wordpressmakeover.com http://wordpressmakeover.com Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:45:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 WordPress Makeover Order Application http://wordpressmakeover.com/blog/order-application/ http://wordpressmakeover.com/blog/order-application/#comments Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:06:46 +0000 Rick http://wordpressmakeover.com/blog/how-to-have-a-website-in-10-minutes/ People of all skill levels should not be frightened by the act of getting a functional website online. Many people are intimidated by this process and do NOT need to be. You don’t have to be a techie to wrap your head around it, in fact if you’ve ever purchased ANYTHING online, the process is just the same. I will guide you step by step to creating a WordPress website in a short, pain-free process.

Creating a website requires 3 easy steps:
1. Buy a Domain Name (www.YourBusiness.com)
2. Purchase a Hosting Plan (~$5 per month)
3. Send Us Your Info So That We May Begin!

Step 1: Buy a Domain Name

Domain names tend to be in the realm of $3-$10 per year, depending on how many years you register for. Typically to register a domain for 1 year costs about $8-10. There are many domain registrars, it does not matter really who you choose to register with. If you have registered domain names in the past and want to keep all of your domains in the same place to keep things simple, good idea! If you have never purchased a domain name before my personal recommendation is Namecheap.com. Why NameCheap? Mainly because of the clutter free, easy to understand interface and order process, great customer service, and pricing. (NameCheap has been voted by Lifehacker Readers as the Best Domain Name Registrar of 2010). Competitors like GoDaddy.com (the domain registar giant) typically try to up-sell you addons and extra “features” during the order process, and can get very confusing. They also take quite some time to do simple things like transfer DNS and one-click installs that should be instant, can take hours (mostly due to their vast amount of customers).

Step 2: Purchase a Hosting Plan

As stated with Domain Registrars, there are also many web hosting providers. All of them do basically the same thing, and all of them have their perks and pitfalls. Again, the industry giant is GoDaddy.com – however the most well-known does not necessarily mean the best :) . My personal preference is Hostgator.com – for their customer service, uptime, price and flexibility. You can do everything you need to do and more for ~5 a month. One-click WordPress installs that ACTUALLY appear online with simply 1 click, where some other hosts can take hours or days.

Get your hosting plan now!
HostGator.com
Godaddy.com

Step 3: Send Us Your Info

As stated with Domain Registrars, there are also many web hosting providers. All of them do basically the same thing, and all of them have their perks and pitfalls. Again, the industry giant is GoDaddy.com – however the most well-known does not necessarily mean the best :) . My personal preference is Hostgator.com – for their customer service, uptime, price and flexibility. You can do everything you need to do and more for ~5 a month. One-click WordPress installs that ACTUALLY appear online with simply 1 click, where some other hosts can take hours or days.

]]> http://wordpressmakeover.com/blog/order-application/feed/ 0 Where to Buy Your Domain Names and Why. http://wordpressmakeover.com/blog/where-to-buy-your-domain-names-and-why/ http://wordpressmakeover.com/blog/where-to-buy-your-domain-names-and-why/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 08:31:25 +0000 Rick http://wordpressmakeover.com/?p=1799 Would you trust Danica Patrick with your website? No. I don’t understand the marketing strategy of what has proven to be the largest online registrar of domains. I think Godaddy.com’s marketing is absurd. I don’t like their advertising, their brand, their logo, or their owner. Being in this industry for over a decade, it’s no surprise that I’ve dealt with a ton of different web hosts and domain registrars. I would have to say that my least favorite is GoDaddy. A thing that I’ve taken a particular liking to is simplicity – because ultimately, when managing hundreds of clients websites needs over and over again, I’m constantly logging in and out, getting things done, and my ultimate goal is SPEED. Simplicity online equals speed.

Godaddy seems to be the industry giant, the one that people ‘know’ of when they first think, “I’m gonna buy that domain name for that genius thing that just popped into my head.” Probably because for the most part, they’re the ones who place those awkwardly-sexual-irrelevant-female-fronted ads on television. Check out this ‘banned’ Superbowl TV spot:

I bet you feel a little bit dumber after viewing that. Bob Parsons, GoDaddy CEO and ‘mastermind’ behind the GoDaddy girl ‘concept’, goes into detail about how big of a D-bag he is in this article on Inc.com. An ex-Marine whose company pulls in over $350 million a year by degrading women, upselling pointless bullsh*t in their registration process, and essentially ripping off grannies and internet newbies around the world. Riding around on his “18 Ducati bikes” and “typing on his 57 inch monitor.” No thanks. I’d like to think that we as a culture are past buying into ads like this, it’s a tired concept. It was funny when Carl’s Jr. can pull off a hard bodied model eating a messy burger on a bull in the name of “sexiness” because of the irony there. The GoDaddy girl concept is cheap and shallow.

Referring a client, friend, or family member to Godaddy to “buy a domain name” is essentially asking them to walk a gauntlet of cleverly hidden and deceivingly well written upsells for add-on “features” that you don’t really need. I always get confused trying to buy a domain at Godaddy. I actually think that my website is hosted at Godaddy, but it’s so confusing to deal with that I don’t even want to deal with trying to navigate their poor interface to switch my stuff to Namecheap. If you want to keep your life simple, purchase through Namecheap.

They have an ultra fast purchase process and they quickly redirect their DNS servers (basically instantly) which is not a quality that many bigger domain and webhosting giants offer. You could end up having to wait “up to 48 hours” for your DNS to transfer on GoDaddy. The “one-click installs” on GoDaddy can take hours to be put into effect, due to the volume of clients they have. This can be ULTRA annoying. Your great idea should be able to become a website in less than 20 minutes. From domain purchase, hosting purchase, to the one-click WordPress install, 20 minutes seems like more than enough time. I’ve been meaning to count the number of actual clicks it takes to really get a website online (I suspect it’s around 30) but I have not done it yet (maybe I’ll post a video). That’s the world we live in and that’s what it ought to be. Instant. Asking somebody to wait 48 hours for something that should be instant is bulls**t if you ask me.

Also I should mention that NameCheap has been voted by Lifehacker Readers as the Best Domain Name Registrar of 2010.

Compelling reasons to use Namecheap:

• clutter free, easy to understand interface
• fantastic pricing
• frequent deals
• amazing customer service

Sold!

- Rick

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