WPBeginner Exclusive – Bluehost $2.95 / month + Free Domain (Limited Time Deal)

Looking to start a new blog, switch hosting providers, or transfer from WordPress.com? Let us make it easy for you. Our friends over at Bluehost has agreed to offer all WPBeginner users a limited time deal: 60% discount and a free domain name.

This super exclusive offer expires on July 26th, 2016 (11:59 PM MST) and is only being offered through WPBeginner.

You can start your blog for as low as .95 / month which is their lowest price ever → Claim this Offer ←

Why Bluehost? Because they are an official WordPress recommended hosting provider.

Bluehost is one of the oldest web hosting companies on the web (started in 1996 – older than Google). They are the largest brand name in WordPress hosting and host millions of websites including several of our own.

Full Disclosure: When you purchase using our referral link, at no additional cost to you, we will receive a small commission. We would get this referral fee for recommending just about any other company, but we only recommend products that we personally use and/or believe will add value to our readers.

Who is this offer great for?

Well everyone, but in particular: those starting a new blog or switching from WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress.org blog.

We have written a full article on WordPress.com vs WordPress.org, but here’s the summary of why you should use self-hosted WordPress:

• You get a free domain name (only if you go with Bluehost)


• You have access to more themes and design customization options.


• You can install plugins.


• You can run your own ads without any restrictions.


• You can create your own store.


• You own and control your content (whereas on WordPress.com you are restricted to their Terms of Service, and they often show ads to your users unless you pay them not to).

Not convinced yet?

Bonus offer: Our expert team will help you get started. Bluehost promised us that if you signup using our referral link, then they will compensate us to do the blog setup for you. We will even migrate your WordPress.com blog over to self-hosted WordPress. Here’s how to claim this offer:

1. Signup using our referral link

2. Fill out the form on this page and that’s it!

Who Shouldn’t Use this Offer?

This offer is not good for everyone. Our goal at WPBeginner is to guide the users to make the best decision regardless of whether we get paid or not.

The biggest catch here is the term “unlimited space and bandwidth”, and we want to explain that.

The way these shared hosting companies are able to offer such affordable prices is by allowing multiple users to share a large server. By having multiple sites on the same server, it allows them to reduce costs for everyone.

Think of the savings as riding a bus vs your own car.

Having that said, there is no such thing as unlimited. While it says unlimited, you still have usage restrictions. If your site starts to take up substantial server load, then they will politely force you to upgrade. If they don’t take this action, then it has negative effects on the overall performance of every other site sharing the same server.

As conventional wisdom goes, your overhead costs will grow with your business!

If your website is getting millions of pageviews per month, then this .95 hosting plan won’t work for you. You should look into getting a VPS or even managed WordPress hosting.

However if you are just starting out or have a small business website, then there is no reason for you to pay hundreds of dollars each month for resources you won’t use. You should absolutely definitely take advantage of this shared hosting offer.

→ Signup with Bluehost Now ← – Lowest prices ever + a free domain name.

The post WPBeginner Exclusive – Bluehost .95 / month + Free Domain (Limited Time Deal) appeared first on WPBeginner.

A Brief On Website Response Time Measurement

alt="A Brief On Website Response Time Measurement" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

The time elapsed from the moment of the request of a certain URL until the requested page is fully displayed is defined as response time. This process consists of 3 units – transmission, processing and rendering.

• Transmission is the time necessary to transmit the user’s request and receive the server’s response.
• Processing describes the period during which the server has to process the request and generate the response.
• Rendering is a client-side operation and includes the time needed by the client machine to display the response.

There are several ways to measure the website’s response – client-side testing, server-side measurement and remote website monitoring from different locations. All of these methods have their advantages, but the choice is up to you.

Server-side Measurement

Server-side measurement is reliable, but can sometimes be difficult when there are proxy servers, which are quite common today. Being a server-side application, there can be a lot of issues with the configuration and in some of the cases it will go down with your site and there may not be much else that you can do. Server-side measurement is a good approach for collecting visitor information, but does not have the full functionality of the remote monitoring.

Client-side Testing

Client-side testing is the best way through which you can get the most accurate perception of what your users are experiencing. However, it is limited to your network or geographical location and, more often than not, it does not reflect the universal experience that the average Internet user has with your site. There are several tools which can help you measure your website’s response time. Some are simple client-side scripts and others are more advanced (e.g. Yslow from Yahoo! and Page Speed from Google). The latter two tools are best used with Firefox and are mostly used as additions to Firebug.

