GoodNCrazy » wordpress Love

Bluehost Hosting, When In Doubt Call A Web Designer

Carissa — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:11:18 +0000

Dot is Great.. She gives me Chocolate CAKE!!!

I’m quoting Bill Cosby. He sing-songs this. Only it’s ‘Dad is GREAT… he feeds us chocolate CAKE!’ (For Breakfast.)

I feel like a little kid who was offered cake for breakfast. That’s how happy I am. See… last weekend, out of the blue my website was down. And it felt like I had been punched in the stomach. Your blog sort of becomes another appendage after years of feeding it, stroking it’s ego, and especially after working through a whole WordPress transition. That was like giving birth, I swear! All painful and stressful while waiting for the new baby to emerge….

Okay enough metaphors. Dot from Dabbled.org was the miracle WordPress midwife who helped GoodNCrazy make the giant leap from Blogspot to self hosting ‘real’ website. However all along there was a funny glitch. I had already purchased my hosting (for a total of 18months!!) before consulting the Guru. Turns out that was a big mistake.

Dot assured me the hosting service she used was fabulous and if I ever wanted to switch after my LONG contract was up, she would totally help me. Her favorite server hosting company is BlueHost. Have you heard of them? About $7/month and get this… They give you a free Domain Name for life! No more renewing your URL. {Even if you already purchased yours, they will help you transfer it and then they will renew it from then on!}

Back to my nightmare last weekend. My server is inexplicably down. They call to tell me my account was canceled and that one whole year later I didn’t qualify for the ‘free’ extra six months after all. REALLY? SRSLY? Cuz, HELLO… the only reason I was duped into using your service was the fact that in EMAILS you promised me the 6 months free. And then there were fees. Extra fees for a database upload. ‘Oh you need a database for WordPress??’, they asked me. Well DUH! Yes you need database access for WordPress! They allowed it. (Gee thanks I thought.) ‘Oh it’s extra for the DNS switching stuff‘, they tell me AFTER I’ve paid them for the year-plus 6months free. Again with the hidden fees I’m thinking?

There I was, server down, hosting company refusing to respond to me, either by ‘support ticket’ email or via phone.

Tail between my legs I begged Dot to please SAVE my blog! And easy as cake… she referred me to her BlueHost affiliate link and I had my server up and running and she helped me get my WHOLE site moved over in a matter of hours. By Monday morning I was GoodNCrazy once again, not 404error – sorry no website here….

If you are thinking about making the switch to WordPress. YOUR FIRST STEP is getting a reputable hosting company. Please feel free to Use Dot’s BlueHost link.. I promise you’ll be happy you did!

Your Second Step is talking to Dot about blog design. She’s the artist who created my Crazy Tree Header complete with linkable social media icon ornaments! (I know you love it and want one for yourself…) Please check out her Web Design: DabbledStudios.com and her quirky blog: Dabbled.org. (Imagine a Platypus Cake??)

And if you really must have chocolate cake now… Dot is more than a Jack of all trades.. in addition to all her artwork and blog design, she is also the creator of one of my newest favoritest Foodie Websites: FoodWhirl.com. I LOVE subscribing to this site via email. I get 3-4 new recipes delivered to my inbox everyday! I’ve tried her pizza recipe, her smoky lentil soup recipe and many more… She had a whole week dedicated to BACON.. I mean does it get any better than that!?

FoodWhirl.com Examples

There is a great feature on the FoodWhirl site they call the spotlight. YOU can submit foodie articles to FoodWhirl.com! How cool is that! Reminds me… I have a cream puff recipe I SO need to share with the FoodWhirl world….

GoodNCrazy.com is Now On WordPress!

Carissa — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:38:08 +0000

photo credit: SEPBLOG

HOO-RAY!!

It’s taken me several months but here I am. WordPress UP, yo.

And now I am super busy learning everything I can about WordPress and my Theme (Vigilance). Wow, I feel like a 3rd grader attempting to learn calculus.

