After spending a lot of time and switching from the one to the other hosting company, I finally found the company what I was looking for. And I can tell you that it wasn't easy to find the right company for my preferences. To be honest,I'm not and easy person who is satisfied very quickly. I needed a hosting company with all the features there are and as cheap as possible. After days of surfing and looking at many boards I discovered that Hostgator exactly have what I need to run my websites. You must know that for me the uptime is very important,cause I run an online business,and downtime will cost me money. I also like to have a good contact with a helpdesk if I have some questions,or some problems. What I did was the following,I went to their website and started to use their live chat to hit them with all my questions. The result was unbelievable,the sales person was so nice and helpfull. He helped me out with everything,even when our talk took around 30 minutes he staid very calm and professional. I was really sure that this is the host I will use in the future,they are able to give me the service I need.

And after this,I was shocked about their prices,so low. For this price and service you will never find another hosting company. Maybe you think,you get what you pay for,but in this case you pay a minimum and get a lot for it.

HostGator is one of the world's top 10 largest web hosting companies with more than 1,000,000 hosted domains. We have over 150 employees to provide you around-the-clock superior support. We are the perfect choice whether you are looking for business, personal, or even Fortune 500 hosting.

Every web hosting plan comes with a 45 day money back guarantee, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and is fully guaranteed by the owner himself. If you ever have a problem with regular support just ask that your ticket be assigned to Brent and he will personally take the time to give you the VIP attention that you deserve.

And I'm sure this is true,they do everything to let you feel comfortable and to give you the best service. Also very important for me was that they use Cpanel as their control panel,this is such an easy panel. If you have a look at other cheap hosting companies,they don't offer you Cpanel,but most of the time a homemade or cheap control panel. I can tell you how satisfied I am,but normally I would never believe another person before i tried out myself,but that's me.

Please have a look at my blog to find out more about this great hosting company.

I'm sure that you will be satisfied just as I am.

If you use Hostgator,you have a hosting company for life.

Take Care.

Richard Moog

About the Author

Please visit Richard Moog's Inside Review Blog to read out more about webhosting and building an online business.

A dedicated server is a type of web hosting system where the client leases a web server for themselves only, and no-one else shares it. Having a secure private network can give great peace of mind, particularly for firms who have sensitive personal and financial information concerning their clients.

This also means that you can be assured having full access to the data processing power and memory of the server whenever you may need it, as opposed to being at the mercy of other users on your server who may decide to take up a lot of power or memory just when you need it most.

Many suppliers of dedicated servers will let you have unlimited bandwidth, which means that you can have as much online traffic as you want to your dedicated server without being charged any extra fees.

A major advantage of leasing dedicated servers is that you can always have the latest top of the range hardware for your business applications, just like when you lease a car and change it after three months to another newer model.

The suppler will have access to the latest technology and you will not be stuck with equipment that is getting more and more out of date. Similarly the dedicated server supplier will be able to save you money. For example they will be able to broker advantageous licensing deals for associated services like control panel access.

Another major advantage of dedicated servers is the ability to choose your operating system, for example Linux or Windows, so you can have the kind of operating system that fits the needs of your business.

The ability to have full remote control of your dedicated server is an important requirement. This way, you can have access to the server control panel whenever you want, from anywhere in the world. You may need for example to re-boot your server, and with this capability you can do it yourself.

Effective technical support is vital if you have a dedicated server. You need to have access to experts whenever you need them, and the best dedicated server suppliers will be able to provide this kind of support twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. These experts will be able to manage and monitor your server, particular during times when there is a lot of online traffic.

The best dedicated server suppliers will have assembled a comprehensive online knowledge base, where you can read frequently asked questions. This is a great way to get a steer on what to do, especially at the beginning of a new arrangement.

It is important to work with a dedicated server suppler who has a flexible back-up capability, which can be added to as your business grows, or you amalgamate with other companies.

