Hi, I would like to start a blog but when I look at hosting sites, I dont know which of the server types to get... There is shared hosting, reseller hosting, vps servers, dedicated servers, and I am not sure which of these will be enough for my needs... The blog would not contain any videos just pictures and I imagine that at any given time, there could be less than 500 (a very generous estimate) looking at the blog... Any help? Thanks...
if you don't even know that, you should sure as hell go for shared hosting. I don't mean it bad, but reseller hosting is for the obvious, and servers/Deds/VPS need lots of knowledge for safe operations. I could reccomend those guys for you: Byethost Some ppl say not so nice things about them, but I'm having 7 hosting accounts there, and they never disappointed me. Domain name's free included with all packages(.info for the smallest, other TLDs for the better packages). They also have a script preinstalled that will install the blog-software of your choice in 3 steps for you. If that blogs just for your personal stuff and you do not really care about affiliate programs, i'd choose the montly standard hosting plan, otherwise, if you do want to get some cashback with ads youll need a good google position, faster servers, less pages/ip, i'd suppose the unlimited plan. Have fun and good luck with your blog!
had negative experience with hostgator this year. They put one of my accounts on hold(ok, there was pr0n on it :-D), and they suspended another one(with a legit legal site on it) for 3 weeks, until I could provide them with a photocopy of my ID + one utility bill via mail. At least the fact that they did not allow email submission for that and that my website was down for 3 Weeks(shipping from EU -> US isn't that fast) that I had to pay for would make me warn you to stay away from hostgator. Also I figured them to be quite expensive, unless you order and prepay the package for 3 Years(and I consider their advertising fraudulent, because they are quite good in hiding the fact that the price doubles if you want a regular monthly billing cycle). I mean, 3 Years is a long time in the internet, even for an established hosting company like hostgator, and no one knows if they will still be around then. As the OP wants to start with that whole internet thingie, I'd not consider HostGator to be a real option.(What if the OP loses interest in his blog after like 2 months^^)