Building Your First Ever Website? A Few Hosting Considerations

It’s as exciting as it is from time to time nerve-wracking – setting up and launching your own website is a bit like watching your own baby walk for the first time…sort of. The thing is though, where so many newbies end up selling themselves short is by failing to give sufficient thought to the web hosting service they turn to in order to get online in the first place.Of course, for the first-timer there’s nothing quite as tempting as the free hosting packages on offer, which are good enough for hobbies but limited in other areas. What’s needed all depends on what it is you’re doing and what you’d ideally like to be doing in the future - here’s a quick overview of key considerations for website first-timers:       What is the Site’s Purpose?Before anything else, you need to establish what the site is to be used for and its overall purpose. If, for example, you’re only out to get your rants heard with no real ambition for anything else, free hosting will be fine. If on the other hand you eventually intend to reel in thousands of readers per day and make some money advertising, you’ll need a more capable hosting package. And the same again goes if you intend to set up an online store to sell any goods or services at all – the hosting package you need will always be determined by the purpose of the website.Domain NameYou may be offered a free domain name or two with your chosen package, but be careful when it comes to choosing your name. It needs to be something that’s relevant, easy to spell and read, catchy enough to remember and unique enough not to be mixed up with any other. It’s a tricky job, but it’s also one of the most important you’ll ever tackle.Email AddressesWould you like your site visitors and customers to be able to get in touch with you via an email address specific to the website? If so, you need to make sure this is included in the package you sign up for. It can be of real importance too, as to list your email address as managingdirector@yoursite.com looks a lot better than Dave3254@gmail.com.Data and BandwidthIf all you’re interested in is sharing the occasional blog post, then of course you’re not going to struggle with limited storage space and a low bandwidth allowance. However, when getting started it’s always advised that you look as far ahead as realistically possible and anticipate what you might need in the weeks and months to come. To overstep your allowance can mean for things to come to a screeching halt, so be sure to give yourself sufficient breathing room.Quick-Fling or Long-Term?And finally, it’s always worth having a think about how long you intend to keep your venture going for. The reason being that it’s often much more cost-effective to pay for at least a year of hosting or even longer when signing up, as to do so will often mean a lower price or a bonus period added on free of charge.