Newbie Web Hosting Guide For Business


When I first launched this site it was hosted on lovinghosting. Within 2 days I already noticed the site at a total crawl so I immediatelely asked for a refund and signed up to another host called fridayhost.net . This time I did a speed test for fridayhost before signing up and it seemed fine during the one time one day speed test.

Mistake #2. Well, fridayhost turned out to be a mistake also because the server comes to a crawl almost everyday now. Infact only 2 days after I signed up the problem appeared. So when you due a speed test on the server do it for at least 3 days several times a day before you sign up for the host.

You can google keywords "website speed test" or "server speed test" to test the website host. All you need to do is enter the website address of the hosting company and then enter.
My favorite is www.vertain.com because it shows you how it compares to other popular sites for speed. However you should also use a website that displays average speed per kilobyte because some pages are larger then others and its really the speed per kilobyte you care about.

So, you can use a speed testing website like http://www.web-hosting-top.com/web-hosting/tools.website-speed-test

Input some other popular websites one per line in the test above so you can compare how the host stands up to others like msn, cnn etc..

You will find many web hosts that provide you really cheap shared hosting say $6.95 per month and 3000GB of bandwidth monthly transfer and 500GB of disk space.
Well, in short stay away from these types of hosts. Here is why.
There is no way they can afford to offer this much bandwidth and diskspace for this price so if you ever get a lot of traffic your account will just be suspended and you may even lose your entire website data. Even if you don't get a lot of traffic these types of hosts tend to be slow in ping and download speed because they have to limit bandwidth. It is the only way they can offer cheap hosting and still make money.
By limiting your bandwidth there is no chance you will ever transfer even 20% of the bandwidth they promise you. What you need to concern yourself with here is more the speed of your little website. Even if you don't think you will use all this bandwidth you need to make sure your site loads quickly and always especially if you are running a commerce site selling products and services. And lastly by all means stay away from hosts that say "unlimited bandwidth". This is just like saying "gazillion bandwidth per month". No one can afford to give you unlimited bandwidth for $7/month.

Web hosting company that use this type of false advertising strategy are just going to get you into trouble and end up costing you time and money so if your serious about making money online don't mess with this and just due your due dilligent.


If you found a web host you are considering I suggest you go to this website below, plug it in and test its ping response. The fastest I have seen is 5ms but anywhere up to 25ms is good.

http://www.hostpulse.com/hosting/networktools/pingresult.asp

You can then go to the other server speed test sites mentioned above for further testing. Do this for a few days throughout the day for consistency otherwise you will end up like me.

When you have finally found a few web hosts that meet the speed and reliability score go to their website and make sure they offer all the features you need, payment options and .... Support.

Support is really important because your site can go down for things that are out of your control so you need the tech guys there springing into action. You should also test the speed response of their support for a few days. Send them email as well as through the website. Even if you don't have any questions invent some or pretend you have a concern and ask just to see how fast and how well they respond.

Stay away from contractual web hosting packages that force you to pay anual or 2 years upfront. They do this because many clients don't ask for refund even if the server is not so great. As long as its up and not a total crawl most people stay quiet. But for you an online entrepreneur, its not good enough so, if you only paid one month and have no contract obligation, its easy to just hunt and switch to another better host.