Although client-side testing is a great way to gain first-hand information about the users’ experience, it can be time consuming and it only provides you with details for your site’s visibility from only one location. This may not be an issue if your business is local, but it is not sufficient for online retailers and service providers with clients all over the world.

Remote Website Monitoring

Remote monitoring is a recurring test that is performed by one or more remote locations at the same time. You can run various tests from different geographical locations, effectively simulate user’s experience from the different checking points and get accurate information about your website’s response time. It is accurate, easy to implement and its applications are backed up with a flexible reporting system and emergency 24/7 live support.

Page 27 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How to save time with cron: Basic guide and sample codes

alt="How to save time with cron: Basic guide and sample codes" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

What is cron?

Cron is a Linux/UNIX daemon that is designed to execute a command at a predefined time. Since cron is a daemon, once it is executed it does not require any administration from the user. Cron is controlled by a set of files called “cronfiles”, below is a list of common cron commands.

class="border" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1">bgcolor="#DDDDDD" width="200"> Crontab filename bgcolor="#DDDDDD">Install filename as your crontab file.valign="top" width="200">crontab -evalign="top">Edit your crontab file.valign="top" width="200">crontab -lvalign="top">Show your crontab file.valign="top" width="200">crontab -rvalign="top">Remove your crontab file.valign="top" width="200">MAILTO=user@domain.comvalign="top">Emails the output to the specified address.

Each entry into the crontab file will consist of the following six fields separated by a space. The order of the fields along with a brief description of each one is listed below.
minute(s) hour(s) day(s) month(s) weekday(s) command(s)

class="border" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1">bgcolor="#dddddd" width="100"> Fieldbgcolor="#dddddd" width="100">Valuebgcolor="#dddddd">Descriptionvalign="top" width="100">Minutevalign="top" width="100">0-59valign="top">Defines the exact minute the command will execute.valign="top" width="100">Hourvalign="top" width="100">0-23valign="top">Defines the hour of the day the command will execute.valign="top" width="100">Dayvalign="top" width="100">1-31valign="top">Defines the day of the month the command will execute.valign="top" width="100">Monthvalign="top" width="100">1-12valign="top">Defines the month of the year the command will execute.valign="top" width="100">Weekdayvalign="top" width="100">0-6valign="top">Defines the day of the week the command will execute.
Sunday=0, Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2, Wednesday = 3, Thursday = 4, Friday = 5, Saturday = 6valign="top" width="100">Commandvalign="top" width="100">Specialvalign="top">The complete command that will be executed.

You can also use an * in place of the numerical character of the first five fields to indicate all legal values. For example, 0 0 * * 1 command, would run a script on every Monday.
Most of this section is only relevant if you are running scripts from the command terminal in Linux/UNIX, if you are using a cPanel please view the “How do I run a cron script from my cPanel” section.

How can I save time with cron?

There are many ways you can use cron to save some but to me the most useful tasks you can schedule are running database and website backup scripts. Both of these jobs can easily be done manually but they are often over looked. With cron you can set them up once and know it will get done.

Below are sample scripts you can use to setup these jobs with cron.

Automatic WordPress Database Backups (Script provided by href="http://tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/cron/" target="_blank">T2)

#Set the 4 variables
#Replace what is AFTER the = with the information from your wp-config.php file

DBNAME=DB_NAME

DBPASS=DB_PASSWORD

DBUSER=DB_USER

#Keep the ” around your address
EMAIL=”you@your_email.com”

mysqldump –opt -u $DBUSER -p$DBPASS $DBNAME > backup.sql
gzip backup.sql
DATE=`date +%Y%m%d` ; mv backup.sql.gz $DBNAME-backup-$DATE.sql.gz
echo ‘Blog Name:Your mySQL Backup is attached’ | mutt -a $DBNAME-backup-$DATE.sql.gz $EMAIL -s “MySQL Backup”
rm $DBNAME-backup-$DATE.sql.gz

Automated Website Backups (Script provided by href="https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/C/backup-shellscripts.html" target="_blank">Ubuntu)

#!/bin/sh

####################################

#

# Backup to NFS mount script.

#

####################################

# What to backup.

backup_files=”/home /var/spool/mail /etc /root /boot /opt”

# Where to backup to.

dest=”/mnt/backup”

# Create archive filename.

day=$(date +%A)

hostname=$(hostname -s)

archive_file=”$hostname-$day.tgz”

# Print start status message.

echo “Backing up $backup_files to $dest/$archive_file”

date

echo

# Backup the files using tar.

tar czf $dest/$archive_file $backup_files

# Print end status message.

echo

echo “Backup finished”

date

# Long listing of files in $dest to check file sizes.

ls -lh $dest

 

*Disclaimer: We are not a responsible if the script fails to run correctly or if you set it up incorrectly. If you have any questions or concerns about the script or how to set it up the best contact will be your host provider.

