In the middle ages, the Samurai were Japan’s warrior class and were highly specialized in the art of war. They also carried with them a specific code of ethics and rules they lived by.

Although WP Blog Host is not at war with anyone, I do see them as the Samurai of the web hosting industry… especially for anyone looking to start a blog.

They are highly specialized in the domains and web hosting industry and the code of ethics which govern their system is based around taking care of their customers (see #9 below).

I’d like to point out real quick, too, that just because they brand themselves as the place on the web to host your blog with, their hosting and domain products really cater to anyone looking to build their online presence… from beginner sites to the most advanced and highest traffic generating sites.

10 Reasons WP Blog Host Kicks Other Hosting Companies Asses Like a Samurai

1. Security

When you purchase web hosting from a company, you’re not only getting a place to store your website, you’re also purchasing email accounts, FTP connections, ability to create online communities with logins and passwords, etc.

Over the past 3 years I’ve been blogging (and 15 years online), I seem to of earned a reputation around Internet-ville for being the guy that knows a thing or two about web security, especially WordPress security.

If you’re a blogger, realize that web security goes way beyond simply locking down your WordPress blog. Choosing the right web hosting company to host with is crucial to keeping:

• your website secure
• your emails hidden from view
• your FTP connections encrypted
• viruses firewalled from attacking your home computer

That’s where WP Blog Host kicks butt… security!

Hosting with them you can:

• Run your email through SSL encryption (even your iPhone’s email). That means your emails will be encrypted with the same technology used to encrypt credit card numbers online.
• Connect to your FTP account through FTPS (File Transfer Protocol Secure). This means your FTP username and password will never be transmitted in the clear and will always be encrypted.
• The servers used to host your website are upgraded to the latest and best security hardware/software there is.
• Customers can purchase SSL Certificates for their websites at a very affordable price which encrypts data sent to and from their website. So for example, if you use WordPress, you can log into your blog and work in your Dashboard area under the protection of SSL encryption.

2. It’s Easy to Find Customer Support & Help

This is a big one for me.

Recently, I did a WordPress upgrade for a customer who hosted their blog with a different company. The customer had a question related to their web hosting and being the good guy that I am, I tried to find the answer for them instead of telling them, “You need to contact your hosting provider.”

So I went to the customer’s hosting provider’s page (a relatively reputable company) and clicked on the Get Support button.

From there I was hoping to see a tech support phone number which I could call so I could get my question answered quickly. To my disappointment, there was no phone number to call.

To make matters worse, their “Get Support” page consisted mostly of links to tutorials so that hopefully you could answer your own question. There wasn’t even a clear area where to click to email their tech support.

Inevitably, this was the “Get Support” page option I was faced with:

What the heck? PAID support? Isn’t that what this customer was paying for when they purchased web hosting?

The WP Blog Host Alternative . . .

Simply head over to the Support Area of WP Blog Host and you’ll immediately find:

• 24×7 email and telephone support for hosting / domain products
• Extensive online help resources with a ton of downloadable pdf files
• WordPress help via this blog, contacting me, and WP Blog Host.tv

And what’s awesome about WP Blog Host is the fact that they have a really cool and experienced WordPress blogger (me) available to hit up when their customers have a WordPress or blogging question. I live and work right in the trenches doing what bloggers do everyday.

It’s my job. Not bad, huh?

3. Full Line of Hosting & Domain Products

We all hope that one day our blogs will explode and we get to become the next Darren Rowse of blogging. If that happens (lucky you) it would be nice to know your hosting company can stick with you no matter how much traffic your site receives or how popular you become.

WP Blog Host customers can choose from the following types of hosting:

• Low economical shared plans
• Virtual Dedicated
• Dedicated
• Unlimited options

When you become a problogger you need a web host who can stand by you and back you up no matter how popular your blog becomes.

GZip Compression for Speed

And if the speed at which your website loads is a concern for you, WP Blog Host’s servers are set and ready for gzip compression. Check out how with one simple copy and paste I sped up my blog’s load time here at WP Blog Host as much as 4.6 times!

