Just like the title says…
Hosts, domains, and its BS. Just a few things I noticed when I did like the old days of dealing with domains from the 90’s and 2000’s.
Been having some issues with a former hosting plan. Not to mention it is part of a larger conglomerate of hosting services under one company. Mind you that this host is called Dreamhost. I mostly used them to get a website( this one actually) up and running.
The issue is that ICANN has changed the rules about transferring domains after purchasing them. I am guessing it’s more of the hassle of being overwhelmed by the transfers of domains and that there literally isn’t enough staff to deal with them all. Hence why there is no phone number to really contact the EIG group of hosting companies. Anyone who has used them has found out that they literally suck balls!
I looked at a few posts on Reddit, Facebook, and other social media channels about EIG issues and what transpires to get help or anything remotely feasible to work with. Well, now I am going through this issue and have found that their speed is crap. Even though Bluehost is part of this group, I never had speed site or security issues. A few here and there, but was quickly resolved.
Former Host…
So after leaving Siteground back in December, for mental health reasons and also just to regroup and revamp the website some. Also to figure out what I wanted to do by blogging.
Now having to deal with the former site issues with the search console, and analytics. Yet, it is not too much of an issue. There are other things but we are dealing with domains and hosts here. I do hope someone finds this experience helpful and also a little informative. A lot has changed in the past few years, along with the pandemic giving many a lot of free time to pursue activities that prompted such changes to security, accountability, and now revenue.
So on to the Dreamhost fiasco. This is something I knew about and heard a few good things about them in getting a site up and running fast. I had no problem with that. I used Freehosting.com a few times back in the day. Just to see what a site will look like. Now thanks to great developers we have the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) stack to do this. Your welcome WP users!
With a plan in place with Dreamhost, I eventually upgraded and bought another domain that was on sale. Had that started and was going to use it for an e-commerce part of the website? Well, now it was stuck just for the free security certificate. Basically making your website HTTPS and not HTTP. I would recommend using this whenever you are using a hosting service. Many will offer a free version. Not the best for security, but does help with bots and login attempts. Usually, you get more features for the paid versions.
So with the domain not able to process anything, even contacted the host about it and said it was fixed, but still showing up. Now that ICANN has changed the transfer of domains regs, I have to wait til after St Patricks Day to transfer it.
Back again to Siteground…
While my issues with Dreamhost are ongoing, til I can transfer out the domain. I did come back to Siteground and re-establish my account with them. I opted to use the same hosting plan, while also looking to possibly use Woocommerce for the other domain once it’s transferred over. Not sure what will go there, but will figure it out. That is the fun of trying things out and learning from your mistakes!
So this time around I figured out that I really liked Siteground. Enough so, that my affiliate link is still active! So I will drop that link in a moment. Sign up with my link, it will be a banner, to get more than just a great monthly price for hosting. So with this in mind. I like to state, that I have had no issues with Siteground, glad that it does data centers that is more wind powered and also from the EU. Support is great and quick.
While every host has its issues and pros to them. I find that the affiliate program is good because you can add a banner like this one.
It will change as the promotions change as well! Many of the affiliate programs for other hosts are ok but can pay out lower or take longer time to pay out. I honestly don’t really care. If I like something enough, I will always tell everyone about it and how to look for themselves. So I have affiliate links, a great host that helps a lot. Not to mention that since I have been back, my mobile version of the site is faster, just nailing down the paid theme to play nice with the load times is another. No matter what, you have to make some compromises and work with what you got.
Now the BS part…
The BS part is from trying to install the security certificate for the other domain and transfer it. What is the issue is that I already paid for the extension to transfer it and now I can’t transfer it due to the new 60-day transfer policy from ICANN. Which wasn’t there when I tried to renew the domain in order to transfer it. I just feel that I had nothing but BS issues with Dreamhost. The biggest problem was the speed, from the dashboard to the site load times it was killing me.
Honestly, I never had this kind of issue with Bluehost, which is part of the EIG group. While it’s rather BS that from all the speed issues, and not just from all of the past hosts I have dealt with. It’s the other little things, that honestly, make it worth your time and effort to start something. You don’t want to deal with a lot of crap that just slows you down from starting. Once you get that BS feeling or one thing goes wrong, you want to be able to sort out the BS and get help and move forward.
So while this may not be that much of a BS point, it does show you something you may have to deal with when trying to work something out before the end of the first quarter. I prefer efficiency when dealing with technology in all of its forms. So the human aspect of support or interaction with the tech can be slower than a stop sign!
Putting it together…
Meaning that any sort of trivial or something that you were not prepared for will add to your stress levels and make you want to quit. I am trying to help you be prepared for such things because I have been through it already.
The best takeaway you can get from this is that dealing with domains, you not only have to deal with the hosting company, but you also have to deal with the little things dealing with the administrative tasks of running a website. Did I mention the affiliate links to get paid to offset the costs for the hosting plan, ads, and anything else you pay for on the website. Yeah, it’s nice to have everything, but not when you need income or monetize your website to make you something to help pay for these services.
Having a good hosting plan, I suggest starting with a one-site plan at first to get up and running. This ensures you have the kinks worked out, and your either see some sort of return for readers or maybe ad clicks to possibly go to another step up on the hosting plan.
Yes, you will encounter some BS issues, with domains, hosting, and even transfer issues. Take a deep breath, and calm yourself. The calmer you are the better you are able to tackle the issue and move forward. Putting it all together, you have a plan of action, to get a website going, content generating, and even a few bucks to get you going to making more through content and other services you offer.