Here is your guide on how to start a website with Dreamhost web hosting. Launching a website for affiliate marketing requires a web hosting as explained here. Dreamhost is one of the web hosts which has some prominent features to offer.
Full Affiliate Disclosure:
Fulltime Blogging is a participant in the Dreamhost affiliate program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to dreamhost.com. As a Dreamhost Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
PROS:
CONS:
As you have already known, you can go straight to Dreamhost as the initial step since it has the tools and the services you need to accomplish this goal. It has the key elements for creating a website: web hosting, domain name, site builder tools, themes and plugins.
1. Purchase A Hosting Service, Register A Domain Name
Since you want to create a website on WordPress, it is great to know that Dreamhost is among the recommended web hosts by wordpress.org. See Figure 1.
Figure 1
Types of hosting and the plan that will suit your (beginner's) needs and budget:
- Shared Starter Hosting - This is a cost-effective option to start a website. Plans are cheap since your website will share with other websites the space offered by a single physical server.
- Shared Unlimited Hosting - This is ideal for WordPress. It includes WordPress pre-installation and will let you host unlimited websites.
shared starter
$2.59/mo*
shared unlimited
$4.95/mo*
The above rates are for 3-years term - the most cost effective option. Should you want a "no-commitment plan," you can opt for a per month (cancel anytime) basis until you are decided.
Monthly Plan | Shared Starter | Shared Unlimited |
|---|---|---|
1st 3 months (per month) | $4.95 | $10.95 |
After 3 months onwards (per month) | $6.99 | $11.99 |
These plans and prices are up to date as of October 2020.
You must first create your Dreamhost account (provide your email and set your password). Add the Shared Unlimited plan (recommended) to your cart. At checkout, review the extra options you may add to your purchase such as Dream Shield Protection.
On the same page when signing up for shared hosting, you will see three options pertaining to domain names. You may add a domain name you already have, register for a new domain name or choose your domain name later. You need to have a registered domain name before your website goes online.
After settling the payment, check your email for information in getting started.
2. Navigate Through Your Dreamhost Panel
Sign in to your cPanel using the login details you provided during registration. Once inside the panel, you will see numerous elements you should familiarize yourself with.
The Domain menu is for managing registered domain name and adding new ones.
WordPress menu is where you can access one-click installations and DreamPress services you purchased.
Mail menu is where to configure emails related to your website.
Users menu is where you may add user accounts and set their levels of access.
Be sure to explore other menus. If you did not register a domain during sign up, navigate to the “Domains” menu and choose “Registrations.” You will see a page for the domain registration and choose from among the options and features. The minimum term of domain name registration is 1 year. Other terms are 2 years and 3 years. Your domain will be available online within 24-72 hours.
3. Access Your WordPress Website
It is for convenience that you check the box for WordPress Pre-install and WP Site Builder during registration so you can go straight ahead to customizing your website. Otherwise, you need to contact Dreamhost Support first to turn on the site builder.
The first thing you will see is BoldGrid Inspirations for choosing a theme for your site, choosing a page option and entering important details. On the same page, you will also find the section for activating BoldGrid Backup plugin if you like to transfer your existing WP website from a different host to Dreamhost. Once activated, you will immediately be able to use the Site Transfer wizard.
Just like other hosting providers, Dreamhost offers other products and services that will improve your website.
1. SSL Certificate
The (Secure Sockets Layer) SSL Certificate will allow you to give your site visitors and patrons the guarantee of secured interactions while they use your website. SSL certificates allow for secured transmission of sensitive data across the internet. Web users can easily discern if a website uses SSL or not by just looking at the URL. A website with SSL certificate will have a URL “https://www.domain.com” while a website with no SSL will have a URL “http://www.domain.com” and will display a "not secure" notice in Google Chrome.
Dreamhost offers free SSL certificate, so why not take advantage of it? SSL is especially necessary when you have an e-commerce website.
If you chose the "Shared Starter" package instead of the "Shared Unlimited," you need to add SSL manually. To add SSL certificate to your site, go to “Domains” menu and choose “Manage Domains.” There, you can click SSL/TSL Certificates. There are two options you will see here. Free “Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate” is ideal for a personal website. The “Comodo certificate from Sectigo” is for $15/year and is suitable for an e-commerce site.
You also have the option to import SSL certificates from another provider.
2. Set Up Email Address Related To Your Domain
If you have subscribed to the Shared Unlimited hosting plan, know that you can set up unlimited emails. There is a more professional vibe when you communicate with your visitors through an email that relates to your domain name, such as youremail@yourdomain.com.
Look for the “Mail” menu in your dashboard, then choose “Webmail” to add a new email or to access your inbox. Here, you may also setup other mail features like Announcement Lists, Autoresponders and AntiSpam.
3. Add Malware Remover
A malware remover will protect your website against malicious software or code. To add such feature to your domain, go to Domains and choose Manage Domains. Click the DreamShield option. Be aware that this is an add-on feature available for $3/month.
