Choosing Affordable Web Hosting is A Difficult Task?

what u think?

Getting the right web site hosting plan is mandatory for budding businesses. With so many hosting companies providing different web hosting plans, it is becoming more and more difficult to choose an affordable web hosting provider. Many companies offering cheap web hosting or even free hosting have some hidden fees and generally provide a poor quality. In case of free web hosting, the service provider generally installs advertisement in form of a banner on your website. You must be cautious while choosing the appropriate web hosting plan.

Before choosing a host You must compare the cost structure offered by several hosting companies. You must particularly look for set up charges for the site, annual maintenance charges and other expenses related to the plan. Some web hosting companies do not charge any set up cost and have low monthly rentals. These companies are reasonable as compared to those charging extra set up charges.

You can also search for the services provided by the companies that you are taking into consideration. Some companies offer bonus services like domain name registration and web building tools. If you are still to buy a domain name or if you want help in building your website, you can always verify that these services can be joined with the best affordable web hosting plan. By doing so, you can save ample amount of money.

There are a variety of other features to consider before you decide on a web hosting plan for your site. Always look out for web hosting service provider that offer sufficient space.

The web hosting must support programming languages, database and script. All web hosting do not provide the feature of FTP, so be cautious if you need this protocol in your site design. The web hosting plans generally put limits on the file size uploading. If you have a big file to be uploaded, you must select the web hosting plan properly. Another trait is reliability and at times the companies offering low priced hosting are not consistent.

Also check their other features like they provides Unlimited FTP, Unlimited Email account, Unlimited Database or not.

Fundamentally, there are three types of affordable web hosting plans. The web hosting on your computer is for giant websites with several files, graphics, animations, texts etc. The maintenance and technical support is needed on a high scale. Also the charges required to keep it working are really lofty. The web hosting on a dedicated server is for intermediate sized websites. The service provider should provide support and continuation of this website. The web hosting by a web hosting service provider is provided by a web hosting company. The company is responsible for complete maintenance and providing all kind of support. It is relatively cheaper if you evaluate it against the other two options. It is always recommended to take an expert advice from web hosting expert before landing on a particular deal.

Hi,
I am looking to purchase a web hosting account. How To Compare And Select A Best Web Host.

When comparing the best Web hosting sites to choose the top host for your website, you need to consider:

– What operating system you need

– What control panel you prefer

– What type of hosting will fulfill your needs

– What level of technical support you may need

– Where the server is located and how it is connected to the Internet

– Whether past and present customers are satisfied with a host.

The two most common operating systems for Web servers are Linux and Windows. Linux Web servers running Apache for the Web server, MySQL for databases, and PHP and Perl as programming languages are the most common. There are a wide number of applications and scripts available for Linux Web servers. If you need to use ASP pages or you need to use Microsoft SQL server as a database rather than MySQL, however, you should get a Windows-based server.

Choose a control panel which is easy to use and also have all features.Most of the best Web hosting sites will provide a control panel to allow you to easily control your site hosting account. Control panels allow you to easily see web site statistics, administer databases, check on server status, and manage email accounts, Web site updates, and access.

Unless you prefer a different control panel, H-Sphere is probably your best choice. It is the most popular and many Webmasters feel it is the easiest to use.

There are a number of different types of hosting:

– Shared hosting,

– Colocation

Most of the best web hosting sites will offer some or all of these types of hosting, so you need to decide what best suits your needs.

If you want to host a single domain that does not have huge demands for disk space or bandwidth, shared hosting is the most economical. With shared web hosting, your site shares server space and resources with many other websites.

If you have a high need for bandwidth or server resources, you may need a dedicated server. With a dedicated server, you do not have to share server resources with anyone. Only your domains are hosted on the dedicated Web server. You also generally get full control of the server with administrator or root access.

you may be able to host multiple domains with a shared hosting account, if you need to host multiple domains of your own or want to resell Web hosting, reseller hosting may better suit your needs. Reseller hosting is generally shared hosting with more resources and an additional control panel to easily configure additional domains.

You should have a very short list of the best Web hosting sites for your needs. But before making your final decision, there is one last step: perform a Web search to look for complaints from old customers. Your list may have only the best web hosting sites listed, but a few hours spent surfing Web hosting forums and asking a few questions may turn up some surprises and could save you years of frustration!

Check their support at different-different time.

What is difference between Bandwidth and Allowed Data Transfer?

Bandwidth / Data Transfer = Amount of data that is transfered through a server in a specified time. ( Bandwidth is measured in bps or Mbps.)

As a client it is important for you to understand Data Transfer or bandwidth as most of the hosting companies have limitation in terms of the allowed data transfers per account / website. This in terms means that their is a limit to the amount of data that can be transfered per website that you host with the hosting company.

How do analyse how much data transfer / Bandwidth my website needs?

The rule for understanding the bandwidth requirement is quite simple and can be associated with some standard variables.

* The number of pages and average page size of the website
* The number of visitors that you are expecting on your website
* Email usage that may be associated with your account

For Example if your average page views are 1000 per day and each page is of the size 50 kb then per day bandwidth usage would be 50,000 kbps. If you multiply this with 30 then you can have the monthly bandwidth requirement for the website.

