Many businesses, from one-man-bands to multi-national corporations, have a web-presence these days. i.e. They have a website telling their customers about their companies: what they do, where they're based, their company history, how they're different from their competitors, etc. Many of these businesses also sell products and/or services online.

If you own a business and wish to have a presence in cyberspace, then you need to consider buying a package from a web hosting company.

Web hosting refers to the process of renting computer space and bandwidth (data transfer capacity) from a company so that you can make your website visible to the outside world.

Put simply, you buy an allocated space on a computer from a hosting company, then transfer the files of your website to this computer. Your website then becomes available to users around the world, and this enables them to browse your website, as well as download files and buy products and services from you.

Domain Name

First of all, you need to choose a domain name for your website. A domain name is simply an address for your website. Examples are www.microsoft.com and www.yahoo.com. Avoid choosing a domain name which is too long or too complicated for users to remember.

Design Your Website

There are three ways to get your website designed:

1. You can do it yourself. There are many website authoring software packages available on the market. Two popular packages are Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. With these programs, you can design and edit your web pages easily and see instantly how they will look to the users.

2. Some companies offer an easy way for you to create your website by providing templates for you to choose from. With this type of service, all you have to do is choose a layout from a number of pre-defined templates, select some color, font and graphics options, enter some text, and you'll end up with a decent-looking website.

3. Get a web design company to do it for you. This is the most expensive option but you will end up with a more professional and stylish website, looking exactly the way you want it to look.

Getting a web host

Now that you have chosen your domain name and have designed your website, you need to find a web hosting company.

There are thousands of hosting companies out there. Search the web for a company with a good reputation and offers the kind of services you need. Friends may be able to recommend a reputable company. We recommend .

Next, select a web hosting package to suit your needs and sign up for an account. Usually you'll pay for the hosting service by credit card online. If you have not already registered your domain name elsewhere, you'll have the option to do so with your hosting company.

Once payment has been processed, you'll receive a confirmation email with details about your hosting package. Take some time to read this email carefully as it contains information on how to log on to your hosting account.

Next you'll have to upload all the HTML pages, graphics and other files on to your web space. This can be done via the control panel on your website, or by using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program such as CuteFTP.

Now that your website is online, users from around the world will be able to view it, so make sure that the information it contains (such as your email address and telephone number) is up-to-date. This is particularly important if you will be using your website to sell products and services.

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Apache
Free and open source web server software - and probably the most commonly used web server software. The web server software is what allows the web server to accept and respond to requests for web pages from users.

Backups
A backup system automatically makes copies of the files that make up a website as well as other important files, with the goal of allowing a quick recovery in case of a loss of data whether through a security problem or some sort of hardware/software failure. There's a lot of variance in what sort of backups that web hosts offer - from none at all to nightly or even more regular backups. Generally there's a cycle that allows for a range of files from different dates to be available.

Bandwidth
"Bandwidth" is typically used to refer to the amount of data transfer allowed in one month under a web hosting plan. This is usually measured in gigabytes. Whenever a visitor accesses your website, at least one (and usually lots more) files will be transferred from the web server to the visitor's computer. Generally the web host has a limit on the total allowed size of the files transferred - and excess usage is charged at some predefined rate.

Control Panel
A "control panel" is a web-based system that allows a user to more easily control their web hosting account, allowing things such as setting up email accounts, adding databases, changing apache settings, etc. There's a wide variety of control panel software, and often the functionality will vary based on what the web host allows their customers to do with their site.

Colocation
Colocation or "equipment colocation" allows a company or organization to place their equipment in a web hosts data center, essentially renting space, power, bandwidth etc - but not renting an actual server. This allows the company to use their own custom equipment, but take advantage of the benefits of the web host's data center (reliability, security, 24/7 staffing, etc).

Dedicated Hosting
When a single client has their own web server dedicated to their sole use, it is dedicated hosting.

Dedicated Server
A web server that is dedicated to the use of a single customer.

Disk Space
This is the amount of space allocated to the customer's use under a web hosting plan. Typically measured in megabytes or gigabytes (one gigabyte is about one thousand megabytes).

DNS
"Domain Name Service" - this is the network of servers that allow the user's browser to translate a domain name into an IP address which it can use to contact the web server that hosts the site at that domain. Some hosts allow users control over their own DNS servers, which allows for a greater level of control over their domains and subdomains.

Domain Name
A domain name is actually an alias to an IP address. Every web server will have at least one IP address that visitors use to visit the website(s) hosted on that machine. The domain name acts as a more easily remembered "name" for that IP address, and the translation from domain name to IP address is handled behind the scenes.

