How to Purchase Web Hosting

What is Free Web Hosting?

If you currently have a free hosted blog at Blogger, WordPress.com, Moveable Type, or a similar free publishing platform – you are using free web hosting. The files that make up your free blog are hosted on the company’s server. A server is a large computer aptly named because it “serves-up” your website files online for those who request to see them by typing in your web address or URL.

What Changes When I Pay for Hosting?

After purchasing your own domain name, you need to seek out a web hosting company to host your blog. You will rent space on the web hosting company’s servers; this is where you will technically “store” your website’s files.

Think of it this way: Say you want to build a house. First things first, you’re gonna need a tract of land to build it on, right? When you purchase web hosting, it gives you a place to build your website/blog. The web hosting is your land, the website is your house.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Right now, your blog may have a url that looks something like this: www.mycoolsite.blogspot.com or www.wordpress.com/mycoolsite

• The first web address is what your URL looks like when your blog is hosted for free on a subdomain of blogspot.com.
• The second web address is what your URL looks like when your blog is hosted for free in a directory or folder on wordpress.com.

Once you purchase your own domain name, you can set up your own subdomains and directories or folders. So, if you wanted your blog to be at www.blog.mycoolsite.com or www.mycoolsite.com/blog you certainly could. Of course, that kind of set-up is only useful if you are using the domain for multiple purposes, such as an online store AND a blog. When it comes to WordPress blogs, most will install the blog in the root directory of their web hosting space, so the URL, www.mycoolsite.com, for instance, takes site visitors directly to the blog.

You can have a domain name without a web host, and you can even have a web host without a domain name – but you must have both a web host and a domain name if you want visitors to actually be able to view your website.

Back to the house analogy. You want to build your house (website) on a bit of land (rented or purchased server space from a web host) but you’ve got to have a road out front so people can visit your house. Think of your domain name as your road. People can type in your web address, www.web-address.com and visit your “house”. We’ll talk a bit later how to set up your domain name so it knows where to look for your house.

What To Look For in a Web Hosting Company

1. cPanel – This is a very easy to use, yet powerful client control panel. It affords you, the client, a lot of control over your website and makes it easy to do things like set up e-mail accounts (ie: yourname@mycoolsite.com) that would normally be difficult for a beginner. While there are other types of control panels, this is the one I use and recommend.

2. Fantastico – Fantastico is a program often bundled with cPanel. It makes installing programs like blogs or discussion forums as easy as pie. Seriously. Even people who set up websites and blogs for a living use Fantastico. It helps ease installing, as well as upgrading, your software, but be sure to ask if your web host offers Fantastico auto-updating.

3. At least PHP version 5.2.4 or greater – Find a host that offers this because WordPress requires it toinstall the current WordPress Version 3.2 (released June 30, 2011). You don’t even need to understand it or know what it is. If you decide on another blog publishing platform, make sure your web host has the recommended version of PHP.

4. At least mySQL version 5.0.15 or greater – Find a host that offers this, because again, WordPress requires it to install the current WordPress Version 3.2 (released June 30, 2011). You don’t even need to understand it or know what it is. If you decide on another blog publishing platform, make sure your web host has the recommended version of mySQL.

5. Linux / Apache server – Windows servers (don’t confuse this with Windows computers versus Apple computers, servers are completely different) don’t play nicely with WordPress and some other blogging tools. We recommend using a Linux / Apache server, but if you’ve got a guru nearby who is familiar with Windows servers, be my guest. Just make sure you ensure the weblog program you want to use is compatible with the server you choose.

My Recommended Hosting Company – Liquid Web

You’ve probably seen them linked around the blogosphere quite a bit, and there is good reason for that, they are excellent at what they do. Liquid Web offers all of the above, offers fantastic customer service, and many different hosting packages to suit your needs.

They are not the cheapest web hosting out there, but take a step back and realize there is truth to the saying, you get what you pay for. With Liquid Web, you have full control of your website; which is very helpful, even if you don’t know your way around your own server, if you ever hire a designer or a programmer to help you, they’ll be very appreciative of your cPanel, Fantastico, SSH, etc. These tools will save them time, and in the end, save you money.

