Web Hosting – An Investment Or an Expense?...

Is having your own website an investment or an expense?

The following article will help you gain clarity on this issue.

First of all, let us consider the costs of having a website. A domain name with sufficient amount of space (that also includes a database support for interactive websites) costs under $30 per annum. This is roughly $2.5 / month.

Then comes the designing and maintenance costs. Depending on your requirement, web design can cost as little as $50-$100. There is no upper limit; it can go into several thousands depending on what exactly you want and who is doing it. Ideally, you should ask your friends and associates to refer web designers who have done a good job for them and also charged reasonably. Prepare your requirements in advance before taking quotes. Be very clear on what exactly you want for your website. This will save you a lot of pain. Be sure to cross check the quotes with sites like elance. Discuss the maintenance charges also, if you need to update your site often.

There is another option where you can save on web design costs if you don’t need a very fancy / customized design. Most hosting providers will offer you site builder options at a nominal cost. In fact, you can even use a blog platform like wordpress or a CMS platform like joomla and drupal. Most hosting providers will offer fantastico support, which enables you to install these opensource softwares with a few mouse clicks. I would advice you to first go with one of these options, preferably the wordpress / CMS option before you spend on web design.

Once you’ve worked out these costs, you now need to consider the returns. Business is all about ROI (Return On Investment) and you should seriously track all leads and / or orders you receive through your website. First of all, you need to accept the fact that you won’t start getting orders the moment your website is live. “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t work here. You need to work towards promoting your website.

There are several online and offline ways to do this. For offline promotion, you should include your website URL in every piece of communication as you can, like visiting cards, yellow page ads, invoices, quotations, etc.

For online promotion, you should first make it a point to include your URL in email signatures and forum post signatures. Next, you should consider spending a little on PPC (Pay Per Click) ads. The most important online promotion is free traffic from search engines. If you want to win the SEO game, there are only three things that you really need to concentrate on:

1. Unique content: Don’t ever copy content from other websites, create your own. If required, hire a decent copywriter, but first start on your own.

2. Updated content: Search engines love websites which have new content added regularly, so make it a point to add something new to your website at least once a week. If there are no new products or services that you add, consider adding some latest news in your industry. Or you can simply add useful tips that cater to your industry.

3. Backlinks: The more websites that link to yours, the more weight search engines give to your ranking. So try to get more websites linking to you, preferably from related content sites. You can also write articles that are beneficial to your targeted audience and submit them at article directories. Remember to add your website link in the author’s bio (you are seeing this in action right now; check out the bio following this article).

These are the three pillars that SEO stands on. If you do nothing else except follow these, you will get much more targeted traffic than your competitors. You don’t even need an SEO consultant.

If you can generate enough business from your website, it makes sense in continuing it. It then becomes an investment with good returns. You should give it a try for at least 2 years, to track proper ROI. Once you’re fairly successful, you can think of other ways to improve your website. If you’re making more than you’re spending, its time to take your website to the next level. Start by hiring / outsourcing people to write content for you. Use lead generation tactics by giving away free reports in exchange for people to signup to your mailing list.

While your website is certainly an investment worth making, you can also claim the costs as business expenses! Consult your accountant for details.

Top 10 Web Hosting Features and Services...

Setting up your own website would be impossible if you will not seek the help of a good web hosting company. This article will help you choose by giving some tips about the top 10 web hosting features and services that you should look for in a company to make sure that you are getting the best value for your money. This is also a good way to help your site benefit from the hosting services that you will choose.

The first one that is on the list of top 10 web hosting features is reliability. This is very easy to understand since all website owners would not want their website to experience a long downtime period where their site will be temporarily inaccessible to anyone who wants to gain access like your customers and visitors. If your site would have many downtime periods, customers might just go to another site that offers the same products and services as yours. Secure your traffic and customers by going for a web hosting company that could offer 99% uptime guaranteed.

The second to the list of top 10 web hosting features and services is the customer service. For some, this is not very important but they are just wrong. Website owners, especially those who just possess the basic knowledge about how to run a website or those who are new to online business, are more likely to encounter some troubles and problems regarding their sites and it would be very helpful if you could get immediate help, support and assistance from your hosting company’s friendly staff. They should be able to provide quick response to their clients in a friendly manner.

