Once you have found and registered a domain name you are ready to move on and choose your web hosting company. A web host should be competitively priced, provide you with all the tools necessary to host your web pages and include at least 10 email addresses so you can track sales, info, support, etc.

You will want a package that meets your current needs of today and any future needs as you expand. Make sure you have sufficient Bandwidth and Disk Space and the facility to have multiple domains or sub domains. Multiple domains and sub domains can be very useful features for creating other websites within the same account without the need to purchase more web hosting. Thus saving you money and time.

Which web hosting company do I use?

Will it do everything I want it to?

Is it reliable?

Will there be support there when I need it most?

Are their prices competitive?

There are so many good and not so good Web Hosing companies out there its just mind-boggling. I spent many hours, days and weeks researching this subject and finding a web host turned out to be much harder than first anticipated. I got frustrated and downhearted with something I assumed would be plain sailing. Then purely by chance whilst at a friends wedding I got into a conversation with a guy sitting at the same table as me.

Believe it or not he was a website designer and recommended an excellent web hosting company to me. He told me he used them all the time and had no problems with recommending them to others. Isn't it strange how things like this just happen sometimes? I had never met this guy before and have never seen him since, yet he helped to solve one of my biggest niggling problems at that time.

I finally got a Web Hosting company I could put my trust in. It had a 99.9% up time guarantee, 24/7 support and a 30-day money back guarantee which gave me the chance to give it a free test run. It came with great, easy to follow movie tutorials, an online forum and an extensive knowledgebase that answered most questions.

I found the tutorials invaluable when setting up my first website. There are tutorials to help with most things and if you encounter a problem that is not in the tutorials there is still the customer forum, knowledgebase or telephone you can use. In fact they now have a ‘live support system' in place where you can chat online to a real person.

They have four main plans starting with Hatchling as their basic package, then Baby, Swamp and Semi Dedicated.

I decided to go with the 'Baby plan' because I could host unlimited sites and emails all on the one account. It came with everything I needed and will serve me well for many years to come. I am a big fan of tutorials, it makes the learning curve so much easier in whatever you are trying to achieve and certainly helped with setting everything up in the correct way.

If you are in need of a web hosting company then make sure you choose well. Think about your requirements right now and any you may need as your business grows. It makes good business sense to do your research and seek out a top-performing host that is going to serve you well for many years to come. I was lucky, because the recommendation I received turned out to be top notch and provided me with everything I required from a website hosting company.