Most suppliers of dedicated servers will have a number of packages that they can offer you. These will be typical arrangements of hardware and levels of management and monitoring that they find works well with other clients who are similar to you in size and business needs.

About the Author

Tom Dun is an expert on web design, web hosting, web domains, colocation, managed servers, dedicated servers and data centres.

http://www.namehog.net

You are already into some kind of business and now you want to reach out to people, at large. You are also aware about the competition and the demand for your product. So, the best way to make your business expand is by taking it online. In other words, you have to be in touch with modern technology by using the internet. It is very important to take your business online. In this article, I am going to speak about getting online customers. The information is as follows:

1) Have a business related blog: Yes, your business needs a blog. Normally, we all think that a blog is fit only for teenagers who have nothing else to do. This statement is true but I must also add here by saying that you can also use a blog for business applications too. Physically, it becomes difficult to attend to several customers in a small space at any given period of time. However, a blog will enable you to interact with multitudes of customers without any physical space constrains. All your potential customers will be found interacting through your online blog.

Blogs are good at connecting people. In this world, if you have the attitude of building relationship, you will then enjoy to see how building relationships takes place on your blog. With a blog, you get the opportunity to build new relationships with potential customers and you can also connect with current customers. Now, before you think of launching your own blog, you must be mentally prepared to get ready towards getting your business to a certain level of transparency. In other words, your postings on the blog will reflect on who you are , what you value and what you provide. Also, if your blog supports connecting then there is a higher level of transparency that is going to be involved. In other words, if interaction takes place between you and your potential customers through the blog, then you will see both, negative as well as positive feedback being exchanged over the blog and this builds more trust and also deepens the customer relationship. But the second type of interaction may not be liked by all blog owners. In other words, you must be willing to take criticism as it comes.

2) You must have fresh content on your blog: Search engines get attracted towards blogs. Keep your blog with fresh content and see that it is quality based. Links can be incorporated within your pages of your blog and also use other types of marketing strategies which will boost your business, online. You must also see that you get traffic from popular search engines like Google, so that your readership increases. People in large numbers will then visit your blog and thus your visitors will turn into potential customers. You must also have an attitude towards marketing your business while you are sleep. In other words, you must market your business oriented website by getting it listed in web directories and search engines. It can act as silent partner which is simple to understand and easy to navigate. If this feature is incorporated in your blog, then it becomes easy for a visitor to relate with your blog.

Once the customer is satisfied with the information placed on the blog, then he will never hesitate to visit you again. Thus, having a business oriented blog is highly recommended in order to increase your business and also to keep your customer interactive and happy.

About the Author

Web Hosting Geeks provides independent customer reviews of the top web hosting providers, host uptime statistics, best web hosting awards, tutorials, articles and more. For more information about web hosting visit WebHostingGeeks.com

These days, online business has become a common trend. Even the online advertisement revenue is at an all time high, at present. In this article, I am going to make you familiar with another way of taking your business online. This way is about "Opening a storefront or ecommerce related website". There are various ways in which you can present your business online. Some of the different business oriented websites that you can think about are as follows:

1) Building an online brochure: You can have a webpage which is static. This web page will contain only basic information about your business. For example, details like contact information, bios, history etc can be displayed on the concerned web page. This can be referred as a typical approach of making your business presence, online.

2) Information based website: This website also contains static information but it has a unique feature. It also contains industry information with regard to the company. This will influence the search engines to come back to your website and also there is a possibility for customers to return to your website, the next time.

3) Having a customer based portal: This type of website is dynamic and customer oriented. The customer gets a login to the portal and then check inventory, check the pricing and also get customer support. This type of website will need a good sense of implementation by the website owner. But once you have this type of portal, you will then begin to earn some real value to you current and also to the potential future customers.

