Setting Up Your Own WordPress Blog : Hosting
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:30 am by azwan. Filed under Blogging, Wordpress.This is going to be a long post and the first of “Setting Up Your Own Wordpress Blog” series.
I have been receiving a few questions regarding domain, hosting and setting up a Wordpress blog via emails, chats and even comments. Not sure why, but most probably because I have a blogger blog before and now my own Wordpress blog 
. I am not an expert (yet .. period) and this post might not clearly answer every single question, but I hope .. at least .. it will help to clear any doubts you have on setting up your own Wordpress blog. Even if this does not, some of my readers will (I hope ). By the way, I will only touch on Wordpress blog. If you want to host you own blogger blog, you can refer to Adam’s post on having your own blog with blogger. It’s a little bit technical but I think he wouldn’t mind answering any of your questions.
So, if you are thinking : Should you get your own Wordpress blog? Why not. There are many ways to do this but the example given here is for a DIY Wordpress blog.
Hosting
The first thing you need to do is find a hosting company. Everything start with one, it’s the base for your blog. Lets imagine your blog as your new office .. nah .. I don’t like the word office, make that your playground. Sounds more fun. Before you can play, you need to build it first. For you to build your virtual playground, you need a base hence a hosting company
There are too many to choose from, but my advice is to get a Malaysian one if you are from Malaysia. Easier to contact admin for support and payment can be made through local banks. You don’t need a credit card or Paypal. However, most local companies do accept multi payment methods including e-Gold.
Where to find one? Easy, just Google for ‘Web Hosting Malaysia’ and you can find hundreds of them, but the best way to find one is through your friends. Ask around from those who already have their own hosted website like me .. ahem.. ahem .. I am sure most of them will be willing to help. If you asked me, I only know 3 (at the time of writing) and all were introduced to me by my friends :
Most of the basic packages from these Malaysian companies are cheap. I got mind from NetKL for USD17 per year after discount. I’m not sure whether there is any specific formula for you to use when choosing a hosting company or not, but mine is simple. Since I know what I’m looking for, it was easier for me. NetKL may not be the best, just that it meets most of my requirements.
- You can start by defining your budget. How much are you willing to spend? Remember it’s recurring and you can select to pay monthly or annually.
- Then you need to decide how much disk space you require. 500MB is more than enough as a start for a Wordpress blog. FYI, up to today, I have used only 25MB of my 400MB of total disk space.
- Next is bandwidth, hmmm .. what is it? Bandwidth is simply the amount of traffic that’s allowed between your website and the rest of the world. You’ll need more if you have a popular blog but if you are only expecting 100 unique visitors per day, even 5GB is more than enough per month. Bandwidth explained.
Since you are installing Wordpress, the hosting company should also have at least
- PHP version 4.2 or greater
- MySQL version 4.0 or greater
and to make things simpler, they must have CPanel that comes with Fantastico. Fantastico is an installer, that can make installing Wordpress a piece of cake 
.
What is PHP, MySQL or CPanel. Think of it as the tools you need to build your playground. Google it for more information.
Most of the hosting companies offer packages. Compare them against your budget and make a selection. Simple right? It may look simple but it can be tough actually. For the same price some companies give more on this but less on that. So, make a list of you requirements first. You should also check with the hosting company the procedures and prices, if you require an upgrade later. Some companies don’t allow any upgrade for the first year, some will ask you to pay the differences (prorated). It depends, so be sure on what you want or at least what you plan to do with your blog.
Finally, ask them directly about their services or the type of support they provide although already in their FAQs. The way they respond to your questions can be a deciding factor.
For the time being, I think this would be enough for you to find a hosting company to host your wordpress blog.
What is a Domain? Wait for my next post.
Need help to setup your own blog? Wait for my next post also .
Tags: hosting, wordpress, own hosted blog, domain, netkl
Setting up your own blog is fun and you can test and do whatever you want. There are a lot of guides on how to upload and setup Wordpress. Try many things and make your blog much colorful.
azwan reply on July 23rd, 2007 11:34 pm:
You’re right Syafrizal and as a person who started with blogger I still prefer wordpress to blogger. Blogger does has it strenghts but wordpress is much better.
