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Cheap Webhosting - Is It For You |
by:
John Pierce |
There'sold adage which states that "You get what you pay for".
In most areas of life, and business, this holds true. Not necessarily so, however, inwebhosting industry. Often, you pay too much, and do not get what you pay for.
Several weeks ago I gotcall fromweb designer friend of mine.
"John," He said "You will not believe this".
He went on to tell me aboutPlastic Surgeon he was redesigningwebsite for. This client was paying $sixzerozero.zerozero per month for his webhosting account.
"The incredible thing is" He related, "I can't getcurrent host to return my phone calls or emails".
After looking at this clients needs, I was shocked to find that there was nothing special about his site that justified his being on anything other thanbasic shared webhosting plan. We quoted himmonthly rate of under five dollars.
In this case,client was being raped byunscrupulous host who was not only overcharging him, but not even providingbasic support he needed.
This isextreme example, no doubt, but it all to often characterizespoor deal which most website owners fall into.
Several years ago, there was no such thing aswebhosting industry. Nearly all websites were hosted by local ISP's. The average monthly cost for hostingwebsite was $twozero.zerozero per month. Often, if you calledISP withtechnical question, they would tell you to buybook or takeclass.
Around onenineninesix, we sawemergence offew "webhosting" companies. These were companies which were strictly committed to hosting websites. Usingeconomy of scale, they were able to offer incredibly useful webhosting packages for around $onezero.zerozero per month. What's more, some of these companies provided useful tech support which was geared towards meetingwebsite owners needs.
Fast forward to twozerozerofive and we now seeemergence ofnew type of web host -cheap webhosting provider. These are companies which offer hosting for less than $five.zerozero per month.
Generally, cheap webhosting providers are newer companies. There'sreason for this. It's extremely difficult forolder companies to lower their prices when they already havelarge customer base which pays higher prices. They'd be slashing their gross, and most companies just can't afford that.
So how do cheap webhosting providers offer suchlow price to begin with?
Part of it is that servers, hard drive space and bandwidth are much, much less expensive than they were several years ago. Cheap webhosting providers capitalize on this.
Another part is that cheap hosting providers usedifferent business model thanolder providers. Webhosting isvery competitive business. Until recently, web hosts attempted to compete by providingmost tools and features. The problem with this model is that not everyone needs everything. Most web hosts provide free backup services to all of their clients. Backups are costly, and not everyone needs or wants them, but everyone pays for them because they're built intocost ofpackage.
A cheap webhosting provider, onother hand, might give youbasic features that everyone uses, but offer weekly backups asavailable add on feature, puttingcost of backing up websites on only those customers who want that service.
This all sounds great, I know, but what about service? Will I get competent and fast customer support fromcompany which charges me $four.zerozero per month?
The answer, surprisingly, is usually yes.
Obviously, not all cheap webhosting providers will give you great service. But not all expensive webhosting providers will give good service either. Our Plastic Surgeon friend couldn't get his $sixzerozero.zerozero host to return his emails.
But, withcheaper provider,key forproviders success is customer retention. A savvy web host will endeavor to please his existing clients by providingbest support possible.
Aboutauthor:
John Pierce istechnology writer andCustomer Service Manager for Gold Zero Web Hosting - http://goldzero.com-andWebmaster for Cheap Webhosting Info Guide - http://cheapwebhostinginfo.com
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