Getting the right hosting account is very important. The last thing you want is a crap host that doesn’t have all the features you need and is not prepared to help you.

My personal preference is to have a host that:

• Uses Linux Servers. Linux just means the operating system of your server, I prefer Linux over a Windows server because 99% of the time everything is so much simpler and works properly.
• Uses cPanel because it is easy to use and I am used to it.
• Gives you at the very least 3 MySQL databases. These will be used to store information in an organized database on your server such as your blog posts from a wordpress blog.
• Gives you a few gigabytes of bandwidth. Avoid outrageous claims like unlimited bandwidth as there’s no such thing – they just close your account when there is too much traffic. As a guide 25GB should see you good for at least 50,000 page views if you are not serving videos from your site.
• A host that can actually handle big traffic. There is a good chance that you will get traffic bursts and you don’t want to be with a host that can’t handle this traffic because they have too many people hosted on one server.
• Allows you to host multiple domains with them in case you have more than one site.
• Gives you a decent amount of disk space. This usually is never a problem unless you have a site that is going to host a lot of images and videos.
• Has brilliant support. Ideally I prefer being able to chat with the support team through instant messaging so I can continue doing my work while they look into a problem. What I don’t like is a support team that always has to pass on your question to their tech team so you have to wait 24 hours for a reply.

Most of the hosting providers will give you 3 options: shared hosting, a virtual private server or a dedicated server. You start with shared hosting for a new website and as the site gets more and more traffic you can switch to a VPS or even a dedicated server.

• GoDaddy Hosting
• Namecheap Hosting
• Hostgator Hosting: Hostgator is a very reputable name in the hosting world.
• Admin.2×4 Hosting: Admin.2×4 reside in Russia so it’s safe to use their hosting. You will have to manage everything on your on if your new to this it could become a little bit difficult.
• Altushost Hosting: If you want affordable hosting go with Altushost. They protect your information, don’t care for complaints and you are allowed to store duplicate content. The service is great and the price is right this is a no brainer!
• PRQ Hosting: If you want total anonymity you should go with PRQ for your hosting.

After the setup of your hosting account you will receive a list of nameservers from your hosting company which you will use to redirect your visitors from your domain name to the correct server hosting your website. You can read in this article how you configure the nameservers at one of my favorite domain registrars … Namecheap.