Just as any file in your laptop or desktop computer needs hard disk space, so also your website needs space to store all the content. Such “space” is rented out by ecommerce web site solutions and web hosting service companies and there are thousands of those out there.
Each Ecommerce Web Hosting Services Company will have hosting plans or hosting packages on offer. Each will differ in terms of space and sometimes, features. Basically, there are two types of web hosting plans on offer – dedicated and shared. In dedicated web hosting, an entire hard disk is allotted to you and it can be setup any way you like. In shared web hosting, you share the server (hard disk) space with several other customers.
The advantages of dedicated web hosting are essentially speed and ability to setup and install your own custom software. Needless to say, it is also very expensive. Since most customers have no need for any custom software, most websites therefore use shared web hosting. However, if you are planning on setting up a news related website or a social networking site or any website that will require 100 GB or more of space, you should opt for dedicated hosting.
Web Hosting Solutions can take many forms. You can host the entire website on one single server or you could host a part of it on a separate server. For example, if your site offers downloadable files that might be of very large size (e.g. movies or mp3 songs) you could host the downloadable files on another server that offers cheaper bandwidth.
Similarly, there are third-party service providers that offer “hosted solutions” such as hosted shopping cart, hosted content management and so on. In both cases, your products and content are hosted on a server and comes equipped with a password protected control panel and necessary software to add, edit or delete products and content. The advantage of outsourcing your Shopping cart software and content management is that, you could have online store solutions up and running in next to no time. The disadvantage of such out-of-the-box solution is that it may or may not suit your purpose, may be tacky in appearance, and worse, the products or content of your site might appear to be alienated from the rest of the site. More about Web 3 Social
If you are planning to buy a web hosting and social media solutions plan for your website, a word of caution might be in order – web hosting can and often is a very tricky affair at best and may threaten to ruin your business at worst. Most of the web hosting companies have little or no technical support, have weak anti-hacking or anti-spam protection, and often operate with very little bandwidth. Each or any combination of these can ruin your business.
Before buying a web hosting plan, seek the advice of your web master. Your web master will have a good knowledge of the hosting plan that would best suit your interest as well the hosting company best suited to provide it. RetailBizMD is one of the few companies that provide all online businesses richmond va as well as online store management services under one roof including ecommerce web design development and hosting. Talk to us, we would be delighted to work with you and ensure you get the best out of any on the road to success.
