If you’re about to set up your first web site and are completely new to running a web site, a dependable web hosting plan with stellar customer service is an absolute must. You’ll want to choose a web hosting provider that can be of assistance from the moment you choose one of their web hosting plans. You need a company that offers more than web space with their hosting plans. Here are a few extra perks you should look for that will make your life as a newbie webmaster far. far easier.

Web Site Building Tools with Flexibility

With the competition for web hosting business high, one of the hottest selling points that many use is their web site building tools. When you’re looking for a web host, read the hosting plan description to see which building tools they offer. Your best choice is a web hosting service that offers you a variety of tools – from Easy build 1-2-3 site designers to an online html editor. The EZ-Builder is a what you need if you want to get your first site up and running quickly, but a builder that offers you flexibility and customization will help you move from ‘Make it for me’ to ‘do it yourself’ in the shortest amount of time.

Excellent Documentation and Help Files

When you’ve narrowed your choice down to one or two web hosting providers, point your browser to the Support section of their web sites and check out the documentation. Pick the one that offers help files on every single tool they offer, and step-by-step tutorials that show you how to do everything you might need to do. Look for a search utility and a FAQ page that will help you find the answers on what you need to know.

The better the help files provided by your web hosting provider, the easier it will be for you to create a great web site with little outside help or support.

24/7 customer support

Sometimes, no matter how good the help files, you can’t find what you need. Sometimes there are things that your web hosting company has to set for you. 24/7 customer support is VITAL. Check the support options that the web hosting company offers – email, phone, live chat? Can you reach them 24 hours a day and get a real live person in case of an emergency? If you can’t, especially on your first web site, pick another web hosting company.

Starting your first web site can be exciting and frustrating. Choose a web hosting company that gives you options, choices and support that will make it easier for you.

The Web hosting service market continues to grow every day, while the services offered become more complex to meet the needs of all businesses. In this volatile environment, it is important to be able to quickly research your options and read a variety of Web hosting reviews before you spend your hard-earned money on the wrong provider.

There are thousands of Web hosts in existence, and many have similar packages available, so it can be tricky for a user to determine which ones are truly the best ? which ones have the most accessible technical support, or the strongest security measures, and which ones are simply in the business of taking your money.

There are hundreds of so called web hosting review sites but many of them belong to hosting providers, offering biased information whereas a lot of other hosting reviews are simply advertising in disguise.

So what are the signs whereby you will recognize a good Website Hosting Directory?

A valuable Website Hosting directory was created in order to offer truly independent Website hosting reviews to help the visitors navigate through the tangled ?hosting jungle? that exists today. It has to be backed by real people with real, solid technical experience and market-specific knowledge of all facets of the hosting industry.

The Website hosting reviews have to be objective and unbiased. From establishing test accounts to reading through commentary submitted by the visitors, a good directory does intense research so that any visitor can quickly and easily perform a Website hosting comparison on the site.

All of the content, including Website hosting reviews, has to be updated on a regular basis, so everybody can be sure he is getting the most up-to-date information every time. Professional directories constantly research the market for the latest trends and changes, while tracking the emergence of new providers, and users are allowed to post their own reviews and experiences to the site.

Preferable, a good Web hosting directory features a top 10 list which is hand-picked from the best hosting service companies in the market today. In addition you can also choose to view more specific lists, such as the top 10 largest Web hosts, the top 10 adult hosts, the top 10 business hosts, the top 10 fastest growing hosts, the top 10 cheap Web hosts, and more.

Now then, Web Hosting Reviews will definitely help you decide what is the right Web Hosting company for you. But only professional and independent ones.

If your web host only allows you to host 1 domain name with 1 hosting account, please read on to learn why you have been taken advantage by your web host!

Also, if you own multiple websites and you are hosting each of them with a different hosting account, you are paying too much! You can actually host all your websites into one single hosting account and save a lot of money. This type of hosting account is called “multiple domain hosting” account, which just get popular recently.

The web hosting industries are now switching to the next important trend. Many web hosts have started to offer multiple domain hosting account. What that means is that you can host multiple websites under 1 hosting account! You don?t need to pay for a full account if you want to host more websites.

This is a very important trend because nowadays, most web hosts are offering incredible amount of disk space and bandwidth with their hosting account. Unfortunately, the client is only allowed to host one website with each giant hosting account. And the reality is that most clients don’t even use up to 10% of their disk space and bandwidth!

If you already have a hosting account, think about it, how much percentage of the disk space and bandwidth are you utilizing now?

I strongly believe that these web hosts are throwing in the big offer as a marketing strategy to attract the consumers by exploiting consumers ‘the more the better’ mindset. Consumers don’t realize that the ‘large space’ and ‘large bandwidth’ is practically useless, as they will probably never use most of the ‘advertised’ resources. They are simply being lured into the marketing gimmicks.

However, the story is rewritten when many web hosts begin to offer multiple domain hosting account. They allow you to host a few domain names under the same hosting account without the need to pay for more. These add-on domains that are hosted under the same hosting account actually shared the same disk space and bandwidth of the main hosting account. This way, you can fully utilize your allocated resources and receive full value of your invested money.

I don?t need to be an oracle to predict that sooner or later, most other web hosts, including those big web hosting companies will have to follow the trend by offering multiple domain hosting accounts. It’s the future of web hosting as domain names are very cheap nowadays and many webmasters will usually want to have more than one website.

When the traditional ‘1 domain per account’ web hosts are not getting the same amount of sales they are getting today, they will have to consider offering multiple domain hosting accounts. If they don’t keep up with the trend, they will be eliminated.

