Since online presence for a business organization is becoming a necessity for survival, the demand of web hosting and domain name registration service is seeing a steady uptick. As people are not that much aware of the intricacies involved in the process, they often find themselves at the receiving ends of some marketing gimmicks. Sugar coated offers from web hosting companies can easily make a new entrant confused and opt for the wrong hosting plan. To simplify your job, here we are going to share some tips that you can use to make the most informed decision:
There Is No Free Lunch: Some web hosting company offer you free domain for the first year with their hosting package. The idea is certainly great but there are certain caveats that you need to remain aware of before you decide to go for it:
Domain Ownership: You need to make sure that you own the ownership of the domain. Some web hosting companies try to trick the customers by offering free domain while retaining its ownership. Now, if you fall prey to this scheme, you will either end up paying a huge sum of money to get the ownership of that domain or else, you will have to stick to the web hosting company for the rest of your life.
Renewal Amount: As I have already said that there is no such thing as free lunch, the web hosting company that promises you the world with free domain will try to rob you off when you renew the domain. They will charge you almost double. So, it does not make any sense.
So, before you accept the offer, you need to make sure that the offer is a legitimate one.
You Can Choose Different Companies for Hosting and Domain Name registration: Yes, you can get your preferred domain registered with a company and then hosted on another web hosting server. However, I have nothing against using the service of your existing company but I think it is good for you and your website to choose two different companies in case, one company goes out of business, you have still one option left secured.
Disk Space and Bandwidth: Never underestimate your potential. You may never know your website may become immensely popular and starts drawing hundreds and thousands of visitors. In that case, you may end up paying a hefty slum for the excessive data usage. This usually happens when you are offering some files for download. So, you need to talk to web hosting company about the bandwidth and usage policy before you make any decision.
Unlimited Storage: There is no such thing as unlimited. But still you will find that web hosting companies are offering you unlimited web hosting packages. In order to get to the detail, you need to read their TOS. If you have the time, you need to find a section where they mention something about Server usage. And you will surprise to find that your web hosting can terminate your hosting account if your website crosses a certain amount of storage usage.
Use Coupon or Other rebate option: Since the competition is fierce these days, web hosting companies are always doling out rebates or coupons so that they can get new customer. So, when you are buying a new domain or getting yourself registered for a new hosting account, you need to make sure that you are applying these coupon codes to get some discount on the pricing.
Backup: Though every web hosting company needs to take back up of files hosted on its server, you should not be solely dependent on this. Usually hosting companies do not take regular backup of files and that means, you have to do off-site backup unless you do not mind seeing your weeks of hard work goes wasted.
Long Term Contract: Web Hosting companies are in the habit of slashing the prices of their web hosting plan if you wish to sign a long term contract. But before you sign off, you need to check its market reputation else think otherwise.
Author Bio
Michael Evans is passionate about photography, web design and development. He has also written several web design tutorials and works as a part time photographer for some leading journals.
