Here’s one link — there are many others.
http://freelancefromhome.blogspot.com/2007/11/godaddy-sucks-how-godaddy-cost-me-my.html

I think most hosting companies at the low end have difficulty providing great customer service; they are simply not geared toward providing support to customers spending $10/month with them.

I use DreamHost, and they have had their share of problems as well — search for “DreamHost sucks” and you’ll see reports of bad service and double-billing. I like their open and relaxed attitude, though. I feel like if I run into a problem, they would actually resolve it.

That said, I am not recommending DreamHost, I think hosting experiences are so personal that it is tough to do a straightforward comparison.

Good luck!
Dan

Blogs do result in greater system demands. A static page is fetched and dumped, but a blog entry requires several database queries and merging of a number of pages. I don’t know whether it needs upgrading my account to a virtual server (and becoming a real web admin, yech) or merely finding a host with greater CPU capabilities. But if a one-month old blog with a few hundred hits a day causes this kind of problem, what happens with the popular blogs that get thousands of hits an hour?

John – thanks for the suggestions. I’ve gotten addicted to WordPress; it’s very capable and very extensible via a plethora of plugins. Dave Barry might think that “A Plethora of Plugins” is a good name for a rock band.

Glad to see you’re back up and I hope everything is OK.

I don’t know, but I think there must be a significant difference between the server needs of a traditional web site vs. the needs of a blogging site. I say this because by design blogs allow others to hit you with a huge amount of traffic via comments, trackbacks, pingbacks, etc. Much of this traffic is automated and, once the robots know you’re out there, the shear volume of their “attacks” can bring your site down if the server needs are not adequate.

As a suggestion, have you considered using a setup similar to John Walkenbach’s J-Walk Blog? As I recall, when John started his blog he experienced the exact same problem that you just did. The blog ran fine for a while but then it crashed. I believe he eventually moved to a different provider – pMachine Hosting which recently changed its name to EngineHosting. I don’t recall reading on his blog that he’s had any server related problems since.

I’m first tried using ExpressionEngine and EngineHosting only because I saw that John was. I figured John’s site will always have 10,000 times more entries, comments, viewers, and general traffic than mine ever will. If his hosting provider can handle that kind of traffic then it can certainly handle my 30 hits a day. I’ve never had a reason to look back.

My experience with EngineHosting as a web provider has been very positive and professional. I’ve used them for several different sites for almost five years now without a single issue. For the questions that I have had, they’ve responded very quickly and positively. Additionally, I prefer ExpressionEngine as a blogging software because you can easily build in multiple layers of security to filter out unwanted traffic. Filtering out the unwanted traffic can help to reduce the server load.

I don’t want to sound like a commercial, but I have had a very positive experience and thought I would pass it on.

John Mansfield

I am relieved to see your new post (back in business).

Yesterday, I was surprised and disappointed to see your site and blog missing.

I belive that your blog is already extremely popular and therefore is becoming additional load for the host.

Better start planning for a new host!!

Thanks. Keep it coming, please.

Jay