Darren Rowse has given us pretty good reasons to buy a personal domain name. He says:

Having your own domain name is desirable for many bloggers for numerous reasons. For a start if you’re wanting to build credibility and a sense of professionalism around your blog a domain that reflects this can help. Similarly a carefully selected domain name has the ability to enhance the branding of a product, service, business or even person. Domain purchases give the added bonus of email addresses with the same domain (adding to both professionalism and branding) and can enhance your Search Engine Ranking.

- Source

I spent a lot of time in choosing a domain name for my site.

Below I discuss some points that may help you in choosing a good domain name.

1) Google Adwords

Suppose you have a website about social media of whose domain name you wish to buy. Begin with Google Adwords. Type in some keywords and see how they are ranked there. Experiment with different words. Suppose you find “web media” to be the highest ranking keyword. Buy a domain name like www.webmedia.com. If it’s unavailable add some prefixes or suffixes to the keyword. Try for something like socialwebmedia.com or webmedianew.com.

A higher ranked Google Adword will bring a lot of traffic from Google.

2) Go for a dot com

More than 60,000 blogs are created per day! So it’s very difficult to find a domain name of your choice as most of them are already occupied. Therefore webhosts have started offering “.net”, “.org”, “.edu” etc. web suffixes.

Now people who have spent some time on the net would know about these things but people who are not that technologically advanced, automatically assume that a “dot com” domain name is all that exists.

Darren Rowse once said that he looses a lot of traffic because his domain name is problogger.net and not problogger.com. It was unavailable when he bought it.

So try your best for a “dot com” type domain name. It will help.

3) Don’t use numbers or special characters

A domain name is your address online. If you want people to find you make that easy.

Will you remember www.face-book.com more easily or www.facebook.com? People usually forget domain names that contain hyphens etc.

4) The short cut

For reasons discussed above in #3 your domain name must be short. Will you remember a domain name like susskindsblogphysicsforeveryone.blogspot.com/ ?

This by the way is the blog of an Ivy League professor!

I think he will get a lot more visits if he chooses a domain name like www.physics.com.

5) Use Ajax to know availability

Services like www.ajaxwhois.com and www.domjax.com provide excellent service in terms of domain name availability.

Just visit these sites, type in the name you wish to find and you’ll see immediate results.

Note – these sites are not for buying a domain name. These are only for knowing the availability of a domain name. Once you find a domain is available go to a registrar like HostGator to buy it.

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As you sow, so shall you reap. Very true, your business or the functioning of your website depends on what kind of service provider you have selected. Well I am sure that no one would knowingly want something bad happening to their business or website. In the same way any good company would want to retain their customers for ever.

By providing best service, hosting companies are in fact fetching more business for themselves, don’t believe? If some company is good to you, you will not only like to stay with that company but would also like to refer your friends to that company. It’s a win, win situation for all. Now that you have selected a good hosting company or service provider, it’s very important that you know what is expected from them. I have listed a few important points that any good company would offer to its most valuable customers.

What to expect:

1. They need to support most of the platforms on which a websites can be developed. Example: .net, SQL, My SQL etc.
2. Offer enough space that can not only hold the content of your website but can also support up to 1000 emails with more than 1200 MB space in each.
3. Any good hosting company can offer anything between 100 to  1000 free email IDS linked to your account
4. Many good companies also offer free domain name registration for up to lifetime.
5. Good companies offer really good internet connection to the server on which your website content is placed. This will ensure that your website loads quickly and the viewers don’t face any challenges.
6. Proper security is a must for any system in cyber world. A good company will offer multiple firewalls for the extra security of your content.
7. Proper backup plans for your website is also very important. All these measures will ensure that there is minimal downtime for your website. As a matter of fact all the medium and big companies claim to have more than 99.9% of uptime.
8. They can also offer anything between 3 to 10 additional domains that can be hoisted on the same account. This is something like you pay for hoisting of one website and you are actually hoisting additional ones, free of cost!
9. Technical and Customer support are the key factor for the success of this industry. Not every person who wants his website to be hoisted is a trained professional, to handle any complications. For the same reason, technical support is a must. Mostly all the good companies offer 24×7 technical and customer support by the means of email, chat and phone.

10.  Last but not the least, Price! Yes price is one of the most important factors to decide if a particular company stays in market or goes bankrupt. Good companies offer the best price with a lot of Value add-ons.

Least Expected:

1. Companies run to do business, to earn money. If there is some company offering free forget that, as there is definitely some catch in there. There is every possibility that you will end up paying more than what you are supposed to pay, either in terms of money or services.

