pic of street sign with street names "website" and "blog"

2 Major Problems (with Solutions) I Had When Moving Sites

pic of street sign with street names "website" and "blog"

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Moving a website from a free platform such as WordPress.com to one that is self-hosted can be a nightmare. (Just ask me. I know. I did this recently!) Problems will arise, but solutions can be found, if you know what to do and who to ask for help.

I was faced with several problems when moving from my old site to my new one. Some solutions were found simply by asking for help but others were found through trial and error. In this article, I will reveal two major problems I faced and the solutions I found. It is my hope that you can learn what to do and what to expect when moving your website by using my personal experience as a model.

Moving Posts – the easy part

I’m pleased to announce that I was able to move all of posts from my old site to the new one in about two minutes. It was actually easy.

All I had to do was:

  • go to my dashboard, and choose Tools then Export,
  • select what I wanted to move (Posts, Pages, or both),
  • download the file to my computer,
  • go to the dashboard of my new site, choose Tools then Import,
  • and upload the file from my computer to my new site.

I opted to move only my posts and not my pages, as part of the reason for having a new site was to design things a bit differently!

Redirecting – the hard part

My  blog was formerly called “Lorraine Reguly’s Life” but it is no longer accessible. If you try to visit it, you will be brought to “Wording Well” instead. Why? Because there is a redirect in place, which I purchased through the Store on WordPress.com for a cost of $13 per year. Read More

“Rapunzel” by Molly Greene (#BookReview)

book cover for Rapunzel (a book by Molly Greene)

Rapunzel, by Molly Greene,was not on my list of books to read until I read the review of fellow freelancer, Jeri Walker-Bickett. She indicated that it had elements found in Fifty Shades Of Grey, which she also has critiqued, didn’t like, but which I actually loved. (Sue me, all you FSOG haters!)

However, it seems that Jeri and I have completely different personal preferences! I will admit that I did not read her review of Fifty Shades of Grey until after reading Rapunzel. If I had, I would have learned that the two of us definitely don’t like the same types of books!

I read Molly’s book on the Kobo my sister gave me and enjoyed reading on this reader. It’s much easier than holding a novel, as it’s not as heavy and is more portable. It fits into my purse more easily than a bulky novel does! However, I like making notes as I go (yes, I often deface my books – they’re MINE) and like flipping back to certain pages, so e-readers have their disadvantages, too. 🙁

But I’m not here to debate the use of e-readers; I’m here to offer up my book review of Rapunzel. Read More

My Short Story “Firs and Angels” Won the Contest I Entered!

short story winner of december 2013 proofa

My short story, Firs and Angels, was the winner of the December 2013’s Short Story competition I entered via LinkedIn! Today I’ll share it with you, too. 🙂 Soon it will be a part of Aspiring Writers Short Story Competition Anthology 2014, which will be sold on Amazon.

Each month a short story contest is open to group participants. The Group I belong to is 810 members strong (as of this writing) and is called Aspiring Writers Short Story Competitions and Discussions. It is a subgroup of Aspiring Writers, to which I also belong.

In mid-January, I made sure to check the weekly notifications from this group. I was shocked and surprised to see that my short story submission won! Thanks, Ronnie Dauber, for choosing me! I particularly liked how you mentioned that it was “obviously edited for grammar and spelling errors,” too! This proves that I made a good choice to offer my editing services to others. 😉

Short Story to be part of Anthology

The really wonderful news is that my short story will be included in an anthology!

Hooray!

This reminds me of my other recent announcement of having a True Tale of mine included in an anthology!

For this, one, however, here is what was told to me in the group:

“All first, second and third place winners will have their stories included in “The Aspiring Writers Short Story Competition” yearly anthology published in soft cover and e-book format, and will be available at Amazon.com, Lebrary.com and Smashwords.”

Update: The Anthology Has Been Published

 

Aspiring Writers 2013 Anthology book cover

The Aspiring Writers 2013 Anthology is available now from Amazon and CreateSpace.

