If you are reading this chances are you are in the preliminary stages of creating your website, or you may just need some information on hosting. Whatever your visit is related to thanks for stopping by!

After years of web creation and finding the best hosting companies for my clients I decided it was time to blog about it and share some knowledge. In this post, I will be discussing the best website hosting companies that worked for my clients and me.

One size does not fit all

What I mean by this is that there are a variety of companies that offer different types of hosting services from shared hosting, VPS, cloud, managed, etc. Let’s go over some of the specifics of hosting options, so you can have a better understanding of how this all works.

 Shared hosting [is the most common]

Shared hosting is exactly what it sounds like “shared”. Your website will be shared amongst multiple sites on a single server. Almost every hosting company provides shared hosting because of the low cost associated with it.

What I like about shared hosting is that you don’t have to manage your website, I will go over that as well. Shared hosting is recommended for sites that are just starting to gain some traffic.

Below are my preferred hosting companies.

Bluehost [shared hosting]

Website platform used: WordPress

Bluehost offers shared hosting at an affordable price. Their hosting cost can range between $3.95 to over $25 a month. They also provide different types of hosting options which I will be discussing in this post as well. The company also offers WordPress as their main site builder.

Bluehost is one to the top most significant web hosting providers with well over 2 million domains and counting.

Claim your 33% off Bluehost here

Wealthy Affiliate [shared hosting]

[All-in-one hosting, domain, managed and shared]

Website platform used: WordPress

Another shared hosting that I recommend and I use will be within the Wealthy Affiliate platform. Wealthy Affiliate hosting is a shared hosting environment which can range from FREE to $349 a year. I use this platform because of the number of websites I can create which is between 1 to 50.

Claim your FREE website

What I also like about Wealthy Affiliate is there committed to having good relationships with their customers. The service is great, and if I need help with my website, I receive a response literally within minutes. To me is much more valuable, because when I need help, I need it fast.  I also receive notifications when my site has been indexed by Google, along with site performance and more.

Over 1.5 million active and nonactive members here on the Wealthy Affiliate platform.

See what you can get for FREE within the Wealthy Affiliate platform 

VPS Hosting [shared and dedicated hosting]

Website builder used: WordPress

VPS hosting also is known as “Virtual Private Server” which has some similarities to shared hosting. Let me put it to you like this. It’s a dedicated and shared hosting in one. When you are managing your hosting, it can be costly and challenging if you aren’t familiar with the platform. You would also need to know how to upload your website files to your hosting. But that’s not the most challenging part.

Check out Domain.coms VPS hosting 

This type of hosting is ideal for websites with high-traffic that need to set up their host in a specific way. So if you aren’t receiving about, 6000–7000 monthly visitors you don’t need a VPS hosting right now.

Host Gator [cloud hosting]

Website builder used: WordPress

Cloud hosting is a do it yourself platform, so you will be configuring your hosting on your own using a C-Panel just like a VPS. Sounds confusing enough? Right so if you aren’t particularly tech savvy then you may want to stick with a more managed hosting provider.

Cloud hosting, unlike other hosting companies, doesn’t particualr have any physical servers since everything is cloud-based, almost like your mobile photos that are being saved on an Apple icloud if you have Apple of course.

10 Hosting

Website builder used: WordPress

10 hosting provides unlimited bandwidth space also with cloud-based hosting solutions. It’s very inexpensive since you manage it yourself but what’s also interesting is the price decreases over time the longer you are with the company.

check out 10 Hosting services here

These hostings options are ideal for websites that receive high traffic as well as someone that can configure their own cloud hosting.

Liquid Web [managed hosting]

Website builder used: WordPress

Managed hosting allows you to rent your very own server that is managed for you. This is also ideal for websites with high traffic. Managed hosting is not shared with anyone else and can be a little more expensive than shared hosting.

I have used Liquid Web for some of my clients since they were planning to scale much more significant amounts of traffic to their site.

Check out Liquid Web Services

About WordPress your website builder

It’s apparent that WordPress is the preferred website builder for the majority of the hosting companies. WordPress dominates over 33% of the website due to the customization features it has to offer.

A little WordPress history here:

I use WordPress with all of my clients since that is the website builder I am most proficient in. Now if you are a beginner using WordPress it may be challenging unless you have the right resources. Once you familiarize yourself with the builder, you will be able to customize your website in no time.

If you want more detailed information on starting your first blog post, then go to my most recent post. “How to create a blog website for free.”