How do I run a cron script from my cPanel?

1. Log into you cPanlel

2. Locate the “cron jobs” icon (This is generally in the advanced section).

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2011/1116-1.jpg" alt="" />

3. Enter your E-Mail address if you would like a copy of the crop output to be emailed to you.

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2011/1116-2.jpg" alt="" />

4. Choose when you would like your cron script to run. (Choosing an item from the “Common Settings” dropdown box will fill in the fields for you.)

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2011/1116-3.jpg" alt="" />

5. Enter the path of the script you would like to run. (Note: You will need to upload your script file to your server, for more information please see below – “How do I upload my script file” section for details.)

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2011/1116-4.jpg" alt="" />

6. Click “Add New Cron Job”

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2011/1116-5.jpg" alt="" />

7. Your cron job should now be listed under “Current Cron Jobs”.

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2011/1116-6.jpg" alt="" />

How do I upload my script file?

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2011/1116-7.jpg" alt="" />

1. From your cPanel choose “File Manager”
2. Next choose “Home Directory” then click “Go”
3. Now choose “Upload”.
4. Set your File Permissions to 755
5. Click “Browse”
6. Browse to the folder that has your script and click on it, and then click “Open”.

Note: Your cPanel may be setup differently than the one shown above but the overall concepts should still be the same.

Page 26 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Building A Tribe Around Your Art; One Lovely Person At A Time

alt="Building A Tribe Around Your Art; One Lovely Person At A Time" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/building-your-tribe-500x331_c.jpg" />

Staring into the vast ocean of possible social media interactions can leave an artist lost, bewildered and paralyzed. The options are endless and the fluctuations of social media tools changes rapidly with new IPOs, acquisitions and site overhauls. Millions and millions of conversations are happening every moment on countless platforms- so how do you even scratch the surface of placing your voice in this endless echo-chamber?

Seth Godin made the concept of building a movement by connecting like minds and leading people through connection, culture and commitment in his book, Tribes. Take a moment to watch his href="http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html" target="_blank">TED talk regarding Tribes and you’ll see how this concept can connect you with a movement surrounding your art.

Before we tackle the HOW of building your Tribe of loyal art lovers, we need to address the WHY.

Your Story and Why It Matters

style="width: 760px" class="wp-caption alignnone">class="border" alt="Building Your Own Tribe" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0404-1.jpg" width="750" height="503" />class="wp-caption-text">Artists need to take their audiences to greater heights by personally interacting and touching them on a deep level. Building a community around artwork that is personal and meaningful will help create a strong and interesting Tribe.

10 Tips to Help You Find Time to Blog

alt="10 Tips to Help You Find Time to Blog" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0506-3-500x346_c.jpg" />

style="text-align: center;">

Being a freelance blog writer is great gig to fill the time if you are in between jobs, or children, or have lots of spare time on your hands.  The question is, once your schedule changes and free time becomes a thing of the past, how do you find time to blog? Every blogger needs help improving his or her time management.  Rather than abandoning blogging when things get busy or during an emergency, here are some ways that you can create more time for your blog in your hectic schedule.

1. Schedule times to blog and market.

Yes, you need to market your blog, in addition to writing it!  For example, I write in the afternoon, edit and set up posts in later afternoon, and market early the next morning.  Remember that part of setting up your post includes search engine optimization, customizing images, and making your headline intriguing.  In addition, you may need about a half an hour or so to promote your post to your interested audience or blogger groups.  Be creative: for example, you don’t always need to use the same title and hashtag for a tweet if it fits diverse readers.  You can schedule different days of the week for regular topics, such as giveaways on Mondays or curating news on Friday.  “Wordless Wednesdays” has been a popular one for many years, but I would recommend doing something unique to your blog instead.

