Web Hosting - What to Look for in a Good Hosting Package
Don't believe for a minute that having a good web host isn't vital to your online business.
If you get a cheap web host, your site may spend an excessive amount of downtime that is crucial to your business.
You should research different hosting companies and find which package and which company best suits your needs.
Whenever I started my online businesses 2½ years ago, I decided on a cheap web host.
When that company folded my websites were gone.
That added up to about $30,000 worth of revenue: Finding a new host.
Rebuild databases and websites.
Re-establish e-mail addresses.
Paying my developers for their services and my staff who worked almost around the clock for 3 weeks.
Countless e-mails and orders lost.
These are the guidelines I use when deciding on a hosting company: Reliability: Your host has to be reliable.
You cannot afford to have downtime.
Downtime can ruin a good business because people can't depend on you.
Remember the story about the gas station that never had gas.
Within 6 months, they lost all of their customers because they were undependable.
Good customer support: If you have technical problems, you need to know that you have a competent team of support who can walk you through your problem and assist as needed.
Set up fee: Plainly said, some hosting companies charge a set up fee.
However, these fees are unnecessary.
If a host wants to do business with you, they will waive the set up fees.
Backing up files: Does the hosting company backup files and how often? This is very important because in the unlikely event of a complete system failure on your server, you want to insure that your work is saved and can be restored.
FTP access: Some find FTP access in the control panel useful.
I am not for or against this service, since your browser allows ftp connections as well.
It is also recommended to use a third party program for FTP access as it will run a lot faster.
I recommend SmartFTP.
A good number of email addresses: Does your hosting package include e-mail addresses? My first host charged an additional $4 for 1 address or $10 for 10 addresses.
I don't recommend a company like this.
It is always best to choose a host that includes a set amount of email addresses in your packge.
Bandwidth (traffic): Your host will allow a certain amount of downloading from your server, i.
e.
pages loading, or even file transfers.
Most starting packages allow between 2Gb and 5Gb per month.
If you go over the amount, usually you are charged a small fee.
Extra services: Look into what the price includes.
It may include additional services that could be beneficial to your business.
Price: As a general rule, most hosting is between $2.
95 all the way to $49.
95 per month depending on what you need.
Usually the pricier packages include a full-dedicated server.
Cpanel: allows you to manage your web hosting from one location.
It usually includes web stats and web mail.
Check your host connection speed: It is doubly important that they have a fast connection.
If your traffic is loading from dial-up the server speed will speed the load time in their browser.
Since over half of the people on the internet are still on dial-up it is beneficial that your page load as fast as possible.
Knowing these points will enable you to pick the best web hosting company for you.
If you get a cheap web host, your site may spend an excessive amount of downtime that is crucial to your business.
You should research different hosting companies and find which package and which company best suits your needs.
Whenever I started my online businesses 2½ years ago, I decided on a cheap web host.
When that company folded my websites were gone.
That added up to about $30,000 worth of revenue: Finding a new host.
Rebuild databases and websites.
Re-establish e-mail addresses.
Paying my developers for their services and my staff who worked almost around the clock for 3 weeks.
Countless e-mails and orders lost.
These are the guidelines I use when deciding on a hosting company: Reliability: Your host has to be reliable.
You cannot afford to have downtime.
Downtime can ruin a good business because people can't depend on you.
Remember the story about the gas station that never had gas.
Within 6 months, they lost all of their customers because they were undependable.
Good customer support: If you have technical problems, you need to know that you have a competent team of support who can walk you through your problem and assist as needed.
Set up fee: Plainly said, some hosting companies charge a set up fee.
However, these fees are unnecessary.
If a host wants to do business with you, they will waive the set up fees.
Backing up files: Does the hosting company backup files and how often? This is very important because in the unlikely event of a complete system failure on your server, you want to insure that your work is saved and can be restored.
FTP access: Some find FTP access in the control panel useful.
I am not for or against this service, since your browser allows ftp connections as well.
It is also recommended to use a third party program for FTP access as it will run a lot faster.
I recommend SmartFTP.
A good number of email addresses: Does your hosting package include e-mail addresses? My first host charged an additional $4 for 1 address or $10 for 10 addresses.
I don't recommend a company like this.
It is always best to choose a host that includes a set amount of email addresses in your packge.
Bandwidth (traffic): Your host will allow a certain amount of downloading from your server, i.
e.
pages loading, or even file transfers.
Most starting packages allow between 2Gb and 5Gb per month.
If you go over the amount, usually you are charged a small fee.
Extra services: Look into what the price includes.
It may include additional services that could be beneficial to your business.
Price: As a general rule, most hosting is between $2.
95 all the way to $49.
95 per month depending on what you need.
Usually the pricier packages include a full-dedicated server.
Cpanel: allows you to manage your web hosting from one location.
It usually includes web stats and web mail.
Check your host connection speed: It is doubly important that they have a fast connection.
If your traffic is loading from dial-up the server speed will speed the load time in their browser.
Since over half of the people on the internet are still on dial-up it is beneficial that your page load as fast as possible.
Knowing these points will enable you to pick the best web hosting company for you.
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