Boy, I can hear you guys now, “Oh, great! Now I have to worry about the web host taking my money!” Well, I hate to rain on your parade, but it’s a fact, scam hosts are out there waiting for you to make their day! The question is: Are you going to let them?

And if you’re a worrier take this to heart: The only real antidote for worry is positive action. So stop worrying and take action. Here’s 9 ways to tell if the web host you’re considering is legitimate!

1. Physical Address. This is most important of all! Does the web hosting company have a physical address you can see listed anywhere on their site? Can you verify it?

Ideally, you should be able to go there and pay them a visit at their office. I know this isn’t always practical if you live far away but it’s just the idea you could if you were in the area! By the way, a legitimate web host would welcome your visit.

When you’re doing business on the Internet it’s not always easy too tell just who the heck you’re dealing with. And if it wasn’t hard enough, the arrival of "reseller hosting" has made it possible for just about anybody to start up what seems like a legitimate web hosting business.

I mean even somebody who doesn’t know anything about hosting! Nada! Or doesn’t have any equipment! Or an office, either! It’s ridiculous!

All someone has to do is sign up for a reseller plan and, PRESTO, they’re now a web host. This doesn’t mean their support’s going to be any good or they’ll pay their hosting bill.

The company could disappear suddenly with no warning possibly costing you a lot of money and your web site! So make absolutely sure the web host has a physical address you can verify.

2. Call support. Never, Never, Never, NEVER sign up until you’ve tested the web host’s support first! Are you LISTENING? Support is vital to your business success. Without it your operation will grind to a screeching halt! So what ever you do, don’t sign up until you’ve tested their support first.

And there’s no better way to do this than by picking up the telephone and calling. So what are you waiting for? Make the call!

You’ll be totally amazed at how many web site hosting companies with toll free numbers listed on their web site never answer their phones, or put you on hold and make you wait for what seems like an eternity. And this is if the phone number even WORKS!

They know most people won’t even bother to call the number. So they’ll just put one on their web site. But you’re not most people, RIGHT!

If you’re thinking about e-mailing a website hosting company, forget about it! E-mail just doesn’t cut it to test support! Why? Because they make their money by getting you to sign up for a hosting plan so their customer service response time will be extremely fast. You can count on it!

But only a few web hosting providers have good response time when somebody contacts their support by telephone. They don’t make their money by giving you good support. And after all, the unscrupulous operators are only in it for the money.

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