BY STEVEN E. CALLIHAN
This material originally appeared in Internet World magazine, Volume 7, Number 4, April, 1996; pp. 55-61. Copyright© 1996 Mecklermedia Corporation, 20 Ketchum Street, Westport, CT 06880; (203) 341-2802; info@mecklermedia.com; http://www.iworld.com/. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
It started out simply. I had dabbled with HTML and decided to create a home page to distribute a shareware product I had produced. I knew my local access provider published personal home pages for free, so I figured a commercial page couldn't cost much more.
I fired off an e-mail inquiry and soon had my reply. There was a $50 setup fee, and it would be $50 per month for 5MB of server space and 100MB of throughput, plus $10 per month for each additional 5MB of space and $15 per month for each additional 50MB of throughput. Having no knowledge of the market, I had no idea whether these rates were reasonable. All I knew was that the fees were more than I could afford for my shoestring operation. Time to do a little research, I thought. There must be an affordable service somewhere.
The best place to find out anything about the Internet is the Internet itself. Yahoo had just the category I was looking for: Internet Presence Providers. It took me more than 30 hours of online time to go through the whole Yahoo list of providers, during which I visited at least 600 of the almost 700 sites listed. As a benchmark, I used the rates quoted by my local access provider. Anything less was considered affordable.
| Web Space Provider | Setup Fee | Rent | Space | Extra Space | Traffic | Extra Traffic |
| AAdvantage Internet | None | $ 35 | 5MB | $0.50/MB | 30,000 hits/week | Not Specified |
| Flightpath Communications | $ 100 | $ 35 | 15MB | $2.50/MB | Unlimited | n/a |
| Hurricane Electric |
1)$50 2)$14.95 |
1)$39 2)$1/MB |
40MB |
1)$1/MB 2)$2.95/MB |
1)1GB 2)100MB |
1)$39/GB 2)$0.10/MB |
| HyperWeb | None | $ 30 | 10MB | $10/MB | Not Specified | n/a |
| InfoBoard Internet Services | None | $ 40 | 3MB | $4/MB | Not Specified | n/a |
| Net Images Services | $ 50 | $ 50 | 5MB | $3/MB | 200MB | $4/100MB |
| Net-Mart | $ 39.95 | $ 24.95 | 5MB | $2.95/MB | Unlimited | n/a |
| The Netgate Mall | $ 25 | $ 10 | 10MB | n/a | 100MB | $0.10/MB |
| NetOffice | None | $ 10 | 1MB | $5/MB | Not Specified | n/a |
| Parallel Publishing | $25 for 1st page, $1 add'l | $ 35 | 1MB | $2/MB | Not Specified | n/a |
| Phrantic's Flea Market | $ 25 | $ 25 | 100KB | $10/100KB | Unlimited | n/a |
| Protocol Communications | $ 50 | $ 50 | 50MB | $10/10MB | Unlimited | n/a |
| Sierra-Net | $ 50 | $ 35 | 4MB | $6/MB | 100MB | $10/100MB |
| Southwest Cyberport | None | $ 15 | 3MB | $0.35/MB | 5,000 hits | $5/15,000 hits |
| The Sphere | None | $ 50 | Unlimited | $1/MB | 50,000 hits | $10/10,000 hits |
| T.A.B. Net | $ 150 |
1) $10 2) $20 |
1) $10 2) $20 |
Not Specified | Not Specified | n/a |
| The Village Potpourri Mall | $ 15 | $ 25 | 10MB | $0.50/MB | 200MB | $0.10/MB |
| Virtual Sites Inc. | $ 50 | $ 10 | 10MB | $0.25/MB | 100MB | $0.10/MB |
| Volant's Turnpike Emporium | None | $ 29.95 | 2MB | Not Specified | Not Specified | n/a |
| Webbified Advertising Co. | None | $ 15 | 1MB | $15/MB | Unlimited | n/a |
| Web Communications | $ 44.95 | $ 29.95 | 5MB | $2.95/MB | 200MB | $3.95/100MB |
| Webdoor | $ 20 | $ 20 | 512KB | $2/512KB | 10,000 hits | $5/10,000 hits |
| Weblink Inc. | None | $ 25 | 11MB | $0.50/MB | Not Specified | n/a |
| Per-Page Provider | Setup Fee | Rent | Space | Extra Space | Traffic | Extra Traffic |
| Allied Access | None | $25/page | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Fabian's Web Services | $ 25 | $12+$1/page | 1MB | $1/1MB | n/a | n/a |
| HomePage | None | $25/5 pages | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Information Analytics | $ 50 | $ 30 | 500K | $8/month/page | 1GB | $18/100MB |
| Internet Cafe | None | $50 for up to 10 pages | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Netsmarts EPS | $ 25 | $10 for single page | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| National Internet Source Inc. | $35 for each ad including one graphic |
$20/1 page $40/3 pages $60/5 pages $80/10 pages |
