Top 3 Web Hosting Providers For Your WordPress Blog

After getting a domain name, the next requirement to start a perfect blog is to get a perfect web hosting plan. Choosing the perfect web host can be a difficult task because today, there are lots of web hosting providers with their lots of unique features and different plans.

But here, we have made this task easier for you by finding the best web hosting for your blog.

This article is specially for those who are looking for the best web hosting provider for a WordPress.org blog but overall the below mentioned web hosts are very suitable for hosting any blog.

So let us get to the top 3 web hosting providers for your WordPress blog!

3. Web Hosting Hub

Web Hosting Hub is preferred as a very suitable web host for hosting any type of blog, not just a WordPress blog. This web hosting provider gets the 3rd spot in this list.

Some of the main features of Web Hosting Hub are:

• Unlimited Disk Space 
• Unlimited Bandwidth 
• Unlimited Websites 
• Free Domain Registration or Transfer
• Free Blogging Software
• Free Premium Website Builder
• Easy-to-Use Control Panel
• 24/7 Top U.S. Technical Support
• 90 Day Full Money Back Guarantee
• Unlimited MYSQL Databases

Pricing: $4.95/month.

Visit Web Host Site: Web Hosting Hub

2. Bluehost

Even WordPress.org recommends Bluehost for hosting a WordPress blog. It is because of its perfect features and reliability that this web host gets the 2nd spot in this list.

Some of the awesome features provided by Bluehost are:

• Unlimited Domain Hosting
• Unlimited GB Hosting Space
• Unlimited GB File Transfer
• Unlimited E-mail Accounts
• Free Domain
• Free Site Builder with templates
• Secure Shell, SSL, FTP, Statistics
• CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
• $100 Google Advertising Offer
• 24/7 Phone, Chat & Email Support

Pricing: $4.95/month.

Visit Web Host Site: Bluehost

1. Hostgator

Hostgator is the most famous and most preferred web hosting provider when it comes to hosting a WordPress Blog. Ask any fellow WordPress blogger and he will suggest you to buy web hosting from Hostgator.

Hostgator has an awesome support team who are always ready to help you. With cPanel, you can install WordPress easily on Hostgator and during almost every festive season, you can get huge discounts by Hostgator.

Some of the features of this best web hosting company are:

• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Free Site Builder 
• Easy Control Panel
• 1-Click Script Installs
• 4,500 Free Website Templates
• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
• 45 Day Money Back Guarantee
• 24/7/365 Technical Support
• $100 Google AdWords Offer

All this at a price of $3.96/month. 

And you can also get a 25% discount on your purchased package by using this coupon during signing up - "bloggingpanoramasave25" (without qoutes).

Visit Host Site: Hostgator

Note that all the prices mentioned in this article were noted at the time of editing and are liable to change any time.

Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the above provided links are affiliate links. It means that if you purchase the service by following this link, then I would receive a commission for it. No extra costs will be charged to you however!

Image credit: anankkml/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Top 3 Reliable And Affordable Domain Registrars

My previous article dealt with some tips to consider before buying a domain name. Now that you have chosen the perfect domain name for your blog you would be looking for the perfect domain registrar.

A domain registrar is a company that lets you buy and register a domain name. All such domain registrars charge a certain fixed amount of money for registering the domain for you. A domain is registered on a "per year" scale. You can register a domain for 1 or 2 years or even 10 years. Even if you register a domain for only 1 year, you can renew your registration for next years anytime from the same domain registrar which also costs a certain charge on a "per year" scale.

I hope this clears the concept.

Also read about the scams related to free domain registrations. Don't fall for these scams!

So now without wasting time, let me introduce you to the 3 most well known, reliable and at the same time affordable domain registrars.

The domain prices are subject to change very frequently and some of these 3 registrars mentioned below are famous for providing festive discounts throughout the year :) Thus mentioning the domain prices today would be useless for tomorrow. So I have not mentioned the current prices for registering domains through these registrar sites. But I assure you all that these 3 registrars are the most affordable and reliable ones.

1. Godaddy

Personally I prefer Godaddy the most. All my domains are registered through Godaddy and they have never provided me any chance for complaining.

