What is Web Hosting and Why Does Someone Need Website Hosting?

Every now and then I get asked “What do you do for a living?” and after I answer the follow up questions always come without fail.  What is web hosting?  Why does someone need website hosting?  Of course there is always the other related questions such as “Why can’t I host my own website?” and “Why should I pay for web hosting?”.  These are all excellent questions and they deserve just as good of answers.  Lets take a look at exactly what “web hosting” is and why someone would need it.

What is Web Hosting?
Website hosting is a internet based service offered by web hosting providers, such as Weberz and many other companies, who provide website owners online storage for their website files.  The scope of web hosting services can vary widely and often changes from one hosting provider to another.  In the most basic form of web hosting the service should include a limited amount of space on a server to place website files and the internet connectivity for internet users to view them.  Other additional services that can be included in a web hosting package are email addresses, databases, visitor statistics, and advanced website security features.

Many internet service providers, ISP’s, offer basic web hosting services to their internet access customers as part of their monthly internet access fee.  This works well for the most basic of websites however most sites on the internet require additional features and processing that are not available from most ISP’s.  This is when website owners start to look at 3rd party web hosting providers such as Weberz.

There are many different types of web hosting available on the internet from providers.  Depending on the features offered and the limits on storage space and internet traffic allowed, the costs can range from free to thousands of dollars per month.  Generally with today’s competitive web hosting market most sites tend to fall into the lower end of the cost range.

Why Does Someone Need Web Hosting?
In general the average person on the street does not need web hosting services.  That is unless they want to run their own website. If that was the case then they will need a place online where their site will be available to internet users on a constant basis.  Website owners not only want a place where the site will always be online but will load quickly for their web visitors.

Web hosting providers typically own servers that are much more powerful then the average home computer and often have internet connections that are multiple times faster then your home internet access.  Many of these providers also invest the money for multiple servers and internet connections for redundancy purposes.  This allows their customer’s websites to stay online even if an internet connection goes out or a server happens to break.

Why Can’t I Host My Own Site?
Here is something many other web hosting providers won’t tell you, You CAN!  All you need is the knowledge of how to setup the server, or the time to learn it, and a internet connection that’s always online.  Typically users run into a few problems when trying to host their own website though.  Here are a few examples of those problems:

• ISP’s, the people who provide your internet access, typically block the common access ports needed for you to run your own server.  This is because they want you to use your internet access for personal use and not trying to run a hosting company from it.
• Knowledge -  Running a web server is not always a easy thing to do.  There’s always some cryptic error message that needs to be decoded so you can figure out the real cause of the problem when it arises.
• Internet Addresses – To run a web server you really should have a internet address that never changes from your ISP.  Most ISP’s can provide you this service for a nominal fee and some reserve these kinds of services just for businesses.
• Redundancy – As a general rule, people only have one internet connection and one computer.  This provides you with no redundancy if something goes wrong that could cause your website to go offline.  The cost of a secondary internet connection alone per month is probably more then paying for the average web hosting service online.

As you can see there are many reasons why it may be cheaper and easier to purchase hosting services from a web hosting provider rather then trying to do it yourself.  With that in mind sometimes it does make more sense for users to host their own sites.  This typically only happens to larger business users who have in house individuals who can run the servers and already have the internet connections available.

Why Should I Pay For Hosting Services?
Earlier in the article I did mention that there are free hosting services available.  Actually there are multiple types of free hosting available.  Free hosting can be obtained from a free web hosting provider or from a paid hosting provider under a sponsored web hosting deal.

Generally free hosting providers are not ones I would recommend for anyone who wants to run a serious website.  If your looking to put up a website with pictures of cute kittens or fluffy bunnies then by all means go try some free hosting.  If your looking to put up a site for your business or a site you want to grow and take seriously then I would look at other options.

The reason for this is that free hosting providers tend to put additional limits or requirements on their web hosting services.  Limits such as only being able to have X number of pages viewed per day or requiring random ads to be displayed on your site. Website visitors tend to frown upon such things and may not take your site seriously because of your hosting choice.  Free web hosting providers also tend to not offer many of the advanced features that paid web hosting providers offer such as programming languages or extra website security options.

Getting a sponsored web hosting deal from a normal paid hosting provider is another option.  This typically involves you placing a image or text on your site that links to the hosting provider’s site to promote their services and in turn they provide you with the hosting services free of charge.  This is normally a good deal for both parties as you get the hosting for free and the web hosting provider gets some free advertising to your visitors.  Many of the paid hosting providers on the internet, including Weberz, will do these kinds of deals if they feel that your site will provide the type of visitors they are looking for or if your website is about a topic they are interested in.

How Does Someone Get a Sponsored Hosting Deal?
Well.. That’s the tricky part!  You will never get a sponsored hosting deal if you never ask.  Before you go off emailing a bunch of web hosts asking for sponsored hosting, make sure you do your home work first.

Typically you will want to put in your request via email and make sure you get the right person.  Find out who the owner or general manager is and start with them.  Don’t bother the person with a large number of requests, it will be better if you just send one request.  Once you have sent your request, give them a few days to respond and see what they say.

In your request make sure to include a description of your website, any visitor stats you might have and a link to the website if it’s already online.  It will also go a long way if you can explain why your site would be a good place for a web hosting provider to sponsor and what they will get out of the deal.  The more benefit you can show to the hosting provider the more likely you are to receive a positive response.

Don’t worry if you get a negative response, it’s bound to happen.  You can always try another provider.  What you don’t want to do is email a bunch of providers all at once.  This is because if a host says yes and you put the site on a different host, you will be leaving a negative vibe with the host that’s associated with your website.

If you get a lot of negative responses you may need to dismiss the idea of getting sponsored hosting.  It may just be that your site is not likely to bring anything of value to the web hosting provider in their eyes.  After all the idea behind sponsored hosting is a partnership so both parties get something out of the deal.  It’s not just a method of getting free hosting.

If you want to petition Weberz Hosting for a sponsored hosting package, please feel free to do so.  We will even make it easy for you and tell you that rob@weberz.com is the person you should talk to.

Conclusion
Hopefully by now you have a clear idea of what web hosting is and who might need web hosting.  With any kind of luck at all we were able to answer some of the questions you had rather then creating more questions.  Please feel free to share your comments below.

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