Picking A Hosting Company
There are literally thousands of Web Hosting
companies on the Internet and they each offer different options
and variations of things like cost, reliability, storage space, customer
service, and security.
With so many hosting companies to choose
from, how do you know which ones are OK and which ones to avoid?
- First
of all, you want to go with a company that has
been around for awhile and has a good reputation.
- Secondly, getting
the lowest price is not always the best deal.
Lower prices can
mean lower quality of service, especially customer service.
- I would not recommend using a business that is run by an
individual who acquired some Server space and is trying to rent
it out for "bottom dollar" in order to make a little money.
Why not? Because you want a company that can give you
quality support and somebody working our of their basement is
not going to give you great service
- Mainly, you want a company that can provide
24/7 quality technical support and good,
reliable customer
service. Unless you are willing to have your web service down
for a couple of days while the company tries to figure out what is
wrong, you'd better look elsewhere for a good service provider
Seven Things You Should Find Out About a Hosting Company
When you consider a hosting company, you need
to ask some questions. By doing this, you'll get a feeling
of
how easy they are to work with and how good of a company they really are:
- Response Time:
How quickly do they respond to your questions, either by phone
or email. Can you get a real person on the phone or online
immediately? If you can't get an answer within 24 hours, then you'd better
look for another company.
- Adequate Information:
How complete are their answers to your questions.
Does the support person seem to know what they are talking
about? Are they able to answer your questions, or do you
have to keep asking the same question, or similar questions in
order to get enough information?
- Understandable Information:
How understandable are the answers? Do they have
poor language skills? If you can't understand
what they say or they use so much techno-jargon you don't know
what they are talking about, then how helpful do you think they'll be
if you have a real problem and really need their help?
- Is there Negative Criticism:
Check out Blogs and Discussion Groups on the web, as well as
searching for the Company name in one of the search engines.
This is a good way to get some opinions on the company.
Look
for negative criticism. You have to be careful about depending
totally on Good Opinions from online people because they might be
promoting a particular company as an affiliate.
Meaning, they get a commission from the company if they can get
you to sign up for services, using a link that they provide.
- Basic Services:
Can they give you the basic services you will need for your website? The most important thing is that you
can get the services you need. You don't want to have your
website almost ready to go online and then find out that you
can't get a particular service that is critical to the success
of your website. Like a shopping cart.
If you plan on using certain programs and languages on your
website, then make sure their hosting set up can provide them.
See the page on Web Servers and Hosting
Services to see the kinds of services you may need from a
hosting company.
- Extras:
You should also be aware of the extras that come with
their hosting package, like Blogs, Statistics and Photo Albums.
Do they give you everything you will need? Different
companies offer different extras. This is where checking
out more than one company can give you something to compare.
- Reasonable Price:
And finally, the cost. Can they provide everything you
need for a reasonable price. If you are new to hosting
services, then you should compare the prices of at least two,
and preferably, at least three other companies to see how the
prices stack up. The company you decide to go with doesn't
have to have the lowest price, but they shouldn't be the highest
either.
If you see a price that beats the pants off of everyone else, be
very cautious. Remember, you usually get what you pay for and
a rock bottom price could mean that you
will get sub-par services.
Still Undecided?
If
you are uncertain about who you should choose as a hosting company,
below
are three companies that meet the criteria. They are
Reliable, Well Known and can be
Trusted. They are all
full-fledged Hosting companies that
are in the business of providing a full range of dependable Web Hosting
services, products, and 24/7 support for a reasonable price
I would not recommend any company that I would
not use myself and I am not making any money off of these recommendations.
Hostgator - www.hostgator.com
GoDaddy - www.godaddy.com
Register.com - www.register.com
NOTE: Many hosting companies will offer two different monthly
prices for the same plan. The higher
monthly price
is what you pay if you pay them once a month. The
lower monthly price is what it costs you if you
have a minimum one year agreement, although you don't pay the
lower price by the month, you pay for the entire 12 months up front.

This list is just to give you a few suggestions to start with.
There are many good hosting companies on the web. But,
before you decide on any company, go to their
website and check out their latest details. Plans change
quite often.

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