Online for Success

Most modern day websites are now community based. For webmasters stuck in the era of completely static websites that hasn’t existed for 10+ years, it can be a real challenge in order to re-learn everything. There’s certain types of requirements and strategies one must have knowledge of in order to maintain a reasonably active community. Here we’ll discuss what some consider to be the three most important aspects of running a community and what that means when choosing a web hosting company.

1: Security

Security is of utmost importance when dealing with a community type of website. Why? Because it’s not just your security that’s at risk, it’s your visitors’ security as well. Having things happen like password theft and constant spam is not something that your visitors are going to be willing to work with you on. Most people use the same passwords and information on all their accounts on the internet, and you don’t want to be the one responsible for letting all that information slide.

You want to look for a web host that has a reliable way to protect against things like brute force attacks and other forms of mischievous behavior. Safety issues like these shouldn’t require spending cash on 3rd party software; it should be something that your web host takes care of for you (or at least lets you monitor).

2: Popularity

A web host isn’t going to get your community popular, but it certainly can do things that can help. One way is to allow a constant amount of server processing power and bandwidth to let users communicate without any kind of limitations. Another way is that most web hosts have servers which are optimized for today’s common community-based scripts such as forums, blogs, and sometimes even microblogging platforms (like Twitter-type sites).

Using the same interface as the next guy may seem a little less creative then we’d all like, but think about it. Your visitors have probably already used a similar interface before and will less likely become confused as to how your website works. For this reason, it’s important to not only choose a web host that allows commonly used content management systems, but also encourages their use and automatically installs and maintains them if possible. You can choose best web hosting companies from findbestwebhosting.com.

3: Flexibility

What we mean by flexibility is to be able to use the types of scripting languages and advanced features that make community-based sites that much easier to run. Sometimes MySQL isn’t exactly suited for the type of community that requires thousands, even millions of database entries, each being maybe the length of an article. Sometimes you may feel that eventually you’ll need to upgrade your service all together. The idea is that if you’d ever seriously think about using some type of service, make sure that your web server lets you do it if you so choose. Communities aren’t usually willing to wait around for you to change to a different server, and moving a community that’s consistently communicating without shutting it down temporarily is, well, impossible.

When you are a customer of a web hosting company, there are certain rights that you have. You shouldn’t stand for being pushed around just because the hosting company can’t handle the problems that you have. That is what they are getting paid for, and they are going to have to deal with their customers’ problems one way or another in order to stay in business. If you are paying for a service, make sure that you are not letting yourself get ripped off when it comes to customer service.

A common mistake that webmasters constantly seem to put up with for too long is just bad service in general. No, we are not talking about customer service or dealing with tech support, we are dealing with the actual server reliability in itself. As a paying customer, you are entitled to use a server that actually works. In no place during the sign-up process does it say that you have to deal with constant server outages, slow speed, and poor interfaces. If it is your first time dealing with a web host and you are experiencing these problems, get the heck out of there!

Another thing that commonly goes unrecognized is the ability to access your data in a reasonable amount of time, no matter what sort of server problems they are experiencing or violations to their TOS agreement they have claimed you have done. No matter how bad of a day their having with either you or their own equipment, there is no excuse for them not being able to submit to you your website’s code and database entries in one form or another. Yeah, everybody has their off-days, but you shouldn’t have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in lost data and scripting because of it. Web hosting companies know this and if they feel threatened enough legally, they will eventually find a way to surrender your property back to you.

One last thing that no customer should have to put up with is a web host that doesn’t let you leave them in peace. For instance, some web hosts will try and constantly nag you to stay with them and offer some sort of deal that they only offer to their angry customers. Sometimes these deals come in the forms of free trials, for instance, they will continue your e-mail service for free for a few months and start to charge you eventually for it.

Practices like these are more likely to take place while using a company that doesn’t have much of a popular brand name. It’s important to research these types of things before selecting your web host. Everybody is entitled to make a mistake here and there; they shouldn’t be judged based on just that. They should be judged on the ability to deal with the problems that arise.

