Well you need to consider your intentions for your website in the short term and in the future and also give thought to how serious a web master you really want to be. In essence you need to think through whether you will just set up and run one website or will you get bitten by the bug, as many do, and want to launch many sites. What is the main purpose of your website? Will you be marketing products or services from it and therefore require a merchant solution? Will your site require a database to store product and customer information? How much web space will you need– if you will be using videos and other large files then this will be significant. What are your traffic plans? Do you anticipate that your marketing campaign will attract huge numbers of visitors which will mean that a high monthly bandwidth limit is high on your list?

If you require assistance with a few of these questions then you can get this from the Internet or alternatively someone you know or a business colleague who is knowledgeable in this area. You can then start to equate the different hosting packages that are available. When evaluating hosting companies, take note of two critical factors:

1. Has the company been around long? You do not want to trust your website to a company that started out in the hosting business last week.
2. What level of support is provided? Always go for 24 hour 365 days a year support that will respond quickly to any issues you may have and that are helpful and amiable towards you now and in the future.

A shared package will provide the most affordable web hosting for those just starting out. With this type of hosting you are given a share of the resources of a server connected to the Internet. You will be given a specific amount of web space for your files and other storage needs and you will share the server’s memory, CPU and Internet bandwidth with other account holders. These days there are some amazing shared hosting packages available offering huge web space and monthly bandwidth.

In the future if your website really develops and grows you will probably need to upgrade your hosting account to a virtual server or dedicated server arrangement. This will move you out of the sharing situation into one where you have total use of the server provided. This will cost a fair bit more but it can be very cost effective compared to purchasing servers and connecting them to the Internet yourself. A good hosting company will ensure that any upgrade of your account will be carried out smoothly and with efficiency with no loss of website uptime.