Top Five Questions To Ask Your Web Hosting Company

Top Five Questions to Ask Your Web Hosting Company

by: Derek Vaughan

Each day many new and existing webmasters either launch a new

web site for the first time, or transfer their web site to a new web

hosting provider. In preparation for this important process, there are

five important questions that should be asked prior to signing on

with a new web hosting company.

1. Do you have a trial period or money-back guarantee?

Okay, so that's technically two questions. The point is, no matter

how much homework you do, or how much research stands behind

your decision - it's still possible to make a mistake. Also - the

company could change policies or services, or management - prices

can go up, call wait times for support can spike, and things can just

generally go bad. With the assurance of a trial period or money-

back guarantee, you won't end up paying over and over again for

that bad decision.

2. How does your customer service and technical support system

work?

I don't care how smart you are, how much programming you know,

or how many web sites you've set up in the past - you are gonna

have to call support eventually. There are just too many weird little

things that can derail a web site or email. Many reside on the web

hosting company's side. To figure out what's up - you need to get in

contact with them. So…will it be by email only, during the hours of

8:00 am to 5:00 pm eastern standard time or via a toll free phone

line that is available 24x7? Make certain you understand when

support is available - and how you actually reach someone with

real knowledge, not just a "knowledge base" or "canned" response.

3. Can I view a sample site that is hosted on the same server that my

web site will be on?

Sure, the main company web site has nearly 100% uptime. That's

because they have their web site on a separate server than their

customers. Viewing an actual customer site potentially tells you

many things about the web hosting company and their web hosting

services. You can check the load times of their pages easily by

using a tool like Alertra (www.alertra.com). You can also send the

webmaster of the site a nice email asking about their experiences

with the hosting company.

4. Are they a web hosting reseller or a core web hosting provider?

Not that there's anything wrong with buying services from a reseller,

but you should know for sure whether your company contact can

really do anything to solve problems, or if they have to pass your

concerns along to a "parent" company. Also, why buy services from

a middle man when you can go straight to the source?Here are some

examples of reseller hosting companies.

5. Will you waive set up fees or give me some other special

incentives to sign up with you today?

In the highly competitive business of web hosting services, each

customer sign up is precious. You will often see special offers

listed on the company's web site or in advertisements. Unknown to

each buyer is the fact that sales people are often given "extra

special offers" to close sales of customers that are right on the edge

of buying, but are resisting. The special offers are designed to close

the sale. Make sure that you ask for each and every special offer

they can give you. You have nothing to lose, and you may find that

the offer that's being given today is fairly generous.

About The Author

Derek Vaughan

CheapHostingDirectory.Com is a resource for webmasters and

consumers looking to find a web hosting company or a quality

expiring domain names with traffic.

CHD is part of the TechPad Agency network of web hosting

related sites, visit www.TechPadAgency.com for more

information.

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