2. Reduce how often you post – or reduce your post lengths.

Many bloggers believe that to stay visible they need to run content daily.  That really depends on your market and what you are posting.  If you are running a deal blog, posts must be timely, so you will need to find time to blog and promote daily, but you can help yourself by creating posts that are both concise and search engine friendly.  This is the kind of practice that will help you become a more professional writer.  Other niches, however, can take more time between postings. The best idea is to determine when your target market is viewing content in your niche (href="/social-media/5-easy-steps-to-get-10000-followers/">see last week’s discussion) and to use that as to create a schedule.

3. Use your digital calendar program – and any other calendars – to their fullest.

I’m one of those people who needs a lot of reminders, so I always schedule my digital calendar, sync it with my phone, and have a paper calendar on hand to duplicate times.  Schedule blocks of time to blog throughout the day, and don’t just use your calendar as a reminder, use it as a full-fledged productivity tool by keeping track of when you are most productive.  You may need to chart yourself for a while in order to schedule best times and enough minutes to produce quality content. For more tips on writing faster, check out Rachel Aaron’s post (and book), “href="http://thisblogisaploy.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-i-went-from-writing-2000-words-day.html" target="_blank">How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day.”

4. Incorporate great productivity tools.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-1065 border" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0506-2.jpg" alt="WordPress Editorial Calendar " width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0506-2.jpg 615w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0506-2-300x182.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px" />

There are tons of productivity tools available to keep bloggers organized.  I recommend sticking to the free ones if you are just starting your own blog.  Great apps such as the href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/editorial-calendar/">Editorial Calendar Plugin for WordPress, href="http://www.picmonkey.com/">PicMonkey for photo editing, href="https://evernote.com/">Evernote to keep track of notes, ideas, files and more, and href="http://evernote.com/skitch/">Skitch for screenshots will help you manage and create great content quickly.  You should also check out the numerous productivity tools for writers, like href="http://writeordie.com/" target="_blank">Write or Die which imposes consequences when you STOP typing, or href="http://www.ommwriter.com/">Omniwriter, which eliminates distractions while you write, and href="http://macfreedom.com/about">Freedom, which actually blocks time-wasting websites as you write (Pinterest, anyone?)

5. No idea is wasted.

You’re going to need content – lots of content – and not just for your blog.  You’ll be more useful to your followers if you use social media for unique content other than blog posts.  That means keeping track of sites that speak to your niche using forums and RSS feeds, monitoring the Pinterest boards of leaders in your niche, and using href="http://www.google.com/alerts">Google alerts to monitor topics on the web.  Follow what’s trending on Twitter, and relevant hash tags, and keep engaged with your groups on Facebook.  Finally, remember to keep eye on the news for hot topics, politics, and current events that affect your blog topic, even if it’s rare.

6. Take multiple photos of everything.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-1066 border" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0506-3.jpg" alt="Beautiful Bubble" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0506-3.jpg 600w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0506-3-300x208.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

Get really comfortable with photography.  That means taking out your camera at every opportunity you can. (Note, you may not be allowed to shoot certain things, like a shopping trip or people without permission.)  Don’t just take photos; take lots of them!  Adjust settings, light, turn flash on and off – see what works and what doesn’t for different pictures.  Remember you can’t take too many digital photos, but you can waste time reshooting when the 1 or 2 you took that look crummy.  This is especially critical if you are taking product photos or looking for that great shot of your child.

7. Set social media to autopost.

Incorporating social media plugins and tools to automatically update your social media will help keep you be more productive.  For Facebook, I recommend the Networked Blogs application.  In addition to allowing you to set up feeds to Twitter or Facebook, you can also use this as a blog reader and set targets o follow and read.  Use href="http://twitterfeed.com/" target="_blank">TwitterFeed.com to feed your blog’s RSS to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or you can select an app in LinkedIn and connect your blog directly.  You should also  schedule tweets and Facebook posts throughout the week with different titles and hashtags to reach a larger audience.

8. Organize your content so that anyone can reach you easily.

Once your blog starts to grow, organizations are going to want to contact you – and so are the spammers.  I recommend putting your email address on your blog, and you can use a plugin like href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/obfuscate-email/">Obfuscate E-mail, making it harder for hackers to scrape.  Since there’s no way to entirely avoid spam, it’s a good idea to set up multiple ways to reach you, in case that critical email lands in spam.  Set up a contact form on your blog, and if you have a business, customize the information you want to collect.  I recommend the href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/">Contact Form Plugin for WordPress.  Finally, you can opt to put your phone number on your site, but only if you have a business phone line – don’t publish a private phone.  Instead, you can add your Skype phone info, or integrate Skype into your blog via a plugin.  Finally, make sure you put all your social media on every blog page as well.

