It’s unlikely that you haven’t heard of Media Temple. They’re one of the biggest hosting companies in the world, with services ranging from the $20/month Grid Server to a $500/month Nitro Dedicated server. Almost every top blog is either hosted in-house or by Media Temple — they’ve practically dominated the blog hosting market. How did they do this?

There’s no easy answer to this question. In my opinion, Media Temple has become a status symbol for bloggers — if you have it, it shows you are willing to spend some money on your blog — it is also a sign for submitters on social bookmarking websites that if you reach the front page, your site will sustain it.

It may have started when aspiring bloggers looked at the success of blogs like Mashable and TechCrunch, which both have Media Temple badges. It has become a trend now, even if you don’t use your referral link , to advertise that you use Media Temple to host your blog.

It’s a viral mystery to Media Temple’s success — it could be just that they provide affordable, scalable hosting. And, subconciously, I have turned this blog post into an advertisement for Media Temple (they’re not paying me).

On the other hand, there’s also a lot of people who hate (mt) and don’t believe their service is worth the money.