You have decided to have your own website. Essential to that decision is buying your web hosting plan. That is where you will construct your site. Here are some practical tips in selecting the company that will provide you with a hosting plan.

SELECT A COMPANY THAT HAS A GOOD RECORD FOR MINIMIZING DOWNTIME

Downtime refers to those periods when for some technical reasons, your website will not be visible in the net. Of course it would be difficult to find a company that has zero downtime. Just as the best car in the market will sometimes need repair and maintenance, so will it be with your host company's capability to ensure your site's continuous visibility in the net. Do some research first. The best web hosting company in this regard will be the company that on a monthly averaging basis, has the least downtime. You can find statistics on this in the Internet.


YOUR WEB HOSTING COMPANY SHOULD HAVE GOOD CUSTOMER SUPPORT

You never know when you need to call up your web hosting company for some trouble shooting work. Customer support should be 24/7. And then, of course, aside from customer support's availability round the clock, you should experience basic courtesy from the support staff and promptness in attending to your needs. Do some research on this. Look for feedbacks from satisfied or dissatisfied customers. You can find a lot of these feedbacks from blogs and forums. You can weigh things based on preponderance of positive or negative comments in your selection process.

HAVE A HOSTING COMPANY WITH GOOD SITE BUILDING SUPPORT

You will need this specially if you are a non-techie. Be practical. Unless you have a bigger budget to enlist the help of professional web developers, you might as well tap the site builder component of your hosting plan. Some hosting companies have user friendly site builders that will put up your website in mere minutes after your registration. Look for this kind of support in your host.

SELECT A HOSTING COMPANY THAT PROVIDES IN ITS PACKAGE A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY YOU CAN TAP ON

This is optimizing your returns from your website. Why not shoot two birds with one stone? Have a website and have an earning opportunity as well. There are a lot of really good web hosting companies who can meet the other criteria above. But will they meet this criterion?

FINALLY, GET A COMPANY THAT ALLOWS YOU TO TEST DRIVE YOUR HOSTING PLAN BEFORE YOU PAY YOUR HOSTING FEE

Well, this is one of the best ways to determine whether your hosting company really meets all of your expectations. Your experience during the trial period will be your best gauge in determining whether you're in a good company or not.
I suggest you research well on the above suggestions. Be practical and ensure your utmost gain in building and maintaining your website.