The Best Web Hosting List

You may not know this, but there are other choices besides internet web hosting to host your website. Of course, there are ups and down to hosting your website from place to place, so here’s a brief rundown of some pros and cons for hosting your website at home vs hosting it with a reliable web hosting provider.

Hosting at Home

Yep, you can host your website from your home computer if you want to! You can do this by using your home computer’s system resources, your DSL or high-speed internet connection, and web space. Using Microsoft Word or other free products, you can design a simple website and put it online.

Pros: It’s nearly free! You only have to pay for your internet connection, home computer, and any web design products you’ll use to get online.

Cons: There are…a lot of cons to this, unfortunately. I’ll just list three of the biggies. 1) You can’t use your home computer for both hosting a website and as a computer, unless your computer is MASSIVE. It takes a lot of resources to run a website. 2) Your internet service provider likely won’t provide you with a dedicated or static IP address, which is necessary for good SEO (search engine optimization) and ecommerce web hosting. 3) There’s no support hotline, so if your hard drive melts, you see a blue screen with white text, or get corrupt files, will you know what to do?

Web Hosting from a Reliable Web Hosting Provider

You already knew this was possible, but it’s the most popular method for hosting your website.

Pros: You get technical support if you choose a provider from our Top 10 Web Hosting List. You also get a free domain name, unlimited emails, and you don’t have to worry about melting your hard drive, backing up files, or your internet connection. Web hosting companies have better internet connections anyway, one that will never or very rarely be down. You can also purchase dedicated or static IP addresses easily, so ecommerce and great SEO is never a problem.

Cons: It’s slightly more expensive, though if you run into trouble on your home computer, trust me, the cost will be tenfold more than what you’ll pay for reliable hosting service from our affordable hosting providers.

If you’re new to the wonderful world of web hosting or are just a bit less knowledgeable about domain names than the next guy, you may have made the mistake of registering your domain name at once place and buying hosting at another. Or maybe you just wanted to make sure you could purchase your domain name to hold it – either way, you now need to either transfer your domain name to your new web hosting provider or change your domain nameservers. This tutorial will help you do the latter.

1. Find Your Login Information

For some, this may be the toughest part! When you purchased your domain name, the domain registrar had to provide you with a username and password to manage that domain name. Find that email or call your domain registrar and ask them for the appropriate login information.

2. Find Your Web Hosting Name Servers

There are two ways to find what are called the “domain name servers”. The first way is by calling up your web host and asking them. The other way is by locating any welcome emails your web host may have sent when you purchased hosting. One of these emails should contain your nameservers. They will look something like this:

NS1.webhost.com
NS2.webhost.com

3. Login & Update

Use the login information in Step 1 to login to manage your domain name. Update the current nameservers to the ones you found in step 2 and submit any changes.

4. Wait 24-48 Hours

Domain names have to propagate, which just means not everyone can see your website until this is done. It normally takes around 24 hours.

And voila! You’re done! Your website and domain name will now resolve at the same location and your website will be visible 100% of the time!

Because of the many misconceptions about what “web hosting” really is, many web hosting customers accidentally purchase their domain names in one place and their web hosting in another, without realizing the best web hosts give domain names away for free when you purchase hosting with them. Take IX Web Hosting for example – they offer 2 free domain name registrations with every web hosting purchase. That way, you do not have to worry about paying for services you should get for free and you won’t have to worry about getting cheated on pricey domain registrations later on – as long as you stay with IX Web Hosting, your domain names are free!

But what if you already purchased your domain name from a domain registrar and now you’re looking to host that domain name with a reliable web hosting provider? Simple – you need to transfer your domain name or point your domain nameservers to your new web host.

If you just purchased your domain name within 60 days or it is up for renewal within the next 2 weeks, you can’t transfer it. So all you need to do is purchase a hosting plan with one of our Top 10 Web Hosts and update your domain nameservers to point to that web host. Does that sound confusing? Check out our tutorial on How To Change Your Nameservers for more assistance there.

