Choosing a reliable web host is very important when you’re one of those who makes money from the Internet. Server downtime is not something you can afford, not even for an hour!
To date, there are thousands of web hosting companies on the Internet. How should we know which web host is reliable? Which one should we use?
Understanding the “needs”
- What kind of contents are you writing? Does it involve a lot of media files like photos, videos or Flash presentations? (Bandwidth, Disk Space)
- Do you have multiple domains/sub-domains? Do you plan to expand it in a few months time? (Domain limits)
- Who are your targeting audiences? Are you targeting only traffics from your country? (Server location)
- Is your content suitable for all kind of audience? Is it an adult content site? (Web Host limitation)
Bandwidth Limit
When I first started hosting my website on the Internet, I had totally no clue what bandwidth means. I bought a web hosting plan with low bandwidth offered. I started running my PPC Ad Campaign to drive traffics to my sites.
At the beginning of the campaign, I managed to generate quite a bit of income from sales. The second week onwards, there were no sales flowing into my account. I’ve had no idea what went wrong, so I visited my own website and found an error page saying “Bandwidth Limit Exceeded”.
I had to email my web host to find out what does “Bandwidth Limit Exceeded” means. Days later, I was told that I need to purchase extra bandwidth to bring my site back online. You could imagine the loss on my potential customers and ad campaign during my website downtime.
Since that incident, I’ve realized the importance of getting enough bandwidth for my hosting packages.
Domain Limit
As a blogger that makes money from the Internet, sometimes we write more than one niche blog. It is important that we have a relevant domain name before we start writing a blog. If you’re one with wide knowledge on several niche, you certainly need a web hosting packing that offers reasonable amount of add-on domains. Unless you want to end up paying the cost for multiple web hosting services.
Server Location
If your contents are mainly targeting a particular region/country, choosing a stable web host near that region will surely help giving your audience a better reach/loading speed of your website. For example, if your contents are only mainly for Malaysians. Then you probably want to have a web host located in either Singapore or Malaysia that provides a smooth connection within the content and your audiences.
Web Host Limitation
There are many web hosting companies that limits your contents and activities on their server. If you’re writing adult related contents or doing some ’spam marketing’ , it is advised to find an appropriate web host for it. If you breached the terms and conditions of certain web host, they might remove your access and usage on their server. So think carefully before you pay.
Don’t be fooled by big numbers
Nowadays web hosting business has become even more competitive. Most the web host companies started to offer ‘unlimited’ amount of disk space or bandwidth. Huge amount of disk space is useless if your blog isn’t that huge. Believe me, I had six blogs hosted in one of the web hosting package I bought. I hardly used more than 500mb of the disk space considering some of my blog are media rich(lots of files and photos).
Knowing the different between direct web host company & reseller web host
There are mainly two types of web hosting companies. One being the web hosting company that sells their services from the hardwares they own while another is simply a ‘reseller’ of services from the previous mentioned web hosting company.
It’d be a better choice to use a direct web hosting company than a reseller web hosting company. Although there are some reliable web hosting reseller, there are still many web host reseller who does not know what they are doing. They don’t usually put much efforts in supporting their customers when problems occurs.
I once encountered a reseller of the Exabytes Malaysia who’s totally not supportive towards their customers. During the hosting period with them, I had my sites going offline very often. Their responds to the server issues was very unclear and irresponsible. I once even had my website down for more than 10 days and their support crews claim that there were no issues with their server. (note: I had emails from visitors of Singapore, Australia and US complaining that my sites were unreachable since the 28th of February, and it is still unreachable up to date.)
Supportive web host
So, it is wiser to use an actual web hosting company than a reseller web host. (note: I’m still using reseller web host though)
When you’re looking for a web host, always make sure that they do provide 24/7 phone support if possible. You wouldn’t know what to do when problems occurs and the hardware server itself isn’t right beside you. Please be reminded that we cannot afford downtime on our webserver when we make money online.
Conclusion
I hope this guide on choosing a reliable web host will be helpful for you. You wouldn’t want to lose your readers due to the webserver downtime! So good luck and do leave me a comment if you have questions!