9. Make sure your information on your static pages is clear, correct, and informative.

You should always have an about page that clearly lists who you are, what your blog is about, and who you are trying to reach – and what you DON’T do (run ads, accept guest posts, etc.). As you grow, it’s a good idea to post your blog statistics, using Google Analytics to see how your blog is performing and growing.  This will cut down on email from visitors you do not wish to work with. Remember that the more information you post describing your blog’s mission, the more likely the contacts you get will be properly directed.

10. Recruit a regular guest blogger.

Think you can’t find a guest blogger?  Think again.  Lots of newbie bloggers are eager to promote their blogs to a larger audience.  Find out your href="http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php">Google page rank, then find bloggers who have a lower page rank than you or a smaller audience. If you can’t find any, recruit some brand new bloggers. You’ll need to have a relationship with them, so seek out bloggers you already know.  If no one you know fits this bill right now, spend some of your marketing time building relationships.  Make sure that when you recruit bloggers, their writing fits your blog, and that they know your expectations and guidelines.  Also, avoid granting them administrative access to your blog.  It’s easy enough to set up users with limited access if you’re using WordPress.  This is a great step to further your career as a freelance blog writer, and will give you experience in copyediting and managing a team.

These ideas and productivity tools will help you find time to blog when your time is short or you are unavailable.  Set up these practices now, so you can be prepared when you are too busy to blog.

Photo credit: title="Xenia" href="http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/85278" target="_blank">Xenia and href="http://www.morguefile.com/creative/carunan" target="_blank">Carunan.

Page 20 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How To Know When It’s Time To Change Your Web Host

alt="How To Know When It’s Time To Change Your Web Host" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/better-option-500x186_c.jpg" />

Your website or blog is an investment that’s starting to pay off, but it’s hit a few snags and you’re wondering if your web host could be the problem. Or, perhaps you have a free web host or low cost services and you’re wondering if it’s time to upgrade to higher quality services. This may be a good time to consider switching hosting providers, but how do you know when it’s time to change your web host?

It may be time for a new web hosting service if…

#1 … your site is constantly going down.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6980" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/site-down.jpg" alt="web hosting down" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/site-down.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/site-down-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

This is the number one reason I left my last web host.

While it’s true that into each website a little down time will fall, if your site is down or unavailable for reasons beyond your control more than roughly once a year, it’s time to seek higher quality services. In my case, the company couldn’t explain what was causing the situation. They even switched and upgraded servers, but there were still too many site outages in too short a period of time. I did some research and discovered that many others were having the same issue with this provider. That’s a red flag to move on.

#2 … your site is toooooooooo slow.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6981" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/too-slow.jpg" alt="slow hosting server" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/too-slow.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/too-slow-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

This was my second reason for changing providers.

In my situation, I had some files that were difficult to remove clogging up the system and the host helped me to remove them, fairly quickly. That was good customer service, and it sped my site up a little – but it didn’t last long. A week later, I was again experiencing slowness that made it difficult to work on my site at all. None of their solutions helped and they finally stopped calling back and started emailing general information memos.  Their inability to fix the problem led to poor customer service.

#3 … Customer service is not helpful.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6982" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/bad-customer-support.jpg" alt="bad customer support" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/bad-customer-support.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/bad-customer-support-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

style="line-height: 1.5em;">While I did experience problems in this area, in ten years of running a blog I have not had some of the horror stories I’ve heard from other site owners about poor web hosting customer service. I’ve seen problems from unanswered questions to the inability to fix a serious problem. Your data is precious and if a company can’t be bothered to service your web site problems quickly or take the time to respond to you by phone or chat, you have to wonder how much effort they will make to safeguard your data at all.

style="line-height: 1.5em;">A quality web hosting service will have a clearly marked way to provide you livestyle="line-height: 1.5em;"> support. They should respond to your request in 24 hours or less and back that service up with useful documentation. A good wiki or answer database is helpful, but if you can’t get a live person to handle an issue beyond your control or when your site is down, compromised or damaged, it’s time to move on. 