If your domain name falls between 60 days old and 2 weeks to renewal, you just need to contact your best web hosting choice and ask them to transfer you. Sometimes, web hosts charge a small fee to transfer a domain name, but many of the best hosting providers will do it for free if you host with them.

Many people have asked us what it takes to actually build a website from start to finish: i.e. How long does it take and how much does it cost?

Building a website can be extremely easy and can take you less than a few hours if you plan the building of it ahead of time! Here are some tips and tricks for getting your website online in under 5 hours!

1) Write your content and get your images ready first.

Yep, before you sit down to purchase web hosting, domain name, and start building, come up with your text, save your images, and even get your videos, music, and other production tools ready in advance. Having these at hand will speed up the process of creating your website.

2) Choose your website builder or templates.

This may require doing a little research and you might need to compare web hosts in the process, but find out which content management system, website builder, or web design template you’re going to use to actually put your site online and make it look good. Our biggest recommendations go to:

* WordPress Web Hosting – For this, we would recommend IX Web Hosting, ThinkHost, or HostMonster. They can all help you get WordPress up and running with no programming or design experience required. Plus there a gazillion Free WordPress Theme sites you can choose your design from. Easy, easy, easy.

* Joomla Web Hosting – For this, we recommend IX Web Hosting, DreamHost, or BlueHost, all of which have Joomla tools that help you install and get started without having to know a thing about technology! Plus, sites like iJoomla.com offer Joomla Extensions and design tools that help you make Joomla work for you and look good to boot.

* Web Design Templates from DreamTemplate. These guys know website design, and their templates are super cheap. You only have to pay one-time and they can help you install them. These templares are compatible with all of our Top 10 Web Hosting providers.

3) Pick the Best Web Host and Build!

Once you log in, you can start building your website immediately. That means less time spent worrying.

Now for the best part – you can design, build, and host your website for under $100 per year. This is around $6.95 or LESS per month! That’s less than 25 cents/day. You really cannot lose with these easy website hosting deals.

You’ve bought the best web hosting plan you could find. You’ve registered your domain name and picked out a website template, added your site content, optimized your links and text and images, and even learned how to FTP in the process! Maybe you have even added an ecommerce storefront to help your customers purchase products with your company or you have begun blogging about your industry, customers, discounts, or philosophies.

Whatever you have done, none of it matters unless people know where to find your website. Period. This is why people spend a fortune on advertising (both online and offline) through SEO or search engine optimization practices.

But there’s one thing many professional SEO companies don’t want you to know – the simple fact is, you can advertise your website successfully yourself, without spending a dime. I’ll repeat that, as it’s extremely important – you can advertise and get your website noticed, for free! There are two ways:

1) Purchase Hosting From our Recommended Web Hosts

If you haven’t yet purchased hosting, we recommend the following web hosts to businesses, ecommerce ventures, or bloggers:

* IX Web Hosting
* ThinkHost
* Hostmonster
* StartLogic

These web hosts are considered the best web hosts in the world and are ranked highly in our Top 10 Web Hosting List as a guide to help you choose the best provider. We are telling you about them here because every single host mentioned offers a package of FREE online advertising credits! That’s right, 100% free advertising for your business. So sign up with any of these best web hosts and save big on SEO.

By advertising yourself, you will not only learn the best practices for your specific niche or industry but gain relevant experience in that industry. You are in charge and you don’t have to hire staff to assist you. You are the boss.

2) Use Google & Yahoo to Monetize Your Website

If you already have web hosting, you can simply signup with Google and/or Yahoo to advertising your website using what’s called Pay-Per-Click services: i.e. you only pay when a potential customer clicks on your advertisement. Plus, your ad shows up first in Google or Yahoo sponsored results, so you get better business and more of it!

A recommended budget is around $100-200/month for a small business or $200-1000 if you really want to drive those sales.

The good thing is, Google and Yahoo let you experiment, and there are multiple ways to advertise using their PPC (pay per click) technology.

