Important things to consider before choosing a hosting provider don’t get ripped off, you could be paying up to three times to much for an inadequate service. Host your Web site right the first time avoid the hassle of changing later and save you time and money. Choosing the right hosting can be a bit of a guessing game and switching from one provider to another can be a nightmare.

In this section we will let you know what services you should expect to get and we listed a few of the leading services that provide the lowest prices these will give you a good level of comparison when you make your choice. 

Notes for free Hosting providers.

 We would not recommend free hosting providers as a general rule unless you want to practice without the expense, or you are setting up a non profit or personal page. The reason would be the limitations involved and the relatively low cost of good hosting available for the time and effort it takes to build a site.

However there are many free hosting providers out there for those who may be interested these are listed in our directory just search for free hosting.

Choose your provider carefully. 

Make sure the hosting provider you use is capable of upgrading you through the different levels of hosting options as your business expands. This may not seem relevant when you have a few pages and a blog however over the years when your site has increased to over 2000 pages and compatibility issues become revenant, this could become quite a problem.

This is a good reason to not only compare the basic service hosting charges but also the consistency and cost affectivity of the upgrading packages and all the additional services that you may end up needing. Many providers catch you out with this trick offering very low new customer fees for the most basic of services then piling on the costs thereafter. You will find prices vary for these services quite a bit and price comparison websites, which are driven by affiliate profits tend to be bias and will try and pass the highest commission hosting site off as a first choose.

This has been one of our key mystery shopping projects based on top hosting providers singled out during relative discussion forums. The aim of this exercise was to create a preferred hosting list for the members and company's within the Visuals group based on overall cost (including basic cost for simple projects), technology, services, facilities, support and reliability (including Continuity).

Service Requirements. 

The types of hosting services vary widely the most basic is web page and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface. The files are uploaded "as is" or with little processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service for free to their subscribers. Personal web site hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored.

 Business web site hosting often has a higher expense. This type of single page hosting is usually only suitable for personal web pages. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, and ASP.NET). These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications such as forums and content management. For e-commerce, SSL is also required.

Some hosts include an interface control panel for managing the Web server and installing scripts and other services like e-mail, File hosting service, Image hosting service, Video hosting service, Blog hosting service, One-click hosting and Shopping cart software.

Types of hosting.

Free web advertisement-supported hosting.

Shared web hosting service is when one's Web site shares the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Usually, all the domains share a common pool of server resources, including the RAM and CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.

Reseller web hosting this is when clients become web hosts themselves. Resellers' accounts vary in size and they may have their own virtual dedicated server or a collocated server.

The Virtual Dedicated Server is when the host has dividing a server into virtual servers, where each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, when they are actually sharing a server with several other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. This is also known as a virtual private server or VPS.

The Dedicated hosting service is when the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it. A cheaper type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is when the user has full administrative access to the box and is responsible for the security and maintenance of their own dedicated box.

Managed hosting service is when the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it however, they can manage their data with FTP or other remote management tools.

Collocation web hosting service, much similar to the dedicated web hosting service, however the user owns the Collocation server; the hosting company basically rents the physical space that the server takes up and provides a maintenance service. This is the top of the range of web hosting. The collocation provider provides little to no support directly for the server, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities. Hardware upgrades or changes quite often are the client’s responsibility.

Grid hosting is form of distributed hosting where a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Clustered hosting is with multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. .

Choosing your hosting.

Various hosting providers can offer you a variety of package deals depending on the volume of your publications and can even include domain registrations many of the extra's offered can easely be found for free, however its convenient to have them included with the hosting package.

As a rule when choosing your hosting providers you should consider the following. What is your Business plan. How many Publications do you have. What is the size of your publications. What level of traffic are you expecting from your pages. Is it a high or low maintenance site.

Other considerations include database server software, scripting software, and operating system. The majority of hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software the types of configuration you get for a Linux server are the LAMP platform: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP / Perl / Python. Other services you should consider are email for your business domain, databases or multi-media services for streaming media and a web content management system, so you don't have to worry about the more technical aspects. Database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, and ASP.NET). You may also choose Windows for its hosting platform or from PHP, Perl, and Python but may also use ASP .Net or Classic ASP.This all depends on the size and goal's of your project.

Check the integrity of your hosting provider before you commit, a blocked or inaccessible server could cost you your revenue. Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. Many providers state that they aim for a 99.9% uptime, taking into account restarts and planned maintenance in their hosting environment. This often refers only to a server being powered on and doesn't account for network downtime. Real downtime can potentially be larger than the percentage guaranteed by the provider. Many providers tie uptime, and accessibility, into their own Service Level Agreement this would dictate there policy’s on refunds, or reduced costs if performance goals are not met so worth looking up.

Don't be to intimidated you can always switch your hosting provider's but its good business practise to make the right choice first off so dig around a little. The other important thing is to make sure the costs don't out way your potential profit.

For the cheapest and widest range of international hosting we recommend (free hosting available) as quite an established hosting provider with a good service record.

For .co.uk Domains I would recommend (free uk Hosting available) this company is emerging as quite a competitor. Reviewing blog complaints (ignore the complements) on hosting providers is usually the best source to find out the best providers.  

Once you've chosen and registered for web hosting services, you will be sent instructions on how to upload files to the web server. The web host will also provide you with a user ID and password for your security and access. Once you've uploaded your files, test you pages functionality thoroughly. You will need to complete this stage prior to adding you advertising scripts in order to be viewed for approval.

End of Part 2  Now your ready to start receiving your hard earned Income, in part 3.