Career Enlightenment readers may have noticed a disruption in service recently.

All of my websites were down — this one, the video eLearning and the webinar registration. And I’ve spent the last two days getting up and running again, and learned a TON.

If you are thinking about setting up a blog or website, I would like to share with you 3 things your next hosting company MUST have.

By the way, I’m not one to badmouth other people, but in this case, choosing this host would be a serious enough mistake that I’ll tell you. The old, and crappy host, was Host Nine (H9).

The new and fabulous host is Blue Host. If you decide to use them and you like my blog, you can support me by using an affiliate link. If you’d rather not use my affiliate link, you can use the second link.

My Blue Host Affiliate Link

A non-affliate Blue Host Link

Must Have #1: Phone Support

The previous host thought it would be cool to transfer me over to a new server without telling me. Since I use a different redirection server, this migration effectively killed all of my websites.

So the easy answer is to pop in the new address of the new servers and wait 24 hours for propagation. I did this.

And the websites were still messed up.

All the while I’m exchanging emails with H9’s tech support. And because there are 3 or 4 tech people on this case, they start asking me repeat questions. Back and forth, back and forth. Finally, I BEG them please let’s just get on the phone and bang this problem out in a few minutes.

Nope. Total and utter refusal.

By the end, I had exchanged 25 emails with them.

In contrast, I had my sites up and running in just a few hours following a very friendly phone call with Blue Host.

I will never again choose a host that doesn’t provide technical phone support.

Not only did I rescue my site quickly, but I learned a ton!

Must Have #2: Admin Access Separate from Domain

H9 gave me access to my control panel via the main domain. So when the domain disappeared when they migrated servers, I could no longer control things.

This was bad because I needed the control panel to backup my blog.

Blue Host gives you access to your domain’s control panel through a separate login. So if the DNS messed up or the domain had other problems, you could still access your databases.

Must Have #3: Free Perks

Host Nine offered me a hosting service. Period. That’s fine.

But with Blue Host, I got $25 worth of Google Ads, $25 worth of Yahoo Ads and $25 worth of Ask Ads.

I also got a free domain registration.

There are enough partnerships and promotions these days that allow hosting companies to really sweeten the pot.

Don’t get fooled by the cheap prices. These companies might offer great deals at first, then get quickly overloaded with customers that they can’t handle. Make sure your next host has been around for a while. It’s important to look for these three elements when choosing which company to host your blog.

What’s that? What’s that you say?

You don’t have a blog yet? And you are a job seeker!

Don’t worry, the guy with the blog is going to get that job anyway.

There are other things to look out for with a host. If you can think of any, please feel free to share!