So you’re dreaming of quitting your job and starting up your own web hosting business. You figure that it can’t be too hard, especially with reseller web hosting packages. Just lounge your way to easy street, right? Wrong. Web hosting is a business, like any other, and the vast majority of businesses fail in their first year. It is not a way to fast, easy money. Don’t believe me? Do a little research for yourself. A recent article at Tech News World on choosing a web host pointed out that “many of the biggest [web hosting companies] filed for

It’s time to choose! Should you spend some money to get a web hosting solution for your business or get one for free? This article helps you sort out the advantages and disadvantages of each option, and helps you figure out which one is better suited to your needs. Yes, the big moment has finally arrived. Your business is now on the verge of taking the next step forward. It will establish a web presence. This is an important step as from now on your business is able to

If you’re a small web host, and especially if you’re a web hosting reseller looking to grow your business, the number of tasks you have to handle will quickly become enough to overwhelm even the most organized person. You won’t be able to grow past a certain point without software to automate at least some functions. In this article, I’ll take a look at some of the parts of your business that can benefit from software automation. There are several areas that can be well served by web hosting software automation. These can be usefully divided into the front end and back end, or, more functionally, into the customer-facing software and the business processes. This does not

Whatever may be said about attracting customers to your business (be it web hosting or anything else), it all seems to boil down to one thing: give your customers what they want. It sounds like a simple formula, but there are layers to it. With a recent offering from Monsterhosting.ca as an example, we’ll pick apart what it means. When you’re a writer searching for a topic for your next article, sometimes you get lucky. You go through news items and how to articles and several of them crash into each other in your brain in a way that both makes sense and creates something new. They illuminate each other, and perhaps even reveal some

If you’re setting up a web site, you will probably need to transfer files to your web host. To accomplish this task, FTP is invaluable. But what is it and how do you use it? Keep reading to find out. FTP stands for "File Transfer Protocol." As you may have guessed from the name, it is a protocol for transferring files from one computer to another over a network connection. While this is often done over the Internet, it doesn't have to be. Users on a large intranet, like those at a corporation or on a college campus, may also transfer files between computers within the intranet via FTP. In basic outline, it works like

You have probably encountered Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policies as a customer of various businesses. Guess what? As a web host, you need one of each for your own business. This article explains what they are, why you need them, and gives you some hints as to what they should include. Let's start by defining our terms. A Terms of Service and an Acceptable Use Policy are not the same thing, though the names of the two documents are often bandied about as if they are. While they are both legal (and legally binding) documents, they have two entirely different purposes. The Terms of Service, as you might guess from the name, describes the

Everyone hates spam, and there seems to be no escape from it. As a web host, however, you're closer to the front lines of this battle than your customers. In this article, I'll detail some of the steps you can take to keep this unsolicited annoyance from getting out of hand. By some estimates, spam, also known as unsolicited bulk email, has already gotten out of hand generally across the Internet. Ferris Research estimated that the cost of spam to the United States economy came to more than $10 billion

This article covers two important maintenance tasks for web hosts. The first two sections cover backup and recovery strategies. The third and fourth sections cover how to set up a new WHM cPanel server. Dedicated Servers – Backup and Recovery Strategies for Web Hosting Companies What kind of backup recovery strategy should a company have for its dedicated server? Web hosting companies have been debating this

When I first heard about managed hosting, I thought it was more or less the same thing as dedicated hosting. In both forms of hosting, you have a server with your web host that is completely dedicated to your web site. Keep reading to find out why that’s almost the only thing they have in common. Dedicated hosting has long been an option for companies whose web presence is such that they can’t put their web site on a shared hosting plan without someone taking a big hit. Maybe their web site is really huge, with lots of

You’ve been looking for a new web host for awhile now. You’re comparing features, prices, support options trying to find the best match for your needs. One thing that keeps popping up in some places, is something called cron jobs. What is this cron, and is it something you need? In essence, cron is a scheduling daemon available on Linux and other Unix variants. I know this probably doesn’t mean much to many of you, but don’t worry, I’ll explain it better. Let's say that you

Can you afford to lose all your data? Of course you can't. And if you can't, then not paying good money to back it all up just doesn't make sense. In this article, we examine some of the options every online business should be considering for backing up its data, in case the worst happens. Back up your backups! Say that ten times fast. This is a life lesson as an Internet business owner I have learned repeatedly and way too often – more times than I