Firs and Angels: A Short Story

Since I retain all rights to this original work, which was written in accordance with the rules, I’m able to share my short story with you.

The rules for this particular short story competition are included below, in addition to the fact that the story was supposed to be about cutting down a Christmas tree. For each short story competition, a specific prompt is provided, to ensure that the stories are newly-written and original. For those of you who know what flash fiction is, you’ll understand this concept. For those who don’t, I think you get the idea of it now. 😉

The short story rules are as follows:

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An Informative Web Hosting Guide (to help you make that all-important decision)

picture of question marks

This web hosting guide has been deemed excellent and informative due to its truthful nature and also because it contains numerous internal navigational links. Written by Lorraine Reguly, it consists of factual summaries of (and answers from) 14 web hosting companies. Feel free to share this with all of your friends and colleagues; you just never know who is thinking of creating a website and may be seeking web hosting!

Introduction to Owning a Self-Hosted Website

Like many of you, I started blogging for free. I didn’t get a domain name right away. I didn’t even know what blogging was all about, and I didn’t want to spend money until I was sure it was a necessity. When I finally made the decision to get my own website, I agonized over which company I would choose as the host.

In my quest to find the best web hosting company and the best web hosting package to suit (and surpass) my current needs, I spent a lot of time doing my research. Google became my best friend. We had an affair that lasted nearly three weeks.

I read countless articles about web hosting, but it wasn’t until AFTER I published this guide that I came across this one: Web Hosting Reviews. This particular guide reviews 27 different hosting companies and even goes so far to include their price, page load speed and up-time. (I wish I would have had THIS guide readily available to me back then!!!)

My guide is a bit different because of the information it contains.

During my quest, I even went so far as to send a letter of 21 questions to over a dozen different web hosting companies. (I also got on the phone and queried a few more.) Once I got a reply from each, I then asked if I could have their permission to publicly post their responses. Many said yes, and so in this web hosting guide you will see not only my letter that I sent them, but each of their answers as well.

Related: Best WordPress Hosting • TOP 8 Options Compared • 2017

Why Get Hosting?

I am not here to tell you why you should consider getting web hosting of your own, but I will tell you that there are both pros and cons to it.

For more information, refer to this article: Want Your Own (Hosted) Website? Consider These Factors!

The information presented in that article as well as this guide will help you decide:

  • whether or not you should get your own website
  • what hosting factors you should consider
  • which companies you should and should not consider when you finally take the dreaded plunge into the wonderful world of web hosting.

14 Web-Hosting Companies (some good, some bad)

The 14 companies that provide web hosting and are discussed in this guide include: Abivia, BlueHost, CanSpace Solutions, Cirrus Tech Ltd., EasyPress, GreenGeeks, 4GoodHosting, HostPapa, HostUpon, HostUtopia, InMotionHosting, NamesPro, Site5, and WebHostingCanada.

When discussing each web hosting company, I will state a few facts as well as offer my opinion, where applicable, based on the research I have conducted. I strongly recommend doing your own research into the web hosting companies you are interested in and select packaging options based on your web hosting needs. (There are more things to consider than initially meets the eye! You will discover this as you read and learn – like I did!)

Please also note that I did not edit their emails, either, although it is obvious that several people who responded to me could benefit from my services.

Also note that this guilde contains affiliate links. I have absolutely no problem endorsing these companies. Either I’ve used them myself or my friends have.

The ones I recommend are CanSpace Solutions, Bluehost, and GreenGeeks. 

 

Abivia is who I ultimately selected to be my first host, for a variety of reasons, but the tipping factor was the personal service I received from the owner himself. He also impressed me with his extensive knowledge and ability to explain things to me (a self-proclaimed non-techie) in a reassuring, easy-to-understand way.

I selected CanSpace to be my second host because they made me an offer I simply couldn’t refuse! I have to say that they also give me excellent service, answered all my questions and made switching to them easy and painless! They handled everything for me (I’m not techie and they did all the work!).

I was also told that Bluehost and GreenGeeks would do the same.

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