Finding the right hosting partner makes all the difference in the world for me. In order to keep up with what is going on in my own world and beyond, engaging social media networks, tweeting, writing blog posts, staying current with technology, working on design and marketing projects and trying to eat, sleep and have some spare time (unsure what that is) the one thing I do not have time for is down time, due to server or hosting issues. One thing that impressed me about this host is that I called them about 11:00 pm to see how their support was; and to see if anyone actually picked up the phone … or how long they would make me wait. To my surprise, they picked up in less than two minutes and they spoke my language. I looked at the helpdesk support on their site; which is very helpful and comprehensive. I checked out their cPanel demo; which added tremendous value to the WIIFM factor. They give you $50 in Google AdWords credit, $25 in Yahoo credit, another $25 bonus credit, simple scripts, 24/7 responsive and superb support; plus a lot, lot more. Whether you already have a domain or need a domain, they can help you get set up quickly and easily. With the credits, it’s like getting your hosting for free. After I signed up someone called me to confirm my order and to thank me; plus, they didn’t try to sell me anything. A real nice touch. For $6.95 per month, free setup and no gimmicks … plus, if you don’t have a domain, you can get one for free … this is a pretty sweet deal. Check it out. You’ll be glad you did.

I am talking about this now, because, you may have noticed my site was down for a few hours today. I didn’t really want it to be down. However, the upside is that I am now working with a really great web hosting service that should make my life easier; so I can focus on positive activity rather than spending my time trying to troubleshoot server and support issues.

I transferred several domains over to my new hosting partner today; and for the most part, everything went off without a hitch. In fact, on one of my other domains I was able to quickly install and configure the newest release of Joomla in a matter of a few minutes. This would have taken me several hours with my former web hosting partner. The biggest issue I had with transferring this site was that my database import said it went okay, however, it missed chunks of data here and there. Also, I did not use shell access and ftp’d everything; which, normally is fine. However, I did discover that some files did not upload the first time around. So, this caused me a little grief. Fortunately, I have experienced that before and was able to recognize where the potential issue was at.

All said, I don’t think I lost more than three or four hours, with the transfers and setup. Now, with a great hosting partner, I can focus on design and marketing.

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