Hosting Your Site

I see dozens of appeals for help from beginning Web developers that go something like this: "My site is on such-and-such a free Web space service, and I'm trying to do (e-commerce, streaming media, banner ads, Java, or some other "fancy" stuff), but I just can't get it to work! How do I get this to work? The answer is always the same: Get off the "free" hosting service and start paying for a proper virtual server account. Check out Web Hosting List, a definitive directory of thousands of web hosts. Find personal web site hosting, business and colocation facilities and dedicated hosting services.

For personal pages, or non-profit organizations with tight budgets, free hosting services are wonderful. But if your site exists to make money, free hosting will not do, for two reasons. First, these outfits don't offer free hosting as a public service - they're out to make money, too. They do so by tacking ads onto the free sites, or by some other indirect way of generating cash. The hosting services they offer are bare-bones, basic stuff, and they're not really interested in letting you do revenue-generating things like running ads or taking credit card orders.

The second reason that commercial Web sites don't use free hosting services is simply credibility. Would you go to a coffee shop that served coffee in free promotional coffee cups that they collected from trade shows? Or have your car fixed with parts that the mechanic found lying by the side of the road? Credibility is critical for online commerce, whether you're selling products or selling ads. You need your own domain name and your own site, or you simply won't be taken seriously.

Obviously, ISPs vary quite a lot in the services that they offer. If your site is merely providing information, you don't need much from your hosting service - just disk space and bandwidth. If you want to run ads, you'll need to make sure that the server software is compatible with whatever ad management system you want to use. In my (now outdated, but still a good basic overview) article on ad management software, I noted that compatibility is a big problem. These packages run only on certain operating systems and with certain server software.

If e-commerce is your goal, you'll need an ISP that knows how to handle secure certificates and encryption. Of course, all ISPs will claim that they "wrote the book" on e-commerce, but in fact their experience varies widely. E-commerce sites are the most demanding types of sites for an ISP. They require high dependability and trouble-free implementation of credit card and security systems. Choose an ISP for your e-commerce site very carefully - if possible, speak to one or two of their existing customers to see how satisfied they are with the uptime performance.

As readers of our various e-commerce articles know, getting all the components set up to take orders and accept credit cards can be a complex process. Many ISPs offer all-in-one e-commerce solutions, and many small retailers find them to be attractive deals. Naturally, you'll pay a lot more for package deals of this kind. It's up to you to decide whether the convenience is worth the added cost.

Let your business model be your guide
Let your business model be your guide
Designing Your Pages