Over the past centuries, the way we have been doing business has changed from time to time. Business has been evolving itself based on the needs of people. Now that we have entered the cyber age, how can business not evolve itself? Invention is mother of necessity hence there was dawn of e-business. People wanted to explore new worlds and wanted to grab not just the local markets but grab global markets. This was the time when online business popped in. Let us understand the similarities between webhosting and online business.

Webhosting Business:

You want to do business online, you need a website and you get one. Now you need someone who can host this website of yours in the cyber world and make you available for the global markets. Now to make this simpler, if you want to do business globally, you need to have a website where people from all over can visit you. By your website people would know what you intend to sell or share with them. Now there needs to be someone who can actually help you make this thing possible, so, this lead to two kinds of people to help you. One who can learn about your business and design a website that suits your needs, two which can launch it or host it on the cyber space and let the world know that you exist. So, in a way you can say that webhosting is an online business.

Online Business:

Well now that you have zeal to do business with the whole world, how would you do that? You cannot possibly go to each person, explain them about your product or service and then convince them to purchase. Well seems to be a tough job or imagine a situation where you are say in USA and you have one of your customers from Japan and the other one from Australia, now how is it possible for you to attend both of them at the same time? Tough one right? Not anymore as you have the new concept called Online Business.

Yes by the means of online business, you can carry your business from anywhere to anywhere. Say for instance, you are involved in online business, you can deal, sell or purchase anything that interests you from anyone, anywhere in this world. All you need is a computer, internet connection and electronic money. Online business is business done via internet.

There are a lot of advantages of this business. Your overheads are drastically reduced as you don’t need to have an office or a store, you don’t need to have a lot of staff etc., all you need is a system, internet connect and electronic money or a medium to get money to your account and that’s it you are in business. Thus we can say that webhosting is an online business but online business is definitely not webhosting, as in webhosting business you just offer services to host websites and nothing more. Where as in online business, you can deal in any and everything know to man including the webhosting services.

There are several webhosting providers throughout the world offering the best services at your door steps but before you actually move forward, here are some useful tips that might help you select the best webhosting provider. You need to ask your friends or known people in this industry. I am sure today, if you look around your friends or your friend’s friends, you will find a person who is related to this field. Bingo, please ensure that seek his advice and take some serious action on this.

Well now imagine a situation if you don’t have any friend who can help you with this, then it’s your web designer who can be of a great help for you. If you are still unable to locate any help, you can very google it out yes google is the man’s best friend, believe me, I do the same myself many a or rather most of the mines. Second thing that you would want to do now is to see what are all the service that you need. For this, if you are not aware, then your web designer is the best person to guide you.

There are many packages available with the service providers and you need to select the one that you need and not the one that they are trying to force or dump on to you. Third thing that you need to look in to is price tag. Yes gone are the days when you had to spend a fortune for hosting your website, it’s become very economical these days and you can hoist your website for as less as $ 50.00 for 2 years with server specifications as below: Intel Xeon technology, 4 GB RAM, 100 GB web usage per month, 2MBPS speed, Windows and Norton Firewall, with twenty four by seven technical support and a dedicated server. I am sure that this thing will definitely help you finalize a provider for you.

Moreover, if you want to find if there is any complaint against a particular company, again google the same and find out what kind of services are being offered, how fast is their resolution rate etc, Do not rely on the testimonials posted on the website of the web hosting company as no one will post truth and there are all possibilities that they could be made up stories.

This also doesn’t mean that you have to go with the number one company in this industry, as they can be way too heavy on your pocket. We also need to take chances and give a chance to midsized companies to server us. My personal experience says that most of the medium sized companies do care a lot for their small customers like maybe you and I. So I wish you all the very best in selecting a good service provider for yourself.

Imagine that you are planning to buy a new car, what are all the things that you will look out for before you actually buy one. I am sure that the list would be quiet huge, to select your perfect car. In the same way it is very important that you do a lot of research before you select a host or webhosting provider for your website. Your website is nothing but the face of your company and you.

Good health of website ensures that there are no hindrances for your business, especially if your business is more dependent on your website. Thus it is very important that you select the right host for your website. There are possibilities that you might end up with someone who is just good at promising good things but in return, would deliver you nothing. Out of my experience, I have listed a few important points that one needs to follow before finalizing the deal.

