2005-11-01 by  Daniel J Briere

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This article details a few simple things that seasoned webmasters do that allow them to pull ahead of their competition. As a savvy web hosting customer and webmaster, these are steps you can take yourself.

1. Off-site Backups - It amazes me whenever I hear of a website hosting user complaining about "that great twenty-dollars-a-year website host I was using that disappeared and took all my files with them!" This is a consistent complaint in the industry, and it is so easily prevented. How do savvy webmasters avoid losing their files? Keep a backup either at your physical location, or on a web server in a different geographical region than the one your website is hosted on.
2. Independent Domain Registration - The second most-common complaint is a domain name that is held hostage by a web host, either because of misunderstanding between the client and the host, or because of an underhanded host. How can you prevent this? Register your domain name at GoDaddy.com, Netsol, Register.com, eNom, or one of the other domain registrars. Then, just point the domain to your hosting account. This way, if your host goes under or you decide to cancel your hosting account, you won't have to worry about losing your domain.
3. Good Client-Host Host-Client Relationship - As lame as it may sound, it helps to have a positive relationship with your host. You need to trust them 100%, and they need to trust you 100%. If this is not the case, neither one of you are benefiting the other, and it is a relationship that should be broken off.
4. Regular Website Updates - Want to know what irks users more than anything else? A website that never changes! Even if you have only five minutes a day to devote to managing your site, you should have some little tidbit of information that changes on a daily or weekly basis. Site visitors like to know that there is really a living, breathing thing on the other side of that website, and one way to convey this is by showing change.
5. Prompt Reply to Emails - Well, maybe this irks users more than anything else. It's probably a toss-up between points four and five. But the point is this: When someone sends you an email, they expect it to be answered right away. So answer it right away! If you can't do this, hire someone who can. One of the best things you can do for your company's image is to answer every single customer inquiry in a super-fast manner. Not only does this impress your customers, it also shows them that you truly care.

Follow this advice, and I guarantee you'll see more success from your web-based business!

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