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How To Choose The Best Web Host For You
Web Hosting is a service. Auto mechanics also provide a service. How would you decide which mechanic is best for you? Price? Experience? Reliability? This is the same line of thinking that should go into deciding which company should host your website. It is very common to see choices centered around price, especially with so much competition in the hosting business. It is not uncommon to see hosting plans range from free to upwards of $50 per month. However, if you happened to see a sign on the street that said "$2 mechanic inside" you would probably drive right by, right? How good could a "$2 mechanic" possibly be? Why would a mechanic with skill and experience charge next to nothing for their service? Certainly, it is worth paying a mechanic. You don't want to be overcharged, but you do realize an experienced mechanic has value. This example is very similar to the hosting world. Some may argue a car is more important than a website. Tell that to the bed and breakfast owner who does 90% of their booking via their online reservation system. If your business depends on a website to either completely drive or supplement sales, you know how important a website can be. When it comes to choosing a host, there are not enough choices centered around experience and reliability. These are the foundations for any good company. A mechanic who has worked on cars for 10 years is going to be more familar with his trade than a mechanic who only has 2 years experience. If you were deciding on a mechanic, wouldn't you lean towards the one who has worked on cars for a longer period of time and perhaps comes on a good recommendation? Okay, enough talk about cars, let's talk hosting. When you are looking for a company to provide the service of web hosting, try placing price aside for a moment. First, look for a company that has been in businesss for a number of years. Any host that has been around for over 5 years is probably doing something right. That's not to say a host of 2 years can't help you, but at least begin your search with the most experienced. After you've found a few candidates, write down about 10 questions you would like to ask your future host. Even if you know the answers to some questions, that's okay. The reason for the questions is to see how long it takes to get answers and the quality of those answers. If you don't like what you see, scratch them off your list because that is exactly the type of response you will get when a support issue arises. Try to get the web addresses of 4 or 5 sites they host and visit over a period of a week or so and see if you notice any downtime or blatant sluggishness. You may even want to email the owners of these sites and ask what they think of their host. This may seem like alot of work just to decide on a host for your website. It's certainly more involved than simply looking for the cheapest price. When you only look at price you overlook some essential factors, such as experience and reliability. If your website is important to you or your business, you will come to rely on that experience which translates into quality service. Copyright 2005 Anthony Vita Anthony Vita has been helping businesses and individuals get an online presence ever since starting his own successful web hosting business, Web Feat, Inc., in 1997. Contact him at http://www.webfeathost.com
MORE RESOURCES:  Yahoo! News Search Results for URL Yahoo! News Search Results for URL • AdWords URL Longer Than 35 Characters Need Exception (Search Engine Roundtable) We discussed the Google AdWords policy on a max URL character space of 35 in the past. They recently started enforcing this rule back in June of this year. A new Google Groups thread has an issue where on advertiser needs to have a display URL that is longer than 35 characters. So what can he/she do? AdWordsPro Sarah says that you can submit an exception. In short, make your display ... • YouTube videos go HD with a simple hack (CNET) Want to host high-definition videos on YouTube? No problem. Just get your copy-and-paste skills ready because all it requires is changing the video's URL! • High-definition videos sneaking onto YouTube (Ars Technica) YouTube is experimenting with high-definition videos on its site, and you can access the capability using a handy URL trick. If YouTube manages to score enough movie and TV content from its owners, then it might eventually give Hulu some competition. Read More... • Sorry: The requested page could not be found (Kerrville Daily Times) You may have received this message in error. Please try loading the page you were trying to access again. If you got here by typing a URL, or web address, please make sure the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are correct. • The Sound of Personal Branding (Fast Company Magazine) Some websites need to be arrested for audial assault. You know the ones I mean. No sooner do you click on a URL but the site blasts out some atrocious music that has absolutely nothing to do with the brand. If marketer and music extraordinaire ... • Why Firefox Rocks: Great Firefox Tricks, Part IV (LinuxPlanet) Today I have a useful tip that used to be enabled only on Linux, but now is available for everyone. Have you ever had somebody send you a URL to a web site, only it's so long that the mail system has broken it into several lines? • Mobispine making Telia MMS app for iPhone? (MacNN) The identity of TeliaSonera's MMS application for the iPhone may have already been revealed, an announcement hints. Mobispine has announced the creation of what it calls the "world's first true MMS for the iPhone;" critically, the software relies on the actual MMS protocol instead of a substitute, such as a text message with an embedded URL. The company is also based in Sweden like Telia, and ... • Site of the Day (AskMen) Don't be fooled by the URL, this isn't just a blog for rail-thin fashionites. • Eleven Ways The UAW Is Like Congress [Carpocalypse Now] (Jalopnik) var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/autos/Eleven_Ways_The_UAW_Is_Like_Congress'; So we're sitting here in the press room of the LA Auto Show thinking about Carpocalypse Now, the fight for loans from... • CORRECTING and REPLACING China Energy Recovery Board Member, Roger Ballentine... SHANGHAI, China----URL in second graph, second sentence of release should read: www.eenews.net/tv/ |
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