| g been involved in Affiliate marketing for while I have | | | | year will get you up and running easily, with all the |
| seen a number of ‘newbies’ start out | | | | features you're likely to need. |
| on their ‘online adventure’ paying far | | | | The first consideration is 'Disk space'. This is the |
| too much for basic Internet facilities. Every now and | | | | same as the room on you PC's hard drive, in that it |
| then, I feel an overwhelming need to make a couple | | | | simply means the amount of space you will have |
| of important things known to the thousands who, | | | | available on the server to put your website, with it's |
| every day, make their first step towards Affiliate | | | | different pages and images etc. To start with, you |
| Marketing or other Home Based Business. | | | | don't need any more than 100 - 200 megabytes |
| It seems, as with many things in life, the new, | | | | (each average web page takes about 20 - 40kb plus |
| uninitiated or young tend to give in to excitement | | | | images, which are often used on many different |
| and their urge to 'get moving' by using or buying the | | | | pages, like your logo, 'header image’ or |
| first facility that comes along. A fatal and costly | | | | navigation buttons). |
| mistake, especially on the Internet, where there are | | | | The second consideration is 'Bandwidth'. This is the |
| so many who are comfortable with selling something | | | | amount of information (in the form of the web |
| for more than it is worth compared to other options | | | | pages and images you build your website with) that |
| available. To begin with, you need an Internet | | | | the server will send to people visiting your website. |
| presence to be online at all, so the first thing is a | | | | You see, each time a website is visited, theperson |
| Domain name. Domains (the 'address' of your website | | | | looking at it is actually downloading to their browser |
| - like a phone number) can be chosen by using one | | | | (as opposed to ‘downloading to disk’) |
| of the many facilities available to see if your choice is | | | | that is, they are beingsent all the information that |
| available (experience shows shorter domain names | | | | makes up the web page being viewed. This all adds |
| are more 'user friendly' and more easily remembered, | | | | up to bandwidth and in a hosting plan it is referred to |
| obviously). | | | | in Gigabytes (1 Gb =1000 Mb) per month. Starting |
| As a home based businessperson, it doesn't matter if | | | | out, you will find 5 - 10Gb per month absolutely |
| you use the .com, .net, .biz or any of the other types | | | | plenty. You can generally update or increase these |
| of domains. You just can't use those like '.gov' that | | | | limits easily and cheaply. |
| are reserved for specific types of website (.gov is | | | | Other considerations regarding the needs of your |
| obviously for Government concerns and Departments | | | | home business website are more complex and |
| etc). At this time, I recommend '.biz' as it still has the | | | | involve things like how many email accounts you can |
| largest number of domain names available compared | | | | have, as you will no longer need to rely on your ISP |
| to '.com' or '.net'. A basic domain should not cost | | | | email or free accounts with MSN or Yahoo etc. You |
| more than $20, but can be as little as $8, so shop | | | | will have your own domain and will have email |
| around. | | | | addresses which you will name, like '. This is far more |
| Having done this, you need to get your domain onto | | | | impressive and professional than the 'dime a dozen' |
| a Host Server. This basically means you have to have | | | | free email accounts that everyone has. |
| it 'installed'onto a public access server (not the same | | | | Other facilities you may have or want available for |
| as your Internet Service Provider like AOL - ISP's | | | | your home based business website are Guestbooks, |
| just supply access to the Net - they don't 'host' | | | | Forums, Databases, SSL (secure socket layer), |
| domains) so people can access it or 'dial' it up. You | | | | Shopping Cart, FrontpageÒ Extensions |
| need a Web Hosting company to do this and these | | | | (allowing you to use the popular MicrosoftÒ |
| offer a myriad of different plans and prices for all the | | | | website building and editing program |
| different needs of the industry. As a Home Based | | | | FrontpageÒ). There are so many options, |
| Business just starting out, you don't need a terrible | | | | most of which you may not understand or need at |
| lot of anything to begin with, so the plan you choose | | | | all, ever, but some you will. |
| should be quite reasonably priced. As little as $1 per | | | | |