Dreamhost Web Hosting Plans and Pricing
I honestly got a headache creating a table for Dreamhost's pricing, LOL.
After several drafts, here's my conclusion. You should start small. Opt for the monthly, no-commitment plan until you are decided to stick to the platform. Should you decide to get a yearly plan, go for the 3-years term because that is the most cost-saving plan. If you get the 1-year plan only, you'll resume to the normal price faster (i.e. after 1-year), compared to getting the 3-years plan which can let you enjoy the promotional price for three years before you start paying for the normal non-promotional price.
"Dreampress" offers optimum performance, security and uptime through support and services specific for WordPress sites. You may opt to upgrade later once you reach the limits of your Shared Unlimited plan.
Dreamhost offers different hosting products and services aside from the ones we looked at above:
Although it is a web hosting provider, it also offers domain name registration, website builder, web design and email hosting.
- WooCommerce Hosting is for online stores powered by WordPress.
- VPS Hosting offers isolated resources for better performance, control and space for growth.
- Dedicated Server Hosting lets you use an entire server’s resources.
- Cloud Hosting provides powerful cloud computing services.
- Custom Web Design lets you have a website that is completely unique to your brand.
- Domain Registration is for managing your domain names.
- Email Hosting is for having powerful emails at your domain.
- Marketing Services
- Website Management Services
- SEO Marketing
In Closing
Dreamhost provides everything you need to get the ball rolling. The price is not intimidating and affordable for anyone just starting out. For a newbie blogger's SHARED HOSTING point of view, I would prefer Dreamhost over Bluehost.
Dreamhost has a comparable plan with Cloudways (the hosting service I recommend for people who do not have access to Wealthy Affiliate).
Cloudways | Dreamhost |
|---|---|
 |  |
Lowest Monthly Price: $10/month (no lock-in) | Lowest Monthly Price: $15/month (no lock-in) |
Name of plan/server: Digital Ocean | Name of plan/server: VPS Basic |
Server Size/RAM: 1GB | Server Size/RAM: 1GB |
Processor: 1 Core | Processor: No upfront exact figures |
SSD (Storage) Disk: 25 GB | SSD (Storage) Disk: 30 GB |
Bandwidth: 1TB | Bandwidth: They don't track it. Look for the fine print. |
IP Address: 1 | IP Address: No upfront information |
Upfront option to choose a server's location: Yes | Upfront option to choose a server's location: No |
Pay As You Go Option: Yes | Pay As You Go Option: No |
Scale Up Anytime: Yes | Scale Up Anytime: Depends on your plan. If you choose a plan with a lock-in period, read the terms and conditions. |
Why chose Cloudways: The Pay As You Go Option is good since as you experience the platform, you can change your mind about the add-ons you purchase. When I created another server for tutorial purposes, it appeared in my billing realtime. But when I removed it the next day, it was removed from my billing, too.
If Digital Ocean server ended up not suitable for you anymore, you can change servers without leaving the Cloudways platform.
Billing is one calendar month after consumption. As you need more features, the option to scale up is there. It's an affordable choice for something that you do not need to share anyone with.
Despite having a good reputation, Dreamhost needs to have upfront figures displayed instead of "unlimited" and "unmetered" words which have disclosures and fine prints attached. Most people would be enticed with the shining adjectives.
For people looking for technical specifications like me, I am not going to pay for adjectives. I need figures/numbers before I open my wallet.
As a newbie, I highly encourage you to get a “Managed” plan. Site Support is important as you can get stuck with technicals, and it can hinder your content creation process.
Managing your own server is ideal if you know the technicals already or are patient enough to get past any technical learning curve. With this, hosting in Wealthy Affiliate is a good starting point.
Here’s a comparable table with Dreamhost:
Dreamhost | Wealthy Affiliate |
|---|---|
|  |
Lowest Monthly Price: $16.95/month (1 year minimum) Normal Price: $19.95/month | Lowest All-In Monthly Price: 49/month no commitment |
Name of plan/server: DreamPress | Name of plan/server: Wealthy Affiliate Premium/Amazon Web Services (AWS) |
SSD (Storage) Disk: 30 GB | SSD (Storage) Disk: 30 GB |
Bandwidth: 100,000 Monthly Visitors | Bandwidth:
|
Premium Site Support: Phone Call, Chat, Ticket Support | Premium Site Support: Included but not priority |
Site Speed/Caching: Included/Built-in | Site Speed/Caching: Included/Built-in |
Site Protect/Website Security: Dreamshield: $3/month | Site Protect/Website Security: Built-in/Included (up to 10 websites) |
Professional Emails: Unlimited | Professional Emails: Unlimited |
Number of Websites Allowed: As long as the plan specification still allows | Number of Websites Allowed: 10 ($100/mo. value) |
Managed 24/7: Yes | Managed 24/7: Yes |
Dual Server Hosting Redundancy: Not specified | Dual Server Hosting Redundancy: Yes |
Instant DNS: Not specified | Instant DNS: Yes |