For those Webmasters with little experience, getting started with a good hosting company can be quite a chore. There are all kinds of pitfalls and nightmare scenarios that await the unsuspecting newbie, which makes doing the research to avoid these traps quite important. To help you in your host selection process, Connor Young presents his thoughts on choosing a solid hosting company for your adult Web business.For those Webmasters with little experience, getting started with a good hosting company can be quite a chore. There are all kinds of pitfalls and nightmare scenarios that await the unsuspecting newbie, which makes doing the research to avoid these traps quite important. To help you in your host selection process, Connor Young presents his thoughts on choosing a solid hosting company for your adult Web business.

The first adult site that I ever created was hosted by a small Internet Service Provider (ISP) located in my hometown. The owner of that company was known to me; prior to the Internet’s mainstream emergence, he had owned and operated a popular computer bulletin board system (BBS) that made most of its money from customers downloading porn. Knowing that the owner himself had come from an adult industry background, I gave little thought to my own modest adult endeavors, and for a long time everything went along quite well. Then one day I received a notice:

It has come to our attention that you are hosting pornographic materials on our company’s Web servers. Our company does not allow pornographic content on our network, and we have terminated your account effective immediately.

Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t so easy to switch Web servers on a moment’s notice. Even if I hadn’t had to research the various hosting options available to me, simply switching my domain names to a new host would require several days to take effect. With my sites down for several days coupled with the cost of getting started with a new Web host, the entire incident cost me upwards of a thousand dollars.

Not having enough time to properly research the options that were available to me, and frantic to get my Web sites back online, I jumped at the first Web host that looked like a reasonable possibility for my business – and for a while, things worked out. Prior to signing up I made sure that adult content was acceptable with my new host (I learned that lesson well); the owner/operator of the server was himself an adult Webmaster, so it appeared to be a good match. I lasted almost a year on that server until the warning signs started to appear.

The first warning sign? Well, technical support became less responsive to my needs. Where I used to get quick replies to all inquiries, many of my messages would be either largely or completely ignored. The next warning sign? I stopped receiving a bill. Now that might seem like a good thing to you, but when one’s begging for a bill after the first three months one tends to question the stability of the host. Fearing that I would suddenly be hit with some monster hosting bill comprised of six months of service or more, I decided that it was again time to switch servers; at least this time I did it on my own terms, so the transition went smoothly.

In all, I used five different hosting companies before finally settling down with my current host. Finding the right host can be difficult for a variety of reasons, ranging from the competence of a host’s technical staff to the price of services to the reliability of their network. Sometimes a Webmaster will even outgrow a host, needing services that his or her current host just doesn’t provide. But every time a Webmaster has to switch to a new hosting company, the project requires more time and more money – two things that are often in short supply; if possible, it’s best to limit the number of required hosting changes by researching the various hosting companies and by learning as much as one can about the different hosting options that are available to Webmasters.

STABILITY

As my experiences with that second hosting company taught me, finding a stable and reliable company now will save you from endless headaches next week. Unfortunately that’s a goal that’s easier stated than realized. If you don’t have any experience with a particular company then how can you know how stable and reliable they might be? To be honest there’s no surefire formula for success here, but there are a few warning signs that you can look for which might indicate that a hosting company isn’t your best bet.

First, how does the company’s Web site strike you? Does it present a professional front that puts you at ease, or does it look like Uncle Jeb designed it in his basement last night? If the latter, do you really want your content on Uncle Jeb’s server? The look of a company’s Web site might seem trivial to you, but the amount of time and money a company has to invest in its Web site design can say a lot about the stability of that company; companies that are doing well financially tend to be more stable than those that can’t even afford decent Web site design.

Never settle for a hosting company that doesn’t provide a telephone number for technical support issues. If your Web server is down, you need to contact someone immediately, not wait for an email reply. But simply listing a telephone number for support isn’t enough. Is someone there to answer your calls in the middle of the night? On weekends? Or do you get someone’s voice mail half the time when you call the support line?

Price also can reflect the quality of service that you will receive from a host. If the price for hosting is considerably less than the average hosting company’s price, then you might be buying into an overtaxed server situation – especially if the company is offering “unlimited” bandwidth. Sometimes a hosting company will allow more activity on a server than its connection can reasonably handle, resulting is slow loading Web sites and frustrated surfers and Webmasters. So if the price seems too good to be true… buyer beware.

