What to look for in a Discount Web Hosting company

Let's say you heard about some teenager who started a blog and now makes more in a month than most adults do in a year and now you want to try and do it too. It is possible.  Nowadays the technology is so cheap that anyone with about $20 can start a new website in less than an afternoon.

Yes, you can start a free blog at blogger or wordpress but if you want to be taken seriously, you need your own website.  You need to have your own domain name and your own hosting account. Many discount web hosting plans include a domain name in the monthly service fee.  This allows you to keep your costs as low as possible as you start your online empire.

When selecting a web hosting company, you want a company that has been around for a few years and established a solid reputation.  You want a company that has 24/7 dedicated tech support to be there to answer any questions you have and get your site up and running with any software programs you plan to be running. You also want a control panel that is very user friendly and makes installing scripts a breeze.  Go with a company that offers cPanel and Fantastico.  You can start a new Wordpress blog in less than 5 minutes with Fantastico.  And you don't have to mess with learning about Mysql or PHPmyadmin to setup the database, it's all done for you.

You want a company that gives you the flexibility to grow as your blog readership grows.  You also want enough storage and bandwith so you can host a few thousand pictures if you choose to show off your artwork.

And lastly, you want a company that has a solid uptime guarantee.  You don't want to post a new post and have a massive traffic spike only to have your site go down. 

These are the main things you should look for when selecting a discount web hosting company.

2 companies that stand out above the rest are:

1. Hostgator - $4.95 a month

2. InMotion Hosting - $3 a month