When the internet was unleashed to average consumers in the late 90s, I never dreamed it would become so incredibly popular – especially to the point where it has literally become the crunch I physically depend on. Over a decade later, I’m sure we can all agree that millions of people can’t imagine life without it. Its no secret, the internet offers numerous benefits. From communicating and shopping to conducting serious business online, this super network provides the medium. Because of the internet, everyone can have a website of their own and showcase it to visitors from Los Angeles to Australia. So how much does it cost to stake your claim in cyberspace? Not much at all, especially when opting for a shared hosting account.

What is Shared Hosting?

There are many types of web hosting to choose from and shared hosting is the most popular variation. As the name implies, shared hosting is an environment where you lease space on a server and share with other users. Aside from space, you also share resources such as CPU, RAM and bandwidth. With this type of setup, the web hosting customers are essentially paying for the server and its associated resources, allowing providers to offer service at a substantially lower price.

How Much Does Shared Hosting Cost?

Shared hosting is very cost-efficient, which is the main reason why it’s so popular and the preferred choice for those new to the web hosting realm. So how affordable is it? Well, since web hosting is such a competitive industry, there are literally providers at every corner of the web, each trying to outdo one another and offer you the lowest price. These days, you can easily find a web hosting plan from $5 to $10 per month – possibly even lower. Take WebHostingPad for example. This company offers hosting starting from $3.96 per month, which is hands down one of the best deals around in terms of price.

What are the Benefits of Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting offers many more perks apart from availability and a low price. It also offers tons of features combined with a level of simplicity and power that suits the veteran and novice webmaster alike. The advancements in web hosting technology have introduced comprehensive control panels and an array of management tools that simplify the process of building and administering your website. With the backing of a good web hosting company, you can create a professional website with little to no designing experience.

Best of all, shared hosting makes an ideal solution for small business. Features such as multiple email accounts, shopping cart software and easy PayPal integration allow you to open up an online storefront and sell your own products or services. Considering that there are millions of people surfing the web every minute of any given day, the potential is unlimited.

Where Can I Find Shared Hosting?

You can find shared hosting by doing a simple Google or Yahoo! search on the web. Simply type the words “shared hosting” into a Google or Yahoo! search engine and you will literally see hundreds if not thousands of relevant results. To get the best possible service, I recommend that you read a few web hosting reviews on a few companies. The feedback you get from other customers will give you an idea of what’s available and what to expect from a particular web host.

It seems as if almost everyone has incorporated the internet as a part of their daily activities. People are frequently using the net to communicate, socialize, listen to music, download videos and a lot of stuff we would rather not discuss. As a modern-day freelance writer, the internet is something I just can’t be without. The popularity of this worldwide network has led to the emergence of several online markets and the web hosting business is thriving like no other. With more people looking to benefit from all the resources of the internet and World Wide Web be it for personal or business reasons, web hosting firms have been able to make out rather nicely.

What is Web Hosting?

Website or web hosting, is a service that allows you to have your very own website. How does it work? Well, you sign up with a web hosting provider and they allocate disk space among other resources,  for you on a high-capacity computer, more commonly known as a web server. Hence the name, the web host’s server serves your website pages on the web, making them accessible to internet users throughout the world. Nearly every site on the web is being powered by one web hosting company or another.

Types of Web Hosting

There are many different types of web hosting available, each of which are geared towards businesses, webmasters and developers at varying levels. Some of the most popular types of web hosting including the following:

Shared Hosting

The most common type of web hosting, shared hosting describes a situation where you are literally sharing server space and various resources with other website owners.  Simplicity and cost-efficiency has made this arrangement quite popular among individuals and small businesses.

Dedicated Hosting

More commonly termed as a dedicated server, dedicated web hosting refers to a situation where you have an entire server dedicated to your website or business. Server space and all resources are made exclusive to you, providing the utmost in control and flexibility.

Managed Hosting

Managed hosting generally refers to the full managing and servicing of a dedicated server.  This may include server administration and database management among other services.

Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting is a situation where you purchase server space and associated resources from a web hosting provider and then sell it to your own customers. A reseller essentially acts a middleman between the customer and the web hosting company.

As you can see, web hosting comes in a variety flavors and these are just a few of many. Narrowing them down and finding one that suits your needs isn’t always easy but one thing is for certain – with all the providers currently on the market, there is sure to be a host capable of meeting your needs.

As the term indicates, a reseller is someone who buys server space from a hosting company and sells Web space to other end users. Generally, reseller website hosting is done by small hosting companies that buy a reseller hosting plan and sells it to other people. However, there are many big players in this field who do the same thing, but on a much larger scale. Large companies usually take server space on rent from very large hosting services and sell this space to users. When they sell to buyers at the regular rate, resellers can often pocket the difference. When somebody buys through the reseller, they get a commission. This is how resellers make money. For example, when you buy a hosting package of 1,000 MB space and bandwidth, you may break it up into 10 separate accounts with each account having a disk space and bandwidth of 100 MB. For the initial purchase, you may have paid anywhere between $15 and $20. Suppose you sell each package at $10, your total profit would exceed $80. Once a customer buys a hosting plan, the reseller is out of the picture. All further communication is between the buyer and the hosting company. In some cases, hosting companies may invoice buyers in the name of the reseller. This usually occurs when the reseller is a small-scale hosting company that needs to keep up the pretence of being the actual seller.In order to make money, resellers have to double up as the sales agents of the website hosting company. Only this can attract customers to the hosting plan. Many people put up personal web sites and blogs. Fun websites, community websites and websites dedicated to groups are exploding over the Internet. There is always a demand for good hosting plans. This being the case, there is a lot of scope for generating sufficient revenue through reseller website hosting plans. Reseller website hosting is a comparatively easy way to make money because you can easily find a niche that has little competition. For this, you must find some way of distinguishing your hosting plan from that of the competition. Only then will your offer stand out. One very good example is selling cheap hosting plans to the gaming community. By focusing on a small community, you can provide them with excellent customer service and build your hosting plan around the needs of this particular community. As your reputation grows, you will start attracting more and more clients, thus generating greater volumes of revenue. That is why it is quite easy for individuals or small-scale hosting companies to make money with a good reseller hosting plan.