Hostgator isn't a really bad host but they're owned by EIG and most people have warned to stay away from EIG hosting.
Look up EIG hosting avoid them and you'll see some search results on eig hosting.
Hostgator used to be a really good host before it was sold to EIG.
I'm not saying they're bad because I never used them and many others are hosting websites with them without problems.
So they're probably an okay web host to start hosting a blog on.