There are so many people getting into the world of websites every day, and many are entirely clueless on what web hosts they should choose and what they should be looking for.

What advice could you give to them, and do you recall what your first pay host was?

If you do, what was your experience with them? Was it something you regretted?

Anyway, this is just for discussion purposes.

I'm not going to give a specific company as I think there are many good ones out there. Unfortunately, there are also many fly-by-night operations lately with the ease of getting a reseller account currently. Check around with other people to see what kind of experience they have had with the company and see how long they have been around. Price may be a partial consideration but don't let it be the only one. It's worth paying a few dollars more to have a company that will be there when you need them to and to have a website that's up all the time.

I have got a reseller account with sambahosting (www.sambahosting.com). I find their technical support to be very efficient. I highly recommend them.

The important thing is to do reasearch before you commit. Go through the forums and select the host that has a overall good reputation of support and uptime.

Also it is always better not to commit for anything more that a month to month contract when you start.

Start with a month-to-month agreement and look for a host that offers a money back guarantee for the initial term. ie. 30 day money back guarantee.

I think all of the above are wise chooses. While I don't know Samba first hand a good friend of mine swears by them for newbies starting out. Research is a huge must, don't just take someones word for it as what might work for some doesnt work for all. See what suits you best, and Brian is right if you can get a monthly try that first.

Some places offer a money back gaurantee? I must not be looking in the right places. Aklthough on the other hand if they really stink they may not give your money back easily either.

Unfortunately this seems to be the try and see type of choice,

If they do have a money back guarantee, and they refuse to give the money back to you, ultimately, you could do a chargeback.

Proper research on a company should reveal either the level of trust you can put in them (to hold true to their world) or even how they handle refunds. A history of haggling over refunds is not what you want, and should probably enough to put a company off your list, on principle alone.

Some truly excellent suggestions everyone!

Since I never mentioned it before, my first web hosting company was actually quite good, but they were lesser known, and went under rather quickly.

Still not entirely sure what had happened to them, but they were quite good to me while I was there.

My host after that however...well, I would rather not get into it! They screwed me on bandwidth like major!

Excellent suggestions in this thread so far. For newbies, I would always recommend a monthly contract with any provider to make sure you are happy with their services. Through the years, I have personally had several hosting companies that I was with and they ranged from really bad to fly by night, some disappeared, and a few were really good. So I guess I have seen it all.

Nowadays, as my organization is a host itself amongst many other things, we host our own sites. How can it get better than that? If I have a hosting complaint, I can only complain to myself!