1. What does “hosting” and “domain name” mean?

2. How do I get them?

2. How do I choose which one I need?

3. What do I look for?

4. OK, what do you recommend, anyway?

1. What does “hosting” and “domain name” mean?

Hosting (also known as website hosting and web hosting) is internet space for accommodating, servicing and maintaining files for one or more websites. A domain name is the unique name assigned to each and any website, by which the site is connected to the hosting and published online. Without a domain name and hosting, a website cannot be published on the internet.

2. How do I get them?

You get them from domain registration and hosting providing companies. There are hundreds of them on the market, and you can find them online easily. The tricky part is figuring out which one will be good for you.

3. How do I choose which one I need?

Just a few years ago choosing a web hosting company required a knowledge of many aspects of your site, such as how much space it will take, how many visitor and file uploads you are going to have, even which HTML creator was used to make simple pages. Plus, the price that you are willing to pay was a critical aspect for many. However, the situation has changed dramatically in this market. These days, any major hosting company (and there are dozens) is capable of accommodating any website needs, the prices have dropped and are all basically within the same range. But the question of choosing the right one still remains.

4. OK, What do I want from my website hosting?

• 1. I want it to host my website without any problems.
  ( i.e., it has to be compatible with the scripting that use for programming, preferably the latest version of it)
• 2. I want to have all my questions answered when they arise, in a nice and professional manner.
  (i.e, reliable and knowledgeable tech support).
• 3. I want it to cover the implementation of any idea I might have.
  (i.e., keeping up with the latest technology)
• 4. I want it to be user-friendly in such a way that my staring at the monitor and thinking: “What is this thing and were do I go from here?” becomes unnecessary.
  (i.e. accessible and understandable for human interface.)

That pretty much covers it.

Having worked with personal and small business websites for quite a while, I’ve developed my personal preferences based on my extensive experience with website hosting. So if you ask me, here is my advice: GoDaddy and HostGator .

Host Gator

If you are looking for something simple, robust and reliable, Host Gator is my recommendation. It’s easy to use and understand, provides 3 different shared hosting plans besides reseller hosting and a dedicated server.

For those who are not that technical, Host Gator has two valuable tools - CPanel (visual control panel) and Fantastico (library of scripts) - available with every hosting plan.

Plus, you can access Tech Support chat right from your c-panel which lets you put your questions to tech while you work on your project.

The phone customer support is 24/7 and is very good.

However, my personal favorite is Go Daddy and has been for many years;

Go Daddy

Go Daddy has been on the market for many years and is, at the moment, probably the largest, most established hosting company there is. Besides, they are the leading domain name registrant out there.

With the basic Economy hosting plan at $5 a month and the choice of a Windows or Linux platform you can’t go wrong if you are just starting out and planning to advance in the future.

As you grow your business you can upgrade your plan with so many additional features that there’s no need to look any further. It’ll be fair to mention that almost all additions are not free, but the price is very low and the quality is well worth it.

Go Daddy’s customer support is the best I ever experienced, and no matter how much the company has grown over the years, that quality of support hasn’t changed.

Phone customer support technicians know their service in and out and often go out of their way to help you with questions that are not even within their scope of work. That saves you a lot of time, which is important if you ask me.

There is always a promotion going on, or a coupon available that lets you save quite a lot on domain names, hosting and other services.

As mentioned above, Go Daddy is a number one seller of domain names, including international domains. Go Daddy’s domain name auction is an unbeatable source for buying established domain names (meaning the ones that already have traffic to them), or selling the ones that you have.

And if you’ve already gone on a domain name shopping spree and have a few collecting dust on your account, that you’re not sure what to do about just yet, you can set up a cash parking account for $4.99 a month for an unlimited amount of domains, and start getting traffic to and some cash from these domains. Go Daddy’s cash parking templates are the neatest and most well-organized that I have seen.

The amount of additional services and features in one place is hard to beat, and even if you think that you don’t need them right now, you may change your mind a few months ahead. It’s comforting to know that everything that might become needed (like SSI certificate, for instance, or a business package, a reseller plan, etc.) is available from the same source.

Almost all of the services have a month to month payment option, meaning that you can try them without any long term obligations.

There is a ton of helpful info in Go Daddy’s own help section, as well as other places online. Due to the company being active for so many years, there is a tutorial or answered question on every subject imaginable concerning GoDaddy and using their features or installing any application or script.

Find a domain name now!
.com .us .net .org .biz .info .ws .com .us .biz .info .net .org .ws .name .tv .cc .de .jp .be .at .uk .nz .cn .tw