Web hosting and Domain Names, HELLLLLP!!!

Hey Martin,
If you want to host your own wordpress site, you need to get some reliable hosting first. I think reliability is what's most important - many good services guarantee 99% uptime.

It depends on what you need, but most decent hosting services will cost you about $5 a month. I used to use dreamhost, which I recommend - but now I have godaddy, because they are a bit cheaper. I can get you a discount of $50 on dreamhost if you're interested.

If you click on the "hosting" tab over at wordpress.org you'll see that they are one of their recommended hosting services.

So to answer you questions in order:
1 - Get a reasonably priced host
2 - You need to get a separate host and domain (sometimes you get one domain free with hosting)
3 - Reliability and service (godaddy offers 24/7 phone support, dreamhost does email support, but can be cheaper)
4 - Like I said, you can probably get one domain free, otherwise the cheapest way to go would be a ".info" domain , which is like $2.
5 - I might be biased because I have used both of these services, but at least you know I have experience with them. Because these hosts both offer affiliate programs best of luck finding someone who is completely independent on the matter.

I wouldn't go with a hosting providers web-design services personally. You might just end up with a cookie cutter design, or end up being charged more than you expected. Some designers are willing to help set up wordpress blogs for a reasonable fee

Martin, you should be proud of yourself for jumping right in! The world of WP may seem confusing at first, but you'll get the hang of it. Hope my answer to your question can help you along

1. You'll want to purchase webhosting and a domain name. Then download your Wordpress.com blog and upload it to the new host. The link above will help you do just that.

2. If you're doing marketing online, you'll want to have your own domain name and webhosting. You'll be investing your valuable time to build traffic to your own domain name rather than to someone elses (like wordpress.com).

3. All webhosting services are not created equal. The two things I find most important are uptime and customer service. From my experience, my favorite webhosts are PHP Hosting from WestHost, a PHP 5 Web Hosting Company | PHP Shared and Dedicated Hosting - WestHost and Web Hosting Services, Reseller Hosting, and Dedicated Servers by HostGator. Both guarantee 99% uptime. I've worked with Westhost customer service for over 10 years. They are a huge help and located in Utah. They are just a phone call away when you have a technical issue.

4. Webhosting is big businesses. Our webhost has to have updated computers and server software as well as paying for the internet access. So it is not free. However, it is a low cost of about $5-8 a month depending on how big a service you want to use. Keep it simple and start with a shared hosting account. As you grow you can always upgrade

5. If you're looking for reviews on webhosting, give "webhosting reviews" on Google a try. You can also try WEB HOSTING : Compare Prices, Consumer Reviews, Uptime Statistics. Guides, Cheap Web Hosting To Virtual Private Servers and Web Hosting - Compare Web Hosts at Web Host Directory for some independent comments.

Martin, I makes your decision easier.

All the Best

Theresa 8-)