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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Web Hosting for Startups

By Gregory Trune


If you want to set up your own website, be it for business purposes or communicating to the world, there are a number of things that first time web site owners should be aware. The modern market place is such that it is infeasible for a firm not to have a presence on the internet. There are so many benefits that come with having a proper structure in place and having strong sales, promotional and marketing channels available which makes them necessary for any startup site. Of course, many new sites or firms do not have a large budget for such items and they need to create their website in a way that promotes efficiency and is extremely cost-effective.

There is no doubt that the website of a firm has a large part to play in generating interest in potential customers, announcing the power of the company to the world, generate traffic to the site and place itself firmly in front of a specialized market. Of course, if your firm is only based on the internet then it is imperative that there is a priority to place your website on the internet.

There are many web hosting companies that offer special packages for the startups. The web hosting packages offered by them are designed keeping in mind the requirements of a new business and of those wanting to share knowledge. The SEO experts of these companies are specially to provide you with potentially strong techniques to drive traffic into your website

Processes that startup firms need to follow for web hosting:

Hosting a website for the first time in the internet may be a little cumbersome. Here are some simple steps following which one can easily go with the process of choosing and selecting a web hosting company to host the website for a new company or an individual.

First browse the internet and ask for the free quotes from the various Web Hosting companies offering Web Hosting services for the startups.

Select the one that meets the requirements of your business and meet your budget. Find out the services, facilities and supports provided by the company. Check out the products and the prices. Compare them.

* Sign up online by completing the application form and place all the requested and relevant details. These details include the name of the applicant, their address, their country of residence and how they are going to pay for the service.

* Wait for approval from the firm which may take a number of days.

* Wait for the official confirmation and having a hosting account set up for you and then go about hosting your very own website on the World Wide Web.

What does a Web Hosting startup package consist of?

There is a growing number of firms who provide startup packages with the new website owners in mind. These new owners may be businesses or they may bloggers. The new owners don't usually have high demands or expectations but they also usually have a limited budget. These are the key factors that the web hosting companies keep in mind when they offer startup packages.

What should be in the typical Startup package provide by Web Hosts:

Here are some of the general features that you must look for in any startup Web Hosting package. However the below mentioned features may differ slightly from company to company:

* Web Management system - Any reasonable web management system should have at least 20MB to 50MB of disk storage space available, with regards to data transfer per month10GB should be offered and various FTP access should be offered. These can include full FTP Access and Anonymous FTP. This is in addition to Static IP Address and Secure Server (SSL) Transaction Encryption facilities.

* Email Features - Every startup site needs to have these facilities. The standard benefits of these packages include having about 10 email accounts (configured to POP/Web), the ability to have email aliases and provide forwarding facilities. Other email features can include PGP Encryption, Personal SMTP Mail Server and the ability to use Email Auto Responders.

* E-Commerce - With so many firms offering services like PH4 Server-Side Scripting, SSH - Secure Shell or Server Sides,these are all common additions to any startup package. Many firms may also offer Pssword Protected Directories.

* Technical Support - The vast majority of web host ompanies offer around the clock 24 hour ticket support for any troubles, in addition to guaranteeing uptime for 99.9% of the year.

* Website Monitoring - To monitor the activity of your website, many firms offer Daily Data Backups, access to downloadable Raw Access Logs and the use of Wusage 7.0 Graphical Statistics.

* Additional Software - Some users may find their package also contains other software such as Web Based Control Panel or an increased level of support for FrontPage Extensions..

* Hardware & Network - There are many different offerings that firms may provide in a startup package but they can include Dual-1 Ghz Pentium IV Servers, Apache Server Software, 10-T1, Custom Red Hat Server and 1-OC3 Network Connectivity in addition to Uninterruptible Power.

* Advanced Features - There are also a great deal of additional features of a more advanced nature that many web hosts are including in their startup packages. Some of these features include offering a 30 day money back guarantee, Custom Error Documents, Pico & Cron Tab, .htaccess and Joe. This is in addition to the following features: elm, vi, Pine, Emacs 20.4, Python & TCL Compilers, Java JDK, Perl, C and C++. And if that is not enough, some customers may also be offered CGI Bin, Custom MIME Types, bash, csh, tsh and Unix Shells.

Vital information that Startups need to know:

Before embarking on anything new, people should be aware of what goals they want to achieve and this is true for those starting a new business and who are looking to create a website. There is only the possibility to store and archive so much on their website so people must be aware of what they want to do in advance. Having a pre-advances clarification of their aims is vitally important to anyone looking to create a website. The following tips will be able to help someone focus their mind on what they want their website to do.

The attention span of a user is very short and hence the website for start-ups should look attractive and must be able to grab the attention of the readers. Ask self targeted questions like what will bring people to the website?

* Good use of search engine optimization facilities can be vital for any startup website and these should compliment the existing content on the site.

* You should have an idea of how you want your site, company or products to be promoted on the internet.

The website must be search engine friendly but also ensure that it is interactive and engages the user into the contents of the website.

* Think of how many other sites are starting up just now. You need to ensure your firm stands out from the rest of them.

* If you need a guaranteed performance from your web host then do not go for a shared web host service as they cannot offer performance guarantees.

Ensure that the company that is hosting your website has fast connections

* Ask if there is any back-up system in store in case your web host provider loses power.

* Be sure to ask questions of their customer support service.

Before selecting a company, find out whether or not they provide the free access to a secure server for order processing, an online Web Site Manager and an online support manual.

Like all walks of life, creating a new website has many difficulties that need to be avoided. Having a structured website and utilizing search engine optimization techniques can bring growth and custom. As there are a number of web hosts out there, seek their advice about what you need and what services will best suit your requirements.




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