As a freelance writer, no matter what your niche market is, you need to get a professional-looking freelancing website. It is one of the most effective ways to grow your business easily and get paid.
As a freelance writer, you might be making your living getting your clients through freelancing sites because you think creating a website is too difficult, time-consuming, or costly. However, starting your own website is a great way to attract new clients without having to pay a commission to these sites. Luckily, it is easier than you might think to create your own website. Before you can build your website, you need to choose a hosting plan.
Here are some things you should consider to help you pick the right hosting plan for a freelance writer.
What Type Of Hosting Plan
Before you can pick a website hosting provider, you need to decide what type of plan you’ll need to host your own blog. There are several website hosting types available that you should choose between: shared hosting, VPS hosting, and cloud hosting.
Shared Hosting
With this type of hosting, you’ll be sharing one server with many other users as well. It’s like renting an apartment: cheap, a little crowded, and your neighbors can (negatively) impact your quality of life.
Pros of Shared Hosting
- Economical. Because you are sharing server space with others, it is the cheapest type of places
- Fully managed. You don’t have to handle the technical aspects of server maintenance.
Cons of Shared Hosting
- Loud neighbors. If one of your neighbor’s sites has an issue, it might affect yours.
- Limited customization options. You won’t be able to make any changes to your website that require you to change the server.
Shared hosting providers are best for people with very low traffic levels, and for those who don’t need a lot of storage space for pictures or other documents. It is often a good starting point, but it won’t be the best web hosting for bloggers as their site grows.
VPS Hosting:
A virtual private server means you own the server space and can customize it as you see fit. It will be very similar to a dedicated server but will be cheaper. When you choose a VPS hosting plan, you’ll own the server.
Pros of VPS hosting:
- You have access to the server with full administrative privileges. This means you can customize your server, install anything you want on it, and more.
- You can pick whichever OS you want from the list of supported OS’s
Disadvantages of VPS hosting:
- This is likely not a good web hosting for freelancers with little website development experience. You’ll need technical know-how to manage the VPS server.
- You are still on a shared server, so your neighbors can occasionally interfere with your site.
You should only choose VPS if you have enough technical skills to manage your site. Otherwise, it can get experience if you have to pay a developer to help you.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is a virtual server that runs in a cloud computing environment. You’ll be able to draw your resources from a network of clouds, so you can ensure that your website is almost never down.
Pros of Cloud hosting:
- Most cloud hosting providers promise very high uptime guarantees, ensuring your website is never inaccessible.
- Cloud hosting is very scalable and flexible. You can automatically send more resources to your website if you have a traffic spike.
Cons of Cloud hosting:
- It can be more expensive if you aren’t closely monitoring your monthly costs.
- There is also a perceived misconception that cloud hosting is less secure. However, this isn’t true.
Cloud hosting is best for freelance writers who have a popular site with high volumes of traffic. With nearly limitless resources, storage space, and a high uptime guarantee, cloud hosting is a great option for those who want a scalable option for their blog.
It’s worth mentioning that there are also dedicated hosting plans, but these are more expensive and can cost hundreds of dollars a month. These are meant for huge organizations, people who need massive amounts of resources each month, or for those who have very unique server needs that must be completely customized. As a freelance writer, this is likely not right for you.
Should I Pick A Free Web Hosting Plan?
In almost every situation, choosing a free website plan from hosting providers like WordPress, Wix, or Blogger is not a good idea. Here are five reasons why you shouldn’t.
- You will get the unattractive subdomain name of “website.blogspot.com.†Getting a customizable domain name is vital to the success and credibility of your freelance hosting website. To get the best web hosting for blogs, you need to spend at least a couple of dollars a month on your hosting plan.
- When choosing a free web hosting plan, you will also likely want to rank high in search engines like Google. SEO is already very difficult to conquer, so don’t make it more difficult for yourself by choosing a plan that doesn’t let you customize your domain.
- You also won’t own your content if you are working through platforms like Blogger. That means that your content could be there one day, and then the next, all your hard work could disappear.
- You often can’t monetize as well. While you can use plugins like AdSense on your blogs, there are limiting restrictions that mean you can’t fully capitalize on your blog.
Compatible With WordPress
Most freelance writers will choose to power their website through WordPress, the largest content management system (CMS) in the world. While most hosting plans will be compatible with WordPress, you’ll want to make sure that you are picking the best hosting for a WordPress blog. Choose a hosting provider that allows for one-click installation of WordPress, so you can start publishing content quickly.
Website Builder
Unless you have the time and experience to build your own website from scratch, you’ll likely want to rely on a website builder that uses templates to help you build your freelance writing website.
You can purchase a website builder separate from your hosting plan, but that adds to your costs. At the beginning of your freelancing career, you likely will be pinching pennies and won’t want this added experience. Therefore, you should pick a hosting provider that provides adequate templates for your needs. WordPress has some great templates for bloggers and freelance writers that allow them to display their work attractively. Those templates should be customizable, as well.
Which Hosting Plan is Right For Me?
When choosing the best website host for bloggers, you should consider what type of website you want to have, the anticipated level of traffic, and the number of resources you’ll need. Check to make sure they offer 24/7 support and allow you to scale up as needed. For more information on the best web hosting for freelancers, compare plans here.
- Your query to the best web hosting can end by clicking on this link.
