| One of the first obstacles everyone starting up | | | | take the actual reputation into consideration. |
| online faces is that of choosing the right hosting | | | | 4. How many domains? - This is an important |
| and domain name deals for their sites. This is an | | | | question any more. Very few people use only one |
| issue that is consistently present throughout one's | | | | domain throughout their online existence. Most use |
| online presence. With a large number of hosting | | | | two or more, and many use more than 5 or 10. |
| companies competing for your attention, how can | | | | It is important to see what your hosting |
| you make sure that the deal you choose is indeed | | | | provider's policy on more domains is. There are |
| the best one for you? | | | | still many hosting companies that will only host a |
| The following are a few attributes that you need | | | | single domain with each hosting account. Relatively |
| to look at before choosing any hosting package: | | | | few will allow you to host many domains and |
| 1. Cheapest is not best - One of the biggest | | | | even less will allow unlimited domain names to be |
| mistakes you can make is choosing a plan based | | | | hosted on their account. If you plan on increasing |
| on what is the cheapest web hosting package out | | | | your scope of online activity, consider these |
| there. Instead, learn to compare the relative value | | | | packages. Usually the cost is barely higher. |
| of each hosting package with its competitors. The | | | | 5. How many sites? - Among the hosting |
| best thing to do is to choose a yardstick or a | | | | companies that allow you to host multiple |
| comparative standard against which you can | | | | domains, see how many of them allow you to |
| compare all the hosting packages you see. So | | | | host unlimited SITES. Some hosting companies |
| once you are fairly certain that hosting company | | | | give the illusion that they allow unlimited domain |
| A is a good option, then look a little more and see | | | | hosting. On further investigation, you may find |
| if you can find a cheaper deal. Then compare the | | | | that all this means is that you can store your |
| features that both of the companies provide and | | | | domain on their server, nothing more. For all |
| choose the better one. Weigh the relative price | | | | practical purposes, that's useless. What you need |
| and the relative features to see which one is | | | | to look for is how many sites are allowed on a |
| better. | | | | given account. There are very few web hosts |
| 2. More is not better - Many hosting companies | | | | that are still cheap that give these options, but |
| intentionally or unintentionally mislead people by | | | | they are definitely there! |
| showing them the extremely high bandwidth and | | | | 6. The Customer Service - Before signing on with |
| disk storage space. You will almost never reach | | | | any given company, contact the customer |
| even 10% of the bandwidth limit on any of these | | | | service with questions, even if you already have |
| packages, so don't even use that as a yardstick | | | | the answer to them. This will give you a first-hand |
| for measurement. And if you do plan on receiving | | | | view on how efficient, courteous and useful the |
| that high traffic, you should be using a dedicated | | | | customer support is. Use at least 2 mediums. |
| server anyway. | | | | Usually, you can contact support by phone, e-mail, |
| 3. Popular is not better - A more popular | | | | or live chat. Definitely use the phone, and choose |
| company is not necessarily the better provider. A | | | | from the other two. |
| classic case is that of iPower. It was once a very | | | | As is clear, there are many things that need to |
| popular hosting company with many satisfied | | | | be considered before making the decision about |
| customers. As the company and the name grew, | | | | signing on with a specific web host. All of these |
| the quality of the service went down the drain. | | | | issues and attributes need to be fulfilled to your |
| When looking for the cheapest web hosting | | | | satisfaction before purchasing from a single place. |
| package, don't take gross popularity into account, | | | | |