It may sound hard to believe, but back in the dark ages of blogging, you had to buy a physical server, store it somewhere in your house, and pay a fortune to keep your data safe—all before you could publish a single blog post.
Oh, and just to be safe, you had to pay for a second server in a different location to store a backup for you.
The good news is, we no longer live in the dark ages of website hosting.
Owning your own self-hosted blog is easier (and cheaper) today than ever before, especially with WordPress. It’s no secret we are big proponents of having a self-hosted WordPress site. As far as we’re concerned, it’s the only way to go if you want to be taken seriously as a blogger.
Okay, but other than using WordPress, what other services should a professional blogger have available? And what sort of host should they use?
We’re going to break all of that down for you here (along with an amazing hosting offer we’ve never been able to offer before today).
- A domain name. I could not host my website at johnmeese.wordpress.com and expect anyone to take me seriously. If you are going to be an A-player in the world of online business, you’ve got have a custom domain name. A good host will include at least one domain with the purchase of a plan. This could be anything, but we recommend yourname.com (as in johnmeese.com).
- Backup security. From the very beginning, you need to be protecting your data. And it’s not just about your blog posts. Your site holds valuable information about you and your subscribers. It’s your job to protect that data. Don’t take this responsibility lightly.
- A caching service. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, a caching service ensures that your site loads quickly. If new readers land on your page and get the spinning wheel of death, they won’t stick around. Don’t lose valuable readers and potential customers because of a simple, quick fix like installing a caching service.
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Try Platform University for Just $1 - Support. Support. Support. If your web hosting service has an obscure email and a hard to find 1-800 number, turn around and run as far as you can. Look for a web host that offers live chat and 24/7 customer support.
- Domain privacy. You shouldn’t have to pay extra to protect the information attached to your domain. Keep your address and phone number as private as possible with a domain privacy feature (otherwise, this is freely available to the world).
- Spam prevention. This is a no-brainer. Spam on your website can damage your brand image, let alone your mental security. Make sure your website is protected from malicious comments and spammers.
- A custom email address. If you want to have an email address like me@myblog.com you’ll typically need to pay a premium, but an exceptional host will include at least one email address for you.
That’s a big list, isn’t it? Now you could download all the different plugins and register for several different services to cover all of these basics, but that would be time-consuming and expensive. Like I said, we’ve got a big reveal we’re excited to share with all of you.
We’ve partnered with our friends at Bluehost to offer a hosting plan that includes all of this, and then some, at an incredibly affordable price!
As you can see, both of these options include most of the features we recommend looking for in any web host, but the Pro hosting plan goes above and beyond. We’re sharing both offers with you so you can make the choice based on which plan makes the most sense to you.
If you’re just getting started and have a minimal budget for your blog, go with Basic Shared Hosting from Bluehost.
If you’re willing to pay a little extra to invest in the top-of-the-line service experience, go with Pro Shared Hosting from Bluehost.
Even if you already have a WordPress host, this offer is so good you should seriously consider switching over!
What are you waiting for?
