What Every Marketer Needs To Know About Web Hosting
Choosing your web hosting provider is the next logical step
after you have registered your domain name. However, it is not
easy to find the right web hosting deal. There are many
companies that offer web hosting services. If you make a search
on Google for the keyword web hosting you will get more than 100
million results!
If you want to have a successful online presence you need to
have reliable web hosting. Your web site has to be always online
and accessible. Otherwise, you will loose clients and prospects.
Let's compare this with a traditional business. If you have a
shop in "offline" business name of the shop is your domain name
and business space and infrastructure is your web hosting.
Imagine a cafe that don't have electricity once a day for one
hour or a fast food service where there is only one employee
instead of four!
WEB HOSTING TYPES
You have to choose your web hosting deal depending on type of
your site. You won't choose the same web hosting deal if you
have a personal web site, web site for email newsletter
subscription and archives, e-commerce site or web forum. There
are 4 main web hosting: virtual (shared) hosting, dedicated
server, collocation server and reseller hosting. The two most
used are virtual (shared) hosting and dedicated server.
Virtual (shared) hosting is the situation where many web sites
reside on one web server. This is the cheapest web hosting
because many users split the cost for web server. You can find
quality virtual hosting from $100 per year.
Dedicated server represents a hosting where company lease the
whole web server from web hosting company. That web server is
located in the web hosting company. Dedicated server is the
right choice for company that doesn't want to share there server
with other users. Dedicated server can be managed and
un-managed. In the first case web hosting company will take care
about setting up and constant updates and upgrades of your web
server while you will have to do that in the second case.
Advantage of this type of web hosting is that you can completely
accommodate your web hosting to your needs. Also, dedicated
server is the only logical choice for web sites with lots of
visitors. Because of costs for a dedicated server that start
from $100 per month, usually this hosting is chosen only by
companies which take their Internet business very seriously.
Collocation server is similar to dedicated server. Difference is
that company doesn't lease a web server. They place their own
web server in the web hosting company. Also, company has
physical access to their web server while it is not the case in
using a dedicated server.
Reseller hosting is targeted to companies that want to start
their own web hosting business.
Useful web site where you can find a web hosting that will fit
your needs is http://www.webhost.thelist.com
FACTORS YOU HAVE TO CONSIDER
You have to take several factors in consideration in order to be
satisfied with your web hosting.
Web space
Web space is determined by the type of your site. Certainly, if
you want to have a web site with basic information about
yourself and your work without using web applications that 50 MB
of web space will be enough. On the other hand, if you want to
have complex e-commerce site with several thousand products in
your database or web site with members, you don't have to take
anything less than 1 GB.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth represents data that has been transferred from your
web site and that include graphic details, images, banners,
files for download etc. Content is very important for planning
your bandwidth. For most sites, 10 GB monthly bandwidth is more
than enough while for some other sites like desktop wallpapers
sites bandwidth can be often even several hundred GB per month.
Up-time or visibility
Up-time or visibility represents time expressed in percents that
show how much is one site online. Don't be fooled because
someone guarantees for example 98% up-time because it is not
enough. You don't have to take anything les than 99.7%. Believe
us, that difference is very big. Useful site checking your
up-time is http://www.netmechanic.com
Email accounts
It is important to know what you will get in your web hosting
package regarding email accounts. Will you get only a so called
catch -all forwarding which means that all emails sent to
anything@yourdomain.com will arrive to your email address or you
can set-up email accounts for several users? For how many? Is it
for 5, 10, 100 or unlimited email accounts? Also, it doesn't
hurt to check do you get a so called POP3 email address ("real"
email address), web mail or both? Having a POP3 email address
you will be able to check your emails using your favourite email
client and web mail enables you to check your emails at any
place that has computer and Internet connection.
Server type, tools and control panel
The two most often used hosting are on Unix-based or Windows
platform. That fact has for the result program languages,
databases and scripts that you will be able to use. On
Unix-based platform, usual choice is PHP language in combination
with MySQL while on Windows platform ASP or ASP.NET language in
combination with SQL Server. You have to check do you get a
database in your package and how many. Today, modern web site
has to be database-driven.
Also, it is recommended to be informed about tools that you get
in your web hosting package, no matter if they are applications
for web statistics, file manager and things like that. Best
solution is if you get a cPanel along with Fantastico. Using
Fantastico, marketers without technical knowledge can install
most popular web applications within 2-3 clicks.
Technical support
Technical support is one of the most important things in
choosing your web hosting, especially if you are a marketer
without technical knowledge. You have to be sure that your
technical support will answer your emails within 24 hours. This
is not only important for choosing your web hosting company, it
is important to literally any company that sells products and
services, for example software company.
Some companies are so well organized that you will receive
response from them within 1 hour! You can get an image about
your future technical support about the way they can be
contacted. Is it only via email or they have a support phone,
too? Do they have a toll-free number? Do they have
trouble-ticket system? Also, very important thing is their
working hours. Do they provide technical support only during
their working hours from 9 to 17 or they offer 24x7 technical
support? The best way to see how professional they are is to
make a list of questions, contact them and - wait to get the
answer.
Testimonials
It is a common practice that web hosting and software companies
have Testimonials section where you can read recommendations
from their happy customers. Don't rely only on that section.
Many web hosting companies offer you to see their portfolio of
web sites that they host. Contact several webmasters and ask
them about what they think about their web hosting provider.
Very useful thing in finding best web hosting deals and
recommendations is to visit popular web forums like
http://www.webhostingtalk.com and http://www.sitepointforums.com
You see that there are several factors that influence in
choosing your web hosting package. You have to be aware that
like with everything else, when we come to web hosting you
usually get what you pay for.