I previously mentioned that my children all need to have a successful website or blog before I allow them to graduate our homeschool.   The first step was to purchase their domain names.  Then we needed to choose a company to use for the domain hosting.

When you build a website, you need to have all of that website information – all the words, video, photos, and code – stored somewhere.  You don’t want to keep it on your own computer, because your computer doesn’t run 24/7.  So we store all of that information on another company’s servers.  These servers are maintained and optimized and have backup systems.  But more importantly, they run 24/7 so your website is always available.  We call this service of storing your website information, “hosting”.  You may also see it referred to as “domain hosting” or “website hosting”, but they both refer to the same service.

It’s important to find a reliable company for your domain hosting because if they go down, your website goes down.

I use two companies for our hosting.  For the Goat Milk Stuff website, I use Hands-on-Hosting.  I use them because Goat Milk Stuff is an x-cart based site and Hands-On is an x-cart  partner and the hosting that my programmer recommended.  I have been very happy with them.  They have a live chat that is wonderful.  They answer all my questions and walk me through everything.  

As a recent example, I had a concern about how my website was being backed up.  It turns out that image backups were being done every 48 hours.  I was able to change it (for a small fee) to a cpanel backup 24 hours.  This backup is stored offsite.  So if a tornado wipes out the building where my server is kept, there is another building that has my backup.   Hands-on handled the change quickly and efficiently and they walked me through all the steps on my end.

For the children’s websites, we use Bluehost.  We’re fairly new to them, but I’ve been very pleased.  For one low fee, you can host as many domains as you want.  In other words, I don’t need a Bluehost account for booksquirt.com, another for thebirddude.com, and yet another for gardenspud.com.  And I don’t need to pay 3  separate fees.  I have one account under booksquirt.com and then the other two have been added to that account.  They are their own websites, even though they are technically set up under booksquirt.com.

If you’re thinking about starting a blog, I recommend that you start with Bluehost.   Just sign up for the basic hosting account.  You don’t need to upgrade to anything to start out.  I hope this has been helpful.  Next week I’ll discuss name servers and how to set them.

I’d love to hear if you’ve decided to start your own website or if you have another hosting service that you recommend!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links”.  If you click on the link and purchase an item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I only recommend products or services that I use personally and believe are valuable.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”