Before you choose a web hosting service provider who is perfect for all of your needs, you may not need to do any research at all. Just log on to the web and look around. Within minutes, you’ll find a ton of hosting providers eager to make you their customer. Some of them even offer free web space to go along with the deal! Really – Webmasters have it easy when it comes to opting for a web space.

But be honest with yourself – Without doing any real web hosting comparisons, do you think you would be able to find the right web host for your website? You need to understand that a website is a long term asset, it is important for you to find the right web hosting provider to call your cyber-home. The best way to do this is simply compare the same features across different web hosts, to understand which web host will work for you.

The message is this – It’s Important to Compare!

While comparing web hosting providers, here are some key things you should take into consideration

• How much web space do they offer – Really, all that you want to know from your web host,is how much web space or disk space can they offer you. This is not to say that a web host offering more space is better, but at the same time, this is a good place to start with.

• What are the Language, Operating System and Database Support they offer – It is time to get a bit technical here and understand what the support is provided by the web host. Some web hosts who offer Linux hosting web services would focus on supporting PHP-MYSQL, WORDPRESS, JOOMLA and other such applications, while a Windows based Web Hosting service would offer .NET applications support.

• How is their customer support and what is their service up time – Service up time is often a concept that is played around with a lot, by web hosting service providers. Most of them promise a 99% service up time, but often ignore the time taken in maintenance activities.

• Finally, the role played by the customer support team in helping you manage your web space is important to understand. Let’s face it – In dealing with a web host, there are only some things you can control. For all others, the customer support team should come in handy.

These should ideally be the points you should think of, when you get to compare web hosting service providers.  But again – These would only come into play when you get to compare them.

Do more comparisons to find the recommended web hosting that works for you. Check out RecommendedWebHosting.org and see which companies are the Top Rated Web Hosting Companies available to you.

Hostgator is a great web hosting provider.  I’ve been using them for almost two years now, and I absolutely love them.  If I ever have a problem with one of my websites, they get me back in business fast.   I used to use Godaddy who was terrible for hosting a website.  My site was slow to respond, tech support was untrained and I would often wait on hold for way too long.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Godaddy as a domain registrar.  They are great, but for web hosting, Hostgator is where I run my business and they have taken good care of me.

Hostgator has great technical support too, super fast response, and plenty of bandwidth to  run any website you can throw at them.

Hostgator, like many other web hosting providers, uses cPanel as a way for their customers to self maintain their web sites.  cPanel is a software application that is designed to make maintaining a running a website very easy.  It is very powerful and lets you do a lot with  your web site.

How to Create an Addon Website Using Hostgator cPanel

The main thing most people use cPanel for is to install new websites and setup wordpress.   Adding a new website with cPanel is called an Addon domain.  To add a new addon website using cpanel following these steps:

1. Login to your Hostgator cPanel – this is usually going to be http://yourdomain.com/cpanel

2. Scroll down until you see the Domains Section and the Addon Domain icon.

3. Click the Addon Domain icon

4. Enter your new domain name in the text for new domain.

5. When you tab to the next field cPanel will automatically add the Subdomain/FTP user and Document root fields for you.

6. Next enter your password and then retype your password again.

7. Then click add domain.

8. Kick back and enjoy your day – you are the master of your web empire!

It that easy!

Installing addon websites using Hostgator cpanel is very quick and easy.

Are you thinking about using Hostgator for your website hosting?
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My last article explained a bit about How to Setup a Web Site.  But before you can setup your web site you need to find a good hosting provider.  “Where will you host your new website?”  There are a lot of web hosting providers out there both big and small.  And just because they are a big operation doesn’t mean you will get the most bang for your buck.  Even the little guys can provide superb service. Here are a few things to consider to help you choose a good hosting provider.

Reliability - Does the web hosting provider have new fully supported hardware.  Or do they have old equipment that may break down at any minute.  Are they backing up your files or will they provide a file backup service in the event a problem arises.

Speed - If your website is slow because of your service provider, your visitors will not stay around to watch the web page load.  Many web hosting companies use virtual servers to keep the price cheap.  They carve out many many little virtual servers out of one large physical web server.  If the physical server is over subscribed, meaning too many virtual servers, the physical server comes to  a crawl and becomes very slow.

Ease of Use – How easy is it to manage your website and your hosting account?  What about adding new domains or sub-domains?  Or creating email addresses?  Most competitive unix based hosting providers use cPanel to allow their users to manage their accounts.  cPanel is very intuitive and easy to use.  Some larger web hosting providers like GoDaddy have their own web portal for managing dns, web and email settings.

Support -  Do they have a knowledgeable friendly staff and that can help you and solve your problems quickly?  What are their hours of support?  If you have a problem will you be able to call them when  you need them?

Stability - The internet is open 24 hours a day and so should your web site.  If the server you “rented” is not in good shape, over subscribed, or if the web host just didnt pay their electric bill, your web site will suffer.

Wordpress Support-  This one is great if your a blogger. Having the ability to quickly and easily install WordPress is a must.  Also having a support staff who understand WordPress will really help you in the event you run into trouble.

Price - Last but not least price.  Price may not be everything but in the competitive world of web hosting price can means the difference between having customers or not not having customers.  And just because they charge a lot doesn’t mean its better.  Some of the best web hosting providers charge only $6 or 7 bucks a month and are outstanding places for you to host your web site.

List of recommended providers. – Below is a list of web hosting providers that I recommend.

Hostgator – This is who I use (LOVE THEM!)

BlueHost – Used by Yaro Starak and Caroline Middlebrooke

HostMonster- Used by Brian Johnson and many top bloggers and webmasters

There are many more but these are ones I have experience with or others I know have recommended.  If you have any web hosting providers that you love let us know!  We would love to hear about them.