Postcards from the Funny Farm

In my blog travels I run across a lot of good people looking for web hosting to make a Wordpress self-hosted blog of their own. I have my favorites that I usually rattle off without even thinking but I wonder to myself sometimes if I am steering them in the best direction. That’s why I was so pleased to find Web Hosting Geeks. They are, as they say, geeks who scour the web for the best web hosting providers. Then, their site allows you, the consumer, to rate and review the providers. This is such a powerful service to offer nowadays because it is the only way the consumer can truly know the downtime or other features of a webhost provider. Let’s face it, if they are down 50% of the time, do you think they are going to tell you? No. Web Hosting Geeks will tell you and so will the folks who have tried them out.

All the ones on their top 10 list right now support fantastico which installs WordPress instantly. Now, I have a measuring bar to see if I am still recommending the best. If budget is your issue, they have a link to the best budget webhosts. There is also an up-to-date list of 8 others you can check out. Web Hosting Geeks is a page you should have bookmarked if you are starting out in the craft and trade of blogging. It’s also one you should keep handy if you are like me: someone who helps many others get started.

When I am looking for a blog or site hosting plan I give it the major research job. I look through seraches with certain keywords of things I am looking for in a host. In the past I have used and/or do currently use the best I could find during that particular search. I also have several providers currently due to the fact that some have contracts that I couldn’t get out of right away. All these issues would have been avoided if I would have used The web hosting Geeks. I have bookmarked this service and I am glad to be writing on it to let you know! This is one I will likely email to anyone I am mentoring or who asks me a question about webhosting in the future. Here’s what they do:

This serice on the front page gives you the top hosts under $10/month. Some are $6.95, some even less! Whatever they are, this front page will show them to you at any time. What an amazing resource for bloggers and webmasters.

Then, on other pages inside the site, they arrange blog host providers according to category. For example best budget web host.

If you are a blogger like me, you are always starting and stopping (hopefully not stopping but let’s be real here) new blog ideas and money making strategies. You need to keep the Web Hosting Geeks around to help you through these changes in the marketplace.

There is some controversy out there in the sphere about whether blogspot blogs (or other free blog hosts) are as high quality at self-hosted ones. To me, it’s no contest, but I can’t speak for everyone.

I would recommend a self-hosted blog. I am not saying that blogspot blogs CAN’T be good. But as a general rule, bloggers who care about delivering consistent, well-written content will self-host.

Blogspot is firewalled at all public schools K-12. That’s one example of its limitation. Besides that, most people who frequent blogs assign a stigma as “free blogger” when they see the blogspot giveaways. As a result, they don’t read them.

I have a few blogspots on my favorites list because they have great content. (though I wish they’d see the light!) If a self-hosted blog had garbage content, I’d dump it just as fast as I’d dump a blogspot. And just to reiterate, I keep blogspots on my sub list if they have great content.

In conclusion, I guess the rhetorical question becomes:

“If one cares about ones audience, wouldn’t one use the most accessible and inviting platform available?”

More of my 2 cents on this subject.