use a reputable provider, you can check up on providers on webhostingtalk for example; people review everyones services
Yeah I've done that before in the past and still got burned by some site. Everyone said oh they were great and all, I signed up and dang it was dismal. Had to change to another one that same month.
Just difficult to get honest non biased answers for this stuff (imho) Not easy to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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