When someone suggested me to buy my own domain name and hosting space, I replied to them, "Why do I need those things, for god sake?, Everything on the Internet is supposed to be free!!'. But, deep down I had a thought what if I can have a hosting space and host all my websites at one place. Then, I went on a search, research adventure, the results of which is this hub page that you are reading now.

First why do I need a hosting space?

At present, I have been writing my hub page articles and pretty happy, feel gratitude for the earnings. But, I also have some free e-books that I wrote such as "How to Make Real Money with a Digital Camera" (2 Mb) that teaches how to create a cash flow by shooting simple photographs with your 4-mega pixel camera. I hosted such eBooks on Google Pages (Now, Google Sites), which is a free site. But, I get complaints from users that they could not access the site or pdf files. I found that Google has a monthly usage limit for every account, and if you exceed your limited quota, they will suspend your site until the next monthly cycle begins. So, on a good month, when people wanted to access your website more often, your site will be down. Alternative? Have your own hosting space to have a better control over your sites.

To simplify, here are the five big reasons why I needed my own web hosting space.

• At first, I wanted to create and host a honestly, reliable and credible website that has portfolio of my works, Resume and services offered. When you host on free-loaders, they offer you with names such as shailini.free webhost.com, that neither looks professional nor credible in the eyes of my clients.
• I should not be worried about storage space limits. Free hosting providers always have limits. Rarely, they offer 50+ Megabytes of storage, some don't tell me how much they offer. They simply take your site down. You may ask who needs 50MB, well, for your information, the eBook collection that I have in total, crosses 70MB.
• Bandwidth limits is another big worry. This depends on how many people access your website and how often they access your site. More users, more connections result in more bandwidth usage. They will take you down if one of your article gets featured in Digg or StumbleUpon. When you need it most, they would fail you.
• They will show ads and you don't get a cent from them. Many free hosters will show crappy ads on your portfolio site that your client visits. You don't have control over them and make money from them.
• I wanted to host many websites but still wanted to have a control over them. For this, I could have gone creating with free providers, with the bandwidth and storage limits, the combined usage limit will easily overcome the monthly quota. You can have multiple accounts, but that is cumbersome.

Now, I found that if I want to expand my business, my online earnings and create reliable, trustworthy, dependable and stable websites, I needed a dedicated webhost for me.

I just wanted to find out who is the best provider for a non-geek girl like me who would do everything for me and let me concentrate on my business alone. That's another big quest which took a month long.

With the exceptional, high level knowledge that I have about Domain Name Servers, CNAME records, Proxy, PHP5,Perl and Python, Full Unix Shell, CronTAB,Full CGI (is that the thing they used in Jurassic Park to create Dinosaurs) Access, SSI Ruby On Rails ,Canned CGI,CVS Repository,Subversion Repository, SSL-IP,WebDAV and other jargons :-), I went on this journey to find the best webhost.

Well, the above line is self-depreciating joke if you didn't get it. I am good at what I am doing and for others, I hire people to do it. You don't need to fix your plumbing or electricity troubles, right?

So, my aim was to find the best webhost for me who is a non-technical, no-geek girl who dreams of getting big with her online business.

To cut the story short (I have bored you enough with my ignorance), I chose DreamHost over other best providers simply because, in 90% of the reviews that I read they concluded that DreamHost is better if you don't know much about the technical-know-how, engineering behind Hosting, Servers etc etc.

• Unlimited hosting space, unlimited websites - I should be able to host multiple websites (a minimum of 2 to start and up to 100 websites) without worrying about storage limits. You didn't know you can host more than 100 websites with one hosting space. Did you? I didn't know that. You may think that you may not need 50 or 100 websites, but if you are thinking of earning money and want to grow your online business, that's the way to go. As you grow, you should be able to add a website each for $10 domain registration / per year. Dream Host offered it. They offer "Unlimited Bandwidth" + 50GB, funny, but the 50GB refers to the monthly backup of your files that maintain for your websites.
• Bandwidth? What bandwidth - DreamHost offers unlimited bandwidth to genuine users. They don't like the people who host porn videos, ripped DVD's, or pirated Software downloads. For genuine folks like us, we can enjoy the unlimited bandwidth for our lifetime. DreamHost is way ahead in explaining the conditions of fair usage policy (such as they will punish you if you host copyright-violating stuff) to us in a bold manner. I liked it a lot.
• One-Click Installs - Installing a wordpress portfolio, photography gallery, a database or a community forum, call whatever, they have it which takes just a click (few if you like that way!). All you need to is to point at your finger, say "Install", you have installed it. Your websites will be ready in few minutes, they say in the email. But, it is up next minute. You have all the ftp details, access information to upload files or start publicizing it.Need proof? Visit my upcoming site http://www.simplelivingtips.net - I agree it needs a web designer but, hey I got the site running in two minutes.
  
