Being a member on several forums for many years now; too often do I see individuals jumping on the bandwagon to subscribe for web hosting from questionable characters/businesses. I wrote this article a while back and provided it to a few different forums but thought it might be worth bringing up again to help reiterate to all inexperienced users what they can do to help safeguard their online presence.

First thing I would like to discuss is that price is not everything! Doesn't matter if you’re paying .99c for hosting and your site is completely unreliable because in the end, you'll lose money over these problems. Let's go through the considerations that you need to ponder in order to ensure that you get what you need. You want to choose the web host that is going to provide your needs as they stand now as well as where they lead to in the future. Here we go:

1. Understand the differing types of hosts: shared, collocated, unmanaged dedicated, and managed dedicated. Is your site brand new with little traffic? In the event your site is a newer domain, you won't need the raw power of a dedicated server unless your site is resource intensive which can include: streaming, videos, proxies and even linking to videos as well can cause a high load on Apache and the CPU(s).

2. Go for stability, not just size. Just because the host if offering you unmetered and unlimited space, doesn't mean you should solely base your decision on that. What good is that account to you when your site is down or the server is overloaded? Research how long the hosting business has been in operation. See if they have recently changed ownership, and if they show positive cash flow.

3. The possession of fully redundant data centers. If you are considering doing business with a smaller hosting vendor, ensure that they have adequate power and connectivity capabilities. Inquire as to the number of lines the facility has. Do they possess an on-site generator? Does the generator receive regular checks and maintenance? What is the average utilization of the connections available?

4. How skilled is their staff? When you need customer service of a technical nature, you need it immediately, right? Find out the availability of their systems administrators. Send them a support ticket and see how fast they respond.

5. Other customer's reviews of the hosting services. Same as any business, the hosting vendor should be able to provide good references.

6. Is the potential host flexible? In the future, your needs may change. Can you upgrade services should the need arise?

7. This step of course, is optional. Make sure that the host does not have blacklisted IPs. The host that you want to do business with would not be one that promotes illegal sites, spammers, or other security issues. You are considering associating your business with this host. You could always ask them what web server they plan to put you on.

8. Begin with and maintain a clear and written understanding of all services and all charges for them. If questions still remain or some terms are unclear it is strongly advised that you ask for clarification before signing up for anything.

If you do your research before beginning business, you will find a better avenue to the successful hosting, and thereby promotion, of your online business. Take your time in making this important decision.

<MOD NOTE: Edited for promotional content.>

Do not offend, but your are insulting the intelligence of the forum HD members by posting advise about something that most people know. You can find thousands of articles that say the same in various article directories and forums. For some reason sell-promoters usually make a wrong presumption that when they come to any quality forums they would post some general "How to" articles and anyone is supposed to say "Thank you". At the sam time the only purpose of such articles is to have your signature stuck in a thread.

My advise (and I'm not preaching anyone) is to participate to discussions and to try to be in favor of other forum members. This shall help you to create a good reputation here.

I completely agree. I think it's easy to get tempted to do this when you see so many other hosts doing it. I visit many forums and see this all of the time and it never seems to be frowned upon.

Jack

Thread closed as there is nothing much you can add to the advice except for more of the same.

While we appreciate the advice in an article-style format, this is a discussion forum and the best way to learn and choose your next web hosting provider is by asking questions.