After making the initial decision to have your own website and securing a domain name your next will be to select a web host for your domain name. You'll want someone who is reliable, professional and fits your budget. Unfortunately there is a lot of technical jargon associated with web hosting and it's easy to become intimidated. In the following information I will help demystify the process for you.

Note: Securing a domain name means paying a company called a registrar to hold a domain name (like germanamericans.com) for you. If you haven't already secured a domain name most hosting companies will assist you with the process for a fee.

What is a web host:
A web host is a company that supplies you space on their server to store your website where the rest of the world can access it via the Internet. This includes all of your web pages, images and scripts. When people view your website they are actually connecting to the hosting company's server and temporarily downloading the files

Most, but not all hosting companies also provide email hosting as well which allows you to use email addresses using the same domain as your website. For example, if your website is called germanamericans.com then the email address info@germanamericans.com would also be supported by the web hosting company.

Some hosting companies provide other services as well such as streaming media. If you don't know what streaming media is, it's safe to say that you don't have to have it, but if you are planning on doing anything unusual with your website it's worth asking some questions of the hosting company up front to avoid any potential future issues.

Free versus professional hosting:
If you are representing your business online the simple rule is never use a free hosting service and do pay to have your own domain name.

The reasons for this are many, but here are some highlights…
" Companies today that don't have that don't have their own domain name are generally thought to not be serious about business to even the less savvy web surfers.
" Free hosting services provide no guarantee of service and can shut your site down without warning.
" Many search engines will not include websites that don't have their own domain name.
" No technical support
" Most free host services require you to use annoying pop up ads or banner advertising for other companies, maybe even your competitors.

Selecting a web host:
You are investing a lot of trust in your web hosting company. Many sales can be made or lost based upon how well they do their job for you. Do some research, check out their background and perhaps most importantly talk to other customers and see if they have been satisfied.

Here are some questions to ask:
" Are their connections fast?
" Do they have a backup system in place in case of power failure or a hardware problem?

" Do you have top pay in advance?
" Do you have to agree to a long-term contract?
" Do they charge setup fees?
" How is their technical support?
" If you are interested in selling online…do they provide secure transactions using Secure Socket Layer or SSL?
" Do they provide a shopping cart or e-commerce software package?
" Do they provide online site management?
" Do they provide access to any type of online traffic analysis?

Here are some features you may want from your hosting company:
" Storage Space of at least 75 MB
" Included Bandwidth of at least 1000 MB
" E-mail Accounts Minimum of 5
" Unlimited Aliases
" E-mail forwarding
" E-mail autoresponders
" Web-based E-mail
" Tape Backups
" Online Site Management
" Site Traffic Statistics
" 24/7 FTP access
" Personal CGI-Bin
" PHP, ASP or Cold Fusion support
" Server-Side Includes (SSI)
" Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
" MySQL
" Support for FrontPage Extensions

There's no reason web hosting has to cost a fortune. Good quality web hosting can be had for as little as $9.95 a month, but make sure you know what you want. Selecting the wrong hosting company and having to switch due to a lack of features you didn't realize you needed, or unprofessional performance by your hosting company is where true costs are incurred. The costs can usually be measured in your sites down time, lost sales and pure aggravation.

If all you are planning on putting on the internet is a simple web site that provides your company with representation and some basic information, like phone number and address, this article may be sufficient information for you to proceed with confidence. If you are planning something more ambitious like selling products online, then I highly encourage you take this as a starting point and do more research.

John Potter
jpotter@escapekeygraphics.com
http://www.escapekeygraphics.com