Blogging and having online small business has become popular nowadays.  Many of you may have started off having your blog under a free web hosting service.  Nothing is really free and that applies online.  For any free hosting provider like Blogger for example, there are always trade-offs for receiving free web hosting.  One of that for example is you are giving up your web presence by giving up your domain name.  If you have your own domain name but continues to host it on free web hosting provider, you have given up to their trade-offs.  These includes limited web space, advertisements on your web page that can draw away your visitors, limited features, and limited programming capabilities.  And another thing, you will have to conform to the free host’s programming requirements, which may be limited to only one style of programming. Your features and capabilities for web design will likely be very limited.

Having mentioned the disadvantages of having a free web hosting service, I am very pleased having my own domain hosted on a paid web hosting service.  I not only have the freedom to secure as much space as I want but I can develop content pages in the design that suits my needs and my style. It also gives me full control of the content of my site.  And I can get a professional, domain-branded email address if I want to.

Now if you are starting to consider web hosting, you will need to know which paid hosting service provides cheap, practical and reliable service.  For starters, you will need web host rating for you to see which web hosting provider is the best among the others.  I’d refer you to www.webhostingrating.com to compare host services against each other and see how they are rated based on the customer satisfaction, affordability, reliability, uptime and techical support. You can also find out which of them has received awards of recognition based on performance, price and other categories. Not only that, their website is filled with articles to give you knowledge to help you maximize the potential of your website.  If your in for the money online, the article Internet Advertising – Making Money With Your Website will fill you with knowledge and give you points on how to earn online.

So if you mean serious business, when you want to affirm yourself as a professional in your field, go buy a hosting plan that has a domain included in the price and make a serious start.