robognome

If your experience with web hosting is like most web site owners, you have spent some time pondering the question of what is going to happen with web hosting in the near future. Sure, web sites will always need room on a server somewhere, but how long do we have to wait for the industry to shake out the short-sighted, unscrupulous hosting companies or inexperienced and downright unprofessional service providers.

One reason web hosting companies are going through this turmoil is that they are facing increasing competition from each other in recent years, mainly because there are just so many of them now. There seems to be a hosting company on every corner, which inevitably leads competition based on price which most would agree can deteriorate into a race to the bottom, to the chagrin of both the hosting companies and their potential customers.

One reason this has come about is that control panel software has made the learning curve for running a web server much lower. With software like CPanel’s Web Host Manager, you only need a general understanding of the underlying operating system to be able to create and configure web hosting accounts.

This has led to a number of players entering into the field that are not prepared by either experience or temperament to be running any type of business. It is entirely conceivable that a hosting company could be set up by high school students, who no doubt find it frighteningly easy and exciting to buy server space in the form of a 20-dollar-per-month reseller account, and then set up accounts from their bedroom using the control panel.

This problem isn’t necessarily caused by high school students, I am sure. There are many folks starting a hosting company and failing that are old enough to know better. Regardless, after a few months or a year they lose interest in the day-to-day responsibilities that come with maintaining a strong customer base.

After they get a few paying customers, they no longer find is very exciting to deal with answering customer phone calls about billing or helping a newbie customer sort out the problems with a Front Page created web site. Plus they haven’t done any type of business planning to figure out what they need to do to sustain the business in staffing, financing or marketing.

Don’t misunderstand me. There are plenty of competent people out there who work hard and have exceptional expertise. There are just too many wannabes trying to make a quick buck.

One site that I recommend you visit to research a web hosting company is WebHostingTalk.com. This is a free forum site where webmasters and web hosters hang out just talk shop, discuss common issues and give their honest option about who can be trusted with their web site.

Another way to research a web host is to look at their forum site, if they have one. Is it an active and thriving community or a ghost town with no recent posts? When customers post questions on the support forum, look at the timestamps to see how long it takes someone to answer the post. What is the overall mood of the forum? Helpful and nurturing or is it an angry undisciplined flame fest. If it’s the latter then run way fast.

The absence of a an active forum doesn’t necessarily mean the company is a lousy hosting provider. But the presence of one does help you gauge the competence and temperament of the hosting provider much more accurately than by any other means short of signing up for an account.

A very good example of one such provider is httpme.com. Their entire web site is just a community forum, open to anyone, customers and visitors alike.

In upcoming posts, I’ll delve into some of the of the dirty little secrets that some hosting companies would prefer you didn’t know about.

‘Til then, happy trails.