If you want to create a web site, you will face this daunting task of picking a web host to host your website for rest of the world to see. Make no mistake, choosing a host is an important decision. You will, hopefully, have a long relationship with whatever host you choose. To make the decision you need to first decide what you need and then visit the sites of several hosting providers and evaluate what they have to offer in the light of your requirements.

There are two main type of hosting plans that are offered - Unix based hosting and Windows based hosting. While unix based hosting is cheaper, you can't run Microsoft products(ASP, .NET)on such servers. If you want to run php and MYSql based website, Unix hosting is cheaper and a good choice but if you also want to runs ASP, .NET etc, you're better off with a Windows based host. Since most startup websites have no control on the software products they may end up running down the road, it is a good idea to choose a windows based hosting plan that also offers php and MySQL. It will be probably couple of dollars more expensive than a unix plan but it will offer you a peace of mind and seamless integration and development.

Paid or Free?

Some people would say that why pay for a hosting service when there are free hosting plans available. If you have learn something about business in your life, you probably know very well that there is no such thing as "free". IF someone is offering you a free service, you are going to pay them back in some way. So don't get over excited about free web hosting plans. Read their fine print and you'll have the answer why they are free. For business sites free hosting is really a no-no. Partly because of the ads, over which you have little control, partly because you will have an unwieldy domain name to deal with, such as www.hotsite.com/usersites/yoursite/, but mainly because it projects a poor image of the business. If a business cannot afford the small amount of money it costs for paid hosting, often less than $100 per year, it is difficult to expect potential customers to take them seriously. In our opinion, if you're serious about your online business or website, get yourself a paid hosting account. It is only going to cost may be $10 per month(Bijnor Group offers plan as low as $7 per month), but you'll get so much more. Start with a shared hosting plan and if you see substantial growth in your business, switch to dedicated hosting later.

Disk Space and Bandwidth

How much disk space you need will depend both on how large you expect your site to become and on the nature of the site itself. For example a Flash site, or one making extensive use of video, audio or large graphics would need more space than one that is mainly text based. For most new sites the needs are relatively modest. Statistically the average website is less than 10MB and being swayed to a more expensive hosting plan because of a large disk space allocation may not be a great idea if you are paying for space you will never use. Make sure that you're allowed to upgrade your plan should your needs change in the future.

Unless your site is likely to be extremely busy from the outset or you are making heavy use of Flash, video or audio you are unlikely to need more than the standard bandwidth provided with an 'off the shelf' hosting plan. In general as the disk space allocated increases so does the bandwidth.

ASP, PHP, MySQL, MS Access

your choice of host should also consider these technologies and what is offered by your host. All sites have slightly different requirements and thus there is no universal solution. Make a list of those feature that are most important to you and use this when comparing hosts. For example, do you need Perl, PHP Support, a large number of POP accounts, access to a secure server or to MySQL? Perhaps things like a toll free support number matter more, or whether there is a free shopping cart provided with your hosting. It is important to get your requirements clear so that when you compare hosts you are comparing like with like. Also, pay close attention to PHP script timeout time. If you intend to upload bid affiliate feeds using php, you may want to select a host that will allow your scripts to run longer than standard 30 seconds.

Whether you're looking for that perfect web hosting account or just need help with your HTML code, we're here to help. Check out some of the free web design tools that offer and let us know what do you think of them. Once you have designed your own website, we have more advanced Search Engine Optimization and Site monitoring tools available for you. Most of them are free for private non commercial use(tools that we maintain) but some of them may be only available by subscription since we don't own them.

Here are some of the important features that you should get with a good web host:

• Sufficient space:- Most websites take up very little space a web page with all its graphics is about 35KB. As you can see from this 5MB will be sufficient for small sites (it will take over 100 pages). If you are making a graphics intensive site or planning to have downloads you might need 15 or 20MB.
• Bandwidth/Transfer limits:- This is quoted monthly. It is the total amount of files which can be transferred in a month from your site. You should get at least (1GB/month) unless you have a very small site. Unlimited bandwidth is quite common now.
• CGI-BIN:- If you want to run interactive scripts (counters, form-to-mail, guestbooks etc.) you will need a CGI-BIN. You can get these scripts remotely hosted but they will carry advertising for the site which provides them.
• SSI(Server Side Includes):- This is a special function which allows you to tell the server to include something on your page. It could be some text or some CGI generated code.
• MySQL/PHP/ASP Support:- If you intend to have a database driven dynamic website, you will need this. Major sites are often generated dynamically using ASP or PHP code.
• Technical Support:- What happens if you have a problem? How quickly can you get help? You should get at least e-mail technical support. Phone and fax support is good and should be offered by a paid host.
• FTP Accounts:- These allow you to access you website to upload files. If you have anonymous FTP, users can log into an area of your site to download files.