Is Your Web Host A Paddle Boat Or A Cruise Ship?
A paddle boat is great for fun on a day off! But would you
consider taking it to the open sea? A cruise ship on the other
hand is ideally suited for pampering its guests with every
facility imaginable for the vacation of your dreams!
Applying this analogy to web hosting can help you make a wise
decision if you are currently 1) new to internet business and
looking for that first web host, or 2) up and running but
thinking the time has come to upgrade to a higher level.
Web hosts fall generally into 3 categories. They are: 1) Free
Services 2) Budget Hosts (under $20-25 per month) 3) Full
Service ($25+ per month)
Let's take a look at each category.
1. Free Services If you want to run a home page for personal
interest for family and friends, great! If you want to ease into
the internet cautiously, great. Tripod.com offer a good free
service with reasonable support. Or check out:
http://zap.to/1freewebpage/ for a good listing of what's
available.
In short, if you merely want to paddle around, have a little
fun, gain some experience, these services are fine. For serious
business however you really need your own domain name, not
someone else's. Tripod takes the edge off by allowing your name
to come first in the URL, e.g. http://yourname.tripod.com
Having said that, you can't get away from the fact that your
credibility as a business takes a hit when clients see this kind
of domain name.
2. Budget Hosts You get what you pay for, generally. Many may
knock the value of budget hosts. If you are running a serious
business, then probably this kind of package would not give
enough stability or features.
Consider the following first-hand nightmare experience: "One
popular low-cost host left my entire site dead for over a week
while I scrambled frantically to save my business. Heck, I
couldn't even reach anyone or get them to return my plea for
help. When the dust settled, they had lost the backups of my
entire site and I was left to fend for myself." - Ken (Internet
Marketing Challenge)
On the other hand, you may find my experience helpful in your
decision making. I am running a resource site at present
containing information pages and some doorway pages. I don't
sell from my site. I don't need a secure ordering page. For my
purpose in running this particular domain, a budget host is
fine. However, I ran a check on it some months back using the
free service at http://hostwatcher.com.
I was shocked to see how many times the server was down, or
there was a very long load time for my pages. I wrote and
complained. The reply came back that ownership of the host had
changed and a better service was promised. Recently I checked
again and found the company now has a 99% up time - a vast
improvement. I was on the verge of changing my host but I now
find the service is very good for what I need. Read a more in
depth report on this here on my website:
http://www.vitalstop.com/cheapwebhosting.htm
3. Full Service If your business is taking off and you need 24
hour full support with all the "bells and whistles" then this is
the way to go. If your internet business is your main stay then
you need a "cruise ship" company who are going to give you
professional top of the line facilities and service.
The choice out there is vast! How can you decide? Research
carefully! You can use this excellent resource at
http://www.hostcompare.com/ which allows to search for any
criteria you set.
See if there are good shopping cart facilities so you can easily
set up your online store. Managing your post office and
autoresponders should also be easy through a friendly interface
with good web hosts.
Look for 24 hour technical support and immediate response to
customer needs. Some even have a troubleshooting crackforce
which can give a response usually within an hour or two.
This is the kind of service you can expect from a top line
professional web host. If your site is really beginning to make
money, can you afford any less?
Choosing a web host or changing a web host is one of those
decisions which will have a massive impact on your business. Use
the 3 category test above and decide where you are going! Then
decide whether to jump into a paddle boat or book yourself a
ticket on a cruise ship for a happy troublefree experience.