I have gone on and on how important it is to host your own blog because I believe it to be the most important aspect of being a blogger. Owning your own blog gives you complete control over how you run it as well as being able to employ all the SEO tactics you can get your hands on. Not to mention that if you seriously want to blog for money, most companies will only employ bloggers who do host on their own domain.
As an Australian I used to host with an Aussie company but moved it overseas when their hosting costs became too high. Hosting with and overseas company is OK unless something goes wrong and you need to talk to someone to get it fixed. Phone calls are too expensive and trying to work it out through emails is excruciating slow.
I now know that if I am going to host any extra blogs or websites I will try to find an Australian company that will meet my criteria. One just like Host Smart that offers hosting from as little as $1 although I would go for a package that offers more facilities.
Thanks a lot for this article. You really help me to choose the right hosting for my blog 🙂
Cool, which package did you go for?