Welcome to the SSWT Forum!
There are a couple of good threads on Hosting that I'm sure you'll find interesting:
http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/f ... .php?t=899
http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/f ... php?t=1517
I've been using Her Web Host for quite a while, and up until recently was happy with their service. They upgraded servers a couple of months ago and things have gone downhill since then (the packages we originally ordered changed, customer service & support is not what it used to be, billing problems, etc etc). I had started out on an 8.95/month plan, which was a great price for the features at the time...
When I launched a second site, I included it on my original package for a one time $10 fee. I did end up upgrading my package to 14.95/mo and then to 19.95/mo to accomodate space & bandwidth usage - and then ended up separating them into two accounts (which cost me 19.95/mo ea because of size & amount of traffic by that time). It turned out that I didnt have enough 'data transfer' allowance on these packages, so often had to pay overusage fee's - - something like an 'email bomb' or tons of junk mail would get me there, too, as my email accounts were included in the calculation of data transfer. While they did include a mailing list script, it was very basic - and I very quickly grew out of it... so I moved my list to aWeber (which is a terrific deal for the 19.95/mo). So as you can see, my account went from under $9/mo to almost $60/mo
I honestly wouldnt have had a problem with that if the service had been worth the price. There has been no compensation for the insane amounts of down time, no resolution to complaints, etc. I'm very happy with my move to (which I am in the process of right now). In addition to lowering the price I've been paying - their accounts come with tons of features that would cost extra anywhere else. I am able to host both of my sites on the one account (for 24.95/mo) without losing important features (such as stats!) on the secondary account(s). That's something you should check into, by the way - that you get stats on your parked domain, as I found it after the fact that HWH only offered them on the primary domain. Anyway, things like an Affiliate Program Manager and unlimited ad-free autoresponders & mailing lists are very costly when added on from third-party companies... so that makes a logical solution for my sites, as those are features that come with every account.
That said, when launching a brand new site, or just starting out - and especially if you just need 'the basics' - many of the less expensive hosts will suit you just fine. I do recommend that you keep a current back up of your site files, databases and mailing lists at all times... just in case something happens, or you choose to move servers at some point. You can usually transfer a domain and upload your files to a new host and be back up and running in a matter of 36 hours in the case that something goes bad
Keep us posted on what you decide! I look forward to hearing more from you
