Blue Host or HostGator for a dummy like me?

[wsue]

I'm going to take the Wordpress.org leap (from Blogger) and need to find a user friendly host. So, without consideration to whether or not those of you reading this have an affiliate link with a hosting service (although I get it), which do you all recommend... HostGator or Blue Host? They seem so similar, but I don't know which one to go with.

I am going to be moving 1 of my current blogs over to WP, trusting that the transfer really is as simple as everyone says. Additionally I'll be starting a new blog with a friend. That blog will be co-authored and hopefully we'll be able to figure out the financial side of things (earning/spitting) without too much effort/confusion.

Neither one of us know squat about things like cpanels and the other technicalities we'll encounter that are outside the scope of Blogspot.

Wish us luck and please... any advice would be much appreciated. I'm nervous!
~Wendy

[colly5]

I guess it would be personal preference really, but I use hostgator and have been with them for years. Love them. :-)

[khristal23]

I use Hostgator. They are very very user-friendly and they have an online chat where you can pretty much always get hold of someone if you ever run into problems. They are wonderful, honestly. But I admit I have heard good things about Blue Host, too.

If you sign up with Hostgator, you should pick the middle plan (I think it's called the "Baby plan") because you can get unlimited domains all for the same price. Very handy in case you ever need or want to create another site You can always get a discount on the first month depending on which promotion you use to sign up, but after that it runs about $9.95 per month.

Good luck! The transition can be a little tricky, but there are a lot of good resources found online to help you with each step.

[khristal23]

double post, sorry

[wsue]

Thanks for the quick replies! Did either of you switch from Blogger to WP like I'm doing or have you always been with WP?
Also... did you pay anyone for a custom theme? Can you recommend anyone?

[Leslie B]

Hi Wendy,

I use Hostgator myself (I have a reseller account there), and from experience with clients that have Bluehost hosting, I can say that I, personally, prefer Hostgator. It is a personal preference though, since I know a lot of people who prefer it the other way around.

For your last question, I would not pay for a custom theme. It is very expensive and personally I would go for a cheaper option. Invest in a quality premium theme (my preference goes to the Studiopress themes) and have it customized by an expert for your particular niche/needs.

Leslie

[khristal23]

I agree - do not pay for a custom theme. This is very expensive and there are a ton of amazing premium themes out there that are so customizable you can make them look just about any way you want.

Someone recommended Studiopress above -- these are very very good and I do use this on one of my sites. I also recommend Thesis. For a beginner, these themes can still be a little tricky to configure so it probably would be worth your money to pay someone to help you get them set up the way you want. But it would be a lot more expensive to pay someone for your very own custom theme.

I actually did switch from Blogger to WordPress a couple of years ago Best thing I ever could have done for my blog, trust me! It is nice knowing that you "own" your blog. When it's on Blogger or another free site you certainly don't have as much control.

[LilBlackDress]

I have used both Bluehost and Hostgator and both are excellent.

However, Hostgator goes the extra mile when you have questions. I ended up calling them when I had questions and was using BlueHost! Bluehost helps but not like HostGator.

[starbirdy66]

Love HostGator. I think they went above and beyond when I had a problem with the site I run for my church.

I actually started out on Blogger, but had registered my own domains elsewhere before doing so. Not sure if that is the way you are doing it. You could open up an account at any registrar and probably do the transfer of your domain to there. All the advice I've ever seen is keep your registrar and your hosting separate. That way if you aren't happy with a hosting company, the only transfer you have to worry about is moving your sites.

I have notes or an article on how I moved content from Blogger to WP. It was pretty easy.

I'd say go with a premium theme over having someone build one for you. I personally love a few of MintThemes WordPress themes. Most are built for e-commerce and have a lot of functionality built in. They are specific to a few niches though so not a big selection. Woo themes has a good selection too.

Good luck!

[LilBlackDress]

Woo themes are really nice but I have found that many need a lot of customization.

One really easy theme is Flexibility and it is free. I also have another favorite theme which I have used multiple times.

Be really careful with free themes as some have malicious code in them.