There's one nice thing about the internet these days- low cost reliable web hosting is no longer just a dream. You can get great low cost web hosting service for less than $10 a month -- sometimes even a lot less!
When I created my very first website, the cheapest hosting I could find was $30 a month; and for that I pretty much got nothing except 30 MB of space for my hosting. No instructions, no real help.
Time went on and web site hosting got cheaper, but so did the services! Downtime was all too often, and to make matters worse, my entire website vanished not once, but twice!
Fortunately, things have come a long way. There are quite a few low cost reliable web hosting services that balance a small price with the capabilities you need. But before you buy that plan, know what questions to ask!
First: Your Domain Name
If you don't already have a domain name for your website, be aware that some low cost web services include a free domain name when you host with them. BlueHost has such a service -- free domain with $6.95 per month hosting package. If you don't already have a domain name, this can be an added benefit.
Even if you don't want to buy a plan from a low cost reliable web service that includes a domain name, it's definitely easier when you purchase your domain name at the same place you plan to host your site. Trust me on this one -- you don't want to be dealing with the hassle of getting the DNS addresses pointing in the right direction! Buying your name where you plan to host takes care of that for you.
Who Does the Backups?
It's very important for you to know how often the hosting service performs backups of your website. Some services do it daily, some weekly...some not at all. You need to know this in advance.
Here's an example. Say you have your website hosted at company "x" and you use their WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor to create your web pages. That's so convenient, but it also means that because you did it on their system, you don't have a backup. Instead, you're trusting the host to keep your data safe.
What happens if one of the servers goes down and they have to restore your website from a backup? If they backup the data daily, perhaps the worst you would lose is one day's worth of work. But what happens if the host only backs up weekly? Or not at all?
What's that to you in lost business?
Low Cost Reliable Web Hosting: What's in a Package?
If you're looking strictly for low cost and don't need anything beyond very basic service, there are three internet hosting providers I recommend from personal experience. Each of these low cost reliable web service has plenty of disk space and bandwidth allowances that are more than enough for most people.
The first to check out are the GoDaddy.com hosting plans. In my experience of the low cost reliable web plans, GoDaddy has been the easiest to use. It also has some great options for domain name forwarding, should you desire multiple domain names.
Next is BlueHost, who has reliable, affordable business hosting.BlueHost is my next choice for a great low cost reliable web hosting service; I've never had an issue with downtime.
Finally, there is 1&1, who has the corner on the ultra-low cost. Plans start at $3.99 month and you can click here to save 50% off hosting. If you're just looking to host a very basic site, or perhaps just host some graphics or mp3 files, 1&1 is a definite consideration
(Of course if you want to build a website that generates traffic, check out the options with a managed web hosting service -- it's a lot less expensive than you think.)
What About Free?
If you are really serious about your home business, don't bother with free web hosting. Either you will be bombarded with banner ads, you will have uptime problems or you will have a tacky domain name. The only free hosting I might recommend is something like PhotoBucket.com that hosts images for you.
Low cost reliable web hosting services are available for less than $50 a year, so it makes sense to do it right the first time.