Ready to have a web site? There are choices to make when one wants a web site. The best choice is one that most easily matches your needs, skills, and budget for marketing and publicity. Consider your needs next to
what the company offers. The kind of domain name you want helps determine the type of hosting company you need. In this article, we discuss domain name and hosting company choices.

The first decision is the kind of domain name you want. Do you want www.isp.com/~username or www.danclay.com or www.subname.name.com. The first site listed is called a non-virtual domain. For the purposes of this article, the second listing will be called is a domain and the third a subdomain name.

Non-virtual web sites are sometimes a person's first entry into the web site business. This is the kind of name frequently received from your local ISP or a free web site company. Disadvantages include less web site space, fewer email addresses, no autoresponders, higher costs for additional services and traffic, and no search engines indexing.

Subdomains like www.subname.name.com are a better choices than non-virtual sites. For example, keywords can be used in your subdomain. This is good for online marketing. Some hosting companies offer subdomains when the customer needs a small site, doesn't know html, and is just starting out.

Your best choice for marketing online is a domain such as www.name.com. Search engines and other marketing techniques are more easily accomplished with such domain names. These names are more easily
remembered by customers and less likely to be misspelled or typed incorrectly. Misspelled domain names mean lost customers. Your best choice is a
domain name like www.mybook.com or www.myname.net.

There are many companies on the Internet that can host your web site. Here are three we and our customers use. Each has different levels of options and services and require different skills. No matter why you want to be online, one of these should work
for you.

Third Sphere (A popular company to buy domain names and host sites. Great for small home, small business, or larger sites.  )

Turnkey Internet (If you have multiple sites and want to pay one monthly fee this company is a great choice. High quality customer service.)

Before choosing your hosting company consider what is offered and at what price. Can you pay monthly? What would the services be worth if bought separately? What are the limitations, if any? How much time does it take to create the site? Is it easy to update? If you start to get lots of traffic, do you have to pay more?

With the choices available today, no one need be without a web site. Decide where you want to start, and get started.

Web Site Hosting