The Internet is a great place to find information about everything, including web hosts. But can you trust what you find anymore? Are independent directories really as unbiased as they claim to be? The creator of the Internet's first web host directory ponders the state of the field today. Back in 1996 I created the Internet's first web hosting directory, called The Ultimate Web Host List

You're starting a website and/or an online business on a shoestring, so you're going to go with the least expensive web host you can find, right? Wrong. Keep reading to find out why this could be the most expensive mistake you ever make. When most people want to start an online business, they shop around online to see what web hosting businesses are available. A lot of them end up going with a "budget" service that only costs a few bucks a month. While this is

As industries mature, you expect to see a certain degree of consolidation. But this can lead to monopolies, with all the problems they bring. Given all of the merger news we've seen recently, is this the challenge now facing the web hosting industry? And what can be done about it? Recently investment firm GI Partners

You own a website, and it gets a lot of traffic. But you don’t get a lot of visitors buying your products or services. Or maybe you don’t get a lot of traffic, and you’re wondering why. Well, you’re not alone, and fortunately there is something you can do about it. Getting plenty of traffic to your website is all well and good, but if you don’t know more than the fact that you’re apparently getting lots of visitors, that’s not going to help you. You need to analyze the traffic that your website is getting. In fact, if you want to improve the marketing for your website, analyzing its traffic is not just important, it’s vital.

There's a lot to keep track of when you're transitioning from one web host to another. This article will help you keep the important issues in mind. Switching your website to a new web host is a lot like moving in real life. You don't want to do it unless you really have to. You try to get all your research about the new location completed before you have to move. You do your best to see that it suits your needs as well as, or better than, your old location. And it involves so many details that you practically despair of getting it done without forgetting something unless you're

Ask the right questions when you are choosing a web host, and you can avoid a lot of pain in the future. This article explains some of the things you need to know. Many website owners have received unpleasant surprises after signing up with a web host they thought could do the job. Some of these could not be helped, but many other problems could have been prevented, or at least foreseen, if the website owner had done his or her research beforehand. Choosing a host for your website is an important decision; it calls for thoroughness before you make a commitment. You should start your thorough research with your own website. Figure out in

If you're a website owner, choosing a web host is one of the most important decisions you will make for your business. If you're a reseller web host, that's even more true. The services you can deliver will directly depend on the service your web host delivers. In effect, you're going to be the middleman, so you'd better have someone backing you who will help you stay in business. So what should you, as a reseller web host, be looking for in a web host? In many cases, you should be looking for some of the same things your clients will be looking for. But you will find that you actually have less flexibility than they do, because you have a lot more riding on your web host. For example, let's say that you host a lot of little hobbyist websites, a few

Stuck for ways to get the word out about your web hosting business? Keep reading; this article features a number of them, including some you might not have thought of before. When you’re too close to something, you sometimes get caught thinking in one particular way. That’s why you hear the phrase “think outside the box” so much, especially when people are trying to solve problems related to business. Often there is

Welcome to the second and final part of this discussion about planning your web hosting business. Last time, I gave you only half of the roadmap for what goes into a business plan. This time, after a recap, I will give you the other half. In my previous article, I explained that web hosting was a business just like any other. Sure, it has its own unique challenges, but you want to approach it as a business. That means that you want to have a plan before you proceed. I also mentioned the six parts one usually finds in a business plan: the executive summary, the enterprise, the market, operations, organization, and key risks/timeline. Since I did not have the room to cover all six in

Just as you wouldn’t travel in territory you don’t know without a map, you should not proceed in business without a plan. That’s as true for the web hosting business as it is for any other. In this article, the first of two parts, I will mention the six important parts of any business plan, and discuss three of them. Many people who get into the web hosting business figure that it’s just a numbers game. While it is important to get the numbers right, those figures that add up to a profitable business on paper may be hiding some mistaken assumptions. Let’s look at

A lot of people have considered getting into the reseller web hosting business because they heard it was an easy way to make a lot of money. If you're thinking along these lines yourself, keep reading. Reseller web hosting is easy. With the various control panels available, even those who are practically phobic about technology can run their own reseller web hosting business. It’s totally automated. It simply comes down to the math; once the monthly fees from your customers cover the monthly fee you pay your hosting company, everything else is profit. So all you have to do is

