Affordable hosting decisions include more than just hosting. When you host with someone – anyone – there are a whole range of things you need to be aware of and to know about before you make a final decision. It has not always been like this though. It used to be that making affordable hosting decisions  about where you wanted to host your Website was a simple choice. There were only a few companies around to choose from when you had to make your Web hosting decision. There were not too many good deals either when it came to who you had to make your web hosting decision either.

Those were the good old days. Even though you paid tons of money for Web hosting, you were one of the few, the proud and the trying to get rich online, you were just happy to be online even if the hosting decisions you were making for your Websites was costing you an arm and a leg! It’s a whole new game now.  Today, almost anyone with a power PC and a broadband Internet connection in their bedroom can offer hosting and make money off of unsuspecting Internet users who want to have a Website of their own.

I knew of one 15 year old in Colorado years ago that had something like 150 hosting clients. He was running his little enterprise out of his bedroom using his dad’s Internet connection that the company he worked for had installed for him so that he could work from home. I do not fault the young man for being so industrious, but when you think about having a 15 year old who is receiving your personal and financial information from you in order to bill you each month, well, for me at least, that just seemed a bit of a stretch to want to help out a young entrepreneur. His dad no doubt works for him now, and he is probably a millionaire. I mean, how many teenagers think like that!

Unfortunately, most people who are needing to make Web hosting decisions do not understand what hosting a Website really means and how their decision for Web hosting can affect their success in promoting their business. And, the majority of all newcomers to the Internet make the very same mistake in choosing a hosting company that offers really cheap web hosting, and that cheap web hosting ultimately will cost them far more in lost business let alone extra bandwidth fees or data transfer fees when they experience higher amounts of traffic than the web hosting company will allow [Hint: READ THE SMALL PRINT!] 

Meanwhile, back to that 15 year old and his little web hosting enterprise. In defense of some of these ‘bedroom hosting enterprises’ I can say that some have grown into respectable hosting companies. The vast majority of these small upstarts however have taken the path of what is personified in the automobile industry as the ‘used car salesman’ (nothing personal to you who may have been or are used car sales professions – the founder of our organization did a stent in a cell block of a used car lot himself – and said we could mention it here). The dividing line between those companies that are respectable and those that feed on the ignorance of the naive and simple-minded of the Internet age is simply this. Hosting alone does not a Website make.

A good hosting company offers you more than just the tools you need to build and maintain your Website, and quality customer service. The web hosting companies where someone has made their hosting decisions based on what the company provides in order to help them be financially successful are few and far between. Those ‘great’ companies are the ones that provide the marketing tools that are a requirement for marketing your Website successfully to the world. There are only a hand full of reputable hosting companies we know of that offer comprehensive hosting services for an affordable price. Of this hand full, only a few really stand out for the type of customer service commitment that we feel comfortable in trusting our clients to.

In the 16 years of being in the business of planning, building, launching, and maintaining Websites for our clients we have found only three companies that meet our high standards for hosting, customer service, and online marketing tools. One of these companies was a sister company of SD Ward & Associates that was sold this past year. Another, while having great hosting, online marketing products, and customer service, the character and integrity of its owners prohibited us from doing business with them (I have a real affinity to buying hosting from a guy who uses sexual innuendo to sell something like domain names and hosting (yeah, you guessed it. That would be GoDaddy…). The third hosting company that I have been so impressed with is the company that we have personally hosted over 25 of our own Websites with within a month after they rolled out their full service hosting and marketing tools hosting plan. The name of that company is Global Virtual Opportunities (GVO), formerly known as Kiosk.

Because of its owner’s strong commitment to not only providing quality hosting, but also actively helping every hosting customer become successful in their online marketing efforts, we continually refer our clients to this hosting company. Most of the clients we consult with about online marketing and brand development realize their need for online marketing tools. While we do offer limited hosting services for new online marketers as they are getting their feet wet in the online marketing industry, we feel that one of the absolute best investments a person or company can make into their immediate and long-term success is to take advantage of the Titanium hosting package that GVO offers. They give, i.e give for FREE, all the tools and services that every web hosting customer needs in order to be successful online.

If you had to go out and purchase or lease them, you would pay between $250 and $400 per month or more (depending on how gullible you were or are) for the marketing tools needed to promote your Website. Since we try to keep our blog posts here short, let us get to the good stuff. We would like to introduce you to the hosting service that we are using for our clients and ourselves here at SD Ward & Associates. Take a moment and watch this short video introduction, and if it makes sense to you to have a hosting service that can offer you all that they do, take another moment and visit the FamilyDot-GVO Hosting Website to learn more.

