best web hosting reviews

Building your first website can be an exciting (yet challenging) task.  This article deals with how to get your website online once you have it created.  However, if you have not yet created a website, you can check out our article on how to use wordpress to create your own site easily OR you can purchase web design from one of our professional partners.

How to Get Your Website Online in 3 Easy Steps:

Step 1: The two things you will need to get your website online is a domain name and web hosting.  A lot of place like godaddy want to charge you an arm and a leg for each of these items separately.  However, there are a few web hosting providers that will give you a free domain name when you purchase web hosting with them.  With this in mind we have listed a few hosts that will give you a free domain name.

• Hostmonster – $3.95 a month
• Bluehost – $3.95 a month
• Justhost – $3.45 a month

* You will need to sign up for one of these web hosting accounts before moving to step 2.

Step 2: If you have designed your website you will need to upload your files to your new web hosting account.  You will do this by using a FTP program.  FileZilla is a great FREE ftp program.  After you sign up for web hosting with one of the three hosts above you will receive an email with your account FTP information, you will simply plug this information into FileZilla. If you need additional help, we have a great (and detailed) article that discusses how to upload your website using FTP.

Step 3: By this step your website is actually online and visible to you; however, you now will need to market your website.  Depending on what type of site you have you can do this in many different ways.  If you are looking to create a profitable online business you will want to create a SEO Friendly website.  I have also found it very rewarding to advertise using Google Adwords. There are a lot of web hosting providers that will give you free Google Adwords credit when you get your website online with them.  Local businesses, churches, and personal sites can typically rely on word-of-mouth advertising.  Be sure to place your website address on all of your literature (brochures, business cards, signs, etc.)

As always feel free to contact us if you need any additional help!

What does one expect from a colocation hosting provider? Once the decision is made to use such a service, the next step is to know what is involved.

Colocation hosting is perfect for companies who want complete control over their websites and the way they are operated, but are unable to host their websites themselves.

Since the servers belong to the users, the server has to be configured and completely loaded with the necessary information before being delivered to the colocation host.

Service Monitoring

One of the most important things users look for in a colocation host is that their website stays online at all times.  This is where it becomes important to choose a provider that offers Service Monitoring contracts, which means they take up the responsibility of watching over your system to ensure it keeps running continuously.

Hardware Support

Many providers offer Hardware Support contracts and take up the responsibility of keeping the servers operating mechanically. Some providers also require that the users give them the necessary spare parts in advance, to be used when the need arises. But if the server is purchased from the provider, they may charge the user the cost of the spare parts, but fix the machines.

In the absence of a hardware agreement with the colocation host, you can pay them to take care of any issues that arise or send a technical person over to the colocation host to handle it.  You will have to decide what you need before finalizing on a colocation host.

Size of the Server

The size of your server is an important factor when choosing a colocation host. You will find these hosts have limitations along with differences in price. Let us take the example of rack mount servers.  They come in all sizes; while some take up less rack space and are cheaper to co-locate, the larger ones are more expensive since they use up more space. Some of the co-hosts may allow tower boxes while other allow rack mount servers.  This has to be clarified beforehand.

There are several key elements that need to be taken into consideration, such as the bandwidth, rack space, hardware support, internet connectivity, server monitoring, uptime, backup services and static IP addresses.

Here is a list of things you need to ask your colocation host:

• Find out how much it would cost if you exceed your bandwidth limit in a particular month.
• Check out the prices for the type of server you are going to use at the colocation, since different prices are charged for different servers.
• Ask if the co-host offers hardware support contracts and if they do, ask them how long it takes to get hardware repaired.  Do they keep the spare parts ready or do they get them when the need arises? If they do not offer such contracts and you don’t need them, find out how they attend to any problems with servers.   Do they offer their services for a fee or allow a technician from your end to gain access to the servers?
• Learn all about the number of internet connections they have and the size of the connection.  This is important to ensure there is no downtime.
• Does the co-host have a guaranteed uptime?
• Do they offer Server Monitoring services?  This is needed to ensure the servers are up and running all the time.
• How many IP addresses are going to be allotted to you? Is there any cost involved for getting more later?
• Do they offer any backups?  If they do, what sort of backups? What are the extra data backups offered and what is the cost involved?

