Top Five Questions
to Ask Your Web Hosting Company
by: Derek Vaughan
Each day many new and existing webmasters either launch a new web
site for the first time, or transfer their web site to a new web
hosting provider. In preparation for this important process, there
are five important questions that should be asked prior to signing
on with a new web hosting company.
1. Do you have a trial period or money-back guarantee?
Okay, so that's technically two questions. The point is, no matter
how much homework you do, or how much research stands behind your
decision - it's still possible to make a mistake. Also - the company
could change policies or services, or management - prices can go
up, call wait times for support can spike, and things can just generally
go bad. With the assurance of a trial period or money-back guarantee,
you won't end up paying over and over again for that bad decision.
2. How does your customer service and technical support system work?
I don't care how smart you are, how much programming you know, or
how many web sites you've set up in the past - you are gonna have
to call support eventually. There are just too many weird little
things that can derail a web site or email. Many reside on the web
hosting company's side. To figure out what's up - you need to get
in contact with them. So…will it be by email only, during
the hours of 8:00 am to 5:00 pm eastern standard time or via a toll
free phone line that is available 24x7? Make certain you understand
when support is available - and how you actually reach someone with
real knowledge, not just a "knowledge base" or "canned" response.
3. Can I view a sample site that is hosted on the same server that
my web site will be on?
Sure, the main company web site has nearly 100% uptime. That's because
they have their web site on a separate server than their customers.
Viewing an actual customer site potentially tells you many things
about the web hosting company and their web hosting services. You
can check the load times of their pages easily by using a tool like
Alertra (www.alertra.com). You can also send the webmaster of the site
a nice email asking about their experiences with the hosting company.
4. Are they a web hosting reseller or a core web hosting provider?
Not that there's anything wrong with buying services from a reseller,
but you should know for sure whether your company contact can really
do anything to solve problems, or if they have to pass your concerns
along to a "parent" company. Also, why buy services from a middle
man when you can go straight to the source?Here are some examples
of reseller hosting companies.
5. Will you waive set up fees or give me some other special incentives
to sign up with you today?
In the highly competitive business of web hosting services, each
customer sign up is precious. You will often see special offers listed
on the company's web site or in advertisements. Unknown to each buyer
is the fact that sales people are often given "extra special offers" to
close sales of customers that are right on the edge of buying, but
are resisting. The special offers are designed to close the sale.
Make sure that you ask for each and every special offer they can
give you. You have nothing to lose, and you may find that the offer
that's being given today is fairly generous.
|