In order to have a website, you must buy a domain name. It is also referred as a website address. You may have to struggle a bit while registering a domain name because many a times, it so happens that the domain name which you have decided has been already chosen by someone else. In that case you will have to keep on trying till you get a suitable domain name. If your website is simple, then you could select an economy based hosting package. This type of web hosting package will provide about 5GB space limit. You also get many email accounts facility attached along with this economy web hosting package. This type of web hosting package is meant for those website which receive light traffic and those who have little web space requirement.

Every business person must own a website. A website which is created must be attractive to all. In other words, it should be attracted to search engines, advertisers and also to potential customers. A website is a must for all business oriented people.

About the Author

Web Hosting Geeks provides independent customer reviews of the top web hosting providers, host uptime statistics, best web hosting awards, tutorials, articles and more. For more information about web hosting visit WebHostingGeeks.com

Do you as a part of the concern over nationwide retirement solutions show signs of needing extra income? Do you desire to make more money as a retiree?

There are infinite retirement solutions activities that you can turn to. Just because you are older now does not mean that there are not money making and productive activities you can take an active part in yourself.

Entrepreneurship, like genius, has few age barriers. In fact, there are many tasks you can complete that others may find to be boring or not worth there time.

This is because we are all different. You do have these nationwide retirement solutions under your very belt and between your ears.

You as a senior citizen have something that others who are much younger than you do not have. That, of course, is experience.

Many retirees are looking for a purpose for their children and grandchildren to work with them so they can spend time with them. A nationwide retirement solutions site hosting business or cause is a very good answer.

Say it to yourself again. This is so they can find more time to happily spend with them. You surely have knowledge from your life work and experience that others do not. They have not had time to learn and experience enough yet.

Many retirees think they do not have nationwide retirement solutions to start off with no less world wide ones. The opposite is true.

You can start finding your retirement solutions right here on the inter net by using available software tools. You can find sources to have your questions answered. Some are human and remarkably some are software. There is also a software site, that is free, to help you make decisions. These include business and personal decisions both.

It uses you as the source for all of the logic it gives you. Literally everything in your life. It is useful for hardware clerks, surgeons, honest politicians, pet lovers, accountants, single and stay at home moms and everyone else. Bold statement but true.

Retirees will find more help to find themselves by reading and watching the success stories of others who have come before them. Even though the paths others have followed will always be different they will help your brain come closer to retirement solutions for you.

It is a proven fact that this action will put your brain and motivation to work for you. This is the most powerful force in the known and unknown universe and it is all yours. Enjoy.

In your nationwide retirement solutions site hosting quest you want to find a passion in life. You still need to seek this even if you are retired. Deep inside us we have harbored dreams that we never acted on as young people. Whether you are younger or older you need dreams to follow and to have an opportunity to be realized.

Whether your health is good or poor you can do this if you are bored and looking for something to do. You can work from home. Nothing can hold you back if you have the hand holding tools to show you the ways to find yourself and succeed. You do not really want to retire to sleep fourteen hours a day now, do you? You will soon be slept out!

Many seniors do Not care to travel. Many do like to travel. Many of us are natural born work from home merchants who are subconsciously eBay merchants.

Either way you will eventually become bored after you retire. There is an answer to this problem. As seniors our physical and mental health are very dependent on having something to do. It is a fact that we will live longer and happier if we have something to do that interests us before or after we retire from your jobs and careers.

Your retirement solutions are as close as your own personal experience in life. As close as your former occupation. As close as your dreams. Others have done this and you can also.

About the Author

James M. Lowe provides world class sbi web site building toolsweb site host training and marketing.

It's the event every website owner fears... your host's server goes *poof* in a fantastic crash and burn... and takes your website down with it. Don't panic yet, there's hope!

Let's begin with what you can do to minimize your risk of a crash and maximize your ability to quickly and fully recover, then I'll give you some tips and tricks to use if a crash caught you unprepared.

Servers crash, and hardware fails. Anyone who works regularly with computers knows that it's not a question of "if" a server or hard drive will fail, it's a question of "when" it will happen. Aside from server crashes, websites can also be accidentally deleted with one click of the wrong button by the host, or accidentally when editing or updating them yourself.

