If you have your own WordPress blog on your own domain you’ll need somewhere to host your files. And when you start looking round you’ll find that not all web hosts are created equal.

So what do you look for? Here’s my checklist:

• Must be reliable
• Must have cPanel with Fantastico and Simple Scripts
• Must provide superb technical support
• Must offer unlimited addon domains
• Must be reasonably priced

Why Fantastico and Simple Scripts? Because these two tools enable automatic creation of new WordPress blogs – no more manual uploading of all the WordPress files! And Simple Scripts not only lets you create a new WordPress blog with a few clicks of the mouse, you can now automatically upgrade WordPress when a new version is released. How cool is that?

I use Bluehost for my blogs. That’s where this blog is hosted and I now wouldn’t use any other service.

On a few occasions I’ve needed some technical support, particularly when I was new to blogging and wanted to do something beyond my ability(:-(), and I found their support staff helpful, smart and unfailingly patient.

It might be tempting to go to a small, cheap hosting service but you won’t get the reliability and quality of service that a larger company can provide. Trust me, I’ve learned that the hard way!

Click here to find out more about Bluehost WordPress hosting

The very simplest, entry-level version of WordPress hosting is to register an account with WordPress.com and simply get a free blog. That’s all there is to it: the blog is hosted on WordPress’s own computers and you don’t have to pay anything for the privilege.

But this version won’t be suitable for businesses or for anyone who wants to make money from their blog. That’s because WordPress doesn’t like you to use their free service for financial gain. They can even close your blog down if you violate their terms of service.

So, if you’re in it for the money, you need to arrange your own, independent WordPress hosting and register your blog not with wordpress.com but with wordpress.org.

I will be explaining how to do this in my next tutorial which will be aimed at the more advanced users of WordPress.

In the meantime, if you’ve landed on this page because you’re looking for reliable WordPress hosting right now, check out Bluehost WordPress Hosting. This is where this blog is hosted and I can thoroughly recommend them.