Never Fear, Hosting Hero is Here!
I’ve always sort of fancied myself as a super hero, kinda like Batman or WonderFish. But until recently, I’ve been missing a very important component of my super hero identity….I had no arch nemesis. Well, I have one now!
It seems that GoDaddy has stepped forward to play this very important role in my super hero identity. Yes, GoDaddy…the mega domain wholesaler and, uh um, web hosting provider. So, now it is time for me to put on the leotard suit and puff my chest out while I do battle with GoDaddy.com. Okay, here’s my story and a message. (Prepare yourself, even the abridged version of the story is long.)
My Story:
A little over a month ago I decided to move one of my blogs off of my GoDaddy shared hosting account due to problems with installing WordPress on GoDaddy servers (there are a multitude of websites that have the detailed instructions) and some data problems that I could not trace the cause of. I backed up my WordPress data and attempted to install with the new host.
Unfortunately, the data backup was incomplete for some reason. When I went back to my database on the GoDaddy server, the database had been renamed. GoDaddy tech support admitted to having problems with WordPress hosting during the past 48 hours, but claimed that the database name change was not possibly created by anyone but me. BTW, the name was changed to something like “AAsad4q24Asdf0-45″. Not a name I would have readily thought of. To read more about this adventure, visit “6 Unheralded Benefits of Blogging” at UTurnAhead.com.
Well, I finally settled in with my new hosting provider, BlueHost.com and even started a couple more blogs. I let my GoDaddy hosting account just sit until last week. Then I decided to give GoDaddy a second chance. I set up a WordPress website for our local disc golf club and for my employer. All was fine for a few days.
But today I was adding a post on the disc golf site and had a problem with uploading a photo. I figured it has to be a WordPress problem (although it worked yesterday), so I reinstalled WordPress. Still didn’t work. On a whim, I decided to see if I could upload photos in my other GoDaddy hosted site…still didn’t work. Finally, I tested the photo uploads on all my BlueHost sites and had no problem at all.
So, is it a GoDaddy problem or something else? To be fair, I really don’t know. The evidence is that the problem occurs on both GoDaddy sites but not on the three BlueHost sites. I began searching for a solution to my problem and started finding a plethora (you like that word?) of blog posts and articles of GoDaddy problems. Here is a sampling…
WordPress and GoDaddy:
- Trippin – “GoDaddy is Killing Me Here“
- DarcyNorman – “Thinking of Ditching GoDaddy“
- Ramblings of a Bored Geek – “GoDaddy 500 Internal Server Error“
- Venetsian – “GoDaddy Web Hosting Causes WordPress Search Engine Privacy Issues“
- Off Topic – “Hosting on GoDaddy“
- Charles Online Review Element – “Problem with Trailing Slash for WordPress in GoDaddy“
- Online Dating Guide & Blog – “Using WP-Cache on GoDaddy (500 Error)“
- Tim Sisk – “WordPress and GoDaddy.com“
- Late Night PC Service – “Mod_Rewrite on GoDaddy with WordPress“
- Romantica.name – “WP-Cache and GoDaddy Hosting“
- Uberdose 2.0 – “Some Thoughts on WordPress Hosting“
- Inside Google – “Great, Now GoDaddy is Screwing Me!“
- StyloMilo.com – “Dumped GoDaddy Host and Migrated to BlueHost“
General GoDaddy Concerns:
- ShoeMoney – “GoDaddy Frustrations Have Hit Me First Hand“
- Building My Empire – “Things About GoDaddy.com“
- The Consumerist – “GoDaddy’s Customer Service Suffers Wardrobe Malfunction“
- 8008135 – “Is GoDaddy Blackmailing Me?” (This is a must read.)
- ZDNet – “GoDaddy Hosting Customers Victim to Massive Hack“
- c|net News – “GoDaddy Pulls Security Site After MySpace Complaints“
- Bad Behavior / Bad Behaviour – “GoDaddy Sucks“
- Forever Geek – “GoDaddy Sucks” (Another original title)
- Miranda Writes (Blog) – “GoDaddy Sucks” (Hmm, same copywriter?)
- RabidGadfly - “GoDaddy Still Sucks” (Still? Really?)
- Blue Mushrooms – “GoDaddy Sucks More than I Thought” (The expanded version)
- Ken Hada – “Archive for the ‘GoDaddy VPS Problems’ Category“
- Ramblings of a Web Guy – “GoDaddy Support is Awful“
- Smaxor’s Musings – “Why GoDaddy Sucks Ballz?“
- Chrono Tron – “[More] GoDaddy Woes…“
- ThreadWatch.org – “Godaddy Grabs a Valuable Domain Name from Their Customer Because of Invalid Email and Profits From It” AND “GoDaddy Holding Customer Sites to Ransom?“
- Jim Boykin’s Blog – “GoDaddy Jobs Problem“
- Wired News – GoDaddy Defends SecLists Takedown
- San Francisco Bay Guardian – “The Self-Appointed Censors at GoDaddy“
- NoDaddy.com – “My Story“
- Geek Daily – “GoDaddy Surpressing Search Engine Indexing“
- Colin McNamara – “Why GoDaddy Linux Virtual Dedicated Hosting Sucks & How to Fix It“
- Johnon.com – “GoDaddy Has a Problem“
- Oregon Herald – “GoDaddy.com/TDNam.com: Are They Careless or Just Stupid?
