Well, the first thing you need to do is fully understand your needs. What is more important to you... Price? Drive space? Bandwidth? Customer service? All of the above? I have to admit when I first started out on the web, I just thought MORE FOR THE MONEY was better. As you could guess, I was dead wrong. Over the years, I have discovered that the bottom line is, more often than not, you do get what you pay for when it comes to web hosting. Now, that's not to say cheap web hosting means cheap quality, but you do have to be careful.
Regardless, I have devised a simple list for DO's and DON'Ts. If you follow this guideline, then maybe it just might make your life in the web hosting world a bit easier.
1. DO search for deals and research on the web hosting company.
You can start searching deals at our web site Top Host Deals easily by entering a keyword or phrase, or you can use the tag cloud. After finding a deal, begin your research. Many people recommend to go to Google and type in the name of the company and then add the word "sucks" after it. For example, you would type in "company sucks" in the search query. The reason behind this is due to the fact that whenever people are upset with a web hosting company, they usually that in the title of their post. From that point, you should have access to many different resources to pull from, particularly from users who have had bad experiences.
2. DON'T trust every deal you see.
This is a very important point because many deals aren't really "deals" at all. Some deals offering 100GB of drive space, 1000GB of bandwidth may not really be a deal at all. Some web hosting companies use these incentives as a marketing ploy to get more signups. As a result, they wind up "overselling" the server by crowding it with accounts, because they know that MOST accounts will not even come close to using this amount... and eventually, your site will suffer because the server will begin to slow down due the overage use of system resources. I once signed up with such an incentive and installed Joomla on the server. About 5 days later, I started complaining that my site was so slow -- guess what their response was?
"YOU SHOULD UPGRADE YOUR ACCOUNT TO A DEDICATED SERVER PERHAPS BECAUSE JOOMLA USES A LOT OF SYSTEM RESOURCES."Needless to say, I left that web hosting company and never looked back.
3. DO have patience and ask questions.
Don't be afraid to ask as many questions to their sales team as you feel you need to. Some people have a problem with this because they feel silly asking lots of questions, but the only thing silly about that is signing up and not asking questions. If you feel they are non-responsive to your concerns or that their answers seem generic, well, that might tell you something about their support team as well.
4. DON'T be impulsive.
A great deal relies on timing. Some deals have expiration dates, but that doesn't mean you'll miss out on it because you don't signup right away. You still need to do some research on this company, so don't get crazy or impulsive. If a certain deal does have a time limit, send an email to their sales department and explain that you need 2 days to some research to make sure they are the right fit for you, but you also don't want to miss out on the deal. Most reputable hosting companies will have no problem accommodating you by extending the deadline for you as you do your research.
5. DO pay with paypal if available.
Now here's some controversy -- some hate paypal while others love it. As for me personally, it's just another payment option. However, one thing I like is that I'm protected if I decide to cancel or ask for reimbursement. Paypal mostly protects the consumer and is very much on their side.
6. DON'T signup and prepay for a year.
You should always try the web hosting plan before committing to a longer contract. You need to establish trust and that takes time. If you don't like your host, then you can leave. You will pay more for month to month rather than yearly, but better to lose 3 extra dollars than $100, right?
7. DO keep track of uptime.
This one always surprises me. I don't understand why people don't keep track of their uptime. There are lots of free uptime tracking services out there such as Site Uptime. Use them to keep track of your server's uptime and see how many times a month (if any) does your server go down. If it's frequently or more than what your host says it should be, then ask for some sort of reimbursement or get off that server. Downtime can really make an enormous impact on the success of your site... if people can't access it, then they won't likely ever return.
8. DON'T panic if your site is down
If your site is down, don't start sending hate emails to your host. It could be variety of things, such as your internet connection, your tracking system had trouble accessing the server, etc. Just contact them and inform them it's down. If it really is down, chances are that they working on it to get it back up. My point is, unless this is a frequent occurrence, sometimes sites go down, or at least give the appearance of it being down because of where you're located. There might be congestion where you're located and you just aren't able to access your site while others from different locations can.
9. DO contact support if something is wrong
Don't assume that if you have a problem that your host provider is aware of it and is working on a solution to fix it. Always address the issue by contacting them. Don't make it nasty, but just address the point of concern.
10. DON'T make matters worse with threats
The worse thing you can do is THREATEN a hosting company that you're going to leave, put out a nasty page about them and tell all your friend that they suck. This will only make your hosting company mad and likely not respond to your emails. Besides, for some hosts, you're one in a million -- just a number to them, so your threats mean nothing to them besides make them laugh. Do not make matters worse. If you have a concern, just be polite, address the issue and take action. Threats only make matters worse.
Happy hosting!
