BlueHost was one of the first of the 'new wave' web hosting companies that appeared on the scene a few years ago. While older hosts (like mine at the time) were offering a sparse 3 to 5 gigs of accumulated bandwidth a month, BlueHost was offering 300. While regular hosts were offering a scant 50 megs of server space, BlueHost was offering 1,000.
They've slowly raised the limits over the past few years, from 300 gigs of monthly bandwidth, all the way up to a mind-boggling 15,000 gigs.
Unfortunately, those number-raising days are over for ol' BlueHost.
Because there's no number higher than unlimited:
- Unlimited monthly bandwidth
- Unlimited server space
- Unlimited number of email accounts
- Free domain name registration (usually about $35)
- Tons of free helper programs
For $6.95 a month?
The reason they can get away with such shenanigans is because not one user in a thousand ever uses what would actually be considered "big" bandwidth or server space, so they're simply not concerned with it. But the fact that we can slap whatever we want on the site, be it zillions of pictures or gigantic videos, and not have to worry about hitting some limit is outstanding.
Also, I'm going to show you how to set up the necessary MySQL database and your email accounts using BlueHost, so if you already have a web hosting company, dump it. Having specific instructions will make things a lot easier, especially with the database part. And having unlimited everything will free you from worrying that you might accidentally go over some limit — and be charged accordingly. In the age of online video, that's becoming real easy to do.
When it comes to selecting a domain name, here are some thoughts. You'll be able to test their availability on the upcoming BlueHost link:
- I'd suggest you go for a ".com". I had a ".net" site for years and people were constantly forgetting the ".net" part and trying ".com". If anything, go with a ".net" or ".org", but ".com" is preferred. It's the first thing people will guess if they're not sure.
- If you want to use your full name ("josephblow.com"), there's a decent chance the domain name will be available. If it's not, try a variation or add your middle initial or name.
- If you're going for a site name and "coolestblogintown.com" is taken, try adding "the" to the beginning, or "a", "another", "yet another", "my", "your", etc.
- Probably the best trick is to add a hyphen. We can assume "coolblog.com" is taken, but "cool-blog.com" might not be. And you can use more than one hyphen, so you might think of doing something interesting like "on-the-road-to-blogdom.com".
Click here to go the BlueHost site. Click on the 'Sign Up Now' button. If you already own the domain name, punch it into the 'already have' box. If you don't have the domain yet, start punching your ideas into the 'don't have' box and hope for the best.
Once you've found an available domain, do the credit card routine. You can uncheck the three boxes on the page unless you're doing this under the cloak of heavy anonymity, in which case you'll want to keep the 'Private' box checked.
Once it's been approved, you'll see a 'create password' link. Click on it. When you make up a password for the account, be sure to open your "SiteStats" file and jot it down.
Save a copy of the final transaction page to your 'Web' folder with a 'Save As', just for the record.
Two emails will be sent a few minutes after you've finished up. One will contain the account's 'Username' over in the right sidebar, so jot it down next to the site's password in your 'SiteStats' file.
If you originally bought your domain from a different company, go to the BlueHost page here. Click on your current host's name to see how to switch the DNS numbers over. The new DNS numbers are:
NS1.BLUEHOST.COM
NS2.BLUEHOST.COM
It'll take about a day for the new address to propagate throughout the Internet.
And it's on to Step 3: FileZilla