So you’re ready to launch your first affiliate marketing website. You’ve considered your options and have decided to go with managed WordPress hosting. Congratulations, you have made a great choice! I’ve tried a variety of different hosting options and have found that of all of them, managed WordPress hosting is by far the very best hosting option. With managed hosting, I’ve been able to just focus on running my business and not stress about my websites. Since I made the switch to managed hosting, I’ve seen a lot of growth and I’m sure you will too. So here is my review of the top managed WordPress hosting provider.
Why Choose WordPress As Your CMS
Before I go into my pick for the top managed WordPress hosting provider, I wanted to spend a little time discussing why WordPress is a great content management system (CMS) for affiliate marketers. WordPress is completely free to use and there are even free templates you can customize for the unique needs of your business. WordPress is also very easy to use, so no matter your technical skills you can build a gorgeous and easy to use website. Most importantly though, for our industry WordPress is king. WordPress has tons of great plugins for affiliates that you just can’t find with another CMS. They have all the tools to drive traffic, track conversions, and find opportunities to grow. I highly recommend using WordPress as an affiliate marketer.
What Is Managed WordPress Hosting
Once you’ve built your WordPress site, you’ll need to find a hosting provider. Managed WordPress hosting is the best choice because it is specifically designed for WordPress sites. Other sites can host WordPress, but often times it’s like putting a square peg in a round hole. They can make it fit, but you won’t get the dedication and expertise you need to thrive. Managed WordPress hosting is a premium service where all the technical aspects of running your website are handled by WordPress experts. They maintain the server, support customization, and have the knowledge necessary to ensure your site is running at optimum performance.
What Are The Benefits Of Managed Hosting?
There are many benefits to choosing the top managed WordPress hosting provider for your web services including:
Speed: Speed is critical to the success of your website. If you have slow load times, visitors will get frustrated and navigate away from your page before you have a chance to engage them in your content. Managed WordPress hosting offers the fastest speed available because you not only get a dedicated team to support the technical aspects of hosting, but the servers are optimized for supporting WordPress sites.
Security: Security is also very important nowadays. Managed WordPress hosts offer a higher level of security than other services because they have dedicated staff, expertise, and security services tailored to WordPress sites, plus it’s all done for you.
Customer Support: If you are running a WordPress site, you won’t be able to beat the customer support of a managed hosting provider. When you call the customer service line, you will always reach an expert technician who specializes in WordPress. So they can provide the information you won’t get from other service reps.
Backups: Managed WordPress hosting also offers a lot of redundancy, so your site is always backed up. This means that you won’t experience lags or downtime as often as you would with another provider.
Updates: WordPress is constantly updating and managed WordPress hosting providers keep up-to-date on these updates. So you will always have access to the latest technology.
Customization: Since they are tailored specifically for WordPress sites and not just all CMS providers, managed WordPress hosts have more customization tools available. That means you can do a lot more without worrying about your technical skills or ending up with upcharges for basic tools.
What To Look For In The Top Managed WordPress Hosting Provider
Managed hosting is a great option, but like with any hosting, there are tons of providers out there. When deciding the top managed WordPress hosting provider, there are definitely things to look for before choosing one. I recommend making sure your managed WordPress hosting provider:
Scalability: You may be a small business now, but what happens in the future when you grow? The last thing you need to deal with is moving hosting companies when you are growing. So make sure that any company offers easy scalability.
Customer Support: Customer support is important if you are like me and not particularly technical. A good hosting provider will be available 24/7, 365 to answer your questions. This is especially important since most of us start our affiliate marketing business while we have a day job, so we need that after hours access.
Affordable Pricing: As small business owners, we all have to really consider price into any decision we make. We need affordable solutions, but at the same time, we can’t just choose the cheapest option because we need to actually get a return on every investment. The top managed WordPress hosting provider balances cost and performance. You can start off with basic and cheap hosting and upgrade as necessary.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention finding a managed WordPress host that offers support specific to marketers. Having the support tailored to our industry is incredibly helpful, especially when a hosting company is easy to work with for the newbie that doesn’t know anything about building websites.
My Choice Of The Top Managed WordPress Hosting Provider
Finally, considering all these factors, my choice for the top managed WordPress hosting provider is Blue Host. There are so many reasons I’ve chosen Blue Host as the top managed WordPress hosting provider, but the number one reason is I’ve had great experience with them personally. Their support for affiliate marketers goes above and beyond any other WordPress managed hosting provider I’ve ever used. Their WordPress expertise is top notch, their support representatives are always available to answer my questions, and I’ve never had issues with performance or security. They are also incredibly affordable. Use this link to get started for just $2.95 per month and that includes a domain name as well! You just can’t beat the combination of price and performance.
Serious about becoming an affilaite marketer? Let's set up your website! It's not as hard as you might think! Just follow these simple step-by-step instructions, and for $2.95 per month, you'll have your own domain name on a WordPress website with discounted Bluehost web hosting. Ready to get started? Let's go!
Step 1: Visit Bluehost.com
If you use
this link you'll get discounted pricing for just $2.95/mo. So click
here
to
visit Bluehost.com.
Bluehost is the #1 recommended
web
hosting by WordPress.org. It
also happens to be my top recommendation. Every account features 1-click
WordPress
installation. It is one of the most well known, mos popular, and affordable web
hosting
options. Bluehost is especially great for
beginners due to their user friendly
features and one-click WordPress installation.
Click the "get started now" button and let’s get started! (see above). Select a hosting plan that fits your needs. (Normally, if you are just starting out I recommend the basic plan but, if you are really serious about this and want more resources & power go with their Prime or Pro plan). Keep in mind, you can always upgrade your plan as you grow.
Step 2: Pick Your Domain Name
Search for a domain with the domain name search tool below. Don’t spend a ton of time on this step, you can always change the domain name later. If you already have a domain name, type it in the "I have a domain name" box. Bluehost is generous enough to throw in a FREE domain name with every new hosting account created.
The next step is to fill out your account and billing information.
Review the package information below and decide what term/add-ons are desired. The biggest bang for your buck is on the 60 month term, but you can choose 36 months, 24 months or 12 months. Please note that Bluehost will charge you upfront for the entire term.
Insert payment information and accept the terms.
Congrats, your hosting account has been created! Bluehost will send you a welcome email.
Create your password. Make sure to review the requirements for creating the password. If you need help you can always click the “Suggest Password” option. Regardless, I recommend notating it just to be safe. You’ll end up needing it later on.
Go ahead and login to start getting familiar with your new Bluehost account.
Step 3: Install Your WordPress Website
Thanks to Bluehost, after your hosting account has been created WordPress will automatically install. Start off by picking a theme, these are all free themes from WordPress.org. You can always update or customize your theme later.
Now that you’ve picked your theme, let’s jump into WordPress and get you even closer to constructing that first blog post.
Decide whether this site will be for business or personal use.
On this step, you’ll see an overview of Bluehost+WordPress integration. You can manage WordPress plugins and blog posts or pages here.
Here’s a revamped dashboard of the Bluehost control panel.
Now you can make your site look how you want! Since you are using WordPress the sky's the limit! If you're looking for a great tutorial on how to build a great looking WordPress site, check out this video.
