Several Web Sites with Your Web Hosting Services

A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Frances Rhea

How to Have Several Web Sites Using Your Web Hosting Services

You web hosting services should allow you to maintain several domain names under one plan. It is not necessary to operate several websites, each with its own domain name, on separate hosting accounts. That would incur expenses that were not necessary.

Web Hosting Services Solution

The solution to your problem is to open a reseller account. Reseller accounts were originally created to allow a web designer to offer web hosting services to their customers. This allows them to create a shop that would provide web design and hosting needs. The secret is that you do not need to resell the space when you obtain a reseller hosting plan.

Some reseller accounts are more expensive than regular hosting accounts. The advantage is that they will allow you to host different domain names without incurring any add-on domain fees. This makes more efficient use of your hard earned money.

Choosing Reseller Web Hosting Services

In making your selection of service providers, choose a reseller account that offers:

a) an unlimited number of domains that you can add;

b) hosting of your main website for free (without using the space and bandwidth of your hosting plan). (A reseller's main website is considered their business website. The space and bandwidth should be reserved for your customers. If you do not resell web hosting services but want to manage different websites, designate one of your domains as your main website. Select the largest and/or most popular site, so you do not use any space or bandwidth for it! )

Determining Your Needs

First, determine how many sites you plan to host. Know how many pages each site has (or may have), and how many visitors those sites are most likely to have. Now take the number of sites, times the number of pages, times the average size per page. Multiply that by 30 (1.5GB of bandwidth per month) and you will know how much space you require. Always allow extra so if you made an error in calculations or your sites grow, you will not have to update your plan.

Pricing Reseller Hosting Services

Reseller accounts vary in prices. There are reseller web hosting services that cost as little as $10/month while other cost up to several hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars. To get the best deal possible in terms of cost and reliability, look around. Do not commit to the first deal that looks good. Compare their offers. I have seen packages that if you host one other site than your own, your web hosting services would all be free!

Make sure you read the fine print on their Terms of Service. Check out their support options as you are likely to need assistance even if you have experience. Visit their site several times to see how their server responds to page requests. Send an email to their support and note their response time. All of these things will make a difference in the long run!