Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

November 05, 2009

The Fly-by-Night Aspect of Cheap Web Hosting

The web hosting industry is a very competitive business, literally filled with thousands of companies vying for your business.  This competition has resulted in a large segment of companies offering rock-bottom prices to entice you to purchase their service.  In these tough economic times, a low price is hard to pass up.  Despite this, you must be very cautious as a cheap hosting plan could actually cost you severely.  While cheap hosting has many potential pitfalls, the one that could be the most damaging to you is the fly-by-night company, the shady firm the soars through to steal your money and vanishes in the blink of an eye.

How to Spot ‘Em

Being able to distinguish the fly-by-night host from the reliable company with an upstanding reputation in the industry is a skill you need to pick up quickly.  How do you know if the company will be around next year or if they will crumble after three months of service?  It isn’t easy, but it can be done.  Below we have listed a few things you need to look for when evaluating cheap web hosting providers that will help you make the determination.

Bad Grammar and Spelling

A fly-by-night company or one operating an outright scam usually doesn’t pay much attention to the grammar and spelling of the content on its website.  Too focused on making money and cheating customers, they often make simple steps that are easy to catch for the trained eye.  A reputable hosting firm pays attention to detail, taking the necessary steps to ensure their website content is well written and clearly explains its service offerings.  Of course mistakes are simply that, but if you notice too many of them, it should signal a red flag that something might be wrong.

Unprofessional Appearance

A web host that is serious about the business has a serious looking website that exudes nothing but professionalism.  Everything from their logo to the site design is well structured and visually pleasant.  The fly-by-night company is more apt to putting in a half-hearted effort with an elementary template design and a crappy logo.  In many cases, they won’t even take the initiative to make sure all the links on their site function properly.

Unbelievable Testimonials

Testimonials can be a powerful marketing tool for any business.  However, they can’t always be taken at face value for the simple fact that you can’t always verify their legitimacy.  Fly-by-night hosts are notorious for littering their websites with testimonials from supposed happy customers that have nothing but rave thing to say about the company.  These can be hard to identify, but you can often tell by examining the style of writing.  If the testimonial appears overly technical or you just don’t believe it, the testimonial may have been written by the webmaster or someone within the company opposed to a real customer.

Remember that these are not the standards and that you need to be keep your eyes peeled for many more signs.  We merely provided these as guidelines to give you a couple of things to watch out for so you can avoid the trap so many others have fallen into.

Tags: Cheap Web Hosting,  cheap hosting plan,  web hosting industry,  reputable hosting firm,  hosting testimonials