If you have any questions at all about it or would like to learn how you can get your hosting from us for free, write us at coachme (at) sdward.com. One of our coaching advisors will be back in touch with you momentarily. And as always, please share this article with anyone that you feel would find it helpful by using the social media and repost options below. AND, I would like to personally ask you to leave a comment about this article if it was helpful. Thanks.

What’s in YOUR online marketing toolbox? Just about all of us have seen the advertisements for that credit card company where a horde of barbarians are wreaking havoc on some poor soul’s house or life. The purpose of the advertisement is to make a credit card customer think of what they are really getting when they get a credit card. The real cost of it, the hidden charges, problems in using it, the real cost of having it – you know the one, right?  “What’s in YOUR wallet?

If there is anything important that you MUST HAVE if you want to use the Internet for more than just a toy, it is the right marketing tools. Online marketing tools are an essential part of any online marketing strategy. Every individual, business or cause that wants to put what they do on the virtual map of the Internet, must have online marketing tools that effectively generate traffic on their Website. Without traffic to your Website, all you have is a vacant building sitting on a virtual street in Cybertown. And, effectively building your brand online (see Branding Your Blog series) is directly tied to your ability to drive traffic to your Website as well as spreading the world of your Website through the use of the right online marketing tools.

Why is traffic so important? With the right online marketing tools, you generate traffic or visitors to your Website. Traffic produces leads, leads produce prospects, prospects produce qualified prospects, qualified prospects produce sales, and sales, if handled properly, produce repeat sales. This installment of Online Marketing Tool Training introduces the key essential online marketing tools your Website will need to compete in today’s highly competitive global marketplace online.

What Tools are Right for You? In the same way that choosing the right Web hosting company to host your Website is an important decision to make, making sure you have the right online marketing tools for your Website is equally important. In order to determine what tools you will need, you must first assess your Website, its present traffic, the type of product or service that you are offering, and how you will communicate with a visitor from their initial visit through the entire sales process, including after sales follow-up.

Deciding on the right online marketing tools to promote and maintain your online presence to the world, as well as servicing your customers, is sort of like that same scenario of having the right credit card in your wallet. You might find a great deal or offer on some marketing system or slick promotional tool or network, but if the marketing tools do not ultimately build a lasting connection with those you are trying to reach, then you are really wasting money and time.

Now-a-days, almost anyone who is making money in online marketing – barring a few personal and business brands that are already well established – are using several online tools that are almost mandatory in your online marketing success. These tools are almost absolute ‘must have tools’ if you want to be effective in prospecting (lead generation), sales (lead conversion), and customer service (maintenance).

The must have tools now a days are integrated video in your Website to keep those who visit your Website on your Website once they arrive. YouTube is nice, but why would you want to send your leads away from your Website once they arrive? Video adds a dynamic to your Website that engages more then just the eye that reads text on a page. The audio alone, mixed with a Power Point presentation can be a dynamic way to sell your product or service, and it connects your prospects with you on a personal level. And, when you integate actual video of your while doing your presentation, you begin to build personal association with the viewers in the same way that a television show with various actors triggers a connection mechanism in the mind of the viewer to want to tune back in for the next show.

Another tool that is vital is that of an automated email responder system.  If you are generating even 10 leads a day (an average blog subscriber rate) out of the 100 visitors to your blog or Website that you have a day, you do not want to have to manually reply to every individual that registers on your site, and if you are not communicating with them to keep them engaged and interested in what you have to say or sell, you will lose them by default to the distraction of the Internet and all the other Websites they visit that DO communicated and engage them. An automated email responder system really allows you to focus on content and your product and service offerings and not get bogged down in the processing of leads, prospects, and customers.

One other important tool that you must have if you want to really be able to effectively connect with people through your website that is used not only to sell, but to build community and customer loyalty, is that of your own personal conferencing system for video and audio webinars. This is a huge one. It is a tool that most every successful online marketer is actively using, and it’s one of the easiest tools to use, that can generate the most return on your investment of time. It brings into the living room of everyone that participates in watching your webinars, and can provide you with real time rich content that is both engaging and highly successful in getting a prospect to act on your offer. It’s the next best thing to sittin in their living room.

If you would like more information on how to get these tools for free, visit www.familydot.com to learn more.