A basic question that often gets asked by people looking to start their own website is, “why do I need to pay a company to host my website?” People wonder why they simply can’t host it themselves. However, web hosting works by providing the storage space for your website, which is basically a file that gets put on display online. The host serves like a hard drive, where your information is stored and displayed to people who are on the internet.
By functioning as a virtual hard drive, web hosts are able to ensure your website stays up and running. The basic reason that web hosting companies are needed is because computer hard drives simply aren’t able to be constantly feeding information to the internet so that people can see your website. In addition, if you were to run a website from your own hard drive from a T3 line or more, it would take a very long time for your website to load for anyone who visits it. Not to mention, it would be extremely difficult to figure out how to do it. Therefore, web hosting is needed as a sort of dedicated hard drive reserved especially for your website.
A good web hosting company makes it easy to construct and maintain a dynamic website. Many provide things such as templates for easy design and options like adding a shopping cart function. Web hosting can often be bought depending on how much bandwidth your website needs to use or how much storage space is needed. These options usually come in the form of separate plans, and it’s a good idea to figure out first, what kind of website you are going to run and second, how much space and bandwidth you will need.
There are tons of web hosting companies out there, so we’ve made the search easier by taking the most reliable and reviewing them, such as HostPapa. Owning and running your very own website can be a lot of fun, but choosing the best web hosting company for you is very important since they all run so differently. The reviews we have on our site are there to help clarify exactly what each site offers and doesn’t offer in the way of web hosting. Some important things to consider are if websites are easy to construct for beginners, what sort of website you are thinking of making (blog, retail, company website, etc.), the level of customer support is available for customers, and of course price and payment plans.

Your web site is done. You’ve tested it. You’ve tweaked it and now with the assistance of your web hosting company, your web site is “live”. So now what? How do you get people to visit your web site and then keep them coming back.
There are companies who specialize in getting you web site visitors or traffic. But with a small amount of effort on your part, you can do this yourself. Of course, depending on the scope of your web site, you might want to contact a company that specializes in such work. A quick search on the Internet will point you to a wide range of companies who will provide such services.  Some hosts, such as LunarPages will offer Google AdSense or Facebook credit for advertising.
But for a lot of us, by just making a few small changes and completing a few steps, you can increase your web site traffic and hopefully keep those visitors coming back.
• Web site design: Take a long hard look at your web site – is it really easy to use? Visitors don’t want to use web sites that are hard to navigate and understand. Make sure your site has a clean and uncluttered look and the navigation is simple.
• Search engines: With over 128 million registered active domains, it is a challenge to get your web site to stand-out. One step many web site owners forget to do is to register with search engines such as Google and Yahoo!. Each search engine has a different registration process, which is detailed, on the respective site. Ensure your web site is registered properly with each major search engine.
• Test: Test your web site. There is nothing worse than broken links and broken pages. Ensure your web site works correctly.
• Keep it interesting: Stale and boring content can chase web site visitors away. Be sure to update your site regularly. Perhaps you need to add a News and Events section to your web site or even a blog where you provide updates about your company or life.
• Interact: Make it easy for your visitors to contact you and provide you with feedback and ask questions. This helps you build a “sense of community” and will keep visitors coming back for more information.
By following these tips and by performing regular web site maintenance you can keep visitors coming back to your site. Also check with your web hosting company for any included software or services that might help with this.

