Facibus On Blogging

This is the fourth in a series of get a real blog posts, designed to help you make the jump to self-hosted blogging (if that’s what you want to do).

Note: I’ve mentioned mediatemple.net below to illustrate an example - I have no financial interest in you using them over any other hosting provider - please use the one that you feel comfortable with. I do use getyerown.com to show an example of transferring the domain name (specifically redirecting the DNS, but we’ll get into that later) - I do have an interest in getyerown.com as discussed previously.

I’ve broken this stage of the process down into three steps:

1. Identify your needs and selecting the hosting provider that fits,
2. Transferring your domain name, and
3. Setting up the domain in your hosting package.

1. What are your hosting needs? How to select a hosting provider
The first step in any successful project is to identify needs - in other words, work out what you want before you go shopping for it.

Different hosting providers generally offer a range of hosting packages to suit the needs of the casual blogger right through to high-volume commercial traffic levels. It is easier to find the right package (and the right hosting provider) if you think through what you need them to provide.

Here’s a list of things that hosting packages can be expected to vary around. I’ve avoided specific numbers (i.e. I haven’t said “make sure you get at least 40MB of storage”) because everyone’s needs are different - and what seems adequate today can be totally inadequate in 12 months time. That disclaimer aside, some of the things that you need to think about are:

• How many blogs do you plan to run? Some hosting providers have low-end packages that make it easy to run one domain or many, but others are designed to run just one domain. If you’re only ever going to run one blog, then a single domain package may be the perfect option for you. Otherwise, think about a multi-domain package.
• Platform dependencies can be a consideration. If you have your heart set on running WordPress then it might be worth looking at a hosting provider that gives you this as a one-click installation (in other words, the hosting provider has a set of scripts that run in the background and make your life easier - they take care of database host names/file paths and all that sort of thing for you).
• Storage on the hosting package server could be a consideration if you’re looking at low-end packages with small limits. There is no hard rule for how big a blog might get - especially if you add a lot of images and/or host your own videos. And while it may seem obvious, it is worth saying - multiple blogs means more space needed.
• Bandwidth is the amount of traffic back and forth to your blog. If you get StumbledUpon or Dugg it can spike in a hurry. Multiple blogs means more bandwidth needed.
• Scalability is probably the most important for me personally at the moment - I’ve got a lot of blogs, plan to create more, and I’ve seen what can happen when inadequate hosting is overwhelmed. Some hosting providers will shut your domain down just when you need it to really shine (like when you’re linked to by a famous blogger or you get StumbledUpon or Dugg) because you are taking up more than your allocated bandwidth - to me this is the height of stupidity, but it does happen. While not going out of my way to promote one hosting service provider over another, mediatemple.net does have an enlightened view of traffic spikes for their higher-end packages (they give you another server for free for short periods of time, then only charge if the traffic increase is sustained).
• Support - specifically the quality of support - varies enormously. I’ve had good and bad experiences with hosting provider support staff - and when it has been bad, it has been very very bad. One way to find out the quality of support is to Google on prospective hosting provider names - where bloggers have received poor service, they usually blog about it.

Be sure to compare apples with apples - and judge the best combination of cost and benefit that suits your own individual needs.
2. Transferring your domain name
Once you’ve identified the right hosting provider and paid for hosting, you need to go back to your domain registrar/reseller and set the DNS (domain name service) servers to the one provided by your new hosting provider. This is not as scary as it might seem. DNS is a network of servers that tells other servers where every domain name is hosted. You need the DNS entry to point at your new hosting provider so that when someone looks for your domain they get to the right server (i.e. the one hosting your blog).

Here is my domain control panel on getyerown.com showing some of the domains I’ve registered myself:

Let’s say I’m transferring intrapreneurblog.com to my mediatemple.net hosting (and I am doing this for real - as my first blog in the Flagship Blog Project). The first step is to click on the name that you want to change - you’ll see a panel that contains information specific to that domain name:

The bit you’re after will be called something like domain name, domain name server, nameserver or DNS (depending on which domain reseller/registrar you use). Click on the domain name server link, and you’ll see something that looks like this:

Generally speaking, you will need to enter at least two name server entries here. Your hosting provider should tell you what to change them to. I’ve changed the domain name server entries here to ns1.mediatemple.net and ns2.mediatemple.net - I want this domain name to point at (that is, to send traffic to) my mediatemple.net hosting.

Your domain reseller/registrar will have a similar set of screens (similar, but probably not exactly the same) that will allow you to do the same. If you get stuck, get onto support - don’t be shy, it is what they are there for

3. Setting up the domain in your hosting package
The last step in this stage of the process is to set up your hosting package to receive the domain name once the transfer goes through. Like all other things, the basic process will be the same even if the specific screens differ from hosting provider to hosting provider.

In mediatemple.net’s control panel I click on the add domain button and see something this:

It’s fairly simple - I type in the new name and tell mediatemple.net that I’d like to set it up as an alternate domain (rather than as a separate new server) - and in the next screen I tell it which server I want it on. And done.

When the DNS transfer goes through (that is, when the amended entry has propagated around the world) intrapreneurblog.com will point to my mediatemple.net hosting. Cool

PS: I have to thank Steve Collins for introducing me to mediatemple.net - a recommendation from a knowledgeable friend was worth a great deal to me.

Next: installing the blog platform software.