This is the second of our five-part The Part Time Affiliate Marketer’s Steps to Success series. If you missed it, you can read part one here.

The Internet has made equal opportunity for success a universal reality. Anyone who has a computer and an Internet connection has access to the very same World Wide Web.

Anyone who is willing to invest the few dollars and the time it takes to build a website has the same opportunity to earn money on the World Wide Web. That really is equal opportunity for success!

In Part One of our five-part series, you learned that the first thing you need to achieve your part-time affiliate marketing success is a domain name. In part two, you’ll find out how to get your domain name online so that a global community of web surfers , visit it and buy products from it so that you earn money.

You Need a Web Hosting Service

A webhosting service is what turns your website’s “lights” on. It makes your website accessible on the Internet. The webhosting service you choose is your income power source. So you can see that it’s vitally important that you choose a webhosting service that meets your needs.

There are innumerable webhosting services on the Internet. Two good ones are:

BlueHost: is our number one recommendation. The 24/7 tech support is unmatched.

DreamHost is also an excellent service that meets all of the criteria listed below.

Here are the factors you should consider when choosing your webhosting service:

Amount of web space provided: Know that all webhosting services are not created equal. Sometimes you really do “get what you pay for” and cheap (even “free”) isn’t always a bargain. Choose webhosting with an eye to the future. You might want to expand and then you’ll need more space. Be sure that the webhosting company you choose will provide you with enough space.

Access to FTP (File Transfer Protocol): FTP is what gives you the ability to upload new pages to your website. This might not seem very important in the beginning but as you grow it will become very important. Just be certain that FTP is included in the service.

Reliability, security and access speed: This is a tough one. As far as I know there’s not a way to determine how reliable, secure or speedy webhosting services are before you sign-up for the service.

However, you CAN find out who the hosting service provider is for any website. Relying on your own surfing you can plainly see which websites load quickly, which websites are down often, etc. So copy the URL of sites that are slow to load or often down and plug the URL into the useful and FREE tool you’ll find at Who Is Hosting This.

Support: Choose a webhosting service that offers 24/7 live technical support. Nothing less is good enough. If you have questions or technical problems, you need answers NOW.

The webhosting service you choose can have a profound effect on the success (or failure) of your affiliate marketing endeavors. So choose carefully and choose wisely.

Tomorrow in Part Three of our five-part series, The Part Time Affiliate Marketer’s Steps to Success, you’ll learn how to construct your online home.

• NOTE: Even though Lurn, Inc. receives compensation for products and services promoted in our blog posts, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences about those products and services.