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In this article I am going to talk the different types of hosting. There are a couple different types of hosting and they are meant for different types of websites. So I am going to list the different types of hosting as well as tell you a little bit about that type of web hosting and what it is used for.

Shared Hosting: Shared hosting is by far the most popular choice. It is the most popular mostly because of the price and ease of use. It only costs anywhere from $3-$20 a month for a shared hosting plan. The concept of shared hosting, which is also called virtual hosting, is that your site will share the resources of a single server with hundreds or possibly thousands of websites. The resources are things like RAM, CPU, and other parts of the server that run your site. Some web hosts oversell their servers because they find that most people do not use the amount of space allotted to them. This is much like when an airline oversells the seats on a flight.

Virtual Private Server (VPS): This is also called a virtual dedicated server. This is where a person would feel like they have their own dedicated server with all the resources for themselves, but in fact they are sharing the server with people. They share the server with much less people than shared hosting, but it is not just you on one server. The server is split up into sections for each person who has a site on there and you may be able to have root access to control your part of the server.

Dedicated Hosting: This is where you get complete control over the server(this means you have root or administrator access to the server itself) and it is only your website on the server. You are responsible for the security and reliability of the server. However, you do not own the actual server yourself, the web host does. It is their server and it is in their datacenter.

Managed Hosting: This is very similar to dedicated hosting in the manner that it's only you on the server and all the servers resources are dedicated to you and your websites needs. The difference is that you do not have control of the actual server; the web host controls the security, root access, and reliability of the actual server. This helps to prevent configuration problems which could crash the server.

Colocation Hosting: Colocation Hosting is where a web host provides you with the space and internet connection for the server, but the actual server is yours. The host does not provide much in the way of support or maintenance of the server. Typically a person would have an administrator go to the actual datacenter to maintain the server.

These are the main ways to have a website hosted. It is important that you decide which one is right for you. Good Luck and Get Started!

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So, you created an ecommerce website on your computer and you're ready for the world to see it. There are tons of options for you to choose between. You could use a computer in your home that is dedicated to your website, but to be frank doing this can be very technical and it will definitely be time consuming and expensive.
What you need is a web host. A web host is a company that stores all the parts of your website such as: the pages, the html, and the scripts and they also connect your site to the internet so the world can see it. There are webhosts that provide free hosting, but they put ads all over your site and have restrictions on things like space and bandwidth and usually there is little if any support.

Your best bet is to go with a commercial web host. They are more geared towards the small business/ ecommerce world. You have literally hundreds of web hosts to choose from and all them offer different space, reliability, and price packages. Here are some good questions to ask when selecting a web host for your small business website.

Is Your Hosting Reliable? Reliability is a major concern among small business website owners. You never want your website to be down because if your sites down that means you're not converting traffic into sales. You want to look for at the very least 95% uptime guarantee, but many hosts offer 99% and up uptime guarantee.

What type of Space/Bandwidth do you offer? You will want to make sure they offer enough space to hold your website in the plan you're looking for. You will also want to make sure they offer enough bandwidth per month for the amount of visitors you will have. If you go over the limit there will be a charge. Watch out for oversellers who promise a ton of space and bandwidth but don't deliver. Make sure you check the host's terms of service and resource usage policies.

How good is your support? Support is an extremely important part of any host. They should have multiple ways to contact them including ticket system, live chat, and phone. They should be able to be contacted by either live chat or phone 24/7/365. Make sure you test the support and call in and ask them questions to test their competence.

How do you Handle Security? Ask them how they secure their datacenter and if they have secure servers and SSL certificates. Security Socket Layer (SSL) is a protocol that allows the secure communications to take place over the internet. This is important for doing business transactions over the internet.

How do you backup your servers? The web host should back up the data you have on your servers. You will want to make sure that if something happens to your website for any reason you will be able to recover the information that is lost. Make sure that the information is yours and not the hosts. This is an important question to ask the host.

Do you provide shopping cart software? Many hosts provide shopping cart software as part of their package. You'll want to make sure the host you pick has shopping cart software as most ecommerce sites will need this software in order for their customers to buy products. How much control do I have? You will want to make sure you are able to use a variety of background applications like PHP, PERL, and CGI Scripts. These allow you to truly create forms and a website that are tailored to your business.

How much will it cost? Shared hosting should not cost more than $20 per month. With that being said you don't want to put too much weight on price because you want to worry about the factors above in a host than you do about the price. You can also use rebates and coupons to make the same hosting cheaper. Either way hosting can be one of the cheapest parts of starting a business.

What type of perks do you offer? Many web hosts have deals with other companies especially when it comes to marketing tools. Some perks are credits for Google Adwords or Yahoo! Search Marketing. There are also things like free Sitepal characters. You don't want to put any weight on the perks when selecting a webhost but if all else is truly equal than it can't hurt to take advantage of the perks a certain hosts offers. Also some hosts offer other services like web design and this is something to look into if you do not want to create your own site.

