Originally, I left Dreamhost because I wanted to get a webhost that ran on the .NET platform.  As a Microsoft advocate and .NET developer, I wanted to use a platform that I could develop and customize my own code and blog.

To be honest, I never ventured further than finding an already made .NET blogging engine and minorly customizing it to suit my needs.  It worked well, but it wasn’t up to par with other blogging engines I’ve seen such as Wordpress.

Further, being hosted at Dreamhost made things tons easier and had less hidden charges.  In my previous webhost, I would be charged for a domain registration, charged for locking that domain, charged for making it private, charged for adding a site for that domain, etc.  Dreamhost not only simplifies that, but is upfront about the prices you will be paying on a one time go.  You can’t beat the price.

The one-click installers, especially for Wordpress, made my life incredibly easy to set up my new blog.  Working for a few months on Anime USA’s webpage (a highly customized Wordpress template) gave me insight on how to manipulate the styles and PHP backend.

Someone said to me, “Isn’t it blasphemy for a Microsoft advocate to use PHP?”  I replied, “I may be a fan of Microsoft, but at heart I’m an engineer.  You have to use the right tool for the right job.”