There are three basic questions you need to answer when you have decided to build a website.

1. What will be my domain name?
2. Where will I host my website?
3. Who will design / develop my website?

With all of these decisions, the most important things you need to think about are (a) quality services, (b) reliability (c) accessibility — to me these are the critical components that make a venture successful or incredibly frustrating.

In this post- I want to just speak on finding a website hosting company.

If you are thinking about where to host your website – I would recommend you NOT WORRY ABOUT IT! Seriously, I think you should first find a website design and then decide where to host it. This is because you will not be able to determine what features are required for hosting your website until it is built!! And even after it is built, when troubles arise you will likely need a technical expert to communicate with that company.

Many web companies will want you to transfer your website hosting to their recommended servers when you start working with them. I use to wonder why they did this since the amount of money they make is so small – it never really mattered to me. However, I’ve come to realize that when I design my clients websites – I become their first point of contact when there are technical/hosting problems. So when the website is not hosted on my servers, I have to go thru a third party company whom I have no relationship with and try to get answers for my clients. This becomes an unnecessary headache.

At Design That Speaks, we host our clients websites at NO COST for the first year, and only charge them in future years if we are not providing any marketing services. If you just starting to build a website and have questions about hosting, domains, or designs – please give us shout!