Your web hosting company will empower you, or limit what you can do online. And I'm not talking about the standard issues of no adult material, no hate sites, etc. Different types of hosting platforms are available and each has its benefits and limitations.
Relax. I am not going into a discussion of Linux versus Unix or debian versus ubuntu. But we will very probably take a rather serious look at Windows-based hosting and Unix-based hosting.
Hosting packages are available as shared hosting or dedicated hosting. Most home-based businesses can be very productive and profitable with shared hosting, and it's a lot cheaper, too!
Let's look at a few items of interest to Internet marketers.
Hiding or Cloaking Affiliate Links
The purpose of this article is not to explain why you probably need to do this, but to show how your webhost affects your ability to do so effectively. You will want to read "How to Protect Your Affiliate Links" to be posted on this site soon.
As pointed out in the article above, the most effective way to protect affiliate links is by using an .htacess file in the root directory of your website. You cannot do this on a Windows-based server.
The second most effective way to protect your links, in my opinion, is by using PHP links, and some Windows-based hosts do not have PHP enabled. A third method, which can actually protect your links and provide link tracking as well is a Unix-based cgi script. Unix-based means not usable on a Windows server. Read "The How, Where, When and Why of PHP" to be posted on this site soon.
Basic Essentials
- Storage Space is usually not a problem for home-based businesees because most hosting packages provide way more than you will use.
- Bandwidth is usually not a problem, either. But you should know that your basic hosting package will include a certain amount of bandwidth and, should you go over that amount, you will be billed for it.
- Mailboxes are included with your hosting package. Some affiliate programs will not let you join with an email address of yourname@yourwebsite.com. Usually you can tie your website email to Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express or, at least redirect it to a mailbox you use regularly. I would not recommend using your website email for mass mailings because somebody, someday will notify your web host that you're sending SPAM and, BOOM, your site is shut down. Besides, there's a much better solution for mass mailings.
- Type of Server is an issue depending upon what you want to do. There are two basic kinds of servers: Unix and Windows. Linux is a unix-based server. Most online marketers are better off using a Unix Server.
Unix allows you to use htaccess redirects. There are many helpful programs (link tracking for one) written for Unix servers.
There is one web hosting company we're particularly fond of. Why? Because they offer both Linux/Unix and Windows hosting. And their Unix hosting packages begin at incredibly low prices. If you are in need of a web host, click here for more information.
