Monday, July 27, 2009

How Not To Get Web Design Work

by: T. O' Donnell
I get the occasional web design lead from my website. I wanted to find a company I could pass these onto. So I put an ad on a freelance site. It specified the programming qualifications needed, stated that the successful candidate should have good English, and was for companies only.

The replies I got were enlightening. So much so, I made a list of things applicants did wrong. Here it is.

I should point out I was initially prepared to give everyone a fair go. After the first twenty-odd emails, my attitude changed. I was looking for reasons to delete applicants. I only needed one successful one; with 100 replies it was getting to be a headache, so I decided a brutal approach was needed.

1. Failed to read the spec.

Many applicants couldn't write properly in the English language. Many were individuals only. Result: instant deletion.

2. Failed to address the spec's criteria.

Applicants bragged about how great they were. Many copy-and-pasted standard marketing guff about 'solutions' and 'partnerships' into their emails.

To engage anyone's interest about a proposal you need to talk less about yourself and more about the benefits to *them* of using you. One of the first things I learnt about applying for jobs is you need to show how you meet the criteria in the job description; see if you can find the employer's wavelength.

3. Lots of jargon.

You quickly tune this out. Anyone dealing with web companies probably gets a lot of this. Applicants should talk to the client about *the client's* site and *their* needs, and avoid techno-babble.

Write an application letter. Leave it for a while, then edit it. Brutally. Short punchy sentences, no guff. Talking convincingly about how you can make the client money would be an attention-getter.

4a. 'Coming soon' client-listing pages.

You say you've done work for lots of clients, then put up a 'coming soon' sign on the web page where your client list is supposed to be. Hmmmm.

4b. 'Under construction' pages on your company web site.

This looks bad; something you'd see on an amateur's site. Another reason to bin your application.

4c. Only put up pictures of sites you've done, rather than links to the actual sites.

I'd have liked to see some working example sites. Pictures can be faked, and they don't show background programming.

4e. No mention of your main web site URL.

Let us guess where your own site is (if you have one). It's more fun! I tried guessing from the email address. After a while I didn't bother.

4f. No hyperlinks at all.

Just a short email spiel saying "I am great designer, hire me". Next!

5. Using Yahoo.com or Hotmail.com for your email address.

A pro designer shouldn't use a freebie email address service. Basic web hosting costs $5 a month these days.

I can conceive that a web designer might use a freebie account for some special purpose, but your own domain name is a basic advert that goes out in each email you send.

6. Bad spelling and grammar.

Western civilisation is doomed, if using SMS jargon becomes the standard way to write to people. It doesn't impress old frts lik me, fr strtrs :( Especially if you're looking for work where good spelling and grammar are important.

7. Front-loading Flash designs.

I admit it, I don't like Flash. I especially don't like it when it loads slowly on my broadband connection. I suppose it might impress an ignorant client, who doesn't know the economic consequences of having a Flash-heavy site.

8. Don't phone the employer up.

Unless they say 'canvassing will disqualify', 'phoning the employer is a good idea. Why? Because geeks are famously introverted and tongue-tied, supposedly. So if a web site designer can communicate clearly over the telephone, that, coupled with a good application, puts you streets ahead of the email-only applicant.

No need to jabber. A polite enquiry to establish contact will do. "Just checking you've got my CV", that sort of thing.

9. Keep yourself mysterious.

Emails are impersonal. Anything that can establish you as a human being, a person, a potential ally and friend, is good. It'll make you more memorable. No need to jump out of a giant cake, 'though!

However, you have to fulfil all the other criteria as well. However great a guy you are, if you're a Unix man and they want Windows, forget it.

10. Leaving unclear phone messages.

One chap left a phone message, in which he mentioned his site, twice, but not his 'phone number. His pronunciation was bad, so I guess I'll never know how good he was.

11. Too far away.

Most replies were from India, Ukraine, Romania etc. Anyone who was closer to home (the UK) stood out. I mention it simply as a winnowing criterion.

