It's time to choose!

Should you spend some money to get a web hosting solution for your business or get one for free? Yes, the big moment has finally arrived. Your business is now on the verge of taking the next step forward. It will establish a web presence. This is an important step as from now on your business is able to reach more customers, is able to get more exposure, and hopefully enjoy online recognition. Space, bandwidth and domain name all come with a cost, but there is a possibility to get them all for free. Resource management principles will probably tell you to choose the free solution. Nowadays the cost for web hosting services has a very reasonable reason partially because of the technological progress, partially because of the stiff competition on the web hosting market. Still why pay for it when you can get it for free?

Free web hosting

Dozens, even hundreds of free web hosting providers offer their services on the Internet. Could there be one that meets the needs for your business? Hardly, if any. Please let me state clearly that this article is not intended to attack or discredit hosts or advertisers. It's only purpose is to assess and understand how can be best met the hosting needs of a business. Any business. And yes, in spite of everything stated here, even the author of this article has resorted at some point in time to the services of free web hosts! You probably learned too, and at a very small age, that in life everything comes with a price. However, there it is allover the Internet: Free Web Hosting. Nothing in this world is free. So how comes there even is free web hosting? The definition of the term free according to The New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary, states gives the following definition for the term free: 1. adj. not subject to external restraints or domination; not captive, at liberty; not having to be paid for; unhampered; open to all without restrictions; etc. 2. adv. without expense; without penalty 3. v.t. to release from constraint, set free Therefore a literally free hosting service would mean no restraints, no expenses and no restrictions for the user. Webmasters would design with only limited by their imagination and skills. All the space and the bandwidth you would possibly ask for at no cost whatsoever. Real-life scenario? Could anyone really think so? Indeed nothing in this world comes without price. Even it is not apparent. And the price you must pay for free web hosting comes in many forms, as free web hosting providers must pay too for bandwidth, not to mention other costs. While some free web hosts require you to have one on their banners on your web site, others place pop up adds, or flashing advertising messages. So it's free for you as long as you fulfill their set of requirements and meet their conditions. In addition to this, you should consider that host's service is free with let's say 25 Megs of space; more space means different conditions and you could have to pay for it.

Paid web hosting

If you are billed, it means you own something. There is now a contractual bind between you and your web-hosting provider, which in turn must offer you his services. Ownership gives you more control of your online presence. Important as ownership is, it is neither the only nor the biggest advantage of paying for your hosting solution. The identity of your business would be clear from your URL down to your web content without banners confusing your customers. Imagine that you deal with What I would say, is ask yourself if you would deal with someone offering a similar service/ product as you are promoting, who was obviously using a free site. If you would, then fine, but if not, don't expect anyone else to deal with you! You will have usually sufficient e-mail addresses to accommodate the needs of your business. How serious would you take someone who hands you a business card with e-mail like [email protected]. And more important: would you do business with him? It's almost a standard for paid web hosting providers to offer features like PHP and MySQL, features that allow your site to grow along with your business needs. With such features you can easily have an online store, offer your customers the possibility to track their orders etc. Often the web hosting provider offers guarantees for the uptime of the server, and this avoids unnecessary frustration for your customers. To complement this, support services of higher quality allow your business to overcome possible technical problems easier and faster.

Let's review the main points of each option.

Free web hosting:

(+) It's free. No money for space, bandwidth and domain name
(-) Your URL will contain the mark of the free web-hosting provider and thus would not reflect the identity of your business. Changing providers might result in loosing some or all the traffic to your online business
(-) Required advertising items such as banners, frames etc have a detrimental effect on your content in terms of accessibility and look, making it very unprofessional (-) If you plan to use banner exchange on your site read carefully their Terms and conditions. Some free hosts doesn't allow it
(-) You will probably have lower bandwidth then a paid host provides and space could also be restricted
(-) Features like PHP and MySQL are rather rare for a free web-hosting provider. Some don't offer FTP access to your website
(-) It's common that free hosting providers change their Terms and conditions at some point in time. Consider that no adds today could mean a banner or a popup tomorrow. Such changes could mean that the free hosting service is canceled and only paid web hosting services are offered. At this moment either you pay, either you loose your web site

Paid web hosting:

(-) You will have to pay for it. Usually you have to pay for hosting (space and bandwidth) and for the domain name
(+) You can host your own domain. With your unique domain name changing web hosting providers don't cause loosing your traffic
(+) Support is offered by most paid web hosting providers. This usually means 24/7 support via email or live chat and, in some cases, toll-free phone support is available
(+) The uptime of the server(s) hosting your web site is better then on free host and more and more frequently the web hosting provider offers uptime guarantee
(+) The amount of enough disk space and bandwidth available is very likely to cover the needs of your business
(+) Features like PHP and MySQL are almost standard for a paid hosting plan. Also you will have FTP access to your website.