Hi.. I just wanna to know whether there’s some security software or code to prevent from our blog from hackers or spam .. etc…
azwan reply on July 23rd, 2007 11:28 pm:
Saw your blog
, maybe you should contact the server administrator. I can’t think of any software but the best person to answer this would be the server admin.
whaterver you use, just dont forget to make backups - frequently
cruzertech | Web Templates reply on July 24th, 2007 1:09 am:
Upgrade to latest release(wordpress 2.2.1 at this moment). They already fix a few bugs including several hacker issues.
I’m using NetKL also at the moment. I chose NetKL for one simple reason, it let me pay monthly instead of asking one lump sum per year payment. I think this is very important in using a new host as we can gauge the performances first. If the host service is not up to par, at the end of the month, we can just switch to a new host without any monetary lost. So far NetKl haven’t ben giving me any problem.
@zool I use askimet and spam karma …and they’ve performed wonderfully in catching spam on my blog. Askimet is built in in wordpress. as for preventing hacker, well, it depend on your hosting provider I think. Let just hope they have a really good countermeasure in place.
azwan reply on July 23rd, 2007 11:45 pm:
I think those are for spams only not for hackers.
any video tutorial soon ? ehehe
azwan reply on July 23rd, 2007 11:40 pm:
ha..ha.. no! not at the moment. I prefer to write at this moment
Hi Azwan,
I have something awesome to give you. Come over to my blog and pick it up.
azwan reply on July 23rd, 2007 11:42 pm:
Joezul, saw it, thanks.
Actually you can have your own hosting server at home and its easy to setup.
I myself did it for business purposes and activate it on demand.
I can run all kind of web programs like PHP, Dot.Net, Java, Coldfusion etc. and I can show to my customer without much hassle. The only problem is the broadband connection(which base on best effort).
azwan reply on July 24th, 2007 9:16 pm:
Ya, you can do that but I don’t think any beginners would want to do that. It term of cost it is also not practical.
what is domain..?????
p.s: kalo aku translate masuk blog aku bleh?
azwan reply on July 24th, 2007 9:28 pm:
ala .. takkan domain kau tak tahu ..
pasal nak translate tu, silakan.
Yes, for a start, i suggest use local hosting company. I like Exabytes support. As we learn and gets better, we might be adding new websites, hence the need for new domains. Then we can start looking for overseas hosting. Somehow, when many domains are involved, I observe that foreign hostings provide more affordable packages. And some provide easy monthly payment which is just cool. Just my 2-cent opinion.
I think there are Malaysian hosting companies that are giving value for money packages and for them to be better, it’s our role to suggest and comment. Support Malaysian
kan best kalau link ke exabytes tu ko tuka dgn link http://affiliate.exabytes.com.my/idevaffiliate.php?id=3200311_5_1_7 heheh ;;)
own blog give more control and power, but do backup you blog, hosting company do mess-up sometimes.
fantastico make upgrading your wordpress a breez as well hehe.
very helpful post you have..now a day install your own blog very easy and no need technical skill..just like a chess..!
good info… for this time i would like to stay with internet-webhosting provider company.
i think it’s good for internet bussiness..
http://www.noorizamshah.com/recommends/internet-webhosting.php
Should i call u Nuzul or Hayat? Mana satu nama panggilan kan
anyway, the link is alive.
Bent, if you think it will be helpful for your readers, start promoting it .. and thank you in advance
Noorizam Shah, i visited the site, it’s quite cheap and it’s Malaysian.
shutterspeaks reply on July 28th, 2007 12:02 am:
can call me hayat, thanks for the link
me with daughter now playing conteng2 heheh… best ah ada anak nih. walaupun kdg2 x tahan dgn nakal nyer tuh.. adess
azwan reply on July 29th, 2007 7:57 pm:
tak tahan dengan nakal? aku ada dua and third is coming soon
dont worry hehehe..Azwan just wait and see
azwan reply on July 26th, 2007 11:44 pm:
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