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Choosing A Domain Host
Due to the numerous types of Web Hosting companies that exist today, choosing the right one can sometimes be a daunting task. In making a decision on what is a 'fair' price, there are so many factors involved that it is difficult to pin-point an...
Choosing a web host based on price
Choosing a web host based on price?
3 reasons why price should not dictate the web host you choose
By David Leonhardt
It's tempting. There are so many companies offering cut-rate hosting – loaded with astounding...
Choosing a Web Host Based On Price? Don't!
It's tempting. There are so many companies offering cut-rate hosting – loaded with astounding post-futuristic techno-gizmo features ! – that it just makes sense to save a few dollars, right? Think again. First, consider how much you would...
.Htaccess
A .htaccess file is a file that works on Apache and other NCSA-compliant webservers. The name is actually a bit of a misnomer due to the fact that hyper-text access is only a small function of what it's capabilities are.
The .htaccess file...
Internet Privacy: Opting Out
Europeans sometimes seem to be much more ethical than Americans (and I am an American; well, a Californian, a state which, like Texas, sometimes views itself as a separate country), at least when it comes to privacy. This higher standard of...
Learning HTML & HTML Editors
Learning HTML & HTML Editors by Kalina of Affordable Web Design
I hold a firm belief that all webmasters should practice validating their code, so all advice I give in this site will be centered around that belief.
If you'd like to...
Make Your Web Site User-Friendly
Making a web site is easy. Making a good web site is not so
Many people have email newsletter as a addition of their web site. They want to retain their visitors by offering them to subscribe to their newsletter. This way they ensure that they...
Spice Up Your Web Site with JavaScript
JavaScript is a scripting language designed for use within a web page and/or on a web server. It is used to create special effects within a web page. Elements such as links, images and forms can be manipulated using this powerful technology. ...
TEN Awesome ways to incease Your sales in Holidays!
How to increase youir sales using these ten tips.
Everybody thinks that the businesses will slow down a bit in holiday seasons. Ofcourse everybody think that people don't want to start new ventures in holidays.
But that is not true....
Why Aren't You Using CGI
The very name CGI used to send chills up my spine. For years I put it in the 'too-hard-basket'. But like most things in life, CGI is not as scary as it seems. If you have a cgi directory on your website and you know how to FTP files, chances are you...
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How to Choose a Web Host
Choosing a web hosting company to host your website isn't easy these days. There are literally thousands of web hosting companies to choose from, each offering different combinations of web space, bandwidth, extras (such as databases, asp, php, cgi, free scripts), and customer support. Some companies lure customers with extremely low prices on the physical assets like space and bandwidth. In return, however, most customers of these extremely low-priced companies get poor - if any - customer and technical support. In the hosting business, as with everything else, you usually get what you pay for.
So how do you determine the web hosting company that's right for your website? Having been in the hosting business for several years, I've often had friends and acquaintances ask me, in so many words, this very question. I always suggest that they first sit down and simply write out what they think their website (whether for a company or personal) will need. Do they need a database? If so, what kind of database do they want, MySQL or something else? Likewise, do they need support for PHP, CGI, ASP, or some other programming language? If you have certain scripts you'd like to use on your website, these questions can be very important. Also think about exactly how much space your website is going to need - not necessarily right now, but perhaps five years down the road after you've expanded a bit. The same thing goes for bandwidth, or transfer. You want to secure enough space and bandwidth now so that you do not have to switch hosts, or pay a premium for extra services, in the future.
On the topic of bandwidth and storage space, there is an important financial lesson I'd like to impart. Although you want to make sure you have enough of both for the foreseeable future, you don't want to pay for lots and lots of bandwidth and storage space, month after month, that you will never actually use. For instance, there are many hosting companies out there who are now offering 5+ GB of space and perhaps 100 GB of bandwidth from $7 - $10 a month. This may seem like a pretty good deal. However, if you are only going to use perhaps 100 MB of space, and 10 GB of transfer, then you are wasting money! You can find a nice 500MB / 20GB plan for under $5 per month. This is where planning really comes into play; know how much space and bandwidth you will need before you go looking for a host.
Many hosting
companies, big and small, are offering 24/7 technical and customer support these days. Be very weary of these claims. Most companies that claim 24/7 support don't really live up to expectations. In addition, a 1-800 number does not guarantee that someone will actually answer you phone call, or even be helpful. Look for a company that has a good, honest support structure set up with a variety of support options: support tickets, live support chat, e-mail support, and perhaps phone support as well. My own web hosting company, for instance, has everything but phone support. We are still capable of answering inquiries within minutes. If you are considering a particular web host, the best thing you can do to evaluate their support is simply send them an e-mail or open a support ticket and see how long it takes them to respond to your inquiry. If it takes more than 24 hours, that's probably a bad sign.
In order to substantiate the credibility of your potential web hosting company, I suggest looking for some type of customer testimonials on their webpage. If they list the customer's website or e-mail address, go the extra step and contact at least one of the customers. They will be able to confirm that they are real customers and let you know about their experiences with the given company. If they have no testimonials, or the testimonial listings do not contain a means of contacting the customers, do a search on the company using a big search engine like Google and Yahoo!. Look for forums and other webpages that may contain customer feedback about your company. Many times, customers that have either had a very bad or very good experience with a hosting company will go onto at least one webmaster forum and tell others about their experience. Looking up these comments is a good way to get a third-party assessment of a particular hosting company.
If you follow these bits of advice I am certain you will find a reliable, affordable hosting company that is right for your website. If nothing else, you could give my hosting company (SitePhase.com) a look and compare it to other companies offering similar plans. Whatever company you decide to go with, I wish you the best of luck!
About the Author
Matt Smith is the co-owner of SitePhase Web Hosting (http://www.sitephase.com). SitePhase offers affordable and reliable web hosting solutions starting at $2.95/ month.
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