It could be tempting to embrace the idea that a free web hosting is good point to start from, but it's not something you would want to consider if you are looking to establish your business as a serious web presence. In the end it all comes down to this one question: How big ambitions do you have with your website?

If you look to make some savings while getting your business online, save time instead and register a domain name. The small amount of money saved on web hosting might cost your business customers, and a loss of image. The cost of a paid web hosting solution is small compared with freedom it gives to your online presence. Yes, freedom of your image, of the way you treat your online presence.

If your online business is important to you, better make that if you care for it at all, when coming to the decision of opting over free or paid web hosing choose Keep in mind that the success of your online presence will play a significant role in the future growth of your business.

About the Author
Calin Indre is editor at HostPinPin ( www.hostpinpin.com ), a Cheap Web Hosting Directory. HostPinPin.com is a resource for webmasters and consumers looking to find a web hosting company. Providing web hosting articles, tips, web hosting reviews, compare web hosting plans and more.

This article may be reprinted or published without the authors consent as long as the About and weblinks are kept intact.

Low Cost Web Hosting Services - Don't forget about uptime

By John Michaels

Once you have your company's web site up and running, it is vital that you do everything possible to keep it that way. Nothing sets off alarms in a customer's head faster than a non accessible web site or one that has features which do not work. A web site is literally your company's window to the world and every aspect of the site; including the design, content, accessibility, ease of navigation, and uptime, says a lot about your company.

A fully functioning, attractively designed, feature-loaded web site spells professionalism and expertise, while a poorly designed and inaccessible site reflects very poorly on your business. Still, the best designed site on the web; one loaded with impressive features and clever design tricks means absolutely nothing if your customers can't get to it because it is down. Unfortunately, if your site is hosted by some other company and resides on their servers, downtime may be largely out of your control. When your host's servers go down, your site goes down and there's not a thing you can do about it. There are a few things you can do, however, to ensure that your site stays up as long as possible.

Choosing Your Web Host

There are thousands of low cost web hosting services out there and they are all offering a thousand different deals for web hosting. Choosing the right one can be a daunting task, especially if you don't know a lot about internet hosting and what you should be getting for your money. There are a few things you should look for in a web host - some of which will help you get the best deal and others which will help you determine whether you should expect to have a problem with downtime.

To cover the business end of web hosting, find out how much bandwidth and storage space you get for your monthly fee. Bandwidth is especially important because the more popular your site becomes the more visitors it will have and the more bandwidth it will use. If you are using too much bandwidth, two things will happen. You'll be charged for anything over the amount you're contracted for and the site could easily experience downtime due to receiving more traffic than it can handle.

You will also want to look at the host's server information. Most web hosting services will post the specifications of their web servers on their own web sites. This allows customers to get a good idea of the host's stability. If you don't understand the technical jargon that these informational pages contain, get someone from your own IT department to look at with you. They'll be able to tell if it looks like the host has a stable server system.

Check Your Site

To help ensure stability, you should check the site yourself (or make sure someone in your company is checking it) several times per day. This is the best way to make sure that everything is in working order and to resolve problems that do occur as quickly as possible. If you find that the site is down, a quick call to the host can often resolve any issues or at least let you know if there's a problem with just your site or their entire server.

About the Author
John Michaels is a freelance author for WebHostPacks.com where he regularly publishes articles on how to find a cheap web host and reviews of low cost web hosting services.

Building Customer Trust with Secure E-Commerce

By Paras Shah

Whether your e-commerce operation involves selling an entire catalogue of items, a small collection of goods, or even just one product, the simple reality is that unless people buy the items for sale on your Web site, you won't make any money. And while the last few years have done a lot to make consumers more comfortable with the idea of shopping online, a significant effort is still necessary, on your part, to convince a potential consumer that they will be doing business with a secure and trustworthy operation.

And because you'll have to employ some form of remote payment, you'll have to do business with some type of transaction processing business. And even more than your customers, your billing solution partners will demand some assurance that your operation is secure before they involve themselves in your transactions.

To put it simply: in the e-commerce business, securing trust in your company is essential to your success. Trust is as important to a potential customer's purchasing decision as the products you offer him. And an essential element of building that trust, with both customers and partners, is the assurance that your e-commerce operation meets the demanding security standards required of organizations handling sensitive financial information.