With these questions answered, you are better informed and have all the information you could ever need. You will just have to start looking at the different colocation hosting providers and compare their services and prices, to finalize on the one that suits your needs the best.  Don’t forget to give importance to word-of-mouth in finding a reputed host.

One of the reasons behind using dedicated hosting is to ensure websites are constantly available to customers and users.  But with the evolving business needs, many webmasters end up finding it difficult to address the challenges associated with the technical aspects, such as software, hardware, control panel and other things.

In recent years, dedicated hosting providers began developing a “managed” hosting model, which removes all the operational burden, enabling webmasters to invest their energies into running their businesses.

The two types of dedicated hosting are: Managed and Unmanaged.

Managed hosting is nothing but “dedicated” hosting that is “managed” for you.  If you need dedicated hosting but are not sure you can handle the responsibility of overseeing the technical aspects, you don’t have to worry – managed hosting is exactly what you are looking for.

Your next question would be, “who is going to manage my dedicated hosting for me?”

The hosting provider that provides dedicated hosting takes care of managed hosting too, ensuring things work as they should.  With this, the responsibility of everything, right from the hardware to software lies with the hosting provider.  They basically take care of anything “server-related” as well as help with the day-to-day operations.

Managed hosting includes but is not limited to:

• Securing your server
• Continuous monitoring, where the problem is taken care of even before the webmaster submits a ticket to report it.
• Installation of firewall, configuring it and making modifications if requested
• Updates for the operating system, control panel, common third party applications etc. as and when required.
• Patch updates
• Ensuring the configuration files are optimized.  The  hosting company keeps tab of this through their continuous monitoring.
• Balancing the loads (traffic) and managing them
• Script debugging
• Uploading files
• Custom firewall configurations
• Filtering of spam and virus
• Script installation
• Managed DNS
• Local data storage, remote storage as well as backups
• Zero downtime
• 24 x 7 support
• Instant response to support tickets

This is not all, some hosts even have separate support teams dedicated to different accounts.

Basically, with managed hosting, the client only needs to build their site and the hosting company does everything needed to keep it online and making it accessible to the increasing traffic without any issues, such as slow loading etc.

Several managed hosting plans come fully-equipped with high levels of security. It has to be said that getting a fully managed dedicated hosting affords complete peace of mind to the webmaster and may also lead to lesser overheads, depending on the company size.  These hosting plans deliver all-round support and care for the infrastructure that is needed for growing businesses.

The only downside if any is that you may lose out on the flexibility of having your own software which you could have, if you were to manage your dedicated hosting yourself.  With managed hosting, the hosting company provides the software and maintains it.

Armed with this knowledge, feel free to look through the various managed hosting providers.  There is no hard and fast rule for what makes a reliable managed host.  You must decide based on your business by choosing options that will keep your website always up and running, while being highly secure.

Oh! Managed hosting is not only for the technically challenged, but is also a great option for those with limited time to maintain the servers or businesses looking to reduce overhead costs.

With all the talk of shifting to dedicated hosting, you must be wondering if it is time for your business to shift to one too.  Most webmasters start off with shared hosting initially, but as the websites grow, it becomes necessary to go dedicated.

Many of us are complacent and forget to look deeply into the website’s needs by observing any increases in traffic or downtime problems.  The best way to figure out if your website needs dedicated hosting is to see if the current shared hosting is able to satisfy your needs.

To decide this, here are a few questions you need to answer:

• Are you having problems with the inability of your shared hosting to handle the increased traffic to your website?

• Has your need for disk space increased from what your web host is providing?

• Has your bandwidth requirement increased considerably from the time you have signed up for shared hosting? If your shared host is unable to meet your bandwidth needs, you will notice that the pages of your website load slowly.

• Is it important for your website to be up and running all the time with absolutely no downtime?

• Will any downtime affect your business, revenue or your reputation?

• Are you looking at installing custom applications, specifically created for your business?

• Do you think a higher level of security with no vulnerability factor is needed for your website?

• Are you looking at hosting an increasing number of websites in the future?

• Do you no longer wish to rely on others for your hosting and want to be in-charge of your websites?

• Do you wish to configure the server and control your website the way you see fit?

If you answer “yes” to most of the questions above, it is more than likely that there is a genuine need for a dedicated server for your business.  You should seriously contemplate shifting to one.

