3 Things You Must Know About Cheap Blog Hosting

3 Things You Must Know About Cheap Blog Hosting

People often say that you get what you pay for, but is it true about cheap blog hosting? Not all hosts are created equal, so you need to be able to decide if the deal on offer is a good one or not. Here are three things you MUST know about cheap blog hosting.

1. Will I Have Enough Resources To Host My Blog?

A blog is usually run by scripts, and those scripts will take up disk space. Using WordPress for example (which is perhaps the best overall choice for a blogging platform), starts at around 5Mb. Once you add a few plug ins to make the blog do what you want, then you are probably looking at another 5mb of disk space.

If you plan to run video on blog as well, then you could be looking at higher bandwidth as well, so in short, you need a reasonable amount of resources just to get started. This pretty much eliminates the free hosts, but most good hosts would cover you easily.

2. Will I have Enough Features To Host My Blog?

Again because blogs are usually scripts, your host needs to allow you to execute scripts from your blog. This is not as scary as it sounds because the top blogging platforms such as WordPress can be automatically installed using Cpanel and something called Fantastico, which makes installation child’s play. As long as Fantastico is available and you are able to run PHP scripts, then you have the features to host your blog.

3. Will I Get Help If I Run Into Trouble When I Host My Blog?

Here is a biggy. Will your host help you if you get into trouble? Despite how much easier these things have been made, many people still come unstuck at some stage of the process. What you need is a web host who will try and go that extra mile for you when things get tough. Not everything is straight forward when you are web hosting, and a good web host understands that and goes of their way to help you. If the support from your cheap blog hosting is poor, then it is too cheap, and you should be looking elsewhere.

I have found that some web hosts will go that extra mile for you and will help you with things like third party scripts for example. Not all will do this of course, and nor should you expect it. However when you do receive this kind of help, it does make that particular host stand out from the crowd.

I have also found that some web hosts pay lip service to support. They answer questions quickly, but usually with more question, using time that would have been better spent answering your query. If your host’s support leads you round in circles, then perhaps it is time to look elsewhere for a cheap web host.

So there we have it. If you cover these three bases with your web host, then you can truly say that you have found cheap blog hosting that is good value for money. Good luck with your blogging!