Setting up a Storefront

A big part of building trust with your customers is your presentation. The very fact that they're browsing your online store is a good indicator that they're familiar with the possibilities of online shopping, and are prepared to consider buying. What you do to convince them, and the effectiveness of your efforts, may be the deciding factor in a possible sale.

The shopping interface you introduce to customers is arguably the most important piece of your e-commerce site's presentation. A familiar, easy-to-navigate interface can go a long way toward establishing the trust you're after. Seasoned online shoppers will know what to expect from an e-commerce site, and meeting those expectations is a good way to gain their confidence. And novice surfers will probably be more comfortable if your online store closely resembles the major e-commerce interfaces they might have encountered.

Building a storefront compatible with your customers' expectations is one of the more obviously beneficial features of using an e-commerce software product such as those provided by Miva ( www.Miva.com ), BizCrafter ( www.BizCrafterCorp.com ) or eCartSoft ( www.eCartSoft.com ) to build your site. Most of these programs will help you to build a simple, effective and familiar shopping interface that can include pictures, shopping cart functions and a number of useful security features.

In addition to helping you build an attractive online shop, most e-commerce software has features allowing it to help manage your inventory, interact with your payment processing systems, simplify your relationships with suppliers and affiliates and even promote your site.

E-commerce software can usually be purchased online from the maker, but is also quite often included as part of a specialized e-commerce package from any of the many Web hosts that support such operations.

Finding a Commerce-Friendly Web Host

Assuming that this is one of your first efforts at building an e-commerce Web site, it's a safe bet that you'll be outsourcing most, or at least some of the site's technical operations to a Web hosting company. This is by no means a bad thing, and in fact can free up your time and IT resources, allowing you to focus on the operations of the business itself.

More than simply freeing your time, however, many Web hosting companies have plans tailored specifically to the needs of customers developing or operating e-commerce Web sites. A few hosting companies offering enhanced e-commerce features include VIP PowerNet Web Hosting ( www.VIPWH.com ) , ValueWeb ( www.ValueWeb.com ) and Global Internet Solutions ( www.GISol.com ). These commerce-friendly hosting plans often include a software license for one of the storefront building programs with your monthly fees, as well as a number of other support services, designed to provide you with a secure platform from which to do business.

And while software and services may be convenient, there are other reasons why a host that understands e-commerce is critical to your business. A good e-commerce host will already have the means in place to secure your online transactions with protocols such as SSL. It may be able to process transactions for you, or help you set up a merchant account. And most importantly, it will have the service level guarantees suitable to the high demands of your e-commerce operation.

Of course, in addition to the products and services they provide, it's hard to argue against the value of experience. And a Web host well versed in e-commerce should be able to help you by answering whatever questions you may have.

Securing Information Using SSL

At the core of any e-commerce operation is the financial transaction between Web site and consumer. One of the most common methods for accepting payment from your customers is accepting the submission of credit card information online. But by accepting your customers' credit card information through your Web site, you are also accepting the responsibility for the security of that information.

The standard protocol for securing communications on the Web is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Developed by Netscape Communications Corporation, the SSL security protocol provides data encryption, server authentication, message integrity and client authentication for TCP/IP connections, allowing client/server applications to communicate in a way that prevents eavesdropping, tampering or message forgery.

SSL is built into all major web-browsing software, so simply installing a digital certificate on the server side of the communication will turn on the browser's SSL capabilities. The protocol is available in both 40-bit and 128-bit strengths, referring to the length of the session key generated by each encrypted transaction.

In order to establish an SSL session with a customer's browser, your server has to be able to generate a public key and a private key and have them authenticated by a certificate authority, such as VeriSign ( www.VeriSign.com ), Thawte ( www.Thawte.com ), Tucows ( www.Tucows.com ) or InstantSSL ( www.InstantSSL.com ). Your Web host may include an arrangement with one if these authorities, or may allow you to use its certificate.

Processing Transactions

Once your customer is willing and able to give you his or her credit card information, you still have to make arrangements to be able to process the transaction and receive your payment. Obviously, credit card processing is a complicated process, and a number of organizations can be involved, from both your bank and the user's bank to a credit card processing company and the credit card communications network.

Your involvement in the processing operation will vary according to how much of the responsibility you want to outsource. It can be as simple as employing a buy button solution hosted by a third party provider, where all you have to do is include a piece of HTML code on your site and the processing company will send you a check. But keep in mind that the more responsibility you take on yourself, the smaller percentage of your profits you'll have to hand over to service providers.