FTP
Stands for "File Transfer Protocol" - a common way to exchange files between two computers over the Internet. It is probably the most commonly used method to upload or download files from a web server.

IMAP
IMAP is an email protocol that allows users to receive using an IMAP email client. The biggest difference between POP and IMAP is that with IMAP all email, folders, etc are stored on the server, rather than on the client's local computer.

IP Address
A numeric address on the Internet. Every web server will have at least one IP address. In some ways they're analogous to a phone number - to call another phone, you need it's phone number.

LAMP
Stands for commonly used set of web software: Linux (operating system), Apache (web server software), MySQL (database software), PHP (scripting language). Variants include MAMP (Macintosh operating system) and WAMP (Windows operating system).

MySQL
MySQL is a popular free and open source database application, commonly used on linux-based web servers. It allows web applications to store and manipulate data, and is used by a very wide range of free web-based applications such as WordPress and Joomla.

PHP
PHP is a very commonly used programming language used to build websites. It is arguable the most popular such language used today, and has a huge amount of free software available for it.

POP
POP is an email protocol that allows users to receive email using a POP mail client such as Outlook.

Reseller
A reseller is someone who purchases a hosting plan with the intention of "splitting" it into smaller web hosting plans and reselling them. Web hosts often create special plans for these kinds of customers, giving the plans tools to help manage multiple sub-accounts, more disk space, etc.

Shared Hosting
"Shared Hosting" is one of the more common forms of web hosting, in which many customers "share" the resources of a single server - and also sharing the cost of the server, making it more affordable than other kinds of web hosting. Generally if a web host doesn't specify what kind of hosting they're offering, it's probably shared hosting.

SSH
Stands for "Secure Shell" - a network protocol that allows a secure console-based connection to a remote machine. SSH allows a user to login to a machine and use the command-line to execute commands. It is typically used for web development and server administration.

SSL
"Secure Socket Layer" - a protocol that allows end-to-end encryption of traffic between a user's browser and a web server. Critical if a website plans to do anything that involves information that should be kept private, such as ecommerce.

VPS (Virtual Private Server)
Special software can be used to allow a single server to host multiple "virtual" servers. Each virtual server is totally independent of the others, and is essentially a dedicated server. This provides more reliability, isolation, and flexibility than a standard shared hosting account, but is still usually cheaper than a "real" dedicated server.

Web Server
A web server is a computer that is set up to accept and respond to request for web pages that remote users make using their web browsers.

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Internet marketing has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years and the ongoing competition for increased web site traffic amongst online business owners has increased too. Serious marketers who thrive on the subtleties of this so-called battle are constantly seeking to gain advantages with every strategy and every tool at their disposal. An often overlooked aspect of internet marketing stems from one of the initial steps that is needed for online success - web hosting. There are many web hosting companies that offer great deals on various packages and there are some web hosting ventures that may raise some concern. With an appropriate amount of research, finding the right hosting plan for your online business is quite simple and can bring a sense of assurance that the correct choice was made.

There are several elements of a web hosting plan that should be considered and enlisting the services of a reliable host that can provide these tools should come with certain guarantees.

The first consideration for a web hosting plan should be is how much bandwidth is allotted and are there several plans in place for incremental increases. Most service plans allow between twenty-five megabytes and two gigabytes of storage space and transfer. Obviously, the higher the number, the higher the charge will be. However, some service agreements recognize the desire for higher bandwidth and will, on occasion, offer special deals with any increases to storage needs. If you plan to buy targeted traffic and develop additional methods in order to propel massive amounts of visitors to your site, then a service agreement with the highest bandwidth possible is the surest strategy.

Creating a strategy that brings guaranteed web site traffic to your online business requires the use of a professional web hosting service. Having reasonable technical support should come with a top tier service and most hosting companies offer a twenty-four hour, seven days a week plan. A telephone hotline and email is usually provided too. Technical assistants should be readily available and any issues should be resolved within a sensible time frame.

Web hosting services are obviously needed and online business owners must choose the company that is best for their needs. The hosting service must meet the demands of increased web site traffic, bandwidth usage, storage needs, and provide reasonable technical support. In an upcoming article, we will explore additional web hosting issues.

About the author: Brad Farmer is a charter member of IMInsider. For more information on how to generate increased web site traffic, visit IMInsider where you'll find step-by-step video training for anyone interested in starting or growing an online business.