Also there are many Godaddy promo codes available throughout the net that gift you with great discounts of upto even 80%.

Godaddy also offers other paid services like SSL certificate, WhoIsGuard and many more. All these services are optional but one can consider buying them if they can afford a few extra dollars per year. Godaddy is considered the largest domain registrar for present.

Check out domains by Godaddy here.

2. Name.com

Name.com is another reliable domain registrar that has been in this field from several years.

Name.com also provides extra services like SSL certificate,etc at an extra cost. This registrar can be considered as another affordable one.

3. Namecheap.com

As the name suggests, Namecheap is a real expert in providing domains at comparatively low price. At the time of writing, Namecheap provided registrations of .com domain for just $3.95 (This figure is subject to change anytime) while the above two cost about $9-10 for the same.

Along with the cheap price, Namecheap is also a reliable domain registrar used by many people out there. Namecheap also provides services like SSL certificate, WhoIsGuard, etc.

What do you say about these registrars?

How many of you have registered a domain before? Did you register it from any of these registrar sites or from some other site not mentioned here?

Do let us know your experience with your domain registrar and share your views with us!

Image credit- Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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9 Tips to Choose The Best Domain Name

This article is a part of the "How to Start a Blog" set of tutorials for beginners.

Choosing the perfect domain name is the first and most important step in pro blogging. And getting your hands on the best available domain is a very difficult task. Today, with millions of websites online, it becomes very hard to get the domain name you like.

I would suggest anyone to buy a domain from godaddy.com because of the following reasons:

• Cheapest domain name registration
• Promo coupons and discounts
• Easy to set up CNAME records for Blogger
• Good customer support

These reasons are enough I guess? You can always get a promo coupon by doing a Google search for them. These promo coupons let you buy your .com/.net/.org or any other domain at a much cheaper price. When I registered Blogging Panorama, I got it for $2.95 only.

And one line of recommendation from my side: NEVER go for free subdomains like .co.cc or .tk. If you are serious about your blog, then buy a domain and as I said earlier, you can get one for as low as $2.95 (by using Godaddy promo coupons)

Also read: Top 3 Affordable Domain Registrars

While looking for the best available domain name, always consider these 9 tips:

1. Keep the domain name related to your blog's niche. And avoid using your own name as domain name unless you site would be a personal blog or you are going to share personal success stories. Though there are good examples of blogs with domain name the same as the name of their owners like ZacJohnson.com. But you should consider your blog's niche more than your own name.
2. Do check if the name you are interested in buying is a trademark of any existing company. You should never do a mistake of registering a domain name which contains any commercial company's trademark in it. They may register a complaint against your registration and it can lead to the end of your domain. For example you cannot use 'WordPress' in your domain name because it is against their permission. Also you can't use any offensive word from any language in your domain name.
3. Try to keep your domain name understandable and short. I give more preference to 'understandable' than 'short' because it is more important that your visitors remember your site's address than they remember a random phrase like 'mpvr.com' and even if your domain name is 10-15 characters long but it is understandable and related to your blog's content, the search engines won't mind the long domain name.
4. AVOID exact keyword match domain because they are getting penalized by Google thanks to their latest algorithm updates.
5. Check if a similar name is already on the first page of Google. For example if you are thinking about the name 'TechyPC' then do a search for the words techy and PC. Suppose if there is a site with a name 'TechyGuy' or something very near to your interested name, then drop the idea. You won't want to compete with the other site to get on top of Google from the very first day of your registration.
6. Look for the domain name that matches your site's name like bloggingpanorama.com for 'Blogging Panorama'. Though there are some blogs who have different site name and domain name. One of them is Digital Inspiration (labnol.org)
7. Give more preference to .com/.net/.org than to .info/.co/.us/.uk/.in or any other country-TLD. Country TLDs are not good for global SEO as they tend to target only a specific geographic region.
8. Buying an old domain can be benefitial in some cases. Old domains have are more trusted by Google and can rank easier with all those ready made backlinks and traffic. Though today, the meaning of SEO is changing and it doesn't matter very much, but still it can be a little benefit. But be sure to check that the domain was used for the right purposes and was not blacklisted or banned from Adsense.
9. Check the existing PR and Alexa Rank of the domain if you are buying an old domain. Also check Internet Archive to find out how the domain was used earlier.

