Where to Host your WordPress Blog
This is a continuation of "How to set up your wordpress blog series" and here on this post we are going to learn few things before you go and chose the wrong Hosting Company to host WordPress.
WordPress Requirements
As you might already know there are several things that WordPress requires before installing it. Therefore it is your job to make sure that the web hosting company that you are going to chose to host your blog meets those requirements. If you already know the requirements you might just want to skip this section and continue reading the next one but if you I assume you already know the least WordPress requirements and if you don't then check the short list of Wordpress requirements below. Don't forget to check the Wordpress Technical Requirements for a more detailed explanation.
- PHP 4.2 or higher. Almost all web servers run this, however, check to see if the servers of the hosting company you choose runs PHP 4.2 just to be on the safe side.
- My SQL 4.0 or higher. My SQL databases are needed to hold the data that you are going to put on your blog. Nowadays, most hosting companies offer you the choice of My SQL 4.0 and 5.0 and they also provide you the access to set up several My SQL databases and if they don't offer these services than you are better hosting your blog somewhere else.
Most hosting companies handle the above WordPress requirements but it is your responsibility to check and make sure they do.
My Reasearch
Here comes the best part of this post. Hey I don't really know which one is the best but I share my experience with you here and my research for the best hosting company before I decided to register my domain and host my blog. Two or three months ago when you checked WordPress suggestion of best hosting company BlueHost held the first rank then came the others. Well, that has changed as you might have already noticed BlueHost is no longer the first. Right now the Hosting Company that holds the first place is DreamHost. Even though BlueHost was in the first rank I did not say, 'yeah, WordPress is saying that and so it must be'. I did my research and decided otherwise because I felt WordPress.org review of the best web host was rather obsolete. During the time I did my research I was looking for something good and cheap. This is a double edged knife, which can hurt you and your blog and one must really be careful. Three months ago the disk space that the host companies offered was 200 to 350gb with 1000gb of bandwidth a month and the price per moth was 6.99 dollars. Just few days later HostMonster, the company I read a lot of good reviews about, raised the disk space to 600gb and the monthly bandwidth to 1600gb and was promoting this for only 4.99 dollars a month. Remember I said I was looking for something good and cheap. I think everyone should do the same. Right now all Hosting Companies are offering 1500gb disk space, 15000gb monthly bandwidth and the price remained 5.99 and 6.99 for quite some time.
One more thing about HostMonster, they keep changing the price from 5.99 to 6.99 dollars each and everyday. I don't know why they do that, it could be one of their strategies, however, if today you see that they went back to 6.99 don't dispair check back later and you'll see they went back to 5.99 dollars for 24 months hosting package.
Few reasons why I chose Hostmonster:
- They offered a lot of bonuses 50 google adwords and yahoo credit
- I read a lot of good reviews from other bloggers that were happy with it
- The monthly hosting price was the cheapest at that time, and
- The ability to host unlimited domains with one account
I chose HostMonster and so far I am happy with them because I had not problem whatsoever.
Now that you got this little advice from this post you should go and do your research before you decide where to host your wordpress blog and you should always do a research for anything.
One thing more is that I would not recommend going for free webhosting offers because they come with strings attached, be it in a form of very little disk space and monthly bandwidth or your site filled with ads from the hosting company.
Finally, the three companies that I suggest right now are:
HostMonster or BlueHost is the same company under different names. Do a WhoIS of my other blog www.lexoblog.com and you'll find out it says it is hosted by BlueHost where in fact I use HostMonster. Anyway, they both offer the same services under different price. Hostmonster is cheaper for one dollar at the moment. Now, go choose your hosting company and return to learn how to install WordPress 2.5 (the latest) the way I installed it on this blog.
Now go the next post and learn how to Install WordPress 2.5 step-by-step
Posted in WordPress for Beginners
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