Thoughts on hosting

Well, let me share some thoughts regarding hosting. You SHOULD get your own webspace if you want to run it professionally. Don't use any free webspace with weird sounding, endless domain names. Don't be stingy and invest a few bucks! There are a whole lot of packages available. For a start you just take a small package, if you consider using Joomla, remember the need for a database in your package!
The idea is to create your own website, then create websites for your customers. You do the job, you charge the customer. Charge them more than you pay for their package, since you will administrate the whole site anyway. If you have reached a certain amount of customers, you might want to think about getting a dedicated server.
The advantage is simple: You are more flexible and able to tailor your packages according to your individual customers needs. Moreover the MySQL - databases are unlimited (of course there is a memory and CPU constraint at a certain point of time).
One CON about an own server is the maintenance. Since I am not a Linux-guru, I decided to get a "managed" server. This option is more expensive than a "root"-server, but the provider will install all relevant updates and security patches for me automatically and even assist me on technical problems. Make sure you have the full root access though and not limited user access rights.

You should do some research for providers before you choose to get a package. Let me tell you something, you still have to have luck....or not having bad luck. Reason? You should be able to find a good hoster due to top ten lists, reviews etc. But signing up with the best hoster doesn't mean you won't have problems....just like signing up with a cheap hoster does not necessariliy mean your site will be offline most of the time and the service sucks.
It's not easy, well out of my experience I can say that I have been with both and had my fair share of happy times and not so happy times with them.
Overall you should still get the better service with the quality and more expensive hoster, but if you run into a huge problem, your site might be down just like any other.
If you take a look at the reviews of those hosters, you will for sure find few bad reviews within the top hosters as well. People claiming that their server has been offline for days, the service team is not responding at all etc. At the same time people replying, that this is the best hoster they have ever been with.

Make your choice, but make it wise....any questions, please leave a comment.