Just wanted to see how some of you find good deals on web hosting. I have included a poll with this thread to see if anyone has used any of these methods to find a web hosting deal.

Here are the methods that I have found to find some pretty good web hosting deals:

1. Search for deals - Just go to Google (or any search engine) and search for "web hosting rebates", "web hosting deals", and "web hosting coupons". Then you just need to select one of the deals with a web host that offers the features that you need.

2. Search for deals for a specific web host - If you have already selected your web host, then search for "[i]webhost[i] rebate", "[i]webhost[i] deal", and "[i]webhost[i] coupon". Just make sure that you do this before you sign up to take advantage of these deals.

3. Browse offers in hosting forums - The offers sections of many web hosting forums have lots of hosts offer some nice deals.

Note: Obviously after you find a deal, you should always do a little research on any host that you select. Because if your selected web host has bad service or poor feature it doesn't matter how good the deal is.

Browse over reputable hosting directory and forums for reviews. That is what i usually do.

WebHost Directories are not reliable as most of the listings are paid

Forums are also not reliable as most of the threads are run by either the affiliates or web hosts themselves.

WebHosting Reviews are also not reliable as these are also manipulated.

I good gauge is to do a quick google search for "webhost problems", "webhost sucks", "webhost complaint", and various other phrases to see what types of problems people have had with a particular host.

Keep in mind that all hosts will have people complaining about them - and the larger hosts will obviously have more complaints than a small host.

I do agree with this, searching for important keyword can play impressive part in searching the right hosting company and their reviews.

As far as hosting companies are concerned, they should only focus on search engine optimisation.

Cheers to both.

I make a search on Google, check if there are reviews about it, check the info in alexa and then I ask if they have a demo cpanel just to see the server status.

talk directly to web hosting owners and admin. most web hosting owners are on major web hosting forums so its easy.

That's interesting to haer what other people do. I always try "Hosting company' reviews" or "Hosting company feedback"

Only know search is not enough. Below are what I would like to suggest:
1. Identify your web hosting requirement. Including budget, disk space, bandwidth, support, php, perl, mysql support, how many domain you need to host, platforms, web hosting company's location, etc.
If you don't know how to do it, you can type "web hosting clue" or "web hosting guide" to get there

2. Based on above requirement, get a very reputed web hosting company. This might be hard one, just as you said, you need to type some key word like "top web hosting", "best web hosting", etc, and you will feel confused since the top or best companies you find from different site are different, some are scammed, some not, you need to compared carefully. You need to find some site just provide reputed web hosting companies list, that would be easily for you to choose.

3. Find a plan fit for you best and check the customer review of this company and make the final decision.

Only know search is not enough. Below are what I would like to suggest:
1. Identify your web hosting requirement. Including budget, disk space, bandwidth, support, php, perl, mysql support, how many domain you need to host, platforms, web hosting company's location, etc.
If you don't know how to do it, you can type "web hosting clue" or "web hosting guide" to get there

2. Based on above requirement, get a very reputed web hosting company. This might be hard one, just as you said, you need to type some key word like "top web hosting", "best web hosting", etc, and you will feel confused since the top or best companies you find from different site are different, some are scammed, some not, you need to compared carefully. You need to find some site just provide reputed web hosting companies list, that would be easily for you to choose.

3. Find a plan fit for you best and check the customer review of this company and make the final decision.

I find on forum webhostingtalk , and some other