VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting gives you access to a powerful private web server that is only used by you, giving you complete control of your server’s resources. Reseller hosting gives you access to as many servers as need to fulfill your hosting needs, however you can resell the server resources using your own branding and plan pricing. So which one would be optimal for the expanding online business owner?

Which Business Model Best Describes You?

As always, the best way to find the hosting plan that would be most suitable for you would be to asses your current needs and your own business situation. There are certain industries in which it would be of great benefit to establish reseller hosting account, such as web-based services. If you offer services online such as web design, website creation, site maintenance, search engine optimization, and even content creation, then you may want to consider a reseller hosting plan. However, if you specialize in eCommerce, then you may want to consider using a  VPS hosting plan, which gives you more control over your web server, without the unnecessary capabilities of a reseller hosting plan.

Reasons to Use VPS Hosting

VPS hosting is most commonly used by webmasters that own several websites, or that need to run remote server-side software routinely. Since a virtual private server can store lots of data and handle lots of bandwidth many eCommerce site owners use virtual private servers to store all of their product databases and conduct online transactions with high traffic rates on a daily basis. Virtual Private Servers are particularly useful for webmasters that own many eCommerce sites.

Reasons to Use Reseller Hosting

Many reseller hosting plans offer the same amount of server resources as some VPS hosting plans, which make them an overall good solution. In fact, VPS and reseller hosting plans care practically interchangeable in some instances, with the only difference being the unique ability to rebrand your server resources in sell them in custom packages. Reseller hosting is also a great way to diversify your online income and create a reliable stream of passive revenue that returns month after month.

If you already own an online business, then having a reseller hosting plan is a great way to diversify your income streams and bring additional funding into your new business endeavors. Having the ability to create your own hosting packages, and rebrand your control panel means you will be able to sell your hosting service as a unique service that is viewed as being separate from any other hosting solution.

Most web hosting providers only allow the use of one website per domain. This is due to the number of customers they’re hosting. By allowing only a single website the provider is able to maximize their profits and thus increase bandwidth and storage space to accommodate new customers. Consequently the main method for hosting multiple sites is through the use of add-on domains.

Despite the many benefits available, it’s important to contemplate the two primary shortcomings of multiple domain hosting. These include:

• Accumulation of traffic
• Disastrous downtimes

One of the biggest issues with multiple domain hosting is the accumulation of traffic. If a website or group of websites becomes popular, traffic increases thus eating up bandwidth, server storage space and other aspects the client is paying for. To counterbalance this, the user could simply upgrade their accounts or open a new account to split the traffic.

Also, by checking the log files of each domain name, it’s easy to spot which domains have the most traffic. That way when the client splits accounts, they can identify which domains to place in the new account.

The second downfall is the disastrous results of a server going down. Since all aspects of all sites are on a single server, if that goes down, all sites go down. This showcases the importance of finding a trustworthy and reliable hosting provider.

On the other hand, most servers rarely go down. Also, any decent web hosting provider has backup servers in case of a natural disaster or malicious attack. If an issue does occur, the system switches from the primary server to the backup with little time lost. When searching for a provider, it’s imperative to ascertain the amount of time it takes to switch servers.

Overall, the many benefits of multiple-domain hosting greatly outweigh the costs. Most hosting providers have contingency plans in case of any major issues that arise. Multiple-domain hosting continues to be one of the most popular choices available. As the internet continues to grow and websites expand to networks of websites, the need for this type of technology will greatly increase.

How They Affect Your Website

Bandwidth and disk transfer are both vital to the performance of a website.  A site that has less bandwidth will run noticeably slower than one with more.  This is the case regardless of the visitor’s connection speed.  Without enough data transfer, your site could eventually become inaccessible once you reach your monthly quota.  This basically means that your website will be out of business until the a new month begins or you upgrade your hosting plan.

Unlimited Bandwidth and Transfer

Many companies today advertise plans with unlimited bandwidth or data transfer.  However, you should keep in mind that bandwidth is a very costly resource.  There is simply no such thing as an endless supply.  Unfortunately, you typically have no control over bandwidth whether it is labeled unlimited or expressed in specific numbers. The hosting company handles the allocation.  This is even true when leasing a dedicated server.  Some providers are known for throttling, which is the practice of limiting the number of simultaneous connections.  This is something that can make your site run incredibly slow and even prevent some users from gaining access.  If this is something you are worried about, ask the hosting company how they control usage or invest in package with a tremendous amount of guaranteed data transfer.

Reducing Usage

There are quite a few ways to reduce the amount of transfer your website uses.  The easiest way is to optimize your site to run efficiently with less.  This can be done by minimizing the use of Flash or streaming media applications.  It would also be a good idea to limit the use of META tags to those that are absolutely necessary.  While this may seem as if it is hurting your SEO efforts, using too many keywords actually does more harm than good.  Another way to optimize your site is to cache it and set an expiration date in the HTTP headers.  This will make certain that the browser refreshes your content after a certain amount of time.  Taking note of these simple tips can help you preserve as much as 40% of your bandwidth.