We have already explained some basic web hosting terms in detail, but it’s time to get to the nitty-gritty web hosting terms that come up literally everywhere you look! This ought to make it easier to choose the best web hosting provider for your business or personal website.

Control Panel – This is what you use to manage all aspects of your website. For example, you will login to your control panel to update your website, install a blog like WordPress, or to create an email address.

Database – You will likely never use them (either consciously or unconsciously) but databases are places you can store things like product or customers lists, scripts, or where automatic installations install important features. For example, when installing Joomla, your web hosting control panel will install modules into databases. You don’t need to know this, but it helps make Joomla function.

Domain – Your website URL that you want visitors to type in to visit your website. For example, thebestwebhostinglist.com is our domain name here. Normally, you can get this registered for free with your web host.

FTP – FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and though it sounds technical it’s as easy to setup as downloading a file from your email! FTP Programs help you upload and download files, music, and videos from your webhosting account to your PC or vice versa.

GB – (gigabyte) Honestly, you don’t need to know what a ‘gigabyte’ is to enjoy your webhosting account and website. But a gigabyte (or GB) is a measuring increment. 1 GB is worth 100 MB (megabytes). Make sure you choose a web host who offers more than 5GB of storage space and more than 100GB of bandwidth. That’s all you’ll really need.

Money-Back Guarantee – Pretty self-explanatory, this is something every web host should offer. It’s a guarantee that, if you dislike their services, you can get a refund within a specified period of time. Most MBGs are 30, 60, or 90 days.

Subdomain – Yep, there are levels for domains. For example, thebestwebhostinglist.com is our primary domain. But ix-web-hosting-review.thebestwebhostinglist.com is our subdomain, devoted to explaining everything there is to know about IX Web Hosting. Using subdomains can help you build a new website without purchasing an entirely new domain name for it.

So, you’ve decided that your current web hosting provider just doesn’t cut it? Fly by night web hosting companies are all too common these days, which is part of the reason we created our Top 10 Web Hosting List, to guide you towards the best web hosting companies in the world. If you’re ready to move to new webhosting provider, we can help – here’s the best how to guide for moving from one web host to another.

Step 1: Purchase the Best Web Hosting

Take a look at our Top 10 Web Hosting List and choose the webhost that best suits your needs. We currently recommend IX Web Hosting, our most affordable and powerful web hosting company. Purchase a new account with IX Web Hosting for the best deal possible.

Step 2: Copy, Paste, & Upload

Copy all of your data (text content, videos, music, pictures, links, etc) from your old web hosting provider. DO NOT cancel your service with the old provider until you have done this or you will lose this information forever! You’ll need to upload the content using an FTP program or by logging in with your new host’s control panel. Once you have downloaded and copied and stored all your old information that you want to keep (including emails!), proceed to step 3.

Step 3: Verify & Review

Once all your content is uploaded, use a temporary URL (provided by your new web host) to view your website. If everything looks good, proceed to step 4.

Step 4: Change Your Domain NameServers

This is the part most people forget about or just don’t know they need to do, so pay close attention or your website will never be viewable online! You’ll need to find out who your domain name is registered with. Visit betterwhois.com and type in your domain name. Find where it states “domain registrar” and look up that company online – they are your domain registrar.

You may need to email this domain registrar to gain access to manage your domain name. You’ll need to ask them for your domain name username and password so you can change your nameservers. Or, you can always call your old web host to find this information.

Either way, just login and edit your nameservers (which look like NS1.yourwebhost.com and NS2.yourwebhost.com) to the new nameservers your new web host gives you. Your new webhost can give these to you over the phone as well, so if you lose them, no worries. Once you have updated the domain name servers, your domain name will propagate, which means it won’t be viewable as an online website for around 24 hours.

Step 5: Preview and Cancel

Preview your new website and make sure you have everything you need. Then, cancel your old web hosting account, and you’re set! Your site will be online in no time!

