How To Avoid Problems When Changing Business Web Hosting Companies?

Posted by admin on August 29th, 2010 | No Comments »

At some point, you may find that your current hosting company is simply not meeting your needs. Perhaps the customer service is severely lacking or the hosting company simply doesn’t offer enough storage or bandwidth for your company’s website. Maybe you found another company that is offering a much better deal, with more space, bandwidth and features. No matter what the reason for the change, you could be feeling a bit nervous about changing business web hosting companies. However, don’t let that keep you with a company that you simply don’t like. Below, you will find some tips to make the transition to a new host as painless as possible.

First of all, make sure you leave your account open with your current hosting company before changing hosting accounts. If you get mad at the company and close your account without any real plan, your website goes down. It is much better to evaluate the different business web hosting services and decide on the one that will meet your needs before you close your account. Once you make this determination, open an account with your new business web hosting company.

After you have decided which package is best and you have created an account, you need to download all the files from the old server and upload the files to your new server. This might sound like rather complicated, but it’s really not. The easiest way to do this is to connect to the old host’s FTP, then to your new host’s FTP, and then directly transfer the data. You’ll still need to make sure your old account is still active. Make sure you keep the same email addresses so you can continue to receive your email.

Next, make sure all of your files uploaded correctly to your new host. Check all the media files, web links, and such to ensure they are working properly. Once you’re sure that everything is in order, you can now change the domain name servers. You should have been given the domain name server when you set up your new account with the business web hosting provider.

The new hosting server should be up within about 24-48 hours. It is during this time that the true benefit of keeping your account active with the old hosting service is often realized. Instead of a customer seeing an error page during the change in server, they will see the website on the old server. Once the new server has taken over, you will be able to cancel your service with the old business web hosting company. It can be quite the easy transition.

Hopefully, you will have found a company that provides the services you need, including space, bandwidth, and technical support. If you are like most business owners, it’s simply not acceptable to get less than stellar service from any company. However, a poor web hosting company, with downtime and other problems, can quickly affect your company’s revenue. It is important to do your research ahead of time so you don’t have to change hosting companies again in the near future.

The Best Ecommerce Business Web Hosting Service

Posted by admin on July 6th, 2010 | 7 Comments

If you have decided to launch a small, medium or a large ecommerce website to sell products or services and plan to accept online forms of payment on your ecommerce business website then you will need to have a reliable ecommerce business web hosting service on your side.

There is a certain difference between a regular hosting plan and a specialized ecommerce business web hosting plan: For accepting online payments for selling things online (e.g. selling ebooks, software or physical items like handicrafts, used items and electronics etc.) you will need to buy a secure SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate along with a dedicated IP address to ensure the security and privacy of your online customers’ financial and personal data. Ecommerce business web hosting service providers offer both of these services and a select few web hosts also offer free online shopping cart for your Ecommerce business website. Such online shopping cart can be installed from your web hosting control panel easily. In our view, the best ecommerce business web hosting provider with regards to performance, features and reliability is www.hostgator.com. This Ecommerce web host also offers full 45 days money back guarantee on its shared ecommerce hosting plans so you need not to worry about anything as you can always get your money back if you do not like their service (which is highly unlikely). Our own website (business-web-hosting.org) is conveniently hosted on www.hostgator.com and we are personally very happy with their service and feature rich web hosting plans.

Please also note that other two web hosts mentioned on our homepage at top two positions (i.e. FatCow and iPage) are not full fledged Ecommerce business hosts as they do not offer dediacted IP addresses with their hosting plans. That is the reason they are a bit cheaper than HostGator. Since ecommerce business hosting is a bit more expensive than regular web hosting services, so you should only buy it if you are going to use it for launching an ecommerce business website to sell products and/or services.

How to Build Your Online Presence with a Short Budget?

Posted by admin on June 1st, 2010 | No Comments »

Building and managing a website is great for your business. It has potentials that you need to explore, especially when you want to build your online presence on a short budget. The lucky thing is business web hosting need not cost big bucks. For example, did you know that you can get business hosting for less than ten dollars a month? That is right. Although in case of a dedicated server, you will have to pay more than that.

So many people know that a lot of business is being conducted on the World Wide Web – so much that they want more players and, in order to do that, they need to pull down the rates for cheap business hosting. This of course also means they should see to the service of the hosting so their clients will remain with them. The beauty of cheap business hosting is that from the get-go you already have a platform which you can spice up on your own to generate further income. All it takes it a little know-how and an appetite for success.

