Is overselling a good practice or a bad one? There are a lot of different takes on this, and I would like to share my thoughts on it.

Overselling, in the simplest of terms, is selling more than you have, based on the assumption that not every Customer would use all of the resources provided to him. However, if consumers begin to use 100% of the resources promised to them, it becomes a major problem for both, the Provider as well as the Consumer. On the other hand, overselling could be considered a good practice, since it actually keeps a check on end Customer prices. If overselling was not practiced by companies, getting web-space would be much more expensive than what it is today.

Overselling done by Hosting providers can be understood by drawing a parallel to a more common scenario, that of telecommunications companies. Usually telecom companies oversell many times over their installed capacities, based on the common logic that not all Customers will use their mobile phones at one time, or to the fullest capacity. Now, when all Customers do use their allocated connections at the same time, the quality of service plummets below the promised mark. Hence, on days like New Year’s eve, when most of us try to get in touch with our dear ones, it is almost impossible to make a call. Blame it on overselling. Overselling however, keeps prices at low rates. If there would be no overselling, only a few of us would have mobile phones and those few, would pay some hefty fees to use them.

Coming back to the Hosting industry, let’s discuss the technicalities of overselling. The most common parameter oversold by Hosting Providers is bandwidth. Let us take, for example, a web hosting company that has a server with a 120 GB hard drive and 800 GB bandwidth. They start selling plans with 1GB space and 10GB transfer quota. After selling 80 plans the entire available bandwidth gets reserved and you’d normally assume that the host has hit the ceiling in terms of available bandwidth resources and can’t sell anymore. But that’s not what happens in reality. It’s common knowledge that not all websites consume the entire bandwidth allotted to them. The peak level bandwidth consumption of these websites may never cross 350-400 GB. Now, the web hosting company decides to maximize the profits of their server (cost is constant) by utilizing the extra bandwidth and selling more packages. They sell another 40 plans with the same parameters of 1GB space and 10 GB bandwidth. This space and bandwidth when added to the previous plans, sums up to 120 GB space and 1200 GB bandwidth. Naturally it helps in cutting down the rates and services become that much cheaper. This host is assuming (hopefully intelligently) that the peak bandwidth consumption will yet not cross 800GB, and in most cases that could be right. But, unaccounted overselling is what results in poor quality of service and you surely want to stay miles away from such providers.

I will not say overselling is the best practice, but under strictly controlled measures can be beneficial. There are so many web hosts, catering to every niche in the industry today, that choosing one has become more difficult than ever before. It has become practically impossible to decide one purely on the basis of the plans on their website; you never know whose overselling and by how much. I would keep in mind a couple of ratios, that more often than not, help you determine the “degree of overselling”, if you can call it so. From my experience and a lot of research, I would say that overselling starts when bandwidth to space ratio exceeds 15:1 (which is more of a conservative estimate). I have seen providers selling at 50:1 and even higher, which is nothing but just a disaster waiting to happen. You can also check the cost to bandwidth ratio which starts getting bad if it goes lower than $0.50 for 1GB. These numbers are not proven anywhere; its just something I consider looking at while deciding Hosting Providers.

What’s in it for you?

With regards to overselling, our ratios speak for themselves. Our bandwidth to space is a phenomenal 2/1. Compare it to the fact that overselling begins at somewhere about 15/1, we are way off it! Surprisingly though, we have managed to still offer some of the lowest prices out there.

Cheap domain name registration and cheap web hosting has in the years become very common place. You get massive disk space and much more.

Thanks to the low cost of domain names and hosting fees it is possible to own several websites without breaking the bank. You can get good hosting plans for as little as EUR 23.88 per year and domain names for just EUR 1.99!

Cheap Domain Name Registration

Cheap domain name registration is freely available these days. There are hundreds of registrars and their prices vary considerably. Although registrars are closely regulated, they are permitted to offer their services through third parties; so many web hosts offer a domain name registration service even if they are not a registrar. Domain names are usually registered for a minimum of one year.

Cheap Domain Web Hosting

Once you have purchase your domain name, in order for your site to be visible online you will need to have your site hosted. For this you will require the services of a domain hosting company. Here again, there are hundreds of hosting companies and fees vary considerably. If you are not aufae’ with the various technologies / functionality that a good domain hosting company should provide don’t be alarmed or put off. The easiest option is to go with a large, well branded host, like VAIOWEB.

If you prefer you could contact various domain hosts and enquire what technologies are offered with their package. Remember here, that these companies offer a range of packages … so you need to choose a package that suits YOUR needs. Typically packages differ in functionality and storage space. eg. a more expensive package will allow for a shopping cart and a credit card processing facility. If you do not intend selling products from your site then this is not for you; many domain hosting companies offer you the option to upgrade at a later stage so don’t feel you need to have all technologies / functionality upfront.

After sale support is, in my opinion, of the utmost importance when deciding on a hosting company to host your newly acquired or transferred domain name. If you are opting for a lesser known hosting company this factor will be hard to gauge upfront. Hence it is my opinion that you stick with the better know, branded names. These are hosting companies that enjoy a large portion of the market share, people have being using them and can vouch for their reliability.

Managing Multiple Domains

There are several ways to manage multiple domains so it is important to know what your options are and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

The most basic choice when administering multiple domains is whether or not to do so with the same host. Most hosts offer packages which can be set up to allow several sites on one account, or allow individual sites to be operated under separate accounts.

You may have an existing website and are happy with the services your host provides. If you decide to start a new website using the same host, you will have the reassurance of dealing with a company you are familiar with and trust. On the other hand, using a new host for a second (or third or fourth) website can allow you to compare the quality of hosting offered by different companies. In addition, separate hosts will provide each of your web sites with a different IP address.

Having different IP addresses can be an important factor if you plan to link the sites together to aid in search engine optimization. Incoming links are an important indicator of the importance of a website, so a site with a lot of incoming links can get a higher position in search engines like Google. If all the links are coming from the same IP address, however, their value may be discounted. For a yearly fee each website can have its own unique IP address. This can help with search engine ranking and is also needed if you want to have a secure connection (https) on your site.

A Few Word Of Caution About Free Domain Name Registration and Free Domain Web Hosting

Remember that cheap domain name registration and web hosting does not mean that you may opt for the free options out there. Free hosting is definitely an area you will do well to stay away from. Free domain hosting almost always mean no customer support, unreliable up-time and alot of dowm-time. Free domain name registration means that you DO NOT own that domain name but merely ‘renting’ it via a third party … a definite no … no.