Web hosting
Where should my site be hosted?

A web host provides the space and bandwidth for your website. Web hosting can cost anything from a few dollars a month to hundreds per month.

With web hosting, one size does not fit all. 
Someone new to creating their own website might need a lot of handholding, and a good level of support. Not all web hosts provide this - the cheapest web hosting may provide very poor support.


Can I research a good web host on the internet?
Yes you can - but beware - sharks about!
Some 'review' sites, which seem to be impartial, are actually run by the web hosts themselves, or are sponsored by particular web hosts.

You might see bad reviews and good reviews about the same web host. Remember that with any company (internet or not) there are going to be complaints. A few complaints do not mean that the whole company is shonky.

Also, a disreputable web host may pretend to be a happy customer, or may post negative reviews of a competitor. So exercise caution when researching review sites for a good web host.

Not all web hosts have discussion forums, but if the one you are researching does - take a good look around to see how active the community is and how the community answers the questions of newbies.  Some web hosts will delete any negative posts, so do not think that there have not been any problems, just because you don't read of any there.

What is bandwidth?
Data transfer is commonly referred to as bandwidth. It is the amount of data downloaded by the traffic (people) coming to your website.  (Just looking at webpages causes data transfer)
A large site with many thousands of vistors per month will use a lot of bandwidth. the cost for this type of website is higher than for a small website that has a few hundred visitors per month, or less.

Can I have unlimited bandwidth?
Some web hosts will claim to have unlimited bandwidth - but this is impossible. If you use a huge amount of bandwidth, you will soon have a host cancelling your account or asking for you to upgrade to a more expensive account.

What is disk space?
Disk space refers to the amount of data that you can keep on your website.if your site contains large media files, such as photo galleries and videos, this will use more bandwidth.

Can I have unlimited disk space?
An average website might only use 100KB - 5MB of disk space - so it's often not useful to have web hosting which allows you a huge amount of disk space.
Also, if you do use a huge amount of disk space, this will cause a lot of bandwidth to be used. Generally, web masters (owners of websites) try to keep the kilobytes and megabytes down to a minimum, to allow faster download speeds for visitors, especially for those on dial-up connections.

Should I get my domain name and web hosting with the same company?
Many web hosts will offer domain name registration as well as web hosting, and may even offer a free domain name if you sign up for web hoting with them.
It is generally recommended though, that your domain name is registered with a different company than the company you choose for your web hosting. If you are disatisfied with your web hosting, it can be easier to change your domain name pointers over to your new web host.

There are free web hosts, where you can use your own domain name, or use a second-level domain name from them.

I want more than one website. Can a web host provide hosting for more than one website on the one account?
Some do. These are commonly called add-on domains. An add-on domain is like a sub-directory of your main site - but can have its own domain - it looks and acts like a totally separate site.

I don't see a money-back guarantee - should I assume that there is one?
No you shouldn't. Check that there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Complaints and questions
Follow your web hosts directions when requesting support. If they ask that you use a specific support ticket procedure - use it, everytime.
Keep all email correspondence if you have an unresolved problem. Keep your cool - a problem may be coming from your end, or a problem may be something that your web host can help you with if you provide better communication.

Be prepared
Ensure that you have undertaken Steps 1 & 2 in the guide make-website.com well before you think about getting hosting. Know why you want your website and what features you want to implement.
And the design and content of your site is something that you should have sketched out on paper and have ready to start building.

If you want to run particular applications - be aware of the requirements. For example - Wordpress requires a database.

Start building your site as soon as you have your hosting set up. If there is something that your web host lacks, it's better to know sooner rather than later. If it's within the first 30 days, you can claim your money back with most hosts, and go and get the hosting that suits you better.