HOME | RESOURCES | FREE DOWNLOADS | AFFILIATE MARKETING | WEB HOSTING | EBOOKS | SCRIPTS | SEO | BLOG


 

Overselling Web Hosting: What Does It Mean To You?


Overselling is a big trend in the web-hosting world at the moment. It's an easy way to get more out of your servers than normally is possible. The basic idea of overselling is that the majority of your clients are only going to use a fraction of the resources allocated to them so there's going to be a lot of wasted bandwidth and space. Overselling involves taking a gamble and selling more than you can handle assuming that the unused resources will cover it.

Let's say for example that a server hard drive is 80GB and has 1200GB of bandwidth. The hosting company has a look around and decides that to be competitive they need to offer plans with 2GB of disk space and 40GB bandwidth. With these figures they can only offer 30 hosting packages per server. This leaves quite a bit of wasted disk space and after a few months the company will probably notice that their users aren't using all of the available bandwidth. Because of this the company then assumes that it can safely sell at least 10 more packages on the one server. If the original number of customers already covers general costs then the extra packages provided by overselling are pure profit.

The advantage of overselling for the host is that they make more money off each server than they otherwise normally would be able to. The advantage for the client is that this extra revenue is usually transferred on (at least in theory) by cheaper hosting packages with more features. The problem is that these features are often 'smoke and mirrors'. A few users would be able to use their entire allotment without any trouble, but if every single client were to build their website up to maximum capacity the host wouldn't be able to handle the sudden increase in demand without adding extra hard drives, buying more bandwidth, or perhaps even another server. This would most likely lead to a fair amount of downtime.

Web hosts aren't going to advertise the fact that they oversell. It's not something that will gain them customers and it's likely to drive away a few. In general however, they're likely to get away with it without any real problems. The reason the idea even exists is that it is true that the majority of websites don't use all of the space that's allocated to them. The problem is that it's not a particularly honest way of dealing with clients. It's a little like the 'Emperor's New Clothes' where the host is just hoping that no one notices the fact that a package is in fact a little nude.

Overselling will generally not be a problem unless a host gets too greedy and ends up selling much more than they could possibly provide for. On the other hand, it's not even necessary as the host can usually make enough money to make ends meet without overselling. It will generally be quite difficult for you to find out whether or not a host oversells unless they specifically advertise it, or they're well known for having problems due to excessive overselling. Just make sure you do some research and choose a reliable host, not necessarily the one that appears to offer ridiculous amounts of bandwidth or disk space for far too little money.

Daniel Punch
M6.Net Web Helpers
Daniel Punch is a writer working at M6.Net: 'The web-hosting company for humans.' M6.Net is working hard to help humanity experience the power and freedom to develop their own part of the Internet, to share their information and connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime.


MORE RESOURCES:

CNET

New Google Search Ap Offers "Instant" Results
AHN | All Headline News
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) - Internet search engine giant Google has launched "Google Instant," which shows results as soon as the user types. ...
Google challenges Microsoft, Yahoo with Instant searchInternational Business Times
Web Searches Just Got Faster, Google ClaimsFOXNews
Google unveils faster Internet searchAFP
Reuters -Helium -CNET
all 1,641 news articles »


The Business Insider

Google Gains From Search Market Growth, But Yahoo! Could Hit $20
Forbes (blog)
As a result, Google's stock is far more sensitive to changes in the search market than Yahoo's and Microsoft's. The days are long past when Internet search ...
Google: All Set To Retort Its Competitors With Its Latest Innovation TechniqueDaily Latest News (blog)
Search SharesTelecoms News (blog)
Yahoo And Bing Get Nearly A Quarter Of The Search MarketSearch Newz
Promotion World (press release) -DirectNews
all 81 news articles »


Journalists in China say Yahoo accounts hacked
Salt Lake Tribune
Yahoo e-mail accounts belonging to foreign journalists appeared to have been hacked, and Google's Chinese search engine was intermittently blocked Tuesday, ...

and more »


Search Engine Watch

Basics of organic SEO
Helium
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has to do with keywords; SEM (Search Engine Marketing) deals with how sell information to marketers on the Internet, ...
Google Instant: Leaping AheadWager Run News (blog)
Looking for SEO services and PPC management services in Manchester ...Jazzou (blog)
Google Kicks Long-Tail Keywords To The Curb With Instant Search?Inventorspot
SBWire (press release) -Mediarun Search -Online PR News (press release)
all 53 news articles »


Internet Marketing Software Provider HubSpot Announces Channel Partner and ...
MarketWatch (press release)
It improves online visibility in social media and search engines, generates more leads and closes more sales, works faster and smarter using an all-in-one ...

and more »


Inquiry Zeroes In on Google Deal
Wall Street Journal
They said Google would instantly become the new gateway for finding airfares and could promote its travel search engine over other sites' search engines, ...

and more »


Mirror.co.uk

Google Doodle mystery deepens as search engine logo goes grey
Mirror.co.uk
... search engine service at a special event tomorrow. In order to view today's logo, users must be using the latest versions of internet browsers Firefox ...
Google Logo a Doodle Balls with Hidden SecretsFiint
What the Heck Is Up With Those Google Balls?CBS News
Google balls logo: Hidden message or are Google dots just clever marketing?New York Daily News
DailyTech -Cream (blog) -The Province
all 814 news articles »


Washington Post

(NASDAQ:GOOG) Google Algorithm Inquiry by Texas Attorney General
Business and Finance News (blog)
Google is by far the most popular search engine used by internet users, and the Texas Attorney General wants to make sure that the company is operating ...
Texas opens antitrust investigation of GoogleCNET
Google faces first US competition inquiryThe Guardian
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office looking into Google's recommendationsFort Worth Star Telegram
Times LIVE -domain-B -Examiner.com
all 506 news articles »


Reuters Blogs (blog)

Video: Sergey Brin Explains Why Google Instant Matters
DailyFinance
Back in 2005, Yahoo trotted out its Yahoo Instant Search (YHOO), and rolled out Livesearch onto one of its second-tier search engines the following year, ...
Google's Brin: Make smartphone apps searchableReuters Blogs (blog)

all 3 news articles »


MSN Philippines News

Consumer Watchdog to Google CEO: Berlin Comments at Odds With Personal Privacy ...
Sacramento Bee
By denying advertisements that mention Google on Google's search engine, the Internet giant only shows the danger of concentrating search in Google's hands, ...
Google Promises New Investment in France Following Regulatory BattlesBloomberg
Our Letter To Eric Schmidt: Google Shouldn't Care More About Its Own Privacy ...Firedoglake (blog)

all 44 news articles »

Google News

© COPYRIGHT 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PROJECTGETRICH.COM