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In our post yesterday on multiple streams of income we discussed the need for multiple streams of income and that the first step to creating an online income stream was to choose a domain name and a hosting service for your site.

Eventually everyone realizes that they need their own domain name, however who you get to host your domain will make all the difference. Finding a web host is easy search on google and you will find stax. Finding the right one though is not that easy Most hosting services will provide you with a spot to park you site with little or no support, nor the ability to add essential supporting programs and support.

What you need to guard against the horror hosting providers who just can’t provide you with a good service, whether intentionally or through lack of knowledge and services. Problems that do occur include domain names that can’t be transferred, extortionate exit fees, servers which crash frequently, support that doesn’t respond in a timely fashion and worst of all the company ceases trading holding your data!

What you need to consider when choosing a good hosting service is the following:

Price - Check that your renewal price won’t be hiked up.

Ownership - Make sure the domain will be registered in your name and that you are the domain registrant not the hosting company

DNS Transfer -Make sure you will be able to update the DNS details so you have the option to transfer the hosting to another provider should you want to.

Full Transfer - Make sure you will be able to transfer the entire domain to another registrar if you need to.

Email Accounts - Make sure you have a sufficient number of email mailbox and forwarding accounts and are not limited.

POP3 and SMTP and IMAP and WEBMAIL - Make sure you have access to all of these. Even if you don’t need them now, you may in the future.

Supported Languages - Make sure the hosting environment fits your needs. Windows hosting is different from Linux/Unix hosting. If you need PHP or ASP then make sure they are supported.

Server Location - Make sure the servers are actually located in your country so that any downtime will occur in off peak hours in your country not in another with a different time zone

Databases - Make sure you have access to unlimited databases even if you don’t need them initially.

Bandwidth Allocation - Don’t be fooled by massive bandwidth allocations Most personal sites will get away with 1gb of bandwidth and medium sized sites will use no more than 5gb.

One hosting provider that is worth checking out is Host4Profit.com. They offer all of this and on top of that have and interesting twist. Check out their features that come with their hosting plan and compare it to others.

Use them or use someone else – just bear in mind what you getting and what you paying for!

european affiliate marketing programs, hosting services, domain names, income streams, multiple income streams

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