“Sorry Miss Ashley, how do I locate the CSS file again via my FTP client? I can’t remember where my pink crayon is….”

I’m gonna need a lot of help. So if you already invented the WordPress wheel… will you please share a spoke or two?

Thanks.

Time For a WordPress Change

Carissa — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:57:00 +0000

A Preview
SHHHH….

I AM SO EXCITED!

WordPress is on the way.
I love blogger don’t get me wrong and I’ll still be thrilled to help anyone out with their blogspot issues.

But.
I’m dying to try out something new… see if I’m missing anything on the wordpress side of the fence. SEO plugins, A NORMAL comment section, A WHOLE new blog look….

Reminds me of my camera. I pushed my little point and shoot TO THE LIMIT. I was SO ready for a Digital SLR.

It’s time for a NIKON kind of blog I tell ya.
And since this month is my 2 year Bloggavurshury….. !

MY blogspot-switch-to-wordpress is brought to you with the help of some friends of mine..

@dotatdabbled
{All the artwork and the coding and adjustments of my free theme: Vigilance}

@telling_dad
{Helped me upload the database and the WordPress.org files}

@scrappinmichele
{Helped me upload the theme initially}

@theworkingmom
{Jen does amazing work, and has answered a lot of questions and says she will help me on my WordPress journey… I intend to keep picking the WordPress knowledge out of her brain in fact…}

Are you looking to make the WordPress switch…?

It’s not impossible. But sheesh, it’s taken me a long time WITH all this help.

Really quick… What you are going to need to do get your own WordPress Switch.

Step 1: Purchase your own URL. (I used GoDaddy.com about $10/year)
Step 2: Find hosting. Cost is usually from $5-10/month (Note: make sure it comes with database support. You will need MYSQL to upload the WordPress files.)
Step 3: Upload the WordPress Database to your server. (Here’s where I needed help… huh??) But when I asked around several ppl were willing to jump in on this process.
Step 4: Find a Theme you like… Free or otherwise… What’s a WordPress Theme you ask? Just Google it and go find one you like. I wanted a really clean layout. And a lot of people go with Thesis, but you pay for it. I found Vigilance, and part of what I liked besides it was clean, was that it’s free initially and then when you need to you can upgrade for a whopping $40.(So Far Vigilance is working great, and the upgrade is more about getting support in the forums.)
Step 5: Upload Your Theme into the WordPress files. (Again, I have no idea.. that part magically happened when Michele Stepped in…)
Step 6: If you need new artwork now is the time to get it, please people DO NOT keep going to iStock and purchase the same dang cartoon mom face EVERY other mom blogger already has.Here are 2 artists THRILLED to take your money and make a better (even semi-custom) header for you… @dotatdabbled @napwarden, or ask around, believe me there are graphic artists out there!!
Step 7: Figure out how to FTP files. Filezilla.com for a free software program. (You could do this step at the beginning if you think you’ll be uploading any of the files initially.)
Step 8: Here’s where I broke down and paid someone to tweak the theme I liked into the website I was going to LOVE. I found prices from $300 to $1200. So prepare yourself a budget. You can only ask your friends to do so much for you for free right?
Step 9: DO a ton of research on wordpress plugins, once your wordpress site is up teach yourself how to use the backend: posts, categories, media content control etc. Get help again to migrate your old posts and content over to the new site, new server. If you have paid someone to help with the coding, they likely will help with the migration.
Step 10: Attempt not to loose all of your feedreaders and followers. Ask them to please follow your current feed in case they were following your Blogger feed. Leave the old blog up with links where they can find your current schtuff. And redirect your feedburner account to your new URL.

I kept thinking all of this could be done for under $200. And no matter what I did or who I asked. It just wasn’t possible.

I’m dreaming that the handful of coders I know will get together with the fun graphic artists I know and make mommy blogger wordpress babies… ones that are birthed with-IN a mom blogger’s budget.

Either that or maybe we need bloggy insurance for upgrades?