The price or the cost made it to the 3rd spot of the top 10 web hosting features and services because this is one of the major things that people consider when choosing a web hosting provider. Opt for a company that could offer the best services for a price that is competitive and affordable. The disk space and the bandwidth size also made it to the top 10 web hosting features because you will want to make your website more interesting and appealing to customers and visitors so you will have to put images or videos that will catch the attention of visitors and will encourage them to explore more. You should also have enough spaces to accommodate all your files and emails.

The top 10 web hosting features would not be complete without security. Customers would usually prefer to purchase from sites that displays an image or an icon that sends out a message that transactions done through your site would be safe and secure. Another thing to consider is the control panel. The web hosting provider should be able to provide you with an easy to control panel. They should explain everything clearly to you if necessary to make sure that you will have little to no trouble running and managing your site.

The reputation of the company can also be considered as one of the top 10 web hosting features because this will give you peace of mind. You will be confident that you are getting the best services because that company has already served lots of clients that are leaving positive feedbacks or reviews about their services. You must not forget the tools and applications that these companies are willing to offer like a script or a site building tool that could really be helpful to every website owner. PHP, Joomla, Ruby on Rails are also good additions to their services. The last things that have made it to the top 10 web hosting features and services are freebies, extras, and bonuses.

Web Hosting An Investment Or an Expense?...

Is having your own website an investment or an expense?

The following article will help you gain clarity on this issue.

First of all, let us consider the costs of having a website. A domain name with sufficient amount of space that also includes a database support for interactive websites)costs under $30 per annum. This is roughly $2.5 / month.

Then comes the designing and maintenance costs. Depending on your requirement, web design can cost as little as $50-$100. There is no upper limit it can go into several thousands depending on what exactly you want and who is doing it. Ideally, you should ask your friends and associates to refer web designers who have done a good job for them and also charged reasonably. Prepare your requirements in advance before taking quotes. Be very clear on what exactly you want for your website. This will save you a lot of pain. Be sure to cross check the quotes with sites like elance. Discuss the maintenance charges also, if you need to update your site often.

There is another option where you can save on web design costs if you dont need a very fancy  customized design. Most hosting providers will offer you site builder options at a nominal cost. In fact, you can even use a blog platform like wordpress or a CMS platform like joomla and drupal. Most hosting providers will offer fantastico support, which enables you to install these opensource softwares with a few mouse clicks. I would advice you to first go with one of these options, preferably the wordpress  CMS option before you spend on web design.
Once youve worked out these costs, you now need to consider the returns. Business is all about ROI Return On Investment and you should seriously track all leads and  or orders you receive through your website. First of all, you need to accept the fact that you won’t start getting orders the moment your website is live. If you build it, they will come doesnt work here. You need to work towards promoting your website.
There are several online and offline ways to do this. For offline promotion, you should include your website URL in every piece of communication as you can, like visiting cards, yellow page ads, invoices, quotations, etc.
For online promotion, you should first make it a point to include your URL in email signatures and forum post signatures. Next, you should consider spending a little on PPC Pay Per Click ads. The most important online promotion is free traffic from search engines. If you want to win the SEO game, there are only three things that you really need to concentrate on:

1. Unique content Dont ever copy content from other websites, create your own. If required, hire a decent copywriter, but first start on your own.

2. Updated content: Search engines love websites which have new content added regularly, so make it a point to add something new to your website at least once a week. If there are no new products or services that you add, consider adding some latest news in your industry. Or you can simply add useful tips that cater to your industry.

3. Backlinks The more websites that link to yours, the more weight search engines give to your ranking. So try to get more websites linking to you, preferably from related content sites. You can also write articles that are beneficial to your targeted audience and submit them at article directories. Remember to add your website link in the author’s bio you are seeing this in action right now; check out the bio following this article.

These are the three pillars that SEO stands on. If you do nothing else except follow these, you will get much more targeted traffic than your competitors. You don’t even need an SEO consultant.
If you can generate enough business from your website, it makes sense in continuing it. It then becomes an investment with good returns. You should give it a try for at least 2 years, to track proper ROI. Once youre fairly successful, you can think of other ways to improve your website. If you’re making more than you’re spending, its time to take your website to the next level. Start by hiring  outsourcing people to write content for you. Use lead generation tactics by giving away free reports in exchange for people to signup to your mailing list.
While your website is certainly an investment worth making, you can also claim the costs as business expenses Consult your accountant for details.

