Yup, you heard that right. This blog will still be around for at least the next 5 years (at least that’s the plan). So, do not worry, especially if you like this blog 
and if it’s not because of your support for this blog so far, I won’t be staying here blogging.
Yesterday I received an offer from my host, LunarPages, to take advantage of their current Fall special of $4.95/month with unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage (the offer won’t last long). Without much hesitation, I agreed and told the representative that I’d go for 5 years.
I’ve been happy to be with LunarPages that I’ve asked him whether he can offer me the same to my church site (for another 10 years) and my Christianity blog (for another 5 years). Now, dodgy hosting providers will cut-off your current plan period and replace it with the new plan, even though you have paid for the rest of the period on the old plan. Lunarpages is thankfully, not a dodgy provider. LunarPages replaces my old plan with this one AND extends my account period (which should expire on January 2009) to January 2014!
Check out my personal review on LunarPages if you are looking for a new web hosting and also a $25 OFF coupon code from LunarPages.
On the same issue, recently I’ve read on a few blogs that having your domain expiry longer may affect your SEO and the way Google rank your site/blog. This is still a speculation but apparently some people agree that it is true. Google’s secret algorithm may have a formula to find out whether your blog/site is a spam site or a genuine site simply by looking at your domain expiry date. Genuine sites tend to have longer domain expiry and Google might give a bonus “trust” point. What do you guys think of this?
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Wow, great. You spoke a lot about Lunarpages, and I start to like it
But I’m still confused about this unlimited bandwitch thing. Does it mean that unlimited package could host a site like Problogger, Boingboing or Techcrunch? For that cheap?
I’ll take advantage of the offer anyway this year, I’m just curious…
Interesting theory. Since the cost of domain names is only going to go up, it seems like it wouldn’t hurt to extend registration out to test that theory. I’ll have to try it.
@Jani
I doubt unlimited bandwidth really means unlimited for any practical purposes. I’ve seen that claim elsewhere and they usually will have extra stipulations such as CPU usage. If you ran a pure html site with no code or database access you could probably get away with it, but as soon as you start demanding all that CPU with php or other code it wouldn’t be practical for them to let you continue hosting with them and they’d either make it uncomfortable for you by capping your CPU or throttling your bandwidth. Sites as you described are usually hosted on dedicated hosting with multiple servers.
Wait a minute! You run this blog using the basic hosting plan for $4.95? That’s a steal if you ask me…
Yan
Great to hear that. Look forward to more from your side.
Hm.. 5 years… It looks like you are good at planning. I am not so sure about my blogging plans..
Wow, 5 years for almost $300? You should have checked out 2007’s Top 10 hosting companies. TopHostingCenter has the unlimited plan for about $100. When I say unlimited, I mean it’s FOREVER…
Here’s my ref link http://affiliates.tophostingcenter.com/click.php?id=wildfxp . I don’t gain ANYTHING from this because I’m partnered with THC, but I use the referral link to keep track
-Mike
Well, you unfortunately don’t get unlimited “CPU”
So if you have spiked-traffic from StumbleUpon and Digg, then you’re doomed.
I had it once and LunarPages had to transfer me temporarily to another server until I fixed the problem.
@Mike Huang: Well cheaper doesn’t necessarily the better. I’m happy with LunarPages service and support and I believe they deserve that $4.95 and even more
Whoa, 5 years.. I bought 2 years plan when I changed to Lunarpages not long ago. Now, I’m hoping to win the first prize from their wordpress theme contest, so I can have another 5 years of hosting.
I’ll be renewing my domain name for 5 years when I get the spare cash, it has to have some effect on rankings.
@Wiehanne: You won’t regret it, trust me
(I don’t know why I sound like LunarPages’ pet lol)
“…it has to have some effect on rankings.”
@Danny Cooper: I hope so!
Making a point of letting viewers know that there is longevity in one’s product is advantageous as the readers will not have the idea that they are building up an interest in an entity that will soon be replaced.