Is there such a thing as too much good publicity?

Shortly after DogCatRadio.com launched in 2005, the New York Times, “Good Morning America,” the BBC and a host of other media outlets were all over the Internet radio station/e-retailer, writing and broadcasting stories on the unique web destination, which caters to, among others, dogs and cats. The wave of publicity caused a tsunami of traffic that left a surprise for the web site operators: a monthly bill from Earthlink, its web hosting company, for $87,000, up from the then typical $3,000 to $4,000.

At the Internet Retailer 2007 Conference and Exhibition, in an educational session titled “Making the Right Web Hosting Choice,” Adrian Martinez, president of DogCatRadio.com, said, “So we decided to go to another web hosting company, and we had a disaster there, too.”

Ultimately they found a new web host, IPower. Martinez advised session attendees that the most important thing an e-retailer must do when looking for a web hosting firm is “to find one that can grow with you.”

Co-speaker James Pappas, e-commerce manager at multi-channel retailer J.L. Hufford Coffee and Tea, added, “Research the hell out of hosting companies. That can’t be stressed enough.”