For about 18 months, I’ve been using 2 vendors I really like for the essential services of domain names & webhosting.

Domain names:

NameCheap.com

The charge for a dn has changed a couple of times in the last 18 months, up maybe $1.50 per name. It’s currently $9.69 for a domain name. But like anything else, it’s not the cheapest service that you should seek out. You want one that is dependable and does what you want.

NameCheap has a back office with a great Control Panel where you can easily do anything you want with your names, especially:

1. Find new domain names (bulk search)
2. Change servers
3. Re-direct the name

Those are the 3 main activities everybody will be doing with a domain name, and it’s easy to do at NameCheap. Plus they have videos to walk you through these and any other task you may want to do. They also have been very quick to respond when I had a question or a problem.

There are certainly other good dn vendors available. I like NameCheap because they have been very dependable, and their Control Panel is easy to use.


Webhosting:

HostGator.com

I like their “Baby” plan for $7.95/month (+$2.00 for a Dedicated IP). You get all the space you need and also, unlimited domains. So you can put up 1 blog or 50 blogs if you want. You get a Cpanel, which means it’s just 3 or 4 clicks to publish your Wordpress blog. You can sign up with HostGator and have a blog up and running in 5 minutes.

And HostGator has a ton of videos, showing you step-by-step how to do anything you could ever possibly want to do. Plus, if you can’t figure it out, just fill out a “help” ticket and you’ll get a response within a few hours. They have never left me hanging … my questions always get answered.

As NameCheap, I think HostGator is a great service. And for $10 a month, it’s probably all the webspace you will ever need. And as opposed to having a blog on a free site like blogger.com or wordpress.org, YOU have control over what you put on this blog and the promotion you do for it. You don’t have to answer to anyone or please someone else.

If you are planning to blog long-term, you definitely want a Wordpress blog on your own hosted webspace, and I highly recommend HostGator for this.

I could write a lot more about both these vendors. Neither has ever disappointed me, and I use them a lot.

If you have any questions, please comment below.

Take care,

Richard Dennis

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