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Web Hosting Is The Backbone To Your Website
The web hosting we use is the single most important aspect of our support package. It must be reliable, backed-up well and above all... fast. When starting out with a website, many businesses decide to simply type "web hosting reviews" or "hosting a website" into Google. Unfortunately, the response is dominated by endless websites claiming to be providing honest reviews of web hosting companies, without ever explaining that the sole purpose of their website is to generate cash from referral programs. There are of course reputable websites that recommend based on personal experience or have some other form of moderation such that the site is not completely filled up with affiliate links, but determining which is which can be hard.
Affiliate Marketing - The Hidden Agenda
There are several approaches that "web hosting review" websites will take in order to convince you to click on affiliate links. Here are a couple of ways to detect the obvious ways:
- Affiliate "a" links: When you find a website that provides reviews of web hosting, the first thing you should do is right click on the site and select "view source", then search it for the word "affiliate". If you see many instances of this then it is probable that the page (and the site itself) is purely to generate income from affiliate programs.
- Internal links that reroute: The link with anchor text such as "Visit Web Host Website" will not directly link to the web hosting company, but will instead route through an internal page that then routes to the web hosting company. This allows it to hide the fact that it is passing through a layer to let the web hosting company know that the link is an affiliate link - it is hiding this fact from you so that you do not know you are clicking through an affiliate link. Examples of these links might be "www.examplereviewsite.com/exit/examplehost" or "www.examplereviewsite.com/go/host=1". Remember - a reputable link would either directly link to the recommended site or would clearly state that it is an affiliate link.
- Reviews: Even when the reviews are from actual persons (judge for yourself if you believe whether they are real or not) then the website may well only provide those reviews that are beneficial to the service; ignoring those that are detrimental. Again, if a website's sole purpose is to route you through to several web host providers then do your research, don't just believe what it says. If all of them contain "star ratings" that are 5 out of 5, or 4.5 out of 5 then let your common sense decide what is going on.
- Website Authenticity: A big one, one I personally stand by. Take a look at all the reviews of the various hosting companies on a review site - do they all read the same on the website? (but with the name of the hosting service in bold). Is there any contact info on the website to say who is running the site? where are they hosted themselves? what is their address? Do they do anything other than review web hosting companies? (in which case how do they make their money?)
Price - surely cheap is good?
It can be - but it is a gamble. Consider offerings such as $3.50 per month. The shared hosting that this provides will mean that your website is on a server with possibly hundreds of other websites; their traffic will affect yours. You may think that it isn't that important - that your website is small and so doesn't need good hosting, since it has little bandwidth and storage.
If your website is sharing with alot of other sites however, it does not matter on the size of your site - it will be affected by all the others. It is also a trend that the cheaper the hosting, the larger their affiliate program is (since they must sell many more packages to earn enough money) - if the affiliate program is large (some pay a fortune for sellers) then the results in Google for that provider will give you little indication of the level of service you may receive.
Also, if an affiliate program pays out alot for a cheap service, then consider that it may also be difficult to cancel said service and/or to get your money back.
What To Look For In A Web Host
After having found some good, honest reviews, take a look at their website. A feature matrix is important, since if you wish to install wordpress, joomla and so on then the versions of php and mysql are important to them and a feature matrix will spell out what they provide. It will also spell out the number of email accounts you can have, whether you have ftp access. Most hosting companies provide you with a link to webmail and also to a control panel. One note about the control panel is make sure you ask the host if you have access to your DNS information and if you can change it yourself - this is important if you register your domain name with them too and wish to repoint it to other (better) hosting in the future.
Be sure to look at how long the contract is, if there is one. Web hosting companies will offer very attractive packages to keep you for a year or two, including free domain name (a saving of up to $20), reduced monthly cost, Google AdWord coupons (sometimes up to $100) and so on. It is not recommended to jump at these offers unless you are certain that the web hosting company will provide good service, since changing from them to another (if you find the service is poor) is time-consuming and the extra cost of yet another web host starts to eat into the supposed savings you received by signing up in the first place.
Types Of Web Hosting
There are really 3 types of hosting that you may come across; shared, managed VPS and unmanaged VPS. Shared hosting is usually very cheap but your website will be on the same server as many others and yours may suffer. Managed VPS is where you have a virtual server of your own (which can have application installed on it like PHP/MySql and so on), however you have a contact at the company that can install those things and keep on top of issues/rebooting and so on. Unmanaged VPS is just that; you get a virtual server but you are totally alone in installing things, coping with the emergencies and so forth.
Who do you recommend?
Here at The Media Farm (and in our ventures in the past) we have sampled several web hosting companies. We have had good service, bad service, good support, bad (none at all in fact) support and more. Some hosting companies have odd restrictions on usage (so when you upload a wordpress site suddenly it has issues, or can't be updated). Price has been a factor and it has taken us some time to realize that you often get what you pay for. We now use a managed VPS service by WiredTree; they are relatively new (2006) and are based in Chicago. Since signing up with them, the support has been excellent - we have asked some very technical and interesting questions and have had them answered quickly and intelligently.
We host many websites and manage them routinely; installing new items, ftp access at all times of day and night, using backups regularly and more and we are yet to see an issue. Above all, the service is consistent and fast.
Let Me Guess - An Affiliate Link Is Coming Up?
Yes it is, although this time we preface it by saying this is the company WE USE and we stand by it. This website is hosted there and we are very happy with it. Finally, without further ado, here is our affiliate link in all it's glory: WiredTree Web Hosting.