Blogs On Shared Web Hosts: Right Idea?
Whether you are a professional blogger or have just started with your own blog, you have probably had to deal with hosting issues in the past. Web Hosting is one of those tricky issues that can determine the success or failure of your site. You can work on your content all day, but if your website is down when your visitors pay you a visit, you are not going to get too much value out of your web host. Unfortunately, choosing the right web host is not an easy process. There are plenty of companies that promise you a lot of things but don’t deliver on their promise. In the past, I have talked about how you should go about choosing a web host for your blog, so there is no reason to address that again. But even if you do your best to research all the web hosting services around, there is still a chance you can sign up with the wrong partner.
When you start your blog, there is a good chance you are not going to get a lot of traffic right from the start. So the idea of signing up for a shared web hosting service can be intriguing. After all, nobody minds paying $5 a month for one of these services. But many bloggers feel hesitant when it comes to signing up for a VPS or dedicated server account. Those accounts are going to cost you significantly more money. Of course, there is a reason for that.
Shared web hosting services will work fine for new blogs. As long as you are not getting a decent amount of traffic, your shared web host should be handle your traffic. But there are many limitations on these accounts. It’s so easy to hit those limits with bad plugins or scripts on your server. What happens when you hit those limits? Your site could crash or become so slow. That’s the easiest way you can lose your loyal visitors as no one likes to wait a minute for your site to load up, no matter how good your content is.
Shop Like a Pro
The key to finding a good web host is knowing what you need and doing your best to find out what company can offer you what you need. Shared web hosting is not going to work for your blog forever. So if you have big plans for your blog, you want to take the time to search for a web host that allows you an upgrade path. So when you are searching for a web host, not only you want to find out about its shared hosting service but also about its private and dedicated servers as well. You can always switch from one host to another if you prefer it that way, but I’d rather know all about my web host before signing up.
You do want to beware of affiliate marketers when going through reviews for web hosts. Web hosts pay $50-$300 to their affiliates, so the paycheck can be significant for top affiliates. While there are honest affiliates out there, I have seen too many affiliates who promote only services that pay the most money per sign up. There is really nothing malicious about that approach. After all, how different these web hosts can be, right?
You should always take the time to search for hosting complaints and scams to make sure you don’t sign up for a mediocre post. If you can find people who have first hand experience with hosting candidates, that’s even better. That can be accomplished by searching through top hosting forums on the Internet. Finally, when it comes to hosting, more expensive hosting doesn’t mean better service. So don’t just assume things.
I can’t emphasize this enough. As someone who’s been a victim of bad hosting in the past, I can tell you that don’t want to take any chances with your website. If your site is slow or down all the time, that could lead to a drop in your search engine rankings. Your audience is not going to tolerate your slow site either. When looking for a web host, don’t be cheap. Be smart!
