Man I wanted to make a list of oversellers. But, you know what? It’s just not worth the effort because all the hosts are overselling. Instead I should make a list of hosts who are NOT overselling. I just hate it. The hosting industry is just getting totally messed up.

Some hosts are proud of the fact that they oversell. They admit it on their company blog (like HostGator) or site. And they give us a bullshit reason on why they oversell. They say something like how can you expect us to give you 15,000GB dedicated space and bandwidth for just under $10/month, servers cost a lot and we know that no one is going to use all the space. Well that really pisses me off!

Well why the fuck do you need to oversell in the first place? I know its because of competition. But, do they really think that all of us are so dumb that we’ll fall for their “unlimited” space and bandwidth plans.

For example, when I order a pizza I expect to get the whole pizza (not just a few slices). I don’t care how much I payed for it. I don’t care if I only paid $15 for a large pizza. The company set the price and they better give me my whole pizza. I don’t want the pizza guy to come with a few slices and tell me that they knew I wouldn’t eat the whole pizza so they took off a few slices.

Like don’t lie to us. We don’t need 15,000GB of space. A dedicated 10GB is good enough. If you can’t really give us 15,000GB of dedicated space then don’t offer that. Hosts should be honest. Offer us what they can afford to. We’ll choose a transparent host over a lying overseller, any day of the week.

I don’t know who came up with the idea of overselling. Hosting isn’t buffet! At least in buffet they have all the food for us. In the hosting world, they don’t even have that.

A while back I wrote a checklist on shared hosting. People found it very helpful. But, a few people complained that I was not right about the resellers. Some also said that they were using a reseller and was happy with the service. So, today I’ll take the time to tell you folks a few things about resellers.

What is a “reseller”?

There are 2 types of resellers. I’ll list them below.

1. Reseller plan: You can buy reseller accounts from other hosts for about $10/month (cheapest deal on average) and make your own hosting company. I call them phony hosts and you wanna avoid these guys.
2. Dedicated servers: Now this one’s a better choice. These guys have rented a dedicated server and is actually serious about their business.

Who can become a reseller?

Anyone! Yeah anyone can get his or her hands on a cheap reseller plan. But, dedicated servers would be pretty expensive. So, most of the resellers are using those shitty ass reselling plan which are hosted on an oversold piece of shit server. And what if the reseller oversells? Crap! That would be overselling on an already oversold server. Oh you’re screwed!

You know what’s shocking? People are fucking giving away reseller accounts for free. Just polluting the web (a bit more). You can go on forums like FreeWebspace.net and Digital Point, and you’ll see these free plans. They usually get you to post on their forums to keep the reseller account running (post2host!).

That means kids can start their own hosting site (and a lot of them are). Plus these plans are meant to attract teens (and young adults). No technical knowledge necessary!

I know this 15 year-old guy. He’s the dumbest guy of all time. He couldn’t even install WordPress. I am not even joking. WordPress is idiot-proof! And he couldn’t install that. WTF? Why am I telling this? Well because he bought a reseller account and started his own hosting site. I’m not sure what I should say. Just think! Do you think he can provide you with technical support? Hell no! What are the chances of him closing down his hosting site within a few weeks? A lot!

Should you use a reseller?

Try to avoid them. But, if you really had to choose a reselling company then choose the one with their own dedicated server rather than a cheap reselling plan. These guys are actually serious about the business. They probably hired a few technical support reps. A lot better choice, huh?

HostGator is a reseller. They rented their servers from The Planet. So, you see there are few “big fish” resellers. But, most reselling hosts are run by people with no knowledge on servers, programming, web dev, etc and they don’t plan to stay in the business for too long (fly-by-night hosts!).

I’m hoping this article gave you guys a better view of the reselling hosts. I’ll be writing an article on how to tell if your host is a reseller or not, this week. So, stick around and don’t forget to subscribe!

I was looking for a decent webhost and I forgot a few things that I was supposed to check for. So I thought why not make a list of things that we should all look into before choosing a webhost. Lets call it the ultimate shared hosting checklist.

Well we all know the basics. See how much space and monthly bandwidth you will get. Don’t forget email accounts and databases. You know the usual stuff. So lets move on to the more important ones.

Are they overselling?

Oh please don’t go with a overselling webhost. Chances are you’ll be hosted on a oversold piece of shit if you go with them. So how to tell if they’re overselling or not? Well is it too good too be true? Are they giving you 500GB or 1500GB of space and 100TB bandwidth for just $5? That’s overselling my friend.

