Provide A Good Home For Your Website
Selecting a web hosting company is like sending one of your children off to college. You may have complete confidence in your son or daughter’s abilities but unless they are placed in the proper environment they will not have the opportunity to thrive. Likewise, no matter how sophisticated or impressive the website you have designed may be, if you do not place the site where it can perform optimally you will likely be disappointed in the results.
Selecting web hosting is not simply finding a place where your website can reside. It is finding the company that offers the resources that will allow your website to operate effectively and to grow as the business or public demands. This means that you must be able to store and transfer enough data so that your site functions smoothly but also remains affordable.
Free web hosting services normally require that you allow ads to be placed on your site. These generate revenue for the hosting company by enabling them to display ads to visitors to your website. Only you can determine if the ads are appropriate for visitors to your site. In addition you will have to decide if the amount of storage and the available bandwidth will be sufficient for the type of website that you want to display. A free service may be completely appropriate for a personal website that is periodically modified. But trying to operate a site with significant traffic or a commercial focus may be “penny wise and pound foolish.”
All commercial web hosting companies are not created equal. Of course, cost is an issue but reliability and service will likely be major factors in the decision making process. You should expect your host to be up and functioning 100% of the time but you will likely only see guarantees of 99-99.5% uptime. Less than this is unacceptable.
If you will personally be managing much of the activity for your site, make sure that you are comfortable with the Control Panel. Some hosts present Control Panels that are cumbersome and complicated. You want to easily navigate through routine functions.
You will also want to make sure that the hosting company has functionality that you may not be using now but will likely use in the future. These would include PHP, MySQL, SSI, .htaccess, SSL, etc. Examine the offers for email and autoresponders also.
Many web hosting services offer very low rates if you commit to a year or more of hosting. While this may turn out to be an excellent value in the long term, it may be advisable to pay each month until you are confident in the service and, quite importantly, the quality of the technical support that they provide. Getting accurate responses to questions quickly will make your life as a webmaster less stressful.
©Copyright 2004 Online Enterprises
About the author: Terry McDermott is an Internet marketing professional managing a portfolio of websites. He has had adventures with a variety of web hosts and now operates his own hosting website at http://www.alphawebhosting.com. He can be reached at info@alphawebhosting.com
Tags: Web Hosting, website hostingWhy Ignoring the Unlimited Hosting Plan is the Smart Way to Go
Anyone in the market for a Web site host has certainly come across a hosting company offering unlimited bandwidth and unlimited disk space as part of their hosting packages. How do they do this? How physically, can they offer unlimited disk space when each server has a finite amount of disk space available for use? Perhaps more importantly, how can they offer unlimited bandwidth when the Internet does indeed have limitations?
Some consumers see the term unlimited and assume that that they can’t go wrong. This is merely a marketing ploy just like unlimited minutes on your cell phone or unlimited trips to the salad bar. At some point, there will be a limit. And in most cases, it’ll cost you.
So why are unlimited plans even around? Because there are still consumers that just don’t know enough about Web hosting and assume that bigger is better. They generally see a low cost plan (sometimes under $10/month, watch out!) and don’t think twice. If you have a business Web site, the least you should be paying for quality Web hosting is $20 per month.
However, if you decide to go that route, be sure to read the fine print. Unlimited hosting packages generally have terms dictating that when you reach a certain point, they can either raise the cost of hosting drastically or even shut down your Web site! Remember, they’re in business to make money and aren’t going to run their business at a loss to simply retain your business.
So what can you do to avoid a hosting nightmare? First, find a hosting company where you can actually talk to a live person. This may sound obvious, but many large hosting providers only offer technical support via email with up to 24-hour response times. If your site goes down, are you willing to wait 24 hours for a response? Check to see if they even list a phone number on their Web site. Many large hosting providers don’t and consumers don’t even think to look for it until something is wrong with their site.
Second, discuss your needs with the Web hosting company. While most companies have set packages, some will be willing to customize hosting plans so that you only pay for the services you need. If a host isn’t willing to discuss the needs of your site with you, how helpful are they going to be as your site expands and your requirements increase?
Finally, plan for your growth. Don’t simply choose the cheapest plan because it meets your current needs. Assume that your Web site is going to increase its traffic over time and be sure that when it does, there are no hassles or downtime. Pay a little bit more if you have to because in Web site hosting especially, you get what you pay for.
If you have a Web site for your business, Web hosting is the most critical aspect because without it, your site is useless. Knowing that your hosting provider is dependable and responsive can make all the difference because ideally, the only time you ever really need to talk to them is when something is wrong. It all comes down to the idea that if they’re willing to be deceitful to get your business by offering an unlimited plan, how can you be confident that they’ll be honest when you need them the most? Taking time to select the right host can make all the difference and let’s face it, while there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth and unlimited disk space, there also is no such thing as 100% uptime. You’ll need your host, so choose wisely.
WebSolutions is a professional Web site design, development, and hosting company based near Chicago. Their expertise in eCommerce has been highlighted in print and television and their custom developed solutions and pre-built shopping cart application (The Marketplace) has been successful for businesses nationwide. Jon Kee handles all sales and marketing related activities for WebSolutions and can be reached by phone at 630.375.6833 or email @ sales@wsol.com. Visit us online: http://www.wsol.com
Tags: ecommerce hosting, unlimited web hosting, Web Hosting, web site hosting, website hostingBest Web Hosting Company - Find The Most Affordable Host
If you’re creating a community web site or a business web site, one of the first things on your agenda will be finding good, dependable, affordable web hosting for your site. In most cases, a free hosting service isn’t going to work. You’ll quickly discover that there’s a wide range of prices in what’s considered affordable, and in what services come with your web hosting package.
What to look for in an affordable web hosting package
Before you make any decisions, it’s important that you know what you’ll need. Sit down and plan what you’ll be using your web site for, and what your server will need to provide for you in order for you to do it. As an example, if you plan to host a web-based community forum, you’ll probably need a web host that provides PHP and an SQL database. If, on the other hand, you’re planning on running Active Server Pages, or .NET applications, you’ll need a server running Windows rather than a UNIX or Linux code base.
Know what you’re looking for before you start looking. It will be far easier than having to change once you get started.
Watch Out for A La Carte Plans
Add-ons can turn an affordable web hosting package into an expensive proposition before you know it. Most hosting packages will allow you to add on a la carte items as you need them, but it can get pricey quickly. If the web host you choose charges a setup fee for the shopping cart you didn’t think you’d need, it could easily be the equivalent of several month’s hosting fees. Instead, you should decide what you’ll need, then get more than you think you’ll use.
Even the cheapest web host should provide 24/7 support.
Ideally, your web hosting provider should acknowledge any request for help within an hour with an estimated time of completion. They should provide you with a searchable knowledge base and tutorials to guide you through most common tasks you’ll need to do, and support desk help should be available to you online at all times.
No matter how low cost a web host is, if it’s not working, then you’re paying too much. Before you sign with a web hosting provider, monitor them for a while, or ask around on forums about their record. A hosting service MUST be reliable. A hosting service that can’t keep your site online and available will only lose you business and money.
To view our top recommended companies for web hosting, visit: Recommended Web Hosting Companies Online.
Carrie Reeder is the owner of eZerk, an
informational website with articles and the latest news about various topics, including web hosting.