How important is your web host to your business?
Glad you asked! And the reason I'm glad you asked is because over the last
few months I've talked to several customers who were having problems with their
web hosts. I'm talking about major business and money losing problems!
Problems like the web hosting companies going out of business and leaving my
clients in the lurch. Problems like their sites being inaccessible 20% of the
time because the web host kept selling out the space. Problems like having their
web sites hacked because there were NO security precautions in place.
And these are only some of the problems my clients have come up against. The
bottom line is … You cannot afford to do business with a bad web hosting company!!
It will cost you clients. It will cost you revenue. It will cost you your
credibility. And finally, it will give you massive migraine headaches!
For those of you not yet familiar with the jargon, your web host is the company
that "hosts" or sells you the space for your web site. This company can be the
same company that provides you with your Internet access and email (i.e. your
Internet provider).
However -- and this "however" is critical to the discussion that
follows -- you do not have to get web hosting from the same company you get
your Internet access from! Your web hosting company can be located anywhere
in the world. As long as you have Internet access, you will have access to your
web site!
If you have a web based business, like it or not, your web host is your business
partner. The choice you make as to who your business partner will be is critical
to your success because if they stumble along, giving you less than optimal performance
(sometimes far less than optimal!), guess what? It cripples your business.
When you have an Internet business, your most important partner is your
web site host. Trust us, we have learned the hard way - our past hosts have
cost us over $30,000 in less than a few months because of hardware or software
problems they were having. Yet in spite of the importance of this partnership,
I see small businesses hop from host to host to host looking for the "cheapest"
deal.
Well … if you've ever been the victim of a poorly performing web host, then
you know that "cheapest" is not necessarily good! So you save yourself $10 a month
in hosting fees. Weigh this against the loss of hundreds of customers and thousands
of dollars in revenue because your site is down. By trying to save the $10
a month, you could be nickel-and-diming your company to an early grave. Think
about it. $10 x 12 = $120 in savings for web hosting fees vs. thousands of additional
dollars in immediate revenue that you would never see if your web site was down
... not to mention the even greater loss in backend sales. Am I missing something
here? Where's the saving?
And I haven't even started talking about the "free hosting" sites yet! Actually
I'm not going to say much about free hosted sites right now except …. FORGET IT!
Sure, they may have a place in your marketing campaign but you need your own domain
name (preferably with a dot.com suffix). If you do not have your own domain yet...
go here
to find out more.
Assuming you've got a business domain (or are about to take the plunge
and get one) you need a reliable web host.
The trick is finding one! And the trick to finding a good web site
host is in knowing what to look for.
So, what should you look for?
Service, service, service. Service is SO critical to your business.
Say you have been working away on a fantastic sales letter and you are now ready
to post it to your web site so you can test it the next day. You run into a snag
and need help from your web site host. The problem is, it's 10PM and they are
not open until 9AM the next morning! So you cool your heels until 9AM and then
… busy signal! Talk about feeling frustrated! You've now had to put off your urgent
project, not once - but twice! It's enough to make a person grow hair on the bottom
of their feet!
Security. Do you have any idea how much damage a hacker can do to your
site? Imagine the impact on your business if a hacker could worm their way into
your system and shut you down... or if the wrong people broke into your client
files and stole confidential credit card numbers! This is the stuff nightmares
are made of!
The problem is that many of the smaller web hosting companies (and even some
of the larger ones) don't pay attention to security. They don't have the resources
or the personnel … but then again, neither do you! You want to spend your time
marketing your products or services and providing great service to your customers
… not becoming a security expert.
You need to look for a web hosting company that has all the big security issues
worked out so that people can't hack into your web site and do terrible things
to your information. Your web host should be on top of the latest techniques that
hackers are using and they should have protection in place to combat security
problems and issues.
Fast connection times. In the Insider Secrets Course, I talk
about how important it is to have quick loading web pages. But even
the quickest loading pages are affected by the level of "connectivity"
that your web site host has to the Internet. If your visitors have to
wait 30 seconds for a page to load, you have a problem … no customer!
Why? Because on the Internet, 30 seconds feels like 30 minutes, and
we live in a very impatient world!
Continuity of Service. In North America, there are a few major Internet
backbones (fiber optic networks). Your web host should be connected to both East
and West Coast backbones. Millions of web sites are connected to each backbone,
but if your web host is not connected to both the east and west coast backbones,
you could lose business.
For example, if a fiber optic cable gets cut on the West Coast, all web sites
and all web hosts on the entire West Coast of the continent go down. Imagine the
chaos if millions of web sites could not be reached! On the other hand, even if
the West Coast backbone went down, the East Coast (on a different backbone) would
still be fully operational. In order to make sure you have continuity of service,
your web host should be connected to both backbones. If one went down, the other
would still be operational, and people from the East Coast (and around the world
for that matter) could reach your West Coast web site (and vice versa).
Unfortunately, most web hosts still aren't connected to both backbones ...
in spite of the fact that a catastrophe like this happens at least twice a year!
If your web site is down, you are losing sales! Can you really afford to have
this happen?
Look for a minimum of a T1 connection going to both East Coast and
West Coast backbones. If you can get a web host with a T3 (or better) connection going to multiple coasts,
that's even better!
To complicate things even more, you need to make sure they are truly going
to each of the backbones because it can get very confusing trying to decipher
who is connected to what. We've been involved with a couple of hosts in the past
who have said they had a separate connection to both the East and West Coasts.
What they didn't know was that their East Coast host was actually up-streamed
to a West Coast host. So when the West Coast went down, their entire network went
down… because their East Coast connection was routed through a West Coast provider.
Talk about confusing!
The bottom line is that it's important for your web site host to have separate
connections to the main backbones in both the East Coast and the West Coast. It's
REALLY important to have this capability.
Extra Services. Some web hosting companies appear to be a good deal
on the surface. That is, until you sign up with them and start finding out they
charge for every little extra service. Things like your own POP mailbox, email
aliases, an auto responder, CGI scripts and bins, and your own site statistics.
This is when a deal is definitely NOT a deal. Any web host you look at should,
at the very least, give you a few CGI scripts, site stats and your own mailbox!
Now that we've examined some of the things you should be looking for in a web
host, let's look at some of the options you have available to you:
Free web hosting services:
I've already told you that you should not go with a free service. Now I'll
tell you why. Here are the reasons why you should NOT use a free web hosting
service:
If you want to switch your web site over to their hosting service from another
server, they'll do all the work for you… and at no charge! Just sign up for their
service by clicking here,
and they will take care of it for you.
Their web hosting fees start at $36 per month and include 30 MB of space (which
is a lot of space for a start up business). You get HiRize ™, CartSnap™, an auto
responder, POP email accounts, email aliases, CGI scripts and more! Of course,
if you need more space or services, they are available for the taking - just ask!
To find out more about their various packages click
here
This is a VERY GOOD DEAL!
Here's the reality. Your web site is your business. Your web host is your partner.
If your web host doesn't backup properly … if they don't offer the right access
… if you can't get the support to fix a problem … if their web server slows down
or crashes … it affects YOUR business … Your business could cease to exist for
hours, days or even longer!
You can't afford this! Your business depends on reliable web site hosting.
You must choose professional business partners because they are dealing with your
livelihood. What it comes down to is this: the few dollars you may be saving each
month could actually end up costing you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars
in business! Choose your web host carefully!
If you aren't getting good service from your web host … switch over to either
Virtualis or another web hosting company who offers these same services (though
I have yet to find another who does!) before things get worse, and you lose money
… or even worse, your business! Have you noticed how things always get worse at
the most inconvenient time?
