Author: Alessandro DeBarros


As a beginner trying to find the right web host for your website
is often daunting. The jargon used by most web hosts often goes
way over your head. In the Hosting 101 section, BrandBlast has 6
lessons for the beginner who wishes to learn the basics of
finding a web host.

Lesson One: What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is the essentially the placement of your website
onto the Internet through a server. Once your site is on a
server, anyone with Internet access can look at your website -
from anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. In order to have
your site hosted on the web, you need to have the following
three things:

A Website - a page or set of pages that is located under the
same domain name. brandblast.com is a website (but you knew that
already!) A web page is a computer document written in a
publishing language called HTML. When an Internet user types in
your web address, your web server sends the content of your web
page to that user.

A Domain Name - a unique text-based address used to locate a
specific set of web pages. A domain name is made up of words
and/or numbers plus a TLD (top level domain). The TLD for most
businesses is ".com", such as http://www.brandblast.com/;
non-profit organizations use ".org"; universities and
educational sites use ".edu"; and sites involved with the U.S.
government use ".gov". More TLDs are available, such as .biz,
.pro, .name, .info, etc.

An Account With A Web Hosting Company, or a server of your own
to host your website. A server is a computer that stores
information that can be accessed through the network. Servers
can also be used to store website information that can be
accessed by any computer with a connection to the Internet - and
a browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, the
two most popular web browsers.

Web hosting is, in many ways, similar to renting property. There
are plenty of companies that will rent you space on their web
servers. The wide range of services start from free hosting on
up to buying a server for your own personal use. It's possible
to spend thousands of dollars a year on web hosting alone,
though the average person or small business typically pays $10 -
$50 a month, depending on how many features, web space, and data
transfer they need.

Lesson Two: Do I Need a Web Host?

If you are planning to establish an internet presence, whether
it be in the form of a personal homepage or a full-service
e-commerce catalogue, and do not own your own personal server,
you will definitely need a web host.

Finding a good web host, however, can be a rather difficult
endeavor. BrandBlast’s website hosting services are a great
place to start your search, our hosting plans are designed to
acccomodate any website requirement and can be upgraded at any
time, our plans grow with you.

Choosing a host for your website should not be taken lightly.
Once committed, it becomes a real headache to move elsewhere -
not to mention the damage that can be done to your business if
you make the wrong choice.

This makes it very important to "get it right the first time."
Find out as much as you can about your prospective host before
making any decisions, and have a clear idea of the scope of your
site, and the functions you wish to have prior to searching for
your host.

Doing the proper planning will help you a great deal in your
selection of a host, and will save you the headache of trying to
change hosts later.

Lesson Three: What type of web hosting package is suitable for
me - free or shared?

FREE - Free is for fun. If you want to experiment with a site or
put up a small, personal site for the fun of it.

If you fall into this category, you probably need just a small
amount of web space and little bandwidth: 1 to 2 MB should be
plenty for your needs; and a personal, unique domain name may
not even be necessary. In fact, you can get web space FREE. A
popular provider of free space is Geocities
(http://www.geocities.com/). However, because it's free, you may
find out later that there are many limitations - it all depends
how far you want to go...

SHARED - Go "shared" if you are serious about doing some
business or have a professional website that is much better off
"standing on its own." Or if you simply prefer your own domain
name and space.

Setting up your own web server is not the best approach for an
individual or a small/medium business. You can rent space for
your web site from a web hosting provider at a far lower cost.

If your web site is text-based, you won't need much web space -
text takes almost no space at all! Select a provider that
supports CGI and other advanced features that you think you
might use in the future. Better safe than sorry! And in this
category, BrandBlast offers our Bronze package for only $9.95 /
month!

If you're developing a web site for a small/medium business or
organization, you should carefully evaluate the possibility of
further expansion in the future. It will be a bit of a hassle if
you discover later that you need a database for your web site,
but your provider doesn't offer it.

If you're planning to sell a product (or products) online, look
for a provider who can provide you with a commercial web
solution such as a Merchant Account, Shopping Cart Software and
a secure online payment system certificate that is compatible
with their hosting platform. Choosing a large web space with a
high bandwidth allowance is a good idea in this case.

Data Transfer allowance really depends on how many visitors
you're expecting and how well you promote your web site. For
most sites, 3 to 5 GB should suffice, and are provided by our
Platinum and Diamond plans.

With all hosting plans, there will be some features that you
need and some offered that you don't need. Be sure to focus on
the essentials that are required to launch your website.

You may want all the nice extras but will you use them? It's a
good idea to choose a host that will allow you to expand and
upgrade your plan as and when your website grows. If you want to
start selling online, for example, an additional e-commerce
option for an extra fee will be easier and quicker to implement
than looking for and transferring to a new host.

BrandBlast's plans differ only in their web space and data
transfer allowance, features such as shopping carts, website
builders, technical support, and much more are available as
standard options on all of our hosting plans, you can upgrade or
downgrade plans at any time, and manage multiple domains from
one control panel. View a demo of our control panel.

Lesson Four: Evaluate their support service?

Customer support is very important - often critical. To cover
yourself from the start, take some time to look around at
several providers' web sites to see what their support policies
are.

Email them with a few sample questions to check the speed and
quality of their responses. Nothing guarantees that they will
respond at the same speed and manner if you do become a
customer, but this approach is quite accurate and telling about
90% of the time.

Look at a number of providers' web sites to see how they handle
support. Many providers provide lists of Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQs) and support documents on their web sites.

Closing Thoughts

Selecting a provider with many years of experience is a good
decision. Look at the provider's web page for a list of its
customers and check out some of their pages. Take a minute to
view some of BrandBlast's current hosting and webdesign clients.

Nowadays, the web hosting market is full of resellers. Even
well-known providers can be resellers of a large web hosting
provider or wholesaler services. Sometimes, they are resellers
of resellers. Choosing a reseller provider is not always a bad
idea. The reseller may provide you with faster technical support
service. They usually offer other services too, such as web
design or web maintenance.

To investigate the reliability of providers, we recommend you
check the contents of their web sites. Experienced providers
should have a large web site containing several pages of
services and support documents, plus their phone and fax
numbers, as well as their physical address.

You have gained valuable knowledge in this quick lesson, we at
BrandBlast wish you the best in your search for a website
hosting provider.