Conclusion

There are so many FREE resources out there to help you better educate yourself on what kind of hosting services you need. What I personally look for is what makes sense for my clients. That’s not all considering other factors like budget, traffic, the purpose for your website and more.

To best way to completely understand what you need is to research relevant facts on your overall goals. I was able to extend my freelancing career by having a full understanding of how to create a name for myself in the online space.

A website is going to allow you to do the same. if you have been in the game for a while and or just starting out take my advice on one thing to be consistent.

Being consistent will enable you to master your personal or business goals. You will be able to gain the necessary knowledge you need to keep growing.
Thank you for reading and as always leave me your comments and share with me what hosting and web providers you use and why?

Keyword search is incorporating key specific words to your website or blog.

Incorporating keywords on your website or blog extends your reach to readers that are in search for some information on products or services.

Properly optimizing your platforms will help people find answers to their questions or even better find your website.

There are so many people competing for a spot in the online space that it’s crucial to incorporate some strong keywords into your site. Understanding how to integrate keywords will also give you more exposure that means more visitors to your website which means more clients. Mostly you want to incorporate keywords that will be related to your services or products.

Some things to consider when looking for keyword searches.

Now that you understand a little more about keywords and the fundamentals now it’s time to strategize.

Ask yourself questions like “what are your clients searching for?”
How can you help answer some of their questions?

Creating content is a large portion of your success. It takes time and effort to create something that people will be engaged to which is why it’s good to jot down some questions that you think people might want to know.

 What is keyword search in SEO?

Search Engine Optimization
First, let’s understand what SEO is. Think of SEO as a pizza pie you have about five slices. All of those slices are what is going to make up the right keywords for your SEO.

There are many different platforms out there that you can choose from to find the best keywords, but for now, I will talk about Jaaxy.

What is Jaaxy Research?

Jaaxy Research is a tool developed by the WA team to help you find the right keywords for your blogs and websites.

It gives you a lot of information about possible affiliates, ranking, and available domains as well.

SOURCE: The Importance of Jaaxy Keyword Research

Here you have 5 important sections on the Jaaxy platform. AVG-Traffic-QSR-KQI-and SEO

• Avg- This average is based on how many people are searching for this on a monthly basis. As you can see the average people asking how to grow plants? is 577.

• Traffic- This column is based on how many people would be visiting your site if you were ranked #1 on search engines. So if you’re ranked at the top then you will receive 99 visitors on your website. Note this is an estimate.
• QSR- “Quoted Search Result” is based on the number of competing sites that are ranked on top of the search engines for people searching for this same exact keyword. NOTE: ultimately you want this number below 100 the lower the better.

• KQI-“Keyword Quality Indicator” This basically is going to indicate if the keyword search is great, normal or poor. As you can see based on this particular keyword search “how to grow plants”? on the topic is good to start off with.

• SEO- “Search Engine Optimization” I know many of you are already familiar with this acronym and its meaning again just want to give everyone an opportunity to benefit from this. The higher the score the more opportunity for you to get ranked on search engines.

Keyword search is a type of online tool that helps you identify words that people are constantly searching for online.

Example:

If you want to look up a document online on how to grow plants?, you will see similar websites that have the words HOW TO GROW PLANTS? based on your keyword search.

Knowing what people are searching for in relation to your topic will give you a better understanding of how you can help them.

This will also help you increase site traffic as well as gain exposure for your brand, product or services.

How do I use Jaaxy?

First, have a niche that you want to talk about. Enter it into the search bar on your Jaaxy then you will be able to see your results.

In addition, make sure you go over all the other menus so you can utilize them for your site.

Here is another menu within Jaaxy site rank.

Site Rank- Site rank allows you to scan your website in the search engine so you can see where you are ranked on either Google, Bing, or Yahoo.

Jaaxy is the easiest keyword search that I have come across, not only is it simple but very efficient as you can see.

Also very important make sure that the keyword that you are using makes sense.

Often times you have misspelled words that are in the search engines, please don’t use those.

Save your keyword searches

What I like about this feature is that you don’t ever have to remember what keywords you used and what you searched for.

This option is available to you so you can save your searches and go back at a later time to reference if need be. Here is

a recent list that I created just to give you an idea of how it works.

Jaaxy Membership Options-Enterprise

Here are your membership options for Jaaxy, I realize that everything you want to do professionally has a cost but remember in the long run once you start producing results the price won’t even be a factor.

