Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Upgrading to a Dedicated Server

By Matt Hedges

If you want more resources than what a shared hosting account offers or you want to run an inoperable application, then a dedicated server is a must. If you require a good and powerful solution for hosting numerous websites, then a dedicated server can also be upgraded to.

The commercially available web hosting packages are unknown to most people who intend to start an online business. The majority of them are unwilling to buy a package costing excess of $100 annually; though purchasing it is dependent on individual budget. Initially this may be a good business strategy for them as being novices in the online businesses, they maybe unaware of the numerous features of the web hosts. Also new things about affiliate marketing and e-commerce may be learnt. Apart from these, basic knowledge about hosting control panels, domain name server alterations, FTP for file uploading and many other things are also learnt.

Prefer reputed web host companies over others.

You will tend to make mistakes while you are working because of the lower cost and the small hosts inefficient. Remember a good customer care department is necessary, irrespective of your chosen company's web server. Not all of the unanswered questions asked by a new webmaster may be only related to the server. He may want the procedure of creating a website, or even the amount of bandwidth available to him with the service he bought, etc. an important but usually ignored question for a new webmaster is how to register his website URL in his own name, in order that nobody else can claim that using that URL is illegal. Ensure to minutely read the terms and conditions of your selected web host. If you have a unique domain name, your online business will appear professional and your market reputation will be built. So, special emphasize the registration of the domain. Your domain may be locked illegally without your knowledge by web hosts offering incredible services at dirt cheap prices. Their terms of service are usually so unclear that you cannot easily understand their saying. Be cautious as you may need legal help for unlocking the domain.

To avoid such complexities, go for dedicated servers from reputed companies. Remember that every small business service provider is not selling his business services cheap. In fact, if you select the recommended solution for your business then the cost to you might be even less than $1,000 annually. So you might wonder that given this amount, what benefits will accrue to you? Firstly, there will be no need for you to upgrade the host every single time when there is an increase in the traffic to your site. Most of the dedicated servers are pre-configured with sufficient bandwidth to handle an increase in traffic, and also customers from the PPC as campaigns. Besides, database backup options are also available with them, along with an option to have multiple email accounts for the webmaster and the opportunity to have multiple IP addresses.

Search engines like Google, Microsoft, etc. have billions of hits daily, so it becomes a must for you to have a dedicated server for the purpose of your online business. It will ensure that the traffic to your site is handled properly while your task would be to build up a good website. You can also install other things such as pythons, server side scripts, backup solutions, PHP scripting, RSS feeds and many other things. If you have a dedicated server, you can fully control the entire business of yours, including every function associated with it. After you have fully set up your website and the various programs are performing fine, then you just have to take care of manual maintenance of the website, like having creative content for attracting the search engines, and paying the bill of your server well in advance to avoid bottlenecks. Here, it is recommended that you pay the bill for about 2-3 years in advance, because most companies offer an attractive discount if you pay the amount upfront. They also have other schemes and offers for such payers, like giving you free PPC credits for running ads free of cost on paid networks like Microsoft AdCenter or Google AdWords. So if you pay the web host service provider and run the business online efficiently, then in those 2-3 years time frame, you will get more rewards and benefits than you would have imagined. It's worth it!

Upgrading the server - responsibility of the company.

Many people think little about the available options for the purpose of upgrading their server, while buying the dedicated server. Don't forget that the server will have to be surely upgraded sometime in the future. You have the right to do the upgrade from the host company as you are basically leasing the server. You may fight yourself fighting with the host company if you didn't consider the upgrade before committing to the host company. So before buying the dedicate server form any company, remember to carefully go through the upgrade policies of the host. Besides being maintained properly, many parts of the server need to be upgraded over time. It is important to clarify whether the host company can provide you with regular upgrades as and when required. Mostly, the RAM and the hard drives have to be upgraded. Some of the host companies unnecessarily create harassment, though most of tem unhesitatingly provide this upgrade to the clients.

The companies are well aware of their duty of providing proper upgrades to the customers as and when required by them for their online business. For example, if an upgrade is needed, it's the duty of the web host company to suggest you the best time to shut down the site and upgrade it, and the selection has to be shut that business operations are not unduly affected by the maintenance timings. Also, such things are foreseen, and not carried out suddenly when the traffic to the site increases. The web hosting companies must offer you their full co-operation for you to meet the demands of the customers, else those companies should not be considered at all. In short, communication is the keyword in such cases. You must shell out time to decide what would work for you and what wouldn't, depending on your requirements. Failure to comply with this will result in the customers not being satisfied with you, and if they leave, you will deny yourself huge revenues. So prior to buying a dedicated server, some ground work from your part is essential as well.

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