What you need in a blog host

Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 4:34 am

There are some basics you need to install WordPress and as the next version (2.9) comes out there will be additional requirements.

You need a MySQL data base which is the backbone of your blog. The files that are on the server itself do not include your posts and the vast majority of the information about your blog. Those are included in the data base and the files that display are pulled dynamically from that data base.

Now like all things there are different versions of MySQL and you should look for a host that is using 4.1.2 or higher fro the upcoming release of version 2.9. You can see a post I did a while ago on this topic at Getting Prepared For Future WordPress Updates .

You will need a host that is running php. (Very rare that you will not find one.) The php version should be version 5 but all of the current versions will run on php 4 but that will be changing with the release of WordPress 2.9.

Now I am not a techie but there are features in php 5 that work differently than php 4 and WordPress 2.9 will be taking advantage of these changes to run WordPress. That is the extent of my techieness.

Finally the biggest thing in looking at a blog host is their support and up time. Two hosts that I have used and like are Host Gator and Zoot Host .

Any host that meets the requirements above and has great support will work for hosting your blog so just test the support and asks the questions before you sign up.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy.

After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably.

If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.