What is Web Hosting?

What is web hosting to you if you intend to use Internet marketing as a means of income?

If you are reading web content titled what is web hosting, it is unlikely that you require anything more complex than shared web hosting to enable you to start up your own website.

What is the importance of a website, in fact, when many people seem to do perfectly well without their own, and instead use a site provided free by the company providing the product that they are promoting?

The answer to the second of these questions is that websites provided free so that you can promote a specific product are not your websites. They are merely sales platforms for the product concerned. You cannot change the design, and do not have authority to edit the HTML and change the way that the site works, or to add your own personal hyperlinks.

In order to be truly successful with your Internet marketing strategies, you must have your own website. Let's agree on that now, because there are very few people that consistently make money in Internet marketing without a website that they own.

Some can make some money with programs that provide a functional website to promote it, but investigation will likely find that they are not websites at all, but merely subdomains or even simple web pages of a much larger website that is under the total control of the owners of the programs.

Having established that, your first step is to find a web host. Web hosting is the provision of the space on the World Wide Web that will hold your website, and also to provide the web services needed for you to generate and maintain your site.

There are a few different types of web hosting packaging, and you should be aware of what these are before you decide on the web hosting company that you will be totally reliant on for the success of your Internet marketing strategy.

Shared hosting is the most common type of web hosting, where many other customers use the same web host as you. The server on which your web content is stored, and the equipment needed by the server, belongs to your web host company.

Shared web hosting is considerably cheaper than any other type, though you might be limited on the types of script or software that you can run. That depends upon your choice of server though, and there are many available where there are very few restrictions.

Most Internet marketers use shared hosting, at least until they have made their first few hundred grand. Then they might upgrade to a dedicated hosting package where they are paying for the whole server and can run more than one website on it.

There is a downside to dedicated hosting, however. The web host of a dedicated server looks after the hosting, and nothing else. Debugging and other problem solving is the responsibility of the customer. There is no Support Line!

Dedicated hosting provides you with the fastest possible Internet connectivity with disk space for storage and memory customized to your needs. You get the bandwidth you need, but you do not get anything in the way of software to help you operate your website unless that is negotiated in the package.

You can also purchase a semi managed or root-serving hosting package that offers you flexibility in your choice of operations system and hardware to suit your particular requirements. The hardware and the installation in a semi managed system are provided by the host, but you take care of the software upgrades and backups needed.

A reseller hosting package is designed for businesses that want to provide web hosting to others. They pay the original web host, and then resell web space under their own company name.

It is through reseller web hosting that most of the web hosts advertising online are able to offer their service. This is the best option for you if you want to sell web hosting services yourself, though it is not for the amateur. This option is for people familiar with the problems that can occur and are able to provide the support needed.

If you are reading web content titled what is web hosting, it is unlikely that you require anything more complex than shared web hosting to enable you to start up your own website.

Your web host will provide you with the web space, and the software needed to run it. You will need to purchase a domain name to use for your hosted space, also called your 'domain'. You will register this domain name (i.e. your website name) with a Domain Name System (DNS) and point it to your web host by use of the DNS information they provide to you.

Once this has been resolved world wide, you will then be able to construct your website on your domain, or web space, provided on a hard disk server by the web hosting company.

Tip: Never register your domain name with a web hosting company. It is always best to register your domain with a reputable Domain Name registration service. This way there are no complications if you ever want to change your web hosting company.

What is web hosting to you is that it is the means by which you have space on the World Wide Web to install your website, and publicize it throughout the web by means of the communication network of the internet.