Website Hosting Explained for You to Start Your Blog
Starting a website may not be easy, but it also shouldn’t be hard.
Sure most of wish we could snap our fingers and suddenly a website of our very own appear online as we want it to be. Unfortunately, the internet doesn’t work that way. Instead, when it comes to making a website, we have two options: hire someone or create it ourselves. If you’re in that second camp and you happen to find yourself struggling with understanding some of the ins and outs of it, then I’m here to help you out.
Two weeks ago I gave you a few reasons why you should start a website, and last week I talked about web domains. In this post, we’re talking about hosting. It’s a word you have probably heard and a word that might have caused you to wince in uncertainty. To help you get a better grasp on what it is and how it pertains to your future website (we’re claiming it now), I have it all broken down for you below.
One More Thing!
I’ve played around with creating websites for a few years now and since I started, I’ve always used Bluehost. In that time, I’ve learned a thing or two and now I’m a brand affiliate with the company. That means I really like them! If you’re at the point where you’re considering starting your own site, I highly suggest Bluehost. If you’re ready to make that leap, feel free to click my affiliate link to get started. In doing so, I get a commission from the company. It’s nothing that will pay off my car, but it does give me an excuse to turn my latte from grande to venti.
Click Here to Get Your Blog Hosted with Bluehost!
Hosting can be referred to in multiple ways: web hosting, website hosting, or as I’ve been saying it here – hosting. How you say it doesn’t matter, because what it means is the important part. All three ways simply refers to the act of storing, distributing, and keeping up all of the components of your website on the internet. Essentially, hosting makes sure that your website is displayed as it should be and that it is made available to anyone who types your website name (ahem, domain) into their URL.
The cool part about hosting is that you don’t actually see it when you visit a website. For instance, you can’t go to FollowMyGut.com and look around in hopes of finding hosting the way you could look to find a search box. Instead, hosting is sustained on the back-end of services like Bluehost. Understanding hosting is only half of the battle. The other part is knowing what it includes.
Bluehost offers three types of hosting each with three tiers of services. The three types are:
- Shared (currently starts at $3.95 per month),
- VPS (currently starts at $19.99 per month), and
- Dedicated (currently starts at $79.99 per month)
If I’m being honest with you, the last two really apply to people who have websites that get tons of traffic and people who are familiar with more complex systems of web development. I don’t want to sound like a dick, but if you’re reading this post, you’re most likely starting your blogging journey so the two latter options may not apply to you. If I’m wrong then tell me and I have no problem sitting in the corner. Should you be interested in learning about your options when your site blows up (claiming that too), then head over to check out VPS and Dedicated hosting with Bluehost in detail.
For the sake of this post, let’s focus on comes with Shared hosting.
Shared hosting with Bluehost is divided into three tiers and can be purchased based on what you need. The tiers are:
- Basic (currently starts at $3.95 per month),
- Plus (currently starts at $5.95 per month), and
- Choice Plus (currently starts at $5.95 per month).
What is important to focus on are the things you think you’ll need both in the beginning of starting your website and in the coming years. While you can always move between tiers, take the time to think about what you may need in the next months. For my 
websites, I was interested in having: Unlimited Websites, Unmetered SSD storage, Unmetered Bandwith, Unlimited Parked Domains (I talk about that here), Unlimited Email Accounts, and Unlimited Email Storage.
Things that are unmetered mean you aren’t charged for how much you use and there isn’t a set limit. That means you can use a little or you can use a lot, but regardless you aren’t charged based on usage. Things like unmetered storage and bandwidth give you the freedom to have a website that can maintain as much content as you can create and deliver. That means photos, videos, and words can all be put on your site and your website won’t get tired of holding it all together. Additionally, bandwith refers to how much traffic your site can manage. In all honesty if you find your site pulls in a significant amount of traffic consistently you may want to disregard the “unmetered” title here and advance to an upper tier of hosting.
A few of my favorite offerings relate to email. Since Follow My Gut is all about dining out, I get a handful of restaurant invites, press releases, and news and I’m also sending out a lot of my own emails. Having unlimited email storage is important so that I can get as many emails as I need and I don’t have to worry about deleting everything that hits my inbox. Just as important is the ability to create multiple email accounts. Since Bluehost offers you emails with your domain name following the ‘@’ symbol, you’re given the option to have 5 email accounts (Basic) or Unlimited (Plus and Choice Plus). This is good to have handy as you grow. You may want your own personal email, one for your assistant, one for sales, one for general inquiries, one for each new employee, etc. Whatever you choose to have the fun part about this is you can have as many as you would like within your tier.
Although these are the parts that I find most important, they may not be significant to you. Make sure that before you purchase your hosting that you read through the descriptions of the offerings to see exactly what you will need. It’s your website so you should know what you’re getting.
When it comes to hosting, you can select any service available on the internet. While I suggest Bluehost, it is your decision and you should go with whichever company makes you feel comfortable, is within your budget, and offers you what you need. As I’ve outline some of the important parts about hosting, I really hope you’re able to look into what you’ll need currently and factor in any future needs. Hosting may not be the easiest thing to understand when you first jump into the blogging world, but I hope this post made it a little better.
If you’re ready to make the jump and get going on your site, I have a link waiting for you to click:
