One of the questions I get the most frequently from folks new to affiliate marketing is which host to use for affiliate sites.
There is no one true answer to the question, of course. The answer will vary depending on the person.
However, it is not a decision that you should arrive at quickly or easily. There are many many variables involved in picking a good host and price is just one of them.
For instance, DreamHost is down again (evidently this has been happening frequently judging from the comments):
DreamHost Status » Blog Archive » Major Network Outage: “Our admins are currently investigating this matter. This outage is impacting all of our central databases. Which controls nearly every service ( ex. DNS, Panel, WebMail, Customer Websites, etc ). Therefor if you are encountering any type of downtime, it’s likely related to this outage.”
Do your research and due diligence when picking a hosting provider for your affiliate sites. Sure, it’s great to get a site up and going for $10 on a domain name and $5 a month for co-location hosting, but is that really the best provider for you? As always, research research research.
The prices run from $5 to around $25 for entry level hosting and minimal traffic but once you start scaling, things like downtime, versions of PHP offered, ability to add subdomains, mask links etc really become more valuable than a few bucks. And trust me, it’s a pain to move a site once it has a home.
By the way, if you’re wondering, I always suggest the fine folks at MediaTemple and use them for all I do on the web.