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Choose a Web Host |
make sure they have excellent support. If you have a problem with your web site you want help now, not in a day or two. Personally, I refuse to choose a web host that I can't get on the phone in an emergency. Some web hosts are sneaky and they put a phone number on their web site, but it's just for show. They don't always answer or they advertise 24/7 support but are actually only around Monday-Friday. When I first started out, my site went down on a Friday afternoon and I called ALL weekend and all I got was hold music. They put me on hold, but no one was there! Needless to say that was it for that web host. So, how can you tell how responsive the web host you are considering actually is? You test them. If they have a phone number (and they should) call them late at night or on weekends to see if they are really there. You can also send an e-mail to their support e-mail address (not their sales e-mail) and ask them a basic question like "How many e-mail addresses am I allowed?" or "Is there a limit on the number of autoresponders I'm allowed?" and see how long it takes them to get back to you. For a non-emergency email like that I think up to 12 hours is acceptable. If you send the e-mail on Saturday and they don't get back to you until Monday, that isn't good. If they take more than 12 hours and either don't have phone support or aren't answering, choose another web host. Once you choose a web host, then you will have to decide what plan you want. Most web hosts offer you several different plans and obviously want you to buy the more expensive one. 1. Do get the least expensive plan. Most people buy the larger plans because they aren't sure how much space they need and the space in the smaller plans just doesn't sound like much. 10 mb is plenty for most first web sites. If you want to be sure, then choose a plan around 50 mb. 50 mb is a HUGE amount of space. If you get that you will be fine. 2. Don't get caught up in what the various hosts offer like PHP, MySQL and a bunch of other stuff like that. If you don't know what those things are you don't need them.As I mentioned earlier it doesn't matter to me which company you go with. The purpose of this site is to give you the tools you need to make the best decision for you. Since so many people have asked me, the web hosts I recommend are: Act Now Domains - they have incredible support and if you need a web site builder I think their web site builder is really sharp and easy to use. They have a variety of hosting plans and web builder plans available starting at $8.95/month. The price for the web builder includes hosting and email. They have separate hosting accounts for people that don't require a web builder. If you want to sell products on your site get their online store builder called Quick Shopping Cart. Act Now Domains now has a service where they will build a website for you for $49.95/month using their website builder. It's kind of a cross between hiring someone to do it for you and doing it yourself. It costs more than doing it yourself obviously but it's the cheapest place I know of to have a professional build your site for you, yet still gives you total control over your website with the ability to make changes to it when you need to or you can have them make the changes for you. Pro
Website Group - this is also a favorite web host of mine.
Each hosting account comes with a really easy web site builder that
makes great looking sites. You get lots of free goodies with each
account including a free domain name. The cost for an account is only
$6.95/month and they give you a 30 day money back guarantee. I
really like the fact that their support is so good. They offer
toll-free support and they guarantee that all email support questions
are answered in one hour or less. I've put them to the test a
couple of times at odd hours day and night and they've come through each
time within the hour limit. The only real negative of this web
host is that it doesn't allow for month to month billing. Sign up
for a year is required but they are a good group and give you a 30 day
money back guarantee. They have offices in both the US and the UK. Now that you know how to choose a web host, let's go on to Step 3: How to Build a Web Site è
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Choose a Web Host |
