Posted on July 16th, 2010The internet represents the biggest business opportunity in history, making it possible to expand the outreach of your business to a global level, with minimal investments. Brick and mortar shops require a significant investment to buy or rent, while online business only require a web site and the right resources. Local shops can only target local customers, while a web site can target the entire world. Storefronts require daily maintenance, while web sites bring in traffic and sales 24 hours per day, even as the owner sleeps. With such obvious benefits it is not surprising that there are new online businesses born every day. The entire journey begins with purchasing the right hosting account.
Assessing Business Site Needs
The first step in selecting the right web hosting for your business site involves assessing the needs of the future business web site. What do you want your site to contain? If you are trying to sell hundreds of products, or host a plethora of videos, then you may need a comprehensive plan such as a VPS or eCommerce hosting plan, both of which include excessive server resources and extracurricular tools to aid in the construction and management of a business web site. If you are planning on building a portfolio site for your business, then a powerful web server will not be needed. In fact, there are some people that choose to host their business portfolios on free blogs. If you’re serious about the success of your portfolio site, then you’ll want a paid web hosting service such as shared hosting.
Business Oriented Web Hosting Types
Some web hosting companies offer advertising coupons such as Google Adwords and Facebook Advertising credits. Look for companies offering hosting plans that are specifically targeting a business audience. Reseller and eCommerce web hosting are both business oriented web hosting types. Reseller hosting gives you the ability to offer web hosting services to your online clients. If you are already in the online service industry this is the perfect kind of web hosting to have. Many people pay for their own hosting expenses by reselling server resources, while also making a hefty profit. Ecommerce web hosting is built for retail businesses that want to create online stores quickly and easily. With eCommerce hosting you’ll be given tools such as site builders, product catalog managers, shopping carts, and integrated payment processing capabilities.
Corporate Business Hosting
Large corporations need more powerful web servers that are capable of dealing with excessive traffic levels and thousands of files. Dedicated web hosting is the ultimate web hosting types, aside from owning a colocated dedicated server. Dedicated web hosting lets you lease a dedicated server for about $100 – $350 per month, depending upon the hosting provider and plan size. You can also buy your own web server for a few thousand dollars, and then have it safely stored and monitored in a colocation facility. Colocation facilities are state of the art datacenters that are the perfect environment for any web server.