The Hands Off Policy: Never allow yourself to become the victim of the hosting webmaster who has a hands off policy i.e. "We will take care of your changes on your web site." This is one of the ways you allow a hosting webmaster to have complete control of your online business and never having to worry about you as the web site owner ever being able to see what is coming or going from your website. Would you open a restaurant to be told by the manager you hired that you were not allowed in the office to inspect the accounts - He or she would take care of it? The reputable hosting company and webmaster will never block the owner's access. Let me be clear with this point. Having access to check your email is not access to your web site. It is only access to the email or message functions. You should never allow yourself as the owner, to be blocked from accessing your online business. If you are not confident in your ability to make simple text changes; check with your employees to see if anyone of them has computing skills. Web site management is not rocket science and for anyone who has basic computing skills the task is quickly learned. If there comes a time when you have difficulty in the management of your site; the reputable hosting webmaster will look at your site and advise you of what you have done incorrectly. Every action taken on your website is recorded for review: if the hosting webmaster allows your site log to continually track the site. Mistakes can easily be tracked by date.

Does your webmaster tell you the reasoning for your not having access, is that you will break something that will cost a lot of money to fix? There is little that can be truly broken on a web site that cannot be quickly repaired with your website backup and perhaps renaming a file or two in the least favorable scenario.

You, as a business person, wanting to venture into the online marketing of your goods and or services; should choose your hosting webmaster or web site manager understanding the power of the internet and the amount of freely accessible information you place in their care.

*Become an informed consumer before committing your business to the hands of a hosting webmaster or site manager.

*Ask lots of questions. No question is too insignificant. There is no question you have that should not be answered. If you do not understand the computer science terminology used by the hosting webmaster or web site manager; simply say that you are unfamiliar with the term they have used and ask them for a clear definition.

* Know what your allocated data storage and bandwidth limits are, even if your site will never use the full allowance.

*Never place your online presence in the hands of anyone who does not allow you access to "Your Business".

*Never allow a hosting webmaster or site manager to make you feel inadequate, in your ability to learn how to manage your online business, or deny you the option of choosing who does. If you manage a business, managing your web site will be the lesser of your business talents.

* If you are now hosted with a hosting webmaster or site manager who does not allow you access to your online business; 1. Consider private email communication for more sensitive information and 2. Look for reputable hosting webmasters who do allow you access to your web site. It is after all your business.

Definitions for Clarity

* Hosting Webmaster :A person whose occupation is designing, developing, marketing, or maintaining websites; who also sells allocated space on a server for a web site.

* Webmaster: A person whose occupation is designing, developing, marketing, or maintaining websites.

* Site Manager : A person whose occupation is maintaining websites

* Hosting : The business of providing the storage, connectivity, and services necessary to serve files for a website.

* Web Site : A group of Web pages, often under one domain name

* Domain Name : A name that uniquely identifies a website.

* Disk Space : The amount of hard drive space on the server that is available to your websites.

* Data Storage : Another term for disk space. The amount of hard drive space on the server that is available to your websites.

* Bandwidth : A data transmission rate; the maximum amount of information (bits/second) that can be transmitted along a channel.

* High Bandwidth Hosting : Web hosting with capacity to handle higher-than-average traffic volumes.

* Business Ethics : Acceptable principles and value-systems governing morality and acceptable conduct in commercial enterprise.

* FrontPage Hosting : A web hosting plan that supports FrontPage, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) website building tool from Microsoft.

* Microsoft FrontPage 6.0 Drag and Drop Program requirng no experience. It writes the code for you.

* Server : A computer that stores web pages and delivers them on request to the web browsers of client computers.

* Firewall : A security system that prohibits unauthorized access to a network.

* Spammers : Senders of unsolicited e-mail sent in bulk to many different people

* Bytes : A sequence of 8 bits (enough to represent one character of alphanumeric data) processed as a single unit of information

* Bits : A unit of measurement of information (from Binary+digIT); the amount of information in a system having two equiprobable states

* Online Newsletter : Report or email letter giving informal or confidential news

* e-Commerce : Allows a merchant to accept orders online.

* Web Hosting Control Panel : A web interface offered by hosting companies so customers can administer their account.

* Plesk : Plesk is a brand name for a web interface offered by hosting companies so customers can administer their account.

* FTP : File Transfer Protocol, protocol used to transfer files over the Internet.

* Log Analyzer : A program that takes a server's "raw" log file data and summarizes it into easily-understood reports.

* Data Transfer : The total amount of outbound traffic from a website*, typically measured in gigabytes (Gb).

* Virus : A computer virus is a self-replicating computer program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents.

* Trojan : Trojan horse is a malicious program that is disguised as or embedded within legitimate software. The term is derived from the classical myth of the Trojan Horse. They may look useful or interesting (or at the very least harmless) to an unsuspecting user, but are actually harmful when executed.Often the term is shortened to simply trojan

* Keylogger : Keylogging is a diagnostic used in software development that captures the user's keystrokes. It can be useful to determine sources of error in computer systems. Such systems are also highly useful for law enforcement and espionagefor instance, providing a means to obtain passwords or encryption keys and thus bypassing other security measures. However, keyloggers are widely available on the internet and can be used by anyone for the same purposes.

* Entrepreneur : Someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it