our website forms the very foundation of our Internet presence, and selecting a good web hosting company is not a chore to be taken lightly. Then how can we choose a proper host? Free Web Hosting. A few megabytes of storage space, usually no customer support at all, slow servers, can’t use our own domain name, and none of the features we’ll need to make money.

We should avoid hosting packages that will not allow us to add order forms, statistics, or multiple email accounts to our website. These are necessary tools for any webmaster who desires to open an online business. The best choice. A large storage space, lightning-fast servers, live humans to speak with in case of problems, all the features we need to make big bucks.

The choice is obvious, yet in our experience more of the time online marketers aren’t using a web hosting company that allows them to take full advantage of the Internet – and they’re losing big money because of it. Quality hardware and redundant connectivity. The speed at which our web pages load is directly proportional to our income, and there’s no such thing as a server that’s too fast.

The use of our own domain name. Most can handle the registration of our domain name for us, but the best companies are listed at Host and can normally get things done faster than we can. Nowadays there is no reason to use a web host that charges access, bandwidth, or hit fees not until we’re getting 50k visitors a day anyway. The best companies offer unlimited bandwidth with standard hosting packages. We’re going to need to use CGI scripts at one time or another so that we have our own CGI-bin directory and the ability to upload any scripts we want.

Telnet access is not absolutely required, but we should be sure comes in handy for things like debugging CGI scripts. Cron jobs allow automation of behind-the-scenes activities, and this feature is also quite desirable from an Internet marketing point. Nowadays most quality web hosts have some type of web-based admin interface which allows us to manage our server via the web. It’s not necessary but may come in handy for those who don’t consider themselves to be the technical type.

We’ll need access to our raw server logs in order to best analyze our website traffic. Do not use a web host that doesn’t offer this, we should have unrestricted access to our logs. If we plan on selling anything directly from our website, we’ll need secure server capabilities. Look for a web host with low or no additional setup fees. Our web host should offer full email services, including POP mailboxes, unlimited email aliases autoresponders. Do not pay extra for these features.

With a good web host, we shouldn’t have any problems, but if we will want a live human to speak with on the phone. Definitely insist on unlimited customer support through both email and telephone, one day we’ll be glad we did.