Choosing a web hosting company is a very personal decision based on your own
unique needs. Web hosting is what places your website into the World Wide
Web, where anyone can access to it 24 hours a day. In other words, without
placing your site onto a web hosting service, you won't get the visibility
you want. Most small business owners will most likely go through a web hosting
company rather than invest in acquiring their own servers, which is very
expensive and difficult. On top of the expense that is involved with having
your own server, you need to have a strong educational background to be able
to deal with the technical aspects of implementing your own server, or having
your own technical computer staff on hand to deal with the process. (And
those programmers don't come cheap either!) If you're a new online
business or looking for ways to expand your market reach, web hosting is
definitely the way to go.
Which web hosting
service do you select? There are two key things to keep in mind when you
begin your search for an appropriate web hosting service: (1) Find a web
hosting company that meets your needs for today, (2) Make sure that this
web hosting company you choose can grow with you as your business expands.
Another important factor you want to know up front about hosting services,
is that once you choose one, and decide it doesn't pan out for you,
to switch to another service will be a very painful and a lengthy process.
It's just not worth the mistake to make!
Check out these
tips in how you can select a web hosting service that has the most qualities
such as flexibility, service, and growth capabilities along with a strong
background in technical abilities that you're seeking, at a price you
can afford.
Shop and Research
Do your surfing on the net. Shop around and compare the services between the
different web hosting services. Ask other businesses what hosting companies
they're using. Make sure you check out businesses that have made
statements in testimonials about the particular web hosting company they're
using. Follow up by contacting them and have a series of questions to ask,
and see how they respond to your questions in regards to those services.
Still don't know where to start? Check out the web hosting directories
on the net, which will save you hoards of time, because the real good ones
will be the ones on the first, few pages, www.webhostingrebates.com could
be a good place to start.
Cost and Fees of
Web Hosting
This is a pretty good area to begin as well. You need to know what you've
set aside to pay for this service, since it's a vital part of your business,
therefore, it needs to be part of your marketing plan. Make sure when you're
doing your homework on web hosting services, get a clear cut picture of what
the fees and upfront cost of everything you can possibly think of. For example,
is there a set up fee? Are there extra fees for having a ‘secure transaction' feature?
Will it be extra to have multiple URL's? Auto-responders, additional
email addresses, how much more will it cost to upgrade to a better plan? Once
you decide, just have it in writing and be specific as possible as what your
expectations are from any particular web hosting service. You should know exactly
what you're shelling out for.
Contract Length
Many web hosting companies will offer a cheaper rate for longer contract timeframes.
If you decide to go with a two-year contract, since they know they're
getting a commitment from you, may offer you a deal. The only risk with
that, if you find that you're not pleased with their service...it
may be tough to get out of a contract you are obligated to follow through
the duration of the contract. Just be clear about the length of your commitment
and how often you are required to pay on your contract. Some do it monthly,
quarterly or bi-monthly. I would recommend that when starting out, hoping
you never change web hosting services, that you settle on a one-year contract.
Just understand what you're getting into before you sign any dotted
line.
Disk Space
Depending on the type of site and business you're in will determine how
much disk space will be required for your website to function properly. You
can pretty much estimate your disk space needs on the amount of space your
site takes on your own computer. The reason why this is important to know,
is for example, if you're an online store that offers free movie downloads,
you will need lots of space for all those large video files.
Assess Service
and Support
A good web hosting company will have excellent customer service and a support
center where you can call to trouble shoot your concerns about your site. Without
good customer support, you can smell trouble for yourself and your business
down the road. You don't want to ultimately hamper your business growth
because you overlooked on customer care and technical support from your web
hosting company. A good way to test web-hosting services, before you make that
splurge, is to send them a test email, and see how quickly and professionally
they respond to your email. Make sure you send out emails on weekends and evenings
to see if they respond to those off-peak inquiries. Think about it, you're
not going to run into problems only from Monday through Friday, from 9 to 5,
right? See how accessible and how they address issues that may arise during
the off-hours is a good way to see how serious they are about customer care
and support. There should be a technical support phone number on their site,
and some hosting companies do not list their phone numbers...so who do
you call when you're site is down? Not those ones! I think you get the
gist of that one.
