Today it appears as if everyone and their mother is providing Web hosting for sale. Don't get the wrong idea, I believe in good competition more than anybody and I am serious about supporting this idea. Irregardless, without knowing a thing about business and how to develop and maintain it, some people still think they can start a web hosting business.

Those I find most surprising are those that offer hosting services at crazy prices. There are web hosting offers from people for $1 a year. Yes, you read right, one dollar for an entire year of service. With prices in the range of $60 to $100 per year for the minimum service, one would think this is a great deal but you must really analyze it first.

Let's do some simple calculations. Lets say a provider gets 1,000 clients, a reasonable number for a small web hosting business. If this provider sells his services at $1 each, then he will have the fabulous amount of $1,000 in a year. Do you think that he will be able to offer quality services, support and upgrades at this amount? I am hard pressed to think he will have enough for food alone!

It can still be a good business if you get enough clients, some will say. Ok, just because I'm in a good mood, let's continue with this example. Imagine this provider-for-a-dollar can get 10,000 customers, a very ambitious goal. Then it's $10,000 dollars of income. Do you really think a business can make it with this income for a year? Just imagine the cost associated with servicing 10,000 clients. Just the cost of rent, phone lines and power would be enough to deplete this small income.

It is amazing, of course, how the mind searches for and creates solutions. Customers who purchase these services compromise that they get the deal of the year, not making a difference if the company goes out of business the following year, which is very likely. They already acquired the service pratically for free. And I ask to you again, is this true?

All access to your email addresses, website material, etc. will be lost if your provider goes bankrupt. It doesn't matter if you've already registered your domain through another provider because even in the best case it will take a at the very least a couple of days for new service to begin. That is, if you didn't commit the error of obtaining your domain title from the identical provider.

In that case, you may even lose your domain name and will have to get a new one. Imagine the time wasted just notifying all your clients about your new email address. What if you lost important emails and documents too? Do you think this is worth the risk?

When you buy your next web hosting service, consider the support services, the promptness in answering your emails and phone calls and the time the provider has been in the market. Yes, do check the price too, but if it sounds too good to be true, it may be a good idea to look somewhere else.

If you want to go with someone else who will only cost a dollar go ahead because we'll be glad to help you when you come back - just hope that too much damage hasn't been done.