Difference Between WordPress Starter and Web Hosting
For those who are looking for a new website and don’t want to spend months building it from the ground up, there are alternatives. The popular blog-hosting platforms, like WordPress.com and WordPress.org, offer an easy way to get a professional-looking site up and running in no time.
These platforms offer basic features for free, but if you want more advanced functionality, you have to pay a small monthly fee. The two most common types of charges are:
Domain Name Registration
Every website has a domain name. This is the address of the site, such as www.example.com, that you can use to reach it. When you purchase a domain name, you’re also purchasing the right to use a certain amount of server space on popular web hostings platforms. For example, www.example.com costs $15/year, but with WordPress.com you get 1GB of disk space and $500 monthly hosting charges.
WordPress.com and WordPress.org are two of the most popular platforms for blogging. If you’ve ever used a blog platform, like Blogger or Medium, you’ll know what kind of functionality they provide. WordPress is a bit more sophisticated than those platforms, but it offers a lot for free. If you’ve never used a blogging platform, WordPress can seem a little overwhelming. That’s why we’ve gone ahead and provided you with a complete step-by-step guide, explaining everything you need to know about setting up a professional and reliable WordPress website.
Premium Features
Premium Features are what sets the blogs apart from the ordinary websites. These are the extra amenities that cost money and can be accessed by anyone who pays for them. Most web hostings offer tools for bloggers who want to monetize their content through affiliate marketing or advertising. The most popular premium features are:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Content Management System (CMS)
- Ecommerce Functionality
- Video Hosting
- RoboForm
- Really Simple Registration
- Accordion Style Navigation
- And Many More
Accordion style navigation makes it easy for website visitors to navigate between different sections of your site. For example, you might have a blog post about fashion and style, and wanted to provide more information about the latest fashion trends. Instead of forcing the reader to constantly return to the homepage to find the specific post they want, with accordion style navigation, they can click on a heading to expand the list of articles, and then click on the one they want.
So, if you’ve ever had a blog that you thought was pretty good, but wasn’t performing well enough to cover your costs, you may want to consider paying for a premium feature-set. The cost of these features can range from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars, depending on the level of service you need. Even if you don’t want to monetize your content, having a few of these premium features might be appealing, depending on your site’s goals.
Security
It’s no secret that the world of online business is a dangerous place. Hackers are constantly searching for ways to steal your personal information or knock your website offline. One of the most popular ways to do this is by compromising your website’s security. This can happen if you don’t take the necessary precautions when installing and maintaining your site. Luckily, there are solutions. Installing a security plugin for your WordPress site is one of the simplest ways to protect your data and ensure that your site is always secure.
The most popular WordPress security plugins are WPTavern and WordPress HTTPS.
WPTavern provides several features, including free backups, security from malware, spam, and hacking, along with the ability to restore from backups. As the name suggests, the WordPress HTTPS plugin encrypts your traffic, preventing eavesdroppers from accessing your data. Once you have the plugin activated, all your posts and pages will be encrypted. This means that not only your visitors’ data, but also the contents of your site’s pages and posts, are protected from being intercepted by third parties.
To learn more, you can visit these websites:
- WordPress HTTPS
- WPTavern
Once you’re done installing and configuring your WordPress site, you may want to take a few minutes to configure your email addresses for both your blog and website. If you use a hosted email service like Gmail, you may want to consider creating a filter so that your emails don’t end up in your spam folder. This will help ensure that you always have free mailboxes available for new messages.
With these steps, you’ll be able to launch a professional-looking website in no time – at least enough time to cover the cost of your domain name registration. If you don’t want to go through the trouble of setting up your own site, this is the next best thing. You’ll have all the functionality of a fully-fledged blog, but without having to worry about the upkeep and maintenance. Plus, you’ll be able to focus on what’s important to you, instead of wasting time with unproductive activities. So, in the end, it’s all about personal preference. Do you want to go the easy route and use a pre-made template, or do you want to set up your own site from the ground up?