WordPress specialized hosting exists in various places nowadays but in this post I’m going to introduce you to a service that goes a little bit further than just giving you server space to host your WordPress site or blog.

The following video shows you just how easily and quickly you can have your own WordPress blog using your own domain name, set up and ready to start publishing literally within two minutes.

WordPress Hosting Services – We Only Host WordPress Sites

I think you’ll agree that’s a pretty impressive and amazingly simple way to get started with WordPress. As the company say, “Easy Like WordPress.com with the freedom of WordPress.org” and for those who are put off by technical issues and the entire buying a domain name, buying a hosting account, installing WordPress on their domain and then setting up the blog and choosing the right theme and plugins this could be the ideal solution.

page.ly basically take away all that and enables you to set up your first blog with a few mouse clicks. No need for FTP, no need to learn cpanel, no need to even know anything about the beautifully simple script installer Fantastico.

If you can click a mouse and fill in a few boxes there is now no reason why you cannot have a really smart looking blog on WordPress without knowing much about anything that goes on underneath the hood.

Purists and those with experience might sniff and turn their noses up at a service like page.ly and that’s fine because it isn’t really aimed at the techs or geeks or experienced WordPress users. What it provides is a complete solution for anyone who has always wanted a stylish WordPress blog without having to go through much of a learning curve and this encompasses a huge number of potential customers. So whilst experienced users may criticize the idea that knowing nothing about the mechanics does not really prepare users for striking out on their own, so what? page.ly‘s demographic are likely to be quite happy to stay with the service for a long time and let’s be honest, no matter how simple WordPress may seem to some, it’s always going to be a bigger headache for some who just want to get on with blogging and not have to worry about those aspects.  Let’s be honest, making things simpler and more accessible is not a crime.

If you visit their site and have a look at exactly what’s on offer, you will see that this kind of service is going to bring the joys of WordPress to an even greater number of users than ever before and that has to be a good thing.

As you have seen from the video, signing up and getting started is so simple that even the most technically challenged could realistically have a better looking blog than many more experienced webmasters without all the blood sweat and tears, so if you find it a bit sickening it’s probably a touch of elitism creeping into your viewpoint.

So what exactly are you getting and how much does it cost? Well, you’ll get a fully functional WordPress blog all set up with your chosen theme and running a suite of plugins selected  by page.ly to ensure that you have most important issues covered without shopping around for them yourself.  You can add and delete plugins and change themes as you see fit just as you can with any WordPress site. After set up you work through the normal wp-admin interface so familiar to WP users around the globe.

(Plugins installed with every setup are : All In One SEO, Google Analyticator, Viper’s video Quicktags, Akismet, Google XML Sitemaps, twitter Tools, Statpress Reloaded, Tweetmeme, Sociable and CForms which I think is a good starting point for any new WordPress blogger).

You can choose a new domain or use any existing one that you own. Should you choose to leave Page’ly at any time you will be able to do so and yes, you will be able to move your site and domain to a new host if you wish to. One point I could not find an answer to however was the price of the domains and the registrar used – something you may want to clarify so you know how much your yearly domain name registration is going to cost should you ever decide to move.

You are billed monthly by page.ly using either a credit card or Paypal, there is no minimum contract period.

The standard package costs a reasonable $14.98 per month – reasonable because your domain name is included in the price and you are paying for convenience and ease of use.  It might seem expensive to an established blogger or webmaster getting a sub $10 per month hosting account but as we’ve seen, page.ly customers will pay for the simplicity of the service.

One thing that I could not establish at the time of writing is the storage and bandwidth available for an account. If anyone could clarify that it would be interesting to know.

There are also several additional services that the company refer to as “power ups” which include things like FTP access and POP3/IMAP email accounts for a one off $5 each. For those who want premium WordPress themes you can access the entire collections from StudioPress  or 16 Woo Themes templates for $15 per month. There is an additional one time $10 setup fee to access either option. Ultimately, for a premium themed WordPress blog you would pay $39.98 for your first month and then $29.98 monthly thereafter.

Custom design services are also available – prices will obviously vary depending upon individual requirements.

That starts to look a little more expensive but again, for those with little or no knowledge it puts them in a position to have a blog that is up there amongst the best in terms of design and functionality.

Would I pay that? No, I have to say I wouldn’t but then again I’m not really a target customer and have years of WordPress experience under my belt as well as the confidence to run my own VPS. I also host more than just WordPress sites.

Do I think it’s good value? Overall, I would have to say that the basic package looks very fairly priced in view of what you are getting and whilst the premium themes options add a fair chunk of change, a lot of people are going to feel it’s worth it to have a stunning looking blog without paying designers or having to roll up their sleeves and learn about coding and such. For a non technical person, there probably isn’t an easier way to achieve that so to that person, yes, it’s probably good value for money.

Paying a one off  five bucks for FTP access or email services seems a bit mean, and the one thing I would criticize, although it’s hardly a lot of money and again, it’s horses for courses. Probably a lot of their users aren’t ever going to FTP into the server if all they are running is one WordPress blog.

If all this sounds good to you, I would suggest you head over to the site where most questions you might have will be answered.

Visit Pagely WordPress Hosting Here

In conclusion, page.ly will delight those new to WordPress but is perhaps not for the more experienced. They are actually quite candid about this on their own site. If you are considering your first WordPress blog, or have considered it and rejected it through fear of the perceived technical aspects, they could be exactly what you need.

We’d love to hear from anyone using the service or anyone who has used it. What were your experiences? Would you recommend it to others? How you found things like support and service as a paying customer and how your site performed in terms of uptime and loading speeds etc. Any other observations, questions or comments are also welcomed.

TCH

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