When you make the decision to get your brand online you need to decide on Domain Names, Web Hosting, and even Email Hosting. To some, this is a daunting decision because you need to know where you want your site to go and how you want to get there. Fortunately for most people there are simple solutions for this everyday predicament. There are numerous web hosting companies to help you get started....just Googling the term returns 241,000,000 results.

How do I know where to go? Well, it really depends on your taste and what you want to give or receive. Most companies will either give you unlimited accounts for a higher price or you can settle for cheaper companies like GoDaddy but have limits imposed. Some companies will give you free months for signing up other people.

Hosting

Some of the main things you need to look out for is storage space, uptime, server type (Microsoft or Linux), database access, and .htaccess rewriting. If you are interested in Microsoft hosting, be prepared to spend a bit more for the name. I will give it to Microsoft for one thing though, they know how to do Email Hosting - Microsoft Exchange is one of the best and isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Speaking of Microsoft, one of my new favorites happens to be the use of a Microsoft Sharepoint server. This application is great for businesses and allows anyone with computer knowledge to contribute to the business's internal intranet. Sharepoint server administrators have become a normal position for any top of the line business to have. It is easy to setup if you know your way around and can greatly reduce your expenses for maintenance since your associates can update the page from their own logins.

Linux is my preferred hosting platform for the fact that it is a great system that is not as prone to attacks, is easier to customize, and most importantly is cheaper then Microsoft hosting, sometimes at least 50% cheaper. This is because Linux is open source and free.

Domain Names

When you are choosing a domain name you need to keep it simple. Something like thisismylongdomainnameformyvisitors.com will more then likely confuse your visitors and be much, much harder to remember. Trust me, I have to explain my domain name more then I like....the word zero, the number 3, computers with an s dot com. Fortunately for me it caught on better then expected.

Some of the main things to remember when you are choosing a domain name are:

• keyword presence
• unique to your business
• always go with dot com, dot net or dot biz is just tacky and the visitor usually types in dot com anyway
• easy to remember
• keep it short

Keep up with that and you should do fine for SEO purposes. Make your name pop and keep it memorable. This is always the key to success.

Let me know your ideas in the comments below.