For new and experienced Internet users alike, there is some confusion over what is best: a web site or a blog. Or maybe you need both? First of all, it is important to understand what exactly we’re talking about here.
A web site is collection of static and dynamic web pages that can be used to publicize your business, sell products, provide breaking news, etc. There are no limits on the content that can be included on a web site.
A blog is essentially an online journal or daily log. Most bloggers update their blog daily with new content. Blogs can be about anything and anyone. You don’t need web hosting companies or even web site design experience to have your own blog. Blogs can be updated and posted very quickly often with the click of the “Publish” button on your blogging software such as WordPress, Blogger, or TypePad.
The question you need to ask yourself is, what is the purpose of going online? What are you trying to achieve? If you want to be online for personal interests, for example to keep your family up-to-date with your upcoming trip to Europe, a blog might be perfect for you. With the blog you can post regular updates of your travels and can even do this from your phone or other mobile device. But if you want to be online for business reasons, such as to sell your product, that you want to sell online then a web site could be the best choice for you. You can set up a series of web pages that provide visitors with information about your company, your product and an online store where you can sell your product.
But what about using a web site and a blog? This is becoming more and more common, particularly for businesses and people selling a product or service. The thing about blogs is that people really feel connected to the writer when reading a daily update. Blog posts don’t need to be long and they can take any style you like. So how can your business benefit from using a blog? Well, for example if you are a restaurant, you don’t have anything to sell online but you do want people to visit your web site on a regular basis. You can have your chef write a blog post once a week featuring the weekly specials in your restaurant and include a recipe. You can post photos of recent events that have happened at your restaurant. You can run promotions on your blog as well. The thing is people, love to feel connected – so with a blog, you can build a sense of community that will keep people coming back.
A web site has definite advantages. A blog has definite advantages. The combination of the two can provide you with the best of both. You have an interesting web site that provides the key information people need about your service/product/company and then with the blog you keep people up-to-date with the latest activities/developments/news.
The one thing though that is crucial with a blog – it must be updated regularly. There is nothing worse than visiting a blog to find out it hasn’t been updated in over a month or even worse a year. So if you’re going to integrate a blog into your web site, make sure you have dedicated resources to keeping the blog up-to-date and fresh.  Yahoo Web Hosting offers web site and blog utilities.

There are countless web sites published on the Internet. Each of these has a different design. Some of these are good, others are not-so-good and still others are downright ugly. The look and feel of your web site really determines if visitors will stay on your site long enough to find the information they are looking for. Some web hosting companies have templates available to help you with this.
In other words, a good web site design can have a positive impact on your business. When designing your web site there are a couple of concepts you must understand:
• Static: A static web site doesn’t change its content or layout with each visit.
• Dynamic: A dynamic web site adapts its appearance based on input from the visitor.
• Look and feel: The colors, layout, font, and buttons – all of this makes up the look and feel of your web site.
When planning and designing your web site, it is important that you always keep in mind the purpose of your web site. What message do you want to get across to your web site visitors? Are you selling something? Are you trying to educate people? Are you trying to promote your business?
The basic principles of good web site design include:
• Content: Ensure your content is well-written, concise, in plain English and gets the message across. Remember users have short attention spans and tend to scan rather than read web sites.
• Usability: The web site needs to be easy to use. Simple menus and buttons that are intuitive to the user will help keep the user on your site. Avoid blinking and flashing text or animated images.
• Appearance: It is tempting to add every widget and feature available from your template library to your web site. But this will make your web site cluttered and unusable. Keep the web site clean with colors and graphics that are consistent and professional.
Once your web site is complete, have your colleagues and some friends test out your web site. Ask them to click all the links, test out any forms, try to buy something from your online store, and read all the text. You don’t want to make your web site live until you’re sure that everything works and reads correctly. Remember for many of the people in your target market, your web site is the first impression they’ll get of your company. Hosting companies such as Host Gator have resources that can help you.

It used to be that eCommerce was the “wave of the future”, well now it is a reality of the retail and business world. More and more companies and individuals are buying and selling goods and services online. eCommerce is here and it is changing the way we shop and do business. Hosting companies such as 1&1 Web Hosting will have utilities to set up eCommerce sites.
But what exactly is eCommerce? Basically, eCommerce is the process of buying and selling goods or services over the Internet. The two main types of eCommerce are business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C). The B2C type of eCommerce is one of the fastest growing areas of Internet based-business.
B2C or online shopping connects the seller directly with the consumer, eliminating the need for third-party processing. One of the largest and well-known eCommerce retailers is Amazon.com, selling books, house wares and complete range of products directly to the shopper sitting in front of a computer. Not to be overlooked are sites such as eBay.com which serve as an intermediary between buyer and seller.
As a business, large or small, it is relatively easy to get started with an eCommerce venture. First and foremost, you need a web site, from here it is all about choosing a web host that will provide you with the software, data storage and transfer capacity, support and applications you need to run your online business. Turnkey solutions are available that you can use to create shopping carts, storefronts, process payments, and track inventory and sales.
When choosing a web host that will support your eCommerce business, keep in mind the following:
• Easy-to-use and intuitive eCommerce software such as templates.
• A complete software package including shopping cart support, payment processing, inventory and sales logs, and a storefront.
• Includes merchant tools to provide you with fraud protection services. Such as software to require buyers to entire the CVV2 code printed on the back of their credit card. Also make sure your web host can provide a secure connection.
• 24/7 support. You’re running a business online and need to be confident that if something goes wrong with your eCommerce software you can get the support you need when you need it.
Many web hosting companies will help you with eCommerce set up by providing tools and utilities to speed up the process.