There are many things to consider when you begin building your web hosting business. One of the most important concerns how to attract customers. This article discusses four areas you need to pay attention to if you want to get visitors who need web hosting to your site...and turn those visitors into clients. There are a million things to consider when you decide to start your own web hosting business. You need to think about what company to buy your package from (if you’re a reseller), make sure you have the technical skills, create a business plan, deal with

The other day I was speaking to a client of mine about selecting a host for the website that they were planning to build. They asked me a question that I am sure many have on their minds. “Out of millions of options and hosting companies, how do we know which one is the best for us?” The answer is simple. There are three terms that must be met. Quality Service Most site owners shopping for hosting will go online, find a $4.00 hosting company that offers 1000 Mbps of server space along with 24/7 technical support, and

Practically every online business accepts credit cards, and so should yours. But you should be prepared to shop around and ask questions before settling on a provider for your credit card merchant account. This article lets you know what to expect. Maybe you haven’t been in business long enough to have to confront this issue yet, especially if you started small. Sooner or later, though, you will have to face the fact that customers prefer to make purchases using their credit cards. What’s more, when they can use their credit card, customers tend to buy more. To someone who sells anything online, be it web hosting services or collectibles through eBay, the implication is plain: you need to be able to accept credit cards. Maybe you’re still

Businesses often need to grow in order to survive, and web hosting businesses are no exception. One way to grow your business is by adding a new service. This article discusses some points to consider if you are thinking about expanding in this direction. Many web hosts are expanding their businesses with new packages, new services, upgrades to existing services, more capacity, and so on. It seems as if companies post press releases about this kind of growth almost daily. Maybe in this competitive field, you’ve been feeling the pressure. Are you ready to

So you’re starting a website, and one of the first things you’ll need to do is to find a web host. After searching all of the hosting possibilities, you find there is more than just one type of hosting. So what do you do? A successful web site depends on a good web host, but it's just as important to select the right kind of hosting account. Most web hosting companies offer a choice between virtual shared hosting and dedicated hosting. The basic difference between the two types of accounts is

Ultimately, the true test of a web host comes from your own experiences with them. With this article, I wanted to compile some of the experiences of a few people to bring to you cautions when choosing a host: clients, friends, and myself. I’ll also then give you a few points you have to consider when choosing a web host. I wanted to start with my own experiences. I chose a web host based upon price, and the ability for this host to charge me monthly, instead of a year or two upfront. I was just starting my company, and had to watch those pennies. Even though I knew that spending the money up front would have been more cost effective, I simply didn’t have it. I thought I did some good research on this host, and asked all the pertinent questions at the time. I wanted to start out with one of

With the dizzying number of options for a web host for your site, how do you know which one to pick? The answer is to follow your nose -- and avoid making the common mistakes explained in this article. If you do pick a stinky web host, never fear: you will also find some tips to help you keep the damage to a minimum. Choosing a web host is a big decision for any business or organization. Even someone who is working on their website only as a hobby would like to avoid the kinds of problems we have all heard about: poor customer support, too much downtime, and so on. Short of hosting the site yourself, which has its own issues, how can we make sure that we (and our customers, who shouldn't even notice) will be

Anyone who owns or handles multiple domain names should consider becoming a reseller of web hosting services. It also makes a good add-on service for certain businesses. Read on to find out whether becoming a reseller web host suits your needs. You probably know someone who has gone through this scenario, or more than likely you have been there yourself. You discover the Internet, and learn how easy it is to set up a website. You set up a personal one for yourself, and then another one for your business, buying different domain names. Impressed, your family and friends ask you to help them set up their own websites, but they want you to handle the messy details (like arranging who will host the site). Before you know it, you have a whole collection of domain names spread across several web hosting companies, each of them

What does it mean to be an ethical web host? And why is this an area in which so many web hosts falter? Keep reading to find out why being an ethical web host makes good business sense. Many colleges and universities offer classes on business ethics as part of their degree programs. Medical schools teach ethics as well, as a topic that has become even more important now with the advances in that field. You don't hear as much about web hosting ethics, but that does not mean it is less important. After all, web hosting is a business like any other. And while you

