Think about it—web hosting is all the store front and office that Internet companies have. It’s where their customers, clients, business partners, and suppliers go when they need information or to communicate.

Locked Out of Your Virtual Office

This means that when your hosting goes down, it’s like being locked out of your own office. The phone rings, people knock on the front door, faxes are piling up on the floor, customers are going home and there’s not a thing you can do about it.

A Real Example of Poor Web Hosting

One of the companies that I consult for had this happen to them over Labor Day weekend, which is one of their biggest sales weekends of the fall season. Their Internet Service Provider (ISP) let the domain registration lapse—that is, the servers on the Internet no longer forwarded requests for my client’s web address to the right server. We estimate that they lost several hundred dollars. We are in the process of switching web hosting, which is a difficult, time-consuming, and expensive process.

“Rent” Your Virtual Office From Someone Who Won’t Lock You Out

This means that you have to choose your web hosting very carefully—you don’t want you or your customers to be locked out of your virtual building. A lot is riding on you being able to keep your Internet doors open.

How Do You Choose the Right Hosting?

Shop around. Look at a lot of hosting options and ask friends about the hosting they use before you make a decision.
Here’s my article about choosing web hosting—the major points are there, and I will be adding to it more as time goes on.

Good luck choosing your virtual real estate!