What do we need actually from a hosting account
Nowadays, you can see that many hosting companies are screaming about their super fat hosting packages with gigabytes of spaces and bandwidths. And that is only to attract more customers to use their service. But, as a blogger, what do you really need to host your blog (or blogs).
Now lets talk about webspace. You can get gigabytes of disk space just for a small amount of money. For example, my hosting (not this blog) offers 3GB webspace for just only RM80 (USD22.80) per year. But do you really need that much space? If your blog is still fresh and new, 3GB is too much for you. For most blog (except photo blogs), 50 MB is already enough. This blog begins its first 6 months with just 50MB. After that it begged for more due to increase in the number of posts and images.
Actually, it is not that hard to find hosting providers, which offer small amount of webspace. One of the example is Sempoihosting.com. You have the option to choose how many disk space you want for one year and you can upgrade your package anytime.
Another example is NearlyFreeSpeech.net, which offer you ultra low price, USD0.01 per megabyte-month, USD1.00 per gigabyte for data transfers and USD3.65 per year for one MySQL databse. At first, I think this is a great and cheap solution for me. Besides, Bugmenot.com is also hosted by this company. But after calculating the amount that I must pay for a year, it is clear that the hosting package from my current hosting is more favourable.
This is the details of the calculations
My monthly data transfers : 2.5GB
Cost per year: 2.5×1.00×12= USD 30.00
My webspace : 115.68 MB
Cost per year: 115.68×0.01×12= USD 13.88
MySQL Database: USD 0.01 per day
Cost per year: USD3.65
The total amount: USD 47.53, more that double the cost of my current webhosting. Hmm, I have read all over the internet about bloggers do not really need big space. But if I can get more spaces, bandwiths, and addon domains (NearlyFreeSpeech offers unlimited addon domains, but not Sempoihosting). If you have more spaces, you can experiment a lot. For example, I am now building my photo gallery and photo blog under the same hosting account. If you plan to have multiple blogs, do not hesitate to buy the big-sized hosting package. It worths a while.
Or host with someone else especially if you’re doing it for the first time and you don’t know what to do. That’s the best option available.
I used to do that before getting a host of my own. Then again, I realised that a lot of Malaysian based hostings offer a lot for cheap prices because they do NOT expect people to exceed a certain amount of bandwidth. It’s kind of a ripoff actually because once we do…the whole server goes down which is what I’ve experienced before.
So I’d recommend people who can afford it as well as people with a huge amount of hits to go for webhosts that have been around for a long while like Dreamhost or Media Temple. They’ve been around for a long while and they know what they are doing. With what they offer, you can have friends on the save account too without any problems.
Personally I use a custom hosting where the resources are adjusted accordingly to what I need and want. Short of having a dedicated server, this is the best thing anyone can have. And it’s completely free for me. That of course is another story.
Yes, I did exactly like what you did. This blog was hosted under eizil.com for free with a subdomain. After one year, I requested to use my own domain and it was approved with a slight condition. Yes a lot of Malaysia hosting providers sell more than they should.
If I have the money, I also like to try Dreamhost and Media Temple. By the way, Exabytes is also not a bad choice. And for pay-what-you-use hosting, it is suitable for the starters. After having an established website, it is time to say good bye to that hosting.
i agree with you. many hosting provider put an superb deal with large space and bandwidth,and they know that thier costumer didn’t used it to the max. maybe not even reaching 10% of hosting space (for a blogger). currently i also looking for a hosting that can provide me flexibility to costumize my hosting. i mean, no fixed package. i prefer to invest more on bandwidth than space. if you just want to build a blog. what u want upload? even wp theme with a tons of theme and plugins won’t exceed 50MB. maybe for pictures..i think -_- ..so don’t waste money on something u won’t use!
mm nice info blog!
I am totally agree with novatech. But the hosting providers, which offer customized package, always have more higher price that the others, the hosting providers with fixed packages.