Be Innovative!
It always pays to get innovative when you want to build your online presence. The “donkey work” aspect might fall in first, such as talking about your business in many forums or linking up with other sites so it will become more visible to other people. But all of these will pay off in the end. When you already have the attention of the minority, all it takes is to keep them interested so they will also be able to pique the interest of their contacts. Consider it as a snowball effect.

To get innovative, offer simple promos and deals which will make your clients want to choose your products over others. Also, make online specials that run for a limited time so they will always keep visiting in order to see more. You can even run a blog on your site to add a personal touch as the store owner, with you yourself introducing new products or services and telling them why you think it will be good for them. An email listing could also help as well. Try to come up with a monthly flayer which you can mail out to your customers and clients – sort of like an e-zine wherein they are not only introduced to your products and services but they also get to read up on interesting things as well. If your website would attract huge number of visitors then you should consider dedicated servers as hosting option.

Ask for Feedback
Building your online presence also means getting ideas from other people. But of course, you need to make it worth their time. Offer a special coupon or a free gift with purchase if they answer your survey on how to make the site worth better. If there is something in it for them, they will be more inclined to answer to the best of their abilities – and these answers will make it better for you to have an idea of how else you can serve them. And the best part about this is that you need not spend so much money on making this kind of marketing work, as all it takes is a few tokens of appreciation from you and the desire to deliver better service to your customers.

What Particular Features to Look for in a Business Hosting Plan?

Posted by admin on May 2nd, 2010 | Comments Off

What needs to be done if you want your business to secure a right place on the web? The answer is simple: get a hosting plan that features all your needs and provides immense benefits. There are thousands of business web hosting solutions, from small business hosting to hosting plans that are intended for large and multinational companies that market online. The challenge remains tough though because as a business owner you have to assure that the hosting plan you will employ can provide your specific needs in no time.

The Features to Look for:

For basic business web hosting plans, the essential features would be a simple and secured environment that can activate at least 100 email addresses, can monitor sites and their traffic, and provide easy-to-use tools needed in designing and building friendly websites. Such type is suitable to enterprises that look for small business hosting plan and this is commonly featured in many basic hosting plans.

Other types of hosting plans feature powerful database functionality that gather customer information relevant in conducting marketing efforts and plans. The website that will be created will be interconnected to other websites and search engines. This will give your site extreme online presence, power and control. To achieve such objective, you must also include on your site certain features that include a message board, site search, calendar, photo gallery, form to email, and more.

If you are seeking for more robust features, you can opt for premium business web hosting plans that can provide high-grade features and benefits. You can be linked to as many websites as your plan can be connected to over 100 and more search engines. You can also be featured to thousands of banner ads as you acquire access to dominant and compelling marketing guides. Marketing your business online would become an easy task by then. This is because you get bigger space and bandwidth which are both important in ensuring that your site and your business in its entirety continuously grow.

More Features of Business Web Hosting You Shouldn’t Ignore:

When searching for a perfect and reliable business web hosting plan, you may end up confused or too overwhelmed to make a decision. Apart from the guidelines mentioned above, you should also remember some other equally important features. The server of the plan should have a good up-time. The costs for setup must be free of charge or if it is paid, must be reasonably priced. You can opt for a company that provides free domain name. As much as possible, there should be an assurance or money-back guarantee. In terms of tools, you should be provided with an online control panel and this is true to all web hosting services. You should be able to enjoy unlimited add-on domains, sub-domains and parked domains.

It may sound simple but finding the right business hosting plan is really an effort. If a provider manages to provide such features, then you have found a really good web host.

How to Save Money on Small Business Web Hosting Plans?

Posted by admin on April 20th, 2010 | Comments Off

When you are a small-scale entrepreneur or if you are just starting out in establishing a business of your own, one of the first things that you need to work on is creating a solid, loyal clientele. These customers are the ones who will take advantage of the products or services that you are offering, which in turn will earn you the profits that you need to keep your business going.

Now, one of the best weapons that you arm yourself with if you don’t want to spend that much on advertising costs while still reaching out to your target audience is a website. Through it, you can make your online presence known, build a loyal following from those who are currently taking advantage of your products or services, and increase profit by generating more web traffic to the site itself.

