Top Blog Hosts – What To Look For In A Hosting Company

This is a followup post to The Pros and Cons of Free Blog Sites. If you have made the decision to go with a paid host, you may not know where to start. The quest to find good blog hosts can be daunting. Here are a few tips for what to look for in a hosting company.

Embarrassing Personal Story

When I started my virtual assistant business in 2007, I was on a super tight budget. I didn’t know anything about websites. No one that I knew personally had any clue about websites. I was on my own to look for a hosting company.

I picked a cheap host with WYSIWYG, after all I sure the heck didn’t know anything about HTML. My website stank. It didn’t have a blog option, so I had my website in one place and my blog on a free blog site. It was confusing to me, it was confusing to visitors, it was miserable.

Then, this magical thing called WordPress took off as a static website AND blog platform in one. I had to have that. Needless to say, cheapo hosting company was no help. They didn’t have one-click install, they didn’t want to help me install it, they had no plans to bring it on board. I needed out.

I looked for recommendations and got started on the daunting task of transferring domains, rebuilding my website, learning everything all over. It took at least a week to get everything ready to relaunch.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

If you are wondering how to find good blog hosts, here’s what to look for:

1. One-click WordPress install. WordPress is so user-friendly, take advantage of it. Make sure your host supports it.

2. Customer service. Look for those with 24/7 help available by phone or chat. Another good thing to look for is a customer forum . These can be great for quick questions without having to call in, email or wait for a chat rep.

3. One price for hosting unlimited domains. With my host, I could choose to host one domain for a tiny fee, or unlimited domains for $3 more per month. Even though I had no plans at that time for more domains, I chose Option 2. Sure enough, within two months I wanted to start another website. Think ahead and look for ways to save.

4. Security. Does your chosen host do complete updates or patches? Patches can leave your site vulnerable. GoDaddy uses patches, HostGator does complete updates.

5. Recommendations. See what your peers are using. Ask if they are happy. If you cannot find anyone with cheapo hosting company, don’t use them.

Those are my top tips for what to look for in a hosting company. What tips do you have for how to find good blog hosts?

Need a recommendation?

I’ve been using HostGator since February 2010 and am getting some great results from it. If you’d like try it yourself, visit HostGator for more information.