoDaddy and IPowerWeb will be a safe bet. They provide similar hosting features and will help your company grow.Brad helps individuals with their small businesses Get more info about small business web hosting at SmallBusinessStartupIdea.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brad_Gibala

Web Hosting Reviews - Get it Right the First Time

Launching a website encompasses a variety of elements, including design, content, and functionality. In fact, most people think that their mission is accomplished once they have an attractive, interesting, and functional website. They don't consider the importance of finding the right Web hosting service. Given that the vast majority of website owners don't have their own Web servers, finding the right Web hosting company is critical because bad webhosting can make even the most beautiful and interesting website dead in the water.How do you find the right Web hosting company? It can be difficult, since trying to compare individual web hosting services can be like comparing apples and oranges. You can, of course, plot out all of the variables on a spreadsheet or in a table, but it can take days to do all of that research. That's why sites that feature Web hosting reviews are so valuable. In essence, they do all of the work and you can reap all of the benefits.The best sites that feature Web hosting reviews give you two options: an at-a-glance table of several hosting companies and an in-depth Web hosting review of each service. The at-a-glance tables allow you to compare a number of Web hosting companies side-by-side. If price is of paramount importance to you, you can quickly see which Web hosting services are the cheapest. If bandwidth is more important to you than disk space, you can see that as well.Some Web hosting review sites provide only perfunctory reviews of Web hosting companies, so be sure to find one that gives you the in-depth information you need. It should have details about how the site determines ranking. For example, it should break down the ranking into price/performance, technical utilities, customer support, and business practices.The best sites go even further and also provide detail within those broad categories. For example, in the price/performance category, ratings could be given for price value, product quality, reliability, guarantees, and special offers. In the technical utilities category, ratings could be given for control panel, technical quality, security, email functionality, and hosting functionality. In the customer support category, ratings could be given for support speed, support quality, phone support, email support, and knowledge base/help desk. You get the idea.But great web hosting reviews go beyond the numbers and ratings game. They actually give you a detailed, individualized review of each Web hosting service. This is critical if you're looking for a specific type of Web hosting, such as VPS hosting or a VPS server, adult hosting, ecommerce hosting, Linux hosting, Windows hosting, shared hosting, or business hosting.Detailed Web hosting reviews cover a myriad of information points, including corporate information, value, technology, support, highlights and handicaps, and the products offered by the Web hosting company.A great website is more than the bells and whistles associated with design, content, and functionality. The foundation upon which any successful website is built is its Web hosting service - the engine upon which it runs. Web hosting reviews are a great starting point to determine which services will give you the features that are most important to you. Once you've narrowed the field, you can go on to further research the companies you're considering and find the one that best suits your needs.Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Web Hosting Reviews Get it Right or Majon's Internet directoryArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Robertson

Small Business Web Hosting Services - Affordable Web Hosting Services For Small Business

Competition is fierce in the web hosting marketing and affordable small business web hosting services is no exception. This article will discuss the ins and outs of affordable small business web hosting services and where to find the best web hosting service for small business.When looking for an affordable small business web hosting service it is important to fully comprehend the web hosting service that you need.Here are some questions that you need to answer about small business web hosting services:1. Does your small business need a web hosting on a dedicated server?2. Does your small business need a manager server?3. Will your small business hosting only require a shared server?Every small business is different as are their web hosting needs. One small business website may only sell one product while another small business website may require a more complicated interface with multiple products and payment options.Online you can find thousands of small business web hosting services. These web hosting packages for small businesses all have a large range of features which include virtual private servers, co-location services, and Miva Scripting.In your search for an affordable web hosting for small business you must know in advance what features are necessary for your websites. Once you understand that you know that you will not pay through the nose for unnecessary web hosting services and packages that you don't need.Small business web hosting services can cost as little as $10 a month to as high as thousands per month. The price variation depends largely on the bandwidth required and the servers you are using. Deciding on the best small business web hosting service is an important decision and for this reason it is best to join a small business web hosting company that offers as many guarantees as possible including uptime.There are also a number of factors that must be borne in mind when deciding on an affordable small business web hosting company.1. Does the small business web hosting service offer a money back guarantee?2. Does the small business web hosting service offer an uptime guarantee?3. Does the small business web hosting service offer an easy method to backup your web site?4. Does the small business web hosting service also offer 24 hour a day technical support via phone and email.5. Has the small business web hosting service been in operation for a significant period of time?6. Has the small business web hosting service received any reputable awards in the marketplace?Deciding on the right affordable small business web hosting service is absolutely essential to ensure the ongoing profitability of your websites. Ultimately your web hosting service choice could mean the difference between internet success and failure. That is why it is absolutely essential that you apply due diligence when making your choice.For more comprehensive information about the best and most affordable web hosting for small business I strongly urge you to check out the website below!Copyright 2007. We've had enough of crook small business webhosting companies charging the earth and not delivering. For this reason we reviewed a range of web hosting companies that promise the best value for money and superior service. However, NOT all web hosting packages are created equal. Nor do they live up to their claims. Learn the shocking truth about webhosts at my small business web hosting review site by visiting http://best-web-hosting-services-review.blogspot.com now!Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karin_I_Manning