Finally, how long has the host you’re considering been in business? If a host has been in business for a while then they must be doing something right. If you’re not sure about a certain host then you might ask a salesperson for some business references. He or she might be able to provide you with the email address of other Webmasters who use that hosting company’s services.

REDUNDANCY

Redundancy in general – when discussing Web hosting – refers to the steps a hosting company has taken to ensure that its customers experience a minimal of downtime. There are all kinds of things that can cause downtime, ranging from faulty hardware to power failures to network connection problems. What happens if your server’s hard drive fails? Is there a system in place to replace the faulty drive quickly? Are your Web sites backed up regularly so that you data can be restored quickly if lost? What happens if there’s a power failure at your hosting company’s location? And what about network problems? Does your hosting company have multiple connections to the Internet in case one should fail?

OPERATING SYSTEM AND SERVER SOFTWARE

Webmasters often forget to ask a prospective hosting company what operating system (OS) will control the server that hosts their Web sites. As a matter of pure personal opinion, I see very little reason why an average adult Webmaster would want any OS other than Linux installed on his or her server, although some Webmasters might have specific needs that require use of a Microsoft server. The operating system that you choose will directly affect the availability of third party scripts; not all scripts will operate properly on both Microsoft and Linux machines, so choose carefully – especially if you plan to install any third party scripts to enhance your Web sites.

VIRTUAL HOSTING, COLOCATION AND DEDICATED SERVERS

Most hosting companies offer a variety of hosting options designed to service the needs of both small and large Web sites alike. Signing up for a “virtual” Web hosting account will be more than sufficient for most adult Webmasters, but those setting up a large Web site or a lot of domain names might want to consider either colocation or dedicated servers.

A “virtual” hosting account is what most Webmasters will use. These accounts often come with limits on the amount of disk space you may use, and often require a setup fee for each domain name that you activate. Your Web site is then hosted on a Web server owned by the hosting company; you will share this server with other Webmasters who also signed up for “virtual” hosting accounts. The main advantage to a virtual hosting account is reasonable setup and monthly fees. Since you are sharing the server with other Webmasters, you also share the monthly expenses. The “virtual” hosting option is really the only good option for new or small Webmasters without significant revenues at their disposal.

There are disadvantages to most virtual hosting accounts. First, since you are sharing the server with others you won’t have root access to the server or the ability to make changes to your Apache configuration. Most Webmasters won’t be practically affected by this fact. The performance of your shared server can also be affected by the actions of other Webmasters. If one Webmaster installs an inefficient CGI script, for example, it could impact the server’s CPU workload thus slowing down all Web sites located on that server. You also will have to pay additional setup fees (and most likely additional monthly fees) to add a new domain name to your empire. If you plan on using more than a handful of domain names, your monthly “virtual” hosting accounts might end up being more cost-prohibitive than a dedicated server would be.

If you need more “power” than a virtual hosting account can offer, you have two choices: dedicated servers and colocation. What’s the difference? If you select the colocation route you are basically buying a Web server, locating it at your hosting company’s physical location and using their network connection. You own the server, they own the pipe. If you choose to lease a dedicated server, your initial costs will be slightly less than the colocation option, as you won’t be buying ownership of the server itself, but you will have full and complete use of that server while you stay with your hosting company, and will not have to share it with other Webmasters. Either way your setup and monthly costs will probably be more than a simple virtual account, and you might have to sign a service contract covering a certain term – especially for reduced rate specials.

Now personally I was never satisfied with my hosting experiences until I settled on a dedicated server. The truth is that I like to tinker with various marketing tactics – tactics that often require setting up a new domain name. With an empire that now includes more than a hundred domain names, virtual hosting just isn’t an option for me. What works for you will depend largely on the number of Web sites you want to publish and the amount of tinkering you want to do with the server. If you’re new to this game then you should absolutely start with a virtual hosting account and upgrade only if you start to feel limited by the nature of virtual hosting.

AVOID THE HANGOVER

Think of the time you spend researching the various Web hosting companies as the equivalent to taking one of those nifty hangover prevention pills before you go out drinking. A little effort right now will save you from a butt-kicking headache tomorrow. Knowing what questions to ask will be important when you start comparing one hosting company to the next, so hopefully the information that I have just presented you will prove to be useful in your quest to find the perfect host for your unique situation.

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Connor Young is Editor-in-Chief of The ADULTWEBMASTER Magazine.