When I first reached the point where I needed to move from shared hosting to something bigger and better, I kept seeing VPS being bandied about as the right solution, but it was hard to find out what VPS really *was*. I already knew that I couldn’t afforded a dedicated server, so I was fairly certain that the mid-range VPS solution (Virtual Private Server) was what I wanted, but I felt like I was stepping into that decision with blinders on. (In fact, I was, but it didn’t take long after making the decision to figure out what it all meant).

So, I think it’s a good idea to give a brief description of the differences between shared hosting, vps hosting, and dedicated hosting. Then, if you need to make the move to something bigger/better than your current shared hosting, you’ll at least have enough information to start research on what you need.

Shared Hosting – The Low End

Benefits:

• Cheap. You aren’t risking much money on a site that may never make you a dime.
• Fully managed by host. You don’t have to worry about keeping the hardware or software upgraded, or manage the server in any way. The host takes care of it all.

Drawbacks:

• Shared Disk Space, Ram and CPU Resources. Your site is sharing those resources with many other sites (usually a few hundred, sometimes many more than that). If there are enough resources left for whatever your site needs to display, it gets it. If those resources have been used up by someone else’s site, tough luck, kiddo. This is usually the reason your site ends up outgrowing shared hosting. Once it becomes popular and is getting bucketloads of traffic, there will never be enough resources on a shared server to allow your site to work properly.
• Restrictions, restrictions, restrictions. Shared servers, for security purposes mostly, must restrict your access to certain features that would normally be available to you on other types of hosting. These restrictions may vary depending upon the host, but things at the server level such as SSH access and the ability to add custom server configurations are often restricted from shared hosting. These restrictions usually don’t affect most sites, but if your site needs it, and your shared hosting restricts it, that’s an ugly problem to have.

Dedicated Hosting – The High End

Benefits:

• No Shared Resources. All of the server’s resources are yours and yours alone. Only your site(s) live on this server, so no resources are being taken away from you to give to others.
• Completely Configurable To Your Specific Needs. The dedicated server is yours to mold however you wish. Need some new web gizmo running on your server? No problem. Just install it and use it. You can think of this server as being just like the computer you have at your desk. It’s yours. Do what you want with it.

Drawbacks:

• Expensive! Your site needs to be bringing in enough income to justify the high price of going with a dedicated server.
• Requires technical skills to manage. You’d better have a good working knowledge of running a web server, because you’ll be responsible (in most cases) for running this one. If you’ve never done it before, you’re in for a shock. It’s a steep learning curve for the newbie. Some dedicated plans come fully managed by the host, but you can be sure your expensive plan just got a lot more expensive if you add fully managed service to the plan.

VPS Hosting – The Middle Ground

Benefits:

• Dedicated RAM & Disk Space, Shared CPU. While a VPS server will still share the CPU resources amongst your site and the other sites on the server, your site will get its own dedicated RAM and disk space. This is a big improvement over shared hosting.
• Server-Level Configuration. Just like a dedicated machine, you can configure the server however you wish.
• Burstable Memory. On at least some VPS plans, you get burstable memory which allows your site to be able to handle sudden traffic spikes (such as the Digg effect). The most painful thing to watch is a site that hits the front page of Digg but shuts down because it can’t handle the load. Burstable memory is designed to help alleviate that problem.
• Scalability. Like a dedicated machine, a VPS gives you room to grow. As your needs change, you can add more databases, expand to ecommerce, or add new sites. The VPS will handle most sites’ needs until they become powerhouses.

Drawbacks:

• Usually requires more management on your part. Although you won’t need the level of skills that you’d need for a dedicated plan, you’ll probably find that you’ll need to learn a few more things than you ever thought you’d know about running a web server. Many VPS plans come with semi-managed service, which means that some of the management is done by the host; leaving some of the management left to you. In general, the host will usually handle all the hardware and server software management, and you’ll need to handle any custom software issues. This threw me for a loop the first time I moved to a VPS plan. I recommend getting as much information as possible from the host as to what you’ll *really* be doing behind the scenes. You need to know if you can really handle the management tasks or not. This is not something your grandma can generally handle, so keep that in mind.
• Not Cheap. Ok, but that’s really only a slight drawback, as it really isn’t all that expensive either. More than likely, if your site is to the point where it needs to upgrade from shared hosting, it’s probably bringing in enough income to handle the added hosting fees. So in my mind, this is a non-issue.

