Having a website for your home based business is a major plus in helping make your business more profitable. A website will help market your creations, products or services to prospective customers that otherwise would not reachable. Here are some advantages of having a website if you work at home:

• Open 24/7/365 – unlike a brick and mortar business
• Save you the cost of commuting
• Enhance your business’ reputation
• Increase your sales by reaching an audience online, which would not be aware of your business
• Links to social media like Facebook and Twitter will increase your online presence, resulting in an increase in sales
• A newsletter for visitors to subscribe gives you the opportunity to reach your prospective customers through email marketing, and to update them with your latest products or services.

As you can see, having a website for your home based business offers many advantages that can ultimately increase your bottom line – meaning more money in your pocket. However, the first step in creating a new site is taking the time to find a web hosting provider. Choosing one is an important decision to make as the host will become your partner in growing your business to success. Here are some tips you should know before you pick a web host provider:

• Review the amount of space the web host offers. If your business uses a lot of media such as video, and plans to use email marketing software, you need a large amount of space. However, if you are just starting out, you will unlikely need much
• Look for the amount of bandwidth offered by the web host provider. The bandwidth is the amount you have available to transfer your web pages from the web server to the browsers of visitors. Most web hosts offer unlimited bandwidth with shared hosting plans. If your content is minimal, your website will not consume much bandwidth
• Learn about the programming services they offer. For example, if you plan to use the WordPress application for your website, you need to get a web host provider which is suitable for WordPress. You can find more information on our WordPress Hosting page
• Find out if the web host provider offers support options such as chat, phone or email. A responsive web host will provide online documentation for troubleshooting as well as forums for customers.

We have reviewed several web host providers and recommend three of them for a person running a home based business and looking to create its first website: HostPapa, GoDaddy and HostGator.

Choosing the right web host provider is an important decision for your home based business website. The right one will support your online presence because your success is the web host provider’s success as well.