#4 … you need more space, functionality or other resources.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6983" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/more-space.jpg" alt="more hosting space needed" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/more-space.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/more-space-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

My problems with my former web host were solved once I moved: site slowness was completely fixed.

However, you may be experiencing problems because you’ve run out of space on your host. I’ve run my blog for 10 years without ever needing to upgrade the space. If you do run out of space quickly, this means you have a LOT on your site such as video or podcasts. I’ve never had to upgrade the size of my hosting package, but I’ve always had comprehensive packages. In fact, the last two times I purchased web hosting, I was given sales event pricing, which means I got a lot of value for my dollar. If your site is data-intensive and you need more space, then go for the upgrade. However, if you are simply writing blog posts and running a few plugins, and your host wants to charge an exorbitant fee to upgrade, it may be a time for a new web host.

Buyer beware though: href="//localhost/the-truth-about-unlimited-hosting">learn the in’s and out’s of “unlimited” web hosting.

#5 … you’re paying too much for web hosting.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6984" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/too-pricey.jpg" alt="too pricey" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/too-pricey.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/too-pricey-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

Everybody’s definition of “too much” is different, but if you are simply running a blog, you should be able to get quality web hosting, including great customer service and enough storage, in a reasonable price range. Of course, pricing depends on how much storage you need. If you are running a video or podcasting blog that updates daily, you’re going to need a lot more space than the average blog . However, a website or blog that’s predominantly text and images can run you per month or less. As mentioned, look for discounts and sales – some of these will run for the life of your blog – or talk to a salesperson and tell them your budget. If you are a new customer, they may be willing to work with you. Learn how to select an affordable host at our href="/ultimate-cheap-web-hosting-guide/">Web Hosting Guide.

Budget Hosting Choices – Reviewed at WHSR

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#6 … you are regularly inconvenienced.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6985" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/inconvenience.jpg" alt="inconvenience" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/inconvenience.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/inconvenience-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

style="line-height: 1.5em;">I used to have this amazing web host that I’d used for years and it was everything I’d hoped for: instant customer service, comprehensive packages, affordable price, web professional recommended.  They even had an easy referral service. One day, they changed their billing software. I had set up my system to automatically pay my monthly bills so I could set it and forget it. Then one month, I got a notification that they’d shut down my site if I didn’t pay in a few days. I called customer service and they told me they’d made change in their software and that I’d have to make adjustments on my end. I did and thought the problem solved – until the next month, when I was asked for payment again. This went on for months and, despite my complaints and requests, nothing seemed to solve the problem. I have a lot on my plate and remembering to manually pay a small bill for a service I’m always going to need is a waste of time. Since I had another hosting services at the time, I simply moved my blog and discontinued services.

style="line-height: 1.5em;">Convenience is definitely a consideration when you are a serious blogger or website owner.

#7 … you’ve been hacked, more than once.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6986" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hacked.jpg" alt="hacked site" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hacked.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hacked-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

style="line-height: 1.5em;">Having your website hacked is painful but it happens. Hopefully if it does, you or your web host will catch it early, before any real damage is done. Once a site is hacked, I would expect any web hosting company worth its salt to do everything in their power to make sure it doesn’t happen again – from revisiting and improving their security measures to guiding you in how to better protect your site once it has been restored. There is no excuse for getting hacked twice or more. If it that happens, your security has been compromised. Of course, security issues could be your fault, so if you do get hacked, style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="//localhost/blog/blogging-tips/the-pitfalls-of-hacking-and-spam-7-ways-to-protect-your-blog">take all the recommended measures you can to protect your blog style="line-height: 1.5em;">.

#8 … you’ve heard about a great service elsewhere.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6987" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/better-option.jpg" alt="better option" width="750" height="280" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/better-option.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/better-option-300x112.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

If you’ve ever said, “Wow, my web host doesn’t do that,” it may be time for a change. Web hosting on a budget can only offer you so much, but we’ve all heard stories of amazing services or support that can make it better. My current web host, for example, switched my blog over safely and soundly while I slept. I awoke up to website that functioned quickly and reliably without a single glitch in service. If you don’t feel that level of comfort, or are bothered about negative reports you’ve seen on your web host, it may be time for a change.

The guidelines above will help you determine if it’s time for a change, but only you know if the time is right. Your website is only as good as your web host so take your time and do your research when href="//localhost/choose-the-right-web-hosting">choosing a new web host.

Page 17 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed