They haven’t quite released WordPress 2.7 yet, so I’m still rocking the RC1 version of it. They say they will release the final version tomorrow. A few more screenshots today and it should be good to go.

Web Site Starter Kit should be released by the end of the week.

Argh! Of course, after I’ve written the directions on how to use WordPress, they come out with a new version, version 2.7, and changed the entire interface, so I have to rewrite the “how to” sections, with new screenshots, so they actually match what it really is like now.

More work for me. Better book for you. The book should be available to buy in the next few days also. I still need to run it through some reviews to make sure it’ll be as good as I think it should be.

The new admin interface is much better and easier to use. I like it a lot and I’m glad it happened now and not after I started to sell Web Site Starter Kit. I’d hate to have angry customers.

If you sign up for a free account at WordPress.com today, you’ll get to use the latest version. If you download it to use on your own “cheap” web host, then you’ll get the old version. Version 2.7 for download should be updated in the next few days.

You should set up addresses like support@ and sales@ and information@, just to look professional.

Set up your email application to log into that account, then use it to send and receive email.

You should also have a “catch all” account that will probably get filled with spam, but you’ll also get those emails with misspelled email addresses that you might otherwise miss.

You should set up addresses like “support@” and “sales@” and “information@”, just to look professional. You, or someone, should be able to log in and send and receive email at each of your custom addresses.

Also, don’t let any address lay dormant. Make sure that someone is logging into every account, every 10 minutes. “I sent you an email last week. Did you get it?” is not the question you want to hear.

The main cost to build a web site is the manpower to build it.

In my experience, even the building of the site is easy. The real time suck is politics. The meetings between marketing and well, marketing, seemed to drag out every decision. They needed to be sure everything was just right before we could move ahead. When you can tell a developer to “do it this way”, they can knock it out quickly. When you ask a marketing person which way they want it, have a seat and wait.

Don’t fall into this same trap. Just get the site up and out the door. When you build custom stuff, it will take a bit to make changes, but using WordPress, it’s easy. Make all of the changes you want.

Make a decision. Make it happen. Bam. You’re done.

Old Media Interview: Aron Pilhofer, interactive guru, editor at The New York Times | Old Media, New Tricks

Everything we use is free and open-source… The cost here isn’t software, or even hardware, which is relatively cheap these days… The price most … organizations (and it’s not just small ones) seem reluctant to pay is for people…

Read the entire article at Old Media Interview: Aron Pilhofer, interactive guru, editor at The New York Times | Old Media, New Tricks

Go to the web page at http://www.wordpress.com. If you go to the “.org” one, that’s where you get the stuff to do it all yourself. You’re too cheap for that, so make sure you go to the “.com” site. They’re the “host it for me for free” site.

See where it says “Express Yourself. Start a Blog”? We’re going to trick them and not start a blog, although they are all the rage. We just want an easy to use, free web site. Now, see that big button that says “Sign Up Now? That’s what you click next.

Unlimited bandwidth and server space are not that critical. Don’t be swayed by those claims. Price and support. Again, I recommend Powweb. Click the button on the right to get more info about them.

The Shared Hosting Checklist | Web Hosting Articles & Tutorials – © Web Hosting Rating

Support

Customer service is a critical element of web hosting, especially if you are creating your first website.  To make sure you get the benefit of quality support, you should find out if the company has a phone number, email address or live chat.  You can take this one step further by making contact before signing up to judge their response time.  If they take days to reply or blow you off completely, there is no need to waste your time.

Reviews

One way to find yourself a good shared host is to read reviews online.  This should give you a good idea about who you will be dealing with and what to expect.  At the same time, you shouldn’t rely solely on web hosting reviews.  Some could be written by internal sources at a particular company while others could be written by competitors.  If you want helpful reviews, try to get them from somebody you can trust to provide honest opinions.

Status

Every web host had to start somewhere, but it’s always a good idea to sign up with a company that has been in the business for a while.  Several providers have crumbled despite seeming as if they were off to a good start.  By doing business with trusted names with documentation to back up their claims, you can better assure that your experience with shared hosting will be a positive one.

