Personal Development for Smart People^TM Forums

rei · 05-01-2010, 05:22 PM

I do not like the website I've been using to build and edit my site. Something about the setup messes up the code at times, and it won't even let me move around pages of my site without paying for an upgrade. When I already got the "pro" option. I'm frustrated with their practices, and frustrated that I already paid to use the service for a while.

I do like that I can only use HTML when I want to, but I don't like that some of the features are difficult (it also won't always show me the option to expand the length of the page, and the frames sometimes block the features for editing).

I guess I got what I paid for

Are these the types of issues I'm likely to hit with any web hosting and editing company that offers cheap rates? Wht are my options? Switch to Wordpress and chock the money paid to a learning experience

?

spirit4711 · 05-01-2010, 06:11 PM

Switch to Wordpress. The learning curve is easy, and it's free and well-supported. Also there are gazillions of plug-ins (software bits for various purposes) and site templates to get you started with reasonable designs.

rei · 05-01-2010, 06:14 PM

Yeah, I kinda figured that was the best course of action - thanks for the confirmation my friend!

Desert · 05-01-2010, 06:15 PM

If I may ask, how much are you paying and what host are you using? If for some reason you don't want to make this public you can pm me.

rei · 05-01-2010, 06:22 PM

$3.94/month for a Pro account, pay 12 months in advance. The company is WebStarts - I do not recommend them though.

I did not know what price range one should expect for a good deal AND good quality hosting, editing options. Probably would have been good to do more research, but I was really really excited to get things going

(I even had received an offer to host my site for free, and I was so eager I did not want to wait on a response to my request to accept that offer... tee hee, I get carried away by passion sometimes

)

iDreamCatcher · 05-02-2010, 10:39 PM

Ignore "free hosting" offers.
The most flawless hosting company in my experience is hostgator.

rei · 05-02-2010, 10:41 PM

Oh, iDream, it was an individual I did a reading for who made the offer. Not like a business or an advertisement. Thanks for the recommendation

iDreamCatcher · 05-02-2010, 10:44 PM

What you pay is what you get. If you do care about your website and stability and speed and functionality - you want to go with reliable hosting company.

rei · 05-02-2010, 10:49 PM

I agree, and I'm looking into WordPress(.org)-approved options right now. So far it's between Dream Host and Blue Host. Do you think either of those is better than the other?

iDreamCatcher · 05-02-2010, 10:50 PM

Hostgator.

rei · 05-03-2010, 01:16 AM

This is probably possible, but anyone know if you can upgrade your plan with HostGator later on if you want more features? Can you do so without any penalties or extra commitments?

iDreamCatcher · 05-03-2010, 01:20 AM

absolutely.
Hostgator gives you much more backend resources and support for more options.
I know that because i sell commercial software and my clients are website owners.
When someone complains about their site not working properly - in 90% of cases it is crappy and cheap hosting service with incompetent support and limited options.

rei · 05-03-2010, 01:27 AM

Yeah that makes sense. I know my current host is subpar for my standards. I want a refund actually, but not sure it's worth the trouble.

And I'm pretty tired of researching this, lots of incredibly busy ad-soaked pages involved in comparing the options. You obviously know your stuff, I'll probably go with Hostgator because it does suit my purposes and I'm tired of trying to figure it out

Thank you! Oh, hehe, a moment ago I checked this thread to see if you were on, you weren't, I checked within minutes to post and you were back. You read my mind

Lil Chris · 05-03-2010, 01:30 AM

rei,
Hostgator is probably fine as well...

rei · 05-03-2010, 01:32 AM

Thank you for that, Chris! I checked and they have the minimum reqs for WordPress. Checked comparison blogs and it's very similar to DreamHost, Blue Host, etc. but some better support and whatnot.

iDreamCatcher · 05-03-2010, 01:49 AM

I making living off doing commercial Wordpress development and Hostgator makes it really easy. Thats why i recommend them

Lil Chris · 05-03-2010, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iDreamCatcher

I making living off doing commercial Wordpress development and Hostgator makes it really easy. Thats why i recommend them

I'm a mediatemple man myself but their grid server is like 20 a month (worth it in my opinion though)...

iDreamCatcher · 05-03-2010, 02:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil Chris

I'm a mediatemple man myself but their grid server is like 20 a month (worth it in my opinion though)...