n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Scendtek Internet Corp. | None | See home page | 1MB | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Serendipity Services | Free for basic text page |
$59/6 month $99/year |
n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Originally I came up with a list of 48 affordable presence providers, which was culled to a final list of 33 providers. The other 15 firms either had gone out of business, were not accepting new business, had raised their rates above my benchmark, or were no longer quoting prices. Each of the 33 providers listed in the charts that follow has been in business for at least six months. A few have raised their rates, but not unreasonably, while a few others have lowered their rates. The only sites I eliminated from consideration were non-U.S. sites because variable exchange rates would make pinning down future rental fees difficult (however, not all Canadian sites openly present themselves as Canadian).
Because Yahoo's was the only list I checked thoroughly, my list should be taken merely as a sampling of what was out there during my search. New presence providers are coming online every day. The information about services and rates listed here was what I was able to garner from a fairly cursory visit to each site--taking just enough time to locate the page with pricing information and saving it to disk. In other words, if a particular feature isn't mentioned, you shouldn't necessarily assume it isn't supported or, for that matter, included in the base price. This article should, however, help you to ask the right questions when you get down to selecting a presence provider.
You may wish to perform further research on your own. The best place to start is still Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/), which divides its index into categories and subcategories. Since my initial research, Yahoo has created a subcategory for just U.S. presence providers. It also has separate international and regional indexes. You could also perform searches for Internet service providers and World Wide Web hosting services using Alta Vista, Lycos, Open Text, et al.
There are a number of questions you should ask yourself before you begin looking for a presence provider. The answers will help you identify the type of provider you require to maximize your presence on the Web at a price that is affordable for you.
Are you willing and able to do it all yourself? "Yes" means you are willing and able to do all your own HTML programming, site registration, promotion, and maintenance. "No" means you need or want someone else to do all or part of it for you. Be realistic. Learning basic HTML is not all that difficult, but becoming a real expert is considerably more challenging. Even learning basic HTML takes a fair amount of time. Are you willing to put in the necessary leg work to register, promote, and maintain your site? If not, you might be better off farming out these tasks to someone else.
Are your needs simple or complex? If all you want to do is create a single home page with your company logo, a screen or two of text, and, at most, a link to your e-mail address and maybe a customer response form, there are quite a few deals out there that will do all or most of this for you, plus register, promote, and maintain your page at a very reasonable cost. However, if you want to create a more complex site with multiple links to several different pages or to other sites, additional inline graphics, imbedded audio or video, image maps, graphic icons, and so on, then the only way to keep it affordable is to do most or all of the work yourself.
Just remember that to save money, it's going to cost you time--and lots of it. And you can still farm out bits and pieces of work, like setting up a custom form or registering and promoting your site--unless, of course, you are an inveterate do-it-yourselfer and just want to figure it all out.
How much synergy do you need? You might do quite well unconnected to other sites and generating your own traffic. This can be true if you have a niche product or service aimed at a highly targeted audience and are willing to do the leg work necessary to get you site noticed. On the other hand, you may benefit by forming relationships. The simplest type is crosslinking (you link to my site and I'll link to yours).
