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There are dozens if not hundreds of web hosting services available.  It can be overwhelming for a newbie in the Internet world.  Should they go with a popular hosting service such as Godaddy.com or should they go with a mom-and-pop business, like the ones found on eBay.  Should they go with free or paid web hosting?

Well, many of these questions can be answered if webmasters search for hosting based on the awards they have gotten.  These web hosting awards can come from a variety of sources, whether it’s prominent consumer review sites, magazines or even other hosting sites.  Companies earn their rewards based on the quality of their service, their pricing and their overall dependability.  And, some of the companies that get web hosting awards aren’t always brand-name.

Hacking can be a serious problem when you are utilizing a web hosting account.  Granted, paid web hosting tends to be a little more secure than free web hosting, but either account types can get hacked.  And when such things happen, hackers can compromise both the webmaster’s site and their good name.  This is especially the case if the hacked site is used for phising and other illegal activities.

If you are running a web hosting company, you’re probably going to want to use Paypal to accept your customers’ monthly subscription payments.  Yet, according to experienced Internet marketers on Warrior Forum, there have been a lot of problems with the payment processor.  Throughout my time there I have seen stories of four respected members get their accounts frozen and permanently disabled for making money.  That’s right… if people make too much money too quickly, they could get flagged by Paypal’s security.  And if Paypal thinks there is a problem, they will terminate the account.

Many webmasters believe that if they can’t get a domain name ending in .com, .net or .biz, they won’t acquire any visitors. And while there is some truth to this belief, there are a ton of websites that still get healthy amounts of traffic while having unusual extensions or structure. An example is Del.icio.us, a popular social bookmarking site.

But thanks to New.net, domain name extensions can be even more unique than Del.icio.us. Through this service webmasters can acquire domain name extensions such as .love, .church or .school. Of course, the obvious downside is if these types of domain names are advertised in print, readers may not think the site is legitimate. But on the upside these types of domain names make for excellent branding. This is particularly the case if they are used in a hack, like law.school.

When choosing your web hosting company, make sure you know how they will backup your website, if such a service is offered.  Some web hosting companies will only hold website backups for a day, while others will keep the sites for at least a week before backing them up again.  Either way, you need to be able to access your website if you lose the files on your computer or even worse… the web hosting company loses it.  If the web hosting company has a strong backup system, all they have to do is upload the site back into your account.  This saves you a great deal of time having to manually upload the site through an FTP program.

Being able to analyze your website’s traffic is key element for any serious Internet marketer.  Unfortunately, many services that offer tracking cost money.  They may allow you to try them out for free initially, but as your traffic grows you will have to pay a fee.  Yet, there are some web hosting companies that provide tracking as part of their hosting services.  In fact, there are even free web hosting companies that will provide tracking services.

If you don’t know anything about website design, you should consider getting a web hosting company that will allow you to create a website right from your control panel.  An example of such a web hosting company is Geocities.  Basically, the web host will provide a series of templates through which you create your website.  These templates already contain professional graphical layout.  So, all you have to do is enter in your content.  Best of all when you’re finished, you won’t have to upload anything, as all of your work is done in real-time.  The web host will automatically post your site on the Internet as you are completing it.

A standard web hosting package won’t help you host an online forum, unless you have the knowledge to create one from the website you are creating. And for most Internet marketers, doing such things would take too much time. Besides, there are a number of web hosting services that provide ready-made message boards. With these types of services, you don’t have to do a thing when it comes to website design.

For webmasters that are interested in supporting Christian businesses, they can consider using Christian web hosting. What is Christian web hosting? Well, it really isn’t much different than traditional web hosting in terms of what it offers. The cost ranges from $9.99 onward, and the bandwidth can range from a few megabytes to several gigabytes, depending on the specific package you get. So, the web hosting itself is pretty standard. The only real reason a person would want to turn to a Christian web hosting company is out of principle.

Now, when it comes to free domain names, you may be thinking why sacrifice being able to get a .com or a .net to save $1.00 to $37?  And for many webmasters who are operating one or two sites, such a concern is valid. However, what if you are operating hundreds of small sites? Your domain name bill could slowly add up. In these instances you may want to consider using a free domain name, even if you can’t get .com or .net as extensions.