Finding the Right Host

If you are going to participate in the world of e-commerce, you want to make sure that you are working with the right host. If your Web site is your store, every second your site has problems is lost money.

The right Web host is vital.

Run the Numbers/Read the Fine Print

If your Web host promises to be up 99% of the time, that's a good thing, right? A 30 day month has 720 hours. 1% of 720 hours is more than 7 hours of downtime. Oops!

How about a site with a 99.9% uptime guarantee? .1% of 720 hours is more than 30 minutes of downtime a month.

30 minutes of downtime at 2 a.m. for a site that only works with local customers is fine. Every e-commerce site owner knows that there are times in the day when 30 minutes of downtime can result in a considerable amount of lost sales and damaged reputation. Just ask the manager of your local grocery store how he'd feel if the store were shut down for a random 30 minutes every month.

What happens if your Web host does go down? Does it give you a free month or does it pro-rate your service loss? I once had a host who was down for 24 hours and gave me 1/31 of my month service fee back in exchange for more than a thousand dollars in lost sales. I didn't read the fine print in the contract.

Needless to say, I'm no longer with that host.

In the Web hosting world, it isn't a question of if you'll go down it is a question of what happens when you go down. Find out what happens when your host has problems and ask for references of successful e-commerce clients. Check on the references.

And, obviously, run the numbers and read the fine print.

How many times (in the "real world") have you not purchased something because of a long line at the store? How many times have you given up because you couldn't find an employee to help make a decision? How many times did something in the store prevent you from doing the very thing the store wanted you to do?

If your site runs slowly, it has the same effect as a slow employee it does nothing more than irritate the very customer you are hoping will buy from you. If your site is down, your customer won't wait until you open; he'll go someplace that is open and give it the very money you were looking for.

Don't save a few bucks to lose hundreds.

Pick and work with a Web host that has other customers who are using their sites for e-commerce as well. There is power in numbers.

If you are looking for a reputable discount hosting service, I have used and can recommend http://discounthosting.frontpagelink.com. As always, mileage may vary, but we will update this link if we hear any horror stories from our readers.

For managed hosting services, I have worked with several people who recommend http://managedhosting.frontpagelink.com. As with the other link, I'll change it to another company should I hear of any problems.