Also, I needed someone who could land contracts from UK residents; good English, written and oral, was important.

12. Give your rates per hour.

Forget that. You're not a lawyer. Web design jobs can be clearly defined, in terms of time, work and software required. A definite price can be agreed on in advance. It's called a contract. Otherwise, you leave the client open to escalating bills, and yourself to mission-creep.

13. Delay applying.

The first few applications were more scrutinised. After that, fatigue set in. After one hundred, only an applicant who seems a real prospect would be given more than five seconds' scrutiny.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Choosing Your Web Hosting Reseller Software

by: S. Rosendahl
As a web host reseller, one of your most important business decisions is your choice of web hosting control panel software. The web hosting software you use will save or cost you time, money, and frustration.

What reseller control panel features will reduce your workload? What hosting software programs are integrated with the reseller control panel or work with it? What website control panel features will your clients like?

In this article, we’ve compared four quality web hosting reseller software programs:

• Alabanza
• cPanel
• H-Sphere
• Plesk

All of these reseller control panels come with control panels for your clients. They all have numerous features — advanced email management, web statistics, pre-installed scripts, multi-language support, and more. They all work on Linux platforms, while H-Sphere and Plesk also work with Windows. According to the cPanel website, a Windows version of cPanel is in development.

Other features that set these control panels apart are their degree of automation, the number of features and ease of use for the end user, and the features and ease of use for you, the reseller.
Alabanza

When you become an Alabanza reseller, you don’t just have a reseller account — you lease a dedicated server from Alabanza. Alabanza owns the control panel the server, and you resell directly for Alabanza. If you lease a dedicated Alabanza server, you can create your own reseller accounts. However, only you can set up hosting plans; resellers below you will be limited to hosting plans that you create.

Alabanza offers resellers a high degree of automation with its Domain System Manager (DSM), which can significantly reduce overhead and time spent on routine tasks:

• Account creation
• Billing and invoice management
• Credit card processing
• Domain registration
• Email notifications
• Ordering fraud protection

Even novices can sell hosting with this level of automation.

DSM also integrates with bulkregister.com for domain name registration. It does not easily integrate with other domain registrars, though.

A key Alabanza feature that resellers can offer their clients is the Xpress Product Suite, which provides web development and email management tools. The Xpress Product Suite includes SiteXpress, a website-building program that features over 300 templates and requires no web design skills.

cPanel

For resellers and end users, cPanel is known for its ease of use and range of features. cPanel’s collection of over 50 pre-installed scripts and Fantastico auto installer help clients set up their sites with little web development knowledge.

A basic cPanel reseller account comes with two separate programs for resellers to manage their business:

• WHM (Web Host Manager) is used to create accounts and packages, add and suspend sites, modify passwords, view bandwidth usage, park domains, install SSL certificates, and perform other administrative functions.
• From the reseller’s cPanel control panel, a drop-down menu takes the reseller to the control panels for each of the sites on the reseller account, including the reseller’s site.

With the addition of an optional program, WHM AutoPilot, you can automate account creation and suspension, email notifications, and other tasks. WHM AutoPilot also integrates with common payment gateways and has a helpdesk, an invoice module, and other tools.
H-Sphere

H-Sphere is designed for both Linux and Windows platforms. Moreover, resellers can set up plans for both Linux and Windows and administer sites on different servers from the same control panel. The control panel, actually a separate server, also provides administrative access to the integrated helpdesk.

The H-Sphere control panel server automates account configuration, credit card processing, domain registration, and email notifications. It also includes a built-in billing module and supports over 20 payment gateways.

From the reseller’s point of view, H-Sphere has a higher learning curve than most other control panels because of its numerous features. For example, when setting up a new plan, the administrator has two pages of features to choose from, including setup and monthly pricing for optional services.

