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This web hosting guide has been deemed excellent and informative due to its truthful nature and also because it contains numerous internal navigational links. Written by Lorraine Reguly, it consists of factual summaries of (and answers from) 14 web hosting companies. Feel free to share this with all of your friends and colleagues; you just never know who is thinking of creating a website and may be seeking web hosting!

Introduction to Owning a Self-Hosted Website

Like many of you, I started blogging for free. I didn’t get a domain name right away. I didn’t even know what blogging was all about, and I didn’t want to spend money until I was sure it was a necessity. When I finally made the decision to get my own website, I agonized over which company I would choose as the host.

In my quest to find the best web hosting company and the best web hosting package to suit (and surpass) my current needs, I spent a lot of time doing my research. Google became my best friend. We had an affair that lasted nearly three weeks.

I read countless articles about web hosting, but it wasn’t until AFTER I published this guide that I came across this one: Web Hosting Reviews. This particular guide reviews 27 different hosting companies and even goes so far to include their price, page load speed and up-time. (I wish I would have had THIS guide readily available to me back then!!!)

My guide is a bit different because of the information it contains.

During my quest, I even went so far as to send a letter of 21 questions to over a dozen different web hosting companies. (I also got on the phone and queried a few more.) Once I got a reply from each, I then asked if I could have their permission to publicly post their responses. Many said yes, and so in this web hosting guide you will see not only my letter that I sent them, but each of their answers as well.

Why Get Hosting?

I am not here to tell you why you should consider getting web hosting of your own, but I will tell you that there are both pros and cons to it.

For more information, refer to this article: Want Your Own (Hosted) Website? Consider These Factors!

The information presented in that article as well as this guide will help you decide:

whether or not you should get your own website
what hosting factors you should consider
which companies you should and should not consider when you finally take the dreaded plunge into the wonderful world of web hosting.

14 Web-Hosting Companies (some good, some bad)

The 14 companies that provide web hosting and are discussed in this guide include: Abivia, BlueHost, CanSpace Solutions, Cirrus Tech Ltd., EasyPress, GreenGeeks, 4GoodHosting, HostPapa, HostUpon, HostUtopia, InMotionHosting, NamesPro, Site5, and WebHostingCanada.

When discussing each web hosting company, I will state a few facts as well as offer my opinion, where applicable, based on the research I have conducted. I strongly recommend doing your own research into the web hosting companies you are interested in and select packaging options based on your web hosting needs. (There are more things to consider than initially meets the eye! You will discover this as you read and learn – like I did!)

Please also note that I did not edit their emails, either, although it is obvious that several people who responded to me could benefit from my services.

Also note that this guilde contains affiliate links. I have absolutely no problem endorsing these companies. Either I’ve used them myself or my friends have.

The ones I recommend are CanSpace Solutions, Bluehost, and GreenGeeks.

Abivia is who I ultimately selected to be my first host, for a variety of reasons, but the tipping factor was the personal service I received from the owner himself. He also impressed me with his extensive knowledge and ability to explain things to me (a self-proclaimed non-techie) in a reassuring, easy-to-understand way.

I selected CanSpace to be my second host because they made me an offer I simply couldn’t refuse! I have to say that they also give me excellent service, answered all my questions and made switching to them easy and painless! They handled everything for me (I’m not techie and they did all the work!).

I was also told that Bluehost and GreenGeeks would do the same.

20 Blog Post Must-Haves is the ultimate blogging checklist that has been endorsed by many awesome people who are well-known and who have large followings. (Take a look at the screenshots included in this article!) A must-have resource for bloggers, it is a step-by-step checklist that is jam-packed with information and links to the BEST articles I have found on the web. It is also illustrated by yours truly! Images accompany major points, designed to help bloggers reach their blogging potential!

Even though you may be an an experienced blogger, there is always room for improvement. No one is perfect, but reaching new personal heights as a blogger is easily accomplished by using the checklist of tips offered in my guest post on Dear Blogger.

You can also read an excerpt from the ebook in this post. It includes additional tips that are not in my ebook, 20 Blog Post Must-Haves, too, since I wanted to give people an idea of my expertise as a blogger. Plus, not everyone can afford to spend $5 in today’s rough economy.

If you are one of the few people who can, and want to improve your blogging skills, you can also choose to get all 20 Blog Post Must-Haves – designed to help you improve your blog posts! The price? ~~A $4.99 cup of coffee (with muffin or doughnut – whatever you prefer). I wanted to keep it affordable, even though it is easily worth $20.~~ FREE! Simply sign up to my newsletter.

I wish that I had this ebook available to me. Now it is! I use this checklist every time I create a blog post! It is indispensable to me, and I know you will feel the same way about it that I do. A recently published article about adding tags to your posts was just published, too, and if it had been published last week, it would have made it into my book!

It really is a good book. It received many RTs (retweets) on Twitter – and connected me with a few more influential people.

Some of the wonderful people who helped me get the word out are:

Danny Iny from FirePole Marketing who now has a new website design.