It seems like these days you can't go online without finding a new hosting company. There are so many hosts around you could probably search for years without finding them all. They are everywhere! This has happened for a couple of reasons. First, there is huge demand for hosting of websites. Everyone from kids running sites for their gaming clans, blogs to share pics and info with their friends and tiny one-person companies that are putting up professional websites. Since the demand is so high, companies are popping up to fill the needs, not unlike early pioneers who went to California during the gold rush. Secondly, there is almost no entry barrier. For $15 per month you can have your own Web hosting company.
With the huge number of hosts out there, it is easy to find a bad host. Fortunately, by following these few tips you'll have a much better chance of ending up with a good one. Spot one of these signs and run the other way!
First, if the staff running the Web host seems ignorant, unknowing, unknowledgeable, or just plain unfriendly, leave. You are not paying money every month to be treated like you are not important, and if a Web host does not have the resources available to help you, it is doubtful that they can handle your website and juggle thousands of others at the same time.
If it takes you more than 24 hours to get a response to your queries, that's a really bad sign. Either the host doesn't care about you or they are drastically understaffed. Either way, that's not a good sign for you and it's a sure sign to pack your bags and go elsewhere.
Lastly, if a host makes promises that it doesn't keep, leave. If they tell you that there is a 99.9% uptime guarantee and your site goes down for several hours and they don't compensate you in some way, that's a very bad sign. They should be doing everything in their power to make the problem better.
Posted by trentwdowns
at 6:21 PM EST