Small Business Owners Web Hosting Guide - Part 1

Your small business website needs to be hosted on a web server or simply a server (another name for computer) that is connected to the World Wide Web so that anyone can access your website.Choosing a web hosting company for your small business website is easy if you follow the guide I have layout for you. Depending on the scale of your business, the type of business you run and your level of technical competency, there will always be a right hosting provider just for your business.The general rule of thumb in choosing a web hosting provider boils down to:Excellent Customer SupportCompany StabilityRobust DatacenterAffordabilityExcellent Customer Support If all things being equal, I would rate customer support as my number 1 determining factor in choosing a web hosting provider. Relying on testimonials found on the provider's site is a common approach to assess a company's level of customer excellence but it is also quite an outdated one. After all it's not uncommon for some providers to fake the testimonials. Instead I suggest you follow my way of assessing their customer support.Sizing its level of customer support is sometimes as easy as finding out whether they have enough employees to support their level of business growth. You should look at the Customer to Employee ratio, CE ratio, as a benchmark.For example, according to our records SiteSell Inc has approximately 15,000 customers and employs about 30 support staff, it has a CE ratio of 500 (15,000/30 = 500), you can expect a much higher level of customer satisfaction and a faster response time when compared to another provider who is serving 100,000 customers but only have 75 support staff. Their CE ratio would stand at approximately 1,333. Basically you should look for a professional hosting provider with a low CE ratio.Getting As Close As You Can The other accurate way to assess the real status of its customer service is to get as close as you can to the company whenever possible via the following means:Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to 24 hours. Ask about anything but just do not be afraid to ask.Number of Telephone Lines - Check to see if there are separate telephone lines for sales, customer service and technical support. I hate companies who use only 1 line to serve everyone. A professional small business hosting provider should have this in place. It is not uncommon for reputable providers to charge for telephone support.Forum - The real condition of any web hosting company's customer support is really found in its members forum if any. You will get a good dose of complains and praises but if the complains outnumber the compliments; it's time to raise a red flag.Company Stability A company's stability can be measured by the length of time they have been in business, the number of customers they have served and are serving and lastly their financial standing.Personally as a business owner myself, a web hosting company that has been around for at least 5 years would have weathered all sorts of ups and downs in the online world, and their chance of being around is much higher than a company that has been around for less than 1 year.Financial Stability Though public listed web hosting providers have better financial transparency than the privately-owned ones, they are not necessary always in a better financial shape than them. Bottom line, you would host your small business with a company that you know is growing in their customer base. For example, Interland having been in business since 1995 is currently serving less than 200,000 websites and this number has been decreasing. It is most likely less profitable when compared to IPower in operation since 2001 and is serving over 400,000 websites as of this writing!Another aspect of company stability lies in its ability to remain relevant in this highly competitive industry. For example, as the number of internet users increase and streaming multi-media becomes the norm, you want to place your business with a profitable web hosting company who is able to constantly improve on their offerings so that the performance of your website is able to keep up with visitors' expectations.Robust Datacenter Datacenters are where the web servers are resided on, and ultimately where your webpages will be accessed from. A strong and credible small business web hosting company would have the ability to own and managed their data centers or through colocation.On one hand it might seem that is the best thing any decent web hosting company would do, but on the other hand, there seems to be a trend whereby the marketing and sale aspect of the hosting business has been outsourced to resellers.The rationale behind this is quite simple, a web hosting company should focus on what it does best, i.e. make sure all servers are up and running. And a reseller role is to sell the hosting plans and is to focus entirely on doing just that without getting bogged down by technical issues.Almost all the state of the art data centers should come equip with high level of security, uninterruptible power supplies and most importantly employs the latest technology to enable your website to be always up and running and is always accessible by high connectivity, i.e. fast access to your website.Affordability Before I elaborate further, it's important to establish that after qualifying a company with the above points, there is no such thing as the best small business web hosting plan, but only the right hosting plan for your business. This is probably the last thing you should look at before deciding on the hosting provider.Generally there are 2 main types of hosting that are available for you to choose from. They are the Linux web hosting and windows web hosting. Within these 2 platforms there are also another few subcategories of web hosting types that you need to understand before you can finally decide on the right web hosting for your small business.To continue reading this article, please visit my site Small-Business-Web-Hosting-Guide.com for a no-nonsense approach to assessing web hosting companies for small business owners.Cynthia Wang, a small business owner shares a wealth of information about web hosting for small businesses on her website, Recommended Hosting Companies For Small Businesses.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cynthia_Wang

Business Hosting

For many small businesses, having a website is essential to growth. With the widespread use of the internet, business hosting for a website is a normal business expense. Websites can draw in new clientele, and a good company offering business hosting for your website can bring a lot of traffic and business for your company.