Beginning webmasters may find H-Sphere too complicated for their needs. More advanced users, however, appreciate the features and control that H-Sphere offers the end user. A key feature is the ability to have control over separate domains with multi-domain hosting.

H-Sphere comes with the website builder SiteStudio, which guides users through a variety of style choices and stores content separately from the layout. No HTML or FTP knowledge is required.
Plesk

Plesk is known for its stability and security. Resellers and end users like its simple navigation, its clean interface, and its professional appearance. It comes in versions for both Linux and Windows platforms.

With Plesk, all users use the same control panel but with different levels of control:

• Server administrator
• Client / reseller
• Domain owner
• Mail user

Each level of the control panel gives the user control of that level and the level(s) below it. Email users, for example, can log into their mail user control panel to change their password, add autoresponders, and change other personal settings without having access to the domain owner control panel.

Plesk handles SpamAssassin at the mailbox level rather than at the domain level.
This feature enables users to whitelist or blacklist email for each email address, allowing each email user to have individual settings.

SWsoft, the company behind Plesk, also offers SiteBuilder, a five-step website builder using pre-built templates. SiteBuilder has over 300 templates in different categories to choose from, and users can publish their sites without any HTML or FTP knowledge.

If your Plesk reseller account is with a web host that offers HSPcomplete, you will have some automation available with your account, such as credit card charges and email notification.

How To Rake In the Sales From Your Loyal Opt-In Subscribers for Free

by: Matt Callen
If you're anything like me, you've probably heard it a thousand times before, stored it in the back of your memory bank, and haven't had the desire to go back there to get it. Well, now's the time to start acting on what I like to call “The Undiscovered Gold Mine.” What I'm talking about is the marketing power of an opt-in email list.
But what is the most compelling offer to truly get your visitors to opt-in?
Without a doubt...a Free Newsletter is your best bet!
In this lesson, we'll dive deep into the importance of a well-written newsletter, its impressive money-making potential, and the art of writing a profitable newsletter that your subscribers will eat up like candy!
Email marketing is a blessing for small business owners. An effective, targeted email-marketing campaign can drive traffic to your site, get your name in front of qualified prospects and turn leads into sales - for much less than what you'd spend on a traditional direct-marketing campaign. Once you have developed your email list, how do you turn those devoted subscribers into sales? No matter what strategies you used to get your subscribers to opt-in on your emailing list, many of them are already pre-sold to your product. Now, you just have to close the deal.
In this lesson, I'm going to show you why your site needs a newsletter and how to maximize your sales by using this powerful incentive. Offering a free newsletter is the best way to collect loyal subscribers who are actively looking for answers to their problems. If you offer to provide potential subscribers with information they need, they'll be glad to subscribe to your newsletter. But obviously the secret is out, and most online businesses are taking full advantage of the powerful capabilities of this marketing tool. And as a result, there has been a mass of newsletters on the Internet full of nonsense and spam - leaving Internet visitors with a wary concern about handing over their email addresses to just anyone.
This doesn't, however, mean that you shouldn't start your own newsletter. And it doesn't mean that you've missed the boat. All it means is that you are going to have to work at providing your subscribers with quality information that they deem worthy enough to entrust their email address with you. Not a problem! Just create a newsletter that people read faithfully, that is considered to be a reliable source of quality information, and that attracts a consistent number of opt-in subscribers.
The best part about newsletters is that you can produce them with little to no cost at all! Of course you can hire a ghost writer to compose your newsletter, but the best way to truly acquire a lasting relationship with your customer is by simply “talking” to them.
Nowadays, it's easy to get away with informal conversations with someone you don't know all that well. In fact, many people actually feel more comfortable with the fact that you're talking to them like a friend. Don't underestimate the power of this kind of relationship!
If you are communicating on a regular basis with your subscribers, giving them valuable information, and allowing them to get to know and trust you, you shouldn't be too surprised about how many of them will actually become devoted customers. Email newsletters are one of the great bargains in marketing. They keep your company in front of your customers on a regular basis for very little cost.
Newsletters aren't right for every audience - I wouldn't recommend them if you're targeting the local B-I-N-G-O crowd - but if you're in the web hosting business, there's a good chance that 100% of your customers and prospects use email, making newsletters a great tool!
Email newsletters are proven to increase sales, if used properly. It has been reported by rigorous research and testing that up to 50% in sales can be generated from newsletter auto-responder follow-ups! And I'm sure you'll also be glad to hear that if used properly, up to 10% of opt-in subscribers will purchase the product being sold. In case you didn't get that - it's been reported that...
10 people out of every 100 subscribers will buy!
That's enough to make me want to send out newsletters! But there are a few things that you have to be cautious of when preparing your newsletter. If you want to rake in the ALL of the financial benefits possible, you need to follow the tips below. Trust me, there's an art to creating a thriving, profitable newsletter.
There's no doubt about it - a free newsletter is your best source of generating a list of subscribers you can send promotions to in the future! But how should you go about delivering your message to your potential customers without coming off as a huge advertisement billboard? Because so many of us are already overwhelmed by the daily flood of email, your newsletter will need to be much more than just ads for your products. Including informative articles, interviews, or other information may help entice your subscribers to actually open and read your newsletter. Light “plugs” in the body of your newsletter aren't a bad idea, but remember that your subscribers are looking for quality information - not a salesletter…that's what your webpage is for.
To increase your sales and get the most out of your newsletter, we highly recommend following the tips listed below…

