“You’d be surprised how expensive it costs to look this cheap.” ― Steven Tyler
There are times when you just have to go for the cheapest option. If you have a new blog or you are an advertiser, you might need to go for a cheaper Web hosting company so that you can keep the cost of running your website low enough to maximize your profits.
Getting a cheap WordPress host for your website is not difficult, getting an excellent WordPress host at a cheap price is the difficult part. Irrespective of price, the hosting company must possess some basic qualities.
As a rule of thumb, there are three things you need to know before you pay for cheap WordPress hosting, you do not want to sacrifice the success of your blog just because you use a cheap WordPress hosting company:
1. Reliability
Anybody can offer you cheap WordPress hosting services but the question you need to ask yourself is How reliable is this host? Before you sign any contract with any hosting company, you need to ask other people who have used the hosting company and the kind of experience they had with the hosing company.
This couldn’t be easier, just get on send out a Tweet or Post a Question on Quora, ask your Facebook friends, whatever works for you.
- The hosting company needs to be able to guarantee at least 97-99% up-time. First impressions last longer, you don’t want a first time visitor to your blog seeing a blank page or receiving an error message just because your Hosting provider is not reliable.
- The hosting company needs to follow standard industry practices, you should be able to use Google Apps, One Click Installation, C-panel among others. There are companies that provide you with all these options yet their prices are cheap.
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2. Good Customer Service
Good customer service isn’t just politeness, it also involves quality support from your WordPress hosting company. Quality support is always important because there are times when you have an issue and you have no idea how to fix it.
The WordPress community has worked very hard to ensure things are pretty simple to figure out, your WordPress host should at least do the same. If you ever need their help, their response time should be fast enough and the quality of support you receive should be excellent.
The quality of support most times depends on how a hosting company handles your case when you have a problem with the services they offer. Ask as them many questions as you can before you commit to anything, this would help you realize the quality of support they offer.
3. Performance
I’d like to use an acronym to describe performance for you but it’s just going to get clumsy. Performance is the most important element off all.
What Exactly is Performance?
If your hosts are doing an excellent job, your website would rarely experience downtime, your webpages would load fast, your emails would deliver properly, you would not even have to contact the support staff.
How secure is your website going to be?
Although the security of you website is also up to you, this doesn’t mean you should not find about the history of the WordPress hosting company. Find out how they handled popular hacks and exploits in the past. If your hosting company does not block common vulnerabilities and exploits as soon as they are discovered then your website don’t even stand a fighting chance.
How Long has the Web Hosting Company been in Business?
If the hosting company has been in business for a while, they should know how to deal with common customers complaints easily.
This does not mean you should not give new companies a chance. Personally, I prefer small companies over big companies, the quality of support you receive is most times exceptional, your money means more to them.
Nevertheless, you should conduct research on the hosting company whether it’s new or not.
Getting the right host is most times difficult, sometimes you would have to go through the pain of constantly changing hosts till you find a good one. The bitter truth is most times we get carried away by the carefully crafted sales page on the websites of these hosting companies.
Always carry out proper research before signing up for cheap WordPress hosting. I prefer signing up for a monthly deal to test their services before committing to any long term deal
