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3 Simple Steps To Find A Website Hosting Partner That Fits You
By: hosting
We know that every human being is unique and tends to have their own expectations, but most of the time, these were the most commonly overlooked issue when it comes to making decision, and resulting in committing to wrong or not so suitable service. We do notice that when signing up for the first web hosting account, new webmasters tends to make the following common mistakes :-
- Signup the cheapest offer with largest resources available in the market
- Follow the crowd, or signup with the web host that everybody is signing up to
- Go with big brands or large company
Most of these webmasters are seen transferring their website to other web host after awhile, for the reason of not receiving a satisfactory service from the web host, and these webmasters maybe transferring their website several times more before they are seen finally settled down with a web host.
This sort of trial an error practice for finding a suitable web hosting provider is wasting too much of your valuable time, you should spend more time in productive work such as website development or traffic building rather than spending all your time transferring from one web host to another and repeat the process over and over again, if you have done your work right initially and made the right decision, you will have more time to focus on taking your website to a success, and perhaps may have started seeing results to your work while other webmasters are still struggling for a suitable web host.
Here is a simple three step guide written and practice by veteran webmasters when searching for a suitable web hosting provider, this is a very useful guide for anyone that is new to this and does not have any idea of how to go about finding a web hosting provider that fits.
1. List down all your requirements and expectations
First, turn off your computer, take out a piece of paper and start listing down all your requirements and expectations, this includes the technical requirements that is needed to support and run your website application, for example, you need a Linux based server with PHP installed, and a MySQL database to keep your data etc., these technical requirements are pretty much straight forward.
Other that the technical aspects, you mush list down all the services that you expect from your web hosting provider, for example, you need your web host to guide you through setting up your website, or what else is good to add to your website to make it even more interesting to your visitors etc. You should be aware that these sort of things are not generally 'given' by lots of popular web hosts, though there is a fast support line / channel available, certain web host consider these are extra things that you should be doing them yourself, and their support channel is strictly for issues that relates to your web hosting account.
However, certain web host may consider this as a value added service for their clients and it would be an added bonus if you do need this kind of service from your web host.
List down as much expected service from your web host as possible so that you are crystal clear of what you really need, it is important for you to understand your own needs clearly otherwise you might get lost or distracted by promotional / marketing materials resulting in a wrong decision.
2. Shortlist a few web host
After getting your list done up, you can start asking around for good web host recommendations, you can follow advice of experience / advanced webmasters and shortlist yourself about five web host for later use. During the shortlisting process, you can research online at popular webmaster forums for comments on these web hosts, this can give you an idea of how well these web host is in the eyes of general webmasters, go with those that receive more good comments than bad. Also note that, you might be referred to some not so commonly mentioned web hosting company names, not to worry or drop these from your list, you should be aware that there are lots of good website hosting provider that does not do massive marketing campaign like most popular web host, and they do not generally offer bulk hosting plans with unrealistic rates like those seen in most promotional offers, if you notice well, these web hosts exists for quite some years and they grow their business through word-of-mouth by offering solid services.
3. Personally check the web host
Final and most important step, send your long lists of questions to each of these web host, and carefully go through the responses. You must always personally check these shortlisted web host before committing yourself, this can help you to filter out those that seem good but actually providing 'canned replies' or answers that is not meeting your expectations, and in this verification process, you will be able to identify the web host that you are feeling most comfortable hosting your website with.
You should know that your web hosting provider is an important business partner of yours, this long term business relationship may directly or indirectly contribute to your online success. Therefore, you must not rush into a decision without carefully evaluate and decide the web host for your website.
Article Source: http://www.uberarticles.com/articles
Foong is a Technical Coordinator at Dotservant.com website hosting services, he has 17 years of working experience in IT related field, including a 7 years of exposure in Linux based shared hosting environment.
Dotservant.com has been offering Linux based website hosting services since 2000, with support for PHP MySQL, Ruby on Rails and a personalized support service.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License, which means you may freely reprint it, in its entiretly, provided you include the author's resource box along with LIVE links (without "nofollow" tags).
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