§ Registering New Subscribers
When asking visitors to sign up, ask only for the information you need - perhaps just the email address. Remember, that every additional bit of info you collect is another deterrent to customer signup. People don't like to give away their private information, so don't ask for anything more than what is needed.
Make it easy for subscribers to share your newsletter with others. They can simply forward the message, of course, but if you include an explicit send-to-a-friend link you are giving your customers and subscribers a gentle “nudge” to recommend your material to their friends and colleagues.
§ Check out your competition
Every business has competition. Find out what they are doing by researching their product or service. Sign up for their newsletters, and then make yours better than theirs. What could you do better? Is there a gap in their service you can fill?
§ Content
The first thing I want to tell you is that “Newsletters must be simple.” You do not want to be the next “delete” button in your subscribers email account. People get a lot of email. They don't have time to read a lot of text. Newsletters must be designed to facilitate scanning, but then again you want to give them the opportunity to get a “full dose” of what you have to offer. So the best recommendation is to provide links like “Click Here for the Full Report”, or “Discover the Answers To Your Problem by Clicking Here”.
Above all, deliver content with real value. We're all flooded by email, and if your users don't perceive your newsletter to be worthwhile, they'll just delete it and move to the next message in their inbox. That's why it's important to track your click-through rates: they're proof that your messages are being read - not just your message views. Also, if you have a newsletter that covers a ton of topics and starts to get too long, be sure break it into separate newsletters.
§ Write a Good Subject Line
Writing good subject lines is especially important, both to encourage users to open the newsletter, and to distinguish the newsletter from spam. I recommend including some actual content from the individual newsletter in each subject line, even though it's a difficult job to write good within the 50-60 character limit that is imposed by many email services.
§ HTML or plain text?
It's really a matter of what you think will most appeal to your readers. There really hasn't been much difference as far as which one sells the best. It truly depends on your target audience. So if in doubt, offer two lists: one in plain text and the other in HTML. Then let your subscribers decide which one they want to receive.
§ Let's Make a Profit! Selling to Your Audience
Many people try and sell their product or service directly from their emails. However this is really the job of your web site, not your newsletter. The purpose of your email campaigns should be purely to get people to click to your web site. Two of the most successful ways to do this are
a) A “Single-Topic” Article in Your Newsletter
Create a single article that describes a common problem that your product solves. BUT, don't necessarily mention your product in the article but do point out some of the things to be considered when choosing a solution. Close your article by simply saying something like "To read more about this problem and discover our Tried-and-True solution - Click Here". This link should then direct your opt-in subscribers to you product sales page at which point the user is already thinking about the problem and what to look for in a solution. Then, they discover your product, which just happens to solve their problem. Viola!
b) A Series of Articles in Your Newsletter
In each issue of your newsletter, focus on one particular problem that your product solves. But again, don't necessarily mention your product - simply talk about some of the things to be considered when choosing a solution. Dedicate the whole issue to describing this problem and what to look for in a solution. At the end of each issue point them in the direction of your product's sales pages. Again by the time they hit your web pages they will be primed and ready to learn how your product solves their problem.
Then, in your next newsletter series, you can incorporate a “new” problem that your product also solves. Get the picture? It's a great strategy once you get the hang of it.