4. Over 50 Free Simple Installations of Popular Programs

WP Blog Host has their own set of easy to install scripts, much like the Fantastico bundle of software you might see with other hosts.

I won’t bore you by listing out all 50+ programs you can easily install on your hosting account, but here are a few of the more popular ones:

• Blogs: WordPress, Geeklog, Serendipity, Lifetype
• CMS: Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, MODx, Nucleus, anyInventory
• e-Commerce: Zen Cart, osCommerce, nopCommerce
• Forums: phpBB, Simple Machines Forum, Vanilla Forum
• Misc: MediaWiki, phpFreeChat, phpmyvisites, phpMyFAQ

Click here to see the full list of the over 50 free programs.

5. Domain Names Come with Free Hosting & Free Email

You actually get a lot more than just free hosting and free email with each domain name, but those are the two most popular free products I see people use.

The email address comes with a full 1 GB of storage space and is personalized to your domain name. The free hosting is ad supported and comes with all the features found in the Economy Hosting Plan.

This is awesome because if you’re new to blogging and not sure you want to stick with it, you can purchase a domain name for under $10 and you can test your skills at blogging when you’re on a tight budget (though $6.95/mo. for hosting won’t set you back much).

6. Blog Security Upgrades Offered

If you’re a WordPress blogger, wouldn’t it be nice if your hosting company had someone on staff who knew a thing or two about blogging and WordPress?

That’s why I’m here at WP Blog Host.

My job is to simply be a blogger and do all the things a WordPress blogger does. By doing exactly the kinds of things our customers do and go through, I learn… plain and simple. I then can pass on my experiences to our customers through my blog, social sites, other blogs, etc. in hopes that I can help them succeed in this venture we call blogging.

Now what other hosting company does that?

Oh right… blog security upgrades! I was getting to that.

Because I’ve been there done that in blogging and have gone through the horrible experience of having a website hacked and broken before, I’ve spent the last year learning how to better secure a WordPress blog from intruders.

I now provide two services for customers: 1) A very informative ebook called, WordPress Defender, which includes nearly 2 hours of videos detailing how to systematically secure your WordPress blog and 2) forget reading the book, hire me to do it for you.

Again, what other web hosting company does that for their WordPress customers?

7. Economical Monthly Web Hosting Pricing

There’s one thing which really upsets me in the web hosting field… it’s when I see companies advertising things like $6.95/mo. web hosting in big bold letters only to find out that customers can’t really pay month-to-month, they must pay semi annually or annually.

Grrr… that gets me going.

They’re advertising something in big bold letters which they don’t really offer… monthly hosting.

It’s just a ploy so they can advertise the “low cost” of hosting.

On the flip side,

WP Blog Host not only offers truly affordable low cost month-to-month hosting (starting at $6.95/mo.), but they go the extra mile to make sure their customers always feel safe spending their hard earned dollars with them.

I’m not just talking security, I’m talking about making sure their customer’s money never goes to waste (see #10 below for more details on that).

8. Very clean and simple to use File Manager

It’s no secret web hosts share the same bundles of software which they use to allow their customers to connect to things such as their File Manager, FTP accounts, databases, etc.

Many web hosts use the cPanel program for such services; however, we’ve found that many new bloggers find the cPanel program’s File Manager to be a bit confusing. Take a look at the comparison.

cPanel File Manager (more confusing)	WP Blog Host File Manager (simple)

To this day I still have customers who host with other companies ask me what the difference is between the WWW directory and the public_html.

WP Blog Host’s File Manager is very clear, easy, and simple to use and figure out.

9. WP Blog Host Really Cares About Their Customers

If I could sum up in 3 sentences what WP Blog Host is about, it’s…

• Take care of the customer.
• Take care of the customer.
• Take care of the customer.

Of course they are a business and they need to make money to pay paychecks, lights, connectivity, etc., but their philosophy is that the best way to accomplish this is to focus on taking care of the customer.

