Website Hosting Reviews

Hi Website Hosting Reviews blog readers. We've received a comment worthy of it's own blog post. Simon D. asks us:

"I have my website at Godaddy and have used Website Tonight which is a painful experience. I would like to use another service such as Wordpress but I am not sure the process. Do I just stop using Godaddy and go straight to Wordpress or is there a particular step I need to take? I assume I have to remain at Godaddy for the hosting, right?"

Simon,

Thanks for the question. First, don't feel bad. Unfortunately, a lot of people think using Website Tonight is a "painful experience". So, you're not alone in having difficulties with the website builder software product from Go Daddy.

Here's my suggestions for moving your website away from Website Tonight to a Wordpress based web site -

1. Cancel your existing Website Tonight product.

Lets make sure you don't continue to get charged for Website Tonight if you don't want to use it. Plus, lets make sure you get a refund for the time left, if for example, you bought a 2-year package but only used a couple of months.

Login to your Go Daddy account. You can cancel the Website Tonight services from the “Payments & Renewing Items” section in the “My Account” menu. Simply put a check in the box next to what you want to cancel and click on “Cancel Item” and then you will get some cancellation options on the right hand side in a “Cancel Product” window. Make sure and select the “Cancel Now” option and then save your changes. Also, if you have time left on either product, make sure and contact the GoDaddy Support Team over the phone so they can issue you a refund.

Remember that once you've cancelled your Website Tonight product, your website will go down. So if you want to keep your site up for a little bit longer, finish the balance of steps first before cancelling Website Tonight.

2. Buy a web hosting account at a web host that excels with Wordpress.

You don't have to use GoDaddy's web hosting with the domain that you registered at GoDaddy. They would like people to think that, but it's not the case.

I've tested a Wordpress based website on GoDaddy's web hosting. The Wordpress web pages loaded painfully slow. It was slow enough to negatively impact the visitor's experience, which you don't want to do. Plus, the Wordpress set-up at GoDaddy was difficult compared to other hosts. So I don't recommend Go Daddy web hosting, even their new "4GH" web hosting, if you're going to use Wordpress. There's much better options out there at a similar price point.

Both Bluehost and Hostgator have simple 1-click Wordpress installs via their cPanel. Both web hosts do a really good job with Wordpress, so I'd suggest you buy a web hosting package from Hostgator as the next step.

3. Change the DNS entry of your domain name to point to Hostgator

Steps 3 & 4 are explained in detail in another blog post. Read how to use Hostgator to create a website with a GoDaddy registered domain.

4. Add your domain to Hostgator as an "add-on" domain

This is also detailed at the bottom of the page of how to use Hostgator to create a website with a GoDaddy registered domain.

5. Install Wordpress on your domain at Hostgator

I've already written a full blog article on how to install Wordpress at Hostgator, so just click on the link and read the instructions.

Once you have Wordpress installed, you can choose a theme to help you make the website look the way you want it to. There's lots of free themes out there, or if you want to save time, you could get a premium theme like Thesis. Thesis includes a help forum if you have questions on how to use Thesis to create the Wordpress site you want.

Good luck! GoDaddy SSL certificate coupon

BaseKit is a UK based company that helps you create websites quickly and easily.  It's the next generation in website building creation tools.

Basekit allows you to design and put the fully developed website online on their server, without any coding knowledge. Basically, you get all-in-one package that allows you to explore your creativity.

Or, if you're a user of Photoshop, this is what you have to look forward to - you wanted to convert that great design of yours into a concrete web site. How can you do this in the easiest possible way?

You have two solutions: Learn HTML (you probably need to know PHP as well) and code it up yourself, or pay a coder to do it for you. With Basekit, there is now a third solution – import in your .psd file and get it to convert your design to a standard compliant template.

But, don't pay for Basekit!  Here's how to get it for free - get a web hosting package from Hostgator.  You need web hosting to get your Basekit site up on the web anyways, so why not choose a great web host that will also give you free access to Basekit and make sure Basekit is supported to the fullest extent.  Sounds like a winner to me.

So get a Hostgator web hosting package now, and enjoy the best basekit web hosting out there.

Hostgator is introducing BaseKit, FREE to all of their customers.  Why BaseKit? Here are just a couple of the reasons Hostgator chose BaseKit:

• Extremely easy to use
• Completely Drag and Drop
• Huge List of beautifully designed templates that you can customize
• Tons of additional widgets for you to implement (Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps, RSS, Flickr, forms, YouTube, PayPal, calendar, and many more)!
• Supports multiple Languages
• Can add/edit your own HTML and CSS
• Can import PSD designs
• Easy styling tools

Best Basekit Web Hosting for Website Creation Software Basekit

"Yep"

With that one-word email response from Apple's Founder and CEO, thousands of users of Apple's website creation software iWeb began to panic.  Steve Jobs sent the reply to an iWeb user who sent an email asking if the rumors that iWeb was no longer going to be supported were true.  It looks like MobileMe's hosting of iWeb websites will also cease at some point.

Now iWeb users are trying to figure out what their next steps should be. We're here to help.

What Does the iWeb News Really Mean?

First, lets cut through the clutter and panic. iWeb will not immediately disappear with MobileMe. The iWeb website building software will continue to function, it just loses the easy web hosting.  So, you have time to figure out your options and next steps, for which we will detail alternatives.

iWeb won't be updated in future Mac OS software. However, iWeb isn't going to end like Columbus falling off the edge of the earth.  Just like most older programs, iWeb will still run and work, but just won't be updated or supported. But, you will need a different hosting option.

Look, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Lets be honest here. iWeb wasn't that great of a product, certainly not up to Apple standards.  So, this news may end up being a longer term blessing in disguise.

What To Do If You Have an iWeb Site You Like

If you have an existing iWeb website you really like, good for you.  Lets get your iWeb site a new home.  Specifically a web host that is both iWeb friendly and affordable.  Then we can move your iWeb files to your new web hosting account, and change the DNS entry of your domain to point to your new host after it is set-up as an "add-on" domain.  And, boom, you're back in action (is it just me, or does Steve Jobs say "boom" all the time?).  It sounds more complicated than it is.

It is easy to configure iWeb to point to a host. Once this is set-up, publishing is still just as easy as hitting the iWeb publish button. 

First the cheap, but quality web hosting.  We think Bluehost is a good choice here.  Bluehost's plan is only $5.95 per month.  Plus, they've actually pubished videos in their video help section relating to iWeb and how to host an iWeb website at Bluehost.  Done.  Go get Bluehost web hosting plan now, and then watch the videos for help FTP'ing your site to the Bluehost servers.  Bye, bye MobileMe. 

Note: Bluehost allows unlimited domain hosting, so if you have more than one iWeb site, you only have to buy one hosting account.  And, in the future if you want to publish additional sites, you don't have to buy another plan.  That's what I like - value.

What To Do If You Don't Already Have an iWeb Website, Or One That You Don't Like 

If you really aren't happy with your current iWeb site, then maybe it's time to just start over.  Why hassle with trying to save something that isn't great in the first place?  Keep the current website copy of course, because you can re-use that.

Also, if you don't already have a website, obviously don't build it with iWeb. 

I've seen one "tech" blog recommend that iWeb users in this camp buy Dreamweaver, Rapidweaver, Sandvox, Freeway Express, or GoDaddy's Website Tonight product.  No!  Bad advice in my opinion.  This is analogous to telling the owner of an old RCA picture tube TV to go buy a Sony picture tube TV to replace the RCA after it dies.  It's time to progress, and to continue the analogy, use the HD flat screen version of website building tools.

Get to know, and then use Wordpress.  All the cool kids are. ;).  In fact, there's now over 20 million websites built with Wordpress. Oh, and you have to pay for the likes of Dreamweaver, but Wordpress is open source and free.

You want to spend your time on content and marketing your website.  Time spent consistently updating Dreamweaver when you want to add new pages, etc doesn't pay off in the end.  Plus your SEO won't be as strong with the likes of Dreamweaver.  WP is really easy to use and set-up.  There's all kinds of help forums and articles.  My favorite thing about Wordpress is the amazing breadth of free "plug-ins" that can be added to your site to help make it do basically whatever you want. 

Installing Wordpress is also a 5-minute commitment. Well, if you use a web host like Hostgator that has a 1-click Wordpress install via their web hosting panel.

To save time, and make your Wordpress site look even better, you can also buy a premium theme if you'd like.  Thesis is currently the most favored out there.

Come back and leave a comment some time in the future after you've tried Wordpress.  The comment will include this type of language, "why didn't I change to Wordpress a long time ago?"

Yes, it appears iWeb and MobileMe are done.  Stick a fork in 'em.  Then progress, it's the way of life, even with the former Apple iLife. 

Apple iWeb and MobileMe Next Website Steps| Bluehost and Wordpress

You may hear a lot more about these two domains in the future:  datacenterondemand.com and elasticdatacenters.com.

Why?

Well, GoDaddy registered the domain names for their new Data Center On Demand cloud service, which is in limited release phase now with a full launch expected in July.

That's right, the largest domain registrar, and one of the biggest web hosts is getting into the cloud services game.

The new Go Daddy service is meant to compete with other cloud services like Amazon’s EC2. However, GoDaddy's product will be sold more like traditional hosting plans with various tiers of service rather than charging based on hourly use like Amazon.

When GoDaddy enters new markets, it tends to go for the throat of existing purveyors.  Just ask Network Solutions or Register.com, who have never quite rebounded from Go Daddy's drubbing post entering the domain name marketplace.  Symantec, via their Verisign security division, is currently going through the same issues as GoDaddy is aggressively cutting prices in the SSL marketplace.  Go Daddy could shake up the cloud hosting marketplace.

According to a marketing brochure for the new cloud service, GoDaddy plans to offer three options for users. However, all three levels “requires technical expertise,” so the company suggests customers have a professional IT staff in place.

GoDaddy is using Cloud.com’s CloudStack private-cloud software for part of their cloud service offering.