Once payment has been processed, you'll receive a confirmation email with details about your hosting package. Take some time to read this email carefully as it contains information on how to log on to your hosting account.

There are thousands of hosting companies out there. Search the web for a company with a good reputation and offers the kind of services you need. Friends may be able to recommend a reputable company. We recommend .

3. Get a web design company to do it for you. This is the most expensive option but you will end up with a more professional and stylish website, looking exactly the way you want it to look.

Now that you have chosen your domain name and have designed your website, you need to find a web hosting company.

Put simply, you buy an allocated space on a computer from a hosting company, then transfer the files of your website to this computer. Your website then becomes available to users around the world, and this enables them to browse your website, as well as download files and buy products and services from you.

If you own a business and wish to have a presence in cyberspace, then you need to consider buying a package from a web hosting company.

1. You can do it yourself. There are many website authoring software packages available on the market. Two popular packages are Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. With these programs, you can design and edit your web pages easily and see instantly how they will look to the users.

What Is Web Hosting

Many businesses, from one-man-bands to multi-national corporations, have a web-presence these days. i.e. They have a website telling their customers about their companies: what they do, where they're based, their company history, how they're different from their competitors, etc. Many of these businesses also sell products and/or services online.

2. Some companies offer an easy way for you to create your website by providing templates for you to choose from. With this type of service, all you have to do is choose a layout from a number of pre-defined templates, select some color, font and graphics options, enter some text, and you'll end up with a decent-looking website.

Next, select a web hosting package to suit your needs and sign up for an account. Usually you'll pay for the hosting service by credit card online. If you have not already registered your domain name elsewhere, you'll have the option to do so with your hosting company.

There are three ways to get your website designed:

Next you'll have to upload all the HTML pages, graphics and other files on to your web space. This can be done via the control panel on your website, or by using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program such as CuteFTP.

Now that your website is online, users from around the world will be able to view it, so make sure that the information it contains (such as your email address and telephone number) is up-to-date. This is particularly important if you will be using your website to sell products and services.

Getting a web host

First of all, you need to choose a domain name for your website. A domain name is simply an address for your website. Examples are www.microsoft.com and www.yahoo.com. Avoid choosing a domain name which is too long or too complicated for users to remember.

Domain Name

Design Your Website

At the same time, it is the dedicated hosting service provider, or web hosting service, that is responsible for maintaining the all of the hardware and the network connectivity. In most cases, this means that there are technicians available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to make sure that the web servers are always running.

Another advantage to using a dedicated hosting service is that the server can be built to the specifications of the company that owns and operates the website. At that point, it is dedicated only for the use of that company, and the company is able to completely manage and control the server remotely, in terms of system administration and application use.

With the way that the internet is growing and how important it is for a business to have a web presence these days, most people are aware of website hosting and why it is needed. For entrepreneurs and many small businesses, a shared web hosting service is usually sufficient and can keep hosting costs low. However, when an internet business reaches a certain level of traffic and size, a dedicated server is the best way to go for a website that is really taking off.

A dedicated server is simply a web hosting computer that is "dedicated" to one particular website or web business. When a server is "dedicated," it means that all of the computing resources of that server are solely allocated to one single client.

A dedicated server is also a viable alternative to purchasing a powerful and scalable server in-house, and any additional software that might be necessary. The outright purchase of such powerful dedicated servers can be very capital intensive and the expense can be extreme for fledgling companies, even if they are planning for significant growth and expansion. Instead, dedicated servers provided by dedicated hosting services offer an alternative that provides the computing power needed for a thriving website that is in demand, at a cost that is easier to handle.

In most instances, the dedicated hosting server is leased or purchased by the client who owns the website being hosted. Usually, these specialized servers are housed in a secure data center, which also provides extra services, such as environmental control, power backup systems, security and the needed connection to the internet.

The companies that provide dedicated hosting services have many clients; therefore, the cost of having the data center staffed around the clock is shared. It is much less expensive to have a dedicated server maintained by the hosting service than it is for a company, especially one that is relatively new, to have that same level of technical support for their web servers.

Hosting a Dedicated Server Brings Many Benefits