In a more hands-on solution, many of the storefront-building software solutions include tools and ongoing support services to handle payment processing functions. Your Web host may have already set up this sort of pre-arranged processing option. For storefronts not equipped to provide payment processing, there are service providers, such as IBill ( www.IBill.com ) or CCBill ( www.CCBill.com ), designed to do just that. These providers charge a scaling service that can reach as high as 15 percent, for their services. And these charges can be avoided by setting up your own merchant account.

If you decide to handle most of the processing yourself, saving many of the fees associated with outsourced payment processing, you'll have to enable your Web server and applications to send and receive information from the credit card network. In order to do this, you'll have to obtain your own merchant ID and terminal ID, numbers that will identify you and the source of your transactions. These IDs can be obtained from a merchant bank by applying for a merchant account enabled to receive payments by credit card. The merchant bank will have relationships with acquiring banks that can handle both credit card processing and Internet payments. Once the merchant bank supplies you with merchant and terminal IDs, you'll use these numbers to configure your payment software or provide them to your outsourced processor.

There are plenty of responsibilities beyond security involved in running an e-commerce Web site, not including managing the supply chain relationships and inventory and, of course, fulfilling your customers' orders. But, when dealing with the sensitive data involved in processing customers' credit card information, there can be no question that earning the trust of your customers through a comprehensive and responsible approach to security should be a primary concern.

Please refer following web sites for useful resources related to web site hosting:

http://www.vipwh.com
http://www.vippowernet.com
http://www.thehostingguide.com

About the Author
Paras Shah
Chief Technology Officer
VIP PowerNet, Inc.
Phone: (713)787-6501
Email: [email protected]
http://www.vipwh.com

Should you use a free or paid blogging service

By Stanley Spencer

Blogging is an abbreviation of "web-logging". The simplest definition of a blog is that it is an online log that is organized in reverse chronological order. It comprises of comments, declarations, links, or anything else of interest to the blog writer.

There are two basic requirements of starting your own blog. You need a software to run a blog and a place on the Internet to host your blog.

Taking into consideration the above mentioned two factors, there can be four categories of blogs:

1. Free Software + Free Webhosting
2. Free Software + Paid Webhosting
3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting
4. Paid Software + Paid Webhosting

We have given descriptions of all these four options alongwith their pros and cons.

We have also given recommendations regarding the suitability of these options.

1. Free Software + Free Webhosting

This is a completely free way of blogging. Here you pay neither for the software nor for the virtual hosting.

But there are some drawbacks of this system. It offers very few features as compared to the paid services. You cannot post pictures online or design your preferred look for your site.

The companies that provide free software and free domain hosting frequently place a banner immediately above your site. This detracts the visitors from the look of your site. You also have no discretion over the content of the advertisements.

The key advantage of this system is that it is absolutely free. This option is extremely useful for a newcomer since he/she can try this method to find if they are really interested in blogging.

This option is recommended for those people who would not like to pay anything or for the newcomers.

2. Free Software + Paid Webhosting

This option provides you free software but you will have to pay for the domain hosting.

There is a cost factor involved in this option. Minimum cost of domain hosting would be $5 per month but a realistic budget would be slightly higher, around $7-8. The annual registration fee for domain name would be about $10-30.

This system will let you do certain things that you were unable to do with the free one. Here, you can modify the look of your site and you can also post pictures. But free softwares have fewer features than paid ones.

This option is highly recommended because by just paying the cost of virtual hosting and domain registration, you can avail great features and flexibility.

3. Paid Software including Price of Webhosting

This is a subscription-based option. There are ongoing costs involved in this option.

You have to pay at least $6 per month for basic services and for advanced features the fee would be around $15 per month.

The cumulative cost for a year would reach up to $200. That makes this option a very expensive one.

Apart from customizing the look of your site and posting photographs online, you will be able to use a software that provides more features than a free one.

This option is recommended for people who do not want to be troubled with virtual hosting and software installation issues. This is the easiest possible solution. It offers great features but at a reasonably high price.

4. Paid Software + Paid Webhosting

This option provides you paid software and paid domain hosting.

The cost of the domain hosting ranges from $5 to $10 per month while the cost of the software would be at least $45 (one-time cost).

This option gives you great amount of flexibility. You can select your own domain name and have a feature-rich blogging software.

This option is highly recommended for businesses since the cost is not a major consideration.

About the Author
Copyright © Active-Venture.com's webhosting service. This article may be reprinted freely provided the resource box, Web addresses and copyright information remain intact.

INTERNET MARKETING TOOLS

Affiliated-Business.com: The art of making money online...

| Home |

| Building |

| Hosting |

| Promotion |

| Make Money |

| Tools |

| Homebusiness |

| Resources |

| Tell A Friend |

| Add To Favorities |

| Link To Us |

| Partner With Us |

| Site Map |