If you’re looking to put information on-line then there masses of free ways in which to do it. However, unless you wish to be at the mercy of somebody else and risk your information being lost forever, then free hosting is definitely not the best way to go. Take a look at Geocities for example. Many years ago it was one of the largest sites on the internet and offered free hosting to just about everyone that wanted it. Currently it is being shut down and anyone that does not move their site is going to lose their data and years of hard work.
If you want to avoid losing everything you have got built up then you have to be master of your own destiny, which ultimately means having your own domain name and having your own hosting account. But how simple is it to seek out good hosting? Should you opt for a shared hosting account? Or what about cheap dedicated hosting? Choosing low cost reliable hosting can be minefield of difficulties. Lets have a look at a few 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 firms are pretty generous when it comes to the disk allocation that they supply you with. The times of 5MB hosting accounts seem to be well behind us, but it is still something that you should check. Is the potential hosting company offering you sufficient disk space now, and enough to satisfy the longer term growth of your web site? If your website 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 price?
Bandwidth is another important consideration. There are two camps that hosting companies seem to have split into. Those who supply a fixed quantity of bandwidth for your cash, and those that offer 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’s well worth reading the small print before signing up to any packages that are offering unlimited disk space or unlimited bandwidth. Both disk space and bandwidth cost the hosting firm and it’s typically the most competitive and lowest cost hosts that provide these ‘unlimited’ packages, typically for costs such as $3.95 per month. That simply 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 required to either move to a higher price hosting package, or move their hosting to another company.