If you focus on that, it’s only inevitable that money will follow.

I don’t work in the technical support department, but I know those are some of the nicest folks you will chat with and are very patient.

For me, I know I always try to take care of my fellow bloggers when they have questions, but when I know someone is a customer of WP Blog Host, I really try to go that extra mile when I can.

10. Web Hosting: You Only Pay for What You Use

How cool is this . . .

Let’s say instead of paying month-to-month for hosting you decide you want to pay for 1 year in advance (or any other number of years); however, after two months you decided “Ah, this really isn’t for me.”

All you’d need to do is call WP Blog Host’s tech department and let them know you wish to cancel your hosting and have the remaining 10 months you prepaid refunded back to you.

Done.

Just take care of the customer… it’s that simple.

Bonus Reason WP Blog Host is the Web Hosting Samurai – Backups!

Your website is safe and easily recoverable.

If you accidentally delete something from your website, or even worse crash it, fixing it is a snap.

WP Blog Host makes nightly backups of all hosting accounts and it’s easy for you to restore any part of your website back to 30 days prior. Just log into the File Manager, click the History button, and choose a date from which you’d like to restore a file, folder, or the entire site.

Now go get yourself a domain name and hosting account and start your website off with a web hosting company that kicks butt like a Samurai.

Related posts:

1. WP Blog Host Domain, Blog Security, & Hosting Promotions – Get'em While Their Hot
2. 8+ Drawbacks to Free Web Hosting
3. How To Choose The Best WordPress Blog Hosting Company

Some promotions expire and at different times, so if you see a promotion you like, check the promo’s expiration date.

1. Promotional Codes

Promo Code Description Start Date End Date 100CN15 15% discount off any order $100 or more 6/21/2009 7/6/2009 50CN10 10% discount off any order $50 or more 6/21/2009 7/6/2009 5NC25 5% discounts on orders $25 and over 6/21/2009 7/6/2009 Visit our Product Catalog to view all our hosting and domain products.

Who doesn’t like promotional codes? These codes are good through the 4th of July weekend (2009) for any of our domain and hosting products. Great to use when you purchase web hosting annually.

2. $3.99 Domains with Purchase

Purchase any non-domain product from within our product catalog and register domain names at a discounted price of $3.99. Great if you’re looking to start an affiliate site or start a blog.

3. Register a .US tld for $7.99

This promotion was inspired by the upcoming 4th of July holiday. Register .us domain names for only $7.99. This promotion ends July 7, 2009 at midnight Pacific time.

4. FREE Private Registration with 5 or more domains

Register or transfer 5 or more domains with WP Blog Host and receive free private registration for those domain names. Note: Privacy must be added to the order in which the domains are purchased in order to qualify for the free offer (i.e. add private registration to the cart).

5. $1.99 .INFO tld Discount

Whether you want to promote information about your businesses, organizations or yourself, .INFO is a great way to create an identity on the Web. Get .INFO first year registration for just $1.99/yr (you save $8.00!).

6. 20% Off WordPress Security Upgrades

One of the services I provide here along with an associate are WordPress security upgrades to lockdown your WordPress installation some and help prevent malicious jerks crack into your blog. In my experience, many bloggers don’t think their blog is a target so they don’t worry about it. But they’re wrong.

Get 20% off ($49.95 $39.95) from now through the 4th of July weekend 2009.

Why Purchase From WP Blog Host?

If you’re not yet a WP Blog Host customer and you’re a blogger, here are some reasons why you might want to consider joining the club.

• Full range of hosting and domain products you can grow with.
• Live 24/7 phone and email technical support for our hosting and domain products. (480) 624-2500
• Resident WordPress blogger (yup, that’s me) who helps customers when they need WordPress or blogging help.
• We’re the coolest web host on the planet!

