The Web Host is where all your websites will be stored and served to your viewers. Without a host you cannot create a website. Over the years I’ve tried out a few web hosts and have settled on 1and1 for now. It’s been very reliable and has allowed me to do what I’ve needed. Other hosts I would highly recommend are Hostgator, Bluehost and HostMonster.
They all offer similar packages so choosing just comes down to personal tastes, feel and previous experience. If you look for reviews on any host you’ll find complaints about slow speeds, downtime and what have you. Bluehost, Hostgator and HostMonster are consistently rated as the top webhosts and have the highest customer satisfaction as well as uptime. I’ve included 1and1.com in my recommend list because of my personal experience with them.
Below I’ve listed each host with the plans they offer. The plans I expanded on and highlighted are the ones I feel will be ideal for Real Estate Investors just starting to build a web presence. I didn’t list all the features, just the ones I felt are important.
Hostgator (25% Off Coupon Code: SI25PCTOFF)
- Hatchling Plan ($3.96/mo)
- Baby Plan ($6.36/mo)
- WordPress Hosting
- Unlimited Diskspace
- Unlimited Domains
- Unlimited MySql Databases
- Unlimited Parked Domains
- Sub Domains
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Business Plan ($10.36/mo)
- 1&1 Beginner ($3.99)
- 1&1 Home ($6.99)
- WordPress Support
- 150 GB of Webspace
- 50 External Domains
- Unlimited Monthly Transfer
- 2 Included Domains
- 100 Subdomains
- 25 MySql Databases (100mb per)
- 1&1 Business ($9.99)
- 1&1 Developer ($19.99)
- 1 Plan Only ($6.95)
- Unlimited Disk Storage
- Unlimited Domians
- Free Domain Name (1 year)
- Unlimited Monthly Transfer
- Unlimited Subdomains
- MySql Databases
- WordPress Support
- 1 Plan Only ($7.95)
- Unlimited Disk Storage
- Unlimited Domians
- Free Domain Name (1 year)
- Unlimited Monthly Transfer
- Unlimited Subdomains
- MySql Databases
- WordPress Support
What do all these features do?
WordPress Hosting: WordPress is an “…open source blog publishing application powered by PHP and MySQL which can also be used for content management. It has many features including a workflow, a plugin architecture and a templating system.”
Even though wordpress is specifically created for making blog websites very easy to create and manage, it can be used for many different types of websites. It’s amazing how you can customize it for your needs.
Most, if not all, hosting companies will support the use of the WordPress software. If given the option for server type (Windows or Linux), you should choose a Linux based server. WordPress webpages are served using what is called an Apache Web Server. Apache could be unstable on certain Windows based Host Servers which is why a linux server is best. We all want a stable website. I could go into a lot more detail, but it’s not needed. Just remember, to get the best results when using WordPress select the Linux (Apache) Based Server option when setting up your account.
Unlimited Disk Storage: This storage limit refers to the storage capacity you are allowed to use up. The storage is where all your webpages, pictures and other files will reside on the hosting server. Most hosting companies will offer “Unlimited” storage on all their plans, which sounds great! In reality however, you will be hard pressed to even come close to using 2gb of space (unless you are hosting videos and other large files on your site).
To give you a good idea of how much space you’ll actually use let me give you some stats on my hosting account. I’ve got about 12 websites (Struggling Investor is included in that) and in total, I’ve used up 1.25 GB. That is well short of the 120 GB that they are giving me. I’ll never use all of that. In short, don’t let Disk Storage be your deciding factor.
Unlimited Domains: There are two types of domains in the eyes of hosting companies, External (add-on) Domains and Parked Domains. External Domains are hosted with an outside registrar like GoDaddy, while Parked Domains reside with your hosting company. In the overall picture, there is no difference to your website visitors or to you really. The only difference is that you’ll have to point external domains to your hosting companies IP address (Domain Name Server or DSN). It’s not a big deal and if you’ve read my previous post about domain names you’ll know that I recommend using external domains.
Getting back to Unlimited Domains, this is like the Unlimited Disk Storage, how many do you think you’ll actually use? Probably 5 to 10 at most unless you are an internet marketer. Bluehost, Hostgator, Hostmonster and 1and1 all offer plenty of External Domains for the average real estate investor.
One more thing, Unlimited Domains does not mean you get Free Unlimited Domains, you still have to pay for each domain you register. They are talking about how many they will allow you to use with your hosting account.
Unlimited Monthly Transfer: Monthly transfer refers to how many megabytes can be downloaded from your hosting account. Every time a person visits one of your websites they download all the information from each webpage they see (pictures, text, etc..). For those that have a smartphone with a dataplan that gives you 5GB of data, it’s the same thing. Once you hit the max, they will start charging you per extra GB.
This is something you should only worry about if your websites get wildly popular (read 100,000 visitors daily). Although I don’t see a real estate investor’s website ever even touching more than 2% of the allotted monthly data transfer. For this month, all my sites have garnered 2505 MB (or just over 2 GB). With a limit of 12GB I’m not even close!
Unlimited MySql Databases: Basically they will allow you to setup as many databases as you would like. Some hosts will limit the size of each database to about 100mb some will not. For each Website you have, you’ll have 1 database supporting that website if you are using wordpress. You could also just have a static website and not use a database at all. Squeeze pages might fall into this category.
My hosting account has 25 databases allowed. I’ve used 12 of those up so I can see myself running out in the future. Having unlimited here would be good for me, but for the average person just makes sure you have enough for your needs. I always assume I’ll need 1 database per domain name.
Unlimited Subdomains: In the address www.StrugglingInvestor.com, the subdomain is www. You can create new subdomains for anything you’d like. If I want to create a portion of my site dedicated to Yellow Letter Marketing, I would create the subdomain YellowLetter.StrugglingInvestor.com.
Subdomains are a great way to organize your content and give an easy website address to remember for your readers. Unlimited is a good thing here but not a deal breaker in my opinion.
Conclusion
Webhosts like to throw around the word Unlimited because people don’t like to be restricted to a number. As real estate investors, our business is setup in such a way that we will never ever have to worry about coming close to using up even the most modest restrictions on Storage, Transfer , Domains or Databases.
I got my hosting account with 1and1 hosting 5 years ago before it was vogue to offer Unlimited everything. As you can see I haven’t been restricted in the least.
The 4 hosting companies I’ve recommended above have a long track record of great service and are the most highly rated amongst website owners such as myself. Each of them has a ton more features, but to me none of them really matter much.
When the dust settles, what matters most to me is that my website can be reached when ever someone requests it and it is served to them in a timely manner. Speed and Uptime will definitely be the reason why you stay with or leave a host.
If you need any additional help, feel free to contact me at scott@strugglinginvestor.com
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Comments 2
Very informative article Scott.
Thanks Sharon. There are plenty more in the hopper. Hopefully I can help some people out who don’t know much about setting up webpages.