THE WEB-HOSTING SERVICE MODELS

Web-hosting services are not equal. Although, at one level, all hosting services provide hard disk space on powerful computers (the servers) that have 24-hour connections to the Internet, there are many differences. By breaking this business group into different business models, the differences become clear.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

Throughout the world, thousands of local and national ISPs provide dedicated permanent connections to the Internet backbone and allow individual users access to the Internet (for a fee) via their connections. Some ISPs also provide some type of ad hoc website hosting service. Many ISPs, however, don’t really understand the needs of a small web-based business. Nor are they quick to offer improved service because their bread-and-butter is dial-up access and that’s where they concentrate their focus and investment. Furthermore, although a few large ISPs have a separate division that specializes in website hosting, many ISPs just don’t have an adequate infrastructure for web-hosting. If possible, pass on ISPs and look elsewhere for your web-hosting services.

Sub-domain or Non-virtual Account

What 99% of you don’t need or want is the 4 or 5 MB of web space that you can get for a small monthly fee or even free from an ISP when you sign up for a regular Internet dial-up account. This type of service is referred to as a “sub-domain” or “non-virtual account.” It allows you to build a very small, simple website that can be accessed by a URL that looks something like www.mystupidsite.ISP.com or www.ISP.com/~mystupidsite/home page.html which means you have a directory on your ISP’s website in which you can build your site. The profound drawback to the option is not only do you have a hard-to-remember URL for your website, but if you ever move the site, you’ll have to change the site’s address. This type of web space is not something to use for a serious commercial website.

Dedicated Web-hosting Service

A dedicated web-hosting service provides you with server space (virtual, dedicated or co-location) for your website, although usually without Internet access. Their primarily business is offering server and rack space for businesses that do not want to manage their web-based servers in-house. While a few web-hosting services also might offer ISP service as a convenience to its core group of customers (e-commerce businesses); they probably are not going after the “casual surfer’s” business.

Thus, one advantage of a dedicated service is that your customers won’t be sharing valuable bandwidth (a big concern when choosing any type of hosting service) with the casual web surfer checking their email, downloading MP3 files, etc. What this means is that your customers will experience speedy access times, fast loading pages, and no shopping cart lag.

All large or enterprise websites should consider this type of web-hosting service. E-commerce sites that plan to incorporate streaming media or other types of services that require specialized servers should also turn to dedicated web-hosting services.

Since this market is over-supplied, to stand out in the crowd, some web-hosting services offer very nice (but expensive) high-end features. You will find that a good full-featured web-hosting service has a more “services” oriented approach — offering expertise in networking, or offering and managing complex software — as opposed to just selling space on its servers’ hard drives.

Local Web-hosting Services

Check out the web-hosting services in your local community. These services can offer personalized attention and customized service, such as visiting your business in order to evaluate your hardware, examine your network, etc., and then making specific recommendations. For a small web-based business, a local web-hosting service will, in many instances, provide added services including, for example, helping you market your business by providing a link to your website on its local business directory. Therefore, many small- and mid-sized e-commerce operators may be willing to trade off certain features offered by a larger hosting service for the extendibility of a local service. Note though that a local web-hosting service is less likely to provide 24x7 technical support.

If you choose one of the small local hosting services, and your site becomes very active, don’t be surprised if the host asks you to move your website to another service. Why? Because a good hosting service, even if small, will look out for the welfare of its overall constituency and might be afraid that heavy traffic to a particularly popular website on its service will hurt the performance of the other websites that it hosts.

Web Developer Hosting

Using your website developer to host your e-commerce needs is another viable option for the small- to mid-sized e-business. Quite a few web developers have added web-hosting to their list of client services.

A web developer usually provides hosting services via a server with a small pipeline to the Internet (either DSL or some type of partial T-1/E-1 service). Many times an e-commerce business, especially one with a small niche market, will find that the great service provided by such a hosting arrangement is more important than a large pipe to the Internet.

A web developer’s business is, by nature, customer-centric and thus it will usually have the staff to help you with problems that might arise. However, there is a price to be paid: a slightly higher contract price, total dependence upon one service, and lack of 24x7 technical support.

One piece of advice: If you decide to go this route, be careful to ensure that your hosting contract does not lock you into using only the web developer’s services (hosting or otherwise) for an extended period of time. Also, take the appropriate steps to ensure that the developer’s name isn’t listed as the “Administrative Contact” for your domain name. This identity confusion can cause problems and delays if you (at any time in the future) want to transfer your website and domain to another hosting service. You can find out who is currently listed as Administrative Contact for your domain name at www.accesswhois.com.

Free Web-hosting Services

Although free web-hosting services aren’t as prevalent as in the past, you still want to avoid placing your web-based business in their hands. Here’s why:

• You will be severely restricted in the things that you can do with your website.
• You won’t be able to use your own domain name. You’ll have to settle for something like www.freewebhosting.com/yourcompany.
• Although free web-hosting services normally give you between 2 and 10 megabytes of server space, many require you to display their advertising banners (or put up with annoying pop-up windows carrying their ads) and many won’t allow you to display advertising from any other company.
• Most won’t give you the easy-to-use FTP services to upload your web pages. This means you will have to find another way to put your changes on the web server.
• Few, if any, of them provide database access.
• Very few will give you CGI-bins.
• Few, if any, provide secure servers for credit card purchases.
• Forget about data backups.
• Search engines will normally take three to four times longer to list the submitted pages. Also search engines give more “weightage” to sites that have their own domain names.
• You won’t get unlimited autoresponders, nor the POP email accounts you need.
• Most free web-hosting services will not give you access to your own server log files.
• You and your customers will experience frequent downtimes because of the heavy loads on the hosting company’s servers.
• You will find that technical support is almost non-existent.

Get the message? Don’t use a free web-hosting service for your web-based business — EVER.