Never send your newsletter to anyone who hasn't specifically requested to receive it. Remember, new anti-spam regulations require every marketing email to include an opt-out condition and a valid physical address.
Email newsletters are a blessing to small businesses. They are a great way to generate a credible relationship with your customer, drive subscribers to your site, create demand for your product, and thus skyrocket your sales!
Establishing your credibility is the key to making your product or service attractive to potential customers. But once you've done that, your loyal subscribers will WANT to know more about what you have to say. They'll be extremely receptive to your offers. The most valuable customer is the one you already have - right there in your email list.
Be sure to check out the next lesson. You'll be amazed at how easy it is to boost your opt-in mailing list by up to 10 times!

Create Your Own Download Links

by: Mark Meshulam
Copyright 2005 Poingo.com

One of the great features of working with the web is the ability to download a file by clicking on a link. As most earthlings know, a link is most frequently visible as blue underlined text displayed on a website, or on an HTML email. Links can also be presented as hot spots on an image, or a button which can be clicked.

Sometimes when we click on links, we are magically transported to a new web page. Behind the scenes, we are actually receiving new files from a web server, and our browser software is "rendering" the files on our screen according to instructions contained in the files.

These new files could be served up by the same web server which served up the previous page, or with equal ease we could be receiving files from a totally different location, possibly from halfway around the world! Such are the wondrous ways of the web.

Other times when we click on links, we get a different experience. Our browser offers to download a file and patiently awaits our answer. When we accept and possibly tell our browser where to file the download, the web server sends the file to our computer and a download takes place.

The usefulness of this functionality is obvious. We don't always want to see the information painted on our screen, sometimes we just want to use it. Consider a spreadsheet file as an example.

If I want to share my spreadsheet with you, I can easily send it to you as an email attachment, but what happens if the file is too large? Chances are, your file attachment could hit a bottleneck somewhere in your, or your recipient's email system and may never deliver.

However, if I send the file as a download, email system bottlenecks are bypassed and the pipe is wide open. Here's how it works:

1. First, I upload my large file to a web server somewhere.
2. Then, I place a download link to that file in my email to my pal.
3. When he receives the email, he either clicks on the link or pastes it into the address bar of his browser.
4. He easily downloads the file.
5. He is incredibly impressed.

To do this, here is what you will need:
1. Rights to a web server to host your file - many web hosting companies offer this.
2. Software for uploading your file - for starters you can actually use Windows Explorer.
3. Knowledge of the correct "path", or URL which will allow your recipient to access the file. This should be available from your web hosting company.

The format of the URL will look like this: http://www.domain.com/downloads/myspreadsheet.xls
Where "domain" is the domain you have registered for your use, which is targeted at a folder on a web server, which has a subfolder named, for example, "downloads". Your example filename, in this case, "myspreadsheet.xls" should match the actual filename exactly. Filenames should not have spaces or odd punctuations.

In case the above steps seem too intimidating or labor intensive, there is a software/webhosting package available called Personal FTP (www.poingo.com).

