Monday, February 1, 2010

Cheap Web Hosting - Ups and Downs

By Nicholas Halmond

In today's world, thousands, if not millions of people are trying to start some sort of website online. Most of them end up losing out on all kinds of money due to the lack of knowledge most individuals have in the beginning. We all seem to get bombarded by free website builders, social networking sites, and everything else, but most of the customized features for these sites are minimal. They simply don't have the same type of options an affordable web hosting site can offer you. However, it's not all "peachy" in web hosting sites.

Then again, affordable web hosting has just about everything you need. You probably aren't going to be enjoying tens of thousands of visitors everyday yet, so the space, bandwidth, uptime, tech support, email, and cPanel should be enough. Granted you want a stylish site, but most of the affordable web hosting sites you come across will offer Site Builders.

What you should really focus on upfront is the types of back-up systems available. While it's something to worry about, there shouldn't be a problem finding a suitable site that keeps your information from being discarded in unfortunate situations. Plus, it's always nice to have back office help when needed, and FTP access if you want to upload files from the computer.

Another thing you'll want to look for is speed and security. Most affordable web hosting has uptime at 99% and speeds that reflect high speed Internet use. Even if your site is full of traffic, their servers will do the job. Just keep in mind that the more multimedia items you have on your website, the performance starts to go down some. However, just compare these to a free web hosting site and you'll notice the difference.

On the downside, affordable web hosting packages arent suitable for people that want to set up multimedia sites that have streaming capabilities because high amounts of traffic will suffer from major slowdowns. This is where dedicated web hosting gets the upper hand here boasting faster speeds since other sites do not share the same server.

Since you will be sharing servers with other websites most of the time, you could suffer if they're attacked by a virus. It's a major security even if you feel as though your site is secure. We always recommend backing everything up as an insurance plan so you can avoid any future issues.

Privacy may also be an issue as well since most affordable web hosting companies do not allow custom nameservers to be made. The least that you can do is pay extra for domain WHOIS privacy. Still dedicated servers offer better privacy protection and some enhanced security options as well.

So as you can see there are a few minor drawbacks to using affordable web hosting. However, they are all in the later stages of your website's success. It's important to understand when you're starting any business, you should only spend what you need to in the beginning. Once you are able to accumulate the traffic and conversion rates that will bring you a return on your investment, then it will be time to take a look at dedicated servers. For now though, stick with affordable web hosting and keep the costs down. It will truly help you out in the end.

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