Related posts:

1. Did You Know You Get These With Domain Name Registration?
2. 10.5 Reasons Why WP Blog Host is the Web Hosting Samurai
3. Increase Your WordPress Blog’s Security By Running It Through SSL

One of the topics I see all around the web is how WordPress can be installed easily with Fantastico. And yes, in fact it can. However, just to set the record straight, if you’re looking to start a WordPress blog and someone tells you that you need to look for a web host that has cPanel and Fantastico, there’s no reason to listen to them.

Trust me, as a guy whose been online for a long time and knows a thing or two about web hosting, there is no reason to limit your options to web hosts which only match this criteria. There’s a lot more you need to consider and understand.

What is Fantastico?

Fantastico is bundled set of software which can be used to install several different applications to your web hosting account. One such program is WordPress.

Are There Issues with Fantastico and WordPress?

If you visit the WordPress Forums and do a search for problems with Fantastico, you’ll most definitely find a lot of people have problems using it to install and upgrade WordPress; however, I think using it to install WordPress isn’t too bad (you can do better), but using it to upgrade WordPress wouldn’t be something I’d do. For that, use the WordPress built-in auto upgrade feature.

Why You Might Not Want To Use Fantastico

Security

If you’ve read my blog for awhile now or you look up to our main menu, you’ll see one of the topics I’m constantly talking about is WordPress Security. One of the major problems with WordPress when it comes to security is that every default install looks exactly the same.

The primary folders start with wp-, your login page is located in the same place (directory-wise) as the next guy’s, your database table prefix is 9xek3pd_, etc. In other words, the default installation of WordPress is very “cookie-cutter”.

And how does Fantastico install WordPress? The cookie-cutter way.

You miss out on the learning experience

Another reason why you might not want to use Fantastico to install WordPress on your account is the learning experience you’ll miss out on. By installing WordPress yourself (it’s not difficult and I’m always here to help), you’ll learn a thing or two about the program you’ll be working with for many years to come.

It’s like my days back in college and the time when I took Calculus. We learned a very long and difficult way to do derivatives. I remember doing the homework and hating every second of the long drawn out process of figuring out the answer. Then the next day our instructor showed us a very simple and quick way to find the answer (instead of the long drawn out process). At first I hated the fact that he made us go through such a difficult process to find the answer when in fact there was a much easier way to do it.

But you know what? I learned something. I learned how and why the shortcut worked, which made me understand.

Now I’m not saying you should never use an easy installer to install WordPress. If you do, fine. But if you first experiment and try installing it on your own, you might find you are learning something.

Alternatives To Fantastico For Easy Installations

WP Blog Host’s Alternative

WpBlogHost does not use the script library Fantastico; instead, we use a bundle set of applications included free with all hosting accounts which allows you to easily install a number of programs (nearly identical to Fantastico). Of course, one of the programs you can easily install is WordPress.

The thing I like about our installer over Fantastico is the fact that your installation, although not 100% secure, installs a WordPress blog a little less cookie-cutter than Fantastico.

Elefante Installer

Some hosting companies use a program similar to Fantastico, called Elefante Scripts. It basically works the same.

EasyWP Install Script

Through my Google Alerts set up to notify me about things around the web on WordPress, I found a blog article called EasyWP – Install WordPress in Seconds! by a young web designer named, Joel Drapper. Thanks to Joel, I’ve learned there’s a program out there called EasyWP WordPress Installer.

The installer, though not as easy as Fantastico or our installer, can simplify the WordPress installation some. The one downside is you still have to create your own database, which in my experience is probably the most difficult part of installing WordPress people have. It’s actually not difficult, but since working with a database is foreign to most every day web users, this seems to be the part they hate dealing with.

My Take On Fantastico

If your web host has Fantastico, by all means use it to install WordPress if you don’t want to go through the learning experience of installing it yourself. But whatever you do, don’t let the fact if your web host uses Fantastico or not sway you from your decision on which web host to host your blog with.

Some companies, like ours, offer easy alternatives.

