This is the 4th month that I have been hosting my website at Hostgator. I did the big move from Ipage in November of last year and has been testing the waters over at Hostgator since then.
A few reasons prompted me to move from iPage to Hostgator.
For starters, I have always wanted to scale up Blogscheme into a bigger brand that offers free blogs as well as custom domain registration and hosting for clients.
A prerequisite to this was that I obtain an SSL certificate to secure my website.
Hostgator’s business plan hosting comes with a free SSL certificate, which I gladly took advantage of. Of course I could have gotten an SSL certificate from GoDaddy at $12.00 per annum or from NameCheap at $7.95 per year. So, I can’t say that the SSL certificate issue was what really prompted me to make the big switch from iPage to Hostgator.
Come to think of it, the only reason why I moved hosting providers is simple: I wanted to taste what the grass on the other side of the fence really feels like. I like exploring stuff on the internet.
The Cost of Moving from iPage to Hostgator
iPage charges an average of $40.00 to host your website for two years compared to Hostgator, who charge $180 to host your website for one year!
The figures do not come anywhere close in comparison. This is the one reason why I recommend new bloggers and businesses to host their sites at iPage before build them up and only move to another web hosting provider when their blogs are making some money.
(By the way Blogscheme pays for its own hosting and maintenance fees of around 25,000/= per year).
I also host a few other websites on the same hosting account at Hostgator. The total income from these niche websites more than covers the cost of hosting and maintenance. My next big move is to move Blogscheme on a dedicated WordPress server environment.
Apart from the monetary costs, moving a website from one web hosting account to another also takes a good chunk of your time, hair pulling and nail biting. One of my websites remained offline for close to 72 hours before I could complete the switch from iPage to Hostgator!
In the meantime, if you have a web design project that you would like me to take care of, feel free to contact me on 0710251380. Starting at only Ksh 5,000 for a simple blog, mine are the best web design rates you will find in town.
Patrick Mahinge is a prolific digital marketer and "serial webpreneur". He runs multiple profitable niche websites and blogs monetized through affiliate marketing and advertising. Patrick generously shares his expertise in affiliate marketing, blogging, and online business through his Facebook group of over 5,000 aspiring entrepreneurs.
