My brand new WordPress Tutorial is now available as a Kindle download.

Check it out here:

WordPress To Go – How To Build A WordPress Website On Your Own Domain, From Scratch, Even If You Are A Complete Beginner

This tutorial walks you through, step-by-step, how to build a professional-looking WordPress website in eight easy lessons. The illustrations in the tutorial show how I built an actual website (which you can go and visit!) with clear, click-by-click instructions that you can follow to do the same.

You don’t need to be a techie to build a great website: my WordPress tutorial takes you behind the scenes and shows you what you need to know – and what you don’t – to become your own webmaster.

WordPress is now a sophisticated, stable, web-building platform that aspiring web-owners cannot afford to ignore.

Join the millions who have already gone down this path and start your own WordPress website today!

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Ideally, you want a web host where everything you need to build and maintain your website works together seamlessly. All the separate elements need to click into place so that you can concentrate on the creative side of things – design, content, delivering your message – while the web hosting company looks after the technical, behind-the-scenes stuff.

So what do you need for web hosting with WordPress?

• Firstly, and most obviously, you need a host that can actually deliver the WordPress platform and, ideally, install the code automatically on your domain.
• Secondly, you need cPanel, which is an interface between you and the hosting company which lets you manage such functions as email, file management, domain management and a lot more. You probably won’t have to use cPanel very often, but when you do, it’s an essential tool for maintaining an efficient website.
• Thirdly, you need a webhost that keeps its technical infrastructure up to date so that you are always able to synchronise WordPress updates. The WordPress team issues regular new releases of WordPress and you want to have confidence that you can click the ‘update’ button without having to worry that the new version is incompatible with what your web host provides.

It’s tempting to think that ‘any old host will do’ or that you should go for the cheapest, discount hosting offer. But this can be a very short-term strategy when you are investing your precious time in creating a new WordPre site.

The web hosting with WordPress that we recommend is BlueHost and we do so for all the above reasons.  They are professional, reliable and excellent value for money.

Heck, no!

We have also had some very good experiences with Hostgator and we are happy to refer WordPress users to them. What are the advantages of Hostgator over Bluehost?

• Hostgator is cheaper
• Hostgator has good technical support, at least as good as Bluehost
• Hostgator features cute little alligators in its ads (OK, that may not be a very good selling point to you, but )

The reason why Hostgator is our #2 web hosting recommendation is because, at the time of writing, they do not offer Simple Scripts to automatically install WordPress. But they do provide Fantastico, which is nearly as good and gets the job done just as well, albeit with a few extra mouse clicks.

Hostgator also offer a range of different packages, depending on how much hosting you actually require. You can get a ‘hatchling’ account, which lets you host just one domain or you can go all the way up to dedicated hosting which costs a bit more.

And we can offer a coupon code to get a discount on Hostgator WordPress web hosting. Quote code HOTCODEHOST when you order a hosting package from Hostgator and you’ll get a discount of $9.94!

But before any of this can happen the webmaster needs a web host for WordPress. Does WordPress need anything different in a hosting company than any regular html website?

Well, yes. WordPress provides an ever-evolving environment, delivering cutting-edge tools and techniques to deliver web content in an amazing variety of ways. WordPress is being updated constantly, each release bringing the user an array of new features to check out.

But the brilliance of WordPress can be invalidated by out-of-date or unreliable web hosting. Any serious website owner should consider the question of WordPress web hosting to be one of the most important decisions that they have to make.

We have no hesitation in recommending Bluehost as the best web host for WordPress. They have awesome power and experience and they provide the ideal environment for hosting WordPress websites. They keep their hosting platform up-to-date and the webmaster never has to worry about all the the little technical gizmos that WordPress demands.

Don’t give it a second thought. Go with Bluehost today and you’ll never have to find another web host. WordPress themselves recommends Bluehost as their #1 choice and they should know!

WordPress now requires hosting to provide:

• PHP 5.2.4 or greater
• MySQL 5.0 or greater

PHP is the computer language that WordPress is written in and, due to some of the more advanced features present in WordPress 3.2, the higher level of PHP is necessary to execute the code.

MySQL is the relational database management system (RDBS) that provides multi-user access to all the website’s content.

Users of WordPress don’t have to know anything about either of these features because it’s all taken care of by the WordPress programmers. All that’s required for the system to work seamlessly is that the hosting company that provides the server keeps up to date and has these two important features in place.

Some WordPress hosting companies can be slow to provide the technical infrastructure that WordPress upgrades demand and this can create problems for WordPress webmasters.

My favorite WordPress Webhost, Bluehost, takes care of all this. I never have to worry about upgrading to a new WordPress release because I know that Bluehost will always be ahead of the game and will have all the technical toolkit in place before I even need it.

If you’re starting a new WordPress website, make sure that you choose a WordPress webhost that you can rely on to keep up with technical advances and shield you from the problems you’d rather not know about. Trust me, Bluehost will do just that!

This was a question I was recently asked by one of the people on my email list. The answer’s easy – because Bluehost are honestly the best.

How do I know? Well, I’ve used all of the major web hosting companies over the years and, while some of them have been very good, a few have been disastrous. In one case, a website that I created for paying clients was offline for 25% of the day for about a week because the hosting company was having technical problems. In another, my site was hacked into and the database was destroyed. And another hosting company continued to bill me long after I had cancelled the contract.

So what’s so special about Bluehost?

