Web Hosting Articles Article:

How To Choose A Reliable Web Host For Your Website

A client of mine paid for a solo advert to promote

his website in the newsletter I publish at

e-bizministry about two months ago. As I

was about to send his advert to my list, he called

me up on phone and told me not to send it yet.

Naturally, I asked him why. His reply shocked me out

of my wits.

He said he had just discovered that his website had

disappeared from the net. He even said the same thing

had happened to the same website earlier in the year

when it disappeared in January only to reappear for

just one week in May. I could not help but laugh

because I knew his problem. He had made a wrong

choice of web host.

Your choice of web host can either promote your business

or ruin your business. You have to be very careful

when choosing your web host or you will be consistently

losing up to 80% of your income due to your web

host's inefficiency.

Here are a few quick tips on how to know which

web host is reliable, affordable and right for your

website.

1. Check if the web host has a web presence. Face it,

if a company claims to be a web host and they don't

have a functional website of their own, then they

have no business hosting other people's websites.

Any web host you will use must have a functional

website where you can check for domain availability,

get support and order for their hosting services.

Additionally, you should conduct random checks on

their website. If you visit their site randomly ten

times and the site is not available more than once in

those ten times, forget about that company except you

want your own website too to be unavailable almost

all the time.

2. Any web host you will use must have an appreciable level

of relevant experience. A minimum of a full year of operation.

A new web host will only experiment with your website and

the result may not be good for your business. Visit

the web host's website and read about them. If they

don't talk about their experience, then they don't

have it. Just leave them alone.

3. Look out for their present clients' testimonials

on their website. Call or email the clients and ask

them questions. If they confirm that the web host is

good, then the company has passed this test. However,

if you don't even find a single testimonial on their

website, they probably don't have any satisfied client.

What to do? Just leave them alone.

4. How fast or how well does the company respond to

support emails? You can find out by conducting this

small test. Visit the web host's website and submit

or email an enquiry to them. If you don't get a

response in 24 - 48 hours, please run away as fast

as your legs can carry you. Why? When you host

your website with them and you have a problem,

it will take them more than a month to respond to

your support emails or requests.

5. You should not forget to check out their prices.

The prices must be within reasonable limits and

their packages must have the features you desire;

adequate monthly transfer, email addresses,

MySQL databases, CGI bin, FTP access, control

panel etc. Very high prices don't necessarily

translate into very good services. Don't be

fooled by high prices. It's a common trick,

please don't fall for it.

6. It must be easy and secure to make payments

to your web host. It is not advisable to fill

in your credit card details when making your

payment. You should rather use a web host that

accepts other forms of payment that do not

require you to fill in your credit card details

e.g. paypal and egold. If you are in a country

where you don't have easy access to credit card

facilities, it is even better to use a web host

that accepts payment in your local currency.

This will ensure that you won't have any

problems when you want to renew your domain

and your hosting accounts.

7. Use only web hosts that give 24 hour online

access to your account. With that, you have

total control over your domain and your website

and you can change anything including your

name servers (DNS)whenever you want.

8. It is better to use a web host that offers

additional web services such as web design,

website promotion, search engine submission

and website management. They can be of help

to you in future if you have any problems

with your website or you need any additional services.

9. Before you make your payment, read the

terms and conditions of the company carefully.

If you don't understand or agree with any

of their terms contact them for more explanations.

10. Finally, I know it may be very time consuming

for you to conduct these tests on the hundreds

of web hosts out there before choosing one. I

have therefore taken the pains to analyse

hundreds of them. I recommend two web hosts

that have passed our simple tests. I can put

my reputation on the line and guarantee their

efficiency, reliability and affordability.

Oyeleke Toye is a web consultant, with expertise in web

hosting, web design, web promotion, website management and

custom scripts installation. The web hosts I recommend are:

· http://www.netkonsults.com

· http://www.hostplusng.com

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