Start a WordPress Blog on Your Own Site – Part 1: Finding the Right Host
Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
So you know a little about designing websites and you know a thing or two about blogging. Now you want to start blogging on your own website, or convert your old site into a blog. Everyone else seems to be doing it, so it can’t be that hard, but where do you start? This series will contain a few ideas about how to get going with your very own WordPress blog.
Decide on a web host
I suggest you start doing some research about web hosting even before thinking of a name for your website. Consider the following:
- Most hosting providers offer the additional service of helping you register a domain name for your site, so once you have found a host, you can register the domain name and purchase a hosting package all at once.
- Many hosting providers offer automatic WordPress installation. Look for a host that offers this service. You will not be sorry – installing your own WordPress blog can be a nightmare!
- Make sure that the host you choose will cater for the needs of your site. Consider things like technical support, software platforms (some hosting providers don’t support PHP), databases, monthly bandwidth allowance, disk space and e-mail accounts.
- Be careful of “Unlimited Bandwidth” and “Unlimited Disk Space” offers. Read the fine print, because chances are you will have to pay for any excess you use.
- It is ideal to find a host offering support 24/7. Trust me, your site will not crash during office hours!
- Find out how many e-mail accounts will be available to you. Remember, “aliases” are not separate accounts, they are simply multiple names for one e-mail account.
- It is ideal to make personal contact with someone from the hosting provider. Ask them any questions you may have. A phone call or e-mail can make the whole process a lot simpler. If you do not experience friendly service, tell them they have lost a potential customer and move on to the next possible host. It is important to have a helpful hosting provider who can offer you friendly support in the future of your site.
- Be careful of “Virtual” web hosts. They just re-sell hosting services at a profit. You will probably find more affordable hosting at the original service provider.
- Once you have decided on a web host, work alongside a sales person at the hosting provider to choose the best package for your needs. Don’t opt for an expensive package with loads of features when you could do perfectly well with a more affordable package.
- Be wary of lock-in contracts that will prevent you from moving your hosting. Make sure that moving your site to a different host will be painless in case you find that you are unhappy with your current host.
Blogsolid recommends Dreamhost.
*Update (25 September 2007) Webmaster-Source.com has posted an article with more great info and links.
Feel free to add your web hosting tips below!
Ryan Says:
September 20th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Purchasing your domain from your webhost is generally not considered a good idea. It leaves your site at the mercy of them. If they turn out to be a bad egg or the company is sold to someone with marginal morals, you could end up with your domain held to ransom and unable to shift it to another webhost. For the record, I use Hostgator shared hosting and have had zero problems whatsover, I highly recommend them
redwall_hp Says:
September 20th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Does anyone around here have any knowledge of RapidVPS.com’s service? I’ve been looking at their Rapid.Two plan for a new project I’m planning.
https://www.rapidvps.com/index.php?page=Hosting.VPS.Specs
Paul Says:
September 20th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I use 1&1 Hosting for my site. Many people have had bad experiences with them, but their hosting is actually quite good. Their technical support sucks, and when I first started using them, there was occasional downtime, usually no less than 10 minutes a day for about a week, then it stopped. I would only recommend it to those who can figure out almost any issue that is resolvable from the user side of things. If you get to the point where you need to call tech support, you’re in for a bad time. The only times I have need to call tech support are when there was a server-wide issue, which they were able to resolve fairly quickly. I use their business package with Linux servers. I pay $10/month, and I get 2.5 TB of transfer a month. That’s pretty damn good. Of course I’ve never been Dugg, but if I did, I believe I would stay up. They also offer one-click install WordPress, which I’ve never used. My $00.02.
redwall_hp Says:
September 21st, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Paul, I use 1and1 as well. Their shared hosting has been working great for me, and I’ve never had any serious downtime (about 5 minutes once). They’re pretty good, and I highly recommend them (their prices are great, and they’re pretty stable). The only things I don’t like are:
1. Their FTP accounts have gibberish names you can’t remember (I just told my FTP client to remember the name, problem solved).
2. The databases are on different servers, and they have random auto-generated names, users, and passwords. If I ever switched hosts, I’d have to edit a LOT of custom PHP files I wrote (maybe I should put the connection details in a separate file…).
3. The databases have a 100MB storage quote apiece. I’ve only hit the 3MB part on one of my DBs, but I think the ceiling is a little low.
That’s about it.
However, I’ve been looking for a good (and cheap) VPS lately. I’ve been considering starting a web design business, and I’ve been wanting to offer hosting to some of my clients (a VPS would work well for my needs). 1and1′s shared hosting is great, but their VPS plans are lacking in RAM.
Improve Your Blog and Web Site - Need to Read Posts 9-21-07 | The Fatty Talks by Adam Hirsch Says:
September 21st, 2007 at 8:55 pm
[...] Start a WordPress Blog on Your Own Site – Part 1: Finding the Right Host (Blog Solid) [...]
BlogBuzz September 22, 2007 » Webmaster-Source Says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:56 am
[...] Finding the Right Host (part of a tutorial series over at BlogSolid). [...]
Googlelady Says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:59 am
Nexx is another good host option: You can check a full Interview and review about them:
http://www.googlelady.com/390/.....-bloggers/
redwall_hp Says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 12:51 pm
This “Nexx” you talk of may be good (or not), but they’re going crazy with their claims. There’s no way they can offer 300GB of storage for $7/month. They’re overselling, as most shared hosts do.
