Which webhosting company should I choose?

They have: 8 posts

Joined: Aug 2003

Hi, I am looking to buy a some .com webhosting for my website http://www.ticketguide.org which is currently on free hosting. I heard that search engines prefer .com hosting and it will increase my chances of getting on ODP. Can someone give me some advice on what company to pick. I am looking for a hosting company that offers my own .com website with unlimited bandwith, no advertisements and will accept paypal as the monthly payment method. Obviously I would like it to be as cheap as possible.

Can someone give me some help on which company to choose, please email me [email protected]

Thanks,
Tom

P.S. Would I need to buy a new domain or could I transfer my current domain to the new hosting company?

P.P.S. Sorry is some of that didnt make much sense, I'm quite a newbie in web design and web promotion.

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

.com doesn't make a difference that I know of -- though .org indicates to the USER that it's not business oriented, so for that reason alone I'd consider getting a .com domain name.

Where you host is irrelevant, as long as you have a domain name and the host is reliable.

There is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth.

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

You would need to buy the .com version of your domain name

Renegade's picture

He has: 3,022 posts

Joined: Oct 2002

Who evertold you that Search Engines prefer .com hosting is wrong. It doesn't matter if its a .com, .org, .biz, .govt...etc. As long as the search engines can find it and will index it then it won't ever matter if it ended with .zxyacb.

If you are worried about your site being indexed then mark up your site "properly" or nicely.

They have: 18 posts

Joined: Apr 2003

Quote: Can someone give me some advice on what company to pick. I am looking for a hosting company that offers my own .com website with unlimited bandwith, no advertisements

One piece of advice Smiling

Never go for a host which promises unlimited bandwidth. Its not technically possible nor is it affordable.

If you pay for your webhosting, then there should be no question of advertisements Smiling

Allwin Agnel - [email protected]
Neutral Web - Redefining Hosting - Multiple Domain Hosting
http://www.neutralweb.com - Rock solid DUAL XEON Servers.
http://forum.neutralweb.com - Check out what our clients think about us.

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

Quote: Originally posted by metg
Obviously I would like it to be as cheap as possible.

Cheeper always isnt better. I mean, you see some hosts out there offering 1$ hosting. Who can offer quality for 1$? No one in the right state of mind can. You should look into reliablity and support also, not just pricing.

I think that is the #1 made mistake for newbie's looking for webhosting. I mean they see a host for 1 dollar, say what the heck, and sign up. They soon find out they were wrong in choosing that host, because like I said above no one can offer quality for that price. They also have to oversell most likely to get any profit.

Hope that helps a bit.

-Andrew

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

If it is a business, I always advise people to buy all 3 name; .com, .net, .org. Just park the .net and .org and point them to the .com. That keeps someone else from getting them. That is if they are all available.

The .com is not better for search engines. It is still better since people oftentimes will remember the first part, ticketguide but not necessarily the 2nd part, the .com.

Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states

openmind's picture

He has: 945 posts

Joined: Aug 2001

Quote: Originally posted by Suzanne
.com doesn't make a difference that I know of -- though .org indicates to the USER that it's not business oriented, so for that reason alone I'd consider getting a .com domain name.

Where you host is irrelevant, as long as you have a domain name and the host is reliable.

There is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth.

I'd agree here. The .com extension is really the "daddy" of them all. I would only consider anything else if it was relevant, charities, country specific content, etc. The other big advantage of .com is that IE5+ users hit ctrl and enter to add the www. and the .com to a word.

As for the unlimited bandwidth, as Suzanne says there is no such thing. In any case why would you need it? Unless you're running a site pulling millions of hits per second you could easily get away with anything up to 5GB of bandwidth. That would cover you for up to around 250,000 page views per month. So don't get hung up on the bandwidth, look for the other qualities in the host like support, facilities, etc,

Hope this helps.....

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

I am in charge of my band's website ( taiwanmilk.com ). We have been using Tucows' Domain Direct for a year now. We really like the web-builder program except it seems unreliable and crashes alot.
I need advice on a host that has a good, easy to use site builder. I want to have streaming mp3s (perhaps a streaming radio station), and video (whether streaming or downloadable zip file ), and a forum (this v-bulletin seems to be the standard). Obviously we need serious bandwidth and storage. And a stable platform! I would also like to incorporate a store. Thanking you all in advance for your advice. I am located in Taiwan.

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.