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Are you an experienced webmaster with hundreds of websites online or a newbie who wants to build some sites seriously and join the bandwagon? Whatever be the case, one thing which you will need to have your websites online is a web hosting service. A shared hosting plan is perfect for starters or webmasters with low to medium traffic sites. Read on and I promise you a wealth of information which should help you extremely in choosing the perfect web hosting package to suit your needs...

Basics: What Is Shared Hosting?

Shared web hosting service can be compared to a shared cab where a number of passengers use the same vehicle by paying a relatively lower fare. Similarly, in case of shared webhosting, the server's resources are distributed among the accounts for a cheap and affordable monthly fee. You get a predefined chunk of disk space, a fixed monthly bandwidth or transfer quota and a control panel to manage your hosting account. It should be mentioned that the CPU and RAM (speed and memory) resources are shared among all the customers on a single server. So, if one tends to utilize a very high amount of CPU or memory, then the others tend to suffer. But hosts monitor all accounts and ask the over-using customers to either leave or upgrade their plans.

Factors That Matter

Now let's take a look at the top tips...

' Disk Space

Most shared hosting plans now offer more than 5GB disk space and that should be more than enough for most. Although you may see hosts offering outrageously high disk space, ideally customers aren't able to use them. Don't go for a higher plan just seeing a higher amount of disk space. You can always upgrade when required with most hosts.

' Technical / General Support

This is one of the most important factors while choosing a host. Do they offer live chat, ticket based or email based support? Do they have a toll free number and able support representatives? What is their average turnaround time? Do they provide support 24x7 in your language? These are the questions you should ask them initially.

' Hosting Features

For your website and scripts to function properly, your hosting features should be compliant. What scripting language and database options does it offer? PHP, ASP.NET, Perl, MySQL, MSSQL, Linux or Windows? - Which of them do you want? Also check what control panels they are offering and try a demo to make sure you are comfortable with it. How many FTP, email, databases, sub domains, parked and add-on domains do they offer and does that satisfy your needs? Web stats monitoring is also essential.

' Monthly Bandwidth

For low to medium traffic websites, a limit of 100GB per month is considered good. Though most shared hosts now offer more bandwidth than that, you should know that it's a marketing gimmick and you cannot even realize that limit in practice. 100GB traffic usage means lots and lots of visitors!

' Ratings & Reviews

It would be wise to check different forums and communities, popular blogs and read what they say about the different hosts that you have already short listed. Though you will see mixed reactions, but you'd get a wide view of the different pros and cons of that particular package. Reputation in hosting industry also matters a lot and that should be evident from the reviews and the number of years they are in operation.

' Server Performance & Uptime

Ask or check the specifications of the server they are putting you on. Does it have ample CPU power and RAM to handle the load? How many accounts do they put on a single box? Do they extremely oversell? Also, the server location plays an important role. Get a US server or hosting co. if your primary audience is US as low ping times mean faster page serving. Don't forget to consider their guaranteed uptime. It should be in the 99.99% figure.

' Effective Monthly Price

Keep in mind that a real cheap monthly price does not essentially mean bad and a higher pricing means good. You should essentially look for a mix of features and value for money. Most hosts charge a reduced fee if bought for a year or half yearly. So, it's good to go for a term longer than 1 or 3 months.... The ideal range for shared hosting is from $5 / month to $15 / month. Also look for some money saving coupons floating on the net!

If you have gone through these little but useful tips above, you can be assured that you are not far away from making a really good and sweet shared web hosting deal. Go ahead and choose your host confidently!