There are many affordable web hosting providers. No matter your budget, there is a provider out there who can meet your needs. As mentioned in previous articles, there are a number of hosting providers who will give you a plethora of blogging tools at a low monthly price, often below ten dollars a month.
- Blogging is one of the major things people do on the World Wide Web these days. Blog is short for web log, and they are used for a number of purposes. Some blogs are very technical and deal with advances in that field. Or they may detail new advances in a particular scientific discipline, or review new case law. Others are on much more informal topics and are written in an accessible style. An example of this is the proliferation of food blogs, political commentary blogs, and online personal diaries. Blogs often include graphics and widgets, blocks of code that are embedded into a web page. These are frequently created using CGI or PHP, and can do everything from count visitors to the site, provide a list of links to other, related blogs, show the daily weather, or display flight information.
- Where web hosting comes in is with programs such as Movable Type. Movable Type is a program that requires a web host provider to function. Once a web host is found and purchased, Movable Type is installed on the server. Then you can use a web browser to connect to the program and make changes to your blog! If you are a potential blogger, this is a good way to go about it. Movable Type is an easy to use program that makes changing your blog, updating your blog, and managing previous entries easy, so you can get to the business of actually writing content. The best part is Movable Type has a version that can be downloaded for free. Combined with a free web server, it can be a great way to test out the program. Many web hosting providers offer a free version of their services, albeit more basic than their paid plans. Be sure, however, to choose web server that supports Movable Type’s minimum requirements. Your web hosting provider has to support SQL. SQL stands for structured query language, and is designed for database management. Because Movable Type works on a database platform, SQL is necessary to retrieve and manipulate your blog information. MySQL is the most secure and most recently updated version of this service, so be sure your web hosting provider supports it. It is a very popular database program and is open source, meaning the source code is freely available, allowing for user contributions.
- Other web hosting providers may have a built in blogging platform, though it will most likely be less customizable then one you install yourself. Recently, though, Microsoft talked about a new blogging platform they are developing called Oxite. Oxite will reportedly be open source, and it may be incorporated in to web hosting packages in the future. It will also be quite flexible, allowing you to run everything from blogs to entire blogging websites. It will be exciting if it is one day included in web hosting, especially if it is included in packages that are affordable to the average user.
Web hosting can be a powerful tool for business, pleasure, and blogging on a variety of subjects. With just a little education, you too can begin using your web host to design attractive, informative blogs that will attract the attention of any number of people. Blogs also allow you to receive comments on your work, so you know that what you are doing is being appreciated by readers. Consider finding some web hosting providers who will support the types of blogging mentioned above. If you are running a small business, a blogging component to your website can help you update customers on where you are in production or on individual custom orders. A personal blog can help a pet project reach millions of viewers, and provide you with feedback about what those visitors like and don’t like about your web site. Web hosting providers are doing new and interesting things with web logs every day, so keep an ear to the ground and an eye on the internet for new developments, like Microsoft’s new platform, Oxite. Blogging is becoming more accessible and more powerful by the day, so why not take advantage of it? Improve and personalize your web pages today!
