In a previous post, I outlined Top 5 Blog Hosting checklists. Today I want to take it a bit further as I share with you a few more checklist that will further make your decision process easier and help you stay away from all the troubles that do arise from using the wrong host while you concentrate on making your blog a success.
1) Disk space and Bandwidth allocated:
I want to advice that you should be very careful with the “unlimited” or “infinite” plan that most hosting provider do offer unless you are sure of their reliability or perhaps someone you trust recommends it.
What am I say in essence? If you are not sure, just look out for a hosting plan with a specific amount of space (say 100GB), with that you can be rest assured that such amount of space is most likely what you get (almost guaranteed).
But if you must settle for unlimited hosting, whereby you are looking at hosting multiple domains, I may as well recommend Kiosk, that what I personally use and having used their services for over a year and been that I got the recommended from a friend and mentor who himself have been using it for more than four years, I can boldly tell you that their service is good.
The same advice goes for bandwidth allocation, you will want to be sure of what you are getting. Whether it is a monthly bandwidth allocation or any other plan …be sure to look for a specific amount of space as well unless you get a recommendation.
You do not want your visitors landing on your blog and reading something like “Oooops: Bandwidth exceeded for this month” and more importantly you do not want any form of suspension on your blog activities …that will only cause your blog to suffer.
Why the above reasons may be a good enough reasons to avoid the unlimited plans. It is also a wonderful experience to know that you won’t be charged anything extra (if you chose any of the unlimited plans, just don’t host with a provider you don’t trust) in a situation where your blog suddenly experience a huge increase in traffic.
Another important thing I think I should mention is that you should not worry too much about the bandwidth and the disk space that they offer you.
You will likely not be needing anything that much unless you feel your blog will grow too soon and even at that you can always upgrades your hosting plan …just make sure they have different plans that you can easily upgrade to as the need arises.
2) Flexible Policy.
One thing you will likely discover with many hosting companies is the fact that they tend to offer you a free domain name just for subscribing to any of their hosting plan …helping you save some few dollars, mostly for that very first year, after which you begin to pay the subsequent yearly fees.
As tempting as this maybe I normally do advice against it. Make sure they have a very flexible Policy. For instance some hosting service provider just find it difficult to let you have the free domain name you registered with them …trying to keep you subscribed to their hosting.
So, you want to take extra care when choosing a hosting company or service provider. In fact you should find out from them what happens if for any reason you decides to change to another hosting provider.
3) Payment method:
You can only find quite a few hosting service provider that do accept payment from Nigeria and other countries that fall under the same category (country that are somehow regarded as fraudulent) . Therefore if you are residing in any of this blacklisted countries, make sure your hosting choice do accept payment from people of your country.
It just a pity that this is happening but I want to assure you that things are getting better, as more people from these countries are being honest with their online dealings.
…Just for the noting, don’t let the fact that a particular hosting service provider won’t accept payment from you stop you from hosting your blogs. If you have your card or any other payment means just go ahead and find those that will and move on, If you don’t find someone who do to help you.
4) Every other thing in between:
By this I simple mean you can always find out as much as you can. You may want to know how many email account you will be entitled to …depending on your need.
You may also need to find out what their paying customer are saying. Almost all hosting companies do provide customer’s testimonials on their websites. Read through to find out what their paying customers are saying.
Don’t just take what I have said so far and not even their customer’s testimonials. Do your own research. Google it …visit forums …check out honest reviews …read as much as you can from the hosting companies themselves.
Just like I have already mention …I use Kiosk and I fully endorse and recommend it. However, if i am able to find people using other hosting provide or if I can spare sometime to research on other web hosting providers be assured that I will be sharing my discovery with you.
Bonus: What happens if I have already made a mistake?
If you find yourself using a hosting service that is kind of frustrating your effort, that is to say you have made a mistake in your choice of blog hosting, then I will advice that you choose another one. Changing hosts shouldn’t be much of a problem and I think the company you are changing to maybe willing to help you out, just send them an email in respect to what you want them to do for you.
Here is a word of advice; I need you to know that there maybe times when something might just go wrong or there is a kind of upgrade your host is trying to do …it sure to happen once in a while, during such times keep in mind that things happens and before you go groaning, try to keep a backup of your blog.
Wherever you decide to host your blog …the decision is completely yours to make. However, always bear in mind that where your blog is hosted is one of the major components …behind-the-scenes component that determines the success of your blog.
What hosting service do you use? …Where is your blog hosted? …Are you really satisfied with there service? Feel free to share your experience and ask your questions.