• Customer Support - The thing that I worried about most. In all the comparisons, BlueHost and DreamHost came down as finalists, with DreamHost is slightly ahead of the game.With customer support, surprise surprise, DreamHost is unanimously votes as the winner. I checked this by logging into their DreamHost Control Panel Demo site. I emailed them and contacted by phone, they were very patient in explaining me by breaking down the jargons in a common language. I put a big tick to them instantly.
• 50 email accounts - Instead of Shailini@yahoo.co.in, how does it sound Shalini@Prohubber.com or better ceo@prohubber.com, editor@feedback.com, hr@prohubber.com, stacey@prohubber.com. Yep, they have teamed up with Google, to give you 50 email accounts which gets installed the moment you register your domain name. Sweet, isn't it?
• Other good things - For being one of among the webhosts, they need to have some important stuff such as 99.9 times they guarantee your websites will be up (without going broke), custom-email accounts for your own domain, unlimited database support (only DreamHost offers unlimited SQL databases) if you want host a community forum (users can create accounts) and FTP access (so that your web designer can upload the files instantly). Other technical stuff that I mentioned earlier, I consulted with 4 of my friends who are geeks, to ensure DreamHost has everything because, I know it is a life-changing, career decision for me to own my own hosting. You can check What's Included for more details.
• They are good guys too - Apart from the excellent support they provide, if you are a charity organisation registered at USA, they host your site for free. Other international charity organisation too can approach them and they consider it case-by-case.

That's all I wanted to say about my quest to find out the best webhost and how I found the right webhost. Now, go to your drawing board and do a self-analysis. Think where you want to go in few months time with your online career. A reliable webhost is in fact, a big boost to your online identity.

Oh, it's all about Money - I, almost, forgot this point. Who is the cheapest? How much DreamHost account will cost you? Here are the numbers:

$5.95/mo paid 10 years in advance, $0.00 off first payment.
$10.95/mo monthly, $0.00 off first payment; $9.95/mo for 1 year, $0.00 off first payment; $8.95/mo for 2 years, $0.00 off first payment; $7.95/mo for 3 years, $0.00 off first payment; $6.95/mo for 5 years, $0.00 off first payment. $

49.95 set up fee if you pay monthly.

What did I choose? Why did I choose that way?

You may think paying monthly is a good option, but I don't think so. I paid $286.20 from my credit card (Hey, that's how you need to make money. Credit cards for investing in businesses only, not for shopping) upfront for 3 years, because I wanted to commit myself for this online venture. It would put me on track because I have spent such a big money. It is really a good deal, because they removed the $50 set-up fee (it applies if you choose to pay monthly). Now, I can concentrate on building my websites for the next 3 years and pay the next $286.20 in 2012 from the blog earnings that I made with the websites. $300 is a peanut compared to the earnings that I wish to make.

All this research was possible due to one of my close friend, who is my mentor, philosopher and guide helping me. So, I asked the affiliate link of his to signup under him voluntarily. I signed up this way, because it does not make any difference to sign-up individually or through an affiliate link. With an affiliate link, he would get paid a small money which would make him happy. I would be feeling happy too for doing a such random act of kindness.

So, here's my DreamHost Signup Link (Let happiness be with you).

If you choose to get a webhost, use the above web link to signup and let God bless your online business with plenty of wealth, happiness and prosperity. My sincere thanks and gratitude to those people who would like to signup using my DreamHost Recommendation. The universal law of attraction really works. If you give someone a cent, you receive dollars from others as a reward.

ProHubber Bonus: Here's another sweet little, big NEWS. The good guys at DreamHost have given me a special promo code PROHUBBER (just enter when you are asked) for my beloved fans and readers which will allow them to REGISTER 2 FREE (Yes, TWO) DOMAIN NAMES for lifetime validity (Domain Companies offer domain names with private rego for $20/each year, So, you get $40 discount now) of your hosting account. Private registration (What is Private Domain Registration) is included with it, which means you can keep your home address safe from spammers and villains. If you are a stay-at-home mom or daddy, I would highly recommend private registered domain. With DreamHost, all your domain names that you purchase will get private registration at NO COST (they steal $9 per year for doing this).

By the way, did I mention they have a 97-day money back guarantee if you change your mind?. No one else promises that in this planet, yet.

Bookmark this hub to comeback and refer. As always, leave your feedback and questions, I would get back to you quickly. Thanks for reading and bookmarking this hub.