And you won’t even need more than 2-10 gigs of space. Trust me. And for bandwidth I would go with like 50-200 gigs (just so it can handle traffic spikes).

Are they a reseller?

Most resellers are fly-by-night hosts. They take your money and they go poof! Say goodbye to your money and files. You don’t want that to happen. And even if they are a reseller check how long they have been in business.

The database size limit

This is very important if you plan to host a forum or a database-based site. I’ve looked around and most big webhosts have about 100MB limit in a shared environment. 100MB should be good enough for a while. Like if your site grows you’ll probably move to a VPS or a dedicated server.

Number of concurrent users on a database

Oh yeah this is 100% geeky thing. Its the number of database connections being made at the same time. This is really, really important if you have a forum (especially if its running on vBulletin). Now the limit ranges from 10-250 depending on the webhost.

Just call the support people and ask them about it. Most hosts don’t have info on it on their site. You might also wanna check their AUP (acceptable usage policy).

Reviews! Good or bad?

I would do a quick Google search and check for some reviews. Now don’t fully make your decision based on the reviews. Some might be fake (like written by a competitor). More important is word of mouth.

Type of support available

Most hosts do have a support number on their site and offer 24/7 email and/or live chat support. But how long do you have to wait till you get help? Here’s the mini checklist for support.

1. Call support and see how long you have to wait till you talk with someone. You might get a host that puts you on the line until you hang up or just take messages.
2. Email support with a few questions. Like concurrent users, database limits, etc. See when you get replied.
3. Yep you got it! Use the handy live chat. See how long do you have to wait till a rep. gets on the chat and see how professional they are (like the replies and stuff).

Big fish or small fish??

I don’t care if some new host is giving an awesome deal, I would always go with a big host with a good reputation. Wondering why? Well you’ll be hosting your files and databases there. How do you know if they follow the privacy policy? How can you be sure that they won’t download your files and databases and make a clone or sell it somewhere? The list can go on and on. But you get my point, right?

Using a big host always makes me feel safe. I’m not saying that something like this is never going to happen on hosts like GoDaddy, MediaTemple, DreamHost, etc. But if it happens then you can at least sue their ass. They won’t just go poof unlike the small fishes.

UPDATE (July 25, 08): I listed down “5 Great Shared Hosting Plans“. Check that out.

I think that’s it. If I’m missing anything then please let me know. Thanks for reading guys! And don’t forget to subscribe to my feeds or via email for more like this.

Hey folks. I’m sure a lot of you saw “unlimited” space and bandwidth on paid hosting plans. Today I’ll tell you something about it. Hopefully that will save your money.

Okay there is nothing called unlimited space and bandwidth. It is fake! Like the servers can only hold a certain amount of files. Its just to make it look like you’re getting an awesome deal. Okay do you really think that they will buy another server if one of their servers gets filled up with your files? You’re paying like $5-20 per month. A server costs more than that man.

Now this is the surprising part. I can bet that if you use up about 5 gigs of space, they will suspend your account and give you some weird ass reason. Refund? Forget it. In your dreams pal. Those are greedy bastards.

And because of this crazy overselling their servers are going to be super slow. So just be careful next time. Don’t fall for it. Go with hosts that are giving you a reasonable amount of space and bandwidth (ex: 10gb).

Yeah everyone hates the downtime you have when you are switching web hosts. Its like visitors don’t have a clue about what’s going on and they leave. And it really sucks if you’re trying to sell something. Maybe you just turned away a potential client or customer.

First of all, never move your site at the last minute. For example, if your hosting is expiring in 4 weeks then start finding a web host. After you found a good hosting deal. Plan on moving your site 2-3 weeks before your hosting expires.

Time to move

Okay so its time to move your site. Download all the files and/or databases from your old host to your computer. And then upload them to your new host. Make sure that everything is running. If needed bring in a team of highly trained monkeys to do some testing.

Don’t delete the files

Wait! Don’t delete the files and databases on your old host yet. Keep them just the way it is. Okay now go change the nameserver to the new host’s. It should take about 3-10 minutes for the DNS changes to take place.

How to know if you moved?

So how do you know if you have moved successfully? Hard to tell since everything went by smooth. No one knows that you moved. No crazy downtimes! Well if you want to make sure that you moved successfully then put a little HTML fill called “test.html” (and write something like “server move test”) on your new host. And then point to www.mysite.com/test.html. If you can see the file then congrats!

See how easy it is? Now say good bye to downtimes while moving hosts!

Oh and keep the files and databases on your old host for about a week or so. Just incase something goes wrong on the new host, you can then just change the nameserver and no one will notice. Smart, huh?