In 2010, it has been quite a year for web hosting. With the recent advancement of technologies concerning Web 2.0, heavy bandwidth usage, space, security, and an almost endless amount of spammers out there, it is important to select a web host that has adapted well to the new decade. Let us take a look at some of those web hosting companies that are making sure to keep themselves, and in turn their clients, up to date with the times.

HostGator:

These guys have been around for awhile, and they seem to have a good rapport with every community out there. This is not a coincidence. People have long been catching on with the fact that if you are not sure what you’re doing, HostGator is the way to go. It is no secret as to why this is.

First of all, HostGator seems to have almost every piece of the puzzle you need in order to make any kind of decent social network or Web 2.0 community. They are one of the few hosts that not only allow for unlimited bandwidth or disk usage, but also for unlimited MySQL databases as well. Hosting multiple different scripts and extremely large communities becomes a lot less limited and confusing, while the amount of time it takes to access those databases decreases. It is basically a database programmer’s heaven.

They have also got support for almost every language in the book, including some of the lesser used ones including Python and Ruby On Rails. Security seems to be quite a big deal for them, which is why they supply you with SSL functionality, anti-spam tools, and the ability to block any incoming IP directly from the control panel.

Omnis:

Not a lot of people talk about this web host, but we are not quite sure as to why that is. Omnis seems to have created a pleasant balance between programming flexibility and automated features. In other words, no matter what your web development experience level is (or even if you are just lazy), you are bound to be satisfied with what Omnis offers.

For their automated features (those instant-install programs most web hosts have 2 or 3 of), they have got 6 different blogging platforms, 8 different content management systems, 6 types of forums, 6 different media gallery scripts, and 6 different shopping carts to choose from. Not to mention, they include a hefty miscellaneous utility section with more features than we have ever seen.

The more interesting side of Omnis comes into view when you realize that they also have the more “techie” people covered as well. They have got all the well-known programming languages covered, as well as some of the more rare ones (including some of the Microsoft-based languages that most hosts tend to leave out). Omnis also allows for an unlimited number of domains, meaning that the only thing that limits the amount of websites you can own is your ability to maintain them. All that comes with their base plan (which, by the way, seems to be their only plan) which costs about $80 per year.

Fat Cow:

Fat cow seems to be more of a “budget friendly” type of service. Though they are not quite up to par with the first two listed (no Ruby on Rails, a lot less applications that automatically install, etc), they actually offer some interesting features that even the more expensive websites don’t include.

What got our attention was the ability to directly accept a credit card payment. Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to convince all your customers to go through the lengthy process of opening up and activating a PayPal account just to do business with you? That feature alone is bound to convert a lot more visitors into customers.

Now, we couldn’t leave out the whole point of Fat Cow if we are going to review them. If you visit their website (http://www.fatcow.com respectively), you will notice something strange that you won’t see with any other web host. It is not something that benefits you or them directly, but did you know that Fat Cow servers are powered by 100% wind energy? We couldn’t tell whether it was a gimmick or something the company truly cares about, but mentioning that your website is maintained by an environmentally friendly server would be a great way to build rapport for a “Go Green” type of site.

So you’ve found the perfect domain name for your soon to be successful online venture. Your mind is drifting to the many variables that will play a role in that success – site design, marketing, search engine listings, and so on. Thoughts of web hosting cross your mind, but only briefly. After all, development and marketing are exciting directions, and where you host your site is a mere technicality – or is it?

Selection of a host that is suitable for your online business is something that requires more thought, and research, than many newcomers to the internet business world realize. Your host is at the very core of your operation – without them your business literally does not exist.

Imagine the following scenario:

You’ve worked many months developing your site, its product lines, and the marketing efforts relative to getting those products to your potential customers. You’ve recently completed negotiations for a short term partnership arrangement with a high traffic web portal that is guaranteed to bring volumes of targeted visitors to your online store. Just as the links to your venture are activated at your partner’s end, your hosting provider experiences an all-out server failure. Their backup systems are inefficient, and unable to manage the sudden influx of data requests. In the end, they fail as well.

