Top Work At Home Moms
    How to make money from home.

Once you have a name registered, it’s time to find a web host. This is the company that maintains servers where your site’s files are stored and your domain name points to.

There are literally thousands of choices out there. The general rule of thumb is you get what you pay for. If you have a limited budget, there are plenty of hosts out there that offer server space for free. Many more will host your site for as little as $1 to $5 a month.

If you’re going to be selling products or services online and you need a shopping cart, stay away from the more inexpensive hosts. They won’t have the features you need to run an effective shop, including the ability to set up mail accounts on your domain (yourname@yourdomainname.com), traffic logs (which allow you to monitor who visits your site and how they get there) and the ability to conduct secure transactions. The less expensive hosts usually nickel and dime you on these features. Many also charge for additional server space for hosting your files should you expand your site down the road.

If you’re selling products or services online, you will want to ask your host the following questions:

1. How long have you been in business?

2. How many sites do you host?

3. What is the monthly server fee?

4. What is the setup fee?

5. How much disk space do I get?

6. How much bandwidth is included in the fee?

7. What is the cost of exceeding the disk space or bandwidth limits?

8. Do you have a shared SSL certificate so I can handle encrypted transactions or do I have to have my own?

9. How many email accounts are included?

10. What kind of data does your traffic logs provide access to?

11. How many items can I sell through your ecommerce module?

12. Is the cart free? If not, what is the cost?

13. Do you have 24/7 tech support?

14. Is there a money-back guarantee if I’m not satisfied?

Your host should be able to help you transfer your domain name IP address to point to their servers. If you’ve saved your login and password from the registrar, it’s a simple fill-in-the-blank process.

Once you’ve signed up, you will need to upload your site (assuming it’s already been designed) to the host’s server. An ftp program like WS_FTP from Ipswitch (www.ipswitch.com) can handle the uploading process from you. In short, you just log into the host server and drag your files from your hard drive onto the ftp window. Viola! Your site is live on the Internet.