- DNForum – “GoDaddy Charged Us $29 for Trademark Violation!“
- Geeks With Blogs – “The Woes of Plesk Control Panel for Shared Web Hosting“
And what’s with GoDaddy tech support always needing to put me on hold for another three or four minutes while the rep “Checks on something?” Does he have a burrito in the microwave or just wanting me to rack up more minutes on my phone bill. That’s right, there is no toll-free tech support at GoDaddy.
The Message:
So, is GoDaddy really an evil hosting and domain provider? Nah, probably not on the level of Jerry Springer and Dr. Phil. But I’m writing this post for a different reason. As an advisor to new bloggers, I owe it to you to share this information. The fact is, when you are choosing a host for your blog you need to ask: Do I want to risk the problems that are broadly reported at GoDaddy? Or will I simply take the low cost deal and hope I’m one of the thousands of satisfied GoDaddy customers? (Oh yeah, some of my best friends are GoDaddy fans.)
The bottom line is, shop around and know the potential problems. A great place to start is the BlogFlux Hosting Directory. They have customer reviews and comparisons for a multitude of hosting providers.
[PhotoCredit:FuzzCat]
New Changes Coming to Blogging Startup
Since the purpose of this blog is to help new bloggers, I figured I’d do a little self examination of my blog to let you inside the design process. To start with, let me say that I broke one of my own blogging rules when starting this blog. I didn’t have the final design ready before publishing on the Internet. I also have some ideas for content that should be fun and informative. So here’s a list of changes that I am planning.
1) I need a custom logo to replace the generic template typographics. The big orange title (now white) is simply part of the original theme design. But it is neither eye-catching or memorable. I want a logo that adds to the branding of the site. So look for new logo in the future.
2) I want the Popular Posts section in the sidebar to automatically populate with the most popular posts. This requires adding a plugin and placing the proper code in the sidebar. I recently installed the Popularity Contest plugin by Alex King, and I highly recommend this plugin to all users of WordPress. You will find it here along with several other Alex King plugins. Now I simply need to enter the correct code in the correct location (for me, this could take months).
3) I will be replacing the Adsense advertisements from the top of the sidebar. This, like the title format, is part of the original theme design. I want to replace this prime real estate with something more beneficial to my readers. I have been looking at some products and services for advertising, but I only want to promote stuff I know is good. I hope to make this change in the next few weeks.
4) I will be adding some valuable resource lists to the blog. I’ve been working on a number of exciting lists that I will be adding either as posts or as pages tabbed at the top of the blog. I want to make Blogging Startup the first place new bloggers go for resources and information, so these lists will add a lot of value to the site. Of course, it’s a lot of work to find great resources, so it has been taking me some time. I hope to have the first list published in the next two weeks.
5) Finally, I want to start doing more blog reviews. Every few weeks I will review a blog that is just getting started. Each blog will receive a review of both content and design with a list of strong points and areas for improvement. For an example of one of my reviews, see the Push Standards Review. My hope is to provide some encouragement, advice and a wee bit of traffic from my readers. I will write more about this later, but if you have a new blog (less than six months old) and would like a review, drop me a note.
Finally, I have a question. Do you like the text color for this blog’s hyperlinks? The orange text is not my favorite, but I want to know what you think? Should I change the color to a more traditional blue or another color…or just leave it orange? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think?
[UPDATE: Well, with two votes counted, it's unanimous. I've changed the link color to blue. Thanks Shari!]
[PhotoCredit:Davichi]
Five Ways to Find Things at Blogging Startup
Hey, if you’re looking for a particular post on Blogging Startup, you can find it a few different ways:
Use the new “Archives” page at the top of this blog. This page lists everything ever posted at BloggingStartup.com. By the way, the page is created with a wonderful plugin called SRG Clean Archives 4.2 from GeekWithLaptop.com.
Use the wonderful search feature in the upper right corner of the blog. It’s big, pretty, and very functional. Give it a try…you know you want to.
Check out the list of popular articles in the right sidebar. This is where I list the most popular posts as rated by Good Housekeeping.
Use the list of Recent Posts in the right sidebar. This is a list of the last five posts appearing on this blog.
Finally, find what you are looking for by category. The category list in the right sidebar is a great way to find articles by topic area. For example, click Blog Contests to find all the contests that I have reported about.
So there you go, five great ways to find what you are looking for at Blogging Startup. So quit sending me emails asking where to find stuff. I have no idea where you put the T.V. remote!
[Photo Credit:C.P. Storm]
Hi, My name’s Jim and I’m a Blogger…
I started blogging when a friend got me hooked. He said it was just for fun…nothing bad could happen. Well, so I tried it. At first I was nervous, but it felt good so I kept doing it. I only blogged on weekends, hiding my posts when anyone was around. But it wasn’t long before I was blogging almost every day.
