Four Things to Look for in a Web Host, and Why You Should Care

Here are some suggestions on what to look for in a web host, plus a recommendation on a company that satisfies all of these needs.

Choose Your Web Host Wisely

Who you choose to host your website could have a profound effect upon whether your business efforts online succeed or fail. Consider the benefits your web host delivers:

  • Gives search engines and information-hungry people a place to find you
  • Delivers your content to your world-wide audience
  • Represents you around the clock, day after day
  • Connects you to your market, and them to you

In this day and age, your website going down is a huge problem! It’s at least as bad as a phone or power outage, and perhaps worse in some cases, because you are alienating people who might otherwise want your product or service.

We call them “Customers.”

Your Silent Partner

Consider your web host as a silent partner in business. You depend upon continued, reliable service, because downtime costs you customers and revenue.

So while web hosting is not as sexy or trendy as Facebook or Twitter, you must pause and carefully choose who you partner with.

Here are some examples of how I learned this lesson.

  1. A company serving small businesses caused a bottleneck when I needed to administer my websites, because they provided weak, incomplete administration tools.
  2. A domain-name registrar slash hosting company that was more concerned with selling domain names than answering my frantic emails.
  3. The company that hosted the websites for the US Army and other major clients was great until they “upgraded” their back end. When each one of my websites started flaking out, they must have been focused on getting the military’s site back up and running, because I couldn’t get them to reply for over two weeks!

The Holy Grail of Web Hosting

I was starting to think that the entire web hosting industry just sucked, and that I shouldn’t expect any better service. I was completely fed up, so I came up with some criteria for an ideal web hosting partner.

  1. They have to provide straightforward tools to manage your websites
  2. Must be at least as reliable as the power company
  3. Gotta be available when things go wrong or when you need guidance
  4. Actually help you solve your problems and deliver on promises they make

I had faith that I would find such a company, and with some diligent research, I finally did find what I like to call the “Holy Grail of Web Hosting.”

Here’s is why I love them:

  • Since I’ve been using them, not one of my websites have experienced any downtime
  • I never have to wait on hold for their Live Chat feature (compared to interminable hold times on the phone AND chat with previous two companies)
  • They provide user-friendly site set-up and management through cPanel web-based software
  • 1-click install and upgrade of WordPress, the free publishing software beloved by bloggers and small business owners everywhere
  • When I dug a big hole for myself migrating a website to one of their servers, they went way beyond the expected level of service and rescued me! They took my problem out of my hands solved it, then sent me on my way. At no additional cost.

When you combine such a track record of uptime, amazing customer service, easy-to-use tools, and real help available via chat, you have a real gem of a partner!

If you want a web hosting partner that will just keep rendering fantastic, invisible service for years to come, do yourself a favor, and migrate on over to Bluehost.

Tags: hosting company, reliable service, small business owners, home office worker

October 21, 2008 · Filed Under Essential HomeOfficeWebTools

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Series: Google Liberates the Home Office, Part 1-Gmail

This post is the first in an ongoing series about how web-savvy home office types can free themselves from their businesses one step at a time using Google Apps. Topics I’ll discuss in the series include:

  • Using Gmail as the first step towards getting my home office out of my home and accessible anywhere.
  • Google Calendar to manage scheduled actions and commitments.
  • Staying current with Google Reader
  • Research and note-taking with Google Notebook
  • Google Docs as THE alternative to Microsoft Office.

So let’s start with Gmail. For years, I held onto my beloved desktop email software: Mail.app on Mac OS X. The usual Apple polish combined with incomparable integration with the computer operating system itself was enough for me to overlook some of the limitations not shared by other programs.

So I kept using Mail.app until I began to be continually frustrated because I couldn’t get to my mail while out of the office. Since my iMac resides comfortably within the confines of my home office, I had to physically be in front of the machine to access my email, and frustration ensued whenever I was out and about.

I did a little dance with Yahoo! Mail several years prior and got burned in a mystical lost-password-lost-email-account situation. It was an endless loop on which I wasted many hours, trying in vain to recover data locked up within Yahoo’s merciless servers.

