(Part 2)

As I’ve been learning about the ins and outs of what to do to be successful online, it would have been incredulous to have not stumbled on somebody, somewhere, expositing the virtues of blogging.

It was a welcome thought. Putting together a traditional website can be mystifying, so maybe a WordPress blog would deliver the results, but with straight forward functionality?

Well, yes and no.

There are about a kazillion things to think about before even considering creating your initial online blog. I chose WordPress as my blogging software because they were easy to understand and have entertaining training videos. But after that I needed to find a reputable website provider which was certainly a longer process. Complicating matters are the 100′s to 1000′s of blogger host ads that start hitting your in box as you start your barracuda hunt across the internet.

So what makes for a world perfect WordPress blog host?

Here are the important questions to ask when looking for a website provider. The promised top 4 are at the bottom!

1. Does the blog host meet WordPress’s minimum requirements? You won’t have to worry about this if your host has built in WordPress capabilities. However, if you are curious, your best bet is to access the techie jargon found on the WordPress support team’s tutorials.

2. Does the host have  WordPress capabilities? The one I use includes the interface Fantastico which is my host’s way of automating the installation of web applications to the web. Actually, I will be talking about the ease of Fantastico in later articles.

3. What is the best bang for the buck? Does the potential blog host provide the services you need at a reasonable price? Remember too, that the cost of anybody’s host package has the potential to fluctuate.

4. Does anyone else use or recommend this host? Who is recommending them and what is their motive?

5. What are the host’s data transfer limitations? How much data can you transfer through your blog each month? It may or may not matter now, but as your popularity rises, can all the data you publish on your blog be viewed by every person who visits? However, you also don’t want to over-buy as you should be able to upgrade to higher limits as your blog and blog understanding grows.

6. What is the server space? You will be allocated a specific amount of server space to store your blog. Check the space allocations to make sure you are selecting the best option for your requirements & cash flow. Do you really need terabytes at ground zero?

7. What is the potential host’s “down time”? These days it should be in the high 90′s or just forget it.

8. And finally, customer support (which an old fashioned Google search will tell you about pretty quick).

What I have learned

And that is what I have learned so far about finding a good blogging or website host provider.

If you want to follow more about what we’ve been learning in regards to WordPress, or about the things that have worked as we grow our internet business, then you’re invited to engage in our discussions that share (for free) what each of us are doing to get past any of the hurdles we face while growing our online business dreams.

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