So these were my 9 tips to choosing the best domain name. Do you have any more suggestions? Do comment and let me know.

Image credit: Digitalart/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This article is a part of the "How to Start a Blog" set of tutorials. Do read the remaining parts :)

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Why Millions Of People Start And Quit Blogging

According to an estimate, there were about 200 million blogs online in 2012.

But do you think that all these blogs are made by bloggers who are aiming for a future with it? Do you think that all these blogs are even readable and generate new content even once a year?

If you think yes (I know you don't!), then you are completely wrong :(

Yes, it is true that there are about 200 million blogs, but most of them are just rubbish 2-3 page blogs or just another "cracked games" or "wallpapers" blogs. Agree??? I am sure you would agree to me. Want a proof? Whenever you search for anything on Google, you get to see lakhs of results but just click on the last page's last result link and see yourself...

No. I am not talking about their lack of SEO and content that sends them to the last page. I am talking about their useless blog. Sorry to use a bit rude language but that is because this topic makes me a bit angry. Specially when statistics add those blogs also. If we count the number of really readable blogs, then it would not exceed 50 million.

Today, people just start a blog for nothing and abandon it like anything. I feel that it is an injustice to the blogoshere because due to these "start and quit" bloggers, people hesitate before starting their own blog. And most of the times, it is the mistake of such bloggers themselves that they abandon their incomplete blog.

So what is the reason behind all these people who quit blogging?

"The reason to end lies in the reason to begin." - Mahaveer Verma

So Why Do People Start Blogging Such That It Makes Them Quit In Future?

The main reasons for starting a blog are -

• Hobby
• Time-pass
• The worst reason - MONEY

Yes! You got it. MONEY is the thing that most of the people start their blogs for. And this reason is the most foolish and worst ever reason according to me.

If you are planning of starting your own blog because you know you can earn from it....then I assure you that you have 99.99% chances of FAILING :(

Read the last line again. I said FAILING and not succeeding. This is one statement that every going-to-be-blogger should remember well because the 150 million useless and un-readable blogs I am talking about belong to bloggers who started blogging just for money.

My story - And it is NOT about Money!

When I started my first blog, I kept it secret from my physical friends, who interact with me in my physical world like school and my home. Because I started my blog as a hobby, I was even unknown that I could earn something from it! I didn't want many people near me to know about my blog until it has achieved something great.

And when I got my first Adsense Check, I just showed it to some of my best friends and asked them to keep it a secret. Because I still believed that I had not achieved what I really wanted. It was not money that I took as my success. And this is something everyone should keep in mind.

Today, even though I tried to keep it a secret, most of my friends know that I am a blogger and I earn from it. Many times, when I am chatting with my Facebook friends, I get a friend who says -

Friend - Do you have your own blog?

Me- Yes.

Friend - Why do you write a blog?

Me - It is my hobby and I like it :)

Friend - Do you earn money from your blog?

Me - Yes. A little bit.

Friend - I want to make a blog too! Teach me how to make a blog. Plzzz...

This is an example of a typical chat that I had experienced many times by now.

What can be concluded from this?

1. People go crazy after hearing the word 'money'.
2. People think blogging for money is easy like peeling potatoes.

If you are one of those people who get excited by hearing the word 'money' associated with the word 'blogging', then forget it. Blogging is not for you. Sorry!

How to test yourself if you want to start blogging for money

Answer this question in less than 3 seconds - Your blog will cover which topic???

If you can't answer this question easily, and still want to start a blog...think again.

I have got many friends who ask me ideas about starting a new blog. I ask them about the field they are an expert and can write hundreds of words about it, but they don't have any answer for that. They say, I will share wallpapers, cracked softwares and games and so on... There are over 150 million sites for such rubbish crack sites! Why do you want to create another one???

Some say - I will read some blogs and write about the same thing in my own words at my blog....OK. Now that is article spinning literally!!! If you don't know about chemical properties of Oxygen, then how can you write about it just by reading from other sites???

