What would you say is the most important thing for internet Marketing?
I know that many will say email marketing, building a list, loyal followers and customers, creating and promoting quality products, providing value to grow your following and build your tribe, taking action on what you learn, consistency, finding a good coaching program or mentor, and traffic.
These are all excellent answers but, they are wrong. The one most important thing for internet marketing is web hosting. I saw a post in a Facebook group I belong to that asked what was the cheapest hosting deal on a certain platform. People do not cut corners on web hosting. Another comment on the post was a list of companies and “they’re lifetime deals too.”
OMG! I fell for a lifetime deal when I came back to IM. I have had more problems with my site being down more than it was up the past year and a half it isn’t funny. The last time it was down I couldn’t even access the hosting account to set up a support ticket.
Let me ask this, how much do you think the average person trying to make money online spends on the latest and greatest shiny object that comes along promising to turn your computer into an instant ATM in a year? I would be willing to bet that if you stopped and controlled “shiny object syndrome” you could pay for quality hosting and still spend less in a year than currently doing. Believe me, I know that shiny object syndrome is real. I would buy everything that came into my inbox. I have multiple external hard drives with products on them. Many of those products are junk.
There is no magic button. There isn’t a slot on your computer to withdraw your cash. Internet marketing is a business and like any business it will require investment. Investment of money for the tools you will need, much like your auto technician needs to buy the necessary tools to work on your car, investment of time, and investment of work. I separated time and work into two different investments because you need to invest time into learning. Nobody slaps up a website and instantly makes money.
The most important thing for internet marketing is for your site to be accessible to the traffic you send to it. Bite the bullet and pay for a quality web host. A business requires investment. Lately it seems people spend more for their hobbies than they are willing to invest in their business. Remember, if you will not invest in your business, if you only work at it when you feel like it once in a while, it is not a business it is merely another hobby.
While it may look like a good deal initially, think about down the road when hosting expenses increase but your clients do not have to send in payments because they have a lifetime deal. I learned the hard way. I hope to help even one person learn from my mistake and avoid a major headache when they can’t log in to their site.
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2 replies to "What is the most important thing for internet Marketing?"
Yeah, ‘Shiny Object Syndrome’ is a real problem that can be overcome with goal setting. When I feel I am getting off the track I listen to Earl Nightingale’s ‘Lead the Field’ and that gives me focus.
On your other note regarding lifetime JVZoo hosting rubbish, there was actually a relatively good lifetime hosting offer that came along that was from lifetime.hosting, which was pretty good for basic WordPress websites.
The only other thing you should discuss is the best hosting provider that people could use when creating an internet marketing project would be the best shared/dedicated/managed hosting plan. I still have an Hostgator shared account that I’ve had for 15 years, but they have nerfed the features, and now it’s slow, unless you use a CDN like Stackpath (used alongside a cache plugin like WP Rocket) which improves load times. I like Dreamhost, but I think Bluehost is the best for shared hosting right now.
When looking for a hosting provider it’s important to look for impartial reviews, because most sites at the top of the Google listings for ‘Best web hosting services’ are actually getting paid commission for referrals. So, check out reviews where people have thoroughly investigated and reported on the quality of each host based upon the same factors.
For dedicated servers, if you actually know a little about server admin you could get a bare metal server from Scaleway, OVH or for the budget conscious Kimsufi. Where you can install a Linux based operating system like CentOS and then install a web-based interface for system administration software such as Webmin and Virtualmin which is equivalent to cPanel. A $30 a month bare metal server will handle between 10 and 50 WordPress sites quite easily depending on how many server resources you use on each site. I use a WP plugin called MainWP to administer my WordPress sites, as in update plugins, themes, etc. This saves hours of logging into each site and updating them. Each site is connected to Stackpath CDN to improve website load times using the WP Rocket caching plugin. Whilst each site is secured with a security plugin called All In One WP Security. My setup is budget, but powerful.
Apart from web hosting, every internet marketer needs an email list hosting service. Email list hosting is incredibly expensive unless you look for alternatives. I use a program called Sendy. Sendy connects to Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) and I set this up using a service called Easy Sendy using their ‘Hosting’ service where I purchase my own Sendy license and have them host the software on their server and connect it to my Amazon SES account. After a bit of warming up, delivery rates are comparable with Aweber/Mailchimp/etc. BUT, the cost is 1/10th (currently $29 a month) for up to 100,000 subscribers. Definitely worth looking at for those budget-conscious internet marketers.
Just some thoughts.
Regards…
James…
Lifetime.hosting is the host I migrated away from. I was always having issues with my site being down. Updating my themes and plugins was much slower than it is now with Liquid Web. The last time my site was down I couldn’t even log into my account to set up a support ticket and that was the final straw for me. I also closed my Hostgator account.