But before going ahead and taking a final decision, there are a couple of things you need to look into:

• The affordability factor, as dedicated servers cost much more than shared servers.  Your business should be able to afford a dedicated server and the benefits you derive from it surpass the server cost, only then will it be worth investing in one.  What is the use of having a dedicated server if all the traffic you are getting is useless and does not contribute to the revenue?  Do you need a dedicated server or do you have to look into getting more conversions first? This is something that needs to be considered seriously.

• The technical aspect of managing a dedicated server on your own.  Handling a dedicated server involves having the technical know-how to handle it. Of course, you could look into managed hosting, but that is going to involve huge expenses.

Expenses need to be kept in mind when looking to shift to a dedicated server.  But the fact is that, although, the initial investment may be high, this type of hosting is cost-effective in the long run.

Dedicated hosting involves you being solely in-charge of your server and that requires a good technical knowledge of the hardware and software, to ensure smooth running.  But you don’t really need to spend sleepless nights over it, what with the availability of managed hosting.  Read all about managed hosting here.

Storage, security, bandwidth and customization being the key aspects, most mid-sized and large businesses go for dedicated hosting.

Businesses looking for increased performance and with decent revenues to cover the costs of the server should opt for dedicated hosting.

Welcome to the third part of our Web Hosting Q & A Series.  We have been looking at many questions that have been submitted to us via email over the past year.  Today we will look at a question from someone looking for information on registering for web hosting and/or domain names.

Q: How Do I Register For Web Hosting & Domain?

A:  We waited until today to answer this question because we just developed a new tool that will aid you in registering for domain names and web hosting.   Our brand new domain finder allows you to search for available domain names.  After searching for, and finding an available domain name, you can select our 1-click button and instantly register the domain name with your web hosting.

You can also research and find the best domain name/web hosting companies by examining  our web hosting reviews .  Most hosts listed on our top 10 list have buttons on their homepage that says “Sign Up Now”.  Clicking these buttons will get you on your way to registering a new domain name and web hosting.

Today is the second day in our Web Hosting Q & A series.   We are going to look at a question that I have received on multiple occasions, and I will help you understand a common web hosting marketing tool.

Q:  What is unlimited web hosting?

A:  As the web hosting market grows more competitive you will find that many hosting providers will develop unique marketing tactics.  “Unlimited Web Hosting”, is one of the most used marketing tactics in the hosting industry.  Many shared web hosting providers such as FatCow, WebHostingPad, or FastDomain promote themselves as unlimited hosts.  Unlimited web hosts, such as these, offer customers:  unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk space, unlimited databases, unlimited email accounts, and/or unlimited domain name hosting.

In reality, there is no physical way that a host can offer unlimited resources.   The term that many use to describe these types of hosts is, “overselling”, because they are selling unlimited resources which is statistically impossible.   So why do these hosts advertise unlimited web hosting?   Web hosting providers know that they can provide users with ample web space (more than anyone will ever need); because of this, hosts are not afraid to remove resource caps and give users the freedom to know that they will not be charged for overages.

Although the term, “unlimited web hosting” is somewhat misleading, these hosts still provide some of the best web hosting solutions on the web.   AlreadyHosting.com is a huge website, with a lot of traffic, and we are hosted on shard server through HostMonster.   Unlimited web hosting providers offer the cheapest hosting on the web and many offer very reliable hosting solutions.   If you are looking for a web hosting that will give more than enough server resources, I would suggest on of our top 10 web hosting providers.

Over the next week we are going to look at, and answer,  some questions that I have been asked from individuals looking to start their very first website.  I will simply post some questions that I have been asked over the past year and offer the best advice possible.  Let’s get your questions answered.   So here we go… Day 1 of Web Hosting Q & A!

Q: How Do I Find The Best Web Host?

A:  Anytime that you deal with the word “Best” you are really asking for one person’s opinion.  As the owner of one of the web’s largest web hosting review sites , I am honored that you give us enough credibility to answer this question.  When researching web hosting providers we typically monitor the following: Price, Server Reliability, Customer Support, Host Experience, and Overall Customer Feedback.  With this being said we have generated our Top 10 Web Hosting List.

With this being said, I think it is important to note that our site (AlreadyHosting.com) is hosted with HostMonster.  Our site generates a LOT of revenue each month and we rely on having great web hosting.  We have had no issues, problems, or complaints about HostMonster and we feel comfortable reccomending them to anyone.