Fuller synergy, however, may involve partnering with other sites to spinning a collective web in which to catch those elusive and sprightly creatures, the Net surfers. Here, where the "virtual" nature of the Web comes fully to the fore--metaphors abound--in the form of various cybermalls, plazas, markets, villages, kiosks, billboards, flea markets, and so on.
Malls, in particular, seem to be proliferating rapidly on the Web. The more synergy you have with the other businesses in a mall, the more you will be able to benefit from the collective traffic that is drawn to it. Note, however, that whereas malls were once a novel innovation, there now are more malls out there than you can shake a stick at. Nor are all malls, by any means, equal. Be prepared, in other words, to pay if you want to be located next to Macy's instead of Piggly Wiggly.
Some malls, as well, will do more to promote and bring traffic to your site than just list you in their business directory, others won't. Also realize that if a mall has only three tenants, it is just starting out or there is a reason why. Already, one of the major malls, CyberMalls, has gone belly up, declaring itself on its own page as "cybersplat" and "Internet road kill." Seventy tenants are now looking for a new site.
You should ask providers the following questions, or otherwise seek the answers, about their service:
What is your speed? Server connection speeds can range from 56kbps to 1.54 Mbps (T1) and above. At least a T1 connection is preferable. Speed of the connection, however, is only one factor that effects the performance of the server, some of the others being the number of ports, the server architecture, and the amount of traffic generated by the server.
Nothing substitutes for a hands-on testing of the site. If it seems slow, it probably is slow. However, the level of traffic on the Internet itself, the load on you local access server, geographic proximity to the server to which you are connecting, the speed of your own modem, and the quality of your phone line all are factors that can affect performance. So test a site at different times of the day and night to gauge how fast it is.
What is included in the setup fee? Setup fees are highly variable. Most of the quoted setup fees, especially if they are more than $50, imply at least minimal, if not extensive, assistance in setting up your site. In practice, "setup" fees are highly negotiable, especially if you are willing and able to do your own site creation, registration, promotion, and maintenance. Don't be afraid to dicker. Remember, vendors want your business. So drive a hard bargain.
How much is the rent? The fees for the sites I selected run from $1 to $50 per month. The rates vary according to whether they are for raw Web space, single pages, or multiple pages, and whether you are going to do everything yourself or want help from the provider. Extras included in the base price also vary widely. What is right for you depends on what you are trying to do, how much you are willing to do, and what added extras you want. No one size fits all, in other words.
Generally, if you want to create a complex multipage site, you will want to rent your Web space by the raw megabyte (5MB, 10MB, or more). If all you want is a simple single home page, then one of the per-page deals may be best for you.
Keeping a multipage site affordable, however, means doing most, if not all, of the HTML coding, site registration, promotion, and maintenance yourself. The per-page deals, on the other hand, tend to offer more hand-holding in setting up your site as well as registration, promotion, and maintenance assistance while still remaining affordable.
What will the traffic bear? Not all providers levy transmission, or traffic, charges--fees based on the number of people who visit your site. When they do, the fees can vary widely. This is an area where you should choose carefully. Pay too high a rate for the freight or get too small an allowance, and you may find your affordable Web site has suddenly become not so affordable.
What further complicates matters is that some providers charge on a per-kilobyte basis, while others charge on a per-access basis. Per kilobyte signifies the total data traffic generated by your site, while per access denotes the total number of "hits" on your site (mind you, a single page may generate several hits when you take graphics, audio, or video into account).
Some providers will shut down you site if you go to much over your traffic allowance, rather than surprise you with an overly high traffic charge. By and large, it is best to avoid traffic fees if you can. One site even allows you to purchase "insurance" against getting too many hits.
What and how much are extra services? There are additional services that can be provided beyond simply hosting your pages. These can include telnet or FTP access to your Web directory, usage statistics (daily, weekly, or monthly), forms, clickable image maps, e-mail forwarding, customer-response forms, mail-bots (that automatically respond to an information request, for instance), variables (for inserting the date, number of visits, etc., on your page), fax-back visit forms, searchable indexes, basic and custom CGI scripts, FTP data publishing, and secure financial transactions.
