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How I Picked My Hosting Company
By Max | July 2, 2007
When I first bought a website, I had no clue how large a hosting plan I needed. Unfortunately it is an inexact science. You will most likely be purchasing a site from someone who is running multiple sites on the same server. This makes it difficult to know exactly what plan will work for you. What I have noticed with my own sites is that I need about 1GB of RAM for every 5000 unique visitors or so. You’ll probably want one core or processor for every 7500 uniques. This can very greatly however due to the fact that every site is different. Heavy mysql usage, for example, could increase RAM or processor needs.
Don’t skimp on hosting. It is possible to earn huge margins running websites because hosting is so cheap compared to the potential value of traffic, so there is no need to be cheap. Transferring a site can take several days, and if you buy a site with a lot of traffic you don’t want to kill it by having an inadequate hosting plan. Sure you can switch, but that could cost you as 3 days of downtime or more. Thats why I think its important to get a little more than you think you’ll need.
After purchasing my first large site, I bought a VPS package to transfer it to. This was a huge mistake. As soon as the DNS updated the site slowed to a crawl under heavy traffic. I ordered extra RAM, still slow. I asked to move to a dedicated, and they said it would take a few days to order some equipment. So in parallel I ordered a dedicated box from Hostgator. I ended up paying three times for hosting that month when I should have ponied up the extra money right away. Now I host all my sites with Hostgator.
There are three reasons I recommend them to friends.
#1. They have phone support 24/7. This is a big deal for me. While Hostgator also uses the email ticket system like most hosts for tech support, they do at least have a phone line, so I can call and get a response from a real person whenever I am anxious about something. Many hosts solely rely on email tickets.
#2. They were able to fix a weird technical problem that I was having where my previous host had failed.
#3.Also since they are one of the larger hosting companies, there is less of a chance of having to wait to get upgrades done, since the hardware will typically be on hand.
So if you are thinking of switching hosts I would recommend giving Hostgator a shot. I am sure there are plenty of other great hosting companies, but I haven’t found any reason to leave this one yet.
Please comment your review of your hosting company. If I ever have to switch again, I’ll need some recommendations.
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July 2nd, 2007 at 7:52 pm
What happened to Godaddy?? You just trying to get affil sales?? lol.
July 2nd, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Oh, you use hostgator for hosting and godaddy for domain names. How do you find that?? I currently only have one site that points the dns to a different server that the domain is on.
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Yup I have the two separated. This setup works well for me. I like godaddy’s domain name system and Hostgator’s hosting plan.
Mainly I use godaddy because many other people do, and because domain transfers between godaddy accounts are easy and free, it works well when you are buying and selling sites.
I have never used godaddy for hosting, so I can’t say how they are for that. I don’t really know why people use different companies for hosting and domaining, but it seems to be the norm unless you are talking about shared hosting.
Oh, and yes those are affiliate links. Use them if you need them. I have only promoted things on here that I actually use.
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Would you be able to post a little tutorial as to how to do this.
I want to do it as hosting in my country is expensive but it is cheaper to buy 2ld domains here. When I done it I had help from a forum but I’ve lost the link.
It would be good for others that aren’t doing it aswell
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Thats a good idea. I remember it was a little tricky to find the place to register Nameservers on godaddy.
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:45 pm
I too prefer Godaddy for domain names. I currently run two of my sites on Anhosting (owned by Midphase) and am currently building a third on the same host.
I have bought several domains in auctions and they were all registered with Godaddy. I have them parked while I develop them. I don’t park them with Godaddy however because they charge you a monthly fee if you want to share in the ad revenue.
July 3rd, 2007 at 1:16 am
What do you use domain parking? Adsense for domains?
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:43 am
For domain parking I am using Sedo, Namedrive and Whypark. On my developed sites I have adsense, auction ads and a little amazon.
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:56 am
I would also recommend using different companies for domains and hosting. I had an unfortunate experience a few years ago with a hosting company and it took weeks to get away from them because they were also my registrar. Now I use GoDaddy for domains and Dreamhost for hosting. If Dreamhost ever gets on my bad side, I can transfer away quickly (not that they would try to stop me if they could, I just like having control).
July 5th, 2007 at 2:53 am
How many affiliate conversions has the link gotten you so far? Just curious if it’s worth posting an aff URI review on my own blog.
July 5th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Scot,
I have gotten a big fat 0 conversions with these affiliate links. However, I always feel like its a good idea to put them in. You never know when traffic might go way up and give you decent conversions. I put these here because I don’t have any advertising on this site, and if someone wants to use the links for something they were going to buy anyway it would be a great way to say “Thanks for the info.”