You took the leap. You set up a website to display your important message. Congratulations! As in life, first impressions are important on the web. Web researchers found that you have about 2 minutes to make that first impression a good one. Visitors will judge your site in those few seconds on its professionalism and appropriateness to what they are looking for.

In fact, a website can lose about one-third of its potential customers due to poor design, according to a recent user study conducted by Jakob Nielson, Ph.D., a principal of the Fremont Calif.- based Nielson Norman Group.

Take a long hard look at your site. Or ask a friend to give you a brutally honest review of your site. Does it pass the test of professionalism? Are the graphics of good quality and clear? Is the formatting, font size and font colors consistent throughout the site? Or does your site commit design mistakes that speak AMATEUR as soon as it loads?

There are some common mistakes website owners make that may cause visitors to leave early. Correct these top 5 mistakes to make sure your visitors stay long enough to read your important message:

Mistake #1 They use large, squeezed or out of portion graphics.

Beginning website owners mistakenly post large graphics that seem like a good idea but usually will bloat the website. Large graphics will slow your page load and turn away impatient web surfers before they have a chance to read your message. Even so, do use them for graphics and photos help illustrate your communication and sell online.

Solution: Use optimized, web-ready photos and graphics. Web Wit Tip: If a larger image is needed to help illustrate your message, add a link that says, “Click here to see larger image.” That way large images that slow your page load will only be displayed by people who really need to see a larger image.

Mistake #2 They use distracting elements that blink, bounce, scroll or turn circles.

Most novice websters are sure this will get the attention of their visitors. It’s true visitors may enjoy the cutesy elements or flash presentations. But they may never focus on your important message as well. Unless the flash empowers your presentation, use the adage “Less is More.”

Solution: Limit or eliminate any distracting elements from your website.

Mistake #3 They use too many different formatting styles

Unless your formatting is consistent throughout your site, it will spell UNPROFESSIONAL to its visitors and may cause them to leave early. Inexperienced site owners change formatting with too many different size, colors and styles of fonts throughout the site. They create text blocks that are out of alignment.

Solution: Use a consistent style and size of text throughout website. CSS style sheets are helpful. Learn basic HTML and explore CSS style sheets; it will improve your command of webbing for profit.

Mistake#4 They use colored backgrounds and graphics that make text illegible

Some colored backgrounds, graphics or textures make it difficult to read the type on a web page. Anything that hinders the readability of your message may cause visitors to give up and leave quickly.

Solution: Choose colors that will enhance readability of your site’s message. Light backgrounds with dark text improves readability of your text every time.

Mistake#5 They use mismatched graphics that are inappropriate for the content of the site.

Unseasoned site owners will sometimes use graphics or photos that do nothing to help illustrate their message. For example, they choose cutesy stars and flowers on a site selling accounting services. Look for clipart and photos that will support your important message.

Solution: Select graphics or design elements that will harmonize and illustrate your site’s message. Web Wit Tip: For non-techies like the author invest in inexpensive clipart/photo sets that will enhance and help illustrate your communications. Additionally, unless you are training to become a graphic artist look for graphic programs with templates to shorten your learning curve.

First impressions are important on the web. Follow the simple design techniques above and stop turning your visitors away at the door. Use your first few seconds to impress your visitors with simple design that delivers your powerful message effectively.

Many business owners find themselves in a quandary over the ways to make the most of their company?s web site. This is especially true of those who have the need to maintain more than one web site but do not wish to pay for multiple hosting accounts. If this is you, a subdomain may be the answer.

Subdomains are sort of a site within a site. They are not, however, simply additional pages of an existing web site. The subdomain can have a web site all its own, completely separate from the site located at the main domain name.

To understand the use and purpose of subdomains, it may be necessary to first understand the concept of an internet domain name. Every web site that is active on the internet (and there are literally billions of them now ? it was estimated as long ago as 1996 that there were more web pages in existence than there were people on Earth) has a unique domain name. There can be only one Ebay dot com, for example, on the entire internet. The domain name, however, is really just a way for humans to relate to the site. Internet servers see web site names as unique I.P. addresses. It is the domain name server that translates those numbers into names and back again.

A subdomain is simply an offshoot of your web site?s domain. In terms of the way it appears on the server, the subdomain is simply a folder or a sub directory located within your domain?s root directory. Any sub directory can serve as a sub domain. For example, if your web site is ?www.mycompany.com? and you store the images for your site in a directory called ?images,? then you could, if you wished, create a subdomain at ?images.mycompany.com?. As long as you put an ?index.html? page in the folder you should be able to pull it up in a web browser that way. In most cases you will create a new sub directory to be associated with a subdomain and some web hosts do not support subdomains on their servers or put a limit on the number of subdomains you may associate with your site.

The benefits of using subdomains as opposed to opening multiple hosting accounts are twofold. First, you get the obvious benefit of only having to pay for one hosting account. You also benefit from being able to have a completely separate web site, but one that your customers will easily recognize as being associated in some way with your business. Some companies will set up subdomains for various divisions (xyz.com may also have sales.xyz.com or support.xyz.com) and some will use subdomains for various businesses that are all offshoots of the same parent company.

That association could be a downside to using subdomains as well. If you want to keep the relationship between your companies under wraps (like Disney tried so hard to do with Touchstone Pictures so many years ago), you may want to use multiple accounts rather than subdomains. The web address clandestineproducts.megamall.com would clearly betray that there was some connection between Clandestine Products and Megamall, whether you wanted that information to be known or not.