After you’ve purchased your Domain name, you will need to sign up with a Web Hosting company on which to build your web site. The good news is that there are literally thousands of Web Hosting companies out there. The bad news is that anybody (including the ten year old across the street) can sell Web Hosting services.

While cost is certainly an important component of your decison, as a Minipreneur one of the most important features is Customer Service. Unless you are an expert with hosting and site development, you will absolutely need to utilize your web hosting company’s customer service at some point. Paying $10 or $50 (or however much) more per year for a web hosting company that provides great customer service is well worth the money.

If you are an expert IT/website kind of person, you can absolutely host the site on your own computer, but you will then spend more time managing hardware, fending of hackers and updating technolgy than you will be spending running your business. Managing your own web hosting functionality is NOT recommended for Minipreneurs, unless of course that IS your business.

You will need to determine which one Web Host provides the exact services that best fit your needs at the best price available.

If your plan is to build a normal informational business website, you can generally get by with the most basic package. Unless you plan on building a few hundred sites, or reselling hosting services, or your site is so popular that the server bogs down, you do NOT need a Virtual Server, or a Dedicated Server or Reseller hosting.

Listed below are some of the questions you should ask of any prospective hosting company:

Are there any Startup fees or transfer fees?
How much Disk Space do you get
How much Bandwidth are you limited to
What kind of security do they provide against Hackers
How many email accounts do you get
How many Subdomain or add on domains are permitted
What operating system are they using
Can you use your own Domain name
How many MySql databases can you have
What are their Customer Support hours
What is the typical turnaround time for Customer Support
What CMS tools can be installed (Drupal, WordPress, Joomla)
What CMS tools is their Support staff experienced with
Can you access your site files via FTP
Do they support PHP scripting
Do they offer Cpanel access
What is their guaranteed Up time
Do they have “one Click Installation” (Fantastico) for easy installation
What is the time-frame for a Money Back Guarantee on their Hosting service

We encourage you to do your own homework when selecting a Web Host, because what works for some businesses does not necessarily work for others. However, with all that being said, our preferred web hosting company is Site5. We have used them for several years and have had great luck with installations, transfers, Uptime and most importantly Customer Service.