When choosing a web hosting company there are a whole lot of

different factors that should go into your decision making

process. One of the biggest factors should be:

1) Phone support. Email support is nice, but email

occasionally falls in between the virtual cracks. Getting

someone on the phone when your site goes down can take a lot

of mystery out of the entire process. A lot of the bigger

web hosting companies offer toll free support and weekend

hours to boot. Phone support is a great benefit for any web

hosting client.

2)Another factor to use in deciding whether to use a

particular web hosting company is their history. How long

has this company been in business? Web hosting companies

that have been in existence for less than a year might not

be the best choice. A hosting company with a proven track

record and a ton of happy clients is certainly a good sign

and might work well for you.

3)How about the company's software? This varies widely

between web hosting companies. I am rather fond of Cpanel

merely because I am used to it, understand where the buttons

are and what the features do. It's much easier to stick with

something you know than switching to a new User Interface.

Some web hosts offer Frontpage features and others don't.

Another specific area you might want to research are the

statistics programs. What sort of web statistics software is

included with your web hosting account? Is Awstats included?

This is one area you definitely want to heavily research

before signing up.

4)Fees. I'd rather pay a little more to get all the features

than fight it out with a sub par web hosting company who I

can't reach if my site goes down. I've found decent web

hosting for as cheap as $4 per month but generally pay

around $15 per month if I want all the bells and whistles

that I'll need to host a larger site. A lot of people worry

about hosting fees, but I've had the experience that I

generally get what I pay for. Finally, I'd look carefully at

the web hosting company's refund policy. Most offer a full

refund if you aren't happy with your service. If you are

paying for a full year of web hosting up front, you might

want to examine the company's refund policy in detail.