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Excerpt: Determine Your Goals Choose a Domain Name Get Web Hosting Gather Content Create Website Structure Find a Website Developer Set Aside a Budget 4.       Choosing a Web Hosting Company  I have a domain name. Why do I need a web hosting account?    A domain name is only the internet address.  You will need a place where all of the files, images, and videos are stored for the internet to access and display to the world.  This place is called a web server.  A web server is a computer with specialized software that renders the code to be displayed as a webpage when called upon by an internet request (such as someone looking at your website).  It is possible to download all of the software legally for free and set up a web server on your own computer, but this is not recommended.  Besides it being complicated, it compromises the security of your computer network and slows down your internet connection dramatically.  Unless you have the tens of thousands of dollars to shell out for a security system, high performance servers and probably the staff to operate and maintain the servers, you should just stick to web hosting.  Back on track:  you will need a web hosting account to store your internet pages and files.  There are a lot of web hosting companies out there, but you have to be careful that you pick the correct one that will serve your business needs.  For instance, if you want a content management system installed, you would want a web hosting company that has the most up to date server software and correct server configurations in order to for the content management system to properly operate.  Web Hosting is affordable.  You will pay anywhere from $10/mo to $200 a month for web hosting.  The $200 a month would be for an online store system that includes credit card processing.  On average, you will pay about $20 a month for web hosting.   Be aware that if you find a web hosting company that is offering $10 a month for web hosting that has all the bells and whistles,  that price usually is for customers who pay a year in advance.  In my opinion, this is the best value it and is how I have been paying for my web hosting.   Users will pay anywhere from $85 to $150 for a full year of web hosting.   If you don’t have that much to start up, you may pay monthly, which again on average is about $20 a month.  Free web hosting is also available.  But there are quite a few disadvantages of having free web hosting:  You do not get your own domain name.  This looks unprofessional to your customers and does not give your business credibility.  The free web hosting websites have to make money to run somehow.  That means that they get to display annoying ads and popup from your website that you host with them.  Advantages of having free web hosting is well, because it’s FREE.    Below is a list of Free and Paying…