Setting Up a Hosting Account

Once you decide on a host, you are faced with some options that may feel somewhat confusing. Many hosts offer things like Dedicated Servers, Virtual Private Servers, and Shared Web Hosting. What do you need?

Unless your website is gigantic and you plan on hosting a lot of extra sites, Shared Web Hosting is likely for you. Prices vary, but again, don’t be lured by the cheapest place, compare their features and what they offer.

How much space do you need? If you’re going to lean on my experience and advice, go with Liquid Web, you’ll want their Shared Standard Plan.

Of course, if you find you need more space, you can always upgrade, but I’ve only twice needed to start a client with more than the Shared Standard Plan for web hosting.

To give you an idea of what to look for (if you’re going with another host), here is what that plan comes with for $14.95 a month:

• (2) Free Domain Names **
• 24×7 Toll Free Phone Support
• Site Studio Software
• CPanel + Fantastico Auto Installer
• 5GB RAID Protected Disk Space
• 120GB Premium Multi-Homed Bandwidth
• There’s more…click to site.

** Yes, some webhosts offer domain registration. You can skip the Domain Registrar steps explained here along with the DNS steps we’ll explain later if you’d like to opt for convenience instead. As a rule, I like to keep Domain Registrations separate from hosting accounts; it makes things a lot easier when/if you ever need to move your website to a new server.

If you host with Liquid Web, there will likely never be a reason to move, but if you use another web host, you just might wish you had your Domain Registration separate down the road.

For comparison’s sake, another web host, Site Ground, which I have used, often runs ridiculously low offers for $2.95 or $3.95* per month. What do you get for that?

• (1) FREE domain name
• 24/7 Tech Support
• Unlimited Web Space
• Unlimited Monthly Bandwidth
• FREE Sitebuilding Tools
• CPanel + Fantastico Auto Installer
• There’s more…click link on site.

I’ll admit it appears as though they are offering more, after all they are giving unlimited web space and bandwidth. But let’s look into the terms of use…

Do they truly have Unlimited Bandwidth?
Though they “say” they allow unlimited bandwidth and storage, there actually is a limit to their “Unlimited Bandwidth”.

“…your use of our resources may not exceed that of similarly situated customers. Unlimited use applies to your use of web pages only (html, php, etc&hellip), not for storage of movies, pictures or MP3 files.” They go on to say “If the contents of your Space regularly generate more server traffic than is deemed acceptable by SiteGround,…Siteground shall issue a warning by email to you…in which SiteGround requests that you remove the contents or upgrade to a more suitable package.”

Is their Technical Support truly helpful?
From their Terms of Service: “Our technical support is provided via the help desk set out on our website. Your initial request for technical support must originate here. Technical support is provided on an as is as available basis. If your request for technical support exceeds that of similarly situated customers,…we may charge you our standard hourly rate of $50 per hour for support.”

While I typically create a ticket with Liquid Web for my technical support questions, there are times when the urgency requires a phone call. When I call they do not send me back to the site to start a ticket, but instead, deal with my needs right away…on the phone…day or night (I know, I’ve called at 2:30 am).

The point is, read the fine print, ask around, and don’t balk at the monthly price of a good web host with an excellent reputation.

With Web Hosting Ordered

Now, once you select and order a hosting account package, your web host will likely send you a welcome letter of some kind with usernames and passwords. KEEP THIS LETTER. When we used to run a hosting company, we were continually amazed at how often people would delete their welcome letter. Print it, save it. Frame it. Seriously.

Inside your welcome letter (if the host is a good one), you’re going to receive usernames and passwords that will allow you to access the files on your server via FTP (we’ll go over that a bit later), cPanel access, Domain e-mail set up, and your DNS address, which we’ll talk about next.

All of this information is very important, the welcome letter may feel a bit overwhelming, but trust me, hang on to it.

Updated and modified from Jessica‘s original article by the same name. This is one article in a series taken from the Ditch Your Blogging Training Wheels lab segment from the Blogher ’07 Transitioning to a self-hosted blog.