Web hosting just isn't sexy

Well it isn’t is it? It’s like car insurance, you’ve got to have it. I happily spent $2000 on 19 inch wheels, but then I wasted hours of my time trying to save $50 on my  insurance. And web hosting’s the same.  Just swap 19 inch wheels and insurance for cool new Thesis theme and hosting, and you’ll understand what I mean.

Shared Hosting

I started, and I guess almost every single blogger does the same, with shared hosting. I trawled around the net for the cheapest option, and one that took Paypal, and then I went ahead and got my new site, domain included, on line, before concentrating on all the important stuff.

It all went fine for a month or two, then my site was hacked.  I looked for my host’s phone number and there wasn’t one. Just a ticket system. To be fair they responded fairly quickly, but we ended up exchanging several “posts” against the ticket to get the problem resolved. When you’re in a cold sweat because your site is down and you think you’ve lost everything, then even waiting 15 minutes for a response feels like an age.

Hacked…..and slow!

Next my site started running ridiculously slowly. I went through the ticket system again, and they did something to the database for me, which helped. I asked them to explain what it was that they did, and if I could do it next time. No answer. But as things were running OK, I forgot about it.

Then it went really, seriously slow. This time it turned out that there was a high traffic site (I like to think it was a porn site, but I have no evidence) using all the server resources. So they moved me, and things just went back to slow.

In those first few months, I ended up devoting so much time to working my way through their ticket system – I became really disenchanted. When the site went super slow again, I decided to move.

What is your site worth to you?

This site pays my mortgage. It feeds me, it entertains me, it represents me, it is the single biggest asset of my business. What the hell was I doing entrusting it to a $4.95 a month hosting service?

This time I did some research, and read a lot of hosting reviews. I looked at dozens of sites, and shocked myself at some of the prices. One of the sites I looked at was Inmotion Hosting’s. What appealed to me was the “Give us a call” badge on the home page. I did. For the life of me I can’t remember the guy’s name. But he had one of those comforting, US farmer sort of accents, and he really listened to my answers when he asked about my needs.

He offered me a medium term solution, but sold me on the benefits of having a private server right away. It was more than I needed at that time, but it has meant I haven’t had to think about upgrades since. I increased my monthly costs by a factor of 10, but the ability to call someone 24 hours a days, and get “real” helped clinched it for me.

Benefits of good hosting

I’d like to tell you how good that help service is. But I can’t. You see, I haven’t had to use it in anger. Not once! I have called them, but only for billing stuff and to get them to explain some FTP things to me.

That’s the biggest single benefit of having a decent host. You don’t even think about hosting any more. Even when the Beyond Blogging madness was at it’s height – and I’m talking traffic you wouldn’t believe - there was no hint of a problem from the server.

So when you’re looking at hosting, don’t forget to factor in your own time waiting for your pages to load and dealing with a help desk. And don’t forget the traffic you’ll lose when your site is down, or people can’t be bothered to navigate around as it takes so long.

This isn’t a sales pitch for Inmotion, it’s a sales pitch for good hosting. Do your due dilligence, and look around at all your options, but go for the very best you can afford. If you do want to check out Inmotion, then the links in this page will tell them I sent you. And I do recommend them to you.

Not related at all, but quite good:

1/ Why you need to make me cry

2/ Debunking the lie that content is king

3/ Working in batches as a blogger

Christine Livingston said:

I bought and read Beyond Blogging over the Christmas and New Year period when I was giving real thought to how to develop my blog this year.

The mix of the detailed real-life success stories, their analysis, and the workbook were phenomenally useful to me in that context.

It really gets you thinking about your brand and how, in pragmatic terms, you can build things for yourself. It’s a resource I know I’m going to be turning back to again and again!

Now in Paperback!