| If you are new to having your own self-hosted blog | | | | hosting account. If you are too restricted, whether |
| or web site, then choosing the best web host to | | | | you personally know how to use these features or |
| park your domain is mind boggling. There are a | | | | not, there may come a day or time when you may |
| bazillion and one web hosts out there (and I don't | | | | need these features and might need to hire someone |
| really think that's an exaggeration on numbers) and all | | | | who does know how to use them and will need to |
| of them claim to be the best and/or cheapest. | | | | access them on your behalf. Believe me, it's easier to |
| Things get confusing very quickly, if you don't know | | | | have them as your disposal, than to have to move |
| what to look for to sort through the hype. | | | | your site because what you need is not available to |
| There are really only five key things you need to | | | | you. |
| look for when choosing a web host: | | | | 4. Cost Are you surprised that this was not further |
| | | | up the list? Cost is usually first on most people's |
| 1. Uptime What is their guaranteed percentage of | | | | minds, and while it is something to consider overall - it |
| time that their servers will be up and running. If they | | | | should not be the driving consideration in choosing a |
| don't list a percentage of up-time, move on. | | | | web host, because if you go for cheap, well... you |
| 2. Customer Service While with the top web hosts | | | | get what you pay for, and that's not always a good |
| you should not need to use customer service much | | | | thing. |
| at all, when you do have a question or need | | | | 5. Reputation This falls a bit under customer service, |
| assistance with anything, the customer service | | | | but if you find a company that meets the criteria for |
| personnel should be top-notch. Most of all - they | | | | the other four items, do a Google search for the |
| should be available. You'd be surprised at the number | | | | company by name and see what you find: good and |
| of hosting companies that simply have no readily | | | | bad. Read the reviews. Expect there to be some bad |
| available customer service department, and what | | | | - there always are; but are the majority good. Ask |
| they do have available are rude and of little help. | | | | on forums you belong to, social media sites like |
| 3. Ample Features This would include plenty of | | | | Twitter and Facebook, to get opinions on what web |
| storage and bandwidth, email accounts, databases | | | | host others recommend. |
| and access to do what you need to do with your | | | | |