3. How to Purchase Web Hosting
Watch my video below where I teach you step by step on how to purchase web hosting through HostGator.
Web Hosting is a service where your website files are stored on the hosting company’s remote server. I have been with HostGator for about 7 years. I have used many other hosting companies in the past and they all promise the bells and whistles and then somewhere down the line, their customer service starts lacking, you get frustrated, move all your stuff to a new hosting company that promises the same newer bells and whistles and then somewhere down the line, their customer service starts lacking… you get the idea. Even though I’ve had my fair share of drama with HostGator, I haven’t had any issue with them within the past year (knock on wood!).
Do not put your Hosting and Domain in one basket!
Don’t buy your domain and hosting from the same company. Putting all your eggs in one basket is not good, especially if something screwy happens with your web hosting, and you start despising them, you are now stuck with them for the domain as well. And moving your domain to another registrar is a complete can of other worms.
WordPress Hosting Plan vs Shared Hosting Plan
Recently, there has been the emergence of “WordPress Hosting” among hosting providers. This is a managed service by the hosting company. This works great for businesses that are already up and running and don’t have time to dedicate to managing WordPress stuff like updates, security hacks etc. Rather, they can concentrate on running their business.
There are great benefits to this service such as dedicated teams to assist you, WordPress knowledgable technical support, and the managed service aspect such as doing updates, monitoring security hacks and daily back ups to name a few. However, there are draw backs, such as the hefty price tag and limitations such as specific plugins you are not allowed to install on your site. Each plan will only allow for 1 domain to be stored.
With a Shared Hosting Plan, this is perfect for beginners who are just starting. I recommend the Baby Plan from HostGator. This gives you unlimited hosting for multiple domains. Meaning, if you own 5 domains for example, they can all be stored here. I will continue the rest of this post with the Shared Hosting Plan.
Steps to purchase a shared hosting plan
If you are ready to sign up for hosting, and you have already purchased your domain from Godaddy, select your hosting term with HostGator’s Baby Plan (the longer the term, the cheaper per month you pay) and follow the instructions. If you own multiple domains, select the main one you will be using and click on the tab that says “I already own this domain”, and enter that in. Fill in the rest of the billing information. You should get a welcome email when you have completed the transaction with usernames and passwords to your cPanel.