How To Find Affordable Web Hosting?...

Most of the webmasters believe all affordable web hosting packages offer similar features which in reality is not true. Plans of various web hosting companies can be different depending on the incentives being offered. Along with general features webmasters have to look for attractive and easy to use features when comparing any affordable web hosting company. Here are some tips to make your selection easier.

First thing that has to take into consideration is the facility of script installation. Most of the companies provide fantastico in their cpanel to install many important scripts like wordpress, joomla and forum scripts with just one click. This is the ease which makes any web host a priority over other companies for novice webmasters.

Once you decide to start your website, you surely have an idea of requirements in your mind. This helps to compare companies on the basis of disk space and bandwidth against the price per month. File transfer protocol (FTP) is also an important feature which makes it really easy for users to share large amount of data. Limitation on number of emails and number of databases that you can install also matters a lot. If you are getting sufficient number of emails as per your needs then you surely are on the way of getting a good company.

Customer support is also an important factor that you must compare. Most of the companies provide the facility of toll free phone and round the clock live chat facility. You must get in communication with your selected company through any of the offered methods to check their approach. Ask different questions about your requirements and if you get positive response it surely will help you a lot in terms of satisfaction for upcoming problems.

Some of the companies offer free domain names with their hosting plans. This is an additional incentive by web hosts but when it comes to real affordable hosting, addon domains is the important factor. If you are getting the facility to host more than one domain on your account then you really mean it an affordable web hosting. In addition some web hosting companies offer the facility of free site builder. This option is worth considering for new webmasters who can not afford big investment for web designing

Web Hosting – Finding the Perfect Fit...

So you have a website, small or large, simple or extensive, personal or business. Now to take that website to the highest level you can, you need a great web hosting provider. What features should you look for? What separates Joomla web hosting from Drupal web hosting and Tomcat web hosting? Let’s take a look at what might be your best choice for either cheap web hosting or business web hosting.

We’ll start by explaining the cheap web hosting option called Tomcat which is a free, open source container developed by a company called Apache Software Foundation. Because this option is what they call cross platform it can be used for everything from Windows to Linux. Being open source means some of the best designers in the country have weighed in an added their own expertise. But being open source and free also means you will not have the kind of customer service you will have at others that have a fee. One of the newer options in business web hosting and web hosting providers that also happens to be free, is Drupal. You’ll find it being used around the world for knowledge databases and community web portals ranging from both corporate and personal websites.

What is the most popular open source company on the market? That title just might go to Joomla web hosting. While not free like those web hosting providers listed above, it can be very affordable. Depending on your website and exactly what you need the cost can run from a few dollars a month and up. Obviously your needs for business web hosting will be different than someone with a personal website. Some things to consider when choosing just how many bells and whistles you need would be do you need a great deal of storage, what type of speeds do you require and do you expect to need easy access to customer service? Once you know those answers, you’ll know which version you will need.

There are more options than ever when it comes to choosing a web host provider. Knowing what you need before you make your choice can not only make it easier but can make sure that the option you end up with fits you and your needs. From cheap web hosting like Tomcat web hosting and Drupal web hosting to the inexpensive and popular Joomla web hosting the opportunities for business web hosting are limitless.

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Managed Dedicated Web hosting Small Business Shared web hosting Enterprise web hosting E-mail Solutions Website Builder Website Software’s with free 2 year web hosting Open Source Software’s integrated in 1 Search Host Control Panel

1 Search Host offer managed web hosting, dedicated web hosting and shared Web hosting services and solutions that are both lower and completely customized to meet your specific needs. We provide a comprehensive range of utility-based & feature-rich Web hosting plans which will help businesses gain the market advantage through enhanced performance and steady growth.

High-speed & reliable connectivity Effective load balancing for faster performance & better reliability Multiple backups and redundancy measures Fail proof security protocols Optimum utilization of server space as per user requirements. Server space can be doled out as needed across your Website, e-mail & database Instant-response disaster management and recovery

Create a professional looking site in under 30 min...

If you need to create a presence on the Internet and you already have web hosting, then there are a few things that you can do to create a professional looking site in under 30 minutes.

BLOGGING – WordPress

Using a blog is one of the most effective ways to build a following and create a professional web presence with little fuss. The results won’t be immediate, but with continued blogging, you’ll soon start dominating your key search terms. Blog frequently, with no less than 300 words on topics related to the words that you’ve discovered people use when searching for your products or services.

