Aaack! Can Anyone Recommend a Good Web Host?

Flash back to 2004, at the NECC Conference in New Orleans. I think it was during David Thornburg’s spotlight session that I decided to jump into blogging. I did not do a ton of research; rather I wanted to get going quickly. One of the blogging services I took note of (and which happened to be hosting quite a few blogs featured that year) was Teacherhosting.com. I signed up for the basic blogging service, used their provided wizard/templates to get started, and off I went. I did not necessarily know the ins and outs of managing my own blog, but the challenge of it was cool.

I have purposely stayed with managing my own blog, playing with the mysql databases, installing my own WordPress management system, etc. I do not for one moment pretend to be a techie when it comes to this stuff. My usual preference is for hosted services who do all the dirty work in the background. I want to have an understanding of the technical side of things, and have learned that it is really not magic – just occasionally complex – to manage a site.

I’m very proud of how this blog has grown, in many ways. For example, the move from the more generic russo.teacherhosting.com to the domain I purchased, pointatopointb.org was a personal milestone. I’ve carefully caressed the look and feel of the site, in addition to the writing (which of course is most important). Check out some of the posts from that first summer of blogging here.

Fast forward to yesterday, and the following email from Teacherhosting.com:

“Effective Monday, June 30, 2008, TeacherHosting.com will cease providing Web hosting and e-mail services. This e-mail contains important information about actions that you�ll need to take to prevent any potential interruption in service or data loss.”

So suddenly in my quest to understand and manage my own site, I now have to figure out how to move hosts. Aaack! Can anyone recommend a good web host (and any tips for a successful move)?