When you’re a blogging beginner, you might be a little confused about what web hosting is and why you need it.
All websites are “hosted” on the internet. Technically, it would be possible to run a website by having your computer connected to the internet 24/7. However, that would bring up a huge number of problems (like hacking, internet connectivity issues, plus a large electricity bill).
Instead, you get your site online by having it hosted on big computers (servers) belonging to a professional web hosting company. This means that your readers and customers can access your blog at any time of the day or night, from all around the world. Your web host takes care of the technical aspects of hosting a website, like running the right kind of software.
Web hosting varies a lot in costs, as big websites with lots of traffic are more mexico phone number search to host than tiny websites with only a few visitors. But in your first few years of blogging, you’re likely to be paying around $35–$100 per year.
There are lots of different web hosts out there, but for beginners, I strongly recommend that you choose either Bluehost or Dreamhost.
Both Bluehost and Dreamhost provide great-value web hosting that’s powerful enough to run a WordPress blog (WordPress is the most popular blogging software in the world). They’ve also got great customer support and it’s easy to set up your account.
And, as I mentioned above, Bluehost and Dreamhost will both give you a totally free domain name when you set up your hosting account.
If you’re not sure which to pick, here’s my recommendation:
Bluehost is the simplest to get started with, and their 24/7 customer support is superb. Go with Bluehost if you’re not very confident with technical things.
Dreamhost works out a bit cheaper and your site’s likely to be a little faster too. Go with Dreamhost if you’re not daunted by the more technical side of blogging.
Let’s take a look at the process of creating a web hosting account with Bluehost. We’ll go through everything step by step. You can simply open up Bluehost in a new tab or window and follow the instructions here to create your web hosting account and install WordPress.
Tip: You don’t have to use the WordPress software for your blog. But I strongly recommend WordPress for beginners and experienced bloggers alike. WordPress is used by 43% of all websites (and its market share has been growing year after year). It’s quite easy to use and it has a huge number of add-ons, called plugins, that you can install to add new features and functionality to your blog. If you want to explore other options, including some free blog platforms, just take a look at my guide to the best blogging platforms.