Wow, $20/mo is pretty good. MT is very solid company. Grid service + scalability + Rails + Django makes them quite attractive for Web people.
I'll look into that....

Anna Conlan · 05-03-2010, 06:46 AM

I am with Bluehost, have been for a few years - have never had any problems.

I recommend wordpress.org for a website. There are loads of free themes around, some of them quite good and you can learn to do it yourself which makes it cheaper.

I can't be bothered to learn how to install plug-ins etc, because I can't get my head around tech stuff so I pay someone to do it for me. If you need me to recommend affordable and really good people for that, just get in touch.

rei · 05-03-2010, 06:50 AM

Thank you, Anna. I am getting quite annoyed by how complicated this stuff is.

For someone so in the right hemisphere anyway.

I just tried to take action that will make it easier to outsource some tech help and it seems my domain name is too new... blah... Oh well, I suppose it will get resolved somehow.

At this point, though, I'm wondering if I'm stuck with what I have until June. We'll see. I'll quite possibly be getting in touch at some point soon to get those contacts, and I really appreciate the offer

munish · 05-03-2010, 05:15 PM

I use SBI .

I have checked your site , you will gain alot by trying SBI. Both in terms of traffic and sales.

rei · 05-03-2010, 07:47 PM

Thanks munish. Tbh I am already tired of dealing with the tech side, and don't think I want to go through the extra stuff involved in SBI (from what I've heard, you learn a lot but it's a complex, time-consuming process).

I'll keep that in mind as an option, but for now I'd rather not go that route. Thank you for the suggestion

davidchung · 05-03-2010, 07:59 PM

If you really want to simplify things you can just start a free site at weebly.com. All you'd have to do is register at the site, set up your website there, and then point your domain at weebly's nameservers. It's really drag-n-drop easy to customize your site with Weebly's interface. You can take a look at my current website, it's hosted for free on Weebly.

The thing is though, your site is still hosted with Weebly, so you won't have as much control over it. I don't see it as a long term solution, it's just there so I can have a web presence while I'm working on some other stuff. I'm planning to move to a self-hosted Wordpress site sometime soon myself. It does seem kind of complicated when you first start out, but like any skill you get the hang of it once you've had some practice.

Regarding hosting, personally I've had a great experience with Uberhost.net. The support is excellent (there's almost always someone there on Live Chat support, usually Rick who I think is the owner, and he can fix any problems you have himself, technical or otherwise), and I haven't had any problems with them whatsoever.

If you're looking for a sort of middle-of-the-road solution, not free hosting but not fully managing your own website either, I would look into Slade Roberson's recommendation of LivingDot.com. They have installation and configuration of your blog included with their price, and according to Slade their customer service is phenomenal.

Lil Chris · 05-03-2010, 08:05 PM

I think she's going with hostgator and once everything is set up she shouldn't have to mess around with the backend of the host. Primarily just using wordpress once everything is installed and set up. A full hosting solution seems like the best option at this point.

rei · 05-03-2010, 08:13 PM

^^This.

I'm just way too far into the right hemisphere these days to deal with this side of it if I can help it. Learning that lesson as things progress

It also takes time away from the work itself, developing new things to offer, writing ebooks, etc. So I'm delegating and so far, yeah, occasional stickiness but once this is done it should be much easier for my preferences and natural inclinations

Thank you for the info, david, as at least it may help others who search the forums

votoshka · 05-04-2010, 09:59 AM

I use hostgator too! It's very easy to install Wordpress using fantastico... and the last domain name I bought (from GoDaddy) had WP installed within a few minutes of purchasing the domain (it propagated to the nameservers REALLY quickly!!).

I use the Semiologic theme and if I want to change the look of the site, I can change the skin with just a single click (although I'll probably add a new header image at some stage...but that's really easy to do as well).

05-01-2010, 05:22 PM	#1 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	Dislike my current site editing - what are my options? I do not like the website I've been using to build and edit my site. Something about the setup messes up the code at times, and it won't even let me move around pages of my site without paying for an upgrade. When I already got the "pro" option. I'm frustrated with their practices, and frustrated that I already paid to use the service for a while. I do like that I can only use HTML when I want to, but I don't like that some of the features are difficult (it also won't always show me the option to expand the length of the page, and the frames sometimes block the features for editing). I guess I got what I paid for Are these the types of issues I'm likely to hit with any web hosting and editing company that offers cheap rates? Wht are my options? Switch to Wordpress and chock the money paid to a learning experience ?

