In this new millennium, website advertising, marketing, and sales have become a multi-billion dollar industry. Every day in the business section of the newspaper, we read of a new "dotcom" business that is taking the world by storm. Websites by the thousands pop up every day promoting every imaginable product. Search engines give us instant access to products and services never imagined 20 years ago. Everyone dreams of setting up a small website, advertising on Google, and becoming a millionaire.

But, in order to set up a website, you need a web host. With thousands of options available, how do you make the best choice? What criteria should one use in order to get the best web host for his needs? The choices might seem daunting, but you can make the right one with a little planning and forethought. Let's explore this further.

Costs vs. Features

In setting up an e-commerce website, a web hosting service that is chosen can literally make or break a business. Most of us do not have truckloads of cash to throw at our web hosting service. It will be much less costly in the long run to evaluate many different web hosts, compare the features, and decide what is right for your business. If for instance, you are planning to set up many so-called mini sites in order to collect adsense revenue from Google, you might choose a low cost or free web host, such as http://50-webs.com. This type of web host is ideally suited for the one to two page mini website that consists of interesting content and adsense ads.

If your needs for web hosting include accepting credit cards, running scripts to make your sales, or gathering and tracking customers information, then the free hosting websites will not be adequate for your needs. You might still need multiple domains or sub-domains, but in general, the free or low-cost Web hosting services will not offer the features that are required for a more sophisticated e-commerce website.

If you are going to be running a very large website such as an auction site, membership website, or a wholesale distributor website, then you are going to require a very robust and reliable Web host. You might even opt for a dedicated server that will host your website only. The dedicated Web server is much more expensive than a shared Web server, but the advantage would be that you will not suffer for the mistakes or blunders of others. This option, however, is much more costly than a shared Web server.

The Middle Ground, or "happy medium."

Most new or first-time website owners will probably need the middle choice for their e-commerce websites. In the arena of the shared service Web hosts, there are many levels of service and price ranges available. As competition between Web host providers heats up, prices have become very manageable, and features such as unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains, and pre-written, easy to install scripts, have become almost the standard, most good-quality Web hosts have easily integrated e-commerce functions, blogs, and scripts that can be integrated into the website through the sea panel. Many times, e-mail services and domain services will be provided as well.

A new phenomenon in web hosting services, has recently become more popular. Traditionally, web hosting services have been paid on a month-to-month basis. In some cases, a discount is provided in the Web hosting services are paid for annually. The new trend that has seen these days is that of one time payment Web hosts. The website owner would make one payment only and could use the Web services for life. All of the services provided by the month-to-month Web hosts would be available for this one time payment.

So in this world of costs vs. benefits, there are many different choices that can be made. Choose wisely, and your business will thrive. Think in terms of long term reliability, scalability for your future needs, and costs of doing business for years to come; then you will make the right choice.