Shopping for Web hosting has become a bizarre exercise. I find myself convinced that one company asking $2,400 per year can be a good value for some, while another asking $2,500 per year is effectively, if not legally, a scam. How did the market get this weird?

Technically, a Web host is nothing but files on an accessible server. Web-hosting services group files for many Web sites on one physical server at the low end and dedicate multiple physical servers clustered together for a single Web site on the high end. Either way, they’re all just files on a server.

I've said many times I strongly recommend small companies pay a hosting service rather than run their own Web host. Let experts provide redundant Internet data connections, non-stop power and keep security strong. But what should you pay? One dollar per month (as I do for one low-volume site) or $500?

A direct mail piece recently invited me to an Internet Marketing Conference. The company called a build-it-yourself cold sandwich a "Premier Dining Package" worth $189, so I went.

There, I sat through 90 minutes of PowerPoint, info charitably described as incomplete and outdated with an emphasis suspending critical thinking skills. The goal, of course, was to sign me up for the full-day "training" course and get me to pay the $2,500 Active Merchant fee. Legal, yes. But so is telling a room full of hopefuls to buy lottery tickets "investment advice."

Never pay money upfront if you don't know exactly what you're getting; never sign a contract before you get all the info; and never do business with a company that admits "some examples might not be" their customers.

Legitimate hosting services often include software to help you design your own Web site.

Two of the easiest Web design software applications are Contribute from Macromedia and Fusion from NetObjects/WebSitePros. Affinity offers the CreateIt product, using Contribute, and each offer hosting plans starting at $25 per month. 1&1 Hosting uses Fusion and other software, and costs as little as $5 per month.

Of course, "easy" is a relative term, so you might want to pay a designer or someone like Paul Chato, to help.

President of the new YourWebDepartment.com service, Chato runs a seminar called, "You've Got a Web Site, Now What?" and offers marketing advice, custom-designed development tools and personal handholding. His customers want an experience even easier than Contribute or Fusion, and personalized marketing advice. Chato’s services are relatively high priced, but unlike with scammers, you actually get what you pay for.