If you’re trying to put info online then there lots of free ways in which to do it. But ,, unless you would like to be at the mercy of somebody else and risk your data being lost forever, then free hosting is definitely not the best method. Look at Geocities for example. Several years ago it was one of the biggest sites on the web and offered free hosting to just about everyone that wanted it. Now it is being shut down and anyone that does not move their website is going to lose their data and years of hard work.

If you would like to avoid losing everything you have got built up then you need to be master of your own destiny, and that ultimately means having your own domain name and having your own hosting account. But how simple is it to find good hosting? Should you opt for a shared hosting account? Or what about cheap dedicated hosting? Selecting cheap reliable hosting can be minefield of difficulties. Lets have a look at a number of things that should take into account when looking around…

One of the most important things to consider is whether the web hosting company you’re considering offers a hosting package that really meets your needs. Nowadays most hosting companies are pretty generous when it comes to the disk allowance that they provide you with. The days of 5MB hosting accounts seem to be well behind us, but it’s still something that you need to check. Is the potential hosting company offering you enough disk space currently, and enough to satisfy the future growth of your site? If your site was to grow beyond your expectations are you able to buy further disk space cheaply, or can you upgrade to their next hosting package up from yours at a low cost?

Bandwidth is another important consideration. There are two camps that hosting companies seem to have split into. Those who supply a certain amount of bandwidth for your cash, and those who supply unlimited bandwidth. I said ‘seem to’ for the reason that in reality there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. For those who have got the time, it is well worth reading the small print before signing up to any packages that are providing unlimited disk space or unlimited bandwidth. Both disk space and bandwidth cost the hosting company and it is usually the most competitive and lowest price hosts that supply these ‘unlimited’ packages, typically for costs like $3.95 a month. That just isn’t a sustainable business model, and customers that try to take advantage of either the unlimited disk space or bandwith will quickly discover that they can be encouraged to either move to a higher cost hosting package, or move their hosting to another company.