The software uploads your large files to your private webspace on the Personal FTP server, opens a new email, and places a download link onto the email, all in a few clicks. In addition, you get your own subdomain, which not only adds your identity to the link, but also enhances the reliability of the download.

Avoid, Shun, Thwart, Prevent, and then Filter Spam

by: Nick Smith
Email is rapidly becoming the standard means of communication among businesses, associates, and even friends. While many people have now been using the internet and email for years, there are thousands of new users on the internet each day. With inexpensive web hosting, free email services, and the blog burst upon us, getting your own slice of the internet pie has never been easier.

Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking for a refresher course, or you’re new to the internet and email and want to start off right, here are some easy steps to follow to reduce the amount of spam you receive.

Don’t choose an obvious email address. Spammers will generate lists of email addresses based on common names. A common list would be something like: nick@yahoo.com, nick1@yahoo.com, nick2@yahoo.com, etc. If you create an email account with less obvious combinations of your name plus some numbers, chances are better that you won’t find your way onto one of these lists.

Treat your personal email address with care. Only give out your personal email address to close friends and family who you trust. Give your direct business email only to clients and other contacts you trust to only use your address for legitimate business purposes.

Use different accounts for different functions. Create different aliases with your business’s domain name or create a few free accounts from free email servers like Hotmail, Yahoo!, Excite, etc. Use one account that you don’t care about for posting to forums or discussion groups. Use another to subscribe to newsletters and newsgroups. When any of these addresses starts to get spammed too heavily, simply delete the account and switch to a different one.

Remove your email address from your website. Between blogs and cheap web space, it seems everyone has their own piece of cyberspace. Before you put a link to your email address on your site, remember that spammers have bots that harvest these addresses. They will even find addresses printed in plain text. Consider using a web-based form for communication from you website, or place your address as a gif or jpeg.

Do not open, respond to, or purchase from spam. Interacting with spam in any of these ways indicates to the spammer that not only is your address valid, it’s also active. Do not respond with “unsubscribe” in the subject line, or click on any links to remove your name out of the database, as both of these are common ploys to confirm your email address. Remember, because sending email is so inexpensive, spamming can be profitable even if only a small percentage of people purchase what they’re selling. Don’t support what you’re trying to stop.

Finally, Filter you incoming email using filtering software. Even if you guard your email address religiously, you’ll likely still receive spam. Filtering software is usually inexpensive and effective, but there are some important features to consider with any filtering package:

• Make sure you can control what comes to your inbox and what gets deleted. The best programs create a spam folder for you to review before permanently deleting emails.

• The software should block images from incoming emails. Many jpegs in spam actually hide code that notifies the spammer when the email is viewed. Blocking images will not only keep offensive content off your screen but will also help prevent more spam in the future.

• Choose software that provides you with updates - as new spamming techniques are created and proliferated, filtering software should keep up.

While eliminating spam from coming to your email address is nigh unto impossible, following these simple steps will mean you’ll have to spend less time deleting spam from your inbox, giving you more time for the important things of life – like reading this article.

How to Choose a Right Web Hosting Service?

Indeed, choosing a right web hosting service for your website is not an easy task especially when there are thousands of web hosting providers all offering almost identical web hosting packages. Therefore, it is important to know few major considerations even before you start your web hosting search. Below are three major criteria for web host seeker:

Web hosting features requirement

This is probably the most important consideration to start finding a host for your site. You need to decide the technical requirements for your website, this including:

a) Server platform and hardware requirements
If you plan to set up a website that uses programming environments such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic scripts, Cold Fusion or Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database, in this case, you will need to find a web hosting service that supports Windows platform such as Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers.