WordPress is software that is completely customisable and can be used for practically anything you need. There is both a downloadable version, suitable for parking at your web host (e.g. www.myblog.com), as well as more limited online version (e.g. myblog.wordpress.com).

Due to the flexibility of Wordpress, you can tailor the look of your blog according by downloading hundreds of free WordPress themes, or buy purchasing one that better suits your needs. You can also engage WordPress designers to create bespoke themes at a later stage if you wish to add to the unique nature of your blog.

These days, it’s possible to use specially designed software to convert or transform your WordPress blog into a Joomla Site, so that if later, you want to give your blog greater functionality and potential, then it’s possible.

CMS – Joomla

Joomla is a powerful Content Management System, or CMS, which easily allows you to build your own website. Many successful businesses that do not want to spend a fortune on designers fees and wish to retain complete control of their website choose Joomla software. Joomla is easy to use, flexible and can be tailored to your precise needs. It’s completely free to download and there’s a great deal of help and support both on Joomla’s website and across the Internet.

A content management system will help you to get found on the Internet. The CMS organises and maintains all of the different content on your website and presents it to you in a way that makes it very easy for you to create, edit and publish your content to the website. With Joomla you can add music, text, photos, video – whatever you need, it’s all very simple. The main advantage of using Joomla is that CMS systems like this do not require you to have any programming skills, so once you’ve mastered the basics of Joomla, you can quickly create great looking pages without the need for technical expertise or experience.

Forums/Community Site – SimpleMachines

A great way to create interest in your site, build online credibility and drive traffic towards your products or services is to create a forum or community site. A great way to add an online community to your website can be found at Simple Machines Forum. They offer a professional software that’s completely free and only takes a few minutes to setup and get running. It has a completely customisable layout and unique technology allowing your website and the forum software to work together seamlessly.

A forum is the perfect tool for bringing people to your site. There they can express their opinions on a range of subjects, all under your watchful eye, and every comment or question they add helps you to attract more people to your site.

So what are you waiting for? Do you want to create a professional looking website quickly and with no fuss? Try WordPress, Joomla or SimpleMachines, but when you need a place to host your new website, then go to Gradwell, our Internet services are designed specifically for business, so visit www.gradwell.com/email-web/web for more details.

Joomla on Linux Web Hosting...

Web Hosting helps you to make your website live on the web and Content Management Systems provide users with a simple platform to create and manage the content of their websites, without having to incur web design fees for all changes.

As a lot of people prefer to use open source operating systems and application software, Joomla on Linux hosting is a favourite combination for today’s webmasters.

Joomla is a free open source CMS (Content Management System) that provides you with a powerful yet simple interface to add, remove and modify website content, images and develop product gallery pages. Here is a list of features that come with Joomla!

Page caching for better performance
RSS Feeds
News Flash
Blog
Polls
Search option
Language internationalization

With these features developers can design advanced Web 2.0 websites easily. RSS, Blogs, Polls, Search options and Internationalization or Localization are the features very much essential for modern interactive websites and you get all the features under one roof by choosing Joomla!

Professional Linux web hosting providers offer Joomla as an integrated part of their hosting service. Like Linux, Joomla is also an open source application built with PHP and it uses MySQL database by default. Joomla on Linux hosting offers a flexible website management environment for users.

Linux hosting providers generally offer Joomla for free as a part of their hosting plans. While choosing your web hosting service, look for the provider that offers Joomla so that it becomes easy for you to manage you website.

Joomla! 1.5.6 was released in August 2008 and solves a lot of security issues. Popular hosting service providers have already upgraded Joomla so that their clients can access the latest technologies.

If you have been using Joomla, upgrade it now, or contact your service provider to inquire if they can help you get the upgraded version.

Use Joomla in Web Design & Website Hosting...