Enter Gmail.

When Yahoo! trashed my email account, I was just using it as a throwaway email address to sign up for webisites that required such things. I thought Gmail would serve the same purpose, but as I began to use it, several features stood out as quite useable:

  • Emails are stored in a conversation-like display by default, meaning I could easily follow ongoing email discussions and refer back to them effortlessly.
  • Tons of storage: almost 7 gigabytes of email storage available, growing all the time.
  • Integrated instant messaging lets me talk to my friends with Google accounts from within Gmail.
  • Amazing spam filtering: I NEVER get spam in my Gmail inbox. Never.
  • Google Search built-in: this allows me to search through both emails and archived chats with lightning speed.

So Gmail began to grow on me–very quickly, in fact–so I decided to make the jump to an all-web-based-email. Gmail is my killer web app because it works, simply and elegantly, consistently, and from whatever computer I can put my hands on.

Of course there are some limitations and less-than-desirable interface elements. As a Mac aficionado, I prefer the elegant, aesthetically pleasing interaction with technology that Apple delivers. So the circa-1998, flat, HTML-ish look and feel of Gmail was a little off-putting at first, and seemed out of place in my glass+aluminum polished Apple world.

But what Gmail lacks in elegance and polish, it makes up for with usability. The web app gets out of my way and let’s me do what I need to do. I don’t have to roam around, wondering where in my folder structure I placed that all-important registration email with all the passwords. Now, I can find it faster by searching for it.

A few other things to be aware of:

  • As is Google’s usual modus operandi, Adsense ads are served along the right side of the screen, relevant to whatever information is contained within the email. They’re unobtrusive, but they’re there. If this bothers you, a desktop app may be your best bet. I don’t have a problem with it, and some of the ads are actually useful.
  • I have some misgivings knowing that Google has indexed my “private” email, but I’m willing to trade that off for the usefulness of Gmail. This is one of those leaps of faith that we all have to take from time to time, and Google’s history of trustworthiness allays my fears to the extent that I can use their fantastic service without any difficulty.

So, step one in your journey to liberate yourself from your home office may be to migrate to Gmail. You can start here by creating a Google Account. Also take a look at Google’s Getting Started Guide, then print out the cheat sheet of Gmail shortcuts.

These actions will take you one step closer to freedom from your home office shackles. Please let me know in the comments how you use Gmail in your day-to-day operations.

Tags: home office worker, virtual home office, home business owners, freedom

May 15, 2008 · Filed Under Web Apps

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Embrace the Digital Home Office

I founded Home Office Web Tools for one purpose: to teach home office workers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs how to transmogrify their businesses using Web 2.0 and social media technology.

In my search for ways to manage my various past businesses 100% digitally, the wealth of resources available simply confused my preoccupied mind. I had enough to do without experimenting with yet another untried, untested online service.

Mustering the time and focus necessary to discover reliable, authoritative forums and reviews proved too challenging to balance with family responsibilities, a day job, etc. and it occurred to me that other home business owners probably had similar problems.

Which is why we are here. I plan to share with you my discoveries and techniques for both managing and marketing a small home business online. Along the way, we will explore such topics as:

  • Outsourcing—the single most powerful tool available to the Bartholomew Cubbins-like home office worker. Learn the value of sharing all those hats with capable virtual assistants.
  • Business Automation—let he who wants to continually waste time doing repetitive work avoid this section. Anything that can be automated, should be automated.
  • Podcasting—how to get inside the ears and minds of the people who can most benefit from your services, expertise, and message.
  • Social Networking Sites and the relationship marketing model. Crowdsource your way to better products and services by working with your audience!
  • Web-based applications that enable your virtual home office to exist anywhere within range of a hi-speed internet connection
  • The iPhone—the essential piece of technology for your journey of liberation from your business.

Look for regular blog updates and an upcoming weekly podcast, where we will discuss these online tools and how to best use them to accomplish our personal and professional goals.

Looking forward to serving you…

Devin Best

Tags: virtual assistants, virtual home office, small business owners, social networking sites

May 5, 2008 · Filed Under Uncategorized

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