How to choose a Host. A few simple steps, feel free to add to it.

nice work, its good for newbiies

Here are my suggestions on how to find a good web hosting company:
1. Make sure that they have their own nameservers, otherwise it is most likely a reseller account.
2. Make sure that they point to their own servers.
3. See their response times and who gives the responses. If it is one person, it is probably run by just one person.
4. Check if the web hosting company has any good reputation (Most people only look at PageRank, which is not that smart).
5. If they offer Managed Servers, they should offer 24/7 Live Support via Phone, otherwise don't bother wasting time (If your website is down and you create a ticket, who knows when they will read it?)

Well those are all the tips I can offer on finding a good and reputable web hosting company.

Have a nice day!

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Redscowl Bluesingsky.us SEO Blog

dont think that free hosts are bad .. some free hosts are better than some paid hosts

I'm not saying that they are bad, I am saying that if they offer paid services, make sure that they usually meet the above requirements.

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Redscowl Bluesingsky.us SEO Blog

I definately agree with Puzzleman on the backups. Regardless of where you host, if you have a back up and you have control of your domain name, you can pack up and go elsewhere. Yeah, you might be down a day or two but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

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Mark - Site Top Ten

yeah..some paid hosts i have been use b4 are a run-down totally..