And you don’t even have to do all that you can just try out the free one and see how you like it.

If you’re interested in the enterprise membership you receive everything from your starter and pro combined.

So if you already have a business established and you want to utilize the ultimate keyword search power then the enterprise is something good to get into.

But don’ worry there is a free version 🙂

What is a good keyword search tool about?

There are plenty of keyword searches out there that you can choose from I hear MOZ is a really good one also.  It’s all about trial and error check some out and see which platform best suits you.

How To Conduct Pre-Research For SEO Keywords

Where can I find a free keyword search tool?

There are many companies out there that will allow you to do a limited number of keyword searches at no cost.

Most keyword search platforms are free with the option of upgrading to like a pro membership.

This gives you the opportunity to try it out and see which one is the best one for you.

Other keyword search tools.

About Sem Rush

Sem Rush is another keyword tool that allows you to see where the word is ranked very similar to Jaaxy.

I tried to create a free account with them but they asked for credit card information.

Now Jaaxy prices are more competitive although SemRush does offer you more options you really don’t need all the extras metrics I find that they really don’t do anything for you.

Features of Sem Rush includes

-Organic searches

-Advertising Researchers

-Display Advertising

-Backlinks

-Keyword search

-Charts

-Reports

-Site audit

-Social media tracker

For more information on Sem Rush click HERE:

Another keyword search tool that I looked into was Word Tracker.

My only pet peeve with this is that you only receive 3 free word searches to try out for free. To learn more about Word Tracker click HERE:

Google keyword search

I absolutely love Google products and services, I use Google Docs, Google Pics, Google Plus, etc. And naturally, Google would have a keyword search tool.

Now the interesting part of Google keyword services is that you end up paying per click as opposed to a monthly fee.

The more research I did on Google keyword search the more I am more than content with using Jaaxy.

When you sign up for Google Adwords which is their version of the search tool it appears that keywords are based on bids.

I am still trying to understand the concept of Google AdWords and seems like many people have something different to say about it.

If you know more about Google Adwords go ahead and leave your comments below.

To learn more about Google Adwords you can go directly to their URL HERE:

So now that you understand more on what is keyword search about will make a difference in how successful you’ll be with your online journey.

Related Topics

1. Understanding Keywords, The Start of Your Content
2. Research Jaaxy Keywords, Then Show & Tell
3. Research Jaaxy Keywords, Then Show & Tell

Start Here!

So you want to learn how to start an online business for free? Great! It can take some time and effort to start an online business from scratch,  however, it can also be a very lucrative business. The only thing I would want to say to you before you get started is to take out that mentality in your head where you have to exchange your time for money.

It took me months upon hours upon months to get some major work done. I contemplated the domain name to different hosting companies and the subject matter etc.

There are 2 ways you can get started. 1st is doing it yourself [free] second is hiring someone that will create a website for you so you can sell products or services.

Either way, you will get some ROI return on investment as long as you are consistent.

When I first started I didn’t have a proper plan in place, my brain was operating all over the place. I had so many ideas and let me tell you Google and YouTube were my best friends.

Now I understand the process, as well as what it takes to get there and I want to show you how you can get there too.

How To Start An Online Business For Free?

• Write Down Your Goals
• Create Long-Term Goals
• Pick A Niche, A Product Or Service
• Create An Educational Platform 
• Create A Great Domain Name
• Choose Your Hosting Provider 
• Choose Your Platform
• Write Good Content
• Free Learning Platforms
• Dedicate Time
• Estimated Cost
  

Write Down Your Goals

What helped me along the way was trial and error and the more I practiced my writing skills or researched on what I wanted to do the better I became.

With that being said the best course of action is to write down a list of your ideas and what direction you want your website to go.

Do you want a website that you can monetize? or are you creating a website for personal use? Do you want to sell products or services?

Again the hardest part for me was the idea and then I decided to come up with this site on how to make websites and to monetize them.

Whichever direction you take will always be a step in the right direction. Why? Because the Internet is dominating right now so it would do you justice to be a part of the online space.

Have Long-Term Goals

a name=”longterm”>
I like to research different ways on how to achieve my goals and to follow other leaders direction. Remember we all learn from one another. When you go to school you have a professor teaching you how to properly write an essay.

That’s because they have already followed someone else’s direction in achieving that subject matter. I recently viewed a video on Ted

Talk where Ari Wallach explains more in-depth on long-term goals.

It’s very inspiring but also very rewarding because you take from that a great deal of understanding on how to make it work.

