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Introduction
While there are quite a lot of web
hosting companies in Nigeria, not all
of them actually have their servers
located in the country, however, the
more important thing is that there
should be able to provide reliable and
satisfactory service to their customers
Web hosting is a web service that is
offered by web hosting companies. It
is a form or service that provides an
online space for domain owners to
publish their web to the world. The
world wide web is a huge place and it
involves a lot of websites which are
hosted on constantly working web
servers across the
world. What a web hosting company
does is to purchase and configure
servers to be able to allow webs to be
hosted on them.
Web hosting has been a big business
in the US and other developed
countries since the start of the
internet and had become bigger
business with the dotcom
boom era. It is equally a growing
business in Nigeria, a country which
has been having a rapid internet
growth thes past few years, brought
about by the
growth in the telecoms market.
Equally, more and more people are
getting on the web for both personal
and business reasons. Companies as
well as NGOs all see
the need for having a website and you
cannot have a website without a web
hosting service and so you see that
web hosting, in Nigeria, is certainly
an
important part of the future. Students
need websites such as those of Jamb,
WAEC, Universities and so on.
Lecturers and equally graduates need
websites of
govt ministries and employing
companies. Corporate businesses also
need websites to reach a larger online
market to display and sell their
products. The web
industry in Nigeria is just growing
and the need for web hosting service
is equally growing. Web hosting in
Nigeria is definitely an important
service that
ought not be overlooked.
To have an online presence(a
website), whether it is for a company,
celebrity, small business or just for
personal use, these 3 basic things are
essential:
Web design --->Domain name --> Web
hosting --->
You get a web designer to design your
websites and then get a domain name
related to what you want and then
pay for web hosting. You will have to
pay for
these three things in order to get your
website available on the web. Web
hosting happens to be the last and
without it, you just can't be on the
internet.
Benefits of being on the web
There are quite a number of benefits
a company or an individual can
derive from being on the web using a
web hosting service. These are:
- Having a 24 hr open office on the
internet
- Ability to reach a wider market
without physical expansion
- It gives your business and person a
befitting personality
- It creates a good impression to your
connections or clients
- It gives people the ability to reach
you or your product at anytime
- It gives higher return on investment
- It offers the cheapest form of
advertising compared to results
- It is the way of the future and
everyone should get on it
Qualities of a good web hosting
service
While there are quite a lot of web
hosting companies in Nigeria, it
would be wise to deal with only those
ones that can offer your the proper
and reliable
service without hurting your public
image or minimizing your income.
Here a re a couple of things you
should consider:
- Does your web hosting company
have a registered office?
- Can you pay in local currency or is it
just by credit card?
- How long does it take to get
customer service to attend to you?
- Is there an online chat service or
reliable phone line provided online by
the hosting company?
- Does the cost of hosting your web
justifiable to the service your receive?
- Is your website always available for
the whole 24 hrs?
- Does your web hosting company
offer great customer service?
- Consider also the numerical strength
of their staff
- How much does it cost to host your
website there compared to others
- Does your web hosting provider
offer discounts or rewards for your
loyalty?
- Does your web host do a periodic
back up of websites on their servers?
- Is your website fast enough or has it
slowed down since you moved to a
new host?
How to find a web hosting company
Finding a good web hosting company
is quite easy since most of them have
a website and you may decide to host
your company with a Nigeria
company and pay in naira or decide
to host it in the US or Canada and pay
in dollars using a Nigerian credit
card. All you need to do is do a Google
search for web hosting companies in
your preferred country using Google
custom local and global search. The
good thing about Nigerian web hosts
is that they offer you the ability to pay
in cash and you could easily contact
them at their office if you run into
problems but there are also
disadvantages such as offering you
plans which may be cheap but
unreliable and your website may
have lots of downtimes or inability to
run as much cgi scripts as you may
want. The advantage of hosting with a
US web host is that they have more
reliability and your website would be
much faster and you get a lot of deals
and discounts for hosting with them,
the disadvantage may be that they
may terminate your account if they
suspect any foul play on your side and
the issue of higher costs on hosting
but they are much more reliable.
All you need to get you web online is
to find a good web hosting company
of your choice, view their plans and
terms of service, mode of payment
which is acceptable to you and then
pay for the service before hosting. If
you can, try paying for a month plan
first in order to test how your website
will perform before going for the one
year plan. Some people make that
mistake of going for a one year plan
straight when using a new web
hosting company and they later find
out that the web host doesn't work
well for your website. Also if you run
into problems, try to see if you can get
the problems solved using your web
hosting provider's online forum or
blog if there is any. Web hosting
forums can help give you a hand and
provides tips on how users like you
were able to solve similar problems
you may be encountering.
