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There are hundreds, if not
thousands, of hosting companies out there.
They come in all price ranges, and with all kinds
of bells and whistles. Here are some things
you may want to... |
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There are hundreds, if not thousands,
of hosting companies out there. They come in all
price ranges, and with all kinds of bells and whistles.
Here are some things you may want to look for in a hosting
company, especially if your website is part of
your overall marketing plan to sell products or services.
- Money Back Guarantee - I put this first, because
if you are unhappy with your hosting site, you'll
want assurances that you'll get your money back.
- 24/7 Customer Technical Support - This is critical.
Find out if they mean "there's voicemail or email
24-hours-a-day" or if they mean, "we will
answer the phone and help you 24-hours-a-day"
- Control Panel - The Control Panel where you control
all aspects of your account, such as managing email
accounts, reading statistics, and configuring autoresponders.
Make sure your hosting company has a centralized control
panel for your management needs.
- Website Statistics - From a marketing perspective,
it's important to know who is visiting your site and
what pages they read. Your hosting company
should keep track of all of this information for you,
and present it in an easy to read format. Make sure
your statistics are updated on a daily basis, and
that you can configure the display to show you by
day, by week, by month or by year. You can learn
more about how to read and interpret your statistics
here: http://www.passionforbusiness.com/articles.htm
- CGI - CGI stands for the "Common Gateway Interface"
and is a protocol through which web pages interact
with scripts on a server. Your hosting company should
allow you to install and run CGI scripts your account.
They may also offer you some pre-installed CGI scripts
for free as part of your hosting package, such as
a message board or email forms.
- POP Email Accounts - A POP (Post Office Protocol)
Email Account is an email account hosted on your site.
Your hosting company should allow you to have more
than one POP account, so that you can set up email
addresses for all your needs. For example, clients
requesting information about a workshop can send email
to workshop@mydomain.com,
while clients can send their homework to homework@mydomain.com.
Also make sure your hosting company support email
forwarding.
- Autoresponders - Autoresponders allow a visitor
to send an email to a specific email address and automatically
receive a reply. For example, if you have a
FAQ, people can send an email to faq@mydomain.com
and automatically receive the FAQ list in their email
inbox.
- SSL Secure Server - SSL stands for "Secure
Socket Layer". This is a protocol that allows
for encrypted transmissions on the web, and is especially
useful if you are collecting private information from
visitors, such as credit card information.
- Shopping Cart - If you plan on having a catalog
on the web, like selling your ebooks or audio tapes,
a shopping cart is a must. It lets people browse through
your "store" and pick the items that they
plan to purchase. When they are done, they proceed
to the checkout where they can review their order
and pay by credit card. If your hosting company
does not offer a shopping cart system, there are plenty
of stand-alone shopping cart systems you can use with
your website.
- Password Protected Areas - If you want to create
a "members only" or "students only"
section of your site, you will need to make sure that
your hosting company supports password protected areas
(folders or sub-webs).
- FrontPage Extensions - Microsoft FrontPage is a
web development tool that's easy to use. In order
for this package to be completely functional, it requires
that there be special software installed on the server
called "FrontPage Extensions." Beware
the hosting company who wants to charge you for using
FrontPage Extensions; most hosting companies offer
them for free.
- Mailing List Software - Keep your users informed
by offering to put them on the mailing list.
Make sure your hosting company supports double-opt-in
mailing lists, where the person signs up and receives
a confirmation email that instructs them how to officially
sign up for your mailing list.
- Streaming Media - If you'd like to add multimedia
streaming to your site, you'll need to find out if
your hosting company supports the use of streaming
media such as RealAudio or Windows Media files.
Some hosting companies will charge you extra for this
service.
As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider.
Remember, while some of these may not be important to
you now, you'll also want a hosting company that can
grow and support you as your business grows.
About The Author
Karyn Greenstreet 2004.
Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment Expert.
Through consulting, coaching and speaking, she shares
tips, tricks and techniques with self-employed people
to create and grow their businesses, stay focused and
motivated, and work at peak performance. Visit
her website at http://www.PassionForBusiness.com
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