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| How To Choose Your
Web Host. |
Ask any Internet entrepreneur
what the most important decision they had to make for their Web
site was, and chances are pretty good they'll say:"choosing my
Web host". |
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| Here are the
most important things you need to ask your potential Web host
before you part with your hard earned cash. |
| 1.
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"How long have you
been in business?" |
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Very important, as Web hosting is a
business that requires a lot of technical experience.
It is very high tech, and a new company might not have
had the time to get accustomed to all the many different
technologies you'll be using for your Web site.
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| 2. |
"Who are your customers?" |
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Are their current customers serious business people or
just hobby Webmasters with personal homepages? Ask for
some URLs of serious ecommerce sites that they host.
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| 3. |
"Do you provide live
24x7x365 support?" |
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You will definitely require support
from your Web host from time to time. Questions will arise
that you'll need answers to. Sometimes you'll need these
answers as soon as possible, or even immediately. A good
Web host must have 24 hour support staff available on
hand to take your emails and calls. Your emails should
be responded to within 1-2 hours max.
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| 4. |
"Do you guarantee 99%
uptime?" |
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No matter how good a Web host, your
site will be unavailable for short periods of times due
to routine maintenance work. The best Web hosts however
offer a money back guarantee in case your Web site isn't
up 99% of the time (over the period of one year usually).
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| 5. |
"What kind of Internet
connection do you have?" |
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You need a fast connection from your
Web site to the Internet. The fastest connections are
leased lines (includes T-1, T-3, OC-3 and DS-3). You should
be looking for a Web host with leased lines. No leased
lines? Simply look for another Web host.
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| 6. |
"What features do
you offer?" |
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You MUST be provided with a CGI directory for your scripts.
Also, PHP capability is becoming more and more important.
Of course, you want the obvious features such as POP email
accounts, email aliases, autoresponders (very important)
and access to log files. For a full list of features you
should demand from your Web host, click on the link below:
http://www.all-about-making-money-online.com/choosinghost/
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| 7. |
"How
much data transfer am I allowed per month?" |
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Unless you're going to purchase a dedicated
server, you'll be limited to the amount of traffic you
can drive to your Web site per month. Don't worry however,
as you'll be offered more than enough transfer for a small-medium
site. And if you get so much traffic that you exceed the
transfer quota, well then that's a good thing! For it
means you can make more money, and so can afford to upgrade
to a more powerful server. A quota of 3GB of monthly transfer
should be enough to begin with.
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