| Selecting a web hosting company is like sending one | | | | foolish." |
| of your children off to college. You may have | | | | All commercial web hosting companies are not |
| complete confidence in your son or daughter's abilities | | | | created equal. Of course, cost is an issue but reliability |
| but unless they are placed in the proper environment | | | | and service will likely be major factors in the decision |
| they will not have the opportunity to thrive. Likewise, | | | | making process. You should expect your host to be |
| no matter how sophisticated or impressive the | | | | up and functioning 100% of the time but you will |
| website you have designed may be, if you do not | | | | likely only see guarantees of 99-99.5% uptime. Less |
| place the site where it can perform optimally you will | | | | than this is unacceptable. |
| likely be disappointed in the results. | | | | If you will personally be managing much of the |
| Selecting web hosting is not simply finding a place | | | | activity for your site, make sure that you are |
| where your website can reside. It is finding the | | | | comfortable with the Control Panel. Some hosts |
| company that offers the resources that will allow | | | | present Control Panels that are cumbersome and |
| your website to operate effectively and to grow as | | | | complicated. You want to easily navigate through |
| the business or public demands. This means that you | | | | routine functions. |
| must be able to store and transfer enough data so | | | | You will also want to make sure that the hosting |
| that your site functions smoothly but also remains | | | | company has functionality that you may not be using |
| affordable. | | | | now but will likely use in the future. These would |
| Free web hosting services normally require that you | | | | include PHP, MySQL, SSI, .htaccess, SSL, etc. Examine |
| allow ads to be placed on your site. These generate | | | | the offers for email and autoresponders also. |
| revenue for the hosting company by enabling them | | | | Many web hosting services offer very low rates if |
| to display ads to visitors to your website. Only you | | | | you commit to a year or more of hosting. While this |
| can determine if the ads are appropriate for visitors | | | | may turn out to be an excellent value in the long |
| to your site. In addition you will have to decide if the | | | | term, it may be advisable to pay each month until |
| amount of storage and the available bandwidth will be | | | | you are confident in the service and, quite |
| sufficient for the type of website that you want to | | | | importantly, the quality of the technical support that |
| display. A free service may be completely appropriate | | | | they provide. Getting accurate responses to |
| for a personal website that is periodically modified. | | | | questions quickly will make your life as a webmaster |
| But trying to operate a site with significant traffic or | | | | less stressful. |
| a commercial focus may be "penny wise and pound | | | | |