I was thinking about writing one because well I think it would help out the hosting community. The idea is to be as un biased as possible soooo. I thought I would ask the community that it will benifit what they think should be in it.

What would you like to see in a guide? (and your URL dosnt count :-) )

Great idea!

Tell them to use GoDaddy, because people don't have to pay above $8.95!

How to spot dodgy hosts
How to check things up
email the support / pre-sales people, ask questions

Then you could also go into things like how to use POP3 and FTP, but I don't know how deep you want to go with this.

A tutorial written from the newbies perspective. One major error I find in most books and manuals is, the writer assumes the newbie already knows what the term or phrase is. Yes, the writer knows what it means but not the newbie.

When I got into it recently, terms like cname, arecord, dns were hard to get a picture of. All the faq files would tell you what it is but not show a illustration of it and how it's used.

Maybe some terms in block diagram style would help. Like how ip numbers relate to the Internet etc.

Good Luck!
fewcoin

One thought may be to concentrate on keywords that would help them conduct a search. Words like Peering, transfer, router, hub, propagation, and gateways to name a few. To be unbiased would be to show them what things mean to aid them in making decisions rather then trying to show them how to decide....

My .02 worth...

Originally posted by Waterlogged
I was thinking about writing one because well I think it would help out the hosting community. The idea is to be as un biased as possible soooo. I thought I would ask the community that it will benifit what they think should be in it.

What would you like to see in a guide? (and your URL dosnt count :-) )

read my signature note.. put that in your book for newbies.

I don't think your signature is entirely true. I don't pay an arm and a leg for my hosting, and I am 110% satisfied.

Originally posted by xie
I don't think your signature is entirely true. I don't pay an arm and a leg for my hosting, and I am 110% satisfied.

"arm & a leg" varies with each person. The point is don't expect much with free hosting plans, and don't expect much with severely underpriced hosting plans.

Of course not, but as we discussed the issue at length on IRC, I think it's safe to say neither of us are guilty of that. :P

There are lots of guides right here in the forum. I located one but I know there are many more. I guess it would depend on if the guide were for tips for "looking for hosting" or more on the maintenance side of things to do after you get your account.
The latter would be hard to do unless it was just very basic info as every account, control panel, etc. would work a little different.
I think simplicity is the key for newbies :)
Here are a few related postings:
http://forums.webhostdir.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5972

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=103096
Has a section with tips for choosing a host.
Another good resource:
www.hostinghelp.com

Warn them about those "Unlimited" hosts.

If it is going to be aimed at people starting their own hosting business, may I suggest a lengthy section on credit card options.

It seems a lot of people dont know what a 'real' merchant account is. So maybe explaining the differences of a real one and something like paysystems would be good. Also explaining the fees associated with a merchant account.