The awesome people over at Freelance Switch have put together and awesome 55 page survey. Its got loads of information in an easy to digest format (lots of stats, and graphs). It really is an awesome read. They do require a small donation (I got it for free because I participated) but it really is worth it they put a lot of work into it.

Independent Thought:

According to easycgi, one should trust only dedicated servers. In that way one can safely work on web development as well as the web design.