Post Punk Kitchen Forum

So I've been reading up for the past few weeks and have gotten a basic understanding of the terminology and process of web hosting. But when it came to actually deciding on service, sorting through everything, finding hidden fees, etc, just gave me a huge headache and I'm feeling a bit lost.

Here's what I'd like to do at this point:

1. Register domains for my blogs and transfer the content. This whole process can wait, but it's something I'd like to do eventually if I'm going to buy hosting. I was reading about transferring wordpress.com blog content to wordpress.org, then importing that into the new site? Is that the way to go to not lose my content? Is there an easier or better way to do this?
2. Create a website for my photography/art/food photography/baking portfolios. Likely will just use a free template until I can design it.
3. Make a forum for recipe testing, as a sub-domain off of any of the above websites. I want to get this done asap, which is a lot of the reason I'm tackling this now.
4. Sometime in the near-ish future, I'd like to set up another site for bakery/catering stuff, that may also involve online orders, so online store stuff would need to be taken into consideration.

/total n00b. My brain just doesn't work like this at all.

Would I be okay using shared hosting?
Recommendations for hosting to use (I've been reading reviews all night...and when I was ready to order "$3.95/month!!" turned into "$3.95 for the first year, then our regular fee of $11.95 that was never mentioned before this last point of checkout!", "domain is $11.95/year after the first year!" a few times)?
I'm making no money off of any of this right now (or anywhere else for that matter) and those circumstances will likely stay the same for a while, so cost-friendly. But I feel like having a polished website for bakery/catering portfolios and other info would help with applying for jobs, getting my work out there for hire.
Anything else I should know about or take into consideration?

Thank you!

You can totally do that with shared hosting! I'm hosting two domains (my own and MBM's), and a forum on a shared host. I can't particularly recommend my host, because they kind of suck, but they're only $8/month.

When I do get off of my asparagus and put forth the effort to switch hosts, I will probably go with Lithium Hosting (http://www.lithiumhosting.com/). They have some super-cheap, yet robust, plans that get cheaper if you're a member on Something Awful. I use Namecheap for my domain name registrar. I recently renewed both my domain and MBM's and paid next to nothing because I had somehow accrued some credit with them. That was pretty awesome!

I use delta web hosting for $2/month
No problems for last 10 yrs

I use http://www.asmallorange.com/hosting/shared/ and they seem pretty ok.

I've been really happy with phpwebhosting. They're unmetered, provide nice database abilities, and really as long as you're not doing a high-traffic site it doesn't sound like you would run into any of their use prohibitions.

I use 1and1.com, its pretty decent

I personally also use shared web hosting and I am very satisfied with it. I have chosen IX Webhosting and maybe this is also the right host for you. As I said I am very satisfied and never had problems with them.

+1

If you want a photo gallery program, I like simpleviewer. It's set up where it does basic stuff without any code adjustments, but once you learn what needs adjusting (they have decent online help for this) you can set it up pretty much however you want. I used the pro version here, but they have a free version too.http://drsimpsongallery.com/html/galleries/Animals/animals.html Their site: http://simpleviewer.net/simpleviewer/

I use http://hosting.manicanet.com/

Its vegan owned which I really like and the support is great too.

Hi, The web hosting business owners as well as for the end users to know what the web hosting service should offer and which facilities should be included in a good plan. This will help the business men to provide their customers with right quality of amenities and also the customers to select the best service provider.

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