I think that I mentioned in one of my previous posts about making over the design of my blog and buying my own domain name that I considered switching to a paid host as well but decided against it due to cost concerns. The truth of the matter is cost was not my only consideration. Not knowing enough about hosting was another one. I am one of those people who likes to research everything to death. It doesn't matter what I'm going to buy, whether it's an MP3 player or a box of hair color; I'm going to go online and read everything that I can about the product before I hand over my money.I tried to research paid hosts right before I bought my own domain name. I spent half a day going through Izea's message boards, writing down other bloggers' recommendations, and looking up each recommendation's web site. Even though I would bookmark the sites, after awhile I found that all of the hosting plans and sites started to to meld together in my mind. By the end of the day, I was so confused by this plethora of information that I was pretty sure that I no longer knew a Host Gator from a Florida Gator.
I even thought for a moment, "There has got to be an easier way to do this. Shouldn't there be some site out there that takes all this information and puts it one spot?" I should have searched for an answer to that question, but I didn't. I essentially gave up and chose to stay with my current host instead.
However, I have found a site since then that will help me immensely when I finally decide to take the plunge into the paid-hosting pool. The site, WebHostingGeeks.com, is a webhosting blog that consolidates information on web hosts, including pricing plans, perks, and consumer reviews, and puts them into easy-to-read charts. For instance, the Web Hosting Geeks have created a chart for the Top 10 web hosts of 2008; the best hosts for those on a budget; and the best blog, forum, Unix, Windows, PHP, email, e-commerce, multiple domain name, reseller, virtual private seller, and best dedicated server hosts. Each chart entry contains a link to the host's home page so you don't have to do what I did, which is search the Internet for the correct site and hope that you're not about to click on a spyware-filled clone.
In addition to posting these useful charts, the Web Hosting Geeks post blog entries about the web hosts as well. These blog entries suggest things that you might want to consider beyond price when you're looking to choose a host for your site. For instance, one of the Web Hosting Geeks' latest entries, What Type of Hosting Do You Need?, explains the difference between shared hosting and dedicated hosting in language even a newbie like me can understand. Another called The Gator Goes Green talks about hosting companies like Host Gator that are going green to help the environment. I would have never even known that there are environmentally-conscious web hosts out there if I had not read this article.
If you're one of my fan fic readers who is currently disgruntled with CBS's new CSI message boards--I've heard that a lot of you are--you may want to check out WebHostingGeeks.com's recommendations for best forum hosting. You could start your own CSI message board with your own rules and your own color scheme (i.e. no more blinding, white backgrounds). If you're a doggy blogger, a soap fan, or someone who just has a lot to say like me, check out the blog host recommendations. Finally, if you're a web site rookie who just doesn't know where to begin host-wise, I suggest thoroughly reading the entire site. It definitely helps clean up the mind melt.
