THE PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED SELECTING A

THE PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED SELECTING A

QUALITY WEB HOST

By Shelley Lowery

"The page cannot be displayed." Have you ever encountered

this message while surfing the net? Of course you have. We

all have. Think it can't happen to you? Think again. If

you're hosting your business on one of the free hosting

services, you're literally placing your entire business

in the hands of a complete stranger.

Free hosting services don't need to have a reason to shut

your site down. You may get up one morning, try to access

your site and instead of your site loading, this message

will appear, "The page cannot be displayed." There goes

all of your hard work, your web site, your traffic, your

search engine positioning, your customers, all gone.

Free hosting services aren't interested in your business

or how hard you've worked to design your web site and

create a steady stream of traffic. Their main concern is

their business. That's why they're doing it. They display

banner ads on every site they host. Pop up ads are not

only irritating, but they make your site appear to be

unprofessional. In addition, many Search Engines will not

allow free host URLs to be listed.

If you're serious about your business and you have a

sincere desire to succeed, having your own domain name is

a must. It's not a luxury; it's a necessity. Businesses

using the free services are not taken seriously. Having

your own domain name is just as important if not more

important than a professional looking web site. They go

hand-in-hand.

The cost to register your Domain name is only $60 for the

first two years. Very reasonable and well worth every

penny. Domain names are going fast, so if you have one in

mind, you'd better register it now before someone else

does. You can register your domain through Virtualis right

online, with no monthly fees, even if you're not ready to

order a server. http://www.virtualis.com/vr/slowery/

-> Selecting Your Web Page Host <-

When selecting a professional web host your first

consideration should be the company. Check out their

background. Talk to some of their customers and ask

them if they've been satisfied with their service.

- How many customers do they serve?

- What is their uptime percentage?

- Do they require you to make payments in advance?

- Do they charge set up fees?

- How is their customer support? Test them.

- Do they offer fast connections?

- Do they offer shopping cart software to process your orders?

- Can you upgrade free of charge?

Web hosting prices vary greatly. When selecting your

host, make sure you're getting exactly what you're

paying for. Keep in mind, a lower monthly rate will

not benefit you if your site is down a lot, slow, or

customer service is poor.

-> Criteria for selecting a host <-

Selecting a professional web host is a very important

decision. Make sure you do your homework and insure

the host you select offers exactly what you need.

- Your own domain name (www.yourname.com)

- Your own True POP email account - name@yourdomain.com

- Fast, low overhead, Multi-T3 access

- Your own unrestricted cgi-bin

- Access to SSL Encryption for secure transactions

- Java, C, C++, Tcl support

- Autoresponders

- htaccess Password Protection for your files or directories

- At least 1 GIGABYTE (1024 MB) of Daily Transfer

- Design (and upload to) your site using Netscape or other HTML

editing software

- Microsoft Frontpage (98) Server Extensions for those utilizing

Frontpage

- Unlimited free access to your server via Telnet/FTP

- Online invoices, account tracking, and payment history to enable you

to check your account balance, monthly invoices, past payments, etc.

- Complete daily server backup

- Easy access to your log files

- Statistics on visits to your site

Free web hosts are great for hosting a personal web site,

but not recommended for a business site. If you're really

serious about your business and want to establish your

Internet presence, I highly recommend Virtualis. Their

tech support is the best I've seen.

http://www.virtualis.com/vr/slowery

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About the Author

Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web Source - Your Guide to

Professional Website Design and Development. Join The Syndicator,

our new, free article syndication program and display complete

articles w/photographs on your website that are automatically updated

each week. http://www.web-source.net

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