If you are a work-at-home mom, just starting your home business, or perhaps looking to extend the reach of a local business to a broader online community, small business web hosting is definitely the way to go. But what exactly does a small business website need that’s different from what normal webhosting customers require?

For one thing, technical support. If you are running a simple blog and it goes down for a couple minutes, it’s no big deal. But if you are operating a business online, every minute of downtime means the possibility you are losing sales, money, and customers. Don’t be fooled by “99.9% uptime” though – every web host says they have that. What you need is valuable, trustworthy, knowledgeable technical support available as close to 24/7 as possible. Remember, live chat is great, but live phone support is better and a decent ticketing or email system is best.

Another difference is storage space and bandwidth. While shared web hosting providers can make up high numbers, you really need a web hosting provider who can stand behind those numbers and back you up if you reach them. Choose the best web hosting you can to assure you can run shopping carts, multiple websites and pages, hundreds of emails, and more. Remember to choose the features you need most and worry about pricing second – most webhosts will be affordable these days.

Make 100% sure your webhosting provider has the following features or that you are able to purchase these features at an additional cost:

* Dedicated IP Address
* SSL Certificate
* Shopping Carts
* Blogs (WordPress)
* CMS (Joomla)
* Multiple Parked Domains (redirecting domains)

Small business webhosting can be tough, but with the best web hosting list guiding you every step of the way, you can make sure you are making the right decision.

Here are some more familiar webhosting terms you need to know as you look for the best web hosting providers. These are very important, and once you understand the terminology, you can purchase from anyone with confidence. This article will concentrate specifically on domain names and related terms that describe how your website is recognized online.

Dedicated IP: Also known as “dedicated IP address” or “secure IP address” and sometimes “personal IP address” as well. An IP itself is simply the numeric address where your website is located online. For example, when surfing to www.google.com, you are actually going to 714.65.87.1 or some similar set of numbers that identifies google.com from all other websites around. To simplify this for consumers, we have “domain names” (see below) which take the place of IP addresses. Dedicated IPs are useful for ecommerce web hosting and business websites, as they assure yours is the only domain associated with that IP address. Dedicated IPs normally cost a couple bucks extra per month.

Domain Name: Also known as website address, website URL, and probably others terms, though with web hosting, it’s more common to say “domain”, “domain name”, or “domain name registration”. A domain is just the address where you can find your website online – for example, www.thebestwebhostinglist.com is this website’s domain name. Domain names are normally offered free with any webhosting purchase.

Parked Domains: Also known as “redirecting domains”, “URL forwarding”, and “URL cloaking”. Parking a domain simply means you are redirecting it somewhere. For example, if you own website1.com and website1.net, you want all your traffic from website1.net to go to the .com address. Setting up website1.net as a parked domain, you can redirect it to website1.com. This should be no additional charge from any affordable webhost.

Private Domain Registration: Also known as “private WhoIs Registration” or “anonyous domain registration” . It’s known as private Whois Registration because Private Domain Registration hides your information from the Whois search engines. For example, if you visit whois.com and enter any domain name, you can find out who owns that domain and how to contact them. Adding private domain registration will either black out these fields or populate them with the web host’s information so you can’t be contacted. Adding private domain registration normally costs several extra dollars per year.

You’ve got the best web hosting. You’ve registered your domain name. You have even created email addresses, learned how to use the web host’s control panel, and have set up your first blog!

But what makes your website work? What makes it look good? What makes it do the things you need it to do?

In fact you’re wondering, how do I make my website work?

1) The first step is great web hosting. Choosing the best webhosting provider can be difficult, so take a look at our Top 10 Web Hosts for suggestions.

2) Find great website design. If you are working with WordPress Web Hosting, try finding free WordPress Themes. If you are working with a basic website, you’ll want to get reliable web design templates.

3) Learn scripting or hire a professional. If you want your website to do things, automate certain processes, or otherwise interact with your customers or audience, you’re going to need to learn coding like PHP and MySQL. There are many resources online to hire professionals also to help you out.