When you finally choose to have a website, the first thing you think about is the domain name. Everyone does this. But before you rush into a frenzy to grab the next million dollar domain, take the time to make the right hosting choices. There are a million and one hosting companies online and while it would be nice toi say they’re all good, it just isn’t true. Some hosting companies are worthless and will hurt your web presence. Choose the wrong host and you could be losing visitors and customers. Get the right host and you can set your site on cruise control.

Host Reliability – Up Time

Number 1 question should be how much downtime does a host have. Believe me, when your site is down because of the hosting company, you will not like it. I’ve tried hosting companies where my site was down 4 days in a row and that is HUGE! Most major hosting companies today have excellent up-time, but make sure you’re using a major hosting company – one of the big boys. I now use two different hosting companies for my clients and both have exceptional uptime.

All in One and One for All

Whoever you choose to host your website, buy your domain with them too. The few dollars you may save today are not going to be worth the hassle when it comes time to renew. Trust me on this, a user name and password you use once a year or less is pretty easy to forget. It’s not a lot of fun even trying to remember the password you haven’t used in a year and now you can’t even remember your first pet’s name. Integrate your hosting company and your domain hosting, even if it does cost a few dollars more. has good rates and a really easy to work with domain managing system.

It’s tough to beat GoDaddy.com for inexpensive hosting and domain registration. If you are looking to host a simple website and that’s it, GoDaddy.com is probably your best choice

Linux or Windows

Unlike operating systems, Linux dominates the world of web hosting. If your website is going to be some simple HTML and not a lot of fancy-shmansy gadgets, it doesn’t really matter which web host platform you choose. But when you need internet hosting for your web application, it matters. Internet hosting for web applications are usually platform specific and something you need to know. I prefer Linux web hosting servers, but I have to say, I am very impressed with the new Windows web servers. I really boils down to preference or what your web application requires.

Additional Web Host Features

Storage and bandwidth are always a big concern for websites. Right now, GoDaddy.com has web host plan with 300GB of storage and and 3,000 GB of bandwidth transfer for $4.29 a month. Do you have any idea what that kind of storage and bandwidth cost 10 years ago – sheesh! 3,000 GB of transfer is huge and at that price, it’s just a fantastic bargain. Another excellent value is BlueHost
web hosting. This company offers unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth for less than $10 a month.

Bottom Line Web Hosting

As far as I am concerned, there are only 2 web hosting companies I use: BlueHost.com and GoDaddy.com Almost every other hosting company I have used has either suffered from too much down time, had horrible customer support and/or had reliability issues. After being online for over 13 years and even running my own hosting company, I’ve seen companies come and go and GoDaddy and BlueHost are the best at what they do.

Enjoy

BlueHost Web Hosting – $6.95/mo!