The Web Hosting Conundrum

One thing that people don’t really seem to understand about web hosting right from the word go is exactly how complicated web hosting is.  To the average person, web hosting is just getting a random domain, combining it with a random package and then ending up with a fantastic website that is well hosted on good servers and has a domain name that is an absolute credit to the website.  For people that are more involved in web hosting on a daily basis however, that myth is something that has gone away a long time ago.  The truth of the matter is that web hosting is a very complicated business and understanding where to get a proper domain name, a reputable hosting service and good content for your website is the main hurdle to building a successful piece of online real estate.

How to separate the dirt from the gold

The best way to start out on the pathway to beating the web hosting conundrum is to narrow the field down as much as possible.  Different web hosting plans are created for different people and therefore understanding and appreciating what your website is going to do becomes a key element of understanding which web hosting plan would be the best for it.

Making a personal website?

For example, say you wanted to create a personal website about you.  While you still want this website to look really good and maybe contain a blog in addition to the different web pages, you don’t really expect that much traffic to come to it and for that reason the web hosting package that you pick can be pretty low end with a lower amount of storage and a lower amount of allowable monthly bandwidth. 

Goin after the $$$ with a business site?

On the other hand, if you wanted to create a huge content website that you expected to make money from in the long run, then you would need a web hosting plan to reflect that.  Large amounts of storage space, unlimited monthly bandwidth and a number of other things would be paramount on your wish list.  The difference between these two web hosting plans is extreme and for that reason it is quite obvious to see why understanding your own website plan will allow you to eliminate a lot of choices currently available on the market.

Once you have settled generally on the web hosting plan that would be best for you, your challenges will change to finding a reputable host.  This is extremely important to do (and online reviews will help you in meeting that challenge), because you will be paying online with your credit card.  However, web hosts is a topic for a different day.