I would usually go to Blogger to get my fix. It was easy and free…I think just to get me hooked. But soon I was doing WordPress…on my own domain! I know, I know…that’s really dangerous. But hell, it was amazing! I loved it. I could do anything I wanted while blogging. ANYTHING!
Finally I started making my own blogs, I mean, mixing code and stuff. New blogs that I could share with others. Nah, I never sold the stuff. I just used it myself and shared with others. Now I’m blogging two or three times a day…on multiple blogs. I can’t stop. I don’t WANT to stop!
Well, that’s it. That’s why I’m here. I’m addicted to blogging.
So, you’re turn to share. What is your name, and why are you a blogger?
[Photo Credit:Tyreseus]
Six Decisions to Make Before You Start Your Blog
Okay, you want to start a blog. You’ve heard how cool it is. You’ve read about folks that go rich doing it. You’ve even read a couple. So, where do you begin? Start by making a few important decisions:
What topic will you be blogging about? The general consensus is that niche blogging has a better chance of long term success then just random posts about unconnected topics. Read “An Introduction to Niche Blogging” at DoshDosh.com.
Why are you blogging? Knowing the reason(s) you are blogging puts everything else in perspective. Probably the most important question, “For love or money?” Read “14 Awesome Reasons to Start Blogging Today” here at Blogging Startup.
How will you measure success? Once you know why you are blogging, you can set a standard for success. Having a goal will keep you focused and on track. Read “How Do You Measure Blogging Success?” here at Blogging Startup.
What blogging platform will you use? Will you be using an online blogging host or your own domain? You can start a free blog quickly with Blogger, Wordpress.com, or LiveJournal, or you can purchase your own domain and hosting to have a truly independent blog. Read “Choosing a Blog Platform” at Problogger.net.
What will you call the blog? Every blog (like every child) needs a name. (Hey, we can’t have nameless children running around!) Choose a name that describes your blog (like BloggingStartup) and, if possible, matches your domain name. Read “Choosing the Domain Name for Your Blog” at Problogger.net.
How will you promote your blog? You might ask, “Do I need to promote my blog?” And I might answer, “No.” But if you want visitors, readers, traffic, guests, friends, money, fame, wealth, and a reason to live…you will promote your blog. Read “10 Surefire Ways to Promote Your Blog for Free” at OneMansGoal.com.
That’s it. Answer those six questions and you are ready to start your blog.
Book Review: The Adsense Code by Joel Comm
I first read The Adsense Code
Comm wastes very little time getting right to the important stuff. In the first chapter, he explains the basic steps to setting up your website from choosing a domain to brief coverage of search engine optimization (SEO). He explains that the book is not a course on constructing a website, so he spends no more than six pages on these very brief descriptions.
If you are a new web developer, you will want to go directly from chapter one to the fourteenth chapter. In chapter fourteen, Comm covers some important issues to consider before applying for your Adsense account. After reading this chapter, you can then head back to chapter two.
The second chapter, “How to ‘Tweak’ Your Ads to Make Them ‘Click’” jumps right into making Adsense work for you. Comm, speaking from his own personal experience of making as much as $600 a day from Adsense, helps the reader understand how to tweak Adsense ads to get the clicks. And with Adsense, clicks = money!
Joel Comm spends much of his time helping the reader understand the importance of ad placement and design to maximize visibility of the ads. Comm points out that clicks occur most on ads that blend well with the overall design of the website. A good deal of time is spent on explaining how to match the ads to the color and style of your website. I particularly like the example web pages that Comm uses throughout the book to demonstrate what he is teaching. You will find multiple screen shots of example websites.
Comm does a great job of stressing the value of tracking and testing all aspects of your Adsense experience. He explains the optimum way to use Adsense channels to know which ads receive clicks, and when. This information allows you to make changes to placement and design, test these changes, and understand what works best.
Near the end of the book, Comm presents some other resources to monetize your blog besides Adsense. He also dedicates a chapter to basic information for driving traffic to your site. Finally, Comm wraps it all up with some great case examples and a free bonus offer to anyone buying the book. With purchase of the book, you receive
- A 30-page digital document with additional case examples of how to optimize Adsense,
- Access to a members-only Adsense resource page, and
- A free subscription to Joel Comm’s Adsense Secrets Newsletter.
My opinion of The Adsense Code
This book is an excellent tutorial on setting up and maximizing your Adsense revenue. The descriptions and screen shots are easy to follow. Comm’s knowledge comes from his personal success with the Adsense program. My only concern is that readers need to understand that Comm’s SEO and web traffic information is brief and only an introduction to those topics. Bottom line: If you are going to use Adsense, this book is worth reading. You can probably find a copy at your library or local used book store.
Oh, and did I mention how much I love the cover?
[UPDATE: Because of a recent comment left by a friend regarding how the author of this book stiffed him on a business deal, I am no longer suggesting that you purchase this book. I have removed all links to purchase the book. I still, however, strongly recommend getting the book at the library or through a used book store if you are at all interested in Adsense advertising.]