Web Hosting How to

It can be a little confusing to choose a web hosting plan with so many options to choose from. Add on the various technical details and one can feel lost in trying to make sense out of them.

In this article we will focus on the most important parts of a web hosting plan so that we can make an informed decision about which plan to choose for our sites.

Plan Details
So what exactly does a typical web hosting plan contain?

* Disk Space - This defines the amount of data (html pages, images, other files) that you can store on the server for your site. Hosting plans usually allow 10GB and more space for a site. Some hosting companies may also give unlimited space. Even 10 GB would allow you to have almost 1 million pages in your site.
* Monthly Data Transfer - This accounts for the bandwidth that your site consumes. This would basically take into account the number and size of the pages that the visitors of your site view. Web hosting plans offer 300 GB or more data transfer limits. This should suffice for most small business web sites.
* Domains - Some companies also offer one free domain registration with a hosting plan. A Domain is basically the name by which a user will browse and come to your site. For example www.mysite.com. If the hosting plan does not cover this, then you will have to register one yourself. It will cost around $7 - $10 for a one year registration.
* Sub Domains - Sub Domains are used to create separate sections in a site that have a different functionality. E.G. yahoo.com is domain, and mail.yahoo.com, games.yahoo.com are sub domains. You may create separate sections in your site for a blog, forum, or a wiki. A sub domain can be used for these purposes.
* Sub folder - A sub folder, as the name suggests, is a folder in your site. So if your site is www.mysite.com, then www.mysite.com/content and www.mysite.com/css are sub folders in it. They are used to manage the files in your site so that similar ones can be grouped together. It’s entirely in your hands how many sub folders you want to create in your site.
* Auto-Responder - Auto-Responders are used for email marketing. You can write and store email messages which would go out to your mailing list at pre-determined intervals. This is a great marketing strategy as it allows you to have multiple contacts with your prospective customers. The simple Auto-Responder that is clubbed with a hosting plan is not good enough for these purposes. A more professional one would be required here, like Aweber or Get Response.
* Database - You would need to create a Database for your site if it contains any pages or functionality apart from static html pages. That would include adding a forum or a blog to the site. The minimum number of Databases that hosting plans allow for is usually 10. If you want to create more, you would need to upgrade your hosting plan.
* Add-on Applications - These are scripts that you can add to your site for certain functionalities. Like an e-commerce script, or a script to add a forum. Many such scripts are bundled together with a web hosting plan. However, many open source versions for these scripts are available freely, so you need not worry about these when choosing your web host.

Finally, when you are deciding on your hosting plan, the main points to focus on are the disk space, bandwidth and the support for sub domains and databases. Rest, you can find separate softwares for easily enough.

Also do not forget to take the reputation of the hosting company into consideration. You do not want to host your site on a fly by night operator and wake up one fine day to see that your host is gone with all the pages of your site. Go with an established and trusted company only.