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I am a new Webmaster and I have an idea, a story to tell or service I’d like to offer over the Internet with a website, but have never made a webpage in my entire life and can’t decide on a web hosting company…help! Well with web hosting companies popping up everywhere a Webmaster may find it overwhelming with the choices available. But here are a few things you may want to consider before acquiring or purchasing a service like this. One thing I had always looked for from a web host and the most important, in my opinion was great customer support. Many years ago I knew nothing about getting a website hosted and what I personally needed to know to actually create my ideas and get them onto a webpage, so in other words I was a complete noob and knew absolutely nothing about HTML and in some regards I still consider myself a new-comer in the world of a webmaster or web designer. There are many free web-hosting companies out there for the beginner Webmaster, like Geocities and many others, and this service to some degree is perfect solution for the new comer to the cyber world. Although the service is highly limited to implementing your own scripts and adding other services to better the user-ends’ experience, while visiting your website. The limits become obvious, like the unstoppable pop-up ads or banner placements that the company has on autopilot when each and every user visits your website. This type of service if nothing else is very favorable to give the new Webmaster a general idea of what he or she can do with a webpage and in long run establishes an understanding what he or she can’t do with this type free service. Usually what you can’t do is something you may determine by visiting other peoples websites. And my personal classic phrase when looking at other sites is “That’s awesome! I wish I had that on my site”. Well let’s get back to the most important service when looking for a web host. Customer support. While the free hosting companies offers easy to use web interface it does of course provide great customer support, if you look at the main points in the service. First remember I had mentioned earlier, I knew nothing about HTML. Well you will find out that it is important to have some HTML knowledge, but regards to this example this free easy to use web service acts as customer support, if you will. For example, imagine you were given sheets of blank colored paper, an empty box to store your images, several colored pencils and a few binder folders to store and organize all your material and have it all placed in a locker for free. Now all you have to do is present your ideas, content, and images in an organized fashion to show your friends, family, and the many other people you haven’t met yet. This in my opinion is the foundation of their customer support. They have given you the tools and materials to make your webpages and with the easy to use interface able to organize it in a simple fashion, although they have a FAQ section to learn to use these tools. As months go by you will notice that you can’t get as explosive as would like, but at least you have several webpages viewable on the Internet for others to see. What you learn here will create a foundation as a new Webmaster. Let’s say you are a go getter and don’t shy down to challenges and you need powerful web hosting with many great service tools, like a customizable discussion board or a secure e-commerce shopping cart for example. Well there is many upon many web-hosting companies to sort through. Well like I had mention before customer service is the most important factor when deciding on a host provider. Is price or service not important? Well the price and service is important and if take the time to jot down prices and services of what several of the host providers offer you will notice that mostl are very competitive in this regard, but the foundation has to be customer support. You can have the best prices and services in the world, but without great customer service, is like being given an impressive shiny locked car filled with incredible features with no keys to open the car and a manual to use the features. I see no reason what’s so ever to become a locksmith or instructional professional for a service that you paid for. Some web host providers will say directly or indirectly to keep in mind that a customer should have a general idea of use of an online administration panel, for this type of hosting service. So in other words your not worthy enough to use this service, thus if you seek customer support to use this service we can’t guarantee that we will give you the customer support that you can understand for a service that you have paid for. Subconsciously in my opinion they are pushing you away for others that will ask less questions. Doesn’t make good business sense, if you ask me. What I have noticed in the last several years is these computer/programmer/server literate individuals that have ventured to hosting websites is that some of them carry that classic characteristic of that of a computer store floor representative. They reply to your questions as if you’re a complete idiot and why are you wasting their time if you don’t know something about the new X-SuperWarp PC system, just the same they have no problem selling you this new item ‘cha-ching’. Remember knowledge is power so always ask questions and exploiting power is destructive for everyone involved. It will be harder to achieve your goals if your environment has a lack of great communication and a friendly customer support system. Unfortunately, I can’t cover all the aspects in this article when deciding on a web hosting provider as many Webmasters have different issues or ideas of what they are seeking to do with the Internet and what they really want to accomplish after launching their webpages, but I can say with certainty that great customer support will not only ease the process of creating your website pages, but will ultimately save you time and lesson the frustrations associated with being a Webmaster, after all isn’t your time and website worth something to you? I believe it does…
Note: This article nor Woot Hosting is not intentionally insulting, insinuating and/or degrading the ethics or business practices of other web host companies. This article is intended as user-end information for the consumer by a consumer and not to be taken out of context.
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WEBMASTER
RESOURCE 
Addme.com,
a leading resource for webmasters and small-business owners
specialized in website submission and promotion in the search engines,
since 1996.
Looking
For A Web Host Provider by Ivan Marak
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