Likewise, if you plan to use programming languages such as Perl, CGI, SSI, PHP or mySQL database, then any web hosting plans that support Unix/Linux platform should be sufficient to meet your hosting requirements. Once you have these server platform and hardware requirements in mind, you can decide the best web hosting plans for your need. For more information, you can read "How to select a web server and server platform?"

b) Disk space & Bandwidth requirement
Here is another technical requirement that you need to consider before selecting a web hosting plan, i.e. disk space and bandwidth. If you intend to publish a website that does not have a lot of contents (meaning, web pages), then the disk space requirement may not be a big concern to you. In general, a disk space with 200MB to 500MB should be enough to meet your hosting requirement. In contrast, if you plan to host a website with enormous amount of graphic pictures, mp3 or video files, then you should consider a web hosting plan that provide huge disk space, for example, 500 MB to 1,000 MB.

Similarly, the bandwidth requirement will depend on your site traffic estimation. Obviously, a website that expect to attract high traffic will consume the monthly bandwidth allowance very fast. If so, you will need to find one web hosting service that offer huge bandwidth with 40 GB to 100 GB per month. Depending upon your website requirement, choosing a web hosting service that provide sufficient amount of disk space and bandwidth is crucial consideration to prevent paying extra costs in the future should you overuse the monthly disk space and bandwidth allowance.

c) Other hosting features
While the above requirements are utmost important, there are other hosting features that you have to consider too. Can web hosting provider support video clips on your website, if you have? Is the web hosting service compatible with Dreamweaver or FrontPage web authoring tool? Do you plan to set up a virtual store online? Can the host support the e-commerce features without adding extra cost to your monthly payments? On top of that, you may also want to find out the number of email accounts provided, number of FTP accounts, web statistic software (analyze your web traffic), type of control panel supported (manage your web hosting account), database and scripting languages supported and etc.

Reliability and scalability

A first-class web hosting provider offers reliable server uptime and fast Internet connection. You should only choose a web hosting service that guarantee at least 99% server uptime with high-speed Internet backbones using at least OC3 (Optical Carrier) lines (155 Megabits per second) or above instead of T1 or T3 lines. A reliable web hosting provider usually invests heavily on their data center infrastructure with high performance servers, high speed multiple backbones providers with fail-over redundancy, backup power generators and firewall software protection in place to ensure they meet the uptime guarantee specified in the terms of service.

Similarly, you should choose a web hosting service with hardware facilities that designed for scalability, so that they can grow with your business. For example, if you need to increase more disk space, bandwidth or number of mySQL databases, you should be able to upgrade as needed without any problems.

Customer service and support

The last major consideration in choosing a web hosting service is to find a web hosting providers that offers excellent customer service and support. You should always search for a web hosting provider that offers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week technical support that fielded with highly experience technicians, so that any web hosting problems will be resolved within a reasonable amount of time. You may also want to consider to test how responsive is their customer support by sending few inquiry emails to the web hosting provider. In general, any response in less than 24 hours is considered acceptable. It is a sign of poor customer support if they take more than one day to response.

In addition, a web hosting provider with excellent support should also provide multiple support channels, such as toll-free phone support, 24/7 email support, live chat, online knowledgebase, Interactive flash tutorials and FAQ.

Above are few major considerations before you choose your web hosting service. In addition, how long has the web hosting provider in business and the number of customers that they currently have are also a good indication of the quality of their hosting products as well as the stability of the company. Even though cost of the web hosting service is also important but it should not be your major consideration. Because the price of a web hosting service has been declining over the years due to competition, as a result, the price of most of the web hosting services offering quality hosting features has been converging to less than US$10 per month. If you can't afford less than $10 per month, you probably isn't in the online business for the long haul. Therefore, price should not be a major deciding factor.

On the other hand, it is more important to ensure the web hosting service that you choose is able to meet your website hosting requirements, guarantee your website is always accessible with satisfying speed, provide scalability to grow and expand your website as well as offer excellent customer supports. Depending on your web hosting requirement, you can take advantage of our site, Cheap Web Hosting Review to find the recommended web hosting services that can match the three major criteria above. Good luck to your search.