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> Get Articles > Web Hosting > 5 Essential Questions You Should Ask Before Selecting Your Next Web host
5 Essential Questions You Should Ask Before Selecting Your Next Web host
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Brian Terry
reactorntlworld.com
Your essential web hosting buyers guide
http://webhosting.5-minute-reviews.com
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"5 Essential Questions You Should Ask Before Selecting
Your Next Web host"
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By Brian Terry (c) 2001
1. "Where do you see your online business 1 year
from now?"
The reason for asking this question is because
whoever you decide to use as a web host should have
the ability to grow with you.
If you find yourself with a host that doesn't provide
some kind of upgrade path in terms of webspace and
bandwidth, then you could find yourself going through the
potentially painful process of switching to a new hosting
company, as your online business grows and expands.
To help you make a successful switch I found this great
article that will make any web hosting change over a lot
less stressful.
http://webhosting.5-minute-reviews.com/webhostingart4.html
2. "How much are you prepared to spend?"
It's incredible the number of people setting up business
online using free web hosting companies. There is
nothing more unprofessional than a web address like:
www.freeswebspace.acme marketing/~1424.com
All this says to me is I'm not serious about what I'm doing
online yet I still want you to take me seriously.
A good web host doesn't have to be expensive to use
and domain names can be picked up for a mere "handful"
of dollars these days. You can pick up domains here for a
great price: http://www.godaddy.com
An alternative could be to pick up a relevant expired
domain that's already well linked to throughout
the internet.
This is a great program that'll help you do exactly that:
http://www.popular-domains.com
3. "Does your web hosting company back-up your website
on a daily basis?"
Or more importantly...
"What would happen if YOU lost YOUR website?"
8 out of 10 web hosting companies these days provide a
daily backup of your website on their web servers which
in itself is great news, but... Promises can be made and
broken, it's a sad fact of life that mistakes happen and
when the "gremlins" appear you better be sure you have
a backup of your site, somewhere other than on your
computer and your web hosts server. Personally I backup
my site up to a removable Zip disk whenever I make
changes to my site.
4. "How quick and efficient is your web hosting companies
technical support?"
This is a vital question to ask any prospective new
web hosting company you might be thinking of using.
There are 2 ways of finding this information out:
a) Send them an email asking a technical question.
The only down side to this is you'll only be able to
contact them via their sales department, so the response
may not be as good a representation of their technical
support as you would hope for. All the same it'll still
give you a rough idea as to what you can expect.
b) Contact a couple of their existing customers and
ask them what their experience has been.
5. "Where is your web host based in the world?"
When you have a technical problem how long will it
take for them to reply? If they're in a time zone 8 hours
in front or behind you and they don't offer 24 hours
technical support then you could be asking for trouble
if you ever need urgent help.
Try contacting them at 3pm your time and their
technical staff will be either in bed asleep, or just
waking up. So you're high and dry for 3 or more hours!
The best strategy to adopt is to use a web hosting company
closer to home by around 4-5 hours either side of your
time zone and offer 24/7 technical support.
Of course there are many more questions you could
ask and my free web hosting buyers guide will give you them
all and more.
Just send a blank email here:
hosting_report5-minute-reviews.com
I hope this helps.
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Brian Terry is the author and creator of
http://webhosting.5-minute-reviews.com your essential
guide to finding the best web hosting company for you.
For a complete free web hosting "buyers guide" send a blank
email here: hosting_report5-minute-reviews.com
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