Many people believe that buying an expensive web hosting service such as a virtual private server or a dedicated server will give their small business an edge in terms of features, loading speed, and consequently a better end-user experience. Basically, there is one premise that leads to such a belief which is that the website centered around your small business will grow exponentially and will become extremely popular in a short period of time resulting in a high number of visitors and consequently sales. However, for many small businesses, this goal is never achieved and a small business owner soon begins to realize that the potential of his/her website is no more than to pull a couple of hundred visitors per month.nOn account of the reason mentioned above (i.e. limited long-term traffic) and the fact that most of the features accompanying a VPS or dedicated web hosting solution are not needed by a small business, it is advisable to go with an affordable web space hosting company. By affordable, I mean that the price charged by the company is no more than $5-$6 per month. Affordable hosting companies nowadays offer plenty of features on account of intense competition with their competitors. They also offer plenty of room to grow and are more than enough for the needs of a small business owner. The problem is that there are many companies that claim to be the ultimate affordable web hosting services. Consequently, it becomes quite hard for a small business owner to determine what should be sought in a quality affordable hosting company. The purpose of this article is to deal exactly with this issue.nThe following is a list of some of the things that should be sought in a quality affordable web hosting company:n1. Not a ResellernMake sure the affordable web hosting company you are planning to sign up with is not a reseller of another company. A reseller hosting company simply buys web hosting accounts in bulk from another company with the objective of making profit on them. In order to find out whether a company is reseller, you need to check out the information presented on their site about their data center. If the company owns a data center, then it is confirmed that it is not a reseller. On the other hand, if no information is given about its data center or if it utilizes the data center of another company, then it is a clear-cut indication that the company is a reseller. The downside of going with a reseller hosting company is that whenever you report a problem or seek support from them, they will have to contact their parent company. This will mean considerable service and support delays for you.n2. Qualified Customer SupportnLike all other service sectors, the web hosting industry requires a company to hire qualified support staff that can help their customers in the time of need. Without good customer support, a web hosting service is meaningless no matter how feature-rich the plans are and how good the technology working behind the company is. There is no way of knowing the true quality of customer support before actually signing up with a particular hosting company. However, you can estimate their speed and quality of response by contacting their presales team a couple of times whether by e-mail or live chat. You can also read customer reviews about the support staff of that company on a variety of sites.n3. Length of Time in ServicenMake sure the affordable web hosting company you plan to go with has been in service for a considerable length of time (i.e. five or more years in service). This information can be ascertained by looking at the footer of the hosting company’s website which says something like “copyright 2005 – 2011″. Another way to find this is to look for “whois” information related to the domain name of the company. The length of time that the company has been in service is a fairly good indication of its quality and can help you decide between two or more companies.n4. The Right Set of FeaturesnAffordable web hosting companies usually offer a varying set of features, and so it is important for you to look for the specific features you need for your website. If you plan to host a blog on your new domain name, it is important to look for blogging applications such as WordPress, Joomla!, Mambo etc. If you’re using the ASP scripting technology, make sure the company offers the Windows operating system with ASP support. If ASP is available on the Linux operating system, it may still work although it is not the optimal choice since the use of ASP is generally unstable on Linux. If you’re planning to set up a forum, make sure the company offers such an application.n5. Unlimited Space and BandwidthnAs a small business owner, you can rest assured that the space requirements for your website will be no more than 50 MB. Even though, it is better to choose an affordable hosting company that offers unlimited space because it gives you plenty of room for expansion. If the number of pages or images in your site increase over the course of time, an unlimited space offering will be a sigh of great relief for you in that you will not need to pay for extra storage space. Similar is the case with unlimited bandwidth since it frees you from worries in case the number of visitors arriving at your website increases slightly.n6. Unlimited DomainsnThis is also referred to as “Unlimited Add-On Domains”, “Unlimited Domain Hosting”, or “Unlimited Websites”. An unlimited add-on domains offer implies that you can host as many new domains as you like on the same web hosting account. This means that each time you decide to launch a new website, you do not have to purchase a separate web hosting account for it. Although plenty of good affordable hosting companies are offering unlimited hosting, it is important to look specifically for this feature since it can mean significant savings to you in terms of hosting costs.n7. Unlimited DatabasesnThe affordable hosting company may offer MySQL or MSSQL databases depending on whether the hosting platform is Linux-based or Windows-based. Whatever the situation is, the number of these databases is very important to you. Some companies offer only a single database on their web hosting plan that sells for $5-$6 per month, while others charging the same price offer unlimited databases. As your dynamic website grows and you need more databases to pull content from, an offer of unlimited databases can save you a lot in terms of money as opposed to the scenario where you need to pay for any extra databases you might need.n8. Dedicated IP AddressnThis feature is contended by many to be very useful from the point of view of search engine optimization and there seems to be truth in that. If your website has a unique IP address of the form 192.168.201.172, it means that it can be accessed from a web browser using this address as well as your domain name. When you transfer your website to a new hosting provider and change your domain name servers to point at the DNS address of the new provider, there is a delay of 48 to 72 hours before your site can be accessed using your domain name. On the other hand, if the affordable hosting company offers a dedicated IP address, you can start viewing your website in a browser right away using its unique IP address.n9. Choice of Multiple Data CentersnThere are some affordable hosting companies out there that own multiple data centers and let you choose from the available list of data centers. If your small business is targeting some particular states within the USA, it is advisable to choose a data center that is closest to your targeted demographics. Similarly, there are other companies that have their data centers present worldwide. So if you’re targeting the Chinese market, it is much more beneficial to choose a data center located in China. This is because it will take much less time for your website data to be delivered to the end-users in China than if the data center were located in the US.n10. No Tricky Terms of ServicenIt is highly advisable to read in detail the terms of service “TOS” since it is the agreement between you and the affordable hosting company in question. It often happens that what is stated on the hosting features description page is in complete or partial contradiction with the terms of service. For example, if unlimited space and bandwidth is advertised by the company, the terms of service may contain something similar to “a fair usage policy”. This would tell you that if the space occupied by your website and the data transfer to the visitors from the server exceeded certain GB, your account will be blocked. Make sure the terms of service do not contradict the features promised by the company.n
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