Newbie Guide: How To Pick Your First Web Host
By
8/10/2016
So
you are ready to make your first dollar online right? Well the first thing you
need to do is purchase your very own web hosting account. Unfortunately,
picking the right web hosting account can be a really difficult task.
Especially if you are not technically inclined at all, because all the
different choices and options you have to pick from will make anybody’s head
swim.
Luckily,
I have a lot of experience with web hosting in my business. I currently have
accounts with over 10 different web hosting companies. And I have had to deal
with dozens more. So in this guide, I will show you all the considerations you
need to go through to pick the perfect web hosting account.
What Type of Web Hosting Should I Get
The
first question you need to ask yourself is what type of web hosting you should
get. There are many different choices out there: Shared Hosting, Virtual
Private Servers (VPS), Dedicated Servers, or even Reseller Hosting. If you have
never created a website before then the choice is easy. 99 times out of 100 you
should pick shared hosting.
With
shared hosting, your website will share a single server computer’s resources
with a number of other customers. It’s the most cost effective, but more
importantly it’s the easiest solution to setup and get up and running quickly.
Only
when you start getting lots of traffic to your website, should you consider
moving to any of the other web hosting types.
What To Look For In A Web Hosting Company
Inevitably
when newcomers look at web hosting, the first thing they look at is the price.
This is a big mistake! My very first web hosting company that I used was a
company called Dreamhost. I did not know anything about web hosting at the
time, and I only picked them because they were offering an amazing discount at
the time.
Dreamhost
wasn’t terrible, and I stuck with them for awhile. However, they just grew too
fast and weren’t able to support all their customers. My website’s starting
going down more and more often and eventually I just became fed up with them
and was forced to find a new web host.
So
when picking a web hosting company, I really focus on two main things.
1. Reliability
(Uptime)
2. Support
2. Support
Reliability
and uptime is pretty self explanatory. You want your website to be up 24/7 at
all times if possible. Of course, there are always unforeseen things that can
happen to any web hosting company, whether it be server failures or the like.
But a good web hosting company will have a good team that can deal with these
issues in a timely manner and most importantly communicate with their customers
what’s going on.
Responsive
support is another must have with any web hosting company. There’s nothing more
frustrating and panic inducing then finding your website down one day,
submitting a support ticket, and waiting hours (or even days) for someone to
tell you what’s going on. Many of the better web hosting companies include a
Live Chat function on their website so you can talk to someone within minutes.
Also check if a company has a Twitter account and see how responsive they are
to customer service requests.
Only
after looking and Reliability and Support will I look at other things like
Features and Cost. Honestly, most shared hosting plans pretty much offer the
same types of features. Just make sure you know how many Add-on Domains and
MySQL databases you are allowed to put on your account. And I prefer web hosts
that offer the cPanel control panel since it’s easy to use and most web hosts
use it.
How To Research The Best Web Hosting Company
Researching
web hosting companies can be a time consuming and frustrating task. Mainly
because there is a lot of worthless information out there. Searching on Google
for a particular web host review is essentially useless because 95% of the
posted reviews out there are driven by lucrative web hosting commissions
instead of providing any actual value.
Beware
of any website that shows a table of their Top 10 web hosts reviewed. It is
very rare that anyone has tested this many web hosts and are giving them
legitimate reviews. Plus, web hosting companies are known to boost commissions
for webmasters who will bump up their web host in the rankings.
Instead
of searching on Google, here is how you should find and evaluate a web hosting
companies instead.
1.
Search on forums. The best web hosting forum is WebHostingTalk.com. But you can also find good
opinions about web hosts on other more niche forums like the Warrior Forum (Internet Marketing) and Sitepoint.
Forums are usually the best because you will usually get actual opinions
(positive and negative) that aren’t influenced by an affiliate commission.
2.
Monitor their twitter account. Locate any web hosting companies’ official twitter account. Then
monitor the @replies that other Twitter users are making. Are there lots of
users complaining about downtime? Or do they sound happy in general.
3.
Contact their support. The best way to test out a web hosting support is to try them
out. If they have a Live Chat, test it out and see how long it takes for
someone to respond. Or send a support ticket and see the same.
4.
Ask a friend. Do you know someone who already
runs their own website? Why not ask them what they think of their web hosting
provider.
Which Shared Hosting Do I Recommend
I
currently have 4 different shared web hosting accounts. Bluehost,
Inmotion Hosting, Site5, and Hostgator. However, the one I recommend most often
is Hostgator. I’ve been with them since 2008 and I couldn’t be happier with
them. Not only is this blog Misterfong.com hosted with Hostgator, but it also
the web host of choice for sites likeTrafficGenerationCafe.com, BasicBlogTips.com, Blokube.com, BenSettle.com, John-Carlton.com among others.
While
not the cheapest web host out there, their uptime is excellent. This Pingdom
monitoring widget show’s a real time look at the uptime for my site over the
past 30 days.
Plus they have one of the best support staffs I’ve had the
pleasure of dealing with. All I need to do is use the Live Chat and I can talk
to a real live person in just a couple of minutes. See this Hostgator video
review I did, for more details.
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Also see :
Build Backlinks – 14 Easy Ways
Thanks Guys.