Pick A Niche, A Product Or Service

When clients come up to me with an idea of what they are wanting to do. However, sometimes there are just too many ideas.

The important concept here is to stick to one product or service that you are good at or that you are passionate about learning. You can’t force to want to get into something you have to, in theory, be willing to discuss it constantly and be the expert.

Consistency definitely plays a big factor in the process as well.

More related topics on How To Start An Online Business For Free?

Create An Educational Platform

Ok, so what I mean by this is educate others on what you are trying to accomplish for instance.

You are a baker and you want to sell your baking goods because you are really good at it and passionate about it.

But you also want to share your buttercream secrets. People are visual and hands-on, we all want to be a part of something that we are all passionate about. So why not educate others and show them your secrets to success.

Create A Great Domain Name

Ok, you now that you have your action plan down packed it’s time to start thinking of some good domain names. Picking a good domain name is important as it relates to your niche. You also want to take into consideration having a good extension like .com. Those are pretty popular.

However, based on my experience I believe that a .com extension would be more memorable to the client that goes to your site.

RELATED POST:  Domain Names

Choose your hosting provider

Alright, you have your domain name with your extension along with your ideas that you want to pursue. Now it’s time to search for a hosting provider.

All providers offer different services such as bandwidth space, formatting, customization however here are the ones I have had good experience with.

Bluehost: Ranges from $3.95 a month to $350 in a year. I have used Bluehost for some of my clients since it is integrated with WordPress as well.

Wealthy Affiliate: $350 a year 

This is what I use for all of my websites. What I like about this platform is not only will you have your hosting provider but you will also be educated on other subjects such as:

• Marketing
• Using WordPress
• Build traffic
• Make money
• Live training and more!

Choose Your Platform

Hosting and your platform goes hand in hand, Many platforms such as WIX, Squarespace or even WordPress already have hosting provided for you.  I personally work with WordPress because I am able to customize your site better.

Also, WordPress dominates about 33% of the internet space which in theory would allow for more exposure.

How to start an online business for free doesn’t have to be a painful process as time passes you will progress.

Write Good Content

“YOAST SEO” I wish I have known of this plugin when I first started writing content. Writing good quality content takes time and effort.

You want to be able to provide a solution for your clients as well as continue to educate and be a positive reinforcement.

Yoast SEO provides suggestions on creating good content as well as emphasizing on focus keywords.  It will indicate if you have too little headings or if you are not properly using your keywords. it’s totally a must have.

Free Learning Platforms

Always, always, always educate yourselves. Just as technology changes on a constant basis so does platforms. Not only do you want to learn how changes can affect your business but also you want to be able to scale it to the next level.

A lot of the educational platforms that I use are platforms as hubspot.com, udemy.com, allision.com and more.

RELATED POSTS: Online Marketing Courses:

Dedicate Time

I know this is a given but the reality is that many of us don’t find the time to dedicate to your personal goals. Also, a lot of us have that mindset that time is traded for money and that is not the case.

Sometimes you are just going to have to find time to dedicate unless you end up paying someone to do the work. Either way, you will have to find time to do that.

Estimated Cost

When learning on how to start an online business for free you want to be able to different if there was a cost how that would also impact your business. Essentially I would start off free but then I would definitely try to invest some money since it can also reflect on your customization for the site.

Free or not the cost of building a website on your own I would say on average $0-$30 months. that would be for your hosting SEO, SSL how much space you need but most importantly what company you go with.

Now if you’re looking for a professional to it it can range between $500- $2500. If it’s an e-commerce site then they can easily start at $1500 It all depends on many variables the complexity of your site,

Many people aren’t aware of all the factors that it takes to create a site and manage so I want to touch base on that. Yea you can definitely manage a site on your own but take into account these factors

• Automatic updates
• Understanding SEO set up
• What plugins should be utilized
• How much bandwidth and space you have available to use
• If you want to include PayPal or an e-commerce site
• Understanding the importance of keyword
• Coding- depending on how customizable you want it

It can take time and effort to create a website on WordPress especially if you are new to this platform.

The first website that I created on WordPress was a free site. I didn’t pay for hosting or a domain. There are pros and cons to creating a free and paid hosting but for now, let’s stick to free. I have been on the side of both spectrums a free and paid based sites.

Now as you learn more about creating a WordPress site it isn’t a bad thing for you to invest some money into it either since the world as we see it now is through social channeling.

