Web Site Help

You may be thinking about launching your own web site, or perhaps you’ve got a blog that’s doing particularly well and you’d like to take the next step with a domain name and a hosting service. If you’ve ever looked for free services you’ll know there are a large number of services available, and it’s sometimes difficult to make a choice. With free services this isn’t such a bad deal, for you can “shop” around and even try on a couple services without losing anything. However, when it comes to pay services things get just a tad more complicated.

First of all, this is your money we’re talking about. There are a lot of hosting companies out there, and they all offer different types of services. The prices they charge are also going to vary pretty broadly. There are good companies, and some not so good companies. There are also times when a good company may be offering a package of services that you just really don’t need and don’t need to be paying for. So how do you choose?

Well, there are two things you can do. The first is to get educated about what types of services exist within web hosting, and to figure out which ones you need. The second is to do a little comparison shopping so you can find a hosting service that offers all the bells and whistles you need, at the best possible price. Doing this by yourself might be a pretty overwhelming task, even if you already know a little something about hosting. So when I discovered there was a place to go for help with web hosting choice I was really quite pleased to see it.

First of all, this service offers a knowledge center that begins with a FAQ and a Quick Start guide to getting your web site up and running. They’ve also got specific articles about things like domain names and bandwidth that not only explain what these things are, but also give you some advice on figuring out your needs and how to meet them without taking undue risks. Articles on cheap web hosting and scams are of particular interest to a newbie, as they give information that can help you avoid getting caught up in plans that seem too good to be true. For the more experienced web master there are articles on more advanced topics, and a good list of links to other resources.

The second part of the web site is actually a guide to choosing the right web host for your needs. You can perform a search that asks you to plug in values for criteria such as fees, bandwidth and diskspace allowed for your site. An advanced search allows you to specify more details: how many email or FTP accounts you need, what operating system or type of database you want, if you need a dedicated server, mode of payment, and whether you need PHP, ASP or Perl.

A search will provide you with a good-sized list of plans from a variety of hosts, along with the basic information (cost, bandwidth, diskspace, operating system, database) and a rating score. Clicking on the plan name will take you to a new page that gives you more specific details, and a link to the hosting service that offers the plan.

For folks who have used a particular hosting service, there is the possibility of adding your own rating so that scores are based not only on expert opinion, but also on the experiences of regular folks like you and me. And if you prefer to browse for yourself rather than do a search, the site has a web host directory and a directory by type of plan. If you want to submit a host you can do that too. There’s no fee for a listing in their database.

WebHosting Choice

I wandered around the site for a good half hour, and was pleased with what I saw. One of the things they emphasized was that inexpensive plans may not always equate with low quality services. But they did warn against trying too hard to save money. They made some good, specific recommendations about things like how much bandwidth the average user needs, how to know whether the host is reliable in terms of uptime, and how to evaluate the quality (not just the quantity) of bandwidth being offered.

There were a few errors in the code that resulted in a very small number of pages that wouldn’t load (I’ve reported this to the webmaster, so hopefully it will be fixed very soon.) Other than that, the site was easy to navigate and written so that even someone new to web hosting could understand it. Best of all there is no charge at all to use the site, so you can take as much time as you need and keep coming back as often as you like. If you are in the market for a web host I would definitely recommend you stop first at this helpful site and get a better idea of the options available to you. It could save you money - or maybe a big technical headache down the road!