For those starting up a blog or online business or website or community website…, the first consideration typically given is cost. Most of us are paying for our online plans out of our pocket. Having hosted for four years on several hosts, and a free-host for many years previously, I’ve come to look back on my initial concerns with the benefit of hindsight!

Of course, reading up on such things beforehand is always going to be nearly as good as 20/20 hindsight, and web hosting tutorials are always helpful! A good ratings site can help but you need to find one that offers unbiased, detailed, and critical reviews to help you decide which host is appropriate for you.

These are five things you will need to remember that I wished I had known five years ago when I started looking…

• 1. Be sensible in your expectations: Don’t choose plans that offer unlimited everything (usually something will not work so well, and it could be crucial to you). It’s better to purchase a plan with clear limits so that you know when you are approaching those limits without unduly taxing the shared server, and drawing the attention of your webhosting admin who asks you to upgrade or close your account.
• 2. Find a responsive company. I approached a well-known company with a sales query that took three days and a follow-up email to persuade them to answer my ticket. Can you imagine how long it might take them to get my server working again, if it was out? So give the likely candidate a quiz.
• 3. Choose several companies: If you are hosting several sites, choose several hosting companies so that you can compare and contrast the features, support, and stability. It might cost a little more at the outset, but it is something I wished I had done. Split the sites up initially. When you figure which host is better, then use that host for the more important websites.
• 4. Find a coupon: When you sign up for many webhosts, you will often see the place for a coupon code. Use it. You can save a truckload of cash on many hosting companies for the first year. This will help ease your financial burden as you try out the different hosting companies. Of course, the really cheap sites may not have any coupons because the deals are just spectacular.
• 5. Find a GOOD host: Cheap hosting can be good, expensive hosting can be good, too – if the hosting company is good. Finding a good host is more difficult than finding either an expensive or a cheap host. Both ends of the market include companies that have terrible reputations.

Of course, you could just go to a good review site for your initial overview of the market. You’ll find many of the top hosts listed there once the site formally launches.

This post was originally to be sponsored but unfortunately, I didn’t pay attention to the required non-disclosure that the advertiser wanted, as a result I’m now removing all the links. Steve who was talking to me a few months ago about this was quite ‘shocked’ at the quality of most review sites for other products, filled with spurious reviews, and testimonials. Since he was also looking for good hosting, he is quite skeptical about the value of 99% of the hosting websites out there. Perhaps he is right.

The past few days have been quite taxing: why? I’ve been having trouble with my PCs. Between my school and home, I have to manage seven different pcs with OSes from XP to XPSP2 and in English/Chinese and mobile/desktop. It’s a nightmare to say the least as none of the other users is competent in managing anything but the basics: start, login, run Word, print, browse, and that’s it!

This week I’ve had to troubleshoot at least three technical problems, each of which needed a competent computer technical support service! My Flickr upload software was crashing my PC, or at least I thought so… Turned out to be the heat overheating my CPU fan… Then I had to install the tax filing software… except it wouldn’t install on ANY of my nine machines, even with the most recent updates of Windows XP; and now one of my home PCs is slow booting, and I don’t know why. On top of that, two machines need new CPU batteries to help keep the time… Oh, and don’t get me started on the Anti-Virus software situation, now.

This is when I wish I had a good company on call, esp. as we usually have to fix problems on the two days of the week when we are the hardest pressed for time: Wednesdays and Fridays. Of course, as a small business, we don’t have access to the IT departments and big budgets of large companies… we pretty much have to Jacks of all Trades.

So it would be nice to have a company on hand that can provide prompt, professional, affordable and convenient service on your doorstep (esp. as we work odd hours). Am I dreaming? Perhaps not…

Who do you call when your PC craps out?

• Your wife/husband/tech partner…
• Your PC salesperson…
• Your personal life guru…
• Your 17-year-old…

Fast-Teks brought you this post… but I brought you the stories!