Why Do I Need Hosting? Without a place to host your site, you will not be doing any online web marketing. Finding a hosting service that suits your needs is not as exciting as designing a site, or writing up your strategic plans to dominate the Internet market, but without hosting, your web presence simply does not exist! There are some important factors to consider when you are looking for a hosting service. These include reliability, service, backup, and more.

You can get hosting at a number of places. Hosting is where your web site resides so that the Internet can see you and access your information 24/7. You can expect to pay anywhere from 0 to thousands a month for hosting depending on your needs. For a small site, I would look at spending $5-$40 a month. An inexpensive example is Globat.com or iPowerWeb.com . Remember your hosting provider should have a good system for setting you up and getting you started.

So you have found the perfect domain name for your soon to be successful online venture. Your mind is drifting to the many variables that will play a role in that success - site design, marketing, search engine listings, and so on. Thoughts of web hosting cross your mind, but only briefly. After all, development and marketing are exciting directions, and where you host your site is a mere technicality or is it?

Selection of a host that is suitable for your online business is something that requires more thought, and research, than many newcomers to the Internet business world realize. Your host is at the very core of your operation without them your business literally does not exist.

Imagine the following scenario:

You have worked many months developing your site, its product lines, and the marketing efforts relative to getting those products to your potential customers. You've recently completed negotiations for a short-term partnership arrangement with a high traffic web portal that is guaranteed to bring volumes of targeted visitors to your online store. Just as the links to your venture are activated at your partner's end, your hosting provider experiences an all-out server failure. Their backup systems are inefficient, and unable to manage the sudden influx of data requests. In the end, they fail as well.

Technical staff supporting your host are inexperienced, and cannot bring the server up in less than 24 hours. Once all system issues are corrected, and your site is again live, your short term partnership arrangement has concluded. The only achievement of this agreement has been the exposure of thousands of potential customers to an error message indicating your site is unavailable. Will these previously motivated buyers return? Perhaps, but achieving this will now require twice the effort initially necessary which often means twice the financial investment as well.

Is the above scenario one that your online business can afford? The answer is obvious, but the potential exists if one decides to select a hosting provider without doing their homework first.

There are innumerable areas of assessment when selecting a host, and the requirements of each business model is different. Here are some of the most common elements you will want to review:

Research each potential host thoroughly. If the answers specific to your operation are not clearly stated on their site, take the time to contact them with your inquiry. Any ethical hosting provider will be more than happy to respond promptly, and in detail regarding your questions. If they fail to do so, presume the worst, and move on.

There are many outstanding performers in the current marketplace who will make every effort to host your online venture in a reliable, and customer oriented manner, assisting in your achievement of online success. I would recommend Globat.com or iPowerWeb.com due to their excellence balance of price, reliability and functionality.

Globat.com 1000 MB Hosting & 50 GB Transfer for $7.50/mo. including webmail, 1000 POP email accounts, FrontPage, MySQL, FLASH and more. iPowerWeb.com 500MB Hosting and 30 GB Transfer for $7.95/mo. includes 300 E-Mails, plus FREE; Setup, Domain, Web Builder, Shopping Cart and Promotion to 100 Top Search Engines