Choosing the Most Affordable Small Business Web Hosting Plan

Since being cost-effective is one of the main reasons why you are using a website as your primary advertising tool, it follows that you should also choose an affordable small business web hosting plan. How exactly can you accomplish this feat? Here are a few tips that you need to keep in mind when choosing which small business web hosting plan to go for:

1. Steer clear of free hosting offers.
Remember that establishing a website from the ground up is one of the best investments that you will ever make in a lifetime. With investment being the keyword, you should definitely steer clear of free web hosting offers. These are suitable for personal bloggers or personal websites only – but if you have a business, the few dollars that you will be paying for the subscription fees will definitely be worth the services that you will be getting.

2. Check on the bandwidth and available disk space.
When looking for the best business web hosting package, the rule of thumb to follow is that the higher the bandwidth and disk space available, the better. This is especially true if you will be incorporating a lot of videos, multimedia features and other things which will take up a lot of bandwidth.

3. What is the uptime guarantee, the quality of technical support and customer service provided?
Most business hosting providers offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Also, check on the online reviews to get direct feedback from customers about the quality of customer service and technical support that the company offers.

4. How about the price of the business hosting package?
Yet another factor that you need to consider when choosing a business hosting package is the costs involved. The price of business web hosting packages can range from $5 to more than $200 – so there is definitely a wide array of options for you to choose from.

Although you do not necessarily need to shell out hundreds of dollars on a monthly basis for the business hosting package that you will get, you still need to make sure that the features included will suit your needs as a business.

For example, if there is a $10 difference between package 1 and package 2 for more bandwidth – and you have plans for expanding your website in the future, then it makes sense to go right ahead and choose the more expensive package. It’s the present and future needs of your business that you need to take into consideration when deciding whether you should go cheap, or invest more money on a small business web hosting package.

5. Other technical details to take into consideration.
The web platform that you will use, the usability of the control panel, the type and capacity of the servers – these are the other technical considerations that you need to make when choosing a cost-effective, yet feature-packed business hosting package.

At the end of the day, your goal is to get the best value for your money – so it definitely pays to spend the extra time and effort in comparing the different business web hosting packages available – to ensure that the one you’ll end up with will suit your small business’ needs to a tee.

How to Judge Business Hosting Companies and their Web Hosting Features?

Posted by admin on April 20th, 2010 | Comments Off

Small business hosting has become very popular among start-up companies. This type of hosting provides the right features and services that every small business owner can easily afford.

Unfortunately, it is not easy to choose a reliable web host that provides excellent features for small business websites. You need to carefully examine the essential hosting features of each web host to determine if you can get good service.

If you want to get the best small business web hosting, here are the crucial things that you need to look for.

Consider the Price of the Service

When you compare different hosting companies, you need to look for a host that charges reasonable rates. A typical hosting package for small business will cost between $10 and $20 per month. It is not good to opt for very cheap hosting because you may not get the right service that your business needs. On the other hand, a very expensive hosting package could have some features that you really do not need so you will simply waste money on it.

Always look for a hosting package that you can easily afford. At the same time, make sure that the hosting company can provide all the basic needs of your business website.

Choose a Host with Free Website Building Tools

You are probably too busy to build a business website from scratch. That is why you should choose a web host that offers an easy to use web builder. A reliable host provides the necessary tools for its customers to get started. If you do not know how to write codes, then the host should have a WYSIWYG editor with plenty of professional site templates. This service feature will simplify web building allowing you to create a custom website to establish your online presence.

Aside from an online web builder, an excellent hosting company usually offers bundled software. You will be able to install blogs, shopping cart, and other essential site features if the small business hosting service provide bundled hosting software for you.

Get Guarantees for Reliable Up-time

Almost all small business web hosting providers will promise 99.9 percent up-time. In order to know if a web host can deliver on this promise, you should first look for customer reviews and testimonials. Make sure that the web host does not receive very negative reviews from all its past and current customers.

It is also best if you can get guarantees from the web host. Make sure that it can provide several support channels. You also have to ensure that the hosting service provides 24/7 technical support. If your web host can not provide prompt and competent technical service to resolve hosting problems, then you need to look for other hosts immediately in order to protect the interest of your business.

It is really not easy to choose a web hosting provider. To avoid big problems, it would be best to deal with a web host that has a proven track record in delivering competent service. Read reviews and get recommendations from other webmasters who have tried the services of different web hosting companies.

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