Currently there are over 128 million active domains registered on the Internet. Presumably each registered domain has a web site or web page associated with it. For some of these domains, only a placeholder page has been created.
Domains and domain registration have become big business on the Internet. In the early days of the Internet, it was easy to get the domain name you wanted. Now with the high volume of registered domain names, the more popular domain names are taken and being used. But some of these domains have been registered by a holding company that is more than willing to “sell” the domain for a price.
So what does this mean to you? You really just want to get your web site up and live on the Internet. How do you secure a domain, register it and get your web site linked to this domain? Typically this can all be done with your web hosting companies.
In fact when researching your web hosting company options, it is important to understand what domain services are offered. Most web hosting service companies, such as Bluehost, will do a look-up to find out if the domain you want is available, register your domain and typically for an additional fee provide you with domain privacy.
The web hosting service company will act as your registrar, securing your domain for you and specifying the contract terms. The domain will become yours to use for the duration of the contract. Some web hosting companies will provide you with free domain registration for life others will require you to re-register this domain annually for a fee. All of this means the web hosting company takes care of re-registering the domain for you. To ensure that your domain is unique and works properly, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers manages the international Domain Name Server database.
When you register your domain with your web hosting company, you need to provide your contract information. This information is required to be available in a public WHOIS database. Using this database, anyone can look up your domain and find out your contact details. For some people this leads to domain privacy issues. Do you want your contact information made available to anyone who is searching the database? If not, most web hosting companies will provide you with domain privacy.
For a fee or sometimes for free, your web hosting company will act as your proxy, providing their contact information instead of yours as the domain contact. If this does appeal to you, be sure to read the domain privacy contract thoroughly – make sure you don’t loose the rights to the domain and find out what happens if you leave this web hosting company.
Really the hardest and trickiest part of this entire process is choosing a unique and sensible domain that works for your company or individual web site. Try to keep your domain simple and short – the easier it is to remember, the more likely people will visit your web site and pass on your domain to others.

The world of web hosting comes with its own unique language and often-times confusing set of acronyms. We’ve put together a glossary of the most common acronyms you’ll come across when researching and signing up for a web hosting service plan.
CGI:
Common Gateway Interface is a protocol that determines how data is transferred between a server and a network user. This is a secure data transfer and the software is stored and run from the server. For example, a user clicks a link on your web site for information that is stored in your database, the CGI program collects the information from the server, formats it into HTML and displays it on a web page to the user.
CSS:
Cascading Style Sheets are used to specify a uniform style and design for a web site or online document. Style information such as the color, font size, link colors and heading styles can be set in the CSS. The CSS can be as complex or as simple as you like.
DHTML:
Dynamic Hypertext Mark-up Language includes a number of HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) add-ons, scripts and interfaces that create animations, dynamic web site interactions and automatic updates to web pages. This is primarily done with the addition of JavaScript to the HTML but can also be done with the use of cascading style sheets.
FTP:
File Transfer Protocol is used to transfer files over a network. You can use FTP to update files on your web server or as a way to transfer files within and outside your network. FTP can be used from a web browser by entering a URL preceded with ftp://.
HTML:
Hypertext Mark-up Language web sites and web pages are built using this document format. Using specific HTML codes, text and images the web site design, layout, and links are determined.
IMAP:
Instant Message Access Protocol allows a client to access and manipulate email stored on a server. This protocol has operations to allow for the creation and deletion of email, checking for new email and searching email messages. It does not allow for the posting of email, this is done by a mail transfer protocol.
POP3:
Post Office Protocol 3 is a common interface between your email software and the email server. This email protocol includes message storage capabilities for holding your new email messages until you have downloaded them.
SSH:
Secure Shell is a security protocol used to log into remote servers. This protocol provides an encrypted connection to allow for the secure transfer of files and data.
WYSIWYG:
What You See Is What You Get refers to a web site design environment where what you see in the on the screen is the same as what is displayed on the web page. Many web hosts such as FatCow provide WYSIWYG editors, making web site design much more simple and intuitive.