Some of the most important factors in choosing a web site hosting company are cost of a plan, features provided in that plan, technical support, location of the server, money back guarantee policy, uptime etc. There are so many factors actually. But which one of them is the most important?
Without any doubts, the king of them all is prompt technical support. You can live with a higher priced plan, you can live without a few less features, you can live without the money back guarantee, but can you afford not to have round the clock prompt technical support? No, you can't.
Imagine this. You have some technical issue at 2 a.m. on Saturday and you find out the hard way that there is no one to answer your emails and provide technical support at that hour, what happens then? You wait in frustration. To top it all, the earliest response that you get is on Monday morning, which simply says that the matter is now being looked at. Is that enough? No, it's definitely not enough.
Your website could be down the whole of the weekend, do you want that? No, you definitely don't. Good round the clock technical support not only ensures a good uptime of your website, but also of all its associated services like email, ftp, database etc.
What you need from a good web site hosting provider is a true 24/7/365 technical support. Anything less is not desirable and not acceptable. The technical support staff should be available all days of the week, all days of the month and all days of the year including all public holidays like Christmas and New Year.
Next time you are out looking for a good hosting company for your web site, you know what to look for first and foremost. You know what the most important factor is. Yes, true 24/7/365 technical support.
Web Site Hosting Company
Starting a membership site is impossible if you do not have a hosting company that offers you the right tools to run your web site. At minimum the hosting company should allow you the ability to create forms, set up an ecommerce site, community development tools, recurring billing modules and access level controls. But that's not all you will need to build and run a successful membership web site.
You will need a few other tools such as MySQL, PERL, CGI, SSI, CRON, Curl, FrontPage, PHP scripting tools, Python, GD and ImageMagik, which allows you to create streaming videos and music. Oftentimes these come as standard with hosting companies; however, ask to make sure.
Everyone needs email - and especially membership sites. You will need one for the admin, support, information, etc. So don't overlook your email needs. Your hosting package should also come with auto responders, mailing lists, mail forwarding, web mail, Spam control, POP3, IMAP, and SMTP.
Does the hosting company provide you with a control panel? Cpanels usually offer you Hotlink protection, Fantastico, management of Search Engine submittals, and error pages. Fantastico is a commercial script library that automates installation of about 50 scripts including instant blogging software, portals, PHP, Nuke, Instant Chat, Forums, counters, FTP, and so on.
Password protection is a must. After all, if you are running a membership site you don't want just anyone to be able to access it! Make sure the host you are looking at offers password protection of folders via the cpanel and via .htaccess.
Want to know what pages your customers are viewing, how many requests are returning an error code or where your visitors are coming from? Make sure you have tracking statistics available. Tracking statistics often include raw log or other access such as Awstats. Error logs and analogs are provided as well.
If your goal is to run a successful membership website, you really should consider purchasing the plan that offers ecommerce features, as well as Shared or Private SSL (this affords the consumer protection), Shopping Carts, Joomla, Mambo and other free membership scripts that are usually available if you have the Fantastico feature.
In addition to the basic tools listed above, you will also need to consider some marketing tools for your site when you get it set up. These will vary depending on they type of site you are building. In fact, there will be things you will need, but you won't even know what they are until you run into a problem or two. Just head on over to the search engine and start searching.
Whatever you do, don't give up your dream of owning a membership site. With the tips in this article you know how to find a good webhosting company. The time for hesitation is over. Just build it.
Both Anil Khatri & Lin Vanfleet are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Anil Khatri has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet. . Anil Khatri's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.
Lin Vanfleet has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet. Get . $3.99 Domain Names, Transfers and Renewals! If you need a host for your site check us out: http//ateau.com - the best. Lin Vanfleet's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.
Club Peace And Plenty Perhaps if enough mothers share my wishes then they will indeed come true. I can only hope that my future Mothers Days will see more peace, plenty and understanding and less war, want, and intoleranc...