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Once you have chosen your domain name
you'll need to find somewhere to host your website.
A web host is a server (computer) that stores all the files that make up your website. It doesn't make sense to
use your own computer as a web host as it would have to be connected to the internet all the time and
potentially cope with hundreds or thousands of visitors per day. For this reason you need to find a
web host to store these files for you.
It is possible to get a free hosting account, but although this is fine for a small personal
website, I don't recommend going down this route for a business website. Free hosts normally have very little or
no technical support, they can be very unreliable and you'll usually have to display adverts on your site.
This looks very unprofessional if you are running your own business.
Below you will find my own personal recommendations for website hosting. I only recommend products and services that I have
actually used myself, so for this reason I am recommending three different web hosts. I currently have websites on all
three of these web hosts and I am happy with their services and costs.
If you want, you can also register your domain name with these companies when you sign up for a hosting account, but I
recommend registering your domain name separately so that you always have control over it independently of your host.
I register my domain names at Name Cheap
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 Top Pick! Blue Host
My top pick recommendation for website hosting is Blue Host.
I currently host a number of my websites with this company and they are very reliable, with fully
featured web hosting and good support. They have a full range of hosting features including cpanel and Fantastico for quick and easy install of Wordpress.
To host with Blue Host
you need to pay for at least one year of hosting in advance. It works out at less than $7 per month and you also get a free domain name, so it is very reasonably
priced. If you are unable to pay for a year of hosting upfront I recommend taking a look at Hostgator below instead.
Another great thing about Blue Host
is that you can host as many websites as you like on a single domain for no additional hosting cost. So if you plan to have multiple websites, this is a very
economical option.
Host Gator
HostGator is a very reliable
web host that I have used for the last few years and is a good choice if you prefer to pay monthly.
Their basic plans start at less than $10 per month and includes unlimited disk space and bandwidth.
You can also host as many different domains as you wish on the one account with this plan, which is great value.
You can use the coupon code wordpress at the checkout to get your first month of hosting for 1c.
1&1 UK
If you live in the UK like me, you may want to host your websites on a UK host, in particular if you are designing
a UK specific website. I have hosted a few sites on
1&1 UK for a while
now and have been very happy with their service. Their prices are very reasonable and start at £1.99 a month for a
beginner's package with 3Gb of traffic per month and 250Mg of disk space.
Once you have your hosting up and running you can start to Build your Website
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