There are a lot of choices out there as to where you set up and launch your website, and there are a lot of options in terms of cost – starting anywhere from $3.99 per month up to $30 or more. Generally, you get what you pay for. Higher prices often include more services – built in SEO, or automatic backups. All of these are services that can be added on either through your hosting service, or through a third party. Often, when you run the numbers, you can get all of the services for the highest price hosting service for about half by spending a little time on research and choosing wisely. I became a BlueHost affiliate because their platform comes with several features right out of the gate that serve you better, plus, their servers and help desk are excellent. I should know. I started using BlueHost as a service provider in around 2009 as a teacher in art and design. I had previously used GoDaddy, but found BlueHost to have better integrations and service, and I’ve been hosting my sites through BlueHost ever since – including this website. I became a BlueHost affiliate in July 2020.
Bluehost starts out their basic package at $7.99 per month ($3.99 per month with our affiliate link) for the first year. That gives you some buffer – time to get your site up and running (and making money) before your renewal goes up (but only nominally – they have great renewal offers and opportunities to lock in low rates if you buy more than one year of service at a time).
Iowa Arts Media earns a $65 commission each time someone signs up for a new hosting account through our BlueHost affiliate link. Start your BlueHost hosting service and help grow Iowa Arts Media!
In addition, you get your first year of domain registration for your URL of choice (as long as it’s not already registered by someone else) covered at no additional cost. Subsequent years of domain registration are a simple fee that you can put on recurring billing, usually under $15.00 per year. Discounts are provided for those who register multiple years at a time.
In addition, the site comes with an SSL certificate included. What is a Secure Socket Layer? It is an added layer of security for your site, allowing you to offer added functionality, such as credit card processing, online form submissions and more while reducing the risk the information can be picked up by hackers. The SSL will be associated with your website, it’s pages, and all of it’s content. You can even go to https://www.whynopadlock.com/ and enter your we address (the URL you enter into your browser to go to your site) to see if all of your information is being served through the SSL. What if it’s not? Just reach out to bluehost through a help ticket or online call and they will run a script to “force secure serve” on all of your files. Then, just check again to make sure everything is working.
Bluehost has easy WordPress install. In fact, you can get a site set up for WordPress hosting right out of the gate. Why use WordPress? Because it is the best open source database driven website design tool on the web. WordPress is responsible for some 60% of websites online and growing. There are more design and development tools created for use with WordPress than any other platform, and you can use WordPress for all of your online objectives. Do you want to develop a community platform online? There’s a tool for that. Want to launch your store? There’s a tool for that. Want to offer online classes and workshops that result in earning a certificate? There are tools for that too. And you as a business person or creative don’t have to know any coding to get most of it set up. If you do need coding, there are developers all over the world ready to work with your WordPress site to get you exactly the customization you need. You can even work with Iowa Arts Media to help you design and implement your WordPress site using the Divi builder, one of the most adaptive and powerful plugins available for WordPress today.
Want to get started by setting up hosting, getting your domain and an SSL certificate and installing WordPress to start building your site? Use our affiliate link to get your first year discounted and get your site live – online. Iowa Arts Media will receive a one-time $65 commission when you use the link below.
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