If you find yourself in the same situation as some of my friends.....sorry to say again but you need to think over.

Blogging is about providing unique and simply awesome content to people.

Small blogs - Love it/Hate it

I am not against small blogs that post content only 1-2 times a month. Actually I do like them more than those "crack sites" that post 10 pages per day.

Why?

Suppose you have a personal blog. No you can not write on it everyday! Can you? Or if you are a really studious student and cannot manage blogging with studies, so you can post content only on Sundays. No problem at all. I am sure if you blog genuinely, then your blog will be followed by many readers even if you lack new content.

Third and most important example - You really want your blog just as your hobby and nothing commercial. Hats off to you if you have this mentality :)

It is not at all a bad idea if you want to create a blog just for fun and don't want to go world-famous or earn thousands per month. Actually it is the best reason to start your blog! Keep it up!

So keeping a small blog is never bad and I don't think that those blogs are any burden on the blogosphere :)

Summary:

1. Starting a Blog for money never works.
2. Being unknown to what you should write on your blog is like being blind.
3. Small or large, home or commercial, a blog should be genuine.

Above we discussed about how the wrong start disturbs and indeed destroys one's just started blogging life. Now there are also people who start blogging and then abandon it because of failure or something else. What are those "something else"s?

Why People Quit Blogging

Most people quit blogging due to failure.

But how do you know that your blog has failed? This is the main point where most bloggers fail to judge themselves. People think that they have failed when they are not able to earn good money from it.

That is the worst way to judge a blog's success. Your blog may not earn anything but can get on top of the stairs of success. Your blog's name would be on the tip of everyone's tongue and you can still top the Google search engine results even if you don't earn anything!

And even worse - some people think that they have failed because they were banned from Adsense! No comments here. You know what I mean to say!

Many people start with more than 1 blog and this is where they get to nowhere. When you are completely new to blogging, you should start with just one blog that you can give your complete attention to. I also own two blogs, but I started with just one and I still concentrate on that one.

If your blog does not cover good content on a single topic, if it does not sport a nice design and if you don't give any time to it...then your blog will fail. I know this is true. And you should know this too. I don't want any person who is reading this to contribute to the 150 million rubbish abandoned blogs!

Why am I repeating the words like "rubbish abandoned" and "crack blogs"? Because personally I have seen many people starting their blogging life with such sites. Most of the people start with wallpaper sites or share cracked games. That's it. Now how can you get any success with it???

In short, people quit blogging due to -

• Failure
• Not earning money

Another short one, people fail when -

• Blog doesn't get visitors
• Blog has no subscribers
• Blog doesn't get noticed

I should also add some points why people fail:

• Low quality content
• Improper blog designing
• Over Inactivity by Blogger

Now your turn!

I am sure that after reading through this post, if are a new blogger or are just going to start blogging, then you would start and continue your blogging life with complete determination. I have one request for everybody reading this - Don't start a blog just because you heard the word 'money' and don't contribute to the already large 150 million blog list that are just another abandoned spam blogs.

Did you like reading this article? What are your personal views on blogging and why do you think people get lost and quit blogging? Do comment and share your views here!

Image credits: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Pinterest: How to Create a Secret Board

For those who are unaware of Pinterest, it is a social networking sites based on sharing photos (pins here). Photos are pinned into boards created by the user and that's why it is named Pinterest.

Source: Pinterest Blog

Pinterest has introduced a new kind of board for users that can keep their pins secret and hidden from public. The secret board is just visible to the creator himself and the people whom he invites. Currently, a user is allowed to make 3 secret boards.

Read the post on Pinterest blog about the announcement of secret boards.

Pinterest users like me got an email notification about this latest update. Here is a small part from the email notification-

Over the last year, there have been so many ways, big and small, that the Pinterest community has made my life better. I’m happy to say that I’m not alone. We’ve heard from teachers who use Pinterest to plan lessons, chefs who share recipes, and museums that pin their archives. We've also heard from millions of people who’ve been inspired to pick up an old hobby or try something new. It’s honestly more than we ever expected when we started Pinterest. We’re humbled to be part of such a positive, warm and creative community.

