When your Web site is ready, you need to "host" it on a computer that is permanently connected to the Internet. A company that provides this service is called an Internet Presence Provider (IPP). Do not host your site with an Internet Service Provider (ISP), whose main job is to provide modem access to zillions of people.

Business is competitive, and each IPP offers slightly different services for a given fee. If the features that your Web site design requires do not exactly match the services that your IPP provide in their basic package, then you will be hit with extra charges that quickly add up. In the worst case, you will have to change IPPs and pay heavy setup fees (again.)

Your job is to control these IPP-related costs. You can do this by selecting an IPP first, then building your Web site to use the features that your IPP provides. Your webmaster should guide your choice, but it is up to you to understand what he or she is talking about.

A basic Web site simply gives you some disk space to use and sets a download limit. If you need more disk space or exceed the download limit, you pay extra charges. Since most Web hosts provide at least 10-MB of disk space, you are not likely to need more for a typical stock-photo web site. The download limit refers to the amount of data that the Web host downloads to visitors to your site. If your Web site is 1-MB in size and you have one visitor who views everything, then the host has downloaded about 1-MB of data. If you have ten visitors who view everything, the host must download about 10-MB of data.

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Discuss your design ideas with your webmaster. He or she can estimate the size of your Web pages and the size of your graphics. This will enable you to determine how much disk space and download "bandwidth" you need. For example, my site is hosted by an IPP who offers a basic package and a "power" package. The basic package includes 30-MB of storage and 1-gb (1,000-MB) download bandwidth, for about $20 per month. The power package includes 70-MB of storage and 2-gb download bandwidth, for about $45 per month.