Final Thoughts

Bandwidth and data transfer may be different, but they are both equally important to a website. If you are not sure about how much you need, try reaching out to a few hosting companies for some guidance.  The ones who don’t mind helping out could make finding your ideal host much easier.

The Move

A move from Net2EZ to Alchemy Communications was announced as completed by DreamHost on November 24, 2009.  The company proclaimed its success, not knowing the ensuing issues that were about to plague them and their customers.  Starting out with a network failure, the problems quickly began to mount.  According to the technical team at DreamHost, the problems were being attributed to several factors.  The shared hosting hardware had been upgraded, the upgrade did not go as planned, and the support team frankly was at a loss as to how to solve it quickly.

Status, Technically Speaking

Starting out almost immediately and appearing to still be an ongoing slew of problems, the DreamHost status page is rife with network failures, dieing raid controllers, and continuous webmail errors.  For those with more than just a bit of technical knowledge, the offered status page may reveal more into what is going on with DreamHost and its latest move.  The average web hosting customer, however, may find the information a bit overly technical.  DreamHost would go a long way in offering information on a slightly less technical level and truly give its customers information they can use and understand.

Not too Happy

Tech-speak aside, it has been clear that DreamHost customers are less than pleased by the whole fiasco.  Twitter has been inundated with tweets from customers regarding their dissatisfaction with all the errors and resulting down-times.  Some have been content with complaining while others have decided to drop the web hosting provider and move onto a more reliable service.  The DreamHost Twitter account reported on November 30, 2009 that at least 95% of their services and servers were back online.  However, no further reporting has been made since that date (other than 2 personal responses and 1 holiday shopping URL).  As of December 4, 2009 some customers are still reporting web sites that are unavailable.

Final Thoughts

In retrospect, DreamHost could have and should have planned their data migration a bit more.  The support team should have been instructed on what might occur so they could be on the ball and ready to fix issues and errors as they arose.  Most importantly, it may have been in the company’s best interest to not crow about a successful data move until they were completely certain the network was up and running smoothly.

DreamHost may need to do a bit of good public relations to combat the fallout of this data fiasco.  It is uncertain how many customers they may have lost over the past week and how many more they stand to lose over the next couple of weeks.  The web hosting provider clearly needs to wake up and do a bit of damage control.

Space

The first thing to consider is how much web space your business will need.  Think about what you want to convey to the general surfing audience about your business.

If you plan on merely putting out an informational styled web site, you can figure about five pages in total – a home page, an about page, a news page, a contact page and possibly one miscellaneous page.  In this case, your space requirements will be minimal and you can choose a hosting company that offers around one to two megabytes minimum in web space storage.

However, if you will be needing a site that covers several aspects of your business, offers product information and purchasing options, will be disseminating a lot of information to the public, or will grow and expand over time, your best option is to choose a web hosting company that offers unlimited amounts of web space.

Bandwidth

The next thing to consider is how much bandwidth your business web site will need.  Bandwidth, or data transfer, is the amount of data that is transferred from your web site.  This encompasses page views, images, videos, documents and files.

If your biggest concern will be consumers visiting your web site to gather more information about your business, then you can easily work with a hosting company that imposes monthly transfer limits.  However, if you plan on allowing customers the ability to download files or documents or your business site will involve a lot of video embedding, check out the hosting companies that offer unlimited amounts of bandwidth.

E-commerce

If you plan on selling products, e-commerce is a big concern when determining which web host to choose.  Almost every hosting company on the web will offer some form of shopping cart and secured server access (SSL).  Be certain to choose one that includes this within the monthly price and that the e-commerce solution offered is simple to use.  Nothing can cause a headache quicker than when having to deal with the actual manual setup of shopping carts and connections to SSL.  Another item to watch for is hosting companies that allow you to choose from several different shopping carts.  Not every cart program is going to be suited to the type or amount of products your business offers.

Support

When looking at the hosting companies on the web, one important aspect of their services to keep in mind is their support.  Look for companies that have a “one-stop” type of support section.  This should be one easy to find link on their main page that leads you to a section that offers (at a minimum) contact options (e-mail and phone), FAQs, a knowledge base and some form of tutorials.  An even better setup would include a ticket support system, a live chat option and 24 hours a day, seven days a week support.  Even if you’re an old hand at web hosting, knowing you can access support easily and have an array of options to choose from will give you peace of mind.

Extras

Extras to check out would include the types and number of add-on programs available – bulletin boards, social media plug-ins, and blogging software to name a few.  If your web pages are going to be built with PHP, Perl or Ruby on Rails, be certain the hosting company you choose has their sites already equipped with the proper scripting language.  One very popular extra and beneficial to businesses on the web is advertising credits.  Many web hosting companies offer this within their packages.  Decide which places you would be most likely to need advertising (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and choose your hosting company accordingly.

Wrap up

While there are a few things to consider when looking for the perfect web hosting company, it doesn’t have to be a daunting task.  Simply write down your requirements as far as space, transfers, e-commerce, support and extras and you are quickly on your way to finding the hosting company that will fit your business needs beautifully.