Armed With Basic Knowledge

Now that you have a general idea of what a VPS is all about, you can start to research properly. Don’t upgrade with blinders on like I did. Have an understanding of what the move from shared hosting to a VPS plan will mean, and your experience of the upgrade will be better.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dedicated server, Shared web hosting service, Virtual private server, web hosting
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WordPress is not only a great blogging tool, it is a great content management system. By using the countless free themes, plugins and widgets available, the possibilities of this software are limitless. I have seen WordPress used for everything from a simple blog to a restaurant’s online presence through to a realtor’s online portal. WordPress can be a simple and cost effective solution to getting your business website online fast.

So how do you take advantage of this great, free tool? With just a little time and careful thought, it can be a simple process. There are three essential steps to take. First, you need a domain name. Second, you need a hosting account and third, you need to install WordPress to said account. Lets break those three steps down a little, so you can get on your way to using WordPress today (and yes, it really is that simple!).

Registering a Domain Name

First you need a domain name. The domain is what you enter in your browser to find your website, ‘google.com’ for instance. To ensure your website appears in relevant search engine results, you need to take care over your choice of domain name. You will need a domain that accurately reflects your business and the services you offer. For example, if you were creating a domain name for a florist in New York City – nycflorist.com or newyorkcityflorists.com would both be excellent names to choose. Of course the perfect domain name may already be taken, and you may have to give the matter some careful thought. Most domain name registrars will offer a domain name lookup facility to help you check the available domains.

Find a Web Hosting Provider

With your perfect domain name secured, you now need to look for a reliable hosting provider. Web hosting, or simply hosting for short, is the service that powers your website and your email, it is the engine of the whole setup. It is common to purchase both hosting and a domain from one company, as most providers offer the two services in tandem. You should be looking for a hosting company that firstly supports WordPress. Most hosting companies will be more than happy to host WordPress. Also be sure to check out online reviews of the company. What are people saying about them right now? While a company may look perfect on the surface, dig around. There are plenty of online web hosting review sites, where actual customers rate their providers performance. Don’t be swayed by the bells and whistles of an organization’s marketing department!

Install WordPress

The third and final step is to install WordPress. ‘Installing’ WordPress refers to the act of uploading the WordPress files to your hosting account, and then configuring the setup. For technically adept users the process can be simple, but for novice or intermediate users, you may want your hosting company to install this for you. Such a service is usually available from hosting companies who specialize in WordPress hosting. Using an instant or auto installer from your hosting company, you should be able to have WordPress running on your website within a minute or two.

And from there? Well that is up to you! A myriad of free themes, plugins and widgets exist that you can use to customize the look and feel of your WordPress website. Hundreds if not thousands of free themes exist, which allow you to alter the appearance of your site in seconds, with hardly any technical experience necessary. Plugins and widgets are used to add additional functionality to your site like integrating your latest twitter comments to your site. And if you cannot find precisely what you want there is a thriving after market of designers and developers who will happily help you construct something unique. Using websites such as Elance, you can outsource such development work to developers across the globe, sometimes at rock bottom prices.

About Stuart Melling

Stuart Melling co-founded 34SP.com in October 2000. The firm has particular expertise in WordPress hosting. As business director Stuart is responsible for the development of new and existing hosting services; from pricing and marketing to the direction 34SP.com products take. A keen cook, Stuart spends his spare time perfecting and trying out new recipes at home.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: online presence, web hosting, WordPress
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UPDATE: Due to so many complaints, I’m no longer recommending ThinkHost. However, lucky for us all, my past and still present favorite hosting company, HostGator, has gone green, so I can continue recommending it while knowing there’s an extra goodness in its greeness! So, ignore the rest of this and just know that I love HostGator.

A few days ago, a friend of mine had web hosting issues (and boy, oh boy, over the years, I’ve had plenty of those!). Because she’s an enlightened sort of gal, she decided to investigate using green hosting services. Since she brought it to my mind, I couldn’t help but go out and start doing a little investigating of my own.

