HostMonster Web Hosting Package

There are a few important consideration points when it comes to looking for a host for your blog. Personally, I would recommend you to check on these points:

Easy blogging platform installtion?

Good uptime record for the server?

Fast load time for the web server?

Why Fantastico or Simple Script is handy?

I want an easy installation for my blogging software (like Fantastico or Simple Script) beacuse it’s troublesome to install those blogging software (like WordPress) manually. I just want to blog and do not want any hassles from setting up databases in MySQL or configurating my PHP files.

Why good server uptime record is crucial?

Good uptime history is crucial so whenever my blog readers want to read my blog, they can come to my site anytime. Web surfers who visit a blog and found it’s unavailable will think the website is gone. In most cases, they will not come back to your blog again (if it’s the first time visit) and will probably delete your website from their bookmark. I do not want to lose any of my readers because of this stupid reason.

Why fast server load time is important?

I wish to work of my blog efficiently. A fast server load time will assure blogging work like setting up blog plugins, savings/publishing a blogpost, regrouping blog pages, or editing reader’s comments to be done quickly. Ideally, no time should be wasted on waiting the server to response.

Is Hostmonster recommended for blog hosting?

Hostmonster offers both Fantastico and Simple Script features; their server uptime is respectable in my record; the server load time is better than average – seeing such, the answer for the question is ‘YES’. Blog hosting at Hostmonster is recommended – especially if you are blogging on Word Press (both Fantastico and SImple Script offer one-click-installation on Word Press).

Personally I can’t think of any web hosting user interface better than cPanel. But apparently not everyone has the same opinion as mine.

I read this not long ago from HostMonster forum - a question posted by geocoins-software.

I would like to add a forum to my site. I find that the control panel of Hoster Monster is not to intuitive. I have read all the documentation and help and it just does not make sense. To many pieces in too many areas. I am ready to switch my hosting…. I am just overly frustrated.

AM i Missing something? If so, I shouldn’t be. I need something alittle more user friendly.

To my surprise, someone’s actually thinking that cPanel is not user friendly enough.

On top of that, I can’t believe that someone will consider switching their hosting because of they are being unhappy with the cPanel.

In case you are new about web hosting and thinking to have one, here’s what you need to know first. A web hosting is a place where you host your files for your website. Imagine it as the land where you build your house – the land is the web hosting, your web files are like the wood/metal gate/sofa of your house, and the domain name is your house address.

The control panel at HostMonster (which is cPanel) is actually a user-friendly interface that we used to access and to operate our web host. Most hosting companies (or I would say most good hosting companies) offer cPanel as the control interface. Switching a hosting makes no difference at all as you might as well bump into the same control panel.

Trust me, I’ve had the worst control panel ever (like Gate.com’s) and cPanel is so far the easiest user interface you can work with to host your website. You are hosting a website now, not running another MySpace page nor Blogspot blog!

So kid, buckle up and get ready to ride thru the learning curve. (Need help in cPanel? Find official online tutorial here.)

You might need to deal with the Verification Department if you’re doing business with HostMonster for the first time. As you might already aware that my HostMonster account was mis-deactivated (Check my previous post on HostMonster’s over-sensitive scam alert) when I first sign up their hosting plan, you should be aware that HostMonster are VERY VERY serious in term of catching/avoiding scams. There are chances where you’re a normal honest customers but they are deacvitating your account due to the scams alert.

What to do if my HostMonster account is deactivated?

In case you’re one of the unfortunates that affected by this colletaral damage, do not panic.

The situation can be settled easily with just a single phone call or a few emails.

All you need to do is to contact HostMonster Abuse Department (which will then redirect you to the Verification Department) at 866-573-4678 or 801-494-8462 for non US customers for to verify some personal details. For cases where you could not get to them via phone, they can be reached http://helpdesk.hostmonster.com/.

Although having the needs to contact them in the Verification Department sounds troublesome. I found myself happy and satisfy with their service quality as one, the operator who answers the phone speaks English (English that’s understandable) well; and second, they are super efficient in dealing the matters. My problem is settled very soon and my account is re-activated back.

Another good thing that I see in this is that the company take serious steps in preventing scams as well as customer support; which in other way, telling me that they are serious with their business and clients. This gives me confidence in the safety of their website shopping system as well as customer supports.

Unlike most other hosting companies, HostMonster offers only one single hosting plan. You will get all the necessary features for basic web hosting, ecommerce website hosting, blog hosting, shopping cart software, simple scripts, SSL services… EVERYTHING, in just one single web hosting plan, in just one single price.

Why only one single hosting plan?

What’s good about this is that once you’ve decided to go with HostMonster, your shopping review work are done. You do not need to worry about hosting plan upgrades in the future, you do not need to worry about bandwidth upgrades when your website grew popular – none of those problems bothers you.

Sounds good?

Hosting with HostMonster cost $6.95/mo if you pay 24 months in advance; $7.95/mo if you go for the 12 months term. No other cancellation fees, setup fees, customer support fees, hidden fees… blah blah blah. The offer is clear and direct – pay $6.95 (or $7.95) per month and you’ll get unlimited domain hosting, unlimited file transfer bandwidth, unlimited disk storage space, along with all the necessary web features. Full stop.

Highlights of HostMonster features

Here’s what makes HostMonster’s deal look attractive:

Features	Details
Unlimited Disk Storage	Yes
Host Unlimited Domains	Yes
Free Domain Name	Yes
Unlimited Gigs of Site Transfer	Yes
Unlimited Add-on Domains	Yes
Override .htaccess Support	Yes
$50 Yahoo Advertising Credit	FREE!
$50 Google Adwords Credit	FREE!
Get HostMonster Promotion Now: $6.95/mo!

A quick check on HostMonster server status today:

Server load =2.4/8.0 cpus, all servers (including mail and database servers) are up, only 20% memory is used… everything seems fine.

Except I’m seeing one single ‘yellow light’ at the disk storage – Disk /dev/sdd1 (/home1). From the numbers it shows that 87% of the disk space is used in this section. Nothing much to worry, but it’s showing that the disk space is loaded up fast.

Could this be as a result of HostMonster getting more and more popular? Will HostMonster upgrades it’s disk capacity soon? Is this just a sudden ‘usage-spike’ that occurs temporarily? Hmmm… Well, I don’t have any answer for all these; but I am sure I will be observing the situation closely. Let’s see how things go for the next few days.

Anyway, one thing for sure is that all my web maintenance operations work just fine at HostMonster. Everything’s as smooth as usual and I have no worries on hosting with HostMonster at all.

After all, they have been giving me such a good experience so far – why should I be bothered about such tiny thing (the 87% disk usage)?