A client of mine paid for a solo advert to promotehis website in the newsletter I publish ate-bizministry about two months ago. As I was about to send his advert to my list, he calledme up on phone and told me not to send it yet.Naturally, I asked him why. His reply shocked me out of my wits.
He said he had just discovered that his website haddisappeared from the net. He even said the same thinghad happened to the same website earlier in the yearwhen it disappeared in January only to reappear forjust one week in May. I could not help but laughbecause I knew his problem. He had made a wrongchoice of web host.
Your choice of web host can either promote your businessor ruin your business. You have to be very carefulwhen choosing your web host or you will be consistentlylosing up to 80% of your income due to your webhost's inefficiency.
Here are a few quick tips on how to know whichweb host is reliable, affordable and right for yourwebsite.
1. Check if the web host has a web presence. Face it,if a company claims to be a web host and they don'thave a functional website of their own, then theyhave no business hosting other people's websites.Any web host you will use must have a functionalwebsite where you can check for domain availability,get support and order for their hosting services.
Additionally, you should conduct random checks on their website. If you visit their site randomly tentimes and the site is not available more than once inthose ten times, forget about that company except youwant your own website too to be unavailable almostall the time.
2. Any web host you will use must have an appreciable levelof relevant experience. A minimum of a full year of operation.A new web host will only experiment with your website andthe result may not be good for your business. Visitthe web host's website and read about them. If theydon't talk about their experience, then they don'thave it. Just leave them alone.
3. Look out for their present clients' testimonialson their website. Call or email the clients and askthem questions. If they confirm that the web host isgood, then the company has passed this test. However,if you don't even find a single testimonial on theirwebsite, they probably don't have any satisfied client.What to do? Just leave them alone.
4. How fast or how well does the company respond tosupport emails? You can find out by conducting thissmall test. Visit the web host's website and submitor email an enquiry to them. If you don't get aresponse in 24 - 48 hours, please run away as fastas your legs can carry you. Why? When you hostyour website with them and you have a problem,it will take them more than a month to respond toyour support emails or requests.
5. You should not forget to check out their prices.The prices must be within reasonable limits andtheir packages must have the features you desire;adequate monthly transfer, email addresses,MySQL databases, CGI bin, FTP access, controlpanel etc. Very high prices don't necessarilytranslate into very good services. Don't befooled by high prices. It's a common trick,please don't fall for it.
6. It must be easy and secure to make paymentsto your web host. It is not advisable to fillin your credit card details when making yourpayment. You should rather use a web host thataccepts other forms of payment that do notrequire you to fill in your credit card detailse.g. paypal and egold. If you are in a countrywhere you don't have easy access to credit cardfacilities, it is even better to use a web hostthat accepts payment in your local currency.This will ensure that you won't have anyproblems when you want to renew your domain and your hosting accounts.
7. Use only web hosts that give 24 hour onlineaccess to your account. With that, you havetotal control over your domain and your websiteand you can change anything including yourname servers (DNS)whenever you want.
8. It is better to use a web host that offersadditional web services such as web design,website promotion, search engine submissionand website management. They can be of helpto you in future if you have any problemswith your website or you need any additional services.
9. Before you make your payment, read theterms and conditions of the company carefully.If you don't understand or agree with anyof their terms contact them for more explanations.
10. Finally, I know it may be very time consumingfor you to conduct these tests on the hundredsof web hosts out there before choosing one. Ihave therefore taken the pains to analysehundreds of them. I recommend two web hoststhat have passed our simple tests. I can putmy reputation on the line and guarantee theirefficiency, reliability and affordability.
Oyeleke Toye is a web consultant, with expertise in web hosting, web design, web promotion, website management and custom scripts installation. The web hosts I recommend are:
http://www.netkonsults.com
http://www.hostplusng.com |