There are a few nice choices in green web hosting, but the one I ended up choosing as the best “all ’round” choice for me or most people I know would be ThinkHost. Reasons I chose them as my green web host of choice:

Their services are powered by 100% renewable energy (solar/wind)
Plants a tree for every client
Good plan pricing with all the right plan features
Fast setup
Multiple payment methods available
Host unlimited number of sites for no extra charge
Lots of space and bandwidth offered
Been around for a long time
Sponsors many non-profit organizations and 10% of their revenue value is put back into community projects
Backed by a site I know and trust (tamingthebeast.net)
100% uptime guarantee – and they actually give you 1 day of hosting free for each 1 hour of service interruption
Backup generators in case of power outages

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve often recommended HostGator and I still do. I love that hosting company. But if you really want to move to an earth-friendly hosting company, then ThinkHost is who I’d recommend for you. If you decide to try them, I’ve even got a coupon code you can use. Just enter the following code on the secure package signup form to get $20 off any package you choose : THINKHOST20

Just wanted to pass along another hosting recommendation, in addition to the one I usually recommend. If you are interested in using a green hosting company, ThinkHost is the one to use.

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© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: For Us All, Good, green hosting services, green web host, green web hosting, hostgator, renewable energy, ThinkHost, web hosting
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

HostGator, like most hosting companies, has several plans to choose from. The cheapest is $6.95/month (called the Hatchling plan), but you have to pay for a year in advance for that plan. If you’d prefer to pay monthly, or in 3 or 6 month chunks instead, the next best plan is $9.95/month for the Baby plan. With the Baby plan, you also get to host as many sites as you want for the same price, so in the future that may come in very handy for you. If it were me, I’d choose the Baby plan, but the Hatchling plan will work as well. (Don’t worry about what all those numbers mean right now. Basically, that’s just letting you know how much space is available for your site under each plan. Any of the plans have plenty of everything for you right now, so that’s not a big consideration at this point).

Just click on the Order Now link in the column of whichever plan you choose.

You can see that the Order Wizard will ask you to choose a domain option. Since you already have your domain name, you’ll want to select I will use My Existing Domain and update My Nameservers only. Then, you need to type in the domain name you purchased (such as flykites.com) into the space that says Existing Domain:. Click Next and proceed to fill out the information requested to finish the purchase.

Once you’ve completed the transaction, you’ll receive an email from HostGator with information about your account. You definitely want to save this in a safe place. I usually save the email AND print it out. In any case, within this email will be the nameservers that have been assigned to your site. You’ll need to tell GoDaddy about these nameservers so you’ll want to look for them in the email that HostGator sends you. *

Ok, now let’s go tell GoDaddy about your new nameservers. Log in to your GoDaddy account and choose Domains / My Domain Names from the menu near the top of the page.

Select the domain name and click on the Nameservers button.

Copy and paste (or manually type in) the two nameservers that you received in the HostGator email. Save.

That’s it. You now not only own a domain name, but you’ve given it a place to live. It can take up to 24-48 hours for the rest of the world to be told about about your new domain name, so typing www.whatever-your-domain-is.com may not do anything yet. Eventually it will. (This is called “propogating” throughout the net).

The only thing missing now is an actual web site. In the old days, that would have meant hiring a designer and spending lots of money and time developing a nice-looking site. Those days, luckily, are gone. You can have a site up and running very quickly. You’re going to do this by installing a free WordPress blog. We’ll discuss this in the next part of the series, but rest assured that this is very, very easy to do. Once you’ve done this and a few more little things, you’ll be ready to roll.

Just a reminder. I’ve tried to make this process easy enough for anyone to understand, but if I still wasn’t clear enough, you might want to purchase a set of instructional videos that really step you through it as though you were watching it happen live.

The entire series of How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas:

• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part One (The Introduction)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Two (The WHAT)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Three (The DISCLAIMER)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Four (The Domain Name)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Five (The Hosting Plan)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Six (Installing WordPress)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Seven (Your WordPress Theme)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Eight (Your Blogging Voice)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Nine (Making Money)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Ten (The Summary)

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© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: actual web site, designer, hostgator, hosting, hosting plans, make a living in your pajamas, nameservers, nice-looking site, web hosting, web servers, www.whatever-your-domain-is.com
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.