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Whether you’re planning to host a web site or a blog, I recommend using cPanel hosting. cPanel makes managing your blog hosting very easy, especially if, like me, you’re not a “techie” but would like to manage your own blog, web site or business online.

For this post, I am going to assume that you have done your research and found a reliable webhosting company that is customer driven and that offers excellent support. If you’re looking for a great blog hosting service provider but don’t know where to start, then the two companies I highly recommend you look into are:

Hostgator – This company offers great value for money hosting for most blogs and websites, especially for small businesses.

LiquidWeb.com – They’re not the cheapest host, but they offer superior web hosting services and heroic customer support. I recommend this hosting company if you need a dedicated web server for your web presence with 24×7 support that will guarantee your peace of mind.

I use both of these companies for hosting my own sites as well as those of my clients and I am more than happy with the excellent service and value for money they provide.

Now, let me share with you some great cPanel Webhosting features that will make your blog hosting management really easy:

cPanel Video Tutorials

Here are just some of the video tutorials users can access from their cPanel management consoles:

• My SQL – Learn how to create and modify MySQL databases in cPanel.
• Subdomains – Learn all about creating and managing subdomains.
• Addon Domains – Learn about creating and managing addon domains.
• Parked Domains – Learn about creating and managing parked domains.
• Redirects – Learn how to make a specific web page redirect to another page and display the contents of that page with redirects
• Password Protect Directories – Learn how to limit access to a certain part of your site by requiring a user name and password to access a folder or folders from the web.
• Hotlink Protection – Learn how to prevent other websites from directly linking to files on your website.
• IP Deny Manager – Learn how to block a range of IP addresses to prevent them from accessing your site.
• Site Software – Learn how to install Blogs, Bulletin Boards, CMS, Chat, Ecommerce, and more!
• File Manager – Learn how to quickly manage all of the files in your server.
• Web Disk – Learn how to easily drag and drop files to your hosting account.
• Email Accounts – Learn how to manage the email accounts associated with your domain(s).
• Forwarders – Learn how to send a copy of all mail from one email address to another.
• Auto Responders – Learn how to send a message back automatically to anyone who sends an email to a certain account.
• Mailing Lists – Learn how to send messages to a large group of people.
• … and more!

The cPanel video tutorials are short, well-paced, easy to follow and guide users step-by-step through each of the features. If you are new to managing a blog or web site online, then these videos are an excellent source of reference and are included in most webhosting services that use cPanel.

File Manager

You can save a great deal of time when it comes to doing a full site backup and/or exporting all of your site’s files (e.g. you should do a complete backup if you’re upgrading a WordPress blog to the next version), by simply doing the following:

1) Log into your cpanel control area and select “File Manager”

2) If you get a dialog box popping up the first time you access this feature, then just tick the boxes (“show hidden files” and “don’t show this again”) and click the button to dismiss the popup window.

3) Click on “Select All” to select all of the files in your server.

4) Click on “Compress” to create one big “zip” file containing all of your server files …

5) Choose “Zip Archive” then click on “Compress File(s)”. Click on “close” to close the window after all of your files have been compressed …

6) Select the new zip file containing all of your compressed site files, and click on “Download”.

7) Choose a location in your hard drive to save your file and download it. After your file has been downloaded, you can delete the large “zipped” file from your server by selecting it and clicking on the “Delete” button inside the File Manager screen.

Your entire site will now be backed up. This process is much faster than most other methods (e.g. if you tried to transfer your site’s files via FTP).

Using File Manager to backup your website or blog is pretty neat and fast, but not as neat and fast as importing a large number of files into your server.

Now, here’s where this feature becomes really useful …

If you have to import a large number of files (or even a large file – depending on your hosting limits), one of the quickest ways to do it, is to zip all of the files you need to import, then go into File Manager, select “Upload”, find the zipped file in your hard drive, then upload it into the folder in your server where you want the files to appear (e.g. “public_html”).

Once the zip file has been uploaded, you then simply select the file in your File Manager window, then click “Extract” and all of the files will have been imported into the server directory folder you’ve specified. If you’re reimporting files or upgrading them, the unzipped files will automatically replace the existing files in your server with the same filenames.

Again, in most instances this will make uploading files to your server so much faster than trying to transfer a large number files using an FTP software client.

Fantastico

Fantastico is basically an add-on program that allows you to install a number of different applications on your domain very easily. You literally open up the Fantastico management panel from within your cPanel hosting console, select the application you want to install, and in just a few clicks of your mouse, the feature will be installed and ready to go.

Here are just a few of the programs and scripts you can install on your domain easily with Fantastico using cPanel:

• Blogs – Install blogging platforms like b2evolution, Nucleus and WordPress
• Classifieds – Noahs Classifieds
• Content Management – Drupal, Geeklog, Joomla, Mambo, PHP-Nuke, phpWCMS, phpWebSite, Siteframe, TYPO3, Xoops, Zikula
• Customer Relationship – Crafty Syntax Live Help, Help Center Live, osTicket, PerlDesk, PHP Support Tickets, Support Logic Helpdesk, Support Services Manager
• Discussion Boards – phpBB, SMF (Simple Machines Forum)
• E-Commerce – CubeCart, OS Commerce, Zen Cart
• F.A.Q. – FAQMasterFlex
• Image Galleries – 4Images Gallery, Coppermine Photo Gallery, Gallery
• Mailing Lists – PHPlist
• Polls and Surveys – Advanced Poll, LimeSurvey, phpESP
• Project Management – dotProject, PHProjekt
• Plus other scripts like site builders, Wiki software programs, web calendars, form generators, banner advertising management programs (e.g. OpenX) and more.

Most webhosting service providers that offer cPanel will include Fantastico in their hosting packages. If you don’t see it when you log into your cPanel area (the icon with a smiley face), then consider contacting your hosting provider and ask them to install it for you, especially if you plan on installing a blog on your domain name.

Some of the other great cPanel features worth mentioning are the ability to easily set up email addresses and email forwarders, install MySQL databases (used in many scripts and software applications), set up password-protected folders and directories and create subdomains, parked domains and redirects.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I am not particularly technical, and so having something like cPanel that makes managing all aspects of blog hosting and web hosting very easy, as well as using webhosting service providers that offer excellent customer support when required, means that I can manage my own web presence without having to pay someone else to do it and focus most of my work time on running my online businesses.

I hope you have found this information useful and practical.

If you plan to set up a blog for your business but don’t know where to start, then check out my “How To Set Up A Blog” video tutorials, which includes step-by-step instructions on how to install a WordPress blog using Fantastico, as well as how to set up and configure your blog to help you grow your business online faster.

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