• The first reason is that they offer SimpleScripts. This is a very handy tool that installs WordPress automatically on your domain with a few clicks of the mouse. And it installs the latest version of WordPress, which other scripts do not always do. And, SimpleScripts keeps track of your WordPress installations and offers to update them automatically for you whenever a new version of WordPress is released. This can save a LOT of time and avoid the technical hitches you inevitably encounter when installing WordPress manually.
• The second reason is that you can host an unlimited number of addon domains on your web hosting account. This means that you can host as many websites as you like on the one account without paying any more hosting charges. This can dramatically reduce your hosting costs if you have more than one website.  And, you get your first domain registered (and renewed) for free.
• And the third reason is their technical excellence. They keep up to date with all the complex server technology, delivering the latest version of all the background stuff that you and I don’t want to have to worry about. They have guaranteed 99% uptime, round-the-clock network monitoring and they also provide a very high standard of technical support for web hosting with WordPress.

If you are a serious webmaster you’ll want your website to be housed somewhere safe, secure and reliable.  This is why I recommend Bluehost as the best web hosting for WordPress.

 

So, just what do you need to look for in a WordPress webhost?

OK – I may be inviting some controversy here, but I think there are only three things you really need to check out when you are looking for a WordPress host:

• Easy WordPress installation
• Reliability
• First-class technical support

If you can be sure of these three factors in your hosting deal, you don’t have to worry about anything else. And that means that you can concentrate on creating the website of your dreams without the distraction of grappling with forbidding technical barriers, or downtime or non-existent tech help when you need it..

But what about price? Isn’t it better to get a cheap WordPress hosting package?

Well, with WordPress hosts, as with anything else in life, you get what you pay for. Sure, webhosting costs are important, but WordPress hosting is very competitive and you’ll find that there is not a huge difference in price between the serious hosting companies.  When you cost it out, all the major players are offering their services for a few bucks a month and, in my book, it’s what you get for those bucks that matters.

So, who do I recommend for WordPress hosting?

My answer is definitely Bluehost. This site is hosted on Bluehost and I have no hesitation in urging you to follow my lead. Why?

• Bluehost, unlike most of its competitors, offers Simple Scripts, which is a neat way of installing WordPress on your domain automatically with a few clicks.
• Bluehost is reliable with a near 100% uptime. In fact, Bluehost is recommended by wordpress.org in its advice to WordPress users.
• Technical support is second to none. You can get sympathetic and knowledgeable help by phone, chat or email. That really counts if you run into unexpected problems.
• Bluehost is actually very good value because your first domain comes free and you can add an unlimited amount of addon domains without paying another cent in hosting fees. This means that you don’t pay any extra for WordPress hosting for your second site or your third site – it’s all in the price.

Bluehost is my choice for WordPress webhosting because I have tried and tested the competition and I know a good deal when I see one. Trust me, if you choose Bluehost you will not regret it.

• The user interface has been updated and improved. It looks a bit slicker and sharper and some of the dashboard tab captions have been changed but there’s nothing that would upset a seasoned user.
• They’ve introduced a new full-screen editor for use when adding or editing posts and pages. This is a big improvementfor those who like a big screen to hack about in.
• They say that the new version makes WordPress faster and lighter. This is likely more noticeable on bigger blogs and websites.
• But the biggest improvement is the introduction of the new Twenty Eleven default theme. This is a great improvement on Twenty Ten and gives the user a number of very flexible options to create a unique and very professional-looking website. This theme is getting compliments from some of the most influential WordPress users and is already starting to appear on some seriously important sites.

If you want to find out about WordPress 3.2, download my free WordPress tutorial now and you’ll get the full insider information right away!

WordPress is now the easiest and best way for anyone to build a professional-looking website.

Who says? You wouldn’t think that if you read all the comments from the detractors who would like to persuade you that it’s too difficult for ordinary non-techies build their own websites.

Let me tell you that WordPress is NOT difficult if you learn it the right way.  Sure, like every new skill, there is a learning curve. If you want to know how to use WordPress, the secret is to start with a clear idea of what you want to achieve and THEN learn to walk before you learn to run.

WordPress is now very powerful and there is just so much stuff available for aspiring webmasters to use that it can appear insurmountably difficult to pick out what you really need to use. And the advice you get on the Internet is not always very helpful because:

• The information is out of date, or
• Someone is trying to sell you something, or
• The author is an inarticulate geek who knows nothing about teaching others how to do something!

In this short blog post I cannot give you the complete low-down on how to use WordPress. What I can do is to offer you my free WordPress tutorial that will steer you through the learning curve and show you, step by step, how to create your own website, starting from scratch, for only the price of the hosting (and I’ll show you where to get the best deal for that).

You won’t have to employ expensive webmasters or go on any courses or battle with incomprehensible code. You will learn what you need to know (and nothing more!) at your own pace and on your own computer. You’ll have the satisfaction of having achieved your objecive and, who knows? – you might even have fun getting there!

If you want to know how to use WordPress but you don’t know where to start, download my free WordPress tutorial now and find out for yourself…

WordPress is now the ideal system for anyone who wants to build their own website.

You don’t have to know any technical computer languages, nor do you need to buy any special software, and you don’t have to figure out how to FTP files up and down to a remote server. In fact, if you can type and use a word-processor, you can build a complete, professional-looking, WordPress website, all by yourself, even if you are a complete beginner.

And you don’t need to be put off by people who say WordPress is difficult. It isn’t. WordPress once had the reputation for being demanding and this was because the original documentation was written by programmers who, bless their hearts, always think people think in geek-speak, like they do

It’s not like that anymore. From being the platform of choice of the bloggers of this world, WordPress has evolved into a powerful and sophisticated Content Management System (CMS) that anyone can use to create a web presence.

My free WordPress tutorial walks you through the process of building your own website, whether for business or personal, in 15 easy lessons. I cover all the essential steps and provide many examples and screenshots to help you on your way. I even build a WordPress website from scratch that you can view on the Internet just to see how the tutorial actually works out.

If you want to learn WordPress but you don’t know where to start, download my free WordPress tutorial now and you’ll be up and running within hours!