Ricky Says

Question: How do I choose a web hosting provider, and which ones do you recommend?"

Answer: For readers who are wondering what a web hosting provider is, it's a company that stores your web pages and makes them viewable on the Internet.

There are literally hundreds of web hosting providers to choose from, and here are a few pointers to help you choose the right one for your website:

Know what kind of web site you want

If you're just looking for a place to experiment or load family pictures to share with friends, then you may be better off just using a free site like Facebook, or a site like Picasa Web Albums where you can store up to 1 gigabyte of photos and videos completely free thanks to Google.

Are you looking for a basic brochure/info site to let people know about your company, or are you looking for something collaborative with discussions and blogs?

I often have people ask me to help them build a new web site for their business, and the conversation usually goes something like this:

"Ricky, I'd like a real simple website for my new business idea. Nothing complex, but I want it to..." and they go on to explain how they want it to be a great user interface that's easy to use and let's people find everything they're looking for and makes them rich overnight. "Oh, and btw I only have a couple hundred dollars to invest and I need it right away".

LOL. My wife bought me a t-shirt for Christmas and it says "No, I will NOT fix your computer". I wish it said "No, I will NOT build your new web site!" :-)

Bottom line, you get what you pay for and if you want an amazing site for your business then you need to be willing to invest some serious money... or time - which brings us to our next point to consider.

What site building tools do they have?

Question: I have an idea for a new website, but how do I get the web site name, and how much will it cost?

Answer: The website name is called a domain name and it can end with .com, .net, .org, .info, .us, .biz, .tv and a few others.

You'll first need to check with a web hosting provider to see if the domain name is available. Once you find one that's available, then you'll need to reserve it.

Reserving a domain name gives you the rights to create web pages that people can view on the internet when they enter your domain name, but you'll also need to purchase web hosting service to actually make those pages visible on the internet.

Checking if your domain name is available is completely free, and doesn't obligate you to actually buy it.

I use HostMonster for this site, and you can check if your domain name is available by visiting their site and clicking "Domain Check":

You can enter any domain name and it will check if it's not already being used by someone else.

If your domain name is available, then you can purchase it from HostMonster, which reserves it for a year or however long you choose.

HostMonster also gives you the domain name for free when you sign up for a year of web hosting, which you'll want to do anyway because you'll get the lowest monthly rates that way.

Web hosting is very affordable, and you shouldn't have to pay more than $6 or $7 a month. This will give you plenty of data storage, bandwidth, email addresses, and even databases for installing things like Wordpress for your own blog.