I was recently asked by a potential client why I recommended Joomla! to be used for building their website. Let me explain the benefits of using Joomla versus using anything else, and by anything else I mean comparing building a website using some type of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, such as Frontpage or Dreamweaver, or building a website with a comparative type of software package. Joomla! is a Content Management system, which means that it is built to ensure that website pages can easily be maintained and updated. This includes for example, adding new pages or removing pages. This is the main advantage above building a website in straight forward HTML that would normally be the end product of using some type of HTML editor.But why Joomla? Why not something else like a Microsoft based product or another commercial product? Joomla is Open Source, which means that there are no licensing fees payable, that you have often pay for a Microsoft product or a commercial product Because Joomla is Open Source, there is a huge pool of community resources available to provide support or go to www.master-web-graphics.com

The Joomla community is huge worldwide as well as in local countries – there are often local user groups which are very well supported often even in small countries such as South Africa. There is an enormous pool of people supporting the product. The forum on the Joomla.org site has over 200 000 members all providing support and input into making Joomla! a better product. There are millions of sites worldwide (about 10 Million if you do a guestimate using Google) that runs on Joomla. It is therefore extremely popular and widely used which also means that it will never be difficult to find developers and people to support it.Because it is so popular, it also means that by now there have been quite a few books written about Joomla! from various perspectives to assist both the developer as well as the end-user. Some other good reasons to use Joomla!One of the most attractive features of using Joomla! is the fact that is so very easy to extend its functionality. You can build anything from a brochure website to a full-featured shopping cart or interactive membership site. This is because there are over 3500 add-ons and plugins available to extend its functionality. This ranges from shopping carts, image galleries, video plugins, forums, blogs, project management tools, etc etcThe Joomla templating system also makes it easy to change the look and feel of your site without having to redo the whole site from scratch you can visit www.impacts-audio.com

You can literally change the whole graphic design/look of the site in a matter of seconds while retaining the content. There are also over 2000 templates, most of them free, available to change the look and feel of your site.But again, why Joomla! Why not Wordpress, for example?I have to admit, Wordpress is also extremely popular and Wordpress also makes it extremely easy to add new pages. Wordpress also has numerous free templates available and it makes Wordpress an extremely attractive option to build websites quickly and easily but it must always be kept in mind that Wordpress is essentially a blogging platform. Although it also has numerous plugins available to extend its functionality, it just does not have the raw power with regards to its underlying infrastructure to allow it to easily plug in something like a shopping cart, for example.So what is the catch? It can’t be all roses?Having worked with Joomla! for a couple of years (and before that, with its predecessor, Mambo) I can tell you exactly what the shortcomings areJoomla’s membership capabilities fall far short of what they could be. There is very limited support for various access groups and access levels.Because it is so popular, it attracts a lot of attention and Joomla! sites get hacked – quite often. The only solution for this is to be aware of your server security settings and to upgrade regularly to stay abreast of the latest Joomla! security updates.Joomla! might be a bit top-heavy for smaller sites, although it still remains the tool of choice for even my smaller sites – it does leave room for expansion later without having to upgrade to a different tool or product!Joomla!’s native search engine friendliness in the older versions leave a lot to be desired, although this has received attention in the latest upgrade. Despite this drawback, most of my Joomla! sites perform well in the search engines due to judicious use of various plugins to rectify this shortcoming.Altogether, Joomla! is an excellent tool to build websites that are easy to create, easy on the eye and easily extendable.

Use Joomla in Web Design & Website Hosting...

I was recently asked by a potential client why I recommended Joomla! to be used for building their website. Let me explain the benefits of using Joomla versus using anything else, and by anything else I mean comparing building a website using some type of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, such as Frontpage or Dreamweaver, or building a website with a comparative type of software package. Joomla! is a Content Management system, which means that it is built to ensure that website pages can easily be maintained and updated. This includes for example, adding new pages or removing pages. This is the main advantage above building a website in straight forward HTML that would normally be the end product of using some type of HTML editor.But why Joomla? Why not something else like a Microsoft based product or another commercial product? Joomla is Open Source, which means that there are no licensing fees payable, that you have often pay for a Microsoft product or a commercial product Because Joomla is Open Source, there is a huge pool of community resources available to provide support or go to www.master-web-graphics.com

The Joomla community is huge worldwide as well as in local countries – there are often local user groups which are very well supported often even in small countries such as South Africa. There is an enormous pool of people supporting the product. The forum on the Joomla.org site has over 200 000 members all providing support and input into making Joomla! a better product. There are millions of sites worldwide (about 10 Million if you do a guestimate using Google) that runs on Joomla. It is therefore extremely popular and widely used which also means that it will never be difficult to find developers and people to support it.Because it is so popular, it also means that by now there have been quite a few books written about Joomla! from various perspectives to assist both the developer as well as the end-user. Some other good reasons to use Joomla!One of the most attractive features of using Joomla! is the fact that is so very easy to extend its functionality. You can build anything from a brochure website to a full-featured shopping cart or interactive membership site. This is because there are over 3500 add-ons and plugins available to extend its functionality. This ranges from shopping carts, image galleries, video plugins, forums, blogs, project management tools, etc etcThe Joomla templating system also makes it easy to change the look and feel of your site without having to redo the whole site from scratch you can visit www.impacts-audio.com

