As I begin this post, I feel like Garrison Keillor getting ready to report the news from Lake Wobegon except I doubt my prose will be as melodic and instead of a small mid-west town my subject will be my recent comings and going on the World Wide Web.
Given that setting, I’ll begin by saying that it has been a busy couple of months over here at the MichaelWender.com offices. I’ve been working feverishly on five new websites, completing a major upgrade on another and continuing to do maintenance on many others. Add to that my late October decision to contract with Rackspace as my hosting provider, and you have the makings of the busiest season I’ve ever experienced during my freelance career.
During this time, my writing here has languished. Just last month, there were mornings when I’d awake at 2:30 or 3 and start thinking about a new design for a website or a new way to solve a problem. My work days would span 13 or 14 hours with breaks for the gym and meals. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I’m taking some time to chronicle what I’ve been doing and where I plan to take this site in 2009.
WordPress-Powered Websites
During the past three or so weeks, I’ve debuted three new websites each built upon the WordPress platform:
HealthyVessel.com
The personal website of health and wellness lecturer, Linda Atchely. Linda will be referring her lecture attendees to her site for further information after her appearances. I’ve enjoyed training Linda on how to use the WordPress administration area. She’s quickly gotten the hang of editing pages and writing new posts.
VictorCostantino.com
Knoxville artist, Victor Costantino, came to me asking for a website where he could display the large collection of paintings he has painted through the years. It was important to him that the design of his website emphasized his art. So, I came up with a custom theme that utilizes a black background and subtle accents to make his paintings pop off of the screen.
Volunteer Ministry Center
The folks at the Volunteer Ministry Center came to me in desperate need of an upgrade to their site. The old one looked like something from the early days of the web, and it was hard to update. Now, their new WordPress-powered site is easy to update and its design brings it into the 21st century. In addition, you’ll also want to refresh their homepage a couple of times as it features some outstanding photos taken by the talented Katie Norrell.
Hosting Headaches
For three consecutive months this fall, I experienced service outages at my webhost that resulted in two to four hour downtimes during the middle of a business day. Since I host many of my clients’ sites, it was understandable that several of them were calling me wanting to know what the problem was and when their site would be back up. Compounding the problem was the fact that my webhost only allowed me to contact them via email.
Their initial responses to my inquiries were that “too many resources were being consumed” on my server. They didn’t give me much to go on leaving me and my clients mainly in the dark. To their credit, my former host did clear up the problem, and they posted a lengthy explanation on their blog. However, the damage had been done, and I realized that I needed a much more dependable hosting solution.
Rackspace Hosting – A Big Investment and an Even Smarter Move
With my old webhost having forced my hand, I started looking elsewhere. Given my ever growing client base, I knew that the typical shared hosting environment just wouldn’t do. I needed a managed hosting provider (i.e. a webhost that is actively watching and managing my server). In addition, I also needed a webhost that would give me dependable technical support and multiple contact options (i.e. email, phone, etc).
It didn’t take long before I started seriously considering Rackspace. I’d known about them for years. They provide managed hosting solutions backed by their “Fanatical Support.” Rather than thinking of them as a hardware company, they are a world-class IT support company managing state-of-the-art hardware. Their offices are manned 24/7/365 and their tech support department doesn’t use a voice-mail system (i.e. if you call, a real person will answer the phone in 3 or 4 rings). Large companies like Microsoft and Lowes host some of their sites with Rackspace.
Of course, being the world’s leader in hosting means that their services cost more than starter shared hosting packages. However, ever since I started reselling hosting to my clients two years ago, my business has grown to the point that it now justifies its own server. So, in late October I acquired my own Rackspace managed server, and I haven’t looked back since.
Knowing that I can call Rackspace anytime and knowing that my support tickets will get answered in an efficient and intelligent fashion means that I can literally sleep easier. Hosting with Rackspace also means I’m able to offer my clients a solution that they often can’t find with other small business web developers (SBWD). Whereas most other SMWDs might offer to setup a shared hosting account for their clients or even host them on a reseller account, I’m able to let my clients know that their sites will be hosted on a server managed by the best in the business. In addition, if there’s ever a problem, help is only a phone call away.
All of these benefits of Rackspace, make my investment a smart move now and will allow me to easily grow and scale my business in the future.
The Future of This Blog
During this busy time, I’ve realized that I’m not able to write often enough to keep the content looking fresh with this particular theme. There have been many times when I’ve wished I had something fresh to put up as the feature article on the homepage; however, I’ve been too mentally exhausted to write. This is turn has made me harken back to the days when this site featured “Picture of the Day.”
Beginning on September 17th, 2001 and running through last year, the homepage of my website used to feature a picture viewing application that I would try to update each morning with a picture of my comings and goings from the previous day. In addition, my site also featured an “Old West” design noted for its uniqueness. Many of my friends have told me that they would often play with my “Picture of the Day” app for hours, clicking on the “Random” button.
When I changed the design of this site, many commented that they missed “Picture of the Day.” However, at the time, I needed a change. Now after spending a year away from it, I’ve realized that it’s time to bring it back. So, as I have time in the coming weeks and months, my plan is to craft a new WordPress theme in a fashing similar to my old website. In addition, I also look forward to releasing this current theme, known as The Latest Post, on the WordPress theme gallery.
In the meantime, I’ve got more websites to build and a new server to manage. But, I look forward to the day when I’m once again able to bring you a new and improved “Picture of the Day” displayed on an “Old West” style site.
As a “Picture of the Day” fan, I am glad to see this returning. Good job on the many events of the last month! Your commitment to quality and helping others is admirable. Thanks.