Today, we’re excited to continue this tradition with a new feature we hope will make Pinterest even better—secret boards. Secret boards give you a place for things you’re not quite ready to share yet, like a surprise party, special gift ideas, or even planning for a new baby. We’re testing out the feature by giving everyone 3 secret boards. You’ll find them at the bottom of your profile. We can’t wait to hear what you think!

On behalf of our team here at Pinterest, thanks so much for pinning, inviting your friends, and sending us ideas for how we can improve. Most of all, thanks for sharing your inspirations. With your help, we’ll make Pinterest a little better every day.

—Ben & the Pinterest Team

Now let us move on to creating our first secret board...

A secret board can be created like any other board. Actually keeping a board secret is just like an attribute only.

On the top right corner of your Pinterest profile, click on the Add+ button, then select Create a Board.

Set the Secret button to ON. Enter the name and category of board and click on Create Board.

What would be the benefit of creating a secret board?

Creating a secret board can prove helpful if you are planning something secret and don't want the public to know about it now. Like if you are planning a campaign, it would help in managing future pins.

What do you think?

What do you think about this new feature introduced by Pinterest? Will these secret boards be helpful to you? Any ideas on it?

Do comment and share with us! And do follow us on Pinterest: @BloggingPanorama.

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Google And Bing Play With Mirrors

Just when I was spending some of my free time on Facebook, I discovered about another cool easter by Google. And after doing some more research, I found the same about Bing too!

And this time, its not made by Google, but some other site. What is the easter? You would have guessed by the title, right?

Google Mirror - elgooG

This easter site was created by a company named 'All Too Flat'. And its a really old one actually but it was worth sharing. On this site, as the title suggests, you see all the text in a mirror style view, i.e. flipped horizontally.

Visit elgoog.im and check yourself.

I have also seen that there is one problem with the site and that is, when you enter any term to search, it returns an error that the doc has moved. So you can't access the result page full of flipped text. But anyways, you can get an idea from the homepage about what it really meant.

And not only that but at the bottom of the page, I found links to some other Google Easters like- Underwater Google, Gravity Google, Guitar and many more. Just visit the site and check it out!

Bing Mirror - gniB

The same thing here. Visit gnib.org and look for yourself. And this time, the search function also works properly. So you can type a term to search and you'll find that the whole SERP (Search Engine Result Page) has mirror like flipped text.

This is what I got when I searched for 'Bing'. Are you able to understand anything? Open the full sized image, then maybe you would get something more clear.

There are still lots of cool mysteries to unfold and there are many interesting secrets hidden in this hugh online world what we call Internet. What do you think about these easters about Google and Bing? Do comment and let me know...

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Future Rival Of Google : DuckDuckGo

Want to know more about something? Then just 'Google it'. Google has become a new word in our daily dictionary. Whenever we want to search anything on the net, we use Google. All other search engines stand nowhere in front of this giant. But a relatively new search engine DuckDuckGo is progressing rapidly and gaining popularity now-a-days. DuckDuckGo is fast, simple and clean, just how Google looked a few years back. We can say that maybe one day, DuckDuckGo can give a nice competition to Google. DuckDuckGo still has a long way to go, but up till then, lets look at what DuckDuckGo promises.

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Top 3 Free Domain Registration Services

Are looking about how you can set up your own website for free? Yes? And you came to know about these well known free domain registration services, right? But right before jumping into one of them, here is something that you should read about them first...

Image courtesy of jscreationzs/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Recently one of my friends who owns a well known blog on blogger platform decided to move to WordPress and that too at zero cost. 'Zero cost', he decided after he came to know about some free domain registration services. I am going to tell about the said-so 'best' services and one of them, my friend accepted. After creating a WordPress blog at a domain registered at .co.cc , he worked on that blog for weeks, but he never his blog indexed at Google. Anyone would get worried about their success if something like this would happen. And so while searching for a solution for him, I found that Google had banned all .co.cc domains from their index...

Also read: 9 Tips to Choose the Best Domain Name

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