I reached out to a customer service rep via phone about canceling my contract. Turns out, they don’t do refunds. At that point, I didn’t even care if I got a refund or not. I just wanted out.
A fast as possible.
And so, I moved to SiteGround.
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11 Reasons why SiteGround is the Best WordPress Blog Hosting CompanyRead More »
As a WordPress designer and front-end developer, I have this weird… love/hate relationship with plugins.
In one hand, I understand that the more plugins you have, the more you load your site. Essentially, these are all separate files, often with their own sets of CSS stylesheets and JavaScript files. And the more of these you have, the more file requests your server has to process. Which then slows down your site.
But let’s be honest, who has the time to sit down and hand-code all this?
Not this side-blogger!
And who has the money to hire a developer to custom code all these plugins?
Not this side blogger!
Who has the time to sit down and merge plugin files or hire a developer to do so?
NOT THIS SIDE-BLOGGER!!!
Yeah, you get the picture.
So, yes, I’ve decided to bite down the bullet and make my peace with WordPress plugins.
To make things easier, safer, and essentially more productive for you and your blog, it helps to make sure that the plugins you use are of high quality, and are essential for your blogging needs.
So, in today’s blog post, I’ve decided to talk about WordPress plugins, red flags to watch out for, and a list of a few awesome plugins that I personally use, and you could use too to make your blogging life easier and more productive.
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9 Super Useful WordPress Plugins that Help Bloggers Stand OutRead More »
Do you know what the most important thing is for a business owner?
Oh wait, I’ve got something better!
Do you know what the most important thing is for a blogger turned business owner?
It’s the knowledge of who your audience is.
Learning about your audience is tricky business. I’ll have to dedicate a whole blog post to this very topic on another day. However, I want to point out one thing that you ABSOLUTELY must have access to if you want to learn about your audience, and more importantly, the way your audience interacts with your blog.
It’s a set of data that gives you insight into your audience’s behavior on your blog. For example, how do your readers find your blog? How long do they spend on your blog? Do they stick around and check out different pages and posts? Or do they leave your site within seconds never to come back again? Which blog posts do they tend to visit most often? And much, much more!
All these data will help you understand your readers better and the more you understand them, the better you can serve them.
But how DO you get these data in the first place?
Enter Google Analytics!
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How to Add Google Analytics Tracking Code to Your WordPress Blog (Two Methods)Read More »
Here’s the thing. You can never have too many backups of your website.
Am I being paranoid?
Well… not really.
Hold up, hear me out, k?
You see, web servers are not impregnable. They can have a system malfunction just like anything else. True, a good hosting company will have ways of their own to have multiple backups, but even that can fail. And that’s why it is so very important that you’re hosted with a really good and reputable company.
Over here at Blog to Biz, I recommend SiteGround [affiliate link] because I really trust these guys, and host all my websites with them myself. In fact, I even move my clients (who’re not with SiteGround already) to SiteGround these days. Yeah… I don’t like to take chances. They have free backups with ALL of their hosting packages, and one-click restore with most of them. But that said…
I’ve literally heard horror stories where some XYZ hosting company went down and lost files and ended up with permanently corrupted databases. In fact, not too long ago I was reading about a photographer whose 8-year old website was just gone… yeah… GONE! Just like that! Poof!
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How to Automatically Back up Your WordPress Files and Database with UpdraftPlusRead More »
Call me paranoid, but having my domain and hosting with the same company scares the sh*t outta me!
Because you know what? I’ve heard HORROR stories where hosting company got screwed in mysterious ways, erased databases and lost all backup files, AND took FOREVER to unlock domains to their owners causing people to lose not only their websites but also causing them to lose their first page Google ranking because of it.
And I have heard this story not once, but quite a few times!
So, if you ask me, I’d rather be paranoid than lose Google ranking or go without my website for days.
Having your domain and hosting from separate providers is always a good idea and adds an extra layer of security should something unimaginable occur. …
So, you’re about to start your blog/website with WordPress eh? You’ve purchased hosting from a reputable company, have installed WordPress with just a few clicks… you’re having so much fun!
And then you discover plugins!
Welcome thy Pandora’s Box!
Glad you asked! Well, plugins are just pieces of software that do things on your site. They create added functionalities on top of all the functionalities WordPress comes with. For example, perhaps you want to resize all your images as soon as you upload them instead of having to manually edit and crop them every time. There’s a plugin for that!
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How to Install Plugins to Self Hosted WordPress SitesRead More »