Few Important points that one needs to remember:

1. Platforms: The host you want to select should support the platform of your website. Websites are created on different platforms like PHP, .net, SQL, My SQL, Etc
2. Space: Host needs to provide you enough space to not just host your website but also space to host your emails. Generally hosts offer more than 1000 email ID’s with more than 1200 MB space per email.
3. Admin Panel: Access to the admin panel of your platform or control panel has to be provided. This does make a huge difference. You can edit things, create new email ids and do much more if you have an access to the control panel
4. Security: This is one of the most important things that one needs to think of before signoff. Today most of the servers face a potential risk to venerable virus, Trojan, worms etc. Once the server where your website is stored, is affected, there is a possibility that your website can vanish off the internet or can malfunction. Hence it’s very important that hosts are using the best firewalls available in market. They need have their own backup plans to ensure there is least downtime for your website. The best companies in the market claim to have 0.01% of downtime or 99.9% uptime.
5. Support: There is a possibility that things can go wrong at times and to take care of such situations, there needs to be someone to hear your queries and to help you. So, you need host needs to provide you with a 24×7 technical and customer support.
6. Speed: Imaging you are trying to logon to a website and its taking ages for the website to load, though there are no issues with any other websites that you use. Will you ever log on to that website again? The answer, I am sure will be no. In the same way, you need to ensure that your customers do not face similar issues.
7. Price: The amount that you are paying for your hosting needs to be the best in market. Keep looking for options and also try to get the best bargain of your life!

#1 Mocha host

Important features: They support most of the platforms available today, like the plesk, My SQL, SQL, .net etc. They have Windows, Linux and UNIX based servers. They have the best plans available in today’s market, plans ranging from $1.95 to $4.25 for average users. They have the most fascinating offers going, where, if you are lucky enough, you can get up to 6 months for free! They have their own knowledge base for any kind of trouble shooting, if needed and also have a 24×7 technical and support via email, chat and phone. They have been rate as number one webhosting provider on Top11hosting.com.

Visit Mocha host

#2 IX Webhosting

Important features: They claim to have more than 500k websites. They specialize in offering unlimited packages. This can be very useful for people who allow a lot of uploading and downloading on their website. They also claim to have 99.9% of uptime. This is also one of the most important features that you might be looking for. They have their plans starting at $3.95. They have a 24×7 customer support via email, chat and phone. They have been in the race to become number one service providers across the globe.

Visit IXWebHosting

#3 Just Host

Important Features: They offer a lot of unlimited packages. One good thing about this company is, they help you develop ecommerce for your website, help you post google, yahoo etc ads worth $200 or more on your website. This is a very good thing as posting ads on the website is becoming a hot cake these days. The more ads you post on your website, the more you earn. Ecommerce is the most happening business these days. One doesn’t need to even go to an office to earn money. All you need is a computer at home, internet, a website, a good hosting provider and something to sell. That’s it you can earn a good amount from that.

Visit JustHost

Common things found in the Best Hosting providers:

As you are well aware that the best have something different to do that the rest and in the same way, all the ones that are best have a few similarities, in the same way, the Best Hosting providers have a few features common in them. I have listed a few below that can only be offered by the best companies and this will help you finalize a good company for yourself. Features are as below:

1. All the major platforms like .net, PHP, My SQL, SQL, Plesk etc
2. Support Windows, Linux, Unix based hosting plans
3. 24×7 technical and customer support via email, chat and phone
4. Quick and proper response on support if needed
5. Unlimited usage
6. Money back guarantee without any agreement as they know they are the best and you will not leave them
7. Best deals that one can imagine of

Important things that you might want to know before you finalize

So, will you take it for granted? Well my sincere advice for you will be, to think about this at least ten times before you finalize your webhosting provider. You see it’s the most important step that ensures whether your customers, who want to reach you by the means of your website, would be able to reach you or no! Yes this is true, if you your website falls in wrong hands, there is every possibility that your website shall be down most of the times and will never make it to the SEO or the search engine optimizer’s crawler robots.

So, it is very important that you take your won time in this world, to ensure that you are selecting the best. Select the one that not only suits your needs but is also the best in market.

Some important things that you should check before finalizing a webhosting provider

Well again think that you are out to buy a wedding dress for yourself, wouldn’t you enquire about the same with your friends? Yes, you would, in the same way, please ensure that you gather as much information as you can about the list of companies that are available and suit your needs at the very first place. Once you have data on hand, you will be able to shortlist a few companies that seem reliable.

Now comes the second and yet another important step. You need to check if the companies that you have shortlisted satisfy all the needs of yours with regards to web hosting. This will again lead to fewer companies left on the list. Now the most important thing is to shortlist companies that are offering 24×7 yes twenty four by seven technical support.

