Category: 
Friday, 18 January 2008 @ 1:17 pm (Chris Frost)
How much does hosting cost?
A question I hear many people ask, especially new people to Affiliate Marketing and something I’ve asked myself in the past. Unfortunately, the question can’t be answered as simply as How Much Is A Can Of Beans? We all know that Tesco’s and other stores, offer an economy or value range of products, and we know exactly what to expect if we buy them. But what about when it comes to your host?
Your host can cost you from £29 per month if you so choose, but this is only figure you are paying directly to your host. Over the past couple of months, there has been occasions when my hosting company has cost me in excess of £100. This isn’t due the price being increased, or a sudden surge of bandwidth though, its all due to DOWNTIME!
I, like others, PPC the odd website as well as constantly tweaking here and there hoping to make #1 for generic terms (I am #2 for Discount Codes 
), but what happens when your site goes offline? If you’re glued to your monitor 24/7 then you can instantly jump on to Google, MSN and Yahoo and pause your campaigns. If, however, you work full-time like me, this isn’t always possible and often a number of hours will float by without an affiliate being able to check their websites or email for any automatically generated availability reports.
Sure it causes a headache, but it also increases the cost to you. No longer are you only paying £29 for a hosting service, but with the downtime and PPC bills it can quickly and easily turn out to cost you £100’s. So what should you do if you’re new to affiliate marketing, or an old timer who doesn’t want, or can’t afford, to shell out massive amounts every month?
Is there a solution? Does a highly stable, yet affordable, hosting company exist? Whatever you choose, if you do decided to PPC your websites, you should always be aware that your £29 cost per month, could easily break you if you don’t monitor your sites regularly. Don’t fall for the trap of expecting your host to tell you!
Horaayy..there are 2 comment(s) for me so far ;)
It’s always the weakest link in the chain & cheap hosts are simply not worth it, false economy.
Clook.net are the closest I’ve come to a solution, I’d call them affordable simply because there’s no hassle, I’ve had no downtime apart from when I’ve been informed. As a backup I also use pingdom who text you if your server is down.
It’s worth spending that little bit more, especially if you do PPC!
Hosting is also something that I’ve been researching lately. My current host had been fine but I’m not experiencing at least twice a week times when I’m working where my email goes and down and so do my websites. It’s not for long but it’s still not acceptable.
This has meant I’ve had to start searching elsewhere and it’s hard! Every time I find something that looks good I then find someone who can tell me it’s rubbish! AHHHHH