STEP 1: Choose your website domain name

So maybe you already have a domain name in mind? Or maybe you are undecided on one? Either way, it has to get done right?

When choosing a domain name you want to make sure that it’s going to be something related to your niche website.

Create something memorable and catchy for your audience. Where they can be reminded of where to look for information and recommendations if needed.

Create a Domain Name

STEP 2: Choose your hosting

Hosting is considered where your website document will live. In theory, you can choose free hosting however you will be limited on customization.

However for the sake of this article lets continue with FREE.

I have used several hosting providers ones I didn’t have very memorable experiences with and the ones I have.

So here are my recommendations.

BLUEHOST:

What I like about BlueHost is I can use WordPress as their website builder. I also had good experience with their online support team.

I remember one day having an issue and the representative was able to compensate me and took care of what I needed.

Their plans would have to be paid on a yearly basis that might be their slight downfall but I don’t really see any major issue with that. Unless you are more comfortable with paying monthly as opposed to yearly especially if you are just starting things out.

If you need more information on hosting read my post on (Hosting Reviews)

Wealthy Affiliate

What I like about Wealthy Affiliate is that you are able to coordinate two websites with free hosting. The price is $349 for the year similar to BlueHost if you were to go with an enterprise package.

What I like about WA is that you are also able to connect with like-minded people that are willing to invest the time in answering any questions you may have about the platform and your respectable niche.

Check out some of the platform perks here:

GODADDY:

Go Daddy was known as a platform where you can purchase your domains from.  But since then Go -Daddy offers domain, hosting and WordPress as your website builder. You can purchase domains directly from Godaddy site or you can use one of the hosting platforms.

STEP 3: Choose a platform

There are many platforms out there that will allow you to create a website on WordPress for free. The question is which one would you choose?

Choose one that you are either familiar with or that you can maximize your learning experience.

Here are some FREE PLATFORMS TO TRY!

Wealthy Affiliate

I use the Wealthy Affiliate for my hosting since It serves a huge purpose for me with having multiple sites and my freelancing gigs.

However, you can use their free siterubix extension while using WordPress. I also like the flexibility of directly connecting with members at any time.

So not only can you create a website with Wealthy Affiliate but you can learn different ways on how to market, gain organic traffic, social media channeling like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest etc. In theory, it’s a social channel dedicated for online entrepreneurs looking to promote their brand, products, or services. And why not? The internet is the future :).

There are menus displayed on the left facing side of the dashboard as you see is where you can go through the different features that the platform has to offer.

WordPress.com

When you think about creating a website using WordPress you figure why not use their actual website?

While I did use WordPress directly through their site there are no real benefits to using it other than their customer support. I have reached out directly with their support center and they are pretty helpful.

However, if you are looking to learn this platform and need live 24/7 support and a learning platform then maybe this might not be a good choice for you.

X10 Hosting

X10 hosting provides free hosting as well and the more you use it the lower the cost gets. What I like about this platform is that you can receive support with members that will answer your questions on PHP. Although there are so many plugins that you can use where there is no coding required it’s always good to know or become familiar with some type of coding.

Step 4: Customize your appearance

Themes

Brief menu overview

When you are first discovering the dashboard on your new WordPress site take some time to familiarize yourself with the menu. This will help you navigate your way through the platform a little easier.

I go over some functionalities on the menu on my post on “How to create a WordPress website Part 1 & 2 “

Posting/ Adding Content

Posting is going to be one of the most important documents you create since this will be where most of your engagement will come from. Remember everyone is going to be reading this on the internet. Well that’s the concept, right?

So ideally you want to make sure there are no grammar errors or any issues with headings or it not being SEO friendly since people can disown you relatively quickly for it, I know becasue I have happened to be on both sides of the spectrum.

Adding your plugins

When adding plugins be mindful on what kind you might need. The reason for this is if you install a lot of plugins you can run the risk of your website running slow. Which in turn won’t be useful for the user.

Here are some of my favorites and recommendations.

• YOAST SEO
• EWWW Image Optimizer
• Contact Form 7
• WP Socializer

E-commerce sites:

• Mail Chimp
• WooCommerce

Still, Have Questions?

Leave a comment below or join me on this platform for a more personal experience

Join the Wealthy Affiliate social channel for FREE and see what you can discover from other like-minded people.

Remember when we learn together we grow together.

Related Post:

How To Create A Website On WordPress [Part 1]

How To Create A Website On WordPress [Part 2]