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
I dislike being associated with charlatans	rei	Psychic & Paranormal	159	05-29-2010 11:18 PM
What do you dislike about yourself?	JE Gonzalez	Emotional Mastery	25	02-06-2009 04:49 AM
Editing of manuscript	hotwired	Steve Pavlina	1	10-01-2008 03:05 PM
Dislike when it's for the money?	theknightwhosaysni-NI	Character & Contribution	1	07-18-2008 05:38 PM
Unconscious dislike of Indian people	Ceros	Social & Relationships	7	06-21-2008 11:09 PM

05-01-2010, 06:11 PM	#2 (permalink)
spirit4711 Family Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Nong Seng Posts: 3,975	Switch to Wordpress. The learning curve is easy, and it's free and well-supported. Also there are gazillions of plug-ins (software bits for various purposes) and site templates to get you started with reasonable designs.

05-01-2010, 06:14 PM	#3 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	Yeah, I kinda figured that was the best course of action - thanks for the confirmation my friend!

05-01-2010, 06:15 PM	#4 (permalink)
Desert Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: LV Posts: 243	If I may ask, how much are you paying and what host are you using? If for some reason you don't want to make this public you can pm me.

05-01-2010, 06:22 PM	#5 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	$3.94/month for a Pro account, pay 12 months in advance. The company is WebStarts - I do not recommend them though. I did not know what price range one should expect for a good deal AND good quality hosting, editing options. Probably would have been good to do more research, but I was really really excited to get things going (I even had received an offer to host my site for free, and I was so eager I did not want to wait on a response to my request to accept that offer... tee hee, I get carried away by passion sometimes )

05-02-2010, 10:39 PM	#6 (permalink)
iDreamCatcher Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 421	Ignore "free hosting" offers. The most flawless hosting company in my experience is hostgator.

05-02-2010, 10:41 PM	#7 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	Oh, iDream, it was an individual I did a reading for who made the offer. Not like a business or an advertisement. Thanks for the recommendation

05-02-2010, 10:44 PM	#8 (permalink)
iDreamCatcher Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 421	What you pay is what you get. If you do care about your website and stability and speed and functionality - you want to go with reliable hosting company.

05-02-2010, 10:49 PM	#9 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	I agree, and I'm looking into WordPress(.org)-approved options right now. So far it's between Dream Host and Blue Host. Do you think either of those is better than the other?

05-02-2010, 10:50 PM	#10 (permalink)
iDreamCatcher Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 421	Hostgator.

05-03-2010, 01:16 AM	#11 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	This is probably possible, but anyone know if you can upgrade your plan with HostGator later on if you want more features? Can you do so without any penalties or extra commitments?

05-03-2010, 01:20 AM	#12 (permalink)
iDreamCatcher Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 421	absolutely. Hostgator gives you much more backend resources and support for more options. I know that because i sell commercial software and my clients are website owners. When someone complains about their site not working properly - in 90% of cases it is crappy and cheap hosting service with incompetent support and limited options.

05-03-2010, 01:27 AM	#13 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	Yeah that makes sense. I know my current host is subpar for my standards. I want a refund actually, but not sure it's worth the trouble. And I'm pretty tired of researching this, lots of incredibly busy ad-soaked pages involved in comparing the options. You obviously know your stuff, I'll probably go with Hostgator because it does suit my purposes and I'm tired of trying to figure it out Thank you! Oh, hehe, a moment ago I checked this thread to see if you were on, you weren't, I checked within minutes to post and you were back. You read my mind

05-03-2010, 01:30 AM	#14 (permalink)
Lil Chris Family Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Somewhere in time... Posts: 2,213	rei, Hostgator is probably fine as well...

05-03-2010, 01:32 AM	#15 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	Thank you for that, Chris! I checked and they have the minimum reqs for WordPress. Checked comparison blogs and it's very similar to DreamHost, Blue Host, etc. but some better support and whatnot.

