Dot Com
If you are running a small business, personal blog, affiliate marketing scheme, celebrity site, or any other conceivable type of website, picking a good web host is the first thing you need to do towards a successful website. With a good web host, you eliminate right away some of the problems that might occur in running a blog or a website.
I’ve been blogging for 5 months now and the first thing I did even before I wrote my first blog entry was to check forums, reviews and other blogs for good blog host. There are 3 things I considered for picking my web host and these are:
Price
This is very important to me and to most newbie bloggers. Most if not all newbie bloggers are just blogging for their own personal reason. Maybe Facebook and Twitter status isn’t enough for them to express themselves and or they just want their own home on the internet. Bottom line is, newbie bloggers don’t have the money to burn thats why a lot of them go with free webhosting on Blogspot and WordPress.com. So a very competitive price is a big plus already.
Features
Not all web hosting are created equal. Some has more features and some less. But the most important thing to consider is the control panel. Most known web hosting provider use cPanel which is very user friendly and feature rich while Go Daddy’s control panel is different and some people find it not user friendly.
Support
Last but not the least is customer support. I am very frustrated with Globat.com customer support and service in general. We have a motorsport website on Globat since 2004 and their support is one of the worst in the business. We are just staying with them because we paid 3 years in advance and this year we are definitely 100 percent moving out of Globat. Check the internet what people are saying about any particular hosting provider to make sure you don’t experience hell like we did with Globat.
I was down to 3 hosting provider which is HostMonster, BlueHost and HostGator. All three offers unlimited bandwidth and space but based on the above criteria, Go Daddy is out of the question because they don’t use cPanel. In the end I went with BlueHost because:
- HostMonster is just their subsidiary so I think the mother company is a little bit better.
- HostGator is a little bit more expensive.
- BlueHost got more positive reviews between the three.
You can search the internet and mostly you’ll get positive reviews with BlueHost and for 5 months now, I can say so far so good. No issues so far and customer support is efficient and helpful. If you want to sign up with BlueHost please use my affiliate link so I can get credit for it.
So no matter what which provider you sign up for, the bottom line is to get a good web host. A good web hosts will save you days of frustrations and down times which you can turn instead into some productive things.
I’m with BlueHost too. Its very good. They have online chat that helped me with the initial setup issues on my blog and since then I haven’t had to contact the support then.
.-= Selurus´s last blog ..A New Theme – BlueGray =-.
You are right. I’ve chatted with their support a few times and I’ve been satisfied so far with Bluehost customer support. They also refunded my money right away when I bought another hosting service to transfer our motorsports website but unfortunately Globat is not so cooperative so I had to cancel it.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..Cool Online Photo Effects =-.
I use Hostgator with special price, so it is cheap.
.-= Dana @ Blogging Update´s last blog ..Blog Goal, Preparations, and Result Review =-.
Good for you Dana.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..What’s Hot on YouTube =-.
@Dana: I host with Hostgator as well but apart from the first 20% off coupon, is there any other special renewal price? Holla please
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi | Make Money Online´s last blog ..A Quick Analysis Of Netfirms PLUS® Web Hosting Plan =-.
You should check to see if the web host offers ” 7 days a week” support whether by phone, chat or email. WordPress Blog Hosting
Picking a good web host can sometimes be a matter of luck. While some users might recommend a good a web host cause they had good experiences with them, you might be unlucky and your site placed on a worse shared server which might already be “almost full” or it has other customers on it hawking too much of the ressources (only a problem if the server is not running proper software to guard against such issues).
REgarding customer support, M6.net is one of the worst I’ve ever experienced! Thank god we were only with them for a few years before moving to a dedicated server elsewhere. I also just hosted my own blog, TechPatio, with a different host than those I’ve been using for 5-6 years. I’m really happy with my new host, CS New Media. Runs really great, safe mode OFF and everything is just the way I want it
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Funny Pictures: Google Street View Launched In Denmark =-.
Thank you for sharing your experience with the other hosting providers. I’ll keep in mind to add M6.net to my avoid list.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week =-.
Yes a webhost is really important; more so for a WP blog. HG is the best!
