Cody Moya’s article “What to Look for in a Web Hosting Company” is reprinted here. [Article]


Cody Moya’s article is reprinted here.

What to Look for in a Web Hosting Company

When it comes to setting up a paid membership web site, there are a number of things to consider. One of the most important is easy access to your web site, and the ability to update it quickly. The Internet is a dynamic, ever changing world, and your customers will constantly be making new demands on you and your web site. It is important to be able to address the concerns of your paid customer base, and to provide them with added value, as quickly as possible.

When updating your web site, it is important to remember that your web site is your income generator, and your paid subscriber base is the key to all your income streams. It is obvious, of course, that your paid subscriber base is the cornerstone of the steady, reliable stream of income you have come to rely on, but that subscriber base is also vital to keeping your other income streams, such as your advertising revenue and affiliate income, high. Without a reliable base of subscribers, all your income streams will suffer.

It is important, therefore, to always strive to provide the utmost in customer service to your base of paid members. Customer service is vital to the success of any online business, but it is of particular importance to the owner of a paid membership web site. One of the most crucial ways for your customers to contact you, of course, is by email, so it is important to set up several different email addresses to address several different types of inquires and concerns.

For instance, you may want to set up an email address for general inquiries and information requests. This email address could be something like info@mywebsite.com. In addition, you would probably want to support email subscribers could use to get help with a specific problem, something like support@mywebsite.com. Additional web site addresses can be created based on the specific needs of your site.

No matter what email address scheme you use, or how many email addresses you create, it is important that all email inquiries be answered promptly. The owner of a paid membership web site should strive to answer all email inquiries within 24 hours, with a special focus on serving the needs, and solving the problems, of the existing member base.

It is also important to set up an auto responder program to let people know that their email has been received. It is very frustrating to send a request for help to an Internet company and not know whether or not it has been received. Setting up an automatic response will reassure your customers and potential customers that you have received, and are working on, their request or inquiry.

It is important as well to ensure that the web hosting service you choose incorporates strong security features into their service. Security features offered should include protection from spam emails and protection from email and other viruses. It is important that there be an additional level of security built into the mail server, in addition to the security provided by your email client.

It is also a good idea to have some sort of statistics package included with your web hosting service. Knowing how many people have accessed your web site, how many have clicked the links of your advertisers and affiliates, and so forth will help you gauge the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, and help you focus on the parts of your marketing that are providing the greatest benefit at the lowest cost.

It is also important that your web hosting service have a plan in place for continuing operations in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency. In addition to the backup sites offered by your web hosting service, it is important for your business to have its own backup and disaster recovery plan in place. It is important to have a plan in place where your business could continue to operate even if a natural disaster struck your location or that of your web host, if valuable computer hardware or software were lost, stolen or damaged, or if some of your data were lost. It is important to have a solid backup plan in place, and to prepare for all possible emergencies.

Having a disaster recovery or business continuity plan in place will prepare your company to recover from any interruption in normal operations. The business continuity or disaster recovery plan should include plans to replace key personnel, plans for restoring data, plans for repairing or recreating databases and plans for quickly replacing hardware infrastructure.

One effective way to ensure continued operations no matter what the local conditions may be is to create a mirror of your paid membership web site at a secondary location. Many web site owners find it cost effective to pay two hosting companies to host their site. That way if one site fails due to business difficulties, hardware problems, a local disaster or the like, the site is still up and running, and the owner merely needs to find a new secondary web hosting service.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Cody Moya writes about Profitable Memberships in his Free Courses on Internet Marketing. You can sign up for his free Courses and get additional information at his website: http://FreeInternetMarketingCourses.com

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*IMNewswatch would like to thank Cody Moya for granting permission to reprint this article.

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