Cheap Web Hosting: Be Careful!

Looking for cheap web hosting? Well of course you are! You and everybody else. And to be sure, there is plenty of cheap web hosting out there. But be careful; if ever the old Latin phrase "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware!) applied, it's the Internet and cheap web hosting. Here are a few things to look for before you buy.

First of all, the cheapest price you see is not always the cheapest price you get. Make sure it isn't just an introductory price. Ethical registrars and resellers will usually signal an introductory price with a bright banner shouting something like "Just $2.99 a month,regular price $5.99." After that the font size gets smaller declaring "renews at regular price." You can bet that price reduction won't last much beyond the time it takes to set up your site. Unethical registrars and resellers won't warn you at all. After they reel you in and your site is up and running is when you discover the real monthly price.

And sometime that cheap price you are focusing on is the price that requires the longest commitment, usually three years. Of course if you are ready to commit to that long a period, great; but most first-time buyers are less certain and want to only commit for a month or two--a year at most. Don't be blinded by your eagerness to get underway.

Secondly, watch out for offers of a free or unusually inexpensive domain with the hosting. You have been around long enough to know nothing is free. The registrar or reseller pays the better part of ten dollars and more for any domain worth having and they won't last long in business if they don't pass the price on to you somewhere. This passing along will usually come about in two different ways: one, the price of hosting is higher than with a comparable site somewhere else; and two, the domain price soars ten to fifteen times as much the following year. They count on you being too busy to transfer.

Thirdly, many registrars and resellers promise "unlimited bandwidth" or "unlimited storage" or both.There is no such thing as "unlimited" amounts of either to be had in the universe--or on any registrars servers either! You will get enough of both to run most businesses, but don't think of storing or running large numbers of video files that have nothing to do with your site. They will notice and they will cut you off. The point to be made here is that most small businesses will never approach their storage or bandwidth limits in the normal course, so don't waste money paying for something that you can't use and really doesn't exist.

Fourth, there are a lot of websites claiming to have the answer to the question "who has the cheapest web hosting?" Take the many pages of reviews that you will find with a grain of salt as the honest ones among them will admit that they take money from the very hosts they are judging. Which is not to say they can't be relied upon at all; many of them do deliver valuable insights.

Fifth, as always if the offer seems too good to be true it is best to look very closely at the gift horse's mouth. What is an offer that is probably "too good to be true?" Well certainly "Free" is one of those offers. Other prices change almost daily and any guidelines established today will be off the mark tomorrow. Instead, spend a few hours looking at what the Internet has to offer in the way of web hosting prices. It won't take you long to establish your own guidelines.

What are you looking for? Cheap web hosting for sure, but a viable web host as well. Usually a web host with more than one server center and 24/7 support. If you have a problem you can't wait from Friday evening at 5 o'clock until Monday morning at nine to get the problem taken care of. How can you be sure they have 24/7 support? You know the answer, give them a test call at two in the morning!

Wondering how you might test the efficacy of their servers? Ask them for the names of a few of the websites they host. Don't contact the website owners as the fix could be in; instead go to the websites at what you think might be a peak time and see how quickly the site renders when requested. If that time is slow you can imagine that adding your web sites bandwidth to the mix isn't likely to speed it up; this is a problem you don't need.

There is an abundance of cheap web hosting to be found. But be careful. The very lack of government regulation and censorship that we so admire about the Internet also makes it a somewhat dangerous place to spend our money.

Visit Mike Nardine at http://www.CheapMikesDomains.com and take advantage of free 24/7 US based support, cheap domains and reliable, cheap web hosting on huge 4GH (4th Generation) servers located at several points around the globe to ensure network redundancy and lightening-fast response during peak traffic periods.

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