Web Hosting Customer Service - Choose Wisely

[Matt Koshko]

Hosting is a priority for any web-service, SaaS, or nearly anyone with a website. It's important to get your hosting "right", not just to have hosting.

 

There are many hosting solutions including Dedicated, Shared, Virtual, In-house. Where do you possibly start? It depends what you're looking for, but from personal experience I say customer service is critical.

 

We've used a couple companies in the past for our dedicated server needs. While the experience was great at the beginning, it seemed to dwindle over time. Issues with up-time, updates, and of course timely fixes continued. The most alarming was learning how the "fixes" were really not great solutions, but we didn't really know the impact of the "fix" other than our problem going away.

 

Not too long ago someone approached us about helping with Server Administration...which turned in to a full-service hosting solution. For the same amount of money we were spending every month we were able to get much improved server power, space, speed, and the best part? An administrator who works with us instead of just being reactive.

 

While we appreciated the previous solutions, we simply needed someone who can sit in the same room with us, drink a beer, and say "Hey, guys, let's do this..."

 

Lesson? Don't just choose a hosting solution because they are cheap or seem to have all the bells and whistles. Customer service and administration (especially for future problems) can be invaluable...or cost you a lot of money over time.

[johnmcclure]

That is the thing. I have joined a few program , They say  We will build you a custom web and give you not just one but 5 business, But you need A domain Then it clicks over to host  Zellia ,Then they want $268.00 dollars. That is for as I get because I do not have $268.00 dollars. But you know that is not all they are going to pull on , Because you are going to need a auto responder,what I do not under why can: t You use Go daddy .com Is it just another way to get money out of you ?

[DigitalDon]

I represent a hosting company that provides hosting for up to four domains, and the hosting package includes an email autoresponder, video hosting, video conferencing and live training twice a week. I won't post my affiliate link here because I don't wish to "spam" the forum. Suffice it to say that this company has a solid reputation for being "business-friendly" and has been in business for over 12 years now. It should be noted that under this plan your domains are hosted on shared servers, so it may not be suitable for ALL businesses.

 

If you're going to host a lot of videos on your own site, or you plan on installing scripts which are "server-intensive," then shared hosting is NOT a good choice. I advise coughing up the extra money for a dedicated server, or look into hosting your videos on Amazon. Many marketers use YouTube to host their videos, however that looks amateurish to most people. Plus, if someone finds your video(s) on YouTube and you don't have sufficient info in your video descriptions there, it's really confusing to those who find them on YouTube, and you end up losing potential traffic there too.

 

That's why I recommend consolidating things as much as possible, in spite of the age-old warning, "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket." Of course, if you're just starting out in an online business, you probably don't even know what questions to ask, let alone where and who to ask them. Forums like this are a good way to get some good "peer input" from people who are - or have been - "in your shoes."

 

This is my first post on this forum, having just joined minutes ago. I've known Matt and Darren casually for a number of years now, and I value their opinions and advice - because I KNOW they are "walking the walk" and not just spouting "theory" like a lot of the so-called "gurus" out there.

[Matt Koshko]

Don, you made some great points. It certainly is dangerous having all of your "eggs" (websites) in one place. What happens when the server goes down? All your sites are now offline. Yes, if you have 1 or 2 websites, it's probably fair to put them in the same place. Beyond that...it might be wise to have two servers to split up 4+ websites to be safe.

 

Redundancy is important, no matter who the hosting provider. And, data backups! If the data or disk crashes, getting the data back could be a nightmare, if at all possible. Think ahead!

[johnmcclure]

I represent a hosting company that provides hosting for up to four domains, and the hosting package includes an email autoresponder, video hosting, video conferencing and live training twice a week. I won't post my affiliate link here because I don't wish to "spam" the forum. Suffice it to say that this company has a solid reputation for being "business-friendly" and has been in business for over 12 years now. It should be noted that under this plan your domains are hosted on shared servers, so it may not be suitable for ALL businesses.

 

If you're going to host a lot of videos on your own site, or you plan on installing scripts which are "server-intensive," then shared hosting is NOT a good choice. I advise coughing up the extra money for a dedicated server, or look into hosting your videos on Amazon. Many marketers use YouTube to host their videos, however that looks amateurish to most people. Plus, if someone finds your video(s) on YouTube and you don't have sufficient info in your video descriptions there, it's really confusing to those who find them on YouTube, and you end up losing potential traffic there too.

 

That's why I recommend consolidating things as much as possible, in spite of the age-old warning, "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket." Of course, if you're just starting out in an online business, you probably don't even know what questions to ask, let alone where and who to ask them. Forums like this are a good way to get some good "peer input" from people who are - or have been - "in your shoes."

 

This is my first post on this forum, having just joined minutes ago. I've known Matt and Darren casually for a number of years now, and I value their opinions and advice - because I KNOW they are "walking the walk" and not just spouting "theory" like a lot of the so-called "gurus" out there.

You sure make good scents .Wish I could have met you 3 years ago .I have lost a lot of money doing it all wrong.I still do not know what I am doing. But now I am broke,no job no money just a long for the ride.

[DA Riley]

An Administrator is key, Matt... as you say. I've operated dedicated servers

for better than 8 years now, and I still don't know all the ins and outs. Plus

they are ever changing with the software and OS updates. It can be a real

challange.

 

I do hosting for several exchanges and one of the keys to my success is

knowing php. It is sometimes tough to keep the scripts updated with the

software versions. Clients usually don't understand but appreciate the

host being able to keep things up to date without them having to worry

about it.

 

I have found and used on occassion 3rd party server management companies.

They have techs available 24/7 and are usually pretty good in emergency

situations. Most are available as monthly subscription or a one time "fix".