As a web designer I have experienced the highs and lows of virtual web hosting for both myself and my clients. I believe there are some important factors to watch out for when choosing a web host, and if not paid attention to these factors could cost you some big bucks.
Cheap Does Not Mean Good
When it comes to the internet and getting our feet wet with a new website, we may have a tendency to be tentative and look for the cheapest deal available. This mentality may end up costing you more money in the long run versus investing a few more bucks into a dependable web host. Most of the companies offering an under $5 monthly option are usually larger companies that offer hosting as a sideline item as opposed to the priority.
Tip: Choose a company that has hosting as one of their main products.
Up-Time Is Subjective
Every web hosting company and reseller on the internet boasts of 99.7 percent or better up-time. The problem is that the statement is subjective to the ability of the company to analyze their own servers. Most companies will not include their server maintenance as downtime either. The best testimony to true up-time is reading blogs and articles about the web host. Be sure to read a wide spectrum of testimonials for a web hosting company you are interested in. Web hosting companies often pay bloggers and writers to write articles bloating the excellence about their services.
Tip: Read testimonials that are unbiased and very detailed from a consumer's point of view.
Prioritizing Features
It's important to understand what you really need in a web host for both now and for future growth. Do not limit yourself to a substandard hosting company just because you do not feel like you need less for now because changing web servers can be a hassle. I recommend finding a web host that features Fantastico Script installer as this offers a great amount of self-installing web programs. One feature that people tend to ignore is the outgoing/SMTP limit on the server.How does this affect you? You go to send out your newsletter to your 1,135 subscribers and you find out you can only send 50 every hour and so the newsletter only hits the first fifty people. The problem is you may lose business because you may not know that 1,085 people are not getting your newsletter until 3 months later. Be sure to ask what the daily outgoing limit is and verify that they offer packages for more outgoing emails.
Monthly Billing Says It All
If your working with a web designer who is going to host you then annual hosting is common and just fine, but if you find a web host company on the internet that offers only 3 month or higher packages then this should be a warning flag. I will say this rule of thumb only applies for shared hosting as many dedicated hosting packages are offered with a longer contract. Paying annually is not a problem as most companies will offer significant discounts for longer contracts, but make sure they offer monthly. This lets you know they are not just a small company based out of a garage.
Customer Service in 5 minutes
Call the web hosting company sales line, and then after that call the tech support extension. Their should be no longer than a 5 minute wait time for tech support, but you will notice that calling the sales line will usually get you talking with someone within 30 seconds. How they treat you now will speak volumes about how they will treat you in the future. This may not seem that important because they may offer a control panel online, but when something goes wrong you will need good customer service.
Joshua Moran is the owner of www.joshuamoran.com. Visit some of his article sites and web communities at www.we-bdesign.com and www.conservativevoices.org
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joshua_Moran
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