If you’re looking to start a WordPress blog and are trying to figure out which web host you should go with, check out my article on How To Choose The Best WordPress Blog Hosting Company.

Related posts:

1. How To Install WordPress Manually and Why Beginners Should Do It
2. 6 Things I Tell People Who Are Looking To Start A Blog
3. Start A Blog: Free or Paid? WordPress or Blogger?

Web Hosting Advertising Hooks, Claims & Sites You Should Beware Of

1. Ignore the word, *Unlimited*

This is the most common word you will see thrown out there in the hosting industry which will entice you to “buy from us.” Of course nothing in this world is infinite, except maybe our imaginations. However, don’t let this form of marketing scare you away and make you think web hosts are lying. They may indeed offer you unlimited, however what you don’t fully understand as a new user online is that other aspects of your hosting will probably cause your site issues before you ever actually reach the so called unlimited bounds (your CPU usage, for example).

If you’re new and just starting a blog, make sure to have at least 5 GB disk space and a couple hundred GB of monthly bandwidth or transfer. You won’t really need that much – by a long shot, however it gives you room to grow over the years.

2. False claims of monthly payment plans

Again, this one boils down to a marketing strategy, but I have to say, of all of them – this one really irritates me the most because it’s misleading to new bloggers and hosting customers. Being clear is great and to be honest, is what you really want; however, being clear isn’t always the best marketing strategy for business.

For example, there is a well known hosting company out there I know many bloggers host with. They advertise in large font “$6.95/mo. with Free Setup and No Hidden Fees.”

Come to find out, they don’t actually offer a monthly hosting payment plans – you have to pay for a number of months in advance at a time. That just makes my blood boil!

Ok, moving on . . .

3. So called “Hosting Review” Sites

As someone who is an experienced online entrepreneur and know a thing or two about making money online, this is another one that upsets me. You’ll recognize these sites as they are a dime a dozen. They’ll have headlines like:

• Top 10 Best Hosting Sites
• Best Hosting Reviews
• …etc.

They will also likely feature a column or row of banners like you see to the right.

Realize This: 99.9% of these sites are only designed to make the website owner money, plain and simple. They don’t truly care about your well being and making sure you get what you really need; they just want you to click on one of the banners so they can earn some affiliate sales. It is more likely that the top host they rate as #1 is the one that pays out the highest affiliate commission sales rather than the one this person truly feels is the best hosting out there.

What you’ll also see on these “hosting review” sites are a lack of personal experience in working with the different listed web hosts. The site owners simply copy and paste from the hosting company’s website a list of features.

And if that’s not enough to make you scratch your head, consider this as well – how in the heck does some guy who lives who knows where and knows who knows what about WordPress knows what YOUR hosting needs are? What your passion is in? What you need help with?

They don’t. So don’t listen to them.

Ok, my heart is starting to pump just thinking about these guys making money off of you, so I better move on.

4. Cheap looking hosting sites

If the web host’s site looks like it was built by a teenager next door and/or on an extreme budget, they may be here in a year, and they may not be.

5. No phone technical support

6. Don’t get suckered in by specials

Special promotions are great and hey, we offer them from time to time, too. But don’t let that be the deciding factor on whether to buy or not. Special prices are usually only for a limited time. Don’t squabble over saving 5 or 10 bucks to host with a company who might not be the best fit for you.

What To Look For In A Web Host For WordPress

If you are new to the web hosting industry and product line, realize that just about every web host out there offers the same basic features. In choosing a web host to host your WordPress blog, much of what you will want to rely on are feedback from friends and other users, the list above of “what to be aware of”, and the overall feeling the web host’s words speak in understanding if they can help you ultimately achieve success in what it is you’re trying to do.

1. Do they know anything about WordPress or do they just provide web hosting?

This is one that most people miss. Think about it for a moment, would you hire a web designer who knows nothing about WordPress to build you a WordPress designed site?

Of course not. You’d hire a designer familiar with WordPress.

