Hosting

Where you host is important. It can make or break your website or blog. Picking the wrong host can result in downtime, slow loading times and security hacks.

Important things to consider

• Quality of technical support
• Loading speed of website
• Does the hosting company use cPanel?
• Flexibility in hosting length
• Payment options
• How do they backup your website data?
• How does the hosting company provide support? Email? Helpdesk? Phone?

Don’t Let Cost Be a Deciding Factor

In the end, most shared hosting plans are about the same price, $4 – $18 per month. Most people starting websites and blogs start with shared hosting. This means that you share a server with other websites. Once your site grows larger with thousands of daily visitors, you may want to consider moving to Virtual hosting or your own dedicated server.

I recommend Rochenhost to all students setting up new websites because they have proven to have consistent, fast, experienced people on staff with servers that are well maintained.  They are also the official hosting company of Joomla.org and have sponsored many Joomla Day events.

The Support You Need

When you’re having trouble and it’s 8pm at night, won’t it be nice to get help quickly with your website or blog? Make sure to use Google to find out what other people think of the hosting company. Ask your hosting company for references. Sign up for a short period of time to test them out before committing long term.

Many will offer deep discounts if you sign up for 1-2 years because they know it’s not easy for “regular people” to move to a new server. Saving $3 a month could cost you thousands of dollars in the long run.  I’ve helped countless clients and customers move away from the following hosts due to poor service, slow sites, limited access to files and hard to use web management consoles:

• Network Solutions
• Bluehost
• 1and1
• GoDaddy (good for domain names, bad for hosting)

Choose a Host That Offers cPanel

Another important consideration is how they provide hosting services. There is a popular hosting platform known as cPanel. Hosting companies subscribe and you receive tools that make managing your hosting files, email accounts and datbases much easier.

Companies like Network Solutions, Media Temple, GoDaddy and Dreamhost have decided to make their own “control panels” which often makes it hard for bloggers and business owners to get help from their website and support folks.

Pick My Brain on Hosting

In the meantime, I’ve created this chart based on my experience hosting websites which goes back to 1999 when I registered my first domain name.

I began offering hosting to my clients in 2003 after many of them had trouble with their hosting companies.  This allowed me to learn more about website management, DNS and the type of support people should expect.

I now offer training on many of the essential technologies a small business needs to get off the ground including blogs, SEO strategy, social media introduction and domain email.

If you have questions about hosting not answered here, feel free to email me or give me a shout on Twitter @freshworkshops

Photo credit: by JohnSeb