Asking Questions and Getting Honest Answers

When you are first selecting a web host, you will most likely have tons of questions concerning different features and whether or not a host can handle certain aspects of the site that you have planned.

You will of course want to ask the web hosting company those questions. At the same time, however, you must realize that the hosting company is in the business of getting your business and making money. This means that you may not always get the truest answer. That is not to say that all web hosting companies are dishonest, but like any industry, there are some really bad apples.

For this reason, after you’ve gotten the information that you wanted from the company in question, take those same questions to some of the better known webmaster forums to get an honest answer from those who have had dealings with that particular web hosting company – and those who have nothing to gain in your decision.

If nobody can answer your question in these types of forums (this would be rare), you can use the search engine to possibly find the information. In most cases, if you search hard enough, you will find the honest answer to your question. In some cases, you won’t know the answer until you’ve actually tried the service out.

For this reason, you might want to take things slow when you first sign up with your web hosting service. Just put a few pages up. Use one or two applications that require the database. Take the first week or two to try out the features and see how they work. Is the control panel easy to use? Use applications that let you know each time the site goes down. There are many such applications out there – some are free while others have a cost to use.

During this self created ‘trial phase,’ make sure that you have at least one technical issue so that you can contact technical support. Have a customer service issue if possible, so that you can contact customer support. How quickly do they respond to you? How quickly and efficiently did they handle your problem?

Hopefully, you’ve chosen a company that offers that money-back guarantee. If you find that the web hosting service is less than what you expected, simply request a refund, and move your domain name to a new web hosting company and try again, using the same self created trial period as before. Follow this process until you find a web hosting service that you are happy with.