If your web hosting plan includes cPanel, then minimal knowledge of web management and design is all you will need. In the cPanel, the administrative area of your website, you will find a wonderful program called Fantastico. Within this program, Fantastisco offers you a whole assortment of ready-made scripts that will help you build a website in minutes. It will have the look and feel of a professional online business and will be complete with anything you require, from photo galleries, forums, video, interactivity, and much more.

Of course, if your business requires a truly professional look, there's nothing better than a unique design for your website, to fit with the image of your business. And even if you do use some of Fantastico's scripts, a web designer will help you to design around the ready-made scripts, namely in selecting colours, fonts, images, and general layout. The is my recommendation for your web design needs. is another specialist in unique web designs.

So, first is your hosting company. There are millions out there and choosing the right one may seem rather daunting for the novice. Plans, in general, don't differ from one another. So, your choice must really be based on customer service and feedback from other users.

Before you select a web host, you must have a clear picture of how you intend to set up shop online before you select a web hosting package. Will you be setting up an online store? Will you have a support forum? Will your business be based on an online database?

All of the above will need a more robust web hosting plan. During the start-up period, you will rarely use up a quarter of the monthly bandwidth made available to you, but this can change. And its not just bandwidth that you must look at.

If your online business requires an online database, it will need storage space and protection. Have a good look at each web hosting plan before committing to one.

What software does your hosting plan support? Does your web hosting plan support Windows and Linux? A lot of php-based scripts require .htaccess or mod_rewrite. Are these supported? Yahoo web hosting plans, for example, do not allow you to upload .htaccess files to their servers. Keep this in mind.

And how does the control panel work? cPanel or WHM are the two most common and are quite easy to get a grip of. The Yahoo Web Hosting panel is unique. Its not as simple to use, but after a few rounds, you'll get the jist of how it all works.

What scripts does your plan include? In most plans, pre-installed scripts like Fantastico give you the ability to set up a blog, a forum, a shopping site, a photo album or a fully-equipped site making use of Joomla, for example, at the click of a button. Time is money. And if the scripts you need are at your disposal, you'll be in business that much faster.

Probably the most important aspect to look at is the quality of technical support. Most have an email. But you should have a 24/7 phone line at your disposal. Its not easy to make an assessment of a web host's support quality. But its imperative. If a support forum is available, read what others say about the web host. If not, the best way is to visit other forums that attract webmasters. Digital Point, Sitepoint or V7 are only 3 forums where you can chat with other webmasters about all aspects related to online business. You can ask about a specific web host. Feedback from others is extremely valuable.

Depending on how you intend to expand your business, you may need to look at a web hosting plan that gives you the chance to set up multiple domains under one account.

Additional bonuses may also help you get your business off the ground. For example, there are many web hosting providers who offer you credit to advertise in Google AdWords.

For a large online business, the fine print must be read and read again. Your bandwidth is everything. It can be costly to pay for extra space each month. A heavy site needs to consider the uptime of your servers and the location of your server is also an important factor.

Is there support for PHP, Perl, ASP, MSSQL, and MySQL? Will you have free access to a secure server for order processing?

You may need to consider a dedicated server. This means you don't share your server and resources are much more ample and refined. SSL certificates may be included in your package, as well as quality statistics. Plus, a good dedicated server plan guarantees you 24/7 monitoring.

And what if you decide to transfer to another web host? Read the fine print. Dedicated server plans generally require you to complete a specific amount of time before they let you get away to another web host.

Whether you want to start a personal blog, an online business general site or a multi-functional website for your enterprise, the perfect web host does not exist for you. A good web host must comply with the big 3 :

- Excellent technical support.

- At least 99.9% uptime. I'd say 99.8% is the minimum.

- 30-Day Money Back Guarantee.

Unfortunately, until you run into problems, it can be difficult to differentiate the good hosts from the bad hosts.

So here are a few of my recommendations - If you are based in India, I can recommend . In South America, there's , and is another good recommendation for you.

But good web-management is not all up to the web host. You must do your part too since you are the one uploading material to your site. A good anti-virus program is essential to keep your computer clean and sound, which will make sure you are not uploading potentially damaging files to your site. provides information and the software you need.

A regular backup of your site's files is imperative. You are responsible for your own online business. Don't depend solely on the web host, because, although most provide a backup service s part of your web hosting plan, which allow you to retrieve lost files in certain circumstances, web hosts are vulnerable too. Their servers can suffer damage, and with no previous warning, your site may disappear. If you run into trouble, such as damaged files, then is likely to be able to help you, while will help you deal with email problems, such as accidental loss of emails, contacts and notes.

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