Business hosting for a website allows your site to have a place to live and grow. Your computer connects to the internet and is provided with an address, commonly referred to as an IP address. This IP address is how people find your computer to communicate with you. A business hosting company for your website allows you to take advantage of a DNS, or domain name system, instead of an IP address. This way other people can find your computer via a URL, or uniform resource locator. A URL is basically what most of us refer to as a web address.

A business hosting company allows you to put your website on a server that makes it available on a permanent basis, as that server will always be connected the internet. Keeping that server running all of the time is a lot of work, and business hosting companies are the ones responsible for the daunting task. By paying a small fee to a business hosting company, they will make sure your website can be seen by the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Some business hosting companies do it all from designing your website to maintaining it. However, in many cases, you will be responsible for uploading your website onto the server from your computer. However, a business hosting company will provide you with some essential for maintaining the operation of your website. Many business hosting companies will offer you a domain name and an e-mail program to give your company that professional edge.

If you are going to be using a business hosting company for your website that does not do the design and maintenance, you may want to consider hiring a web designer before you pick a business hosting company. By designing your website first, you will know more about what you will need from your business hosting plan, like how much storage space you will need and what operating system will be required.

Business hosting for your website is fairly inexpensive, and there are a multitude of business hosting companies available to get your website on the internet. Yet, you should make sure that you look closely at each business hosting company to make sure they have the features you will need. For instance, if you want chat rooms, bulletin boards, or a shopping cart, you need to make sure that the business hosting company for your website offers you that capability.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.home-based-business-world.com/articles/business-hosting.htmDownload the Home Based Business Manual (Free $97 Value!) and receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a very successful Home Based Business.
Charles Fuchs is an established Six Figure Income earner and one of the top online marketer's. He specializes in showing people the fastest way to Starting a business.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_Fuchs

Is Business Hosting Different From Other Website Hosting?

Business hosting is similar to other types of web hosting; however, there are some very important things to consider when selecting a host for your business website.

A critical error that some new internet entrepreneur makes is taking advantage of free website hosting offers or web hosting options offered by their internet service provider as a value- added service.

Free web hosting is just fine for personal websites that don't really serve a purpose other than sharing memento, photos and family news.However, reliability, speed, space, and enhanced and up-gradable features are vital aspects of business hosting for a website that is intended to be professional and to generate leads and income.

When you have an internet-based business, your website is much more than a place on the web.In all reality, it is your livelihood, so yes; business hosting is different from other website hosting.All web hosting packages are certainly not created equal and when it comes to web hosting, the old saying, "You get what you pay for" really does ring true.

So, when choosing a web hosting package for your business website, there is much more to consider than cost.

Free web hosting should be avoided entirely because it usually isn't very reliable, it has limited options and you generally use the web hosts domain name instead of your own.

Web hosting options offered as part of your service by your internet service provider should be used for personal websites, not business websites because they generally are also limited in regard to capabilities and options, plus, when you host your site with an internet service provider instead of a professional web hosting company, you generally share bandwidth with a great number of subscribers so your website may not be accessible all the time.

For business hosting, a professional web hosting service that will host your website under your own registered domain name is preferred.The web host should have secure server capabilities, fast servers, and adequate web space for your current and future needs provided through your selected web hosting package.

As part of the package you should also have full email services (preferably with IMAP technology), the ability to transfer files using FTP access, access to an administrative control panel, and access to reports and raw server logs that will enable you to monitor your website's performance and the results of your marketing efforts.

A professional hosting company that offers business hosting should be able to guaranty, at a minimum, 99% uptime for the greatest reliability.When your web hosting provider's server is down, if they don't have alternative servers, your website and your email will be down and downtime results in lost customers, lost sales and hindered revenues.

They should also provide top-notch technical support that is accessible when you need them and they should make regular backups of their servers to ensure that your website and databases are safe and secure and that data retrieval will not be a problem if it becomes necessary due to technical failure.

Evaluating alternatives for hosting your business website isn't necessarily easy. It takes time, thought and consideration.

However, if you take the time, evaluate your options and think things through before selecting a web hosting plan for your business website, you will be much better off over the long-run.

Choosing a web hosting plan for your business website is not a decision to be taken lightly. In fact, it provides the foundation upon which you will build both your business website and your business.

Make sure your foundation is strong is unshakable and your internet business experience will be much more enjoyable and profitable.

Copyright Christopher J. Enders. Are you at the end of your rope, fed up and confused by all the scrambled internet marketing advice you're getting? Whether you are new to internet marketing, or a website owner who wants to make more money from your website, learn the proven strategies that will sky-rocket your internet business at http://BiznessTips.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_J_Enders