Blogging has become so much more than just a casual medium. Many bloggers today are pulling in an impressive full-time salary by sharing and exchanging ideas with their readers. Even if you’re not considered one of the blogging greats (yet!), it’s still important to arm yourself with the best tools to help you get there. Here are the four most important things every blogger should know about web hosting.
Bigger is not better
I’ve yet to read a single rock star blogger claim that their web hosting company is great because they manage thousands of clients. It just doesn’t happen. Large commercial hosting companies can offer great services to thousands of clients, but bigger does not mean better by itself. A good web hosting company is one that can:
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Keep your website online.
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Answer your questions in a timely manner.
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Charge a fair price for their services.
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Properly manage a hosting server.
Speed matters
What do you do when you land on a URL that takes forever to load? If you’re like most, you click away and get the information you were in search for elsewhere. In the land of web hosting, speed matters. When looking for a hosting company to support your domain name, don’t just test the speed of the host. (Many companies host their website on a server that is separate from clients.) Ask for a test file to download and take a peek in their forum. If you see someone who has advertised their domain name in their forum signature, test their website speed to get an educated idea of that host’s network.
Control panels simplify
Back in the early days of web hosting, everything needed to be done manually by your web hosting company. That meant that if you had files that needed uploading or permissions on scripts that required changing, you had to contact your hosting company and wait for them to complete those tasks for you. Thanks to the beauty of web hosting control panels, customers can take care of their own needs. A control panel lets you, the end user, add email addresses, upload your website, manage your domain name and so much more. If you’re unfamiliar with the control panel a hosting company uses, ask to test drive it.
You’re only as good as your web hosting company
You can design like Andy Warhol and write like Hemingway, but if your website is always offline or slows to crawl every afternoon, it won’t matter. Your web hosting company will represent your talents, so if they don’t know what they’re doing, it won’t matter how great your ideas are. Your website must be able to stay online every single day. Period!
Now that you’re armed with the right information, it’s time to find a hosting company that will help you become a top level blogger. Read a few hosting reviews, talk to web hosts and enjoy your success.