So why in the world then would you want to host your WordPress blog with a web host that knows very little about WordPress? Remember, a product for everyone is a product for no one. The best products out there alienate lots of people but highly focus in on helping a select crowd.

Basically, look for high value while getting a good price.

2. Monthly payment options

Watch out with this one, many companies advertise $$/mo. in big font but in reality don’t offer monthly pricing. That was just a breakdown of the price if it were paid monthly.

3. Services that allow your blog to grow over time

As time goes on, your blog may begin to grow and gain tons of traffic. It would be nice if you had a web host who could provide multiple hosting and domain options for you when that time comes (e.g. virtual and dedicated hosting, domain forwarding, etc.).

4. Hosting allows for .htaccess files

Most hosting companies these days allow your website to have a .htaccess file. If, however, after signing up with them you find out they do not, jump ship! You need this file as a WordPress blogger.

5. Testimonials are always a good thing

6. Do they offer WordPress related services?

Blog design? Security enhancements? Ability to fix your broken blog for you?

No, these aren’t typical web hosting tools, but it would be nice if you could get everything you need from one convenient place.

7. Easy installs of WordPress

8. Help tutorials for using WordPress with their hosting

WordPress is a great community and you can find a lot of help online, but it sure is nice if the help you can find shows you step by step what you need to do and where to click using your hosting company’s exact control panel and services. If you’re new to WordPress and hosting, this will help immensely.

9. Linux web hosting

WordPress can be used with both Windows and Linux web hosting; however, you’ll soon find there’s a lot more help out there for those of you on Linux servers as that is the most common kind of hosting. If you have the option to choose and you have no specific reason to go with Windows hosting, we suggest Linux.

Your turn to share. What suggestions might you have for new WordPress bloggers looking for web hosting?

Related posts:

1. 10.5 Reasons Why WP Blog Host is the Web Hosting Samurai
2. WP Blog Host Domain, Blog Security, & Hosting Promotions – Get'em While Their Hot
3. Start A Blog: Free or Paid? WordPress or Blogger?

Most of the not-so-unwritten-rules of blogging dictate that you should try to avoid directly selling to your readers, and for the most part that is true.

But every now and then I remind myself that if I don’t talk about our brand from time to time, many will not even know the, “Hey, did you know WP Blog Host has free hosting included with domain name registrations?”

I bet many of my blog readers didn’t know that fact because, well, I don’t talk about it much here. Blogs are really good at helping build relationships, not product feature selling.

You probably also didn’t know that here at WP Blog Host .COM domains are only $7.49 for the first year. The going rate I see around Internet-ville these days for .COM domain names hovers around $10 a pop.

Here are 3 more features our customers get when they purchase a domain name from us (view all here):

• Photo Album – Share photos and memories online.
• Economy Hosting – This free version of our Economy Hosting Plan includes just about all the same hosting features as the full hosting package except there are just a few link ads to our company on your pages.
• 1 Free Email Account – We’re not talking a mere 2MB storage email address, domain customers get 1GB of storage, SSL encryption of passwords and data, and the email address is your-email@yourdomain.com.

Like I said before, blogs are better suited at building relationships, not product feature selling.

I promise not to pump out too many of these types of articles, but then again I sit here asking myself, “That’s great that I’m building relationships, but wouldn’t it be nice if the people I build relationships with know a little about what more we have to offer?”

I’ll tell you one thing I know, I’m thinking too much!

Related posts:

1. WP Blog Host Domain, Blog Security, & Hosting Promotions – Get'em While Their Hot
2. 10.5 Reasons Why WP Blog Host is the Web Hosting Samurai
3. 8+ Drawbacks to Free Web Hosting

1. Should I go with a free blog OR spend a little money and purchase my own web hosting?
2. Which program should I use – WordPress or Blogger?
3. Where should I host my WordPress Blog?
4. Conclusion and open discussion.