Two Steps to Crash-Readiness

1) Choose your website host very carefully

There are many low cost hosts out there. Don't choose a website host based on the low price, the fancy website, the claim of unlimited bandwidth or the slick advertising campaign. Choose your host based on the quality of their equipment and service. Three important things to look for are:

DAILY BACKUPS: You want a host who makes daily backups. Find out if those backups are stored on the same server or off-site. Off-site backups are safer because even in the event that the whole datacenter burns down (which is extremely unlikely) there will be a safely stored copy of your entire website on another server in a second datacenter.

Another good reason to look for a host with daily backups is that if you accidentally delete your entire website yourself, they can restore it within minutes. Don't laugh. You'd be surprised how often this happens!

SERVERS WITH RAID: RAID stands for "redundant array of independent disks." In a RAID 10 configuration, all files on the server are mirrored. This means there's a real-time second copy of everything. So if one drive crashes, no data is lost and it takes only minutes to get back online.

ABILITY TO MAKE YOUR OWN BACKUP: Don't rely blindly on the backups of your hosting company. Backup files occasionally get corrupted or aren't complete, so you need to have your own as well. Look for a host who gives you the ability to make your own complete backups. If you host on a cPanel server, this is easy to do with a few clicks within your cPanel and if you save the backup file to your computer you can easily restore your website not only with your current host but at most other cPanel hosts. Be sure you download and save the backup file to your computer and don't save it on your hosting account because if the server crashes and your backup file was stored on the server, your backup copy will be gone too.

2) Be sure to regularly back up your own website

I advise clients to backup their website monthly and anytime they make major changes. You may also want to backup your databases separately. And always save a copy of any files you upload. In a worst case scenario, if you have a database backup from your store or blog, you can recreate it using the database backup.

Keep in mind that if you use webmail, your mail is being stored on the server and if it crashes your mail will disappear with it.

What to do when your website is gone and you don't have a backup

Stay calm. You'll need to deal with it one step at a time.

First, find out if your host has a backup copy. They should. If they don't, they were not adequately prepared and you need to seriously consider a new website hosting company immediately. If they did have backups stored off site that failed restores, it might be worth giving them a second chance. But otherwise, look for a more prepared company.

If they don't have a backup copy, and you don't have a backup copy, then you'll need to begin reconstructing your website from scratch.

If you're facing a complete server crash and everything is gone your first steps should be to get your email addresses set back up and put up a temporary page to assure your clients that you will be back online soon. Deal with this before you do anything else. You want to be sure that your email is up and running and that clients are notified that you aren't out of business.

Next you need to start reconstructing your website. Here are methods for reconstructing your site from various site-building methods.

Created by You

Did you create your own site? If you coded it on your computer, the files should be there somewhere that you can upload back to your web space.

If you publish your site with a program like Dreamweaver or Front Page you may have a copy of your website on your computer that you can upload again from within the program and be all set.

Created by a Website Design Firm

If you had a website designer create your pages for you the chances are very good that your designer has saved a copy of the original files. There may be a fee for their time to get the files reinstalled, but it can save you from having to start from scratch.

HTML Website Recovery

If your site was plain HTML pages (no database) then you may be able to reconstruct it using Google's handy cache feature. Just put the full URL of the page you need into Google and you'll see a result come up like this:

The Small Business Muse

Are you a small business owner who wants tips and ideas on how to balance, manage and market your business with an inspirational twist? ...

www.thesmallbusinessmuse.com/ - 6k - Cached - Similar pages

See the little link that says "Cached"? Click it. You'll see the most recent version of your page that Google has saved. Do a "View Source" of the page's code, and you've got your page back! Images will likely be missing but you should be able to find them saved somewhere, and the image names will be in the code so you can search for them on your computer.

Go through one page at a time and if your pages were plain HTML and if Google visited and indexed your site recently, you'll be able to recover a good portion of your website this way.

