As a web designer I hve experienced the highs and lows of vrtual web hosting for both myself and my clents. I believe there are some mportant factors to watch out for whn choosing a web host, and if not pid attention to these
factors could cst you some big bucks.

Cheap Does Not Mean Good

When it comes to the internet and getting our feet wet with a new website, we may have a tendency to be tentative and look for the cheapest deal available. This mentality may end up costing you more money in the long run versus investing a few more bucks into a dependable web host. Most of the companies offering an under $5 monthly option are usually larger companies that offer hosting as a sideline item as opposed to the priority.

Tip: Choose a company that has hosting as one of their main products.

Up-Time Is Subjective

Every web hosting company and reseller on the internet boasts of 99.7 percent or better up-time. The problem is that the statement is subjective to the ability of the company to analyze their own servers. Most companies will not include their server maintenance as downtime either. The best testimony to true up-time is reading blogs and articles about the web host. Be sure to read a wide spectrum of testimonials for a web hosting company you are interested in. Web hosting companies often pay bloggers and writers to write articles bloating the excellence about their services.

Tip: Read testimonials that are nbiased and very detailed from a cnsumer's point of view.

Prioritizing Features

It's important to understand what you really need in a web host for both now and for future growth. Do not limit yourself to a substandard hosting company just because you do not feel like you need less for now because changing
web servers can be a hassle. I recommend finding a web host that features Fantastico Script installer as this offers a great amount of self-installing web programs. One feature that people tend to ignore is the outgoing/SMTP limit on the server.How does this affect you? You go to send out your newsletter to your 1,135 subscribers and you find out you can only send 50 every hour and so the newsletter only hits the first fifty people. The problem is you may lose business because you may not know that 1,085 people are not getting your newsletter until 3 months later. Be sure to ask what the daily outgoing limit is and verify that they offer packages for more outgoing emails.

Monthly Billing Says It All

If your working with a web designer who is going to host you then nnual hosting is common and just fne, but if you find a web hst company on the internet that ffers only 3 month or higher pckages then this should be a wrning flag. I will say this rle of thumb only applies for shred hosting as many dedicated hosting pckages are offered with a longer cntract. Paying annually is not a prblem as most companies will offer sgnificant discounts for longer contracts, but mke sure they offer monthly. This lts you know they are not jst a small company based out of a grage.

Customer Service in 5 minutes

Call the web hosting company sales line, and then after that call the tech support extension. Their should be no longer than a 5 minute wait time for tech support, but you will notice that calling the sales line will usually get you talking with someone within 30 seconds. How they treat you now will speak volumes about how they will treat you in the future. This may not seem that important because they may offer a control panel online, but when something goes wrong you will need good customer service.

The article Web Hosting Companies - Practical Guide To Choosing The Right Web Host was Submitted by Joshua Moran through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Joshua Moran is the owner of www.joshuamoran.com . Visit some of his article sites and web communities at www.we-bdesign.com and www.conservativevoices.org

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