05-03-2010, 01:49 AM	#16 (permalink)
iDreamCatcher Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 421	I making living off doing commercial Wordpress development and Hostgator makes it really easy. Thats why i recommend them

05-03-2010, 06:46 AM	#19 (permalink)
Anna Conlan Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 432	I am with Bluehost, have been for a few years - have never had any problems. I recommend wordpress.org for a website. There are loads of free themes around, some of them quite good and you can learn to do it yourself which makes it cheaper. I can't be bothered to learn how to install plug-ins etc, because I can't get my head around tech stuff so I pay someone to do it for me. If you need me to recommend affordable and really good people for that, just get in touch.

05-03-2010, 06:50 AM	#20 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	Thank you, Anna. I am getting quite annoyed by how complicated this stuff is. For someone so in the right hemisphere anyway. I just tried to take action that will make it easier to outsource some tech help and it seems my domain name is too new... blah... Oh well, I suppose it will get resolved somehow. At this point, though, I'm wondering if I'm stuck with what I have until June. We'll see. I'll quite possibly be getting in touch at some point soon to get those contacts, and I really appreciate the offer

05-03-2010, 05:15 PM	#21 (permalink)
munish Family Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: New Delhi Posts: 1,065	I use SBI . I have checked your site , you will gain alot by trying SBI. Both in terms of traffic and sales.

05-03-2010, 07:47 PM	#22 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	Thanks munish. Tbh I am already tired of dealing with the tech side, and don't think I want to go through the extra stuff involved in SBI (from what I've heard, you learn a lot but it's a complex, time-consuming process). I'll keep that in mind as an option, but for now I'd rather not go that route. Thank you for the suggestion

05-03-2010, 07:59 PM	#23 (permalink)
davidchung Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Bangkok Posts: 130	If you really want to simplify things you can just start a free site at weebly.com. All you'd have to do is register at the site, set up your website there, and then point your domain at weebly's nameservers. It's really drag-n-drop easy to customize your site with Weebly's interface. You can take a look at my current website, it's hosted for free on Weebly. The thing is though, your site is still hosted with Weebly, so you won't have as much control over it. I don't see it as a long term solution, it's just there so I can have a web presence while I'm working on some other stuff. I'm planning to move to a self-hosted Wordpress site sometime soon myself. It does seem kind of complicated when you first start out, but like any skill you get the hang of it once you've had some practice. Regarding hosting, personally I've had a great experience with Uberhost.net. The support is excellent (there's almost always someone there on Live Chat support, usually Rick who I think is the owner, and he can fix any problems you have himself, technical or otherwise), and I haven't had any problems with them whatsoever. If you're looking for a sort of middle-of-the-road solution, not free hosting but not fully managing your own website either, I would look into Slade Roberson's recommendation of LivingDot.com. They have installation and configuration of your blog included with their price, and according to Slade their customer service is phenomenal.

Personal Development for Smart PeopleTM Forums

Personal Development for Smart People^TM Forums

05-03-2010, 08:05 PM	#24 (permalink)
Lil Chris Family Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Somewhere in time... Posts: 2,213	I think she's going with hostgator and once everything is set up she shouldn't have to mess around with the backend of the host. Primarily just using wordpress once everything is installed and set up. A full hosting solution seems like the best option at this point.

05-03-2010, 08:13 PM	#25 (permalink)
rei Family Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: earth, everywhere and nowhere Posts: 9,713	^^This. I'm just way too far into the right hemisphere these days to deal with this side of it if I can help it. Learning that lesson as things progress It also takes time away from the work itself, developing new things to offer, writing ebooks, etc. So I'm delegating and so far, yeah, occasional stickiness but once this is done it should be much easier for my preferences and natural inclinations Thank you for the info, david, as at least it may help others who search the forums

05-04-2010, 09:59 AM	#26 (permalink)
votoshka Family Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Australia Posts: 2,547	I use hostgator too! It's very easy to install Wordpress using fantastico... and the last domain name I bought (from GoDaddy) had WP installed within a few minutes of purchasing the domain (it propagated to the nameservers REALLY quickly!!). I use the Semiologic theme and if I want to change the look of the site, I can change the skin with just a single click (although I'll probably add a new header image at some stage...but that's really easy to do as well).