If you want your own website then you have to first get yourself a domain name. Once you have your domain name secured, you then need a hosting company and possibly a platform on which to host your website. It is possible to buy domain names from the same company that you use to host your website, but that is a matter of personal choice.



Some web hosting companies work well with a platform and content management system such as Wordpress, and an increasing number of websites out there are now hosted by companies that use cpanel hosting that is compatible with Wordpress. Some hosting companies expect web owners to purchase their hosting annually while others will charge for hosting on either a quarterly or monthly basis.



The cost of web hosting varies widely and depends on the exact type of hosting option that you want, shared, dedicated or private. Shared web hosting means that your website will be on the same server as other people's websites. Many web owners find that shared hosting is sufficient for their needs and providing you choose a reputable company, you shouldn't get too much down time.



Private web hosting means that your website and everyone else's will have its own unique server. Dedicated web hosting is the most expensive hosting of all and means that not only does your site have its own server, it also has dedicated server space for storage and increased efficiency. Both private and dedicated hosting options usually means that there is little or no down time and so your web pages load much more quickly than they would with shared hosting. They are also not as likely to become entangled with bad 'neighbourhoods' whereby other sites on the same server tarnish your reputation.



Most people with small businesses find that shared web hosting is sufficient for their needs, providing they have an assurance of little downtime. It's possible to get free web hosting, although insufficient bandwidth and too much down time might actually cost you more than it saves. Hosting cost in excess of 50 per month, although there are cheaper and even more expensive options available - depending on who you choose. If you use a company such as Hostgator or Blue Host, you are probably looking to spend around 80 to host your website.



When it comes to choosing your hosting company you should look for 99% up time and how much bandwidth and speed of data transfer you will be getting for your investment. 2GB of bandwidth is usually enough for most ordinary websites, it's not worth paying for more if you don't really need it. You should find out how much disk space you will get each month, although 5MB is enough for most websites. The final thing that you need to consider when weighing up the cost of hosting your website is what kind and how much technical support does the hosting company offer its customers. Once you have looked at these issues, then you can decide how much you want to spend on web hosting.

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer living in the UK. He regularly contributes articles for 111WebHost, an industry leading Web Hosting Company.