Hosting Your Website Safely and Economically

You probably get emails all the time with ads for web hosting, both FREE and paid. Do you know the real difference between the two?

The first question I would suggest that YOU ask yourself is… Am I running a business or an ad agency? If you use free hosting, typically you will have someone’s advertisements displayed on YOUR website… and they’re not for you! And you have NO control over those Ads… they could wind up being XXX ads and you would never know unless someone told you or you saw them or… worst case, a potential customer emailed or called you and blasted you for having those tasteless ads on your site.

The other thing that you’ll notice with most free hosting is that you do NOT get to choose YOUR domain name… instead, you use theirs OR a modified version of it (tyically a subdomain). If you’re wondering what a subdomain is I’ll provide an example. One of my websites can be found at: http://www.Daveylee.net When I wanted to use that same domain name to display some photographs and stories about a time in my life when I lived on an island in the Pacific Ocean I created a “subdomain” of my domain name to handle that. It’s a function that exists in almost every hosting control panel. The Subdomain “name” replaces the “www” portion of the URL. The domain name for my life on the island page is: http://Midway.Daveylee.net

So, how do you prevent “Other People’s” advertisements on YOUR website? You prevent it by purchasing a hosting account from a reputable host. There are several kinds of hosting accounts that you can spend your hard earned money on. My philosophy is… if you work hard for your money, you shouldn’t have to work hard to spend it! It should be easy and you should get a LOT for it in your hosting account!

NOTE: You can always have “Other People’s Advertisements” on your website when they are PAYING YOU to have them there… That is an entirely different situation that you can PROFIT from and an entirely different subject for discussion some other day.
What are the different kinds of hosting accounts? Well… there are hosting accounts that allow you to host as many websites as you want to… all for “one money.” Some of the Pro’s who post regularly on the Forum’s say that those hosting accounts don’t give great results with the search engines… They say that you need separate hosting accounts for each website. I happen to agree… Other accounts only allow ONE domain for your money.
Does hosting have to be expensive? Absolutely not! You can get great hosting for $5 to $6 per month all the way up to $25 and more per month. My first hosting account cost me $25+ per month. Did I need that? Absolutely NOT! Then why did I do that? There was a forum where I could ask questions and get help. And yes, I went there and got help. Now that I’ve taken classes and read a huge shelf full of books on various subjects related to creating and operating a successful website, including forums, membership sites, blogs, autoresponders and more… I don’t feel like I need a $25+ per month account… so I DON’T! My accounts now are MUCH less Expensive than that.

There are other things that you need to look at when you’re considering what hosting provider to go with. If you’ve become educated, write your own code, understand how to install scripts, set permissions and understand what all these terms mean… then you probably won’t need a lot of hand-holding. You can handle just about any kind of host that gives you what you want.

If you do not know how to install scripts and all that other stuff… and want your host who provides a button that you can click to install a WordPress Blog on your site for you (or just about anything else)… then you really will have to purchase hosting from a company that offers you a control panel in your “back office” that does those things FOR YOU. That would likely be a “C-Panel” with a feature known as Fantastico. You can find hosting like this at HostMonster.com for as little as $6.95 per month. They make everything quite simple with lots of image based links so you can navigate the site easily. Check it out and I think you’ll like it a lot. I have an account there and I’m VERY pleased with it.

Have a great day and we’ll talk about more hosting services and other hosting providers soon.

David Perkins

(aka: trafficmechanic)
http://rejaw.com/trafficmechanic
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1347470596
http://www.myspace.com/trafficmechanic

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