I. Starting A Blog: Free or Paid Web Hosting?

If you’re thinking of starting a blog I can almost guarantee this is what’s going through your head:

I want to start a blog but I’m not sure if I’ll like it or not. Maybe I’ll sign up for a free blog on either WordPress.com or Blogger and see how it goes. Then after about a year or so I’ll decide if I should purchase my own domain name and web hosting.

Sound familiar? If so, here’s what you need to consider.

Free hosting, whether it’s for a blog or a normal website is never a good idea unless maybe you’re a kid just fiddling around on the Internet.

Do Not try to build a business online using free web hosting, that just doesn’t make much sense. Don’t get me wrong, as an experienced entrepreneur I do like to get things for free, but not when the deal ultimately will hurt me.

So how can having a free blog hosted on WordPress.com or Blogger hurt you?

Drawbacks To Free Hosting In General

Awhile back I wrote an article entitled, 8+ Drawbacks to Free Web Hosting (link opens in a new tab) which you might find informative. The article shows how free web hosting is limited by such things as:

• Bottlenecks – Your hosting/website is shared on 1 server with LOTS of other websites.
• Low Bandwidth and Limited Disk Space.
• No Personalized Domain Name.
• Little Support and more . . .

You’ll Lose All Your Momentum & Lose Backlinks When You Upgrade

If you really feel the need to experience blogging before you purchase a hosting account and are dead set on testing first with a free account, give it no more than two or three weeks tops. If you blog for too long what you’ll find is people will start reading your blog, bookmarking your pages, subscribing to your articles, and linking to your website.

That’s great, right?

Of course! But what happens when you realize you’ve grown beyond a free account? What happens then?

I’ve been blogging for only a year now (update: a few years now) and have attracted tens of dozens of links and I’m indexed well on Google for a few searches which brings our company business. Could you imagine what would happen if my blog was hosted on a free account and today I decided to move over to a real hosting account with a new web address? I’d lose any search engine traffic I had achieved, dozens (if not hundreds) of websites linking to me would now have broken links, and people who have bookmarked my site may lose touch with me.

Ask any blogger who uses a free account and wants to switch to a paid hosting account what the #1 thing is which holds them back from making the move. I can almost guarantee the above scenario is it!

Free = Bad SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

To better index your website, search engines look at your domain name’s DNS hierarchy. Basically what this means is search engines like Google and Yahoo will look at the web address to your website and translate it into a binary code it can read (0s and 1s).

It then breaks down your web address and assigns an order of importance for the purpose of locating and addressing your website in the search engine. Let’s take a look at this hierarchy.

For this first example, let’s say you decided to pay for your own web hosting and domain name of www.your-blog.com. Here’s how your domain’s DNS hierarchy will be indexed by search engines:

Alternatively, if you choose to host your blog on WordPress or Blogger, your web address will look something like www.your-blog.wordpress.com and here’s how it will be indexed:

This means you’re doing a lot of work to help WordPress index their site better first and then work to help index your website in search engines.

II. Should You Use Blogger or WordPress?

Well if you just read the information above then by default you would go with WordPress as Blogger is only offered free and not bundled with any paid hosting (as far as I know).

But to give you a more adequate answer as to why you should use WordPress vs. Blogger as your blogging platform, I’d like to point out 5 good reasons.

1. The majority of bloggers use WordPress. It’s ok to be different (in business), but because so many people use WordPress it will be much easier to find help (and you can always email John and ask questions).
2. Simplicity of commenting on articles. Have you ever tried to comment on a blog using Blogger? It makes me want to pull my hair out! With WordPress your visitor will simply read your article and comment using the form at the bottom. Nice, easy, simple, and promotes comments and community.
3. You can do a lot of cool things with WordPress. Because of the popularity of WordPress and being that its source code is open, thousands of people constantly write programs called plugins which you can use to make your site truly unique and fun. With Blogger, you’re pretty much stuck with what they give you and a few customized themes.
4. Your blog can be converted into an actual professional-looking website for a business very easily, not so with Blogger.
5. When you host a WordPress blog (i.e. you purchase web hosting), you can do some pretty cool things with your .htaccess file, such as setting up redirects.