A web hosting business is a 24/7 concern. How do you stay connected to your business when you're not at the office? These days, you can go way beyond cell phones and pagers to take a truly proactive approach to being accessible to your customers. When you’re a web host, your clients expect you to be able to keep their websites online 24/7. Their businesses depend on it, as does yours. But, with few exceptions, you can’t actually live at your place of business. How do you stay in touch when you are away from your office and your clients need you? Fortunately, there are many solutions to this problem. Some of these even go beyond merely being available, to the point that, depending on the job you actually do, you might not need to

Where is the web hosting industry now, and where is it going? Every industry goes through four stages of development; knowing what stage an industry is in, and where it is going, can help industry players make plans and decisions, as well as consider what they need to do to attract and keep customers. This article examines those four stages, and considers where the web hosting industry is in relation to them. The web hosting industry has been around for

Web hosts must never undervalue their image. Image and brand power are absolutely critical to business, as customers often don’t have any other way to initially gauge the value of a web host. Mike McEwan covers a series of things to help create brand recognition in the hosting industry. Needless to say, there is a lot to be said for any business’s corporate image. Companies like Microsoft and McDonalds rely heavily on their brands helping to sell products. But to you, the web host or reseller, image is ten times more important. The cliché is especially true for

Setting up and maintaining web servers can be an expensive and complicated undertaking for any company. There are countless technologies that you need to be ready to set up immediately. If you need to get a site live quickly or cheaply, it can be nearly impossible to do it yourself. Outsourcing these tasks to professional web hosters can save money and headaches. But there are so many hosts. How can somebody choose between them? So you have decided that you need a web page. Setting up your own server can waste your time and money when there are so many hosts ready to

Last week, we heard about how Yahoo! and Microsoft are making a big push to develop anti-spam technologies. These will soon be standards that hosts will need to implement in order to provide a reliable mail service. This week, we take a look at exactly how a host can be well prepared by implementing SPF technologies. Introduction One of the major difficulties in today’s battle with spam email lies in the fact that it is a simple matter for a spammer to create an email message that impersonates any domain the spammer wants. There hasn’t been any way for domain owners to specify what servers are allowed to send mail for a certain domain in order to prevent this kind of impersonation. Of course, MX DNS records tell internet servers what IP addresses receive mail for a domain, but they don’t always

This article gives you an idea of what a Web server is and what it does, and discusses the top Web servers in the market. What makes a "top" Web server? The key aspects include scalability, speed, security, availability and support for dynamic modules. What is a Web Server? Your business runs around the clock and around the world. Your employees and your clients need access to information stored your company’s computers. With Web server software you can set up a secure and dedicated server that provides access to anyone who needs that information at their finger tips. The two simple words “Web server” express a lot of

You finally decided to build your own Web site, but you don't want to spend a lot of money to have it hosted by someone else, and you don't want to host it yourself. What do you do? There are a lot of free Web hosting firms, each with their pluses and minuses. Krissi Danielson explains what to expect from a free Web host, how to choose one, and the pros and cons of using some of the better known free Web hosts. It may be true that there's "no free lunch in this world" and that "you get what you pay for," but it's still nice to get stuff for free. This is certainly true of Web hosting. While you can expect a higher

When looking for a Web host, one of the first questions to ask yourself is whether you look for a Quality (and somewhat costly) host, or whether you opt for the budget option. Today, we'll take a look at both ends of the spectrum and find out that although it may take a lot of digging, there's a good chance of finding a diamond in the rough. Web Hosting: Which is the Host with the Most? So you want to publish a web site do you? Welcome to the club. These days it seems that almost everyone has a web site of

Shared, virtual private server, dedicated, and co-located--which flavor of Web hosting is right for you? Find out the pros and cons of each, and whether you're paying too much for what you really need. It might be easier to count the number of flavors one can find in ice creams than to count the different web hosting flavors. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but going by the current trend it does not seem far from reality. Just for starters, "Free Hosting, Shared Hosting, Semi-Dedicated Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Virtual Private Server(VPS) Hosting, Managed Hosting, Budget Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Custom Hosting" and so on is what we see upon doing a simple search for hosting on the Web. Though the search shows a number of results referring to different flavors of web hosting, in essence they all are variations of four main flavors: the famous four (Shared, VPS, Dedicated, and Co-located). This article explains the concept behind the

