Buying a domain is just the first thing a blogger has to do when getting up their blog… the next step is getting hosting. When deciding upon hosting, you want hosting that is cheap, yet reliable enough not to leave your website down every thirty seconds.
Ask a group of twenty bloggers and they’ll all give you different services… Hostgator, Liquidweb, Hostican, Bluehost, Dreamhost, GoDaddy, Hawkhost… the list drags on. For every positive review, you’ll find two negative ones… which is why you should pick one that you think looks best and just run with it. You WILL have problems, unless you’re very lucky - although I haven’t had problems with my main host, I have had immense problems with hosting I’ve taken in the past, mainly because I tried to be cheap and save money.
My biggest suggestion for those looking at starting is not going for an unknown cheap option, rather a more expensive, yet reliable hosting service… the time you’ll save is worth the couple dollars extra a month. Most people with a computer should be able to afford the $10/month hosting costs, and if they shouldn’t it is fairly easy to work online (even if you have to do boring jobs) to make that amount. Once you’ve worked on hosting, you can concentrate on the bread and butter of a blog - content.
This may seem like a paid review, but this is how happy I am with their service - if you’re going for hosting, Hostican rocks. The amount of problems that bloggers have had with Hostgator and Godaddy is unheard of anywhere else, however most internet marketers continue to push Hostgator despite knowing better, mainly because of the $100 affiliate commission it pays.
I will not deny that Hostican pay a decent affiliate commission (yet another reason you should use their service :razz: ) however from personal experience, they are easily the best hosting company I have ever used. I’m so happy with them in fact that I decided to move to this swanky new dedicated server, one that houses my flagship blog as well as this blogging magazine.
By using their Tera-Host package (which costs just $100 a year if you use the coupon code University-12 and pay up front for a year), you leave yourself open - whenever you want to get up new websites, you can do so without a worry as they offer unlimited domains and unmetered bandwidth/space. Also, they will move your websites from your current hosting if you have any and help you set things up - they generally reply within a day to the questions I’ve had.
Although I’m waxing lyrical about Hostican, and will continue to do so until I find something I don’t like about them, there is no way you should trust only my opinion - do a Google search for the hosting companies above, see how they’re viewed and make your own decision. You should be looking for a decent amount of space and bandwidth, although you probably won’t use too much of it in your first month - look for as many reviews as possible, and it would be better if you had someone already using hosting with the company you’re thinking about that assures you that they have good support.
If you have any questions, just send me an email and I’ll try to sort you out :)
March 30th, 2008 at 4:43 am
Dreamhost is another reliable hosting service. But if you’re a beginner there are a lot of 4$/month hosting services you can use for your blogs because you never know when you give up :P
March 30th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
You can’t put a put a foot wrong with HostGator. :)
Carl - Thatblogsite.com
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:36 am
Whatever you do, don’t go for cheap or one time hosting from eBay, or one time fee hosting from anywhere, for that matter.
:)
April 5th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Hey Jason…..just found this blogsite of March 29th where you are talking about finding a good host for your blogsite. In one of the sentences you state that most people that have a computer should beable to afford the $10 month of host. Then you add that if one doesn’t have that amount one can find boring jobs online that you can money from. Could you please tell me what are those boring jobs that one can make money….I hope you don’t mean Surveys!! I am getting ready to get a blog online so I have been wandering around the blogosphere reading all the bloggers suggestions for getting a blog up and running. But I would love to make alittle extra money on the side until that day comes when I can make money from blogging(knock on wood). I’m on a very fixed monthly income so I would even take a boring job online for awhile. Do tell pleeeeeeeeease! Love your Blog. jjj
April 5th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Jason,
I must mirror the question asked by jessiejojames:
“one can find boring jobs online that you can money from. Could you please tell me what are those boring jobs that one can make money….I hope you don’t mean Surveys!! I am getting ready to get a blog online so I have been wandering around the blogosphere reading all the bloggers suggestions for getting a blog up and running. But I would love to make alittle extra money on the side until that day comes when I can make money from blogging(knock on wood). I’m on a very fixed monthly income so I would even take a boring job online for a while.”
Do tell us about these boring online jobs to earn some extra cash, please.
Thanks in advance
April 5th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Jason,
I must mirror the question asked by jessiejojames:
Do tell us about these boring online jobs to earn some extra cash, please.
Thanks in advance
April 6th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
I make extra money from paidforumposting.com/forums and kickstartyourforums.com/members
If you do sign up for Kickstart, look me up! My username on there is Shireen2007
For Paidforumposting.com, my usernamme is letmework!
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Me, I use bluehost and have done a terffic job for me and my other projects..
August 20th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I’m loving HostGator.