|
|
Choosing a Web Hosting Provider from 40 Million Other Web Hosts - Pt1
Discover how to go about choosing a web hosting provider in ways that 99.5% of the advice on the Internet never mention.
If you struggle with finding good web hosting then using the process I describe could be the answer to one of the biggest problems you can face as a webmaster.
But first I'd like to give you an idea on the scale of the problem in choosing a good web hosting provider. A search on Google for the exact phrase " web hosting " returns over 32 Million results and " web hosting provider " or " web hosting company " produces around 800,000 results.
An IP survey by www.netcraft.com in 2003 found over 40 million web hosts.
Whether you want to believe Google's 32 Million web hosts or Netcraft's 40 Million, it gives some indication of just how many web hosting provider 's there are to choose from.
Google has over 7,800 sites offering advice on " How to choose a web host. "
But to be frank a lot of advice on the Internet is from sites promoting web hosting provider 's and resellers, which means it's not without bias.
If you think " web hosting review sites " are a good source of advice, try choosing one from over 6,000 listed by Google. Consider also that many are affiliated to the web hosts they recommend. This can mean not only do they get a sign-up commission, but a regular monthly fee for as long as a customer remains with the web host.
Much of the advice about choosing a web hosting provider talks about how much disk space or bandwidth you need, what type of server to use, or the features you should look for.
It's important stuff but it doesn't help in choosing a good web hosting provider.
I say this because disk space and bandwidth are today largely a non-issue, since most web hosting provider's are competing to offer so much of it, you'd need to have a website the size of CNN's to use it all.
As for the features offered by web hosts, there's often little to choose between them, they all generally offer enough of the basics for most websites. If you're looking for enhanced features like a website builder, adding a shopping cart, taking secure payments or promoting your website then these additional features might influence your choice.
But as a web hosting provider, you still don't know if they're any good.
At this point some of you may be thinking you'd read the other customers testimonials, or go to some of the website forums to see what other people have experienced with this host, or post a question to ask for advice.
Well again a word of caution, many forums are also the hangouts for people selling web hosting, so they frequently post replies or offer advice acting like the ordinary Joe. This means the advice can be biased toward or against a particular web hosting provider. One forum you could try that's dedicated to issues with web hosting is Web Hosting Talk
Oh! Let's not forget " Testimonials. " When was the last time you saw a customer testimonial on the sellers web site that said anything bad about the service or product they provide ? I have only ever seen it once in the past 5 years and then not for a web hosting provider.
I've had web sites hosted with dozens of web hosting provider 's and made 100's of inquiries to other web hosting companies that I never even got close to the point of signing up with. I've moved some websites two or three times in less than two weeks because a web hosting provider is unable or unwilling to solve problems, or whose server configuration is unable to support the scripts my site needed.
It was after many years of suffering bad web hosts, I finally decided to work out a process that gave me a better chance of finding a good web hosting provider.
It's a bit like taking out insurance, you don't know what the insurance company is like until you need to make a claim. As a matter of interest I did an exact search for insurance against bad web hosting and there were no results.
Obviously no one is providing insurance against bad web hosting, which must mean it's too much of a risk.
I don't even consider my sites to require anything special or more than any other typical business website. Yet despite all my experience, finding a good web hosting provider is still one of the most difficult website challenges.
You'll find the exact step by step process in the 2nd part of this article at : www.webpageaddons.com Choosing a Web Hosting Provider from 40 Million Other Web Hosts - Pt2
Of course no process is full-proof and it does not mean that the web hosting you find through the search engine filtering and techniques I suggest are the only web hosts capable of providing the services you're looking for.
You should also not assume because your Google Advanced Search was for web hosting provider 's with selected features that the sites you are reviewing are guaranteed to have those features.
Check every site on your short list, since search engine's are far from perfect.
What it does mean is that by using my suggested techniques you are selecting those web hosts who considered things like support, sufficiently important to want to be found for them on Google. Other web hosts may have good support, but the difference is that in your search you did not find them listed for this term.
It could mean support's not that important to them, even though they provide it.
It's also worth mentioning that the price of web hosting is not an indicator of the quality of the service. Some lower cost web hosting provider 's can give a far better service than some medium cost ones.
Conclusions
Using a six stage process I was able to choose from 40 million web hosting provider 's, a short list of 15 web hosts that met my selection criteria. With a further six stage process I was able to reduce the number of possible web hosting provider 's down to a choice of 2.
In the final stage the web hosting provider 's were both asked a number of general and technical questions that resulted in the final choice. Whilst the process is not full-proof I am yet to find a better devised way of choosing a good web hosting provider.
Tony Simpson, Advises on Website Design, Promotion and Optimization. The selection process in this article is covered in detail in: Choosing a Web Hosting Provider from 40 Million Other Web Hosts - Pt2
Managed Hosting
Managed hosting is a dedicated server that is accompanied by a full suite of technical support, maintenance and monitoring services. This differs from dedicated Web hosting, where customers are provided with their own servers but are still responsible for virtually all administrative and maintenance duties.