Also you should keep in account other bandwidth usage like email Ftp, Sound, video clips etc and should always look at a higher limit or plan for the website to ensure that your website is not down because your website is assigned a low allowed data transfer limit.

Different modes of shared hosting:-

Domain based shared hosting:

It works on the Virtual Private Server (VPS) technology and provides each website with a unique URL, even though they are hosted on a single server. The VPS technology achieves by creating effective partitions in the server and gets them to act as individual servers.

Name based shared hosting:

In name based shared hosting, a websites name appears as a subset of the service providers name. Example of such service providers are geocities, blogspot etc.

Directory based shared hosting:

With respect to directory based shared hosting, the customers website will be mentioned as a directory in the host domain name.

The most important point that comes through with shared hosting is the relative lack of a dedicated IP address. That’s because most of the web security apparatus are applicable on the IP address level. That’s the reason why, dedicated severs are capable of providing a more secure environment; as they guarantee a unique IP address.

Support is the life blood of your reseller business.What u think?

Yes, Support is the life blood of your reseller business. Without a solid support team working with you, your issues could overwhelm you easily.

Here are some good tips on making sure you can keep on top of these:

1. Keep a good database of the usernames and passwords for your resold accounts. Make sure that you keep up with changes. This includes usernames and passwords for:

a. Control Panels
b. MIVA Merchant
c. AlaCart
d. *users E-Commerce software*
e. MySQL database if used

2. Make sure you have a backup of your users’ accounts on a weekly basis. Request to your support team to tar up the users’ directory and place the files in a safe place. NEVER rely on the backup system of others…ALWAYS create your own backup scheme.

3. When you send a request to support, keep a copy of those replies. In essence, you are making your own knowledge base. Doing this will curb your turn around times of issues.

These tips will assist you in making sure your Reseller account works like a well oiled machine.

Hi,
Every Reseller web host want to increase his business.Web hosts are constantly thinking of new advertising campaigns in the hope of attracting more interest to their company; and, hence to attract more customers but What u think about The Importance of “Keeping the Customer Satisfied”

The Web hosting industry is one of the most competitive industries on the Internet today. Web hosts are constantly thinking of new advertising campaigns in the hope of attracting more interest to their company; and, hence to attract more customers. While this is an important goal for any Web host it is just as important to recognize and value the customers you already have.

Customer Satisfaction is most important for reseller web host. They must be:-

Put your customer’s needs first

Acknowledge your customers’ feedback and then do something about it; make sure there is a place on your Web site or in your control panel for customers to make remarks or offer suggestions about your services or products. Use these suggestions to improve your company. Even if you receive negative feedback, use this feedback positively; it’s better to fix customer concerns as soon as possible to benefit your company’s success in the long run.

Provide staff management training

Web hosts can say they have reliable staff and offer support around the clock. Though behind the scenes the story is very different; try to practice what you preach, it is no use to anyone to have staff with bad organizational and communication skills. Having a clear vision of your company’s goals, providing regular training and being involved with your staff will contribute greatly to efficiently managing your business.

Reseller must be provided the these value to the the customers, if they want to satisfied their customer.

Offer fast and reliable support

If there is something going critically wrong with a Web site, customers can’t be sitting around for days waiting to get their problems solved. Any critical support requests should be answered in just a matter of an hour or two; and, any other requests should be responded to in no more than 24 hours. Hosts should be offering around the clock support, especially if their market is global.

Reliable support is also crucial. The most common complaint that people have with their Web hosting companies is that while they may get their support requests answered quickly, their host has either not fixed their problem properly or they have no idea what the support team are talking about. Many people don’t understand all the terminology of Web site hosting, therefore support staff need to have good communication skills.

When receiving a support request it is much better to make sure the client’s problem has been fixed properly, so make sure your support staff test everything they fix! Not only will you find that you will be receiving less support requests, but your clients will be a lot happier also, which could mean more referrals!

Give your customers freedom

Many people tend to sign up with a Web host who will offer a discount if you sign a yearly contract with them. However most people who do this get “stuck” if they are unhappy with their service, and will lose a large proportion of their fee if they cancel their contract. One way to keep your clients happy is to give them the option of paying monthly, this way your customers will have the freedom to change their account packages at any time.

Your clients should be given the freedom to administer their own accounts. A good way to provide this is to ensure that your clients have their own customizable control panel. This is true freedom, where a client can administer every key aspect of their account from: viewing their account details and billing details; to, for example, interactively adding a new Web site, ftp logins, mail accounts, and new users.

Keep your customers well informed

Let your customers know about any thing that could possibly affect their Web sites. Keep your customers informed on issues such as general maintenance, when and how often backups are done on the servers, and so on – these are a crucial necessity to keeping servers running well, and clients have to be told this. If there is a customer issue that may take a while to fix, it is much better to inform them of the issue and let them know you will get back to them as soon as possible. Customers shouldn’t feel like they are left out in the cold, wondering why it is taking so long to fix their problem.

