Finding the perfect web hosting provider.

Our statistics show that we have between 60 – 80 ecommerce downloads each and every day of our open source ecommerce software (Digistore).  This has increased significantly over the last year and as a result we feel we should update our recommendations of web hosting providers and advise you of the things to watch out for when it comes to hosting your website online.

We are happy to provide a great basis to being your website / ecommerce online ventures on today’s internet but as a word of advice we would like to inform you of a few things to avoid when starting your online ecommerce business

Nothing comes for free

That’s not entirely true, we will provide you with your own ecommerce base system, which as mentioned we are happy to do, as this is part of our ongoing venture. We provide installation support through our Digistore support forum.

Selecting a web hosting provider

Free web hosting?

Avoid free web hosting at all costs. I am 95% sure that your online success will be compromised with these services. The biggest disadvantage to free website hosting is that Search Engines will ignore your efforts. Being listed in the major search engines plays a major part in the success of a webtrepreneur, and the odds to being looked upon favourably by Google, Yahoo etc when using a free / spammy web host is stacked against you.

Aside from the most obvious reason for avoiding free website hosting, i will list a few other reasons:

You will lack credibility in the market place.
As mentioned, the odds are against you that Google will accept you as a trustworthy source of information on the internet. People will also lose faith in your website and therefore your product due to the little things that free web hosts can’t provide and that other web hosts do.

Banners and Pop-ups.
It’s makes sense really, Think about how these services are going to make their money on the internet. If they offer free hosting they are obviously not making money off that, so banners and advertising is the only way to make their cut. The worst part about this is that these banners are likely to appear around your website content in order to get the most exposure.. Not a good look to the public.

Limited web space.
Free website hosting providers can’t provide free hosting to everyone and give loads of space with it, it just wouldn’t be profitable for them at all. the web space you may receive from a free web host may be anything from 10 MB to 50 MB, which may be enough for a standard website, but when you think of adding a few PDFs, documents and maybe some high resolution photos to your website, you will slowly run out of that space.

Limited functionality.
For most major websites, database interaction is necessary. Free web hosts probably will not have this luxury.

Guarantees and stability.
Free web hosting may or may not be up all the time and normally take the angle of “its a free service” and we don’t HAVE to provide any security for our customers. Hmmmmm, not really the way I want to be perceived to the visitors coming to my website.

Many people navigate away from paying too much in the beginning with possible other business expenses arising.

Let’s outline the necessities to for web maintenance:

Domain name registration (.com domain name): $10 (approx) / Year
Monthly hosting: no more than ($10 – $12 / Month)

That’s generally it. As you can see your costs are reasonably low to get the maintenance for your website.

Most web hosts that require payment are likely to provide a reasonably good service to you in terms of stability, customer service, database support etc.

So finding the best web hosting becomes a bit of a mission, as there really are so many out there. While i cant think of any you should really avoid, there are some which I consistantly hear good things about (see below for a couple of recommendations) .

A couple of recommendations on web hosting providers:

While not the more cost effective web hosting option Hosting Direct is a New Zealand based web host I personally use and recommened for businesses  or individuals who need speedy load times within the New Zealand market

Site5.com

Best Web Hosting

My number one recommendation for hosting outside of New Zealand as a web hosting provider would be Site5.com. I have been with Site 5 for about 1.5 years now and they have always been very helpful with providing me with solutions to my problems in a quick manner. Read my Site5 web hosting review.

Host Gator

I have never personally used Host Gator in the past, however plenty of people I know have, and in terms of affordability they are one of the best.