The Top Four Items to Look For In A Web Host

1. As the saying goes, "you get what you pay for". This certainly holds true in the realm of web hosting services. If you focus too much on the price, you are likely to end up with a sub-par web host that will provide you with a combination of overloaded servers, poor connections to the Internet backbones, frequent downtime or little or no support.

2. Many web hosts provide telephone support - some even have 24/7 support through local or toll-free numbers. Other ways that web hosts provide support includes online trouble-ticket/helpdesk systems, web discussion forums, live chats with technicians and email support. With respect to uptime, this guarantee is usually a little harder to find and enforce. If you settle for 99% uptime, that means your website could be down for an average of 14.4 minutes a day. That is actually quite a lot, especially considering the amount of potential revenue you might be losing. On the other hand 99.99% uptime makes a huge difference and leads to a average negligible down-time per day. So if you need reliable web hosting, make sure to check the support, uptime and backups.

3. Web hosting providers both big and small need a central location where they house their servers and equipment. It is important to have some idea as to where these systems are located. If you seek reliability and high quality you may not really want your important web venture hosted in someone's basement off an xDSL connection. You might also want to check what type of data connections/providers are being used your web host. Just because someone says that they have a "10-MBit Internet backbone" does not mean high quality and reliability.

4. A plain vanilla website requires different resources compared to a site that uses a database, special image libraries, and custom programming. So if you are developing anything more than an HTML web site that will require custom programming work or uses any type of scripting language, make sure the web host supports these standards and needed features. Often, web hosting companies list everything they offer up front, but if you have questions, make sure you ask. Also no need to worry about getting email accounts - just about every web host will provide SMTP/ POP3 and web based access to email.

Click here to see my picks for the top 11 hosting companies.

Domain Name Registration

Thriftys.com - After you've picked out the name of your site, you need to register it.  I always use Thriftys.com.  They are just about the cheapest on the web at $8.00, and have a nice set of tools to manage your domains. After you've registered your site, you are ready to get hooked up with a hosting company.

Let a package handle all the details for you

If all this information seems a bit overwhelming, there is hope!  Site Build It is a software package that handles everything from domain registration, setting up your hosting account, setting up your web site to get at or near the top of the search engines.  If that sounds good to you, you should definitely check it out. Site Build It is a one stop shop for getting your business up and running on the internet. Beginners will especially appreciate the ease with which your online business can be set up.  I highly recommend finding out more about Site Build It.  This package is also a big time saver - even for experienced web professionals.