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.


-> 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 ensure
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 Host4Profit. They
provide you with exactly what you need to develop a
profitable Internet business at a very reasonable price.
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=h4p

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of Web Design Mastery - An in-
depth guide to professional web design. And, Ebook Starter -
A complete ebook design kit. Visit Web-Source.net to sign up
for a free subscription to Etips and receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies." http://www.web-source.net