Top Web Host
Here is one very good reason why I love this website business: the costs to run these little websites is pathetically low. It takes me $9.21 per year to buy the domain names. And $7.95 per month to host the website. But here is the cool part: I can host unlimited domain names and websites for $7.95 per month. No additional hidden costs or charges. That means, currently it costs me less than -
$0.50 a month
to host a website!
Can you say cheap web hosting or what! Here is one more stupendous number for you. Including buying the domain name, hosting the website, having a merchants account, shopping carts and autoresponders -
each website costs me less than
$30 to create!
Can you think of any other business that could let you earn a 10,000-100,000% return on investment every year?
Note: $30 is just the production cost per website. It costs more to market these little websites. But don't worry - you'll read about some nifty low cost high impact marketing ideas and techniques later on in this series of Hotsheets. Right now, its time to show you how to select a web host.
Horrible Hosting Troubles
I've had some pretty bad hosting experiences. In my first 4 years making websites, I've used and changed SEVEN different hosts!
- When I started out, I went for a cheap web host. And I found one. But along with their prices this web hosts services were cheap too. Their servers used to go down out-of-order every week!
- One web host charged me $25 to host every additional domain after the first one with them.
- Once, when everything looked good with a host, I found out that the person I'd bought hosting from didn't have his own servers. Instead, he was a reseller for some other company. He used to markup the server prices by 50% and then sell to me. That would have been ok with me. But then, that reseller started spamming to sell hosting. And the main hosting company closed his account - along with my websites!
- One host seemed pretty good when I bought their hosting packages. They gave good amount of web space and 10 GB bandwith every month. (Every time someone visits your website, they use a little bit of bandwith. So bandwith is one of the main things to look for in a good web host.) Anyways, I created a new web site and started marketing it. Within 2 days, that website generated 15,000 visitors and 5,000 subscribers. And the third day, my website was taken down. Even though I'd taken a high bandwith hosting account, they couldn't handle the traffic this little website generated!
I've been through all kinds of hosting head aches! And hopefully, you'll learn from my mistakes and won't have to suffer through them. Here is a list of things to look for in a good web host:
Essential Features of a Web Host
- Web space - Typically, 10mb should be good enough for each little website. But if you create audio or video products, then you'll need more space accordingly.
- Bandwith - A low graphic and media site will require less bandwith. If you create audio visual products, you'll require high bandwith. As your website grows in popularity and more visitors come to your site everyday, you'll require more bandwith. One of more bigger websites uses 40mb a day (it alone requires 1.2gb bandwith a month!)
- Reliability (Uptime) - For how long does a web host goes down every month. Should be less than 1-2 hours a year.
- Size of the hosting company - If the web hosting company just has a few 40-50 clients, don't go with them. You never know when they'll close down shop for good.
- Customer Support - How soon can they respond to your questions or solve any problems that might arrive? Don't settle for anything less than 24 hour support!
- Domains - How many domain names will they allow you to host with one account without charing extra for it? Go for unlimited if you can find such a host.
- Emails and FTP - almost all web hosts at least give a few email ids and ftp accounts, so you won't have to worry about this unless you are going to hire 50 employees and will require separate email addresses for all of them.
- PHP - you'll require php for even the simplest of scripts like a web contact form. So make sure your host provides it.
- Mysql databases - if you are going to run big websites with databases on it, then you'll require mysql. I've just had to use mysql for two of my websites till date.
- Price - They've gotto be affordable if not extremely cheap.
My Top Web Host
For four years, I was frustated with hosting and changed 7 hosts. Eight time was the lucky charm. The eight web host I selected is superb and I've been using them for more than 3 years now. Its not only good and generous with its features, its also extremely cheap - costing me $7.95 per month (paid for two years together).
Here's some of the things my top web host offers:
- 20GB disk space
- 1TB bandwith (1TB = 1024GB)
- 24/7 round the clock customer support
- They're big hosting thousands of websites
- 3000 email accounts and 75 FTP accounts
- Unlimited domain names hosted
- PHP and unlimited Mysql databases
- And... one free domain name registeration (worth $9.21)
Since the last 3 years, their servers have never went down longer than 10-15 minutes a year! I think they are the best web host out there.
They charge $9.95 per month with a one time setup fee of $50. But they'll waive of the $50 setup fee if you pay for one whole year together. And if you pay for two years together, they'll further reduce the cost by $2 a month - to $7.95 a month only! Oh, and did I tell you? They even give a
97 day money back Guarantee!
If you don't like them for any reason, simply let them know within 97 days and they'll refund you every penny! Here is the link to my incredible web host -
$24 off coupon for Dreamhost
Would you like to receive a Dreamhost coupon code for $24 off? Using this coupon, it'll cost you just $7.95 per month (instead of $9.95) even if you go with the one-year payment deal instead of the two-year deal.
To get $24 off, simply use the following promo code while checking out at dreamhost.com:
Picture showing where to fill in the code...
After you have your domain name and hosting in place, its time to design your website.
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