Dedicated Web Hosting Is Easy When You Know These 3 Timesaving Secrets
Dedicated web hosting has its difficulties and problems from time to time like all technology. However, there are certain things you can do to prepare yourself for any server downtime or other problems that might arise. The key, however, to these tips is that you are aware of them before the problem occurs rather than afterwards. The following three timesaving tips will help you with your dedicated web hosting and save you a lot of time.
How To Change Your Web Hosting Provider ? Step-By-Step Guide
Whether you are disgruntled with the level of service your current web hosting provider, or you have discovered a provider that offers you better deal, or your online business has simply outgrown your present provider, any reason is as good as any for changing your web hosting provider. The only concern is how to switch your web site from a web host to another in the right way and no or as little aggravations as possible.
Monitor Your Web Site for Downtime
For those in the Internet business the availability of their web site is a major concern. The cost of downtime for web businesses can amount to $10,000 an hour. And this is without counting the losses caused by missed opportunities and lost sales. Losses in image and credibility these businesses suffer because eventual downtime is even harder to quantify.
Setting up Your Personal Server
There are many things to consider when setting up your own server. We wouln't encourage a novice for the job. Seek help from web professionals if you have any queries. Here are some web hosting factors to consider when setting up your personal server:
Demand Unlimited Auto-Responders with Your Hosting Accounting
AutoResponders are nifty scripts that run in your web server 24/7 serving immediate email responses to questions, support and sales. Think about this, your customer comes to your website and spends a round 200$ to get your product. And after the payment they don't get back any response for the next 10 hours, would they like it? No, and this is more damaging if they have requested some additional pre-sales information and don't receive any notification in the next 1 hour. In this Internet world, your competitor is just a click away. Your customer goes back to the search results and clicks the next website that gives a similar product. Lost sales, and more money in your competitor's hands! This is twice the loss as the competitor is going to spend a percentage of the money in advertising the product or building a better product. Auto responders help reduce this possibility by carefully scripting the follow up messages based on the incoming queries your pre-sales information can be safely and securely delivered without delays. This translates into better sales.
The #1 Factor New Webmasters Forget to Consider when Choosing a Web Hosting Plan
The Problem
Advanced Hosting for the Mission Critical Web Presence
As companies that conduct their business online have proliferated, hosting of those websites that provide the primary point of contact for transaction of business has become highly mission critical; having these sites go offline or perform poorly not only loses revenue but also detracts from the company's image and loses customer loyalty.
Buyer Beware: Web Hosting, Registration, and Site Building All in One Package Nightmares
Starting out in any type of online marketing or Internet business can be confusing and overwhelming. There are so many different aspects of a start-up: domain name registration and purchase, Web site host purchasing, and of course, the "building" of the Web site itself. This leaves many consumers looking for an easier way to purchase everything in one place, both to save money and to save time.
Top 10 Web Hosting Blunders and How to Avoid Them
Consider the following web hosting blunders and do not allow yourself to make these mistakes that can have a seriously negative impact on your website.
Transferring Your Existing Website to a New Hosting Provider
You've already got a website, but your current hosting provider can no longer meet your needs, provide adequate service, costs too much, or is going out of business. You need to move your website to a new host. How do you do this? This situation arises all the time, but many people don't know where to begin. This guide is designed to help you understand what is involved in a hosting transfer so that you can transition from one host to another as smoothly as possible.
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.
Free Or Not Free -- Its Your Choice
The internet is one of the world's top sources of information, products and just about anything else you could possibly want. And, if you have spent any amount of time online, you must have noticed that much of it is free.
4 Critical Things To Look Out For In A Web Hosting Service
1. The reputation of the web hosting company.
Shared Web Hosting Service Explained!
The next concern for you after designing and developing web pages is to get your web site hosted on the Internet. But with so many web hosting companies offering various types of web hosting packages ? shared web hosting, dedicated web hosting, managed web hosting, which type of hosting should you choose?
Choosing Your Web Hosting Reseller Software
As a web host reseller, one of your most important business decisions is your choice of web hosting control panel software. The web hosting software you use will save or cost you time, money, and frustration. What reseller control panel features will reduce your workload? What hosting software programs are integrated with the reseller control panel or work with it? What website control panel features will your clients like? In this article, we've compared four quality web hosting reseller software programs:
A Simple Guide to Web Hosting
Personal Computers, Servers Or ISP?
Free Web Hosting Tips
1. The reliability of the service and their offers.
What is a Web Host Reseller Account?
A web host reseller account is a web hosting account that allows you to create hosting packages to sell to your clients. You can also host multiple sites of your own using the disk space allotted to the one hosting account.
What Is Web Hosting?
Many businesses, from one-man-bands to multi-national corporations, have a web-presence these days. i.e. They have a website telling their customers about their companies: what they do, where they're based, their company history, how they're different from their competitors, etc. Many of these businesses also sell products and/or services online.