You can literally change the whole graphic design/look of the site in a matter of seconds while retaining the content. There are also over 2000 templates, most of them free, available to change the look and feel of your site.But again, why Joomla! Why not Wordpress, for example?I have to admit, Wordpress is also extremely popular and Wordpress also makes it extremely easy to add new pages. Wordpress also has numerous free templates available and it makes Wordpress an extremely attractive option to build websites quickly and easily but it must always be kept in mind that Wordpress is essentially a blogging platform. Although it also has numerous plugins available to extend its functionality, it just does not have the raw power with regards to its underlying infrastructure to allow it to easily plug in something like a shopping cart, for example.So what is the catch? It can’t be all roses?Having worked with Joomla! for a couple of years (and before that, with its predecessor, Mambo) I can tell you exactly what the shortcomings areJoomla’s membership capabilities fall far short of what they could be. There is very limited support for various access groups and access levels.Because it is so popular, it attracts a lot of attention and Joomla! sites get hacked – quite often. The only solution for this is to be aware of your server security settings and to upgrade regularly to stay abreast of the latest Joomla! security updates.Joomla! might be a bit top-heavy for smaller sites, although it still remains the tool of choice for even my smaller sites – it does leave room for expansion later without having to upgrade to a different tool or product!Joomla!’s native search engine friendliness in the older versions leave a lot to be desired, although this has received attention in the latest upgrade. Despite this drawback, most of my Joomla! sites perform well in the search engines due to judicious use of various plugins to rectify this shortcoming.Altogether, Joomla! is an excellent tool to build websites that are easy to create, easy on the eye and easily extendable.

Frontpage Hosting Is Dead?...

Frontpage used to be an HTML editor that is very popular. Users need to ensure that their hosting accounts support Frontpage. If Frontpage is supported, they can upload their web pages directly on to the servers. However, Microsoft has decided to discontinue the development of this product. As a result, many webmasters are forced to look at different alternatives.

Content management system (CMS) options.

The first alternative is to look at content management systems (CMS). There are many different types of CMS available. Some require you to pay a one time fee, some are subscription based, and some are free.

A commercial CMS can cost thousands of dollars and may be more appropriate for a large corporation. Such systems are meant to power huge sites (e.g. international sites).

For smaller businesses, subscription based CMS may be a good alternative. By paying a small monthly fee, you get to enjoy similar features as the large corporations. The affordable pricing is viable due to a different business model known as Software As A Service (Saas). In other words, the platform is actually shared by many users. When there is an upgrade, everyone gets to enjoy the upgrade. The only downside is that you can’t customize the system for your own needs as the system is shared among many users.

Then you have free options. These are open source software (e.g. Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal) that you can use for free. A good open source CMS has an active community of developers that is constantly improving the system. Many of these scripts have taken years to mature, and a few (like Wordpress) has been become very popular among individuals and business owners.

The benefit for using an open source software is that you get to do what you want with the software without having to pay a single cent. You can customize the software, install third party plugins, change the designs, etc. However, the downside is that since it’s free software, you cannot rush the upgrades. The community will release upgrades in its own time.

The trend is clear – many desktop HTML editors are phasing out, giving way to more powerful and robust online editors. Almost all the open source CMS that you come across would have an online editor. You can easily create and edit the web pages from your web browser, without having to use additional software such as FTP.

When choosing hosting, you have two alternatives – to use Linux hosting or Windows hosting. Since most of the open source software are developed based on the Linux platform, it’s highly recommended that you sign up for Linux hosting if you want to use free software.

There are two types of control panels for Linux servers that you will come across – Plesk and Cpanel. Choose Cpanel as it has more features and is more user friendly. You can create email accounts, databases, install scripts, etc. from the control panel.

Forget about Frontpage hosting, as that has gone the way of the dinosaur. Use online editors – they are free, easy to install, and easy to use.