Choosing The Right Autoresponder Web Hosting

If you plan to use an autoresponder script for email marketing, here’s a word of caution: get the correct hosting plan.

Don’t just assume that you can get some cheap shared hosting somewhere with “unlimited” bandwidth etc and put your script there, sending out thousands of emails every day. I did that once and woke up one day to find my account suspended.

Lets take a look at the 4 basic types of web hosting accounts out there:

1. Shared Hosting – You shared the same physical server / machine with thousands of other users. Although the hosting company may advertise “unlimited” bandwidth and space, there are tons of limitations in the fine print which makes that virtually impossible. Most importantly, with a shared hosting account you usually cannot send out more than 200 to 500 emails per day.
2. Reseller Hosting – A few resellers share the same server / machine, and each reseller can create new accounts either for personal use or to be sold. Although you may have additional flexibility with a reseller account, the very fast that you’re still sharing the same resources with other users means that there will probably be some type of limitations on using autoresponder scripts as well.
3. VPS (Virtual Private Server) – Similar to reseller hosting, a VPS provider has tons of servers and instead of giving you a big part of one server they give you small parts of many servers. That way it created some kind of “private network” for your web hosting accounts. With a VPS you have almost all the freedom you can get with web hosting, and you can host your autoresponder scripts with no problem. A VPS is the best choice.
4. Dedicated Server – If you have many websites, ten you may want to get a dedicated web server. With a dedicated server the entire machine is yours, and that means what you do does not effect anyone else. You’re free to host your autoresponder script, and the only reason a dedicated server is ranked lower than a VPS is because of the cost.

So, it’s clear that you should stay away from using a shared hosting account is you plan to install and use your own autoresponder script. A VPS is the best best, and LunarPages VPS is a great choice. A VPS can handle multiple accounts as well, and it much cheaper than a pure dedicate server. You get the flexibility you need, without breaking the bank

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