Options for finding the best web hosting for beginners exist in abundance today as more people race to establish their own place on the internet every day. (By “beginner” I mean someone who will soon be publishing their first web site.) The skills required to put up your own website are not as difficult to acquire as you may think. In fact, it’s a cheap, easy, and fun way to put yourself on the map. But first, you have to decide what exactly you want your website to do.

A personal website is one of the easiest to get started with. Most personal websites contain several standard features – some pages for your pictures and written content, another page listing your “favorite links”, and perhaps another one for your visitors’ log. Providers of the best web hosting for beginners all offer templates like these that can be installed using an automated script. This makes it very easy for a beginner like you to do it yourself.

Are you going to be adding a lot of new content to your website on a recurring basis? If you’re planning to, then you should probably consider using the “blogging” application like Nucleus, b2evolution, and Cafe’s WordPress. Even the cheap web hosting for beginners hosting companies provide them. Updating a blog is usually easier than updating a static webpage, so you may want to think this one through a little.

Now that you’ve decided on your website’s preliminary design, it’s time to identify who’s going to get their hands dirty. I’d suggest doing it yourself! There are many web hosts for beginners that make it about as easy as it can be to publish a website yourself. Really, all you need to provide are some basic to intermediate skills on that PC you’re using and a general, high-level understanding of how the Internet operates. You’ll learn everything else you need to know.

Don’t have the time to put up your own website? Or don’t really think you can do it yourself? Almost all of the providers of easy web hosting for beginners offer various levels of hands-on support. Although most of them incorporate it into their higher-end monthly web hosting plans, some still offer those kinds of personalized support a la carte. Be sure to look for that feature before you sign up for a hosting plan.

For the most basic types of websites, you needn’t be too concerned about the version of operating system (OS) your website runs on. All of them – Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and other Unix variants – offer similar functionality for your website, and they generally all cost the same. Each also provides you with an easy-to-use user interface called a control panel. Unless you have a preference between them (cPanel and Plesk are probably the most ubiquitous), you’ll find each equally easy to operate.

Since your website won’t require either high server availability, high through-put network bandwidth, or data encryption like a business website would, you needn’t concern yourself too much with these issues either. Again, the services and features offered in many cheap web hosting for beginners plans already include appropriate levels of performance in these areas.

You’ve done it! You have now identified your basic requirements for your personal website. It’s now time to look at some of the easy web hosting for beginners providers.

In Part 1 of his article, Internet guru Markys Robertson guides you in determining your website’s requirements so you can choose a cheap web hosting for beginners type of solution. Be sure to also click here to read Part 2 of Markys’ article – how to compare and choose between the many best web hosting for beginners options available today!

After considering several characteristics of your intended website – complexity, content, and your own technical abilities – in Part 1 of this article, we arrived at the following conclusions. It will be a personal website of a very basic technical nature; it will have a fair amount of dynamic content on it; and, that you’ll be doing the website development, publishing, and maintenance yourself. (We’re assuming, also, that you’ve already identified and registered an Internet domain name (e.g., www.mysitename.com) with GoDaddy.com or any of the other domain name registrars.

Because the site you’ll be putting up will be simple and basic in nature, you’ll only need some of the more fundamental tools. All of the cheap web hosting for beginners providers include a simple web design tool (usually a set of automated templates), a file manager utility to manage your website’s files on the server, and more than enough email accounts. As far as disk storage and network bandwidth allowances go these days, the trend is to offer unlimited levels for both, even in the most basic hosting package. (You can always purchase more later if you want to take your website up a notch or two in complexity.)

Beyond those preliminary requirements for your basic website, here are several more factors to consider. Do you plan on keeping your website online for a significant length of time? You can choose an easy web hosting for beginners monthly plan, or you can save quite a bit of money by signing up for a multi-year plan. Since it will take some time for you to get your site established on the web, I’d suggest you purchase at least a one-year deal. You’ll also probably save some money on that, too.

Virtually all hosting companies charge their customers’ credit cards these days, and it’s not uncommon for them to keep your credit card number on file for auto-renewal purposes. This provides two benefits for you – security, as using a credit card online is very safe, and availability, as your website won’t be deactivated mistakenly due to lack of renewal payment. I’d suggest having them set up your account in this fashion.

Even the easy web hosting for beginners providers’ plans differ a little, so you’ll probably want to do a little comparison research. You’ll want to try to get a sense of their server and network characteristics. Here are some things to stay alert to while you’re making these comparisons:

- Take a look at your prospective hosting plan and see if you can tell what kind of hardware your website will be hosted upon. If it’s not a brand name like Compaq, Dell, HP, or Sun, it’ll probably be a cheaper, less-reliable “white box” server.

- Is toll-free technical support included in your web hosting package? Email and chat support are common, but you may want – or need – the ability to talk “live” to a technician for some support issues.

- Be aware that if you’re sharing an IP address with other websites on that same server (as is usually the case for cheap hosting plans), your own website may be at risk. Should any other website sharing that IP address with you demonstrate bad behavior like spamming, that IP address may be blocked. This would effectively render your website useless. Get your own IP address for an extra couple of bucks a month and avoid this issue altogether.

If you can remember most of these tips as you’re shopping for the best hosting provider for beginners, you’ll end up with a good selection that you can be happy with. Pricing between hosting companies can be pretty aggressive, so you should also be able to save some money too. Enjoy the learning experience, and before long you, too, will be joining millions of other people on the World Wide Web.

With 15 years of technical experience, author Markys Robertson writes frequently about website design, cheap web hosting for beginners, domain names, and other Internet related topics. If you’re seeking the best web hosting for beginners, click here to see some of Markys’ top recommended providers.