Going automobile shopping with ex-automobile salesman can be a good idea as their familiarity with powerful information of industry and sales can be very important to the average buyer and gaining their street brilliance and knowledge gives the buyer an edge. This “edge” can be either getting good value or being taken advantage of.
A former top webhosting salesman is shedding some light on this industry. For many interested people rapidly growing world of web hosting, domain names, and basic web design is still a mystery. This salesman’s main intention is to make one understand the basic “do’s and don’ts” in order to help one make a better more-informed decision.
Some years ago when he got into the business one of his close friend paid monthly expenses of $20 for simple hosting and $35 for a domain name. He quickly examined and found that the domain name was in the hosting company’s name and not the actual owner of the website! He also realized that $275 annual expense which he was making is also available for less than $100.
Domain name can be a big problem for website owners if they do not control it properly even though it is not costing much. One can be “held hostage” by hosting companies controlling ones domain name. Thus one has to pay more monthly as one cannot leave! When buying domain name one should always make sure to buy the name for 5 or 10 years between $40-$80 and deal with reputable reseller or actual registrar. One can accidentally lose the name if ones email address or credit card expiration changes and a fine of $200 is charged to get back the domain name. One gets what one pays for so one should be cautious of free domains and free web hosting. Many buyers make a big mistake of not having the username and passwords to access their web hosting accounts, if supposing their web designers miss their passwords then they cannot have access to files they bought and paid for, and cannot leave the web host. According to the salesman this is the most common problem he came across in selling names, sites, and design!
One becomes frustrated as he is powerless by the time he realizes that he is overpaying. No one should be trusted to keep the information for oneself. One will be glad if relationship changes as he is independent, informed, and in control of the situation.
So finally if the web host loses the files or the designer is missing one should have a backup plan by keeping a copy of files on ones hard drive and backed up on a CD.
Domain name should be registered and one should have all username/password combinations for names and hosting accounts as the administrative contact.
Till a person is a prospect everyone acts professionally, but what when one becomes a customer? Be sure to get 30-day money back guarantee to be really comfortable with ones web host. For a week try loading files to see the kind of performance and customer service one is getting. If 24/7 service is being offered and one is getting voice mail or being hold for 15minutes one is free to leave. Space in a computer where html documents and jpeg. images are stored is termed as web hosting. Easy navigation through the written words and the pictures one wants the world to view are possible through good web design. But the matter of concern is the amount of uptime ones host claims to give and speed with which ones website is loading. When traffic is heavy and loading time of a site is more interested viewers may get frustrated and leave the site. For power and Internet connectivity the host needs a backup plan additionally. Most hosts are claiming 99+% of uptime round the clock.
When buying web space these are the things to be considered:-
• For dynamic searchable site will database be utilized?
• In a shopping cart, is one going to have a store, selling products online?
• Will one be having UNIX or Windows based hosting?
• For entering sensitive information like social security or credit card numbers safely is secure site (static IP) required?
• Large audio and video files, versus pictures and text only how much space does one require?
• And what difference does share and dedicated hosting have?
•
The answer to all the above questions can be found below:-
Usually people are not aware of the difference between shared and dedicated hosting. As shared hosting is more affordable and works fine People begins with this. The computer space is sliced up and is “shared” by many small sites in a shared hosting environment. If one is selling online range of shared hosting varies from a few dollars a month for a simple site to as much as $30-50/mo on the other hand the price of Dedicated Hosting begins at $59 and can go up to $200/mo and can go even higher.
One will have to move to dedicated server if the site becomes very popular and many transactions starts happening. When all the computer’s resources are allocated to ones site alone it is termed as dedicated. If one does not know the configuration of server then technical assistance from an IT employee would be required.
Data center operations of ones hosting company will be monitored by this technical expert he will also make certain that data is backed up and protected by firewalls.
Process of computer being “hacked” by unauthorized people is protected by firewalls.
“Managed dedicated servers” is an up-and-coming trend which can also be considered. In “managed dedicated servers” the host helps managing the servers’ daily operation, in order to help the apprentice operator.
One has to decide upon UNIX or Windows in both shared and dedicated hosting. This comparison is done with people’s preference to Ford or Chevrolet. Some get used to one as they grow up and prefer just that for few reasons while others know both and try to utilize the best in every situation.
Both UNIX and Windows Looks identical from viewers viewpoint. If one is using ASP (Active Server Pages) Windows would be needed while PHP is being utilized by UNIX instead of ASP, and is commonly steadier and reasonably priced because fees for license paid to Microsoft increases the hosting company’s overload which they pass it on to the consumer.
Microsoft gives Front Page design software as a gift in original purchase to many PC users. Front-page support is now included by UNIX hosting for well under $10/mo. So one can utilize ones designed software which he/she already has and get it host for under $100 per year.
To design a website Dreamweaver is also one of the other popular design software program on which one should investigate if one is thinking designing a website.
One should be cautious of the friends or relatives who will design it for free. It places unnecessary tension on the relationship as, if they are profitably employed somewhere they will give priority to the tasks for which they are being paid. One can find lot more information on web design and search engine optimization in the web. One also should be aware of the relationship among the static IP address, using a database, and using eCommerce features to sell products online. IP addresses helps in identifying where the actual end user is positioned physically. If one needs to locate the original sender of a message or a live user creating havoc on the Internet, IP addresses is very important.
Many of us must have purchased an online air ticket and must have noticed the screen that alerts one to the fact that his/her connection is secure. This secure certificate gives surety to the computer user that, it is safe to enter credit card information and buy with no fear of somebody capturing ones sensitive data.
The static IP permits authorities and credit card processors to track storeowners and their computers to assure 100% integrity. The majority of shared webhosting sites share IP addresses also. For a simple informational website with just pictures and text, this is fine
Dynamic sites are proficient of storing name and user profiles at an initial visit. On a subsequent visit this allows the site to “recognize” and quickly load the profile for immediate access. Products or names are also searched for in the company’s stored database. Site saving all the personal information and searching for different items quickly are unswerving benefits of a database.
Unless one is going to be selling online, most initial sites do not use static IPs or databases. These stores are termed as eCommerce web hosting and are the priciest of all. Considering all the expenses of the static IP, payment gateway, merchant account, and shopping cart monthly charges can easily go beyond $50/mo. Items to their “shopping cart” are added by Buyers; it totals shipping and taxes and charges ones card. Buyer’s online purchase is being processed by merchant account banks, charging 2-3% fee total to send money to ones bank. One is then liberated for shipping the product one bought. My friend’s website has lots of pictures and text yet the website is hardly over 50 MB in size. At present 1 GB (1000MB) of storage, is available for $10/mo and has 20 times the storage he wants. Streaming video and audio are large video files using largest space. Many small sites will ever need as much as 200MB and 10 email addresses. One can get a free month or the setup fees ignored if he pays for the whole year. Look for host who pays if one gives references of friends, one can get a free month this way. Wish the information facilitates one in understanding and getting command of the Internet. All of us are connected with the help of World Wide Web and it ones right to get the full advantage in every possible way. The water’s fine… so come on and take the plunge.