Database Driven Site Recovery

If your site was database driven like an ecommerce shop or blog, it's tougher to reconstruct.

The first thing to do is reinstall whatever your website was powered by (Wordpress, osCommerce, Zen Cart, etc).

Next you need to get your template back. Again the original designer may be helpful so contact them and see if they have a copy of it saved. You may be able to find it in Google's cache as described above, but it will be a little trickier to get your template code so if you aren't very familiar with php, HTML, and the way your website worked, ask your virtual assistant or website designer/programmer to help you with this step.

Then you'll be ready to add your products back in. If you regularly submit to a shopping site like Google Base, see if you have a recent txt file export stored that you could use as a basis to reimport your products. If not, you'll need to just restock one item at a time.

And next time...

Sometimes lightening does strike the same place twice. So be sure that you are prepared! Not only will you save yourself frustration and work by having a back up copy of your website you can use to easily restore it, you'll also be able to sleep peacefully at night knowing that you are prepared for the worst case scenario.

Please go backup your website now. Really. Right now. *smiles* You'll be glad you did, even if you never need to use that backup.

About the Author

Find Michelle Shaeffer online at The Small Business Muse where she shares weekly tips and strategies for small businesses in The Muses Brainstorm. Stop by The Muses Guide for inspirational guides to help your small business grow.

So, what do you need in a server?

Do you need a gigabyte of storage space?

What IS a gigabyte, anyway?

Do you need add-on domains?

A shopping cart?

Multiple email addresses?

Don't base your decision on price or features alone. Reliability and support are important, too. So many things to consider!

You need to know what you need and what to look for before you start shopping. The information that follows will help you become an informed shopper!

* Server Uptime

A cheap host won't be worth the price if your website goes down frequently. Look for a host who is willing to publicly post their uptime statistics. If their statistics are good, they'll want to show them off. Independent monitoring companies like Alertra or Website Pulse Monitoring are reliable sources to prove server uptime. Don't hesitate to contact a potential hosting company to request their uptime stats.

* Server Speed

Overloaded servers or servers without adequate connections to the internet will be s-l-o-w. This means your site will not load quickly and you will lose visitors (and sales). How can you check a host's server speed? First, don't judge a company by it's own website because many hosts have their main site hosted on a different server for good reason (if their own servers go down, their website will still be available so their clients can contact them for support and updates). Instead, you need to check their client sites. Most hosts will be happy to provide references if they aren't listed on their website aleady.

* Price and Payment Options

A good, reliable host can be found for a reasonable price. It will vary depending on your exact needs, but expect anywhere from $5 to $25/month.

What options are available for payments? Consider looking for a host who offers multiple payment methods and has a true merchant account to accept credit cards, instead of just PayPal, 2Checkout, Worldpay, or other third party payment methods. These are great additional payment methods to provide but the process of approval for a merchant account to accept Visa, Mastercard or other credit cards directly requires a company to provide a substantial amount of documentation and verification and thus provides you with an extra level of security in the company's legitimacy. It's not scam-proof, but it helps. If you choose to pay with a credit card you can also do a charge-back in the event the company doesn't provide the service they agreed to.

Look for a company who offers 24/7 access to billing online. This will make your life easier in case you want to pay your bill at 3 am or need to update your information on the weekend.

* Storage Space

How much storage space do you really need? The majority of small business websites take less than 100 MB of storage space. If you have your website already designed, you can add up the file sizes of the files to see how much space it will take. Remember to consider that you need additional space for email storage and more files as your site grows.

* Bandwidth

Bandwidth is how much data transfer or traffic hits your website. You can get a rough idea of how much you'll need like this:

- Average page size of 5 kb plus 10 kb of graphics. - You expect 100 visitors per day. - Each visitor views 4 pages of your website.

15 kb total per page (5 kb + 10 kb) * 100 visitors * 4 pages * 30 days in a month = 180 MB of bandwidth per month

Find out what the procedure is if you go over your storage space limit or bandwidth limit. There should be an easy way to add more of either to your account for an additional fee.

