Whenever I speak with a potential client, one of the first questions I ask is “How much is your website hosting per year”?

Typical responses range from $120 a year all the way up to $3,000 a year.

Whenever I hear a number that’s more than $400, I’ll recommend new options for this yearly cost because anything over that figure is “misdemeanor theft”.

Just last month though, I got a call from a firm in Virgina. And for website hosting, they pay….are you ready for this…..

$12,000 a year.

I’m usually never at a loss for words….but at that exact moment I was.

Their fee included nothing else – just straightforward hosting – so for that, I file a charge of “felony theft”.

I gently recommended several options….and by the next day they were up and running with a new web host at the whopping cost of less than $400 a year – that’s more than 3,800% less than what they were paying.

If your website hosting costs are above $400 a year, look for alternatives as you head into 2009.

Whatever you do, try to stay away from the $8.95 a month hosting providers. The level of service on the server side of their offerings are lousy (the server your site is on will be overloaded with other sites as well) and the customer service is worse.

Your law firms web presence is to important for you to use a “discount” hosting provider.

So, look for a provider that costs around $25 a month….and more importantly….look for a company that uses the main contact number for their techical help as well. You typically get immediate responses from these types of companies.

If your site site has a blog, extensive mailing lists, e-commerce functions and databases, expect to pay a bit more….but nowhere near the $1,000 a month the client in Virginia was paying.

If you need some direction on who to turn to, shoot me an e-mail at tom (at) the-attorneys-atm.com. I have a couple of companies I recommend all the time and I’ll coordinate it for you.