Web Hosting and Membership Sites
Have you ever dreamed of starting your own membership site? Some say it’s the best way to make money on the Internet, so why not? Well, let’s make sure you have the right tools for the job! Starting a membership web site is possible but you will need a hosting company that offers you the right tools to conduct the day to day operations of your site. At minimum the prospective hosting company should allow you the ability to create forms, set up an ecommerce site, community development tools, recurring billing modules and access level controls. But that’s not all you will need to build and run a membership web site.
You will need a few other tools such as MySQL, PERL, CGI, SSI, CRON, Curl, FrontPage, PHP scripting tools, Python, GD and ImageMagik, which allows you to create streaming videos and music. Oftentimes these come as standard with hosting companies; however, ask to make sure.
Don’t overlook your email needs. Your hosting package should come with auto responders, mailing lists, mail forwarding, web mail, Spam control, POP3, IMAP, and SMTP. Again, if in doubt, ask. It is a lot better to know upfront what you’re getting than to discover it when you need it – but don’t have it!
Does the hosting company provide you with a control panel? For most of us a hosting account without a control panel would be like opening your personal computer without the Windows interface! Unthinkable! Cpanels usually offer you multiple features such as hotlink protection, Fantastico, Search Engine submission and error pages. Fantastico is a commercial script library that automates installation of about 50 scripts including instant blogging software, portals, PHP, Nuke, Instant Chat, Forums, counters, FTP, and so on.
Password protection is a must. After all, if you are running a membership site you don’t want just anyone to be able to access it! Make sure the host you are looking at offers password protection of folders via the cpanel and via .htaccess.
The ability to track your website’s statistics is very important Tracking statistics often include raw log or other access such as Awstats. Error logs and analogs are provided as well.
If your goal is to run a successful membership website, you really should consider purchasing the plan that offers ecommerce features, as well as Shared or Private SSL (this affords the consumer protection), Shopping Carts, Joomla, Mambo and other free membership scripts that are usually available if you have the Fantastico feature.
In addition to the basic tools listed above, you will also need to consider a few marketing tools for your web site once you get setup. These will vary depending on they type of site you are building, and are not usually provided by the web hosting company. In fact, there will be lots of things you will need, but you won’t even know what they are until you run into a problem or two. Don’t spend time fretting about it – just head on over to the search engine and start searching.
So, here you are: poised and ready to dive in. It all started when you dared to dream of owning and running a membership site. Now you know how to find a good webhosting company. The time for hesitation is over. Just step into the water and start swimming with the giants!
