Dominate Your Local Market!

10. Using free web hosting

If you were starting up your business right now, would you locate it in an out-of-the-way location where customers had a difficult time finding you? What if the landlord limited the number of customers you could have? Would you open there just because the rent was free?

That wouldn’t be a very good choice, would it? Unfortunately, free webhosting has the same issues. The biggest problem is bandwidth limits. Web hosts pay for the bandwidth they use and understandably limit the amount they give away for free. That can often result in your customers getting an error message instead of your website.

That error message is the equivalant of having a big “For Lease” sign on the front of your business. It may refer to one of the apartments upstairs, but by-passers can easily make the assumption that you are out of business. Not good.

Free hosting services also limit your ability to add essential services to your website. They generally don’t allow some important scripts to be installed and when they do, the limited resources they make available to your site can hinder their performance.

There are a number of low-cost web hosting solutions available. Sometimes, as with the marketing plans offered by OrangeCat, professional-grade web hosting is included in the package price. In OrangeCat’s case, domain name registration is also included.

IMPORTANT – When domain name registration is included in any plan you are considering, make sure that the registration will be in YOUR name, not the webhosting company’s or web developer’s. That can save you from some really BIG problems in the future.

If you are creating your own website, or if your web developer wants you to set up your own hosting account, there are several low-cost, high-quality hosting services available. One that we have used and found to be first-rate is HostGator. Another is Hostorix.

Either HostGator or Hostorix will provide you with professional-grade entry- to medium-level web and email hosting. So will most of the other low-cost hosting services. I recommend HostGator and Hostorix because I’ve had highly positive experiences with them. I can’t say the same for some others.

If you need a more high-level solution to handle large bursts or traffic, numerous email accounts or to maintain greater control of your hosting, you’ll need to give OrangeCat a call at 859.544.9005 and inquire about a custom solution that can be matched to your needs and budget.

Remember that your web hosting is the foundation on which your online business is built. Make sure that the foundation is a solid one.

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