You have designed a good web site which represents your business well. Now what? The next step would be to get it a space on the Internet. How do you get your web site on the Internet? The process of getting your web site on the Internet and one of the most important aspects of starting a home based business is called "web hosting". There are five very important aspects of web hosting which you should look into when you decide the web host for your web site. The aspects that will be mostly affecting your starting a home based business are described below:



1. Check the disk space offered: When starting a home based business, you will need adequate disk space to run your website. What you should seek is about 20 Mb maximum. You may get offers for much more, but while more will not harm you - you will not need it either so you should not bother too much if you get more.

2. Check the bandwidth: Your starting a home based business will be dependent on the traffic you will be able to generate. Much as you will compare people visiting a shop to see the wares the shop sells. And your capacity for accepting many visitors is directly dependent upon the bandwidth the web host provides you. What you need while starting a home based business is about 500 Mb to 1 Gb. Anything less and you will not be able to support sufficient traffic for your business - making you loose on business and popularity.

3. Check the server uptime: For any business to stay successful, it needs to be accessible. Much like having your shop open round the clock, server uptime will decide how long your website will be available for surfers. If your website does not open when a surfer checks it out, they will definitely move on to another site - and hence you loose precious traffic. This can kill you when starting a home based business. You should ensure that your web host offers you a 99.8 per cent server though some web hosts offer between 99.5 - 99.8 per cent. Anything less than 99.5 percent is unacceptable. And remember there is NO 100 per cent server uptime - if you are assured this, reject the web host as they are not honest.

4. Check the available technical support to your website: It is extremely important not only to have a good technical support, but also a very prompt one. There will be many times during the starting a home based business when you experience technical problems. If these are not tackled and solved immediately, your website will be history. Customers do not have time with problematic websites - they will not wait for you, but move on and you will loose precious leads and business. Technical support should not only be prompt, it should work round the clock, round the year.

5. Check a price around: Nowadays you can get web hosting done for a very reasonable price, and it is good to find a good bargain. However, a good bargain is not "cheap". Calculate briefly how much would it cost to have a good server (without interruptions), and you should aim at around that much. If you settle for too cheap, you are more likely to get inferior services. Too low is not good news when starting a home based business, or any other business for that matter. It shows cutting of corners somewhere, which is not good.

Keep these points in mind when fishing for a good web host and you will be able to choose better.