However, I’ve heard nothing but good about A Small Orange. They’re an interesting little company that’s offering reliable and affordable hosting…and not overselling.
http://www.webmaster-source.co.....ll-orange/
Googlelady Says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 12:58 pm
redwall_hp, I would like to see proofs about it. As I interviewed them personally and bought an account with them (but is a new site, so is not eating the resources “still”). But if you have some proofs about not offering the complete 300GB of storage let me know I would like to tell my readers about it.
redwall_hp Says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Here’s some proof: How much does a 200GB hard drive cost? A 300? Now, do you think you’re getting a dedicated server for $7/mo? There’s got to be more storage than that! I doubt their servers have 4 terabytes of storage.
Googlelady Says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Hey redwall,
More than 50% for sure 
To let you know a USB with 2 gb cost you $5 per unit, but if you buy thousands you can get them for $1-$2 
how much it cost where you live?
Here you are talking about a netfirms company. How much discount you will get buying thousands of hard disk in a store in china?
Is the same issue with big hosting companies..
redwall_hp Says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 7:52 pm
You can’t use USB gadgets for a server! You need something like this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol.....2880157923 That’s a 500GB internal ATA hard drive. $159.99. If you buy shared hosting from anyone, there’s no way you can get 300GB of storage. They oversell, or claim to offer 300GB. They can cap your storage at pretty much anything, and it’s legal because they ad provisions for it in their contracts.
P.S. What are you talking about? A Small Orange (www.asmallorange.com) isn’t netfirms. They’re a small privately owned company.
redwall_hp Says:
September 25th, 2007 at 4:25 am
Rather than continue to explaining overselling to people over and over again, I finally wrote a post that I think does a good job at it. If you want to know about overselling, here’s the place to find the answers to all your questions (or something like that): http://www.webmaster-source.co.....le-secret/
redwall_hp Says:
September 25th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Thanks for the link, Imar!
Must-Read Articles For New Bloggers Says:
November 7th, 2007 at 4:24 am
[...] Start A WordPress Blog On Your Own Site (Part 1) – BlogSolid.com [...]
Fran Says:
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:56 am
I had done some research as to who is happy with their webhost and who is not, too much time invested?! not really. unless you get someone else to do the dirty work to spend all that time finding a new webhost.
so here is the reason why im posting this win – win situation:
I got my hosting a few months ago with servage and I’m quite happy with them and the price is right, they give me tons of space and good traffic amounts. they have unlimited this unlimited that, most of which i would never use.
it was my friend that hooked me up and I wanted to share that with you as well as give you my coupon code, with that you get additional 2 months free and so do I. – thats the honest to goodness deal. I think you get that when you sign up for 12 months maybe less not sure.
here is the link, if you use this you dont have to put in the coupon number. you can do the same thing after youre on and continue to get free hosting when others sign up under your coupon code which you get when you sign up with them. best wishes, enjoy
PS they have autoinstallers for WordPress, Joomla, and many others…really good!!!
heres the link:
http://www.servage.net/?coupon=cust38746
cheers
My Web Hosting Site » Blog Archive » Start a Wordpress Blog on Your Own Site - Part 1: Finding the … Says:
December 31st, 2007 at 11:42 am
[...] Lorelle VanFossen article is brought to you using rss feeds.Here is some of the latest breaking Casey Aldridge news.Once you have decided on a web host, work alongside a sales person at the hosting provider to choose the best package for your needs. Don’t opt for an expensive package with loads of features when you could do perfectly well with a more … [...]
Tal Lifschitz Says:
January 1st, 2008 at 11:31 pm
This is truly one of the better articles i’ve seen regarding hosting package issues. I myself have ran into some problems because of excees bandwidth and I’ve had my site shutdown multiple times, I have now switched to a different hosting provider due to this. Do not believe in “unlimited bandwidth” offers, great warning, and a great article.
Thank you,
Tal Lifschitz,
http://www.cashrichmoney.com
yusuf Says:
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:26 am
I think http://www.hexca.com is good
Wak Says:
March 15th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Hi. I’ve been using 230mb.com. It is a new web host and their offers seems to be balanced: 5GB of disk space, 250GB of monthly transfer, 20 MySQL Db hosted in the same server with my defined user names, 20 ftp accounts which i can create, they have one click installer (i think it is fantastico) that supports wordpress, joomla, PHPBB3 and many others. It just less than $35 a year. What do you think about this 230mb web host offer?
Cher Sprincomb Says:
April 18th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Great article, it really feeds my knowledge, now i learn something new with your article, i enjoy but in additional once and for all, now a days web hosting are very cheap, but we also need to choose the right one, because there are some web hosting company that will also sell your personal information which is not good. go daddy and also hostgator and strikedata is one the best hosting company i have experienced. this just an additional about hosting. and in finding a host are easy you just need to go to webhosting directory and just choose what fits for your blog
Small Business Web Hosting Says:
April 30th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Some good comments.
definitely buy you domain on your own and then pick your own hosting.
do some research and you can find some great host for cheap.
but don’t forget to do some searching on the company to look for satisfied and unsatisfied customers
Houston Says:
May 21st, 2008 at 4:27 am
Listen. Do not have an opinion while you listen because frankly, your opinion doesn?t hold much water outside of Your Universe. Just listen. Listen until their brain has been twisted like a dripping towel and what they have to say is all over the floor.
Manufacturing In China Says:
June 6th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
We use both Hostgator and Hostmonster and have found them to be excellent hosts for both our web sites and blogs.
Portable Storage Says:
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I did not like Hostgator that much. I would recommend Linode.com… Very awesome. Stable, cheap, and on-the-ball.
Totonet Says:
July 5th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Thanks for sharing this with us, very useful.
Wealth and Success Says:
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:08 am
Your post makes one think! Great article. Thanks for allowing me to comment!
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January 24th, 2009 at 11:55 am
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