What makes a web host a great place to host a blog? Well these days just about any hosting account is ready, will and able for a good ol’ WordPress install or two.

Easy One-Click Installs?

Look at what scripts and software they have ready to install on day one. Do you have one click install access to WordPress, b2evolution, Nucleus or others. These are some of the more familiar names you might see tossed in with Fantastico, and addon for cPanel that gives you easy one click access right from your hosting control panel.

Disk Space and Bandwidth for Blogging?

Next thing you will want to check out is the disk space and bandwidth limitations. If your just starting your blog out - do you have enough room to grow? If your blog is already established then do they have enough disk space and bandwidth to support you for a long period of time.

Server Resources for Peaks in Traffic

Server resources also come into play when it comes to blog hosting. Just in case your article gets dugg on digg.com or hyped up on any of the other big social news and link sharing sites, can your web site take the punch in traffic? This is something you should discuss one on one with your web host - but it most cases (unless the host isn’t that established) you should be OK in this department too. If using WordPress there are also addons that will make sudden growths in popularity more bearable, such as the WP-Cache addon.

Truth be told, you might have to suffer through a few web hosting lemons before you find the web host that is best able to deliver you the best blogging experience. It never hurts though to have a check list like the one above before you start shopping so you know what it is you should be getting.

Now if you listen to the podcast here, you are more than likely more knowledgeable than the average Joe on the street about web hosting. One question I see come up a lot for hosting insiders or web designers that have friends and clients who need a place to host is which way should they go to get it done?

To give you a summary of things, there are usually two routes you can take. You can purchase a reseller account from any web host out there that you choose or you could decide to go the affiliate route and resell a web host’s shared hosting plans. So when should you do one over the other?

Reseller Web Hosting

If you want to act as your on “mini” web hosting company, then I often suggest going with the reseller hosting plan option. For much cheaper than it would cost to rent out a data center and worry about all the legalities of starting a business you can act as the web host for your friend or clients. You charge them some to help pay for the reseller hosting account and they go to you with their support questions. This is also a great way to beta test becoming a real web host too.

Affiliate Hosting Deals

On the other side of the scale, as an example lets say you don’t have a lot of free time but your friends are always looking for a suggestion as to where they should do their web hosting. Now if you have no real need to support them 24/7 and you would rather get them the web site hosting they need and be done with it an affiliate plan might be the thing you need. Many web hosts have them (just have to look around) and they will pay you a “finder’s fee” for bringing in new hosting customers to them.

Now I know somebody out there might suggest VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting or a dedicated server but those both might be out of the budget of your “guy on the street”. In conclusion, if you want to be a web host yourself for your clients and friends - get a reseller hosting plan. If you want to hook them up with hosting and then be done with it, a good affiliate deal with a web host you can trust might be the better way to go.

Have a look around, web hosting is getting cheaper and cheaper by the minute. Have you ever stopped to think what price you are really paying though when it comes to these discount prices? Now I am not looking to paint every low cost web host with a broad fraud brush.

There are some providers out there that have the business plan in place to handle it. They just might be harder to find.

Do You Pay for it in Perks?

Some web hosts will get you in the door with the low prices, and then when it comes to addons or accessories to your shared hosting account they stick you with the true costs of hosting. This can often happen with upgrades for JSP and ASP support and other upgrades some, but not all, will need.

Keep an Eye on How Long Your Signing Up For!

For an example, lets say Dummy Example Web Host is offering you a hosting deal you can not beat. It is $3.50 a month for 500 GB Disk Storage and 5 TB of Bandwidth. Now when you get on the order page you notice that this $3.50 a month price is only good if you sign up for the 10 year hosting plan. To get this, you must pay up-front: $420. Now if you know they are good then you have no worries but if you have no history with the company do you really want to sign up with them for the next decade? Better yet - will they even be around that long?

The one thing you have to remember (and I have said it time and time before) you have to do you homework when it comes to signing up with any web hosting company. Don’t be fooled by the special deal - and find out if they really are the best of the best or just another guy with a server in his basement trying to make a buck.

Do I Blame the Web Hosting Companies? No!

I can not blame the web hosting companies, because they need to compete with the next guy down the street and make money while doing so. Thanks to the fact that we have so much competition out there for the proverbial bottom dollar; almost everybody undercuts and over-provides. The secret of cheap hosting is to find the one that does so the best.

Need help picking the best domain name? Do you want some assistance finding the domain name register that is right for you? Have you considered the privacy concerns you might be giving up by getting that .com of you very own?

I want to tackle domain names from head to toe to give people a guide to the confusing world of domain name registrations.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 134!
Running Time: 12 minutes | File Size: 5.21 MB

There is no doubt that domain names are one of the most important parts of the web hosting game so the do deserve a little special attention. Read more »

Want to get yourself 10 terabytes of disk space and bandwidth? If you believe that is even possible - you have some web hosting homework to do. FXTS.net are the ones offering the plan in question, and I really hope this is a fake web site or joke by the people behind it.

Lets let this be a time to review Mitch’s golden rules when it comes to shopping for a new or replacement web hosting account. Feel free to copy this - share it with others, bookmark it for a reminder or write it on the back of your hand. Whatever will help you remember not to be a sucker when it comes to “too good to be true” web hosting deals.

• There is NO SUCH THING as “unlimited” in web hosting. Everything has a limit and there is no magical servers that can hold unmeasurable amounts of data.
• If the web site looks like it designed by a paraplegic cross-eyed homeless man… stay away.
• 99.9% uptime is meaningless. It might sound nice, but 99.9% of the time it is sales jargon and nothing else.
• Always make sure you have multiple ways of contacting the web host in question, just in case they decide to shut down shop in a month and take your money and run.

Have any other golden rules to share for those people out there who might be looking for a new web host? Leave a comment and lets all help educate the general public on this issue.

Related Reading:

+ WebHostingTalk.com Thread on the 10 Terabyte Web Host

Web sites have been taking a grave turn from putting up photos of your grandmother’s cats to an explosion of social interaction, user create videos and even audio shows just like this one. With services like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and others ruling the Web world - there have been a lot of copy cats come up in the ranks as well.

What some people don’t realize is it takes a lot of web hosting power to run these titans of the new digital age. A web site like digg.com is not run on a $5.99 a month web hosting account. They probably have a whole farm of servers running that single domain.

Who Will Save the Day?

This is where deditated hosting companies come into play. Places like Rackspace and FastServers.net love this new growth because that means more people have reasons for purchasing more hardcore hosting accounts. So if that is the good news, then what is the bad news? Read more »

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 124!

So your stuck with a web host your not happy with and your considering the big move. You want to take your web site elsewhere and you want to do it quick. Should you pack your bags and make the move in minutes? No. It is always best not to rush into a situation as big as moving your web site from web host to web host.

Find a new web host before you move. Some people just get so unhappy with their current hosting provider they want to move right here right now. That is not he best way to go. Give your current web host a few more chances to impress you before you jump into another relationship. Think of it as that old ex-girlfriend that promised she would never cheat on you again. If they do better, you might eliminate you need to move all together.

Find several web hosts that are worth your time and money, contact them and see what they say about moving from your current web host to them. The good ones will give you a step by step process in which you can do it with the least amount of pain and suffering. Read more »