Deciding on who to host with - Virtual Assistant Forums

tea thirty · #1 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008

Hi everyone

I have been looking at hosting options and have seen there is an array of choices out there. I like the idea of free hosting as in this site:

http://www.bravenet.com/webhosting/

(but is there a catch?)

I know I should be looking for reputable company to trust my future online 'growing' business. I wonder if anyone has used a free hosting service and can compare with a paid service. What is your experience with both and what kind of services should I be looking for to have a stable online presence for my business?

I have looked at what this website is offering and I realise it could be well worth the reasonable monthly charge. This then leads me to start thinking about the marketing these hosting companies offer in regards to search engine status ect.. I wonder if I should just keep in simple and not look into it too much or am I asking the right questions?

Tess · #2 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008

I can't speak to bravenet's policies, but many 'free' hosting services come with a major catch: graphic and/or text ads placed on your site either at the top, along the sidebar, or both.

Modern Marketing Support · #3 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008

Hi Jasmine,

Tess is right. Many, (I think all) free hosting sites put ads on your space. Not very professional looking in my opinion.

I host with Netfirms and I love them. I've been with them for a year and my site has never been down and they have great customer support. I think they're reasonably priced as well. $5 per month to host a full site including blog support etc. Plus, as an added bonus, they just went Green. That makes me happy.

Dawn At Your Service · #4 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008

I am not familiar with any free web hosting sites. I would agree that there is probably a catch.
$5 a month sounds pretty reasonable to me. I pay $9.50 a month through Yahoo for hosting & domain. I'm not sure what the going rate is for domain either. I didn't research it very much because I have so many services through At&t I figured what's another $10!
By the way, I love the name Jasmine

. That is what I named my oldest daughter.

candctroll · #5 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008

I too use yahoo for about $10 a month.

jeannedb · #6 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008

Personally, I'm a snob when it comes to hosting and I will admit it. If I see that a business is hosted free (and you can typically tell because of the advertising placed on the site), I lose confidence in the business. Psychologically, it tells me this person isn't sure enough about her business when in reality, it could just be that this person didn't realize that there are very economical solutions to hosting.

I know Microsoft Office Live is actually free but it doesn't place an ad at the top of your site and their templated designs lend themselves very well to business sites. I would pursue that before something like Freewebs or Bravenet.

But it's important to realize that paid hosting can be so much less expensive than you realize and many hosts now offer monthly payments rather than yearly (although you will typically save a little more by going yearly).

If you look to the right, there is an ad for Website Hosting specifically for Virtual Assistants. That might be something to look into.

jeannedb · #7 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008

Originally Posted by Dawn~AtUrServic

I am not familiar with any free web hosting sites. I would agree that there is probably a catch.
$5 a month sounds pretty reasonable to me. I pay $9.50 a month through Yahoo for hosting & domain. I'm not sure what the going rate is for domain either. I didn't research it very much because I have so many services through At&t I figured what's another $10!
By the way, I love the name Jasmine

. That is what I named my oldest daughter.

I just snatched up yet another domain last night through Godaddy.com and the total cost came to $10.19 for one year. I don't know if I'm remembering correctly but I swear the first time I bought a domain from either Network Solutions or Register.com, it was $75 <--- I take that back, I think that was the cost for two years for one domain.

tea thirty · #8 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008

thanks for the input everyone, given your advice i will be going through a well known company.

Delady · #9 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008

Have you looked into Microsoft Live Small Business? They give you a free domain, along with email addresses and website hosting...Did I mention all of that was FREE, of course there are some limitations, but they are a pretty reputable company.

Let us know which one you choose.

JacksonAO · #10 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008

I was advised not to use godaddy.com because they have a poor customer service reputation, but that is only rumor

vainparadise · #11 (**permalink**) 05-03-2008

I am hosting here now and am more the satisfied. I used to use GoDaddy and their customer service was fine, always willing to help. I was just completely frustrated with their templates.

Lia-VSS · #12 (**permalink**) 05-05-2008

Bravenet is bad.. they use ads on their site... not a good look....

At the mo I'm using Tess's Blogsite just until I get myself set-up... I am looking for a UK-Based host but am hoping to spend no more than £10 p.a. for the domain AND webspace.... I will use US hosting if I don't find a suitable UK-based host...

Monique · #13 (**permalink**) 05-05-2008

I actually use a hosting site that is FREE with no banner ads called Weebly (www.weebly.com). It is a great starter location and keeps the budget in tack when starting out.

However, the templates are limited so I am actually going to moving my site to hosting company I have used in the past called 1&1 (https://order.1and1.com) they are very reliable and inexpensive. Also, it gives me more control over my domain and more features I can add to my site.

They also have great customer service. I didn't go with them at first because I was trying to save a few bucks. Which I did but now I'm ready to move into the big leagues.

Good luck with your search.

Lia-VSS · #14 (**permalink**) 05-05-2008

wow. Can you upload you own layouts with webbly? I do have some HTML layout knowledge so I would love to use my skills on my site instead of using some "Basic" template layouts that I don't really like

Monique · #15 (**permalink**) 05-05-2008

It does allow you to add your own HTML but I'm not sure how much of that is part of the template vs the content layout. I would go to their site and read about how it works.