Best WebSite Hosting for beginners - Simple Host Options

If you spend anytime in the online writing and marketing world you frequently hear about the value of hosting your own sites.  With your own website you have complete control of all aspects of your design, layout, content and advertising.

But, with that complete control comes a new set of skills needed to properly administer and create such sites. You are wise, if you realize there is a learning curve.

But the sooner you start  to learn the quicker you will have a functioning site and the abilities to build more.

I see two main barriers to starting your own site:

• Overload of information (much of it in a sales nature)
• Learning a new vocabulary

Some may have included cost, but your own full featured website can be purchased and maintained for around $10 a month. You can handle that.

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In an effort to dissuage your information overload, I will not outline options, I will just  tell you the best choices.

To get your website off the ground in just a few hours, you will require 3 things.

• A Domain name
• A Hosting Provider
• A Content Management System (CMS)
  

Selecting your domain is a very important decision.

You want to follow a few simple rules:

• Easily said, memorable (Make your domain name something that can be transmitted orally) - usually the shorter, the better. Also, in regards to the ending (or Top level domain) i.e . .com , .net , .info , .biz etc. Aim for the dot com, its the one that will be most familiar to your visitors.
• Either a brand name or keyword rich domain - If you have an established brand or business, by all means use it as your domain name - if not, using some basic topic specific keywords in your domain is a very powerful tool in getting your website found by search engines and visitors. Im a believer that hyphens are fine so if you need to experiment with slipping them in between words in order to get your domain of choice.

The domain provider I suggest will offer a simple search function taht will tell you whether your domain name is available - you can also just type the name s into a search bar - if it comes up as "page not found" then you probably found an available domain.

For more detailed and technical information into How to find available domain names

Cost of domains - A domain should cost you under $11 for a single years registration - less if you register for multiple years. You will see alot of scams out there charging $15-$30 for a new domain - you can buy that same domain from another registrar for better prices.

Suggested Domain Purchase Site (Domain Registrar)

I buy all my domains through GoDaddy - they offer a $7.49 first years coupon that cant be beat. This same coupon is good for renewals. A plus of GoDaddy is they allow a free transfer to other GoDaddy accounts, so if you ever sell the transfer can be done for free. Also having a GoDaddy account allows you to receive purchased domains from eBay - its not uncommon to find good domains for as little as .99 cents on eBay

So there you go - Buy a Domain for only $7.49

The two main factors, one should consider for ALL web hosting decisions

• Uptime ( How often the servers are online, a good web host uses a redundant backup structure and can guarantee an uptime)
• Customer Service - especially ,as a new site owner you want to be able to quickly contact your hosting provider for any and all questions , and still be treated as a human being and not be upsold every time!

This is actually a rather easy selection. Hostgator consistently wins customer satisfaction awards, has great pricing and offers a ton of unlimited options that no other top Hosting provider can compete with.

Here are the winning features:

• UNLIMITED Domains
• UNLIMITED Disk Space
• UNLIMITED Bandwidth
• Shared SSL Certificate

Most other services have caps on bandwidth and storage space (often in the small print) HostGator has proven to be genuine in their unlimited offer.

Some other distinctive benefits are Unlimited sub-domains, unlimited mSQl databases and unlimited POP3 emails. As your domain and site collection grows, Hostgators account can still offer you all you need.

I suggest the Baby Plan its $7.95 per month and has all the benefits I outlined above, plus many more. If you buy a years worth rather than paying month to month you will get a price break. But, I have a deal for you!

Hostgator Green Hosting 7.95 monthly

One click site installs

The third factor you will require is a content management system, you dont need to learn any fancy scripts or HTML coding, by using a simple framework all this stuff is taken care of for you.

The leading solution and my personal favorite is WordPress. Wordpress can be as much or as little as you need it to be.

And guess, what your all done reading! Because, Hostgator offers you a one click install - you press a button and answer a couple of questions and your wordpress site will be up and running.

If I thought it needed explanation, I would give you one - but its really just a click away.

If you need a more in depth description of the options offered by Hostgator and its alternatives

Make Your own site: Hostgator vs Godaddy

For more detailed information about the options that Wordpress can provide for you

• Make Your Own Blog - How to make your own blog or site with Wordpress
• Best Wordpress Theme - Thesis
• Thesis Skins for the Thesis Theme