So you’re looking for a web host where you can build that website/webcomic/webseries/weblog/webwhatever that will make you rich and famous (or at least, well known with your bills paid on time). You’re reading some reviews of web hosts and wondering how they can all be the very best host around. Well here’s some news for you: the vast majority of those reviews were written by a paid writer. Here are some questions to ask yourself when reading those reviews:

How Many Sites Does the Reviewer Run?

When the reviewer puts themselves forth as some kind of expert on web hosts, you have to wonder, how did they become so informed on the subject? How can they give a full page review of all these different websites? The only way these guys could really be being honest in all these reviews is if they had actually subscribed to, and built a website with, every single one of these hosts, and then developed that site over several months to see how the host performs over time. Anyone running dozens of websites at once is someone that doesn’t have time to write reviews of web hosting sites.

Does the Extra Dollar Really Matter?

There are web hosting review sites out there that praise one web host or another for being mere pennies less expensive than the nearest competitor. If you can actually build a successful website, one that will pay for the hosting and registration fees many times over, do you really care that you saved fifty cents on the hosting costs? Unless you’re just starting out and have a budget of exactly $7.49 to build your website, you really don’t care that the other host costs $7.99.

You know who does, though? A paid writer who’s been told to explain why his client’s hosting site is better than the nearly-identical competitor’s hosting site, and is really grasping for straws when it comes to finding a difference between the two.

This is no slight against paid writers. Paid writers make the web go ’round, really, and what are we really all blogging for if not to make some money? What you won’t get from a paid writer, however, is impartiality.

Where’s the Money in Reviewing Web Hosts?

You have to wonder where the writer is getting his end. Is there any money to be had in writing honest, unbiased reviews? Is there any money to be had in giving negative reviews to crummy web hosts? When you’re making your money through affiliate sales of memberships to the very site you’re reviewing, chances are you’re not going to dedicate much discussion to their rude and dismissive customer service, their hidden fees or the fact that they ban and block any remotely controversial website after the very first visitor complaint.

If you want honest reviews of web hosts, nine times out of ten you’re better off just finding a website you like and seeing who hosts it, or else asking any friend with webmastering/blogging experience who they might recommend. If you want impartiality from some anonymous reviewer, you may as well ask for an unbiased opinion from television commercials.