How to pick a Webhost

If we are talking about a host, we are not talking about someone who is having a party, even though you would probably love to be invited to one by the company who provides you with a place to put your stuff on. There are a lot of free and cheap alternatives to paid webhosting, but they usually don't include a domain. Sure you can go ahead and create something and pay a lot money for it, but you don't have to. You can start at squidoo, blogger or wordpress and get your feet wet.

• What do you get for your money? Do you really need a webhost? Can you get this service for free? Do you need a dedicated server, or is shared hosting enough? If you don't know what this is, you probably could start with a free webhost and simply get a domain to link to it.


• What does the webhost offer besides webspace? Which features do you need? php, mysql, shopping carts? What do you get for your money, do you really need all this stuff, or is it simply offered to you, so the people can charge more money? Make sure you know what you want and what you really need before you get a paid host. There are plenty of good blogs and websites operating from a free platform that make a killing. Here at squidoo for example are a few lenses, that make a few hundread dollars a month. Some even above the thousands. For a single site.


• How much traffic is included your package? Do you have to order more in case you create a hit? This is really important, as your website will hopefully grow and with all the picture and videos you are going to use. Make sure that your webtraffic won't be the end of your whole adventure.


• How fast are the servers? How many people are on one server in case you pick shared host? Are the databases fast? Find people who are customers at this place and ask them about the company. Make sure you get the best value for your $.


• How many email accounts can I create? You want to be able to create more than one, that's for sure.


• Can I create subdomains? a subdomain is simple something like http://thisinfo.squidoo.com. Can be very useful if you want to create a few minisites.

There a lot very solid hosting companies around, two I have had experiences with myself and would recommend to others.(Beware: These some good faith recommondation with affiliate links below, which means I get a compensation when you sign up)
Hostgator and Bluehost, both offering good performance and value for your money.

Hostgator - Great customer support, fast shared hosting, unlimited Disk Space, unlimited Bandwidth, Host unlimited Websites, Instant Setup, 99.9% Uptime Guarantee, 45 Day Money Back Guarantee, CGI, PHP 5, RoR, Perl, MySQL, SSH, SSL, IMAP, POP, 24/7/365 Upgraded Support starting at $7.95 per month

Bluehost - Fast hosting, cheap prizes, unlimited Hosting Space web hostingHost UNLIMITED Domains, 2,500 POP/Imap Email Accounts, SSH (Secure Shell), SSL, FTP, Stats CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL 2000/2002 Front Page Extensions starting at 6,95$ per month