Also check for the servers that they are offering along with the kind of security packages that are being offered, like the number of firewalls etc. Now this will leave just a couple of companies on your list. Now comes the time for a good bargain, you will be able to select or finalize a webhosting provider for yourself. Personal advice, please also have a plan B or back plan ready for you for just in case situations as you would never want your website to be down.

Some important pitfalls that need to be avoided

Greed loses what it has gained, yes that is very true and the first thing that you need to avoid while selecting a service provider. People are doing business there and they won’t offer you anything for FREE! Free is a very dangerous word when it comes to doing business seriously.

You need to ensure that you are not falling in a pit by price tag or something that is being offered for free. Also use your own experience to justify and don’t blindly believe the customer testimonials, that are posted on the company’s websites. Rather rely on any third party website.

We have entered a totally new revolutionary age, the E Age, and we all know that most of the business happens over the internet. For that matter every company immaterial whether it’s big or small, needs to have its own web site. Like we cannot imagine a company without a name, in the same way, we cannot imagine a company or a group without a website. So, it’s very important for one to ensure that selection of right webhosting provider is a must. This will ensure that your website is never down due to any reason and should be able to manage the traffic flowing to your website.

Key points that one needs to remember while choosing a webhosting provider

Today’s markets are very competitive and as many economists say, “it’s a buyer’s market”. Yes indeed its buyer’s market. Still one needs to be very cautious while selecting the right webhosting provider out of millions that offer same service and boast about their bests.  The first step in selecting the right kind of providers, starts from what exactly are your needs.

Say for example, there are many packages that are being offered in the market and to list a few: Budgeting package, Blog Hosting, Forum Hosting, Unix Based, Windows Based, Mac Based, PHP based, Email Hosting, Ecommerce Hosting, Multi Domain Hosting, VPS Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Dedicated Server, Shared Server, Space of the Server, Speed on the server etc.

Once you have decided what kinds of services are needed, you can look out for various providers offering services that suit your needs. Now once you have a list of few, try to get some money quotes from them. It is not necessary that the one offering the best price needs to be worst in service or vice versa. Now that you have a good number of quotations on hand, you can do some research and development or RND on the companies.

You need to check for: how quick their resolution rate is, how frequent their down time is, what are the kinds of firewalls and how many are they using, where are there technical centers located, are they functional twenty four by seven, what kind of control panel are they using etc.

Now the time has come to finalize and do some serious business

Based on all the data that you have gathered, you will be able to finalize say two or three of them. Now it’s time for some bargain and yes if you are a female, you sure are going to love this. Many a times most of the companies have some or the other offer going on.

If you find that there isn’t any, you can demand for one yes demand! Still if the company denies for it, you can take the name of some other opponent and I am sure, you will get a good bargain on your package. Now it seems that you are good to go. Enjoy the service.

While hosting your website, it’s very important for you to understand what you are actually looking for. I am sure not many of us are technically sound to gage the requirements or the packages that are offered by the hosting companies, or at the very first place gage the basics of services offered by any hosting company. Now it’s time to get some good advice.

You can get in touch with the person or company designing the website for you. They are the best people to suggest what kind of package you need to select or what kind of package would suit you. Secondly, you need to ensure that you are also having a buffer keeping in mind, future planning or say some expansions and then plan for your package. It should neither be exact as per your current requirement nor should that be too extravagant, as it would be an unnecessary loss to you.

Budgeting and identifying the best deal

Once you have made your mind with fixed requirements, start hunting for companies offering you different price plans. Try to get some quotations from the market. I am sure by just spending about fifteen minutes on internet; you should be able to get more than fifteen quotes in your inbox. Now look at the speed of responses and also look for what is being promised to you.

In the mean time, ensure that you are doing some RND or home work on these companies. I am sure you would like to let go a couple of them once you are through with your RND. Now you will be left with say about five or six companies on your list. Now comes the time to look for value added services that are being offered by these companies and shortlist further.

Now you shall be left with about three or four companies on your list. Now comes the time for a good bargain. I am sure if you are a female, you would enjoy this bit the most! No offences, men also enjoy bargaining! Coming back to the point, you need to look what is quoted for similar kind of services and also ensure that there are no hidden costs.

You can always check this by looking in third party websites or blogs where people comment about the services offered by these companies. Now once you are very confident that there are no hidden costs, you can go ahead and start the tug of war. Yes business is war and no company would like to lose you, as its valued customer.  You might not get a cash discount but you can sure get the same in terms of services etc.

Say for example an extended service for no extra charges etc. One more important thing that you need to be prepared is plan B or a backup plan, as, if the deal with one company doesn’t happen you don’t have to land in disappointment and you are always ready to rock and roll.