Selecting the right web host - Part 1
by Michael Bloch
Selecting the right web host - Part 1
A recent search on a popular engine with relevant criteria returned millions of results from thousands of organisations offering site storage solutions. There are a myriad of companies out there battling for your business - but some definitely won't have your best interests in mind. Cheap web site hosting doesn't mean the best hosting and neither does signing the dotted line with the most expensive company guarantee you the best service - it's a confusing world of smoke and mirrors.
Beware the host sharks!
The frenzied level of competition between companies has led to a number of hosts using questionable marketing tactics and a heavy load of activity-restricting fine print in their contracts. Many web-hosting companies don't make profits by establishing a solid customer base, but rather by having a high turnover. The more customers they can have signing up and then dropping off, the more dollars they make.
Of course, not all hosting services take this attitude and there are some great companies out there who respect and encourage their clients. These are the companies with the bigger picture in mind and tend to diversify into other areas as they grow, offering their clients more specialized services to select from.
Strategies
Finding these companies amongst the rot is the challenge, especially since many web hosting review sites are far from impartial; many of these sites are just massive paid advertisements.
Many hosting companies offer the world in their solutions, but actually deliver little. Sifting through the fine print of their various "terms and conditions" is a huge task. Many site owners and webmasters may not have weeks to pore through all the information offered to them.
Regardless of how good any hosting service may claims they are, the only way you'll get to understand what they are offering is to ask questions - and then to save the answers for comparison later on. Look for user forums on their sites to get a vibe of how other clients feel about their service. If there's many unanswered posts, time to look elsewhere.
Creating a standard email to send out to hosting companies is the most time efficient way to cut through the hype.
Asking Web Hosts the right questions
But what questions should you ask a hosting service? A great deal depends on the type of web site you have. Even if your site is only a hobby web site - you never know when things may change. One site of mine has experienced a steady double figure percentage growth rate most months for the last 2 years. It isn't an uncommon situation for a well-designed and targeted site to grow from a few visitors a day to hundreds, or even thousands within a short space of time.
Distance is no barrier.
The Internet has decreased distance greatly - in information based services, distance is usually just a psychological barrier now. There is now no need to have your web site hosted in the same country as you are - and actually it could be very expensive to host domestically. The best web hosting deals are still to be found in the United States.
When in doubt - email!
The first step in locating the best and most affordable web hosting company for your needs is to visit your favorite search engine and review web site hosting firms. Start collecting email addresses of the various companies. Briefly look around the site to see if their offer seems interesting. If their site doesn't function correctly, best to move on. Take a look at the company profile, if there isn't one that details the company, click the back button all the way out of the site. The rest of your initial enquiries can be handled via email.
Be straightforward when you send out your email to the hosting companies, let them know that you are shopping around. You can make this clear by putting all the company addresses in the CC field of your email. This strategy will quickly weed out the companies who genuinely want your business and also allow you to easily run through an initial cull. It will also save you valuable hours in research.
The criteria for the first cull is simple - if they don't respond to your enquiry within 24 hours, delete them from your possibilities list. The same goes if they just send you links to promotional material without any personalized message text. To make it more interesting, send your email late on a Saturday night - wherever company is in the world, it will be the weekend.
The idea behind the 24 hour deadline is this - if a web hosting company can't respond with pre-sales questions quickly, it may be an indication of what their customer support quality. Also, many web site hosts don't see the "big picture" - which is a fatal mistake. You may be starting out small, but who knows how big you'll become and how many other people you will refer to their service? A good company recognizes this and reacts appropriately.
In the second part of this article, we'll take a look at the actual questions you can pose to web hosting companies and I'll dispel the "Unlimited Bandwidth" myth.
Michael Bloch
Affiliate Manager
ThinkHost.com
mailto:mbloch@thinkhost.com
http://www.thinkhost.com
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