How to get your website up and
running with a web host
Once you have subscribe for a web
hosting service with your provider,
you are given a quick set uo guide
either by email or immediately on
how you can forward you domain to
that web host assuming you
purchased the domain from another
provider. You will be given a set of
nameservers in the format
ns1.webhost.com, ns2.webhost.com to
which you should point to from your
domain account and within 24 - 72
hrs, your website will be live and you
can be making changes and
publishing to your new web host
from your computer using FTP,
uploads or other channels allowed by
your web host.
If you encounter any problems on
setting up your website with your
new web host, you may still contact
them by email or the channels
provided such as tickets or phone.
Cheap web hosting vs Standard web
hosting
While web hosting is the most
important action that will keep your
website online, getting a web hosting
service of your choice will also
depend on if you want it to be
cheaper of just the right price. At
times, getting a cheaper web hosting
plan could have its side effects such as
lower quality service, lower disk
space, lower monthly bandwidth,
lesser scripts for cgi-bin, bad
customer service and maybe other
hidden charges, a standard web
hosting price may just about bring the
opposite for you by providing you
with much better service, higher disk
space, variety of templates and
softwares, good customer service,
constant uptime and more rewards.
One should be able to consider the
importance of his website and decide
on how much it is worth before
knowing whether to choose a cheap
web hosting service or a much more
expensive one. I think choosing a well
priced web hosting service for a
website that you consider to be the
long run should be considered else
you may just choose for a cheap one.
However if you are choosing a cheap
web host, then it will be good if the
website is expected to have few repeat
visitor in a month (maybe 1000), if it
not constantly updated(brochure
type), and does not have a large file
size(e.g. 50 - 100MB). But if it a
website that will be constantly
updated and has hundreds of
thousands of visitors (like the JAMB
or WAEC website), then going for a
much more standard prized web
hosting service should be the option.
So, don't just go for web hosting deals
that are way to cheap without
considering the nature and future
prospects of you website
How much should I pay for web
hosting?
Really how much should one pay for
web hosting service in Nigeria? Well,
for a standard website, I think paying
NGN10,000 - NGN15,000 should be
just the right prize for reliable and
satisfactory web hosting. However for
new websites that doesn't have much
content like a blog that is still growing
or just brochure type websites, one
can choose a cheaper web hosting
plan like N5000 a year. Web hosting
companies in Nigeria have a range of
prizes and some are just using their
prizes to win the market to
themselves. The prize range for
average web hosing services in
Nigeria by various companies is from
N3000 - N5000 a year.
Who needs web hosting?
Everyone who is interested in putting
a footmark on the Nigerian online
community really needs web hosting.
Web hosting is what connects you to
your fans, readers and customers.
Every Nigerian company should at
least have a brochure type website on
a web hosting plan even if it just to
tell people about their products and
services. Politicians and even students
can keep websites.
When to quit your web hosting
provider
It's simple. if your provider is not
giving you what you consider
satisfactory, then you should not
renew any plan with them. If you
have a problem with them, try
contacting them and if they still fail to
rectify it, it's probably because they
can't, so just leave them. The problem
with certain web hosting providers in
Nigeria is that some complaints by
customers are beyond their ability to
handle since they mostly use reseller
web hosting to sell their service and
so it is not within their control. Some
web hosting companies in Nigeria
may also be affected by the Nigerian
factor called epileptic power supply
and they most times lack fuel to
power their generator and if they are
the ones hosting your website, you
find out that your website is
unavailable. If you find out that your
website is unavailable at certain time,
it has not right to be so since you paid
for 24 hrs service for a whole year, i
think it's time you quit since it loses
you money.
Obstacles to web hosting in Nigeria
There are quite a lot of obstacles to
web hosting in Nigeria for both
customers and providers. For the
customers, it may be:
- Inability to find a reliable web host
that will be in business for the long
term
- Poor customer service by most
providers who have little or single
staff
- No clear regulation for web hosting
providers by the govt
- No place to seek redress for poor
service by providers
- Poor delivery of service due to
downtimes and lack of backup by
hosting providers
- Unavailability of help or support
portals by web hosting companies
Some Obstacles being faced by web
hosting service providers in Nigeria
are:
- Poor electrical power supply by the
govt
- High cost of running on generators
- Lack of experience or expertise in
running a web hosting company
- Low level financing of activities
- Multiple taxation by the govt
Web hosting is really an essential
service and if you want to host you
website, I recommend you view the
packages of 3 or 4 online web hosts
before making a decision and don't
just choose for the sake of the prize,
consider its merits also.