Thread: What about this host?

My concerns would be three:

1. They are relatively new, little over a year old (Nov., 2011)
2. They are hosted on Softlayer, not necessarily bad, but as a reseller you would want to know they were offering extra value for the extra cost.
3. They are significantly more expensive that many others.

My general advice is to either go with an extra value reseller you know something about and can trust (as with Lisa's Website Palace) or stay with one of the absolutely trusted players.

A majority of the top members of this forum use and recommend Hostgator. I and a number of others that I trust here as being knowledgeable use Dreamhost (I have happily used them for at least six or seven years and they have over one million sites hosted). A good number also recomment Bluehost although I have no personal experience.

A lot of folks recommend small hosts and often ones no one has heard of before but I would be very careful who I listened to on this topic since there is a lot of uninformed advice.

James you're super awesome.


what websites do you suggest that I get my domain name/ hosting from?

Also I was thinking about using word press to get my website up and running. I was wondering if it's free?
(i'm a lazy programmer and I want to use something easy for my first website.)

thanks for the help!

After doing research I found out you can't use google AdSense on a wordpress.com blog :C

Do you know of any programs similar to Word press that allow third party advertising?

thanks, AlecasaurusRex

To respond to your questions:

you can't use google AdSense on a wordpress.com

Right. You do not want wordpress.com. You want to use WordPress from wordpress.org.

However, you do not need to install it yourself. Your host will do it for you. Good ones all have a simple "one click" install (not quite one click but close).

WordPress.com is a service that does not leave you with your domain path clear in many cases, costs for a lot of services you will get for free from other hosts as you grow, etc., and most important has the advertising limits, etc., you mention.

what websites do you suggest that I get my domain name/ hosting from?

From my post you see that I would recommend Dreamhost or Hostgator myself. However, in this case I would definitely recommend Dreamhost over Hostgator.

Why? Because Dreamhost updates WordPress each time there is an update. That includes a database update which you ask for with one click—I have never had to do more. I have WordPress on a Hostgator domain as well. They did not do this. I had to update from within the program and I lost some of my database (images).

If you knew the program well yourself you might not have that problem but I did. I appreciate that Dreamhost advantage. People brag on Hostgator service so I might have a chance now to check that out now, but it would be even better if I did not need it.

I was thinking about using word press to get my website up and running. I was wondering if it's free?

Using WordPress is free and a good program to facilitate your website without programming although I would recommend learning a little html and css for custom adjustments which you will want sooner or later.

Thanks for the info! shortly after I realized the difference between wordpress .com and .org. Learning oh so much oh so quickly!

I've been trained so much in just learning code and not the outside world of pages of code. I feel I need to learn more about the web, i'm currently taking classes on client side programming (JavaScript), and ASP.net!

If you haven't invested too much in the ASP you might consider php instead. Most sites are built with php now including WordPress. If you work with a corporation or the like that uses Microsoft stuff, ASP.net is necessary but php is open source and has become the de facto standard for the web among independent webmasters.

I like to use Microsoft products in my opinion. But I haven't taken a php class yet. I'm very interested in php, I notice in my URL .php all the time. For example Facebooks user homepage. I'm planning on doing a lot of research on php, it's sort of the missing peace in my puzzle.

I use asp.net in visual studio to build my web applications, so far I like it it's really easy with visual studio's auto generated code.

At this time 78.7% of all websites use php. This includes larger sites like facebook, WordPress, Wikipedia, Photobucket, Match.com, etc. The three most common reasons for choosing it include:

1. It is written specifically for the web so is more user friendly in that regard for websites.
   
2. It is open source, which means free, and has a huge user support base.
   
3. It is designed to be useful to very small to very large sites so you can use many of the really helpful features without knowing very much about program.

On the other hand asp.net is useful for writing apps and a lot of other programming options.

I am sure you will find value in both. Learning either will help you learn the other.

I have always liked much of Microsoft, no problems, but I also like others.

Very interesting that is a huge number!

So let me get this straight. I can get my domain name AND hosting from Dreamhost. Domain you pay yearly and hosting you pay monthly. Do you have any idea how much this all costs?

thanks,

AlecasaurusRex

DreamHost isn't that much more per month than HostGator and seems to have a good rep. I think I'll be going for it seeing as DH is more user friendly. I want to use some open source eCommerce solutions like Magneto and OpenCart. I know HostGator used to support these with one click but OpenCart has been pulled.

I wonder if DreamHost supports one click installs on the database for OpenCart?

AlecasaurusRex

At this time Dreamhost is $8.95 per month with unlimited domains, email, etc. You get one domain free (including annual renewals). I have all my domains at Dreamhost ($9.95 a year) and most of my hosting. I also have hosting at Hostgator.

A lot of people say never have hosting and domains at the same place, but I have no concerns as long as I am at one of the top few hosts and they are set up to let you set your own name servers online so you can change the domain hosting to someone else without their involvement if you wanted.

Darren

Dreamhost does not appear to support Open Cart with a one click install unless I overlooked it. However they do support Zen Cart which appears to be well liked.

What do you mean by unlimited "email"?

Sorry not to be clear. I just meant unlimited email accounts. Most good hosts allow this now although some actually charge you so much each month for each one (total ripoff).

This is really important to me so I mentioned it rather than some of the other parts of their offering. For example, I have a site for my senior care home and each of us working here has our own email address at firstname@oursitename.com. At my finance site I have one for my newsletter, editor@domainnamenewsletter.com.

Is there a way I could start building my website with wordpress without having a domain name / host? or would I have to buy host/domain to get started?

My other question is what is my next step after buying a domain name / host!

thank you so much!