Let's face it there are so many different options out there for you to choose from what do you do? It can be downright confusing!!! There is Free Hosting, Unix Hosting, Windows Hosting with just about every price you imagine.

Even If Money Is Tight - As with most small businesses money is tight and a small business owner needs to cut back where they can, however, your web hosting budget should not be scrimped on. Just because someone is offering hosting for $0.99 a year does not mean that because it is so cheap you should jump on it. Your Website is an extension of your business, what good is it if the site is not available due to poor hosting? That old saying applies here to: "You Get What You Pay For!"

Avoid Free Hosting - Turn and run away now. I know as tempting as it sounds stay away from it unless you are putting up a personal site. Potential customers can smell Free Hosting from a mile away. Not only do the Free Hosting Providers offer less control, they also usually put ads on your site. This looks very un-professional.

What You Need To Be Online - For a website to appear on the Internet, it requires a ?server? which is usually provided by a web hosting company, however you can host a site on your home PC but many times PC Hosting is not secure. Hosting companies are paid monthly, quarterly or yearly. Some companies come with guarantees, too. Recommendations from other business owners and web designers are excellent ways to find a good hosting service.

Your Main Concern - One of your main concerns when looking for a hosting provider should be - Can they grow with you. If they only offer one package, and you need more, your web site maybe down for up to 2 days and/or you may have to change the code on any forms you use to match the new ?server settings?.

Don't be afraid to read a hosting service's subscriber information, FAQs (frequently asked questions), note areas or bulletin boards on their sites.

A Good Hosting Company Offers At Least These Basics :

* A hosting company should be affordable and fit into your web budget.

* They should offer a Money Back Guarantee.

* Should be in the same country as your business is in.

* They should have information on their site about server uptime/downtime.

* The company contacts me, at my primary email address, when/if there are any server problems. (Could be problems when they're updating their server, hurricanes, etc.)

* They provide at least 5 POP email accounts (example yourname@yoursitesname.com) Your email accounts should include Alias Accounts, which look like a POP account to the person sending you an email; however, the address is actually an ?alias? that's forwarded to any other email account you choose. And when you send an email back to the original sender, it is the forwarding email account, NOT the yourname@yoursitename.com that the sender receives.

* There is a Web-based Email system (a place for you to read your email online).

* An easy system for email forwarding (and vacation notice) capability.

* They offer 24-hour customer service.

* Offer At Least 50 mb of space (the space you need for a 100 page website).

* Offer at least 2 Gig Data Transfer/month.

* Front Page Extensions are enabled ? (only necessary if you create a web site with MS Front Page Software).

* Cgi/PHP/MySQL (or asp availability) should be offered. Not sure what you'll need? Check with your designer or contact Hosting Provider and they will be able to tell you.

* Hosting package should contain an easy control panel like CPANEL. This feature is especially important if you want to maintain your site or have someone else easily maintain it. It's the one place to visit when making changes to your site, add addresses, etc

* Statistics - The hosting plan should include monthly and yearly statistics on each of your web pages. This will help you with your marketing plan.

* Pre-installed scripts should be offered. Shopping carts, blogs, auto-responders, etc... Look for a host that provides the Fantastico Script Installer. This feature can save you hours and hours on script installs.

* Server type: The type of server a hosting company you choose, should take into consideration the programs you will run for things like your shopping cart, affiliate program, web site pages, etc. If you're using ASP, JSP, PHP, CGI, PL, or CSS, these programs will influence the choice of a server and vice-versa. Your hosting service may use Windows (which for example accepts ASP but not PHP), Linux or Unix-based (Apache/FreeBSD/etc.) servers.

* Password Protection ? If you have plans to create a membership are or client's only area of your site, this is something to consider

We recommend going with a web hosting company that is well established like HostGator.com