Herman Drost addresses add-on domains and their benefits by asking questions such as: Is it possible to host two or more sites with two or more domains on the same hosting account? You may want to register and market another domain name but don't want to pay for another hosting account. The best solution is to create an add-on domain. Is it possible to host two or more sites with two or more domains on the same hosting account? You may want to register and market another domain name but don't want to pay for another hosting account. The best solution is to create an add-on domain. What is an add-on domain? An add-on domain is a

Certified Internet Webmaster Herman Drost provides an informative approach to assessing the size of your site so you don't pay for more hosting than you need. How Much Hosting Space Do You Need? Many web hosts try to sell you a large amount of web hosting space that then costs you a lot each month. However, you may not need this much space. Have you ever calculated just how much disc space (MB) your web site uses? Do you really need an expensive hosting solution for your web site? For my first web site, I purchased

Check out all the features a web hosters offers to make sure they really work. Tips here from Ian Felton include keeping control of your domain name and verifying their email capabilities. Oh, yeah, and he makes a suggestion related to insanity that you might want to check out too. At this point in the web hosting business, it’s a buyer’s market. With hundreds of people running hosting businesses out of their basements, offering the same services as bigger companies at a fraction of the cost, most businesses can have even a high-trafficked site hosted for under $100 a year. To be competitive, a hosting business must offer a

If you want to take part in the internet as a business, information resource, directory, or as a hobbyist wanting to share data, information and knowledge with the many people and communities on the internet, you have to contain this in a central spot on the internet. You have to own a piece of space in cyberspace. Web hosting empowers you and anyone with a computer and internet connection to own a piece of cyberspace. In your space, you can have news, bulletins, documents, data, files (your web site) and you

So, you’re done with the free web hosts. Gone through Geocities, Angelfire, Fortune City. You’re exhausted with the pop-ups and banners. You want a real site. But where to go? You look around the net, and the possibilities seem endless. 20 MB of space for only $20 a month! Wow! That’s fantastic! Or is it? Way back when I bought my domain and signed up with a web host, I was the typical 'the internet is so wonderful' optimist. I was thrilled to

By becoming a reseller, not only can web developers create websites for their clients, but they can provide their clients with Web hosting, as another studio service. All you need to become a reseller, is to find a Web host who: offers multiple Web site hosting accounts; along with reseller services; and then its up to you to host your clients’ web sites from your own account. Your clients will be happy with the low fees you can offer; and, you will have yourself a very profitable side business. So what do you need to be a successful Web site hosting reseller? Multiple domain hosting - To become a Web hosting reseller, the first step is

Hosting your web sites on your own dedicated server may seem a little expensive in comparison to shared web hosting, but the end result is more advantageous. Shared web hosting, no matter how well managed, cannot be 100% reliable and stable. However if you have your own dedicated server you can manage to avoid most of the variables affecting the reliability and stability of a server, commonly experienced by shared hosting accounts; variables such as: overload, bad codes and scripts from other users (especially beginners); and, too many applications and components uploaded, and so on. On a dedicated server you will

Once upon a time, e-mail messages flowed freely through cyberspace and the congenial smell of e-mails was everywhere. I remember racing to my inbox each day with a wild anticipation that I was about to be informed of new and enlightening events, along with notes from friends. Maybe, the collection would also include an order or two to quell my monetary wishes, as well as, containing some of my favorite newsletters. Ah! Those were the salad days...when my inbox was a welcome sight each morning. Oh, of course there was that occasional sales pitch, but that was just

Also known as "Terms and Acceptable Usage Policy" your Service Level Agreement, SLA is probably the most important piece of text you will need to read. And read you will have to; the entire text. Once you have familiarized yourself with this SLA you can start to skim through and look out for the details you feel are most important to you as you search for other hosting companies. An SLA basically tells you what services you will be paying for, what rights you do and do not have. You are agreeing to pay for your web hosting and for what is in the SLA and nothing else. In this document or text, the web host provider is letting you know in print, what you will have to agree to if you wish to use their services. But remember, that it also tells you, what rights you have. If the web host provider does not live up to the SLA, you now have a right to use this agreement to your

In the world of web hosting, there are a lot of web hosting providers who compete with each other with long lists of features and benefits. On many of these lists you will see the term “Root Access”. To be honest, many of the people with websites today will never need Root Access, and many of them do not even know what it is. In the world of UNIX and Linux, security is based on permissions. This extends to both the file system and access permissions. This security system is very flexible, and allows a system administrator to set up unique security access constraints to only allow certain users to see certain areas and access certain files and