When looking for a web host, too often you are sold on the price per month which usually includes a special or package deal.

This is fine if you have a personal site and not a business.

If you are the latter and want cheap hosting for your start-up business; digest the following.

The most important lesson you will learn is that the costs of hosting a website (although definitely important) will not make a good decision for Hosting choices.

I tried 3 cheap hosts and found there was a huge difference in what I got for my money.

In the end, it's a toss between cheaper webhosting costs and the ability to talk to Support when you have a question or worse, a problem.

Here are 3 points summarizing the basic yet critical issues you should be aware of, when planning a typical small business website...

1. Do not even look at free hosting for your Business.

There are too many pitfalls (restrictions) for an online business when looking at a free host.

Instead, be prepared to spend around $8 per year for a real domain name of your own and find a reasonable hosting solution for under $10-$15 per month.

2. Find out what web services you will need immediately and what you will need in future.

You will need at least one merchant service for customer payments. Depending on your business, you may want an Autoresponder service but don't look at the free ones either.

As with Web Hosting, the free Autoresponder services often lack Support or professional pull.

3. Your website should look professional - don't fill it 90% FULL of adverts and bad content.

Slapping up a "weeks worth of web site" will not guarantee you a cent.

Think about hiring someone to put your words into "webspeak", spell check and sell well.