If you own a small business and are ready to build a presence on the web, there are a couple things you need. Despite what a lot of people think, running a website, even a simple one, is definitelly not free. Of course there are ways to do it for free, but you will be extremely limited as far as design and functionality. I recommend giving your website a feel of professionalism and building a legitimate site.
To do that, you will first need cheap web hosting. I say cheap web hosting and not just hosting because I really doubt you will need anything more. You may need an upgrade eventually, but there’s no reason to spend more money than you should. Cheap web hosting is only about $5/month, so it shouldn’t be too big of an expense. If you find that you are quickly nearing your storage and/or bandwidth limits, start looking into an upgrade early so you can buy it soon and get everything transfered smoothly.
Other than cheap web hosting, you will need a domain. Domain names are fairly cheap at around $10/year for a .com. However, it can be very hard to find a good one. If the one you wanted is already registered, you’ll have to either choose a different domain that’s not already taken, or find a private seller and buy a premium domain from them. Of course if you buy the domain from someone else, you’ll probably have to shell out a fair amount of money, so be prepared.
Once you have the domain and cheap web hosting, you have several choices. You can go the cheap route and build your own site, or you can hire it out. Getting a website custom-built is never really cheap, but you can consider it an investment in your business.
Written by Web Hosting Expert on Dec 22, 2009.