Not all providers support the full gamut of features mentioned, and they vary widely in what is included in their base price. Most of the providers do not allow custom CGI scripting, but provide "stock" CGI scripts (for customer response forms, for instance). If they do let you run scripts, they may insist on reviewing them before you use them.
Also realize that including image maps, forms, and other features in your pages, entirely on you own, may require a knowledge of HTML that you do not possess and are loath to acquire. Unless you want to become an HTML expert, if you need these features (especially if you anticipate a lot of customer interaction), it may be wise to shop around for the best deals that offer assistance in these areas, either included in the base price or quoted at an affordable rate.
Many of the providers offer separate FTP servers, allowing you to make data and software available for download via FTP. However, the cost of this service can add up if you are being charged a transmission rate (if possible, try to park your files--especially if they're software--on one of the major FTP sites, then provide links to their mirror sites).
Few providers in the affordable category have offered secure financial transaction capability, but the availability of this feature is increasing rapidly. Depending on the product or service you wish to deliver over the internet, whether a provider offers this capability, and at what cost, may be an important factor to consider.
How much is a domain name? A few of the providers listed will include your own domain name or alias in their base price, otherwise you will have to pay anywhere from $25 to $100 extra. It generally is more expensive to get a domain name (http://www.yourname.com) than a domain "alias" (http://www.yourname.com/yourdir/).
An alias simply substitutes your name for your provider's domain name within the URL, and it isn't always clear from the information I gathered whether the domain name being offered is an actual one or an alias. You also may want an e-mail address using your new domain name.
Having your own domain name or alias can be important if you want added visibility and name recognition on the Net as well as portability (the ability to take your name with you to a new site if you wish).
Also, domain names are being gobbled up fast, so if you wait, the domain name you want may be claimed by someone else. Some providers offer what is often called a "virtual host" plan. This allows you to operate as your own server, but also calls for a higher level of expertise on your part.
As of September 1995, the InterNIC has been charging $100 for registering a new domain name for two years, with an additional maintenance charge of $50 per year thereafter. The InterNIC will bill you separately. If you break it down, the cost works out to $4.17 per month per domain name. So affordability here pretty much comes down to how much extra your presence provider is going to want for setting up and administering your domain name for you.
Is it real or Memorex? And does it matter? A server may not be a real server at all, but a "virtual" server that has setup shop on another server. There is no way for the outside world to tell whether a server is real or virtual. But ask anyway.
The only giveaway is that the virtual servers tend to charge on a pre-page basis, are less likely to offer extras, and are primarily interested in pushing value-added consulting, design, or marketing services. A virtual server may be a good deal less permanent than a real one (they are, after all, just a renter like you). If possible, rent directly from the landlord they are renting from, unless you have a need for the value-added services they offer.
If you need help designing your own page, you should check the quality of the provider's home page as well as any other pages it claims to have designed. Remember that in the land of virtuality, anyone can set up shop as a consultant. There are many design and site creation services run by untalented people with a modicum of HTML skill. Terrible design, bad grammar, misspelled words, and so on are tipoffs. In other words, if it doesn't look professional, it probably isn't.
Don't believe all the hype. There are numerous and varied estimates of the total number of Internet users. By the time an estimate is made, it is already out of date. Also, realize that most users of the Internet are not surfing the World Wide Web, although the number of Web surfers out there is increasing rapidly.
Advertising and marketing consultants are especially prone to push the comparison between the relative high cost of print advertising versus the low cost of Web advertising on a "per view" basis, trying to convince you that paying $250 or $1000 a month is cheap because there are millions of potential customers. The fact is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to compare the two.
The effectiveness of Web advertising has yet to be established, so applying what are print industry rules of thumb just doesn't wash here. The cost of Web advertising should be based on supply and demand, along with costs, on the Web itself, and not on how much a four-color spread in a magazine would cost.