Now, pretty much the first thing you have to do once you decide to get a blog up and running is find a host. “But I can just use a free account at Blogger - why should I pay for my own hosting??”

Easy - control. And traffic.

While researching starting my first blog, I was quickly convinced that a self-hosted account was the go. I could customise it as I saw fit, there were no ownership or advertising issues, I got a stack of bandwidth, and access to the best blogging platform out there - WordPress.

One good argument that persuaded me was traffic - say you get a Blogger account, build up a nice flow of traffic, start making some money… and then decide you want to move to self-hosted. What happens? You lose all of that great search engine positioning, links on other blogs etc. The advice I followed, and that I pass on, is start right from the beginning, and avoid all these problems.

But I digress! For my hosting, I decided on Dreamhost. They are good value, have fantastic features, and they are carbon neutral, too (which, if you read Sustainable Suburbia, you’ll know is something I’m interested in).

Not to mention one of the biggest drawcards - they offer one-click installation of WordPress!! The first time I installed WordPress I decided to do it manually… uck! Mistake!

The second time, I chose the one-click install.

It took about 20 seconds.

I actually had to sit there for a moment and pull myself together so I didn’t start shouting at myself (why the %&#@ didn’t I do it this way to start with?).

In short, Dreamhost is awesome, and they’ve got my business for good. Also, if you’re interested in making money out of being an affiliate, they offer an affiliate program, which I am a member of. So, if you sign up using my links or banners, I’ll get something from it - thank you!! If you sign up somewhere else, someone else will get something for it, and they’ll thank you.

I love the fact that all of my websites are hosted with them, so to manage them it’s a one-stop shop. And, I also buy any new domains through them at about $10 US.

So, if you’re thinking of starting a website or a blog, do it! And subscribe to my feed if you’d like to hear more of what I’ve learnt/am learning.