III. Where To Find WordPress Web Hosting

This one is easy. If you’re reading this, you’ve arrived at a great place to have your WordPress blog hosted online – WP Blog Host Web Hosting (link opens in a new tab).

We have gone to many lengths to make sure all your blogging needs will be taken care of in order to start blogging right away.

All our hosting plans include an option to easily install WordPress within your web hosting control panel. And if you ever need help, I’m always here to assist.

IV. Conclusion & Discussion

I think I’ve made a pretty good case that the best choice for starting a blog in most cases will be to go with a paid web hosting account using WordPress as your blogging platform. Hosting costs what, $7 per month. If you can’t invest $7 a month in something you’re dedicating a huge chunk of your time to then you might want to think twice about starting a blog.

There are other blogging platforms out there which I did not mention in this article, like TypePad, Movable Type, b2evolution, etc. However, at this time the two most popular are WordPress and Blogger.

If you’re wanting to start a blog and have questions, please comment below. If you’re a current blogger, which blogging platform do you use and do you like it?

Related posts:

1. 8+ Drawbacks to Free Web Hosting
2. 6 Things I Tell People Who Are Looking To Start A Blog
3. How To Choose The Best WordPress Blog Hosting Company

What are the drawbacks of free web hosting?

1. Bottlenecks

• Free hosting accounts typically are packed onto 1 server with lots of other free hosting accounts. This clog of websites severely slows down the server with each one fighting for CPU time. Results: Your site may work slow and go offline from time to time.

2. Low Bandwidth and Limited Disk Space

• You usually get 1-3GB of bandwidth with free hosting accounts. This translates to a site designed for very little traffic coming to it. If there is a lot of traffic coming to it (or another on your sever) your site may go down. Also, disk space is usually measured in megabytes (50-100mb). That’s basically enough space for a few pics and some text.

3. Lack Of Tools

• Free hosting accounts are limited with the tools you are provided with and can use. Many don’t even allow FTP capabilities (which I could not live without). You usually won’t have the ability to run PHP scripts or have a database which translates to no blog, no forum, no good “contact me” form, etc. on your site.

4. Ads

• You usually have to display banner ads on your site. Nothing is better than creating a nice website for yourself and flashing annoying banner ads at your visitors!

5. Little Support

• You usually have to wait extended periods of time for any customer service help. Paid customers get first help.

6. No Personalized Domain Name

• Usually you are not able to obtain your own domain name (e.g. no www.my-site.com). You are forced to use either a subdomain of your host or a directory (e.g. www.geocities.com/my-site). This translates to bad SEO (search engine optimization) because it’s geocities that’s getting indexed, not your own personal site.

7. Bad SEO (search engine optimization)

• You may have a hard time getting search engines to index your site well.

8. No Personalized Email

• Many free hosting accounts don’t give you an email account. So no “john_doe@my-site.com”

*Bonus Tip #1 (Lost Contacts) – Imagine you decided to save less than $100 a year to go with free web hosting. Then one day a year later you realize that you have outgrown your free account and now it’s time to upgrade to a normal hosting account.

Oops . . . guess what?

For that entire year you spent attracting visitors, customers, and friends who have all bookmarked your website, it’s all lost. 80-90% of them will lose contact with you once you change domain names.

*Bonus Tip #2 (Undoing Your SEO) – For those of you who try to build a site that gets indexed well by Yahoo and Google, one of the most important things you can do is attract incoming links to your website.

Imagine you spend a year or so networking online and people link to you. This will help search engines find your website better.

The day you decide to switch to a real hosting account, you’ll lose all those incoming links to your website you spent a year attracting.

You have to start all over again.

Does free web hosting still feel attractive?

Related posts:

1. Start A Blog: Free or Paid? WordPress or Blogger?
2. 10.5 Reasons Why WP Blog Host is the Web Hosting Samurai
3. How To Choose The Best WordPress Blog Hosting Company