There are over 527 million blogs on the internet today, with the blogging industry exceeding $400 billion last year.
Yes, everyone wants a piece of this cake. Indeed, the enthusiasm leads many to jump on the blogging bandwagon and launch their blog.
Blogging is a massive income revenue. Just like sports betting (more information on our site), a successful blog can lavish you with an enormous fortune.
Of course, a blog is one of the most personal digital conduits to pass your information to the world. And it is free to just anyone.
You don’t need a doctorate in journalism; anyone can open a blog about anything.
Oh, it appears you will need a host
But then, your blog will not magically hang in thin air.
It definitely has to be hosted. Here is where many aspiring and even experienced bloggers start scratching their hair.
The big question is which hosting plan would be best suited to your blogging needs.
The choice of a befitting hosting plan for your blog can be quite a tricky one. If you get it wrong, it could squeeze the joy out of your blog and even out of your life.
We don’t mean to scare you off your blogging ambitions, but here are some of the principal features you should look out for when choosing a hosting plan.
You have to keenly watch out for speed
Your website visitors have been spoiled with fast-loading websites. They will quickly exit your blog if it lags.
A typical website visitor to your blog expects your site to load in less than 2 seconds. If it gets longer than that, “bye!” They are gone.
For online shoppers, speed is even more delicate. Statistics reveal that 79% of your prospective buyers will not come back to your website if speed is unimpressive.
Again, more than 50% of shoppers attribute their loyalty to an online vendor to the loading speed of their website.
So if your website takes too long to load, congratulations, you have the royal privacy of being the sole reader of your blog.
This is why it is critical to get a fast-loading web host. How close are the host’s servers to your target audience?
The closer the servers, the faster your blog loads on their devices.
What is the host’s uptime?
Uptime measures the stability of the hosting provider in terms of how long the service stays up uninterrupted.
Ideally, the uptime should be at 100%, but that is not realistic. The target is to get as close as it can get to 100%.
Hosting providers who promise an uptime upwards of 99% would best fit our selection. Preferably, go for a web host hitting 99.99% uptime.
Of course, they may not be the cheapest. But the consistency they give you may be worth the extra dollars.
How robust is their customer support?
Inevitably, you will need help with the blog.
Therefore, you would occasionally need customer support. The question now is would you write to customer support in the summer and get their reply in the winter?
Definitely, the responsiveness of customer support is a crucial parameter when choosing your hosting provider for your blog.
The best case scenario is to go for hosting providers whose customer support would take minutes to get back to you on your queries.
They should be multiple channels for reaching customer support, from phone to email to live chat on their website.
Also, the technical support team should be available 24/7 at your beck and call. They should be open to collaborating with your developers and providing helping documentation when needed.
How much does the hosting cost?
Now, everyone gets attentive once money is mentioned. Well, that is the power of money. You want a hosting provider that balances premium service with affordability.
Different providers operate different packages for their hosting plans. Some would go as low as $1.99 per month, while others could shoot into hundreds of dollars.
How secure is the host?
Your blog needs a reasonable level of impenetrability or formidability to say. Of course, you wouldn’t like a situation where breaking into your website is an easy walk in the park for any intruder.
Your hosting provider should also put security infrastructure in place to protect sensitive and confidential information on your blog.
There are also cases of virus infection, which is prevalent with a number of platforms where the hosting providers generously share viruses like a government-sponsored Christmas cake.
We will not forget to mention that some servers are notorious for habitual shutdowns. This could be particularly devastating when such shutdowns occur during the holiday shopping season.
Now that we have established these fundamental parameters that should essentially determine your choice of a hosting provider, it is up to you to do your homework when vetting them.
Feel free to ask experienced bloggers in your niche for their opinion. If possible, they should give you recommendations.
