Choosing the right Web hosting plan for your online business

• Example Web hosting plans from MindSpring
• Example Web hosting plans from Verio
• Sizing your Web site

Before you decide on a Web hosting service, you should at least know what types of features you will need for your online business, like credit card processing, and what your domain name (www.yourbiz.com) is going to be. Additionally, you should have a rough idea of the size of your Web site, in terms of disk space, and how many visitors you can expect every month.

As you begin exploring different Web hosting plans, you should be aware that the main variables used to determine the monthly cost are disk space, Web site traffic, and optional features like Secure Server technology and multi-		Verio Web Hosting Services
media capabilities. For instance, in the 3 MindSpring plans shown below, the $80 difference in monthly cost between the QuickWeb and the CompleteWeb plans can be attributed to the additional disk space and Web site Traffic you get with the CompleteWeb plan.

Below you will see examples of the Web hosting plans provided by MindSpring and Verio. For the most part they offer a very similar set of features for comparable prices. Also, you should be aware that these are currently the two largest domain based Web hosting companies for small business.

Example Web hosting plans from MindSpring

Below is a table of the different types of Web hosting plans offered by MindSpring in March 1999. This is followed by corresponding descriptions for each of the different Web hosting plan features.

Monthly cost: Notice first that the monthly cost of service ranges from $19.95 to $99.95 per month. The most important variables in determining this cost are the size of the Web site you are planning to publish (Disk Space) and the amount of traffic you will be expecting (Web site Traffic).

Disk space: The size of your Web site will determine the amount of disk space that you will require on your Web host's server. If your site will contain mostly text and only a few graphic images then 5 - 15MB is ample space. On the other hand if your site will have a lot of graphics, then you should consider the 20MB or 50MB plans. Remember that a lot of graphics will slow the loading time down for your users.

Web site Traffic: Predicting the amount of traffic your online business will receive prior to publishing and marketing your Web site is practically impossible. Your level of traffic, or number of visitors, will in large part be determined by the amount of marketing and advertising you are planning to do.

POP E-mail: POP stands for Post Office Protocol, which was more fully described previously in Terminology section. POP E-mail accounts to receive email on your Web host's server, as opposed to your dial-up account. Email sent to the POP would stay there until you read it. For instance, you could set up email accounts for billing, sales, marketing, personnel, etc. on your Web host.

Domain Mail Forwarding: In addition to having email stored at the POP, you can have mail delivered to your dial-up account. Consider your dial-up account to be the place where email is delivered when you connect to the Internet. For example, the famous America Online "you've got mail" indicates that you have received email in your dial-up account. Once you establish a domain name (www.yourbiz.com), e-mail can be forwarded to your dial-up account when it is addressed to anyone@yourbiz.com

Technical Support: Indicates the times when you can call someone with questions about your Web site. For instance, 24 * 7 means 24 hours a day for 7 days a week.

Control Panel: This allows you to view the activity on your Web site, change email information, set-up auto-responders, and set passwords. This is a "must-have" for any Web master that wants to understand and control the activity on their Web site.

E-commerce Capable: This capability allows you to receive credit card payments over the Internet. Although a Web host can give you this capability, there are usually additional costs for providing this service. Some plans only allow you to securely obtain credit information on your Web site, but expect you to process the transaction offline with your credit card company. Other plans, usually more expensive, will take care of the whole transaction.

Custom CGI scripts: CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface and gives you the capability to control what happens with online forms on your Web site.

FrontPage Support: Indicates whether your Web host can publish Web sites created with Microsoft FrontPage. In order for a Web host to provide this capability, it must have some computers that are using the Microsoft NT operating system.

Secure Server (SSL): As the name implies, SSL allows you to connect to your Web host's server in a secure manner. That means that no one else can see what you are doing when you are uploading your Web, making control changes, or looking at reports. It also means that customers purchasing products and services with a credit card on your Web site can feel comfortable that no one is going to "steal" their credit card information.

Additional Disk Space: If the size of your Web site falls in between one of the standard plans offered by your Web hosting company, then you can purchase a little more disk space without having to pay the complete cost for the next larger plan. For instance, if you created a 25MB site, you might be better off going with the EnhancedWeb plan shown above for an additional $4.95 per month, than moving all the way up to the CompleteWeb plan for an additional $50 per month.

Additional Traffic: If your Web site gets more traffic (or hits) than you were expecting in a given month, then you will be charged an incremental fee by your Web hosting company. Some Web host's give you the capability to shut your site down once your traffic limit has been exceeded. This might not be a bad idea when you first begin to market your Web site. Although unlikely, a million visitors to even a small site can add up quickly with additional traffic charges.

Set-up Fee: Most Web hosts will charge you a fee to set up your Web hosting account. This covers the costs of mapping the disk space where your Web site will be stored, creating passwords, and initiating monthly billing.

InterNIC Fees: When you register your domain name (www.yourbiz.com) with your Web host , you will be charged the fee that the host has to pay to Network Solutions to list the site in their InterNIC database. Currently, the registration fee is $70 and is good for two years.

Example Web hosting plans from Verio

Below are example Web hosting plans from Verio that you can compare to the MindSpring Web hosting plans. Again you will note that the main difference in monthly cost can be attributed to disk space, Web site traffic, and additional features.

One thing that is not posted on the Verio page that describes these plans, is any additional costs for excess disk space or Web site Traffic. It is important that you determine what these costs are prior to publishing your Web site, since they can add up quickly on a highly trafficked Web site.

Sizing your Web site

Once you begin to seriously consider getting your business online, one of the first questions you will ask yourself is "how big is my Web site going to be?" The size of your Web site is important because it will determine the amount of disk space you will need, and how many hits you can sustain with your Web hosting plan. Unfortunately, other than making some informed guesses, there is no way to know how big your Web site is going to be until you publish it on the Web host's server.

Below is a table to help you get started in understanding how much disk space you will require to publish your Web site.

The size of individual pages within your Web site is also important because it will determine the amount of bandwidth that is used every time someone "hits" one of these pages. At MindSpring, "bandwidth is determined by the following formula:"

(number of hits per file) x (file size)

For example, if one of the pages in your Web site was 20KB, and your Web hosting plan allowed for 2,000MB of traffic or bandwidth every month, then you could accommodate 2,000,000 ¸ 200 = 100,000 hits every month. This assumes that only this page gets hit within your Web.