FileMB

So you’re ready to start that personal or small business website? Great! If you have a very basic knowledge of how to make an HTML page OR if you have someone who will do that for you then you’re already half way there! Before we move on, it’s important to understand what makes up a website. There are two major aspects you need to be concerned with; a domain name, and web hosting space.

Domain Names

A domain name is the URL that people will type in to their browsers to get to your site — for example www.filemb.net is a domain name. To start up your website you need to register a domain name. Registration usually costs less than 10 dollars per year and can be done through a different company than your web host — but we’ll get to that in a minute. It’s also important to note that registering a domain name requires you to link contact information to the domain name which will be publicly accessible. Some domain registration companies offer free or paid privacy options where the company uses their contact information instead of your personal information, effectively hiding your information from the public.

Web Hosting

The second part of your website is the hosting space. This is the actual server that your website will live on — yes, that means there’s a physical server holding data for every single website you visit, even this one! Its important to note that you pay for hosting separately from a domain name. Hosting space is like renting an apartment; you pay a monthly fee to be taking up space in a server that someone else maintains. Sure, you could build your own server but trust me, building a web server can quickly become as difficult as building your own house — so save yourself the headaches and just pay a hosting company to do it for you. Hosting prices range from a few dollars a month to hundreds of dollars a month — but we’ll talk about that further down the page.

What you should know about Web Hosting

Here are some useful tips that I wish I knew when I first started out:

• Not all web hosting is created equal! In fact, the phrase “You get what you pay for” isn’t necessarily true either!

The hosting market is unfortunately made up of a lot of smoke and mirrors — many hosting companies will advertise all the numbers and statistics that make their hosting look much better than it actually is while conveniently leaving out bits of information that reflects how poor the service actually is. The best way to find out if a host is really worth their cost is to talk to people that have had experience with that particular host.

• Bigger is not necessarily better!

Just because a host offers you unlimited everything doesn’t mean it’s going to fulfill all of your needs — I could offer you a car that gets a million miles per gallon but it could be as loud as a jet plane and never over 20 miles/hour. Likewise, cheaper doesn’t mean the a better value and more expensive doesn’t mean better quality.

• Customer Support is super important!

Unlike with your new car which can be taken to any service station, you WILL need to contact your hosts customer support at one point especially because there are ways to screw up your site that only the host can fix. One of the most overlooked aspects of web hosting companies is the customer support options available and the quality of that support.

Finding the right host is one of the most important parts of creating your website. First of all you need to figure out your needs. Here are some questions you should know the answers to:

• How many people will be visiting my site? (Less than 1000 per month, less than 100,000 a month, or more?)
• How much storage space do I need? (Will I be storing photos? Music? Videos?)
• Do I need a “server technology” like PHP or a database like MySQL? (It’s OK if you don’t know this)
• Will I need to add multiple domain names? (Host more than one site with the same package)

When picking a host, always keep in mind what you might also need in the future.

I recommend BlueHost

If you don’t have any hosts in mind or don’t even know where to start then let me offer a suggestion. If you’re a home user or a small business then I would highly recommend using a company called BlueHost — I’ve personally used their services for a few years and they’re one of the best hosts I’ve ever used for a number of reasons:

• Bluehost web hosting includes one free domain name registration with your account! They also offer free privacy for the contact information that’s required for all domain registrations (most companies charge 5 bucks or so for privacy).
• Their customer service is outstanding – they have always replied to my emails (they offer live chat and phone support too) and try to help you even if what you’re asking isn’t covered in your hosting package (most hosting companies will give you a canned reply if you ask non-covered support questions).
• They offer enough space and visitor capacity that you shouldn’t ever run out (unless your a huge company).
• Their hosting includes most server technologies and databases as well as a neat little thing called cPanel.
• You can add on as many extra domains to your BlueHost account as you want — in other words, you can host as many websites as you want for the same monthly cost (this is a feature not many hosts offer because they want you to buy multiple accounts).

If you’re thinking of starting with them they charge about 8 dollars per month (domain included) which really is a steal for the number of features and quality of hosting they offer — the only catch is that you have to pre-pay for one year of hosting to get that price but I’d say it’s worth it. If you do decide you don’t need a year they offer pro-rated refunds for un-used time on your account if you cancel before the year is up (I found that out through their awesome customer service as I was asking questions before I signed up the first time).

Overall, from personal experience I can say that BlueHost offers excellent hosting for both beginner and experienced website designers. In fact, this site is hosted with them if you’re looking for an example of their service. Here’s one of their banner links to get you to their site — the numbers and jargon doesn’t mean much to you (as I’ve taught you that numbers aren’t important) but trust me that BlueHost provides more than you’ll ever need.