Hosting A Blog: 7 Important Things to Know
Now its time to find hosting for your blog. But what does hosting a blog mean?
Blog hosting is where your blog can live on the Internet. You will also hear it referred to as web hosting.
To paint a better picture, we will compare hosting for a blog to the physical home you live in.
Your home is at a physical location. All your important things are in your home. Similarly, your blog needs a home where all activities can originate from.
All the important assets for your blog will live on a blog hosting site. How does this work?
There are many web hosting providers on the internet. They have massive computers called Servers. Servers operate twenty-four hours a day everyday.
Web Hosting providers are web hosting landlords-you pay rent to host a blog..
But there are free blog sites where you can host a blog. So anyone can set up a blog on one of these free blog hosting sites.
However, there are often limits to what you may be do on free sites.
Affiliate Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. So if you make a purchase by clicking a link on the page, I may be paid a small commission.
Hosting A Blog Is Important
Because web servers must run continuously your users can access your website whenever they want. When you have good blog hosting they can also get to it from any location.
For this to happen, a lot of physical hardware and software is needed to keep these servers functioning properly.
Of course this also calls for an enormous amount of regular maintenance. It also takes technical know-how.
Security is another issue. Security is important not just for you but for your users as well. Your visitors want to be able to visit your blog without worrying about their information being compromised.
Benefits of Self-Hosting A Blog
Bur you may be asking “Can I host my own blog?” Technically you could. But just think of all the work and knowledge about what hosting a blog involves.
These are a few of the things your web hosting provider takes care of:
- Ensuring that if there is an electrical outage your website is not affected.
- Optimizing the speed of your blog server.
- Providing a static IP address for your site on the Internet.
- Maintaining the hardware.
- Upgrading the required software.
Those are just some of the reasons you need professional hosting for a blog. It frees up time so you can focus on building and growing your online business.
Granted you can always host for your amateur blog on some free hosting platforms. This would cut down own the work involved.
However these free platforms will not give you the freedom and flexibility you may need monetize or customize your blog.
Therefore makes more sense to leave hosting a blog to the pros. Just find a good site that offers hosting for blogs, pay a small fee and leave the rest to them.
Types Self Hosted Blog Plans
When you decide to self-host your blog, you will be presented with a number of options for hosting a blog. Here is a brief explanation of some of them:
Shared Hosting
When it comes to shared hosting, your blog occupies space with a number of other sites on the same server. Whatever affects one site, may affect your blog as well.
For that reason shared blog hosting is cheaper and that makes it the most popular option for self hosted blogs.
Again we will use the example of our own home. Shared hosting can be likened to common spaces in our homes. Places like the kitchen and family room come to mind.
Shared Hosting: a number of websites live on the same server.
VPS Hosting
VPS Hosting servers are partitioned into sections. Your blog is given a designated section. This is semi-private hosting.
It’s much like the hall bathroom in your home. Other occupants have access to it even though they have their own room.
VPS Hosting: Your blog lives on its own section of the server.
Dedicated Hosting
With Dedicated hosting your blog lives on its own server. So your site is not affected by anything going on with other servers.
Of course dedicated hosting will cost more than other options. But it gives you more security and privacy.
Dedicated Hosting: Your blog or website resides on a private server.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting a blog can be the most costly option. Your blog lives on virtual servers. These are a number of computers located in various locations connected to each other.
Editors Choice: Cloudways is my recommended cloud hosting platform. It is a managed cloud hosting. They deliver Speed, Security and Scalability at very competitive cost.
Because your blog is on a network it enjoys more security and is readily available to users wherever they are.
In addition a number of hosting providers now offer managed cloud hosting for blogs. They take care of the maintenance of the server.
They are the middlemen between cloud hosting providers and you, the site owner.
Although hosting a blog on a cloud server is this is generally more costly, believe me it is well worth the cost if speed and security are important to you.
With that being said there are a few managed cloud service providers that are economical and great at what they do. My favorite is Cloudways.
Cloud Hosting: Sites are hosted on virtual servers. This option offers great flexibility.
The package you opt for will depend on the needs of your website. However, always keep in mind that your needs are going to change.
7 Important Features of Top Blog Hosting Sites
There are seven important things to look for when you think about hosting a blog:
Below we will expand on each of them.
Allotted Amount of Disk Storage
The amount of disk storage your side will need is dependent on how much content you plan to store on your site.
Content such as databases, images audio and video files and email accounts all consume disk storage.
Of course, as your blog traffic grows, so will your content, so think long-term.
Bandwidth
What does website Bandwidth mean?
This is the amount of data that can be transferred between your website and its users over a given period of time.
This means that the more bandwidth you have the more easily traffic and data can go to and from your blog.
Many sites that offer web hosting for blogs companies claim to offer “unlimited” bandwidth. But, if there is a spike in the amount of your website traffic, you may notice a difference in performance.
So, before you choose a your plan for hosting a blog, read the terms of service to ensure how much bandwidth will really be available to you.
Free SSL Certificate
Having an SSL certificate five your users peace of mind. They can feel free to browse and engage with your website without worrying that their information will be compromised.
In addition, having a SSL certificate on your blog is now a major Google ranking factor. Meaning that the search engine wont show your blog to users if it isn’t sure the site is secure.
For that reason, most hosting providers now offer a free SSL certificate when you sign up for a new plan for hosting a blog.
Hosting Provider’s Uptime Record
Uptime is the time your blog is available on the internet. So why is uptime important?
- Because you want your users to be able to access your site whenever they want.
- Your rankings will be adversely affected if your blog is repeatedly offline.
- Your traffic flow will be negatively impacted.
- Being visible on the Internet improves brand recognition and loyalty.
There a number of tools online that you can use to monitor how much time your website is offline.
Customer Support Service
Sooner or later you are going to need customer support. This is especially true if you are just starting out online.
If hosting problems develop with your site you want to be able reach support as quickly as possible.
Nowhere in the world is the saying “time is money” truer than with your online space.
You never want to be caught in a situation where you need help, only to find that your plan only allows you to submit a ticket and wait for a response.
That response can turn out to come 24 hours later.
Make sure to read the terms that apply to the plan you sign up for hosting for your blog.
Hosting Plan Renewal Cost
The costs associated with web hosting is on a subscription basis.
Generally, hosting charges is it quoted for as monthly charges. However when you sign up you will be asked to pay the yearly amount for hosting your blog.
Of course, hosting for blogs will cost more when the time comes for renewal. So be prepared.
Some hosts allow you to renew for more than one year at a time at a discounted rate.
In any case just as sure as you are that you have to pay taxes, you can be sure that the subscription cost of your web hosting plan is going to increase when it is time to renew it.
Luckily there are a few cloud hosting providers, that actually bill you monthly based on usage. This is great because you are able to test what your usage and scale if necessary.
Summary
Yes hosting a blog is very important. The blog hosting platform your choose has a lot to do with whether your blog fails or succeeds. A few things to keep in mind when buying blog hosting are:
Cheap is not always good. So long you are determined to continue blogging, go for the best hosting you can afford.
Your blog will grow. Therefore your want to make your it’s easy to upgrade your web hosting plan when you need to.
See what customers say. If there is a lot of unhappy customer, look elsewhere. Keep in mind that support, security and the ability to scale are critical.
If you found this article helpful, feel free to share it with someone who might benefit. And while your are at it, leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you.
