It can be a challenge for individuals and businesses with limited budgets to find quality small business Web hosts. Most hosting companies focus either on the corporate market and high traffic Web sites, or upon low-traffic personal or informational Web sites. Few concern themselves with the small and home office sector because the limited scale of operations is low creates smaller margins.

This has resulted in the explosion of Web hosts offering shared hosting packages to small and medium companies. While most of these Web hosts do not have the technical or financial muscle to provide state-of the-art services, the customer base they specialize in can’t afford those resources anyway. To keep costs low, some own only one or two servers while others offer reselling solutions.

Therefore, before deciding to host a Web site with a Web host of this kind it is especially important to examine their claims and market pitches carefully. It is especially important avoid resellers. A reseller may make claims of high quality service but this cannot be guaranteed, as they do not own the hosting companies. Rather, they are only acting as middlemen and can exert no more pressure on the parent host than any similarly sized customer.

In order to find a reliable host, make a short list of potential Web hosts in the appropriate city. It will then be possible visit the premises and verify the claims of each business, paying particular attention to their hardware. This can’t be done when merely cross-checking Web hosts on the net. If possible, obtain a list of some Web sites hosted by the Web host. Then contact owners of these Web sites and inquire about their experience with the host.

Also determine which hosts offer the services required, and the costs of those services. Ask questions to evaluate the knowledge and expertise of each hosting firm. Ensure, as much as possible, that the host is honest and committed to customers by asking them relevant questions.

A host who is flexible, scalable and who can grow with a business is an ideal choice. Any sign of rudeness, impatience and unresponsiveness in a host should be regarded as a major warning flag. The initial contract should be for the shortest period available, to allow for evaluation of the host before a major commitment is made. If more than one site needs hosting, consider spreading them among several hosts.

Since small hosts are more familiar with the needs of small businesses they are likely to provide a better fit. Even so, it’s important not to get carried away with hosts that offer more than is required while skimping on support. The customer is expected to posses the technical knowledge to select the necessary features and self-sufficient enough to negotiate an affordable price for them.

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Lisa Moore is an author for several well-known web sites, on family business and small business tips topics.

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Your website has become successful and at last you are getting the sort of traffic you have been dreaming of. Then you get the dreaded email, your web host informs you that the high traffic is monopolizing the server and your account may be terminated (often without a refund) for breaking its terms of service.
So what are your options now? How can your website grow without the fear of your site being terminated?

Well you will be pleased to know that there are several different options available to you! This article will cover each one, so that you can be sure you choose the option that is most suitable for your individual business needs.
Premium Hosting Benefits: –
Premium hosting is very similar to shared hosting except the packages have far more bandwidth (traffic) allowance and they are guaranteed to have a maximum number of accounts on each server.
The benefit of premium hosting is the fact that you are sharing the server with far less accounts (normally just 30-70); therefore your website can have high traffic without affecting the server speed or causing downtime.
The other great thing about premium hosting is that is requires no extra technical knowledge and of course you still have peace of mind knowing that you still have 24 hour technical support (of course this depends on the host you choose).
The last benefit of premium hosting is the fact there are several different packages to choose from, this means you only have to pay for the resources that you need at a given time. As soon as your website grows even further it is very easy to upgrade with only a slight increase in cost, which means your costs are always kept to a minimum.
Reseller Hosting Benefits
Reseller hosting is designed for individuals who wish to split up the resources allocated in their plan and resell each of these parts individually.
Resellers are normally web designers, or customers that have many websites or entrepreneurs who wish to start their own web host company. (Reseller hosting is also not suitable for audio, video downloading or video streaming websites and free/email providers for the same reason as above)
With reseller hosting you can host unlimited domains, so you decided how many accounts you want to create and you decide the price you want to resell them for.
Each of the reseller customers has their own control panel, personalized email and FTP accounts, fantastic scripts. The reseller can even have their own name servers which make them look very professional. The other benefit of reselling is that although it requires slightly more knowledge of the industry, there is always technical support close at hand.
The great thing about reseller packages is the fact that the web host will continue to provide the technical support to these customers anonymously, which means you don’t have to worry about getting your own staff.
Dedicated Hosting Benefits
In a dedicated hosting service, you are the only user of that server. The price depends on the quality of the server and whether it is a ‘managed’ or unmanaged one. (Always be sure that the server you get is from a reputable company).
An unmanaged Server is generally cheaper, however you must know first hand how to run your server (or hire a system administrator that does) as you will be responsible for all the server side problems and configurations.
With a dedicated server you have
– Full root access so you can modify the configuration of the server to
whatever suits you best.
– You can also install any software or scripts that you choose (all of which are
not possible with shared hosting.
– Better reliability. If you are the sole user, no worries about other domains
affecting your server speed or security.
The second option is a managed server. Although this option still requires technical knowledge, you have peace of mind knowing that your web host will always have technicians there to assist you, which means you do not need to hire your own administrator.
When considering an upgrade to your existing e-Commerce hosting service, these are the key options to consider. While certainly not an exhaustive listing of everything you need to consider this should get you on the right path to narrow your choices down to at least three or four services.

Article Source: http://www.articledestination.com

The author has done his masters in computer science and presently he is assisting serverplex.com. For more information please visit us at www.serverplex.com

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