Coupon Source

Hosting / Domain Articles

Save Now, Spend Later

There's nothing more irritating than going out on a first date with someone only to find out that they are the biggest cheapskate known to man. You know what I'm talking about: ordering the least expensive items on the menu, leaving a 5% tip, or refusing to buy you a drink. Something about these type of people just annoys the heck out of anyone around, friends or otherwise.

So, as a web developer, what annoys me more than anything is when a client asks me to get the "cheapest possible" web hosting for their brand new site. I understand trying to cut costs, but skimping out on the most important aspect of your website is not a smart move. Think of it as buying used tires for your brand new car- it just doesn't make any sense.

Your web host is going to actually show your website to the world. If you skimp out to save a few dollars every month (and I'm only talking $2 or $3 a month max) you may run into some long term problems:

* You might run out of space. All of that expanding and growing left you hog-tied to your 100 megabyte storage limit. Now, instead of simply purchasing more space up front (and probably at a lower cost) you have to acquire more space which takes time and money. Do yourself a favor and just purchase ample space right from the get-go. * You went over your monthly bandwidth limit. There are two things that can happen here:

1. Your website gets taken offline until the start of your next monitoring cycle. This can mean lost sales and revenue. 2. You will be billed for each kilobyte of bandwidth you use over your limit. It's like being charged roaming on your cell phone, only worse. Think of it as roaming plus long distance charges, plus administration fees. It can get expensive.

* You use all of your available domains. You might want to have 8 domains hosted but your host will only allow you to have three. Tough luck I guess. Now you've got to go and upgrade your package (and lengthen your contract) just to add more domains. The solution? Make sure the hosting package your looking at is flexible enough right from the get go.

* Your website goes down for no reason. Typically, ultra-low budget hosts have poor customer service. How do you think they are able to remain so inexpensive? This could mean anything from failure to return phone calls to days or even weeks of waiting for your site to go back online. Save the headache and spend the extra $5 a month.

Those are only the tip of the iceberg. Everyone has different experiences- yours might be positive, it might not be. When you go to launch your next website, really think about your hosting and don't be afraid to spend a few extra dollars a month on it. It could be the different between a site and a 404 error.

Just so you know.