Links you click on in this post may earn us a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support.
The blog hosting question
So you want to be a pro blogger, and you want it to be your only job. Making money blogging is honestly a LOOOONG ride, and it takes a lot of time, tears, patience and hard work. One of the first things (or really THE first thing) you are going to run into is blog hosting.
What hosting should you use?
What does everyone else use?
How can you easily set up your blog when you are COMPLETELY new to this whole entrepreneur thing?
I made a lot of mistakes my first year blogging, let me tell you. And if I could go back in time and save myself 3 long, hard months of frustration and crying, I WOULD.
(This page probably contains affiliate links, if you want to read more about that check out our disclaimer page)
Before we get started, I want to make a quick update!
For a limited time you can get 5 months FREE of WPengine for Black Friday!
Just click the link above to start today, anytime through Cyber Monday! This deal takes almost $100 off the startup, so don’t miss out!!
BlueHost vs. WPengine
Lets get clear on one thing, everything I have written here is all my personal experience. I have used both hosting companies, so this isn’t biased or one sided.
I paid for both companies services, put trust and work into learning how to work my blog around their services, and contacted tech support from both services.
Needless to say, I am familiar with both BlueHost and WPengine and how they work.
Let’s go back to 4.1.18
That’s when I started my blog!
April 2018 was such an exciting month. I remember searching for months and months about how to start my blog, how to make money on my blog and mainly,
how to quit my desk job and work from home for myself.
One day, I sat on the floor in our apartment living room and signed up for BlueHost.
I signed up for their site and domain hosting
(those are not the same thing if you don’t know, I definitely did not know that starting out),
and got started with learning everything I could about WordPress and running a business.
Why I will never suggest anyone use BlueHost for site hosting
So I started with BlueHost, and it was okay for a while.
The main reason it was okay was that I had NO clue what I was doing.
If you don’t know yet, there is a lot of coding a tech work that is absolutely necessary if you are going to run a profitable blog.
This is something no one will tell you, because honestly, it may turn you off to the idea of starting your own blog.
I really wish someone would have said to me,
“You need efficient blog hosting, and to know how to optimize your blog.
If you don’t, it will be super slow. So slow in fact, that the page with take 5 minutes to load, and then it is going to crash every 3 days.
You will be crying in your kitchen wondering what you did wrong and how you can possibly make this blog thing work.”
That would have been nice.
The real problem with BlueHost is…
they have NO optimization assistance, even with their most expensive package.
Optimization is the key to your blog functioning, and unless you are a skilled computer genius, this is extremely hard to do on your own.
I contacted BlueHost’s hosting support team what seemed like everyday for a month.
When they asked what I needed help with, I told them my site was crashing, it was super slow, and I needed help optimizing it so that it would run properly.
They told me everyday that I “needed to optimize my site”.
This was beyond maddening, especially because I was telling them that I needed help optimizing my site.
Why I will only ever use WPengine
I couldn’t handle it anymore.
This meant that I scoured the internet for a week looking for an answer, and a different site host.
Luckily for me, I found WPengine.
WPengine is literally a God-send for blog hosting.
And I mean that I was hard core praying for an answer to this problem before I finally found them.
There are a lot of things that caught my attention about their website, starting with their FULLY MANAGED site optimization.
They optimize your site for you! That means it will never crash, and never be slow. Ever.
WPengine is literally Word Press engine, which means it performs best for WordPress sites. When you sign up, they give you 35+ themes for FREE including Genesis Framework (an expensive, highly desired framework) and a lot of different Genesis themes.
That is over $2000 worth of incredible themes for free.
Another great thing is that they transferred my site over from BlueHost for free.
This was a super easy and painless transition, and I felt so relieved that my site has never crashed since I switched.
The support team is always prompt, helpful and ready to resolve any issue that has come up, which is really none.
I had a few questions when transferring my site over and they walked me through step by step till it was finished.
Why I LOVE WPengine, and recommend it highly.
It has just made my life so much easier.
You are a blogger, right?
So what do you want to be doing with your time?
Helping others, creating content, working on growing and scaling your business...
or sitting at your computer trying to fix a technical error that you have had no training for?
The answer was obvious for me.
I am a content creator, not a Tech Expert.
I know that my abilities are creative and that I want to help others and do some good, and using BlueHost was honestly holding me back from being able to do that.
My progress with my blog since I switched has been incredible, and I am so thankful I made the switch.
You get what you pay for
So your question now might be "How do I get started???" or "How much does this cost??"
Well, it is more expensive monetarily than BlueHost.
I say monetarily because BlueHost blog hosting packages start out at roughly $3 per month,
(if you pay annually, this is not their actual monthly rate if you pay month to month),
and WPengine is closer to $30 per month (also annually).
This is worth it to me though.
I figured I could pay $3 per month to be stressed out and get no help,
or I could pay $30 per month (get my first 3 months for free because that is an option)
and have my site totally managed for me, and never have to worry about my page load time or site crashing ever again.
I could actually have the freedom to create my content, and run my business the way I wanted to.
BlueHost is more expensive for your time.
You lose a lot of time and therefor money when you use BlueHost.
If you are interested in seeing what WPengine blog hosting can do for your business and your site,
I have a special deal through my links that lets you get 30% off of your first 3 months with WPengine.
If you appreciated this article and want to sign up or switch to WPengine, I would appreciate it if you use the links in my article to get started.
This helps me out by giving me a commission from WPengine at no additional cost to you for referring them.
Your support is always welcome and appreciated!
Click this link to get started with Wpengine today, and be free of the hassle that other site hosts put you through.
Beginner Blogging Tips
If you are just starting out blogging, there is a lot you are going to learn starting now. Don't give up though!
Blogging is the most rewarding job, and I LOVE it so much.
If you want to know more about blogging, and learn some valuable tips on running and starting a successful blog, click here!
I also have a list of the top 5 people that helped me learn how to grow as a blogger and inspired me to start my own business. Check them out in this article, and show them some love by going to their sites as well!
Leave a comment below,
I love hearing from your guys and would love to answer any questions you have!
Much love,