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Yes some people says HG is the best, some says Bluehost. I think it’s a matter of preferences and pricing.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..MSI U210x Netbook Review =-.
People underestimate the importance of a good web host. That is, until their website goes down and they realize their current host has horrible (or even nonexistant) customer service!
You are right Kelly. Some people just go with what they think is okay. Like they go with Go Daddy then they realize Go Daddy control panel isn’t cPanel type. So people need to research first people before signing up to any provider.
Again please avoid Globat. Its your worst web hosting provider.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..Buying the Right Wi-Fi Router =-.
A good web host is so valuable. Something that I think is important in a web host is no down time for your site. Any time your site is unavailable that is costing you visitors, customers and ongoing relationships.
.-= Michelle´s last blog ..Feb 6, 15 Time Management Tips: House Cleaning and Organizing =-.
Right, and if you lose a visitor, you night lose him/her forever.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..What’s Hot on YouTube =-.
Host is always important specially if your site is purely for business issues.Thanks for sharing your experiences with hosting providers.I will definitely look up them you mentioned in your post.
Thank you too for leaving you comment here.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..What’s Hot on YouTube =-.
I have to agree having a good web host is important. I am about to leave my current host and have been researching and so far have found hostgator might be the best for my company. They even offer free transfer for one domain and data transfer. They will reconfigure my blog and charge 15 bucks to my other blogs. But to purchase domain names they are expensive and need to find a cheaper service for that.
.-= element321´s last blog ..Blogging Tips #3 – Blogging Resources =-.
Good luck on the transfer. When I research for domain pricing a few months back, I see .com domains selling for 7 to $8. There are some selling it for $2 but you need to purchase another service (like email or something) that will cost you a few bucks a month.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..Cool Online Photo Effects =-.
I assume that if blog, theme are appearance and food, hosting is stomach, if it is sick or even dead, the blog will be died too
.-= Tinh´s last blog ..Facebook Reaches 400 Million Users On 6th Birthday =-.
Nice analogy there Tinh
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..What’s Hot on YouTube =-.
I was looking for some free services for my hosting needs since I was not earning anything to afford professional hosting. After many I finally settled down with frihost.net They are really good for free hosting.
Recently I’m with medost.com and they are great for me with such an affordable scheme.
.-= Suresh Khanal´s last blog ..The First Step of Blogging – How to Start? =-.
Which free host are your site using? frihost or medost?
Your site loads very fast, i can’t imagine it is a free host.
.-= Tek3D´s last blog ..Nexus One Testing Process =-.
Yeah I agree, it’s quite fast for a free hosting.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..My Bohol Trip part 2 =-.
My blog is hosted on Inmotion Hosting. I’m very satisfied with them and I’ve read many reviews before I decided for my host. I was on Host Monster before for a year and compared to Inmotion Hosting, Inmotion Hosting wins. It feels slighly faster. But then again maybe I was placed on a slow server.
.-= Marko´s last blog ..Roundup for January – Testing Instant Weekly Roundup Plugin =-.
Yes I’ve heard people saying that if your site is in your host slow server or server with too many other sites then your blog will be slow too. Not sure how hosting providers set it up but I guess they also thought about this.
Anyways, thanks for sharing your experience with Host Monster and Inmotion.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..Buying the Right Wi-Fi Router =-.
Support is the most important thing. Whatever the quality of the web host there are possibilities of problems. It you have good support these can be quickly resovled without them causing major problems.
Obviously, and lets not forget the amount of traffic we’ll lose and ultimately potential customers during our downtimes. Some new readers may come to site and see that it’s down and they may never visit again! So we lose so much just because of a bad hosting.
Today, information is on our finger-tips so google a bit and spend your time to find a service which is very competitive with price and features and also got great reviews from people (that would be forums, web hosting review sites or blog posts like this one).
And yes, when you’re running a website obviously there will be some things breaking down internally or having some errors which are out of your knowledge, having a good support from the hosting company helps it a lot.
I am with a good company, a start-up that was cheap. So far, after 3 months, not one issue has popped up. Good hosting is very important.
.-= Cin´s last blog ..Microsoft Cancels Courier Tablet =-.