Traffic and Files
Traffic (also called data transfer or throughput) is the combined size of all
the files transferred from your web-hosting computer to your customer's
browsers. Depending on the traffic that comes to your site, and how much
detailing is involved in your html pages, determines how much the cost
of traffic fees you will be expected to pay. For example, adult sites usually
generate much traffic, and because of this, many web site hosting companies
have special and inflated pricing plans for these sites to handle the number
of visitors hitting on the sites.
Email Accounts
and Auto Responders
You should know how many email accounts you can have on the same domain name,
where you would have one email account that allows customers or visitors to
email you, another email account for another department such as billing or
accounting, one for each of the number of staff you have on hand. Make sure
that they give you enough accounts, and what the additional fees are to add
on new ones if you're staff base grows or you end up creating new departments
within your company. This type of email address will reflect your company,
www.companyname.com. It is important that you use your own domain name for
all your mail. Do not use another source such as hotmail.com or AOL.com for
your business emails. (It looks like you're a very inexperienced website
business owner, doing things half-assed!) Pardon my French. Auto responders
are emails that are sent back automatically to the user that has a standard
response to anyone who queries them. It can be a simple message such as, "We've
received your email and we are currently looking into your request. You will
be notified shortly with assistance." Sometimes auto responders are used
for specific things, such as if you requested a pricing list, documentation,
product specifications and photos, you would have a separate email account
for each subject, and if a visitor inquired about one of these categories,
and the auto responder would immediately send them a spec sheet within 5 minutes
or less. The possibilities are endless with auto-responders, and it's
a nice quick feature that meets the customer's needs right away. Find
out how many auto responders are included in your package, and what the additional
fees are for more.
CGI Scripts
CGI=Common Gateway Interface are small programming scripts that add functionality
and interactivity to your web pages. Most hosting companies have libraries
of standard CGI scripts you can use for free. Many web hosting companies
will not allow you to input your own scripts, so if this is a specific
area where you have some scripts that you would like implemented, then
you obviously will need to locate a web hosting company that will allow
you the flexibility to do so.
Monthly and Daily
Usage Statistics
This is the standard service of good web hosting companies. Run clear of any
web- hosting companies that aren't providing this basic service. Although
each web hosting company has their own format and styles in how it's
presented, you will have to do some research to find which ones will be the
most useful and beneficial to your business plan.
Upgrades
Make sure that the web hosting company can upgrade your plan as your business
grows. If you get big, some web hosting companies may not be able to handle
your account on their servers. This is important to find out how reliable
their servers are and what their capabilities are in regards to how many
accounts and/or websites are they handling at any given time.
References and
Check those References
Get at least 3-5 references of online businesses that are using the web hosting
company you're considering and find out exactly how they feel about that
particular web hosting company. This will be your saving grace. Don't
skip this process.
You now have a
serious decision to make about which web hosting service to go with. With
these handy tips and questions in your hands, you should be able to find
one that fits nicely within your budget and meets your business needs. It's
important that you find a happy home for your website, and establishing yourself
as a real online business entrepreneur is a good place to start. As a matter
of fact, it's the only place to start.
Story Description
Ensuring that you choose a reliable web-hosting provider should be your number
one priority. Selecting the right web host provider will be one of the
most important decisions you will ever make. The wrong host can have a
very devastating impact on your business and let's make sure that
you understand everything you need to know hot to go about picking the
right web host provider so you may never find out the hard way.
How do I relate
to the story?
Contacts and talking with people along the way have given me the opportunity
to become acquainted with their horror web hosting provider experiences with
some unfortunate consequences. There is so much detail and continuing education
revolving around selecting the appropriate web host provider that emphasizes
how important it is to gather the right facts and questions to begin your research. | 
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