There are many things you have to do when creating a small business. Do not overlook choosing a web host. Don't jump quickly into this because you could regret it. Do the research, ask the questions, and choose the host that is right for you. Good Luck and Get Started.

Although this is a "top 10" list, most of the following things could easily be listed as the #1 most important consideration, so take them all seriously. It doesn't matter if you are a large company, a small one, or just a hobbyist who wants to display photos of hand-painted electric trains. Everyone needs to consider the same things, just to different degrees.
Now, remembering that there is really no firm order to these, let us consider the top 10 things to look for in a web host:

1. Reliability ("uptime") - Your host should be reliable, stable and fast, and should guarantee its uptime, the minimum figure for which should be 99%. A straight 99% is actually considered low these days, as 99.5% or higher is rapidly becoming the new standard. Check to see if the host provides a prorated refund if uptime falls below the stated benchmark. With how much business a company can lose any time their website is down this crucial aspect of web hosting probably does deserve to be in the #1 spot, but read on for other important info.

2. Data transfer (traffic or "bandwidth")?- Data transfer mean the number of bytes delivered from your site to its visitors as they browse. If a web host advertises "unlimited bandwidth," find out how much traffic the particular deal you're considering really allows. Most new sites that are not archives, storage or "drop-send" sites normally use less than 3GB of bandwidth per month. If you expect your traffic requirements to increase over time, check the host's policy for "overages." If there is a charge (usually per additional GB) over the allowed bandwidth, you need to determine if it's cheaper to pay it once in a while (if it will not be ongoing) or to upgrade your service level.

3. Disk space?- Be on guard against the "unlimited disk space" deals, too, and view them with the same skepticism as you just observed being applied to data transfer. The vast majority of sites need no more than 10-20MB of web space, so don't fall prey to enticements like 500MB, or "unlimited space." To get an idea of relative size, a site with about 200 pages and the usual assortment of text, pictures and motion graphics will use only about 10-15 MB for all of the pages and supporting files.

4. Technical support?- Is the tech support 24/7/365? You should probably avoid a host that has no staff working weekends or holidays since things have a habit of breaking down at the worst possible times. A claim of "24/7 support" is not always true, so test the sales pitch by e-mailing or calling on a Friday night or holiday. Measure how long it takes for you to connect with a human being on the other end. In addition response time, ensure that the support personnel are technically proficient. Believe it or not, some tech support personnel are converted sales people "learning on the job," which is not the kind of help you need in an emergency that threatens your business.

5. Technical features (FTP, PHP, CGI-BIN access, SSI, etc.) -?What once were luxuries are now necessities. Fact is, you simply must have all of these. There are many commercial hosts that require getting their approval to install PHP or CGI scripts, which means that you cannot implement a feature on your site when you so desire. You need these functions if you want to customize error pages, maintain databases, set up additional security measures and so forth. Make sure you have full access to these tools, and find out about any restrictions on their use.

6. Server type?- The operating system and server can be very important, and there are good, practical reasons for choosing one server over another. If you intend to take advantage of ASP, for example, it is available only on a Windows NT/2000/XP server. However, it is often cheaper to go with a Unix system running the Apache server software, which is stable and dependable. Another advantage of Unix-based hosts -using Linux, FreeBSD, etc. - is that an Apache web server lets you create and manage error pages, block IP addresses, stop email harvesters and more, without needing your host to install or approve a thing. Finally, if you plan to do some e-commerce on your site, find out if you get SSL (Secure Socket Layer), MySQL and a shopping cart. At the very least, you will need SSL if you plan to get credit card information from your customers over the Internet.

7. Email services - You have your own domain now, so you probably want e-mail addresses with the domain name. Although the vast majority of plans include e-mail services, find out about the quality and level of auto-responders, mail forwarding? and list management. Ensure that you also have web access to your mail ("webmail") and investigate the spam tools that are provided.

8. Control panel?- It may be called this, it may be called your "Net Tool Kit," but all hosts give you a set of utilities to manage the particulars of your web account, and a web page from which to do it, too. You need to be able to manage your e-mail, change passwords, block spammers and so on. These are all standard maintenance chores for webmasters and if you have to wait on your host's tech support to take care of things, you will lose important control over your business.

9. Price and payment plans -?Naturally, price is always a consideration, but remember that the most expensive hosts are not necessarily the best. Factor in price, and be wary of great price differentials on similar plans. Most web hosts offer annual or even quarterly payment plans that discount the monthly rate, but if you are using a new or less-well-known host, you should consider paying monthly until you establish their reliability. When you are satisfied with the host, you can change your payment plan and grab that discount.

10. Reviews - What do others say about the hosts? Use Google to track down both complaints and congratulations, and consider the source of each comment.

There's a lot to do, but with your business possibly at stake - or at least the fate of those model train photos - you can't be too careful. Get the information you need to make an informed decision, and weigh things carefully. You will save yourself a good deal of frustration if you do.