Web Hosts – Choosing a Reliable Web Hosting Company
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As your business grows you will probably change Web Hosting Companies many times for many reasons. Using different hosts for different purposes only makes sense. You don’t want all your eggs in one basket.
I use several hosts including these Hosting Companies!
- Host Gator – Update: 2012 – I’m still using Host Gator for some of my portfolio. They still provide reliable hosting so who am I to argue with you the visitor? Our visitors choose Host Gator over any other host because of the reputation, cost and brand awareness. You probably won’t go wrong with them if you run a small group of sites on the cheap. As you grow your business and need shopping cart services, 1 hour tech support, etc. then perhaps it will be in your interest to switch hosts.
- Host Excellence – Update 2012: Host Excellence is a pretty decent host if you want to do shared hosting on the cheap. I’ve not had problems with their reliability or uptime ever. Host Excellence offers a feature I use that is dirt cheap and very effective. You get a Dedicated IP Address for each website you host! Why does that matter? Here’s why: If you use Host Excellence for some of your sites and register those sites in “Proxy” you can link back to your own sites and there is no way for Google to know about it. Because of the different IP’s and the Proxy Registration they can’t figure it out… unless you tell them! Google is a registrar and they can access any domain information unless it’s registered in proxy. Now add to this unique IP addresses… and you have a very effective method for interlinking blog networks, mini-nets, or whatever you come up with. Hey why should Google make all the money? Get an account at Host Excellence and get to work!
- Rochen Hosting – Update: April 2012. Rochen is an excellent host, but they are expensive compared to HostGator. Visitors to InternetMarketingIQ are choosing HostGator over Rochen by a Huge Margin. Price matters especially now that economic times are tough.
Pick the Host that offers you the right package for what your business plan really needs. And don’t get suckered into a long term commitment just to get the low rate. You need to know that a host works for your needs, before you commit your money.
What Else to Consider When Selecting a Web Host for Your Projects
Selecting a company to host your marketing website is not as easy as it seems. Most beginners look for the “cheapest” price. The old axiom still holds true “You get what you pay for”. You don’t need to spend a fortune to find quality hosting, but you do need to dig deeper than just price. The cheapest price is not the primary factor you should be using to base your hosting decision. Most quality hosts offer plans in the same price range so don’t worry about the price until you find the plans that best fit your needs.
Quality, features, technical support, and reliability are more important than price in choosing your host. And so is your TIME! Once you commit to a host and upload all your work; it can be a real disaster if you have to move your sites because of hosting problems. So choose wisely. Look for a hosting company that has been in business for a couple of years and has a proven verifiyable track record.
Make sure the Host you choose keeps up to date with technology. You need real up time (not just what the vendor claims – they all claim 99% or better). You need a Web Host that keeps the MySQL, PHP, and backend features up to date. Can you install scripts on their servers? Are they using the latest version of cPanel or H-Sphere? What restrictions are placed on your account access? Can you modify .htaccess files? Much of this may seem foreign to you now but in time it may become extremely important.
Don’t Host All Your Sites in the Same Place
Putting your eggs in one basket is a BAD idea. A long time ago the people that made up these sayings must have been really wise! As you build your network of Internet Marketing sites you need to consider many possibilities. There are many reasons to have IP addresses that are far removed from each other should you decide to link your sites together. To effectively implement this diversification strategy you’ll need to register your domains under different names (or Proxy) and addresses to avoid the Search Engines tagging all your sites as being the same owner.
Diversification is always a good strategy as long as the administration does not become overwhelming. Consider Disaster! Yes we had sites hosted in New Orleans. We have had sites hosted in Canada and there was a blackout in the city. Remember the Hurricanes in Florida? Yep! we had sites go down then too. Diversify!
Don’t Use Free Hosts for Anything You Care About
We don’t use free hosts – period. Nothing is FREE! Free hosts are designed to make money for the owner, not you! They are often used by spammers and non marketers. You have zero control over reliability and they use framing techniques to redirect SEO quality to themselves not your site. There are so many reasons not to use free hosting for anything you care about. Enough Said.
What About Other Web Hosting Companies?
Over the years we’ve tried many many hosting services. Remember your investment in your TIME! It’s a lot of effort to change hosts so choose wisely. There are 1,000’s of hosts. There are probably 100 great hosts we have never even heard about. So this list is not the end all of hosting lists, it’s just who we use. So do your research and choose what is best for you.
Frustrating Experiences with Web Hosts
First off for any of you who don’t know me and are visiting Internet Marketing IQ for the first time – I write from experience. Unlike Al Gore; I didn’t invent the Internet. But I go back a hell of a lot further than most of you. Back to the days of “Internet in a Box” and 14.4 Dial up modems. And in that time I’ve used a lot of different ISP’s and a lot of different Web Hosts. And I’ve experienced a ton of problems with Web Hosts that claim to be good, that are “Positively Reviewed” (Almost always by affiliates looking to make a buck – affiliates that don’t even use the hosts they are promoting so aggressively).
- I get frustrated when a Host automatically changes my Password on me then makes me jump through a bunch of hoops to log on. The only reason to automatically change a password is they can’t control their own employees.
- I get frustrated when I pay a Host and they charge my credit card weeks before the renewal period is to begin.
- I get frustrated when I log on to one of my Sites and I find out my site is down because the host moved something on the server and completely jacked up my MySQL database files. Then they can’t fix their own damn problem.
- I get frustrated when the 99.9% uptime guarantee turns out to be a load of crap and my sites are down when I check on them.
- I get frustrated when a Host oversells the shared server space so my pages load as if they were being looked at from a person on a 28K modem.
- I get frustrated when I read the “$4.95 a month” full featured hosting plan that actually costs $7.95 a month because of the Set Up fees and the unrealistic length of contract you would have to sign to get the low costs.
- I get frustrated when Hosts try to “Trick” me with a low cost ad, then make me fill out a bunch of personal information before they reveal the ACTUAL price. And almost all the Hosts you find advertising are doing this. It’s as if they think everyone is a clueless dumbshit. Think about that for a moment. Can you trust a host that tries to trick you right from the start?
These things have all happened to me at different hosts. And thats just a small list. So if you are looking for a glowing review of what host to use I can tell you this: There are no perfect Web Hosting Companies. Fortunately there are a few good ones, but it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
For my really critical sites I own space on a Server that is hosted in a Major West Coast Data Center. The cost of this hosting is significantly higher than all the Hosts you’ll see promoted over and over. And no they do not have an affiliate program. This is true Business Class Hosting.
For my other projects I use the Web Hosts I recommend above.
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