* Basic Features

Here are some of the basic features to look for in a website host:

- An Online Control Panel (CPanel is a very popular control panel with extensive support documentation available, and includes Fantastico) so you can manage your site and email

- FTP Access to Upload Your Files

- Email Accounts and Email Forwarding Features

- Web based email system and POP mail available

- A Reliable Backup System (more on this below)

* Advanced Features

Depending on your needs, you might also look for the following features:

- Multiple Domain Names: Many hosts are setup to allow you to host multiple domains under one hosting package. You can either point additional domains to your main website, or you can set up additional websites at additional domain names. If you plan to purchase more than one domain name this feature can save you money since you won't have to purchase additional hosting packages for each domain.

- Secure Server: If you will be accepting payments online, you'll likely need a secured server (the exception being if you use a payment processor like PayPal). Most hosts offer what's called a "shared SSL certificate" at no additional charge. This works well for businesses just getting started. But be sure to also check if you can later upgrade to your own unique IP address with your own SSL certficate, and what the charges are for it. Expect to pay a few dollars more a month for a unique IP, and anywhere from $30 to $300 or more for an SSL certificate.

- MySQL Databases with phpMyAdmin access: If you plan to run an e-commerce shopping cart, newsletter, or forum on your site, you'll most likely need a host who supports these features.

- Mailing List Support: Are you able to run a mailing list from the hosting account? Is there a pre-installed or easy to install mailing list program available? What are the limits on outgoing email messages?

There are many other advanced features available than I can cover here. So just be sure that if you're planning to use some specific shopping cart or editing software (such as Front Page) that you verify it will work with the host you are considering.

* Backup Procedures

Industry standard is to make nightly backups. This way if a server or hard drive fails, or if you accidentally delete your entire website, your host can restore a recent copy. Do NOT host somewhere without nightly backups.

Better yet, look for a host that does nightly *off site* backups. This means the backups are not stored on the same server as your website. In the case of huge disaster, your site files are still safe.

Hardware failure is not a question of IF, it's a question of WHEN (all hardware will eventually fail). Is the host you're considering prepared for this event? See if the host you're considering offers RAID on their servers. RAID stands for "redundant array of independent disks." In a RAID 10 configuration, all files on the server are mirrored. This means there's a real-time second copy of everything. So if one drive crashes, no data is lost and it takes only minutes to get back online.

* Support Options

One of the most important things to research about a potential website host is their support system. What options do you have when you need help?

Look for self-help options like flash (video) tutorials that walk you through basic tasks like creating an email address, and for an online knowledgebase that you can search for help.

Check to see what type of support system they offer when you need to contact a tech for help. Do you send an email or is there a trouble-ticket system? A trouble-ticket system is a better option since it reduces the chances of lost email, and allows you to track responses online in case your email is down or blocking mail from reaching you.

Also look to see what the general response time is. You don't want to spend 48 hours waiting for a response from support if something goes wrong with your website. Send a test message through the hosts support system and see how quickly they reply.

Does the host offer an off-server emergency site? If your website is down, that means the company's server is down. If their website (and email, and support system) are hosted on the same server as yours, you won't be able to contact them when it matters.

* Customer Testimonials and Experience

New hosting companies pop up daily on the internet. Some are fantastic. Others aren't so fantastic. Look for a company with a verifiable track record. Take time to read the testimonials offered on their website (and find out how long those customers have been with the host). Or, better yet, if you've got a friend or colleague who's online, ask if they're happy with their host. Find out how quick and helpful support responses are, and whether they've had extensive down time or any other problems. A reliable host will have satisfied customers.

About the Author

Find Michelle Shaeffer online at The Small Business Muse where she shares weekly tips and strategies for small businesses in The Muses Brainstorm. Stop by The Muses Guide for inspirational guides to help your small business grow.