Web Hosting Today

I used to believe in the concept using a using a hosting company that
had been in the business for years but things have changed.

Almost fifty percent of all hosting companies went out of business
during the past year. If you were a customer of one of the ones that
went out of business you already have your own horror story to tell.

People lost files, websites were down for weeks, some businesses were
left unable to get permission to transfer their own domains to other
hosts and still others unable to renew lost their domains and websites
completely.

The bulk of these business failures were from the more established
hosting companies that had built up good reputations over years. Large
corporations purchased many of these companies. Services and support
were cut or scaled back in order to maximize profit.


Bandwidth is Cheap

Budget hosts almost always used to be slow and overloaded and many
still are, but with bandwidth costs as low as they are today giant
managed server farms located in data centers are now a very reasonable
alternative, especially if you host multiple domains or require less
support.

Features You Might Require

Make sure you choose a hosting company offers the business related
hosting services you need NOW, and those you WILL need in the future.

At the least, I require redundant backbone connections and a backup
power supply.

Make sure they offer web based site management - instead of just FTP.
Make sure they offer Java, statistical reporting, real audio, real
video, mail list management, and a search engine. If you use
Microsoft's Front Page, make sure they offer Front Page extensions.

Budget Hosting Services

I used to consider hosting costs to be the least important factor to
consider when shopping for a host. But with connections, servers and
domain names costing so much less now there are some real quality
fairly low cost hosting options available today.

Other Important Considerations

Don't move your website from server to server. Most Internet
businesses have no idea about the problems they will encounter when
migrating from one hosting company to another.

Each Host has their own file naming conventions and is setup to run
various scripts differently. Each use a different version of the UNIX
or Windows operating system and run on differing computer servers.

Scripts and forms that worked flawlessly on one server might not work
at all on another or the new host may not be able to support the
technology you have grown to depend on. Each server migration requires
more time and expertise as your business grows; that's why it's so
important to match each website to your future needs.


My Recommendation

Contrary to my past experiences, now there are more good hosts out
there now than there has ever been. Now you really can save money
using a reliable low cost hosting service, especially when you are
getting started or to host additional mini-sites on additional virtual
servers.

Let me sum up this report and tell you how you can host your website
with this a good company.

I can attest to the "cash value" of fast servers, zero downtime and
innovative webmastering tools. I can also tell you that a company that
stands ready to assist you - any hour of the day, any day of the week
is priceless in today's web hosting industry.

Now that you have the facts, I invite you to try our recommended web
hosting solution...

ec2Biz.com offers a unique all-in-one web hosting service for small
business owners -- something no other host I know of offers.

ec2Link.com combines just about every web-based business growing
software tool into one web hosting package. It's really low priced
also.

With their suite of tools you can build a website, build an opt-in
list, follow-up with prospects and customers, take secure orders and
even generate website traffic.