There’s cheap, and then there’s being value-conscious. If you want a properly hosted web site and you don’t want to spend an enormous sum of money on it, then you’re being value-conscious. If, on the other hand, you are cheap—well, just remember that you really do get what you pay for.

But there are ways to go about both and get the maximum value out of your money. One of the best ways to get your web hosting cheap is to go to a company that has been around for years and will offer competitive rates.

Here is another way to get cheap web site hosting: if your business is located in a mall area, go to the other businesses in your area and see if you can organize a coalition to purchase web hosting together. And if you’re purchasing any other online services, it’s possible you have free or reduced-rate web hosting without being aware of it.

Most ISPs offer free web space as part of your package. Many will reduce regular rates for customers who want to establish a web presence. You may even have access to an online web template, which can automate the building of your website, and you may have reduced-rate access to ecommerce tools such as credit card processing, secure site transactions, or shopping cart programs.

Another good way to get cheap web hosting is to shop around.  ISPs like NetHosting.com that have been around for 15 years will give you a better deal on web hosting services and should be your first choice when choosing hosting for your website.

But say you go somewhere else besides Net Hosting. You need to ensure that the services you’re buying are reliable and accessible. If you purchase web space at a bargain rate, and then your site is down ten percent of the time, you have lost ten percent or more of your customers. Ask them to verify their reliability and ask for references from other customers. Also find out if they have a business page that links to other customers of their services. Check up on them yourself. Make certain you’re getting what you paid for. Remember to check your contract. If you’re contracting with a cheap web host, try to get a short-term contract (typically 1 year).

Read every line of your contract and invest the money in having a lawyer read it as well. You want to avoid hidden charges (like paying more if your bandwidth usage goes over a set limit) and clauses that may raise your rates. Overall, if you’re planning a small site, or launching an ecommerce site for the first time, a cheap web host may be the way to go; but for anything significant or when your site starts growing, you may want to consider paying more. A growing site’s going to bring you more profit anyway, and you can balance the cost of web site hosting against the actual profit you’re gaining online and even offline. If you need help on getting started and finding the right web hosting for you, give our sales team at NetHosting a call at 888.504.4678 and we would love to help you to get your web site going!