Technical staff supporting your host are inexperienced, and cannot bring the server up in less than 24 hours. Once all system issues are corrected, and your site is again live, your short term partnership arrangement has concluded. The only achievement of this agreement has been the exposure of thousands of potential customers to an error message indicating your site is unavailable. Will these previously motivated buyers return? Perhaps, but achieving this will now require twice the effort initially necessary – which often means twice the financial investment as well.

Is the above scenario one that your online business can afford? The answer is obvious, but the potential exists if one decides to select a hosting provider without doing their homework first.

There are innumerable areas of assessment when selecting a host, and the requirements of each business model is different. Here are some of the most common elements you will want to review:

Reliability

* what is their average uptime? Aim high here – many experienced providers average over 99% uptime.
* do they offer any testimonials from satisfied customers?
* can they be contacted to very the information they have provided on site?
* how do they ensure server security?

Backup Systems

* do they have well laid out risk management plans?
* server failures are inevitable – what is the average length of the downtime involved, if any?

General Service Offering

* megs of storage space allocated at given price
* number of email accounts provided per hosted domain
* cgi bin access to allow for the installation and use of various on-site forms
* free access to ready to install cgi based forms
* sql capability for database oriented sites
* fully detailed site statistics, including hits, visitors, page views, referrers, keywords, geographical analysis, etc.
* autoresponder availability, number allocated per domain
* bandwidth restrictions per domain
* other add-ons, including ecommerce applications, site building tools, mailing list software, etc.

Pricing

* is the price reflective of the level and number of services available – how does it compare to the competition
* is there a scalable level of service/pricing – can you upgrade as your business grows

Investing the level of effort necessary to selection of a qualified host today can save the online entrepreneur a significant amount of frustration, and financial loss down the road.

Research each potential host thoroughly. If the answers specific to your operation are not clearly stated on their site, take the time to contact them with your inquiry. Any ethical hosting provider will be more than happy to respond promptly, and in detail regarding your questions. If they fail to do so, presume the worst, and move on.

There are many outstanding performers such as Cheap web hosting who will make every effort to host your online venture in a reliable, and customer oriented manner, assisting in your achievement of online success.

Hosting Providers Online for Success has put together a sampling of hosting providers intended to ease the burden of research for the up and coming web entrepreneur. These listings are far from exhaustive, but give a good cross section of services available in today’s marketplace.   Apollo Hosting Apollo offers a variety of service levels, including a basic hosting package for as little as $13.96 per month. With an uptime guarantee of 99.9%, and ecommerce packages that include access to Miva Merchant ecommerce software. Clic.net Clic offers a wide array of hosting and site development packages starting as low as $19.95 per month. All hosting packages incorporate their in-house ecommerce application, which allows for catalogue hosting on their servers, and cut/paste buy buttons that can be placed anywhere on your site. HostingPros.net 100% dedicated to the hosting industry, HostingPros clients are said to enjoy the Website Hosting service that they deserve… "The Best". Hosting packages begin at only $9.95 per month, and include 25 megs of storage, CGI, PHP, and Front Page support, 10 email addresses, and more. HostRocket.Com Host Rocket’s "economy" package begins at only $9.95 per month. They offer an uptime guarantee, as well as a 14 day money back program. There are a variety of packages available to suit the needs of the every webmaster. Lunar Pages For only $7.95 per month, Lunar Pages will provide you with unparalleled service, and rumor is that they actually answer the phone when their clients call! Sign up today, and for that one low fee, receive free setup, 300 MB of storage, 2 GB of transfer, MySQL, Perl, ASP, JSP, PHP, and UNLIMITED email accounts.     Related Subjects: Selecting a Hosting Provider Ecommerce Basics     Top of the webhosting provider page