Are you still using free blogging service? If you are professional blogger who wants to develop your own brand name, you should host your own blog with your own domain name.
There are many blog hosting providers who can let you set up your own blog instantly. You can move your old blog to the blog hosting provider and continue blogging immediately. Some blog hosting plans can also allow you to install unlimited blogs which can maximize your creativity.
Below are the best blog hosting providers we would recommend to you.
If you want to get into blogging, there are a few very serious decisions you will have to make before you start. Who will be your target audience? What will be the topic of your blog? Where will you host your blog? While all these questions are hard to answer, below we will focus on trying to help you decide on where to host your blog.
There are many free blog hosting companies on the internet that will give you your own blog for completely free.
Here are a list of pros and cons for using a free blog hosting service, like Blogger.com or wordpress.com
Pros
Price: the biggest benefit to using a free blog hosting service is the price. They will provide you with a fully functioning blog for absolutely free. Ease of use: you don’t need to have any technical knowledge of how the blogging script actually works. If you can work a computer, you can create a blog on one of these websites. The companies behind these services make it as easy as possible for everyone to use.
Cons
Lack of control: With a free blog hosting service, you don’t really “own” your blog. You get to write posts and add links to the sidebar, but making major modifications in prohibited. If you are doing something that the site administrator believes is violating their very strict terms of service, they will delete your blog.
Unprofessional image: If you are using a free blog hosting service, you visitors will not take you seriously. They will think that if you don’t even want to make a very small monetary investment in your blog, your information must not be that valuable.
Subdomain: Free blog hosting companies force you to use an ugly and unprofessional subdomain. Do you think a domain like yournamehere.wordpress.com/post14 instills confidence and trust in your blog visitors?
An alternative to using a free blog hosting company is to purchase your own hosting and set everything up yourself. Most hosting companies now offer one-click installs for the most popular blogging scripts right through their control panel. It is just as easy as registering for a free blog.
Here is a list of pros and cons for purchasing your own blog hosting package
Pros
Control: when you host your own blog on your own server, you are in 100% control of everything. You can post any kind of content you want, upload as many pictures as you want and install all the plugins you need.
Professionalism: when someone sees that you are hosting your own blog and have purchased the services of a paid blog hosting company, they will know you are serious. They will value the information you present to them more so than the same information presented on a free blog.
Domain: when you use a paid blog hosting service, you usually get a domain name. www.yournamehere.com is a lot more professional than using a subdomain.
Cons
Price: the only real downside to this approach is that it costs money. But once you think about it, it really isn’t expensive at all. You can get a really good blog hosting package for less than $0.25 per day.
If you plan on taking your blogging seriously, it is usually a good idea to use a paid blog hosting company. Not only will you be in complete control of everything on your blog, you will look professional and your visitors will take you seriously.
- By Hostingz.com
blog hosting can always provides a web hosting solution specific to a blogger needs.
The best blog hosting provider should allow you to begin blogging without too much technical knowledge. For example, some cPanel blog hosting providers offer Fantastico support which can help you to install a new blog by just a few clicks. Choosing the right blog hosting provider is very important which can help you to monetize your blog.
For those blog hosting providers with cPanel Fantastico support, you can install the most common blog software like b2evolution, Nucleus, pMachine Free and Wordpress, etc by just a few clicks. Before signing up a blog hosting, you should first contact the blog hosting provider to check if they support the blog software of your choice.
- By Hostingz.com
Featured Blog Hosting Article
Tips When Looking for a Shared Web Hosting Provider
Let's start with the basics. When you are looking for a shared web host, it has to be both reliable and affordable. We often make the mistake of signing up with a cheap provider only to realize later on that it was completely not worth it at all, because of the technical issues and bad service we experience. If we want to avoid having to make such mistakes, we need to make sure that we choose a good web hosting service provider. Below are the characteristics that a good web hosting provider possesses.
1. Quality Technology
A very important aspect of a web hosting provider should be that their server is of top quality. When you avail of a shared web hosting provider, you will basically be sharing your server with others and if it is of poor quality, you can expect a rather unreliable server.
2. Knowledgeable and Skilled Manpower
System administrators should know very well how to operate the technology being used by clients.
3. Redundancy
When a shared web hosting service has multiple connections, it is helpful especially in times when one connection goes down. It can simply just re-route using another available connection.
4. Meets Your Needs
A very important aspect to consider when choosing a web hosting provider is that you need to see to it that this web hosting provider is able to address your specific needs. Additionally, you should get a web hosting package over your current needs because your site may have unexpected traffic when it becomes popular.
5. Fast Connectivity
People always look for a fast connection. In this regard, you need to see to it that your web hosting provider can give you a fast response time. Take note that you will be using a 'shared' system thus the least you get should have a T3 connection and using only half of the available bandwidth.
Once you have spotted a good web hosting provider, here are some tips for you to consider when you are already dealing with a web hosting company.
Check if it is upgradeable. Your business will eventually grow, and you need to check with the web hosting provider if the web hosting solutions they offer can grow with your company. This means bandwidth increase, upgradeable server-side scripting, and multi-media streaming, among others.
Look into their technical support. With the time zone difference and unexpected issues that will arise, it is important for you to ensure that the web hosting provider has a 24/7 technical support line that will cater to your concerns at any given time. They must also be able to provide excellent customer service, with knowledgeable and friendly staff.
Ask for references. Always check for references so you will know what others have to say about this web hosting provider. By checking with other webmasters, it is easy for you to gauge their capabilities.
Conduct a background research. While there are a countless number of web hosting providers, you can never be too sure of one unless you actually conduct an extensive research. Find out the payment systems they use, know who the owner is, and check if they have a sufficient level of technical expertise. But before this fact-finding mission, see to it first if this is actually a real and legal business.
Keep tab of payments. Many web hosting providers have a record of terrible practices so you need to monitor your credit card statements, and also make sure you keep your receipts. This is to help prevent double-billing and overcharging.
Don't forget to back up data. Even if you have the best web hosting provider in town, you should still back up your data because many web hosting provider can only recover files when there is a system failure.
Get your very own domain. Before you even go web hosting hunting, you should already have a domain name. You do not want your web hosting provider to take bigger control by providing you a domain name. It should be you who take administrative control over your domain name, and your web hosting provider offers the technical support.
Get guarantees. A good web hosting provider can give you guarantees should any untoward situations occur. There should be a form of compensation and quality support service if there is any interruption, such as when their server is down or when there are technical difficulties.
Read your contract. Know what your obligations are, especially when it comes to payment, and what is and what is not allowed under the terms of your contract. There are web hosting providers that do not allow high traffic content, while others only allow them when you sign up for special web hosting packages.
Find a good exit strategy. You might realize later on that this is not a good web hosting service for you so it is best to have a backup plan. You do not want to have to deal with an unreliable web hosting provider until the contract expires, so find a way to get out of the contract. Remember that reliability is very important for any online business and if your web hosting provider cannot offer you this, it is highly recommended that you find a better service somewhere else.