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Archive for December, 2011

How good is the support of your host?

December 18th, 2011

So here is something I’ve been thinking about quite a lot lately, how do you actually work out how good the support is on your host? It’s not easy, after all if you don’t have a lot of problems and you never really have to test the host then how would you know? You really find out when you run into a serious problem that can’t be answered quickly.

“When you have a real problem will they be there?”

The problem though is that you don’t want to have to wait until that crucial time to put them to the test because that time could end up costing you lots of money. Can you afford for your ecommerce site to be down while your web hosting service provider works out why they have never seen this problem before? This is when good hosting support really makes a difference.

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So how exactly do you tell beforehand, well it’s not easy but there are always clues available about any service before you go too far down the line. One big sign I always look out for is poor hosting documentation on the site for average users, because often users can fix/answer their own questions if they have the right information. So for a start they should definitely have a searchable database of common questions and issues for people to use, if they don’t have this I would start to worry if I were you.

Another really important sign to look out for is how quickly they respond to your support tickets, it’s not just a question of the time wasted but also the shows that they don’t care (if it takes forever for them to respond). Ideally you want a response (and not just the automated reply) to any ticket that you submit within around 6 hours. I really see no reason why any ticket should takes 24 hours to get a response, now I’m not saying they have to fix it within that time as it could be a serious problem and require some work, but they should at least tell you that they are working on it and give you an estimate of how long it’s going to take. Like I said before, the time it takes for people to respond to you is a legit way to work out just how seriously they take your custom, so keep a timer handy!

I also like to look at the content of those support answers in detail as there can be real clues there too about how good your hosting service is. I mean if they give you really general answers to your questions or even if it just looks like something that’s been pasted from Wikipedia then this too is of course a very bad sign. Answers should always have enough detail so that you can take that information and do something with it, at the same time don’t let them baffle you with technical jargon either, they only do this when they don’t know what they’re talking about!

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Posted in Hosting

Tags: Support Tech

Pay up front for a year or go monthly?

December 18th, 2011

This is one of the big questions in hosting and one I’ve never really worked out. Do you pay monthly for you hosting which means paying more but also if things go bad you can just take your website and go to another hosting service. Or do you pay yearly and get a big saving on the monthly contract but with the proviso that you’re locked into a year’s service even if your host has lots of problems.

“To be locked in or not, that is the question”

As you can see there are advantages and disadvantages to both situations and I suppose the whole thing hinges on one fact, do you trust your web host or not? It’s a tough question because the answer will determine exactly how much you are willing to invest in the company.

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Another issue to look as is if you are required to take out a minimum contract or a certain type of plan. For example most plans for dedicated severs require you to pay for 3 months upfront (I have seen some that require 6 months). When you consider that even a cheap dedicated server is going to run you around £300+ a month that’s quite and investment for the 3 months.

You also have to look at things from the host’s point of view if you want to work out why they offer the discounts for longer term contracts that they do. The key for them is knowing that they have a customer for that period of time which is guaranteed revenue, this allows them to invest that cash in more servers/space/bandwidth etc. With the pay monthly guys it’s really up in the air how long they are going to be around.

So as I said it all comes back to “trust” and just how confidant you are that the host is going to deliver what they say. For me I’m never going to invest in a yearly contract with a company that I’m not familiar with or who doesn’t have a good history behind them. But if I’ve been with a service for a while and everything has been going “well” then yes Id usually be more than happy to go for a 6 month or even 12 month contract because of the money saved.

I hope this article helps if you’re looking for a hosting provider in the near future. Remember you really need to check out any company’s history before you commit to any kind of deal (even a 1 month contract). Don’t forget that if your website is your primary source of income then it’s not something you can’t leave to chance, so research and invest in a quality host. It really is worth it in the long run to know your site is up and running, there are too many horror stories of businesses down for days to risk it.

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Posted in Hosting

Tags: advice monthly payment plans yearly

Which recommendations can you trust?

December 18th, 2011

Here’s the problem, there can often be just as many people saying that they love a particular host as those who hate it. Everyone has a voice when it comes to the internet and this can make things quite complicated when it comes to evaluating which hosting service is for you.

One of the main techniques I use to find out what people really think about a host is the discussions search on google. Essentially this service allows you to search forums and message boards for all discussions on a particular phrase (the name of your host). It’s really easy to do too, just search in Google like you normally would and then expand the “more” tab and click on “discussions”. This then filters all the results and it’s a great way to get an overview of what real consumers are saying about the host.

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It’s also really important to work out what part of the service a reviewer has purchased before evaluating their review. For instance just because someone purchases the hosts lowest £5 shared package and got bad support that doesn’t meant their top dedicated server at £500 is going to have the same problems. Don’t get me wrong how a company handles its customers should be taken into consideration no matter how valuable they are but you have to put things into context.

Looking for reviews of a host on blogs is another great way to get an insight into what people really think of a web host, but this too is problematic. A lot of the time bloggers are incentivised to promote a particular host as they are signed up to an affiliate program, this means they get paid for every new customer they send to the host. If this is the case then obviously it won’t be possible for this blogger to provide an impartial review, check the details before you take stock in any particular review.

If you’re worried about impartial reviews then you may want to check out some of the big review sites which try to collect lots of reviews for the same company into one handy section. I’m a big fan of sites like Ripoffreport and also Ciao which allow users to quickly rate services like web hosting. These sites can be a big help when you’re searching for hosting as anyone who is out and out scamming people will come to the surface pretty quickly, it’s hard to hide on the net if people are talking about you!

As you can see finding quality reviews on providers can be quite difficult. My main tip I suppose is finding a large collection of reviews and getting a feel for what they are saying before taking the plunge, don’t rely on one random stranger’s judgement. Until next time.