how-to-start-a-blog

Support - if you are new to the web, you might need additionalhelp with the blog. Make sure the company offers 24/7 support. Ifyou have a problem with your blog at 2 a.m., do you really want towait for help? Some companies offer phone and chat support, othersdon’t. You might also see companies offering online tickets supportonly. Many people are specifically looking for the U.S. based support,since some providers use outsourced support. Your best bet is to finda hosting company that offers 24/7 phone support in addition to onlinechats and support ticketsUptime - as mentioned previously, this is very important for yourblog to be available online. You have to understand that you are dealingwith hardware and people, meaning things can still go wrong.Most reliable companies have technology in place to make sure yoursite is up and running all the time. The industry standard for the goodcompanies is 99% network uptime. You can do your own online search“[company name] uptime” and check for a providers uptime listing.Money back guarantee - most companies offer certain full moneyback periods (30, 45, 90 days) and in that period you will get a fullrefund. You might see “Anytime money back guarantee” claims fromsome companies, that usually means that you will get the proratedamount back after the suggested period passes. Make sure you readtheir “Terms of Services”.Features list - Are you thinking of a specific CMS (content managementsystem), such as our much championed Wordpress? Doesyour prospective provider offer it? The list of features could be long,but more options the better. You might not need some of the listedfeatures now, but once your blog grows there could be a need foradditional items.Email accounts - most providers will give you an unlimited emailsoption, but just in case they don’t, make sure at least one email accountis available for your domain. Having a few can help sort outmesses. These can include personal addresses (john@yourdomain.com), sales addresses (sales@yourdomain.com), webmaster addresses(webmaster@yourdomain.com or admin@yourdomain.com), andsimilar.Price - first time customer fees for the hosting services are veryreasonable and could be as low as few dollars per month for the firstyear of services, but you need to understand that next year’s renewalprice will be different. Make sure to double check the renewal priceinformation on the hosting provider’s website.20