Read the entire article at The Shared Hosting Checklist | Web Hosting Articles & Tutorials – © Web Hosting Rating

The real owner of any domain name is the Administrative Contact in the whois record

If your developer is listed as that admin contact, then they are the legal owner. Again, this is nice that they are helping you out, but be aware that you are vulnerable to having your domain name held hostage, or worse, stolen from you.

This is the “whois” that I use. It’s from an old registrar that I no longer use because they quit responding to all communication from me. They were horrible. But, I still use their whois look up because they are no flashing ads or captchas to slow me down. I’ll share their secret look up page with you.

Check who owns your domain name here.

If you are not listed for your domain name, take steps to change that or have it changed. Make sure that your email address is also listed. If someone hijacks your email account, they can have your password sent to them, log in and change the admin contact to themselves and steal your domain name.

Send me email if you want any help with checking on this.

If you want a Ferrari, then buy a Ferrari, but know that it's a Ferrari.

Advantages of Managed Web Hosting | What It Is

The reasons why to opt a managed web hosting account compare to unmanaged cheaper web hosting service are as follows:

No Downtime: Your online website works as official brand of your company presence over the internet thus it’s a must for you to make your site alive 24*7 hrs for the world wide web visitors so that they can access your website without any such issues like downtime. Major online web hosting providers gives you 99.9% uptime guarantee while the fact is this that its too insufficient to the practical need for better presence in front of your customers thus you need a web hosting company which can ensure you 100% optimal uptime as there are a lot of managed web hosting providers which offer 100% uptime in real due to their multi-home bandwidth network lines.

When you are a newbie webmaster even it’s a must for you to ensure that your web hosting provider gives you 100% uptime guarantee in this manner you can cut off a lot of hassles and frustration sort of unwanted things in your daily business role with your website.

Better Equipments: There are a lot of managed web hosting providers over the internet world which gives you 30 minutes or even 15 minutes hardware replacement guarantee sort of unmatchable performance for your website as when your hardware by chance goes failed this is a must as nobody knows what’s going on when as everybody just know either the past of the presence nothing can be predicated for future reference point of view when you are dealing practically over any such technical things as web servers.

Better Support: When you go to search any web hosting company you shall check their Support SLA things to let you know that how good they are to the support needs as there are a lot of managed web hosting providers which offer you maximum 30 minutes guaranteed response over your any trouble with your website so it’s always better to keep your eyes on their detailed SLA agreement too so you can secure yourself that you are working with the best supporting team for your web hosting needs.

Remote backups: Proper planning for backups shall be always carried when you host your website anywhere on internet and if you have a properly planned remote backup that makes you 200% more secure to what you are doing on internet.

Read the entire article at Advantages of Managed Web Hosting | What It Is

If you have to ask, then you don’t need very much.

Don't be seduced by the flashing neon signs screaming *unlimited* at you.

Start out with the cheapest, least amount of space and bandwidth. Don’t be seduced by the flashing neon signs screaming “unlimited” at you. Don’t upgrade until you have to.

You will be surprised by just how little bandwidth you really need. If the average page is 100k, which is not unreasonable, then 100,000 pages a month is one gig. That’s over 3,000 page views a day. Do you have that many? If you have 10,000 views a day, then you’ll want 3 or 4 gig. I think “unlimited” bandwidth would probably cover that.

I really, really mean that you shouldn’t get more than you really need and you probably don’t need as much as you think you do. Really. Don’t do it.

Much more important is the reliability of the company. Do they answer emails quickly? Put in a support ticket and see how long it takes them to answer. Ask the sales people technical questions about redundancy and latency. See how long it takes to answer and does the answer make sense to you. Just tell them that you were told to ask about “redundancy and latency” and please explain what that means. If you are happy with the answer, then great. If you have no idea what this technical jargon they give you means or it takes them 3 days to answer you, then move along and find another web host company.

I’ll be working on showing you how to build your own web site, your own way, doing what you want to do. It’s coming. I’m wokring on it.