A Web host who doesn’t recognize the importance of providing good service to their customers will quickly lose their customers, and will fade out very quickly. Customers need to feel as though they can trust their Web hosts, and they need to know that the hard work they put into developing their Web site will be complemented by having a great Web host; one that is concerned with providing the best service for ALL their customers.

Remember the more happy customers you have the more successful your Web hosting company will be, and the more growth you will see.

Hi,

i am just a bit confused on the support offered by a hosting company.

its obvious they should help you out on H-Sphere/mysql/php problems,
but i have also heard that they offer scripts installation supports too.

thanks a bit weird, a hosting company helping you out on skinning and scriptgin?

thanks

Smaller companies offer this, thats kind of the bonus of going with smaller companies. You develop more of a personal connection with them.

Most web hosting companies do not help their customers with scripting and they are very clear on these in their terms of service. Some companies do this but they are very few.

How to Decide host of my ecommerce Web site and what approach to take can be daunting

There are several approaches available, each with different advantages and disadvantages.

If you have a small business, you may want to consider a storefront or an online mall. For a fee, these services help you build a small Web site to sell your products. These “site in a box” Web site services include everything you need to sell online.

Features and support vary by program and can include options such as search engine placement, credit card processing, and advertising. These tend to be template services, however, with less flexibility than a custom site. Familiarize yourself with the current offerings in this area before making a final decision.

Custom Sites

If you have a business that is too large for or has outgrown the smaller storefront services, you may want to consider the more costly – but also more flexible – custom site. For the added cost you can have a unique site, receive greater support, and handle more traffic. You have the options of hiring the same company to design and host your site or using separate design and hosting services.

Hiring the same company to design and host your site.

This option involves the fewest logistics, but may come with trade-offs in design quality or host reliability. Be aware that designing and hosting require different sets of skills and expertise. When choosing a service, evaluate their experience and ask for references in both areas. Go to sites the company has designed and navigate them. Note how the sites look, how easy they are to understand, and how quickly they load into your browser.

To evaluate the company’s hosting service, contact current customers and ask how pleased they are with the service. Find out how often the server is down and ask about help desk responsiveness. Also, consider how your site will be updated. Can you upload changes directly or do you have to wait for someone at the hosting company to get to it? If it is the latter, ask current customers about their experience with this process.

If you are still considering the design/hosting service after studying their design capabilities and talking to their current customers, you may also want to find out if there has been recent turnover in key personnel. An individual designer, coordinator, or account manager can make a large difference in support or design quality.

Using a separate design and hosting service.

By separating the design and hosting, you have more choices. Thus, you can have more control over both your budget and your site. Technical incompatibilities are a risk when taking this approach, however. Be sure your designer is familiar with your hosting service and it’s technical capabilities. To help facilitate information flow and minimize technical problems:

Find a Web designer experienced in ecommerce applications. Together, decide on the hosting service and ecommerce systems you will use.

Making the Decision

Deciding upon the right combination will take some research. One way to gather a list of hosting options is to first find ecommerce sites that you like and/or have ecommerce abilities similar to your needs, then ask about the sites’ hosting and ecommerce providers.

Asking for referrals from business acquaintances is another. Many times, people are more than happy to share their positive experiences. For example, I use five different hosts and am generally pleased with all of them. When asked about hosting, however,

Another way to develop hosting options is to look for online advertisements. The sponsored search engine ads and advertisements directly on Web sites are two places you can find these. While there’s no guarantee all of the companies you find will be high quality, the willingness to pay for ads can be an indication of commitment.

Diligently decide upon ecommerce features and choose a host with those features in mind. By doing so, you are creating a smoother path to ecommerce success.

What differenciate the good and bad hosting? what issues to consider before choosing a hosting or changing it?

Good hosting meets your needs, bad hosting doesn’t.

As to what’s good or bad for you depends on what you actually need from your hosting. Many people find free hosting good, many find cheap hosting good, many find hugely overpriced hosting good.

If you’re hosting a personal site, then a free or cheap host will be fine for most needs, if you need high availability for an e commerce solution, then you should expect to invest a decent sum.

The costs involved will generally reflect the value of your site.

Personally, I’d always go with a smaller company as you generally are more important to a small company, to a big company you can become just a user number or line entry on the sales ledger.

If cost is your only consideration, then it’s very difficult to determine good from bad. Generally the cheapest hosts tend to be oversellers and often shoolboy hosts.

If you’re prepared to invest a bit and move off the bottom rung, then you generally get better quality hosting.

Support and uptime are the most important factors consider before choosing a host

Choosing a good host … I always consider support,uptime and server speed depends on the site if i am running a media related site i always prefer that the server where my site is hosted able to manage requests and have good responce time. If running a small site or text based site that speed doesnt comes into play.

The hosts with good uptime record,active support,large bandwidth and affordable rates etc., could be considered as a good host.

Support and uptime are the most important factors for me. Speed of the server would be a close 2nd.

I just wonder do you guys aways pick the cheapest hosting or the best i am not saying that all cheap hosting are stupid and die after couple of weeks but mostly do i just go by the best if i wanna have my web hosting stand up good