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Cheap Webhosting - Is It For You?
By John Pierce, Fri Dec 9th
There's an old adage which states that "You get what you payfor". In most areas of life, and business, this holds true. Notnecessarily so, however, in the webhosting industry. Often, youpay too much, and don't get what you pay for. Several weeks ago I got a call from a web designer friend ofmine.
"John," He said "You won't believe this". He went on to tell me about a Plastic Surgeon he was redesigninga website for. This client was paying $600.00 per month for hiswebhosting account. "The incredible thing is" He related, "I can't get the currenthost to return my phone calls or emails". After looking at this clients needs, I was shocked to find thatthere was nothing special about his site that justified hisbeing on anything other than a basic shared webhosting plan. Wequoted him a monthly rate of under five dollars. In this case, the client was being raped by an unscrupulous hostwho was not only overcharging him, but not even providing thebasic support he needed. This is an extreme example, no doubt, but it all to oftencharacterizes the poor deal which most website owners fall into. Several years ago, there was no such thing as a webhostingindustry. Nearly all websites were hosted by local ISP's. Theaverage monthly cost for hosting a website was $20.00 per month.Often, if you called the ISP with a technical question, theywould tell you to buy a book or take a class. Around 1996, we saw the emergence of a few "webhosting"companies. These were companies which were strictly committed tohosting websites. Using the economy of scale, they were able tooffer incredibly useful webhosting packages for around $10.00per month. What's more, some of these companies provided usefultech support which was geared towards meeting a website ownersneeds. Fast forward to 2005 and we now see the emergence of a new typeof web host - the cheap webhosting provider. These are companieswhich offer hosting for less than $5.00 per month. Generally, cheap
webhosting providers are newer companies.There's a reason for this. It's extremely difficult for theolder companies to lower their prices when they already have alarge customer base which pays higher prices. They'd be slashingtheir gross, and most companies just can't afford that. So how do cheap webhosting providers offer such a low price tobegin with? Part of it is that servers, hard drive space and bandwidth aremuch, much less expensive than they were several years ago.Cheap webhosting providers capitalize on this. Another part is that cheap hosting providers use a differentbusiness model than the older providers. Webhosting is a verycompetitive business. Until recently, web hosts attempted tocompete by providing the most tools and features. The problemwith this model is that not everyone needs everything. Most webhosts provide free backup services to all of their clients.Backups are costly, and not everyone needs or wants them, buteveryone pays for them because they're built into the cost ofthe package. A cheap webhosting provider, on the other hand, might give youthe basic features that everyone uses, but offer weekly backupsas an available add on feature, putting the cost of backing upwebsites on only those customers who want that service. This all sounds great, I know, but what about service? Will Iget competent and fast customer support from a company whichcharges me $4.00 per month? The answer, surprisingly, is usually yes. Obviously, not all cheap webhosting providers will give yougreat service. But not all expensive webhosting providers willgive good service either. Our Plastic Surgeon friend couldn'tget his $600.00 host to return his emails. But, with a cheaper provider, the key for the providers successis customer retention. A savvy web host will endeavor to pleasehis existing clients by providing the best support possible. About the author:John Pierce is the webmaster of cheapwebhostinginfo.comand the Customer Service Manager for Gold Zero Web Hosting -http://goldzero.com.
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