I used a free web host initially and had to regret it later. One day it was gone… stopped working… they just decided discontinue with the free service. Imagine you have built up a good site, have a lot of traffic to the site and one day it’s gone. You have to start all over again.

Here are the top 7 reasons why you should NEVER rely free web hosting for your photography website:

1. It simply looks VERY unprofessional
2. The storage space and bandwidth is very limited
3. Most free web hosting include advertising on your site
4. You have very limited support if your site is down
5. They might just disappear one day and your site is lost
6. You won’t get your own domain name
7. You can find quality web hosts for VERY cheap prices nowadays

There are so many good quality web hosts available that there is simply no reason to be cheapskate charlie and use a free service. You can get a quality web host for $4.95 per month. Come-on, you can afford that!

Here’s a simple 7 step checklist for selecting a webhost:

1. Guaranteed uptime should be >99.9%
2. You should not need to sign a long term contract
3. Your account should include CPANEL and Fantastico for easy installation of blogs and image galleries etc.
4. The web hosting service should include 24/7 support
5. Ample of disk space and bandwidth (unlimited is best)
6. Possibility to seamlessly upgrade your account later with more domains, SQL databases, dedicated server etc. when your business grows
7. Provide Linux web hosting (don’t use Windows)

I often get the question “which web host do you use?” and the answer is Hostgator for most of my sites. I’ve tried many other web hosts but Hostgator is the one that nearly always works flawlessly for me and they provide good value for money.

Hostgator.com fulfills all 7 criterias in the checklist and they also have one more added benefit. They are very popular and this means that most scripts for blogs, shopping carts, image galleries, CMS etc. have been tested and works great with Hostgator.

Hostgator web hosting might insufficient if you start driving a huge amount of traffic but don’t worry about that for now. You need an insane amount of traffic to your website before it becomes a problem so let’s call it a positive problem if it happens . And you can always upgrade to another web host.

Webhosting for Photography Websites is a post from: PhotoBusinessGuide.com