WordPress Installation Service - Quick on the Draw!

Quick and easy, painless and cheap. Two phrases that describe the truth about SafeHouse Web's new WordPress installation services.

If this sounds like you, "This Wordpress stuff looks great, but how do I find the time and know-how to install it and customize it?", then it may be worth your while to look into how promptly this can be taken care of for you. After all, you've already browsed the ins and outs of the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), the dashboard, probably read a little bit about how the theme options work and about the scores and scores of plug-in and widget options you've got! You're ready to dive straight into controlling your new WordPress site but you find the installation part too time consuming or overwhelming.

Not to worry! You are not alone and I used to be you! It's true, the installation of the WordPress platform is a piece of cake. What you're paying for here is the time savings you'll realize by having somebody else do all the techy stuff, uploading and configuring the site.


BASIC DEAL
Includes a new installation of WordPress on your hosting with some basic configuration. You'll also get a basic theme installed so you can get started right away.

* WordPress installation
* Theme Installation
* Basic WordPress Configuration

Price: $49


COOL DEAL
This package includes a new installation of WordPress on your hosting. In addition to basic WordPress configuration, one advanced theme that you own or want to buy will be installed. Also included is installation of a group of plug-ins that will improve your site's SEO.

* Advanced WordPress installation & Configuration
* Theme Installation
* Installation of a selective list of plug-ins

Price: $189


BIG DEAL
This package includes everything in the COOL DEAL installation above, plus customization services for your theme such as changing logo & changing color scheme modification.

* Advanced WordPress installation & Configuration
* Theme Installation
* Theme Customization
* Logo added
* Color scheme modifications
* Installation of a selective list of plug-ins

Price: $389


Each one of these deals has the assumption that you have your own domain name and hosting already set up. If you don't have that yet, please ask us to recommend some solutions to you! And we are also more than happy to take care of that whole task for you, too. Contact us for current pricing on domain names and hosting packages - we always get you the best value in reliability and cost. info[at]safehouseweb[dot]com

The Emergence of Green Web Hosting

Is being Green a strong enough sales point to incorporate it into the business plan, and is it that important to me to put forth the extra effort to be environmentally conscious? This is the question that I've taken an interest in answering for myself, and for the direction in which I'd like to take my business.

The popularity, the hype and the political correctness of going Green all make for a smart business decision to just do it. After all, in this venue - website works for small businesses - it is painless enough to save paper, recycle equipment and media, or the score of other tiny things that can be done to reuse, recycle and remain. The personal side of it is also a no-brainer for me; I've always disliked the guy who throws his burger wrappers onto the ground, leaves the TV on for unwatched hours at a time... hec, I'm the guy who recycles enough aluminum cans to pay for the next round of beverage purchases. I like to do my part to help "save the planet" without being classified as one of those pesky tree-huggers.

To that end, I found the following article had some good information about what a web hosting company can do to shade their business a little bit greener. And to me, in my endeavors in building & managing the sites that those guys host, those efforts are reflections of what I can do to contribute and to be able to promote my business as a Green one.

Source: CommunicateBetter in "About Web Hosting"

Few ever believed the Internet would explode into its current state of popularity. Everyone from young to old is signing online to surf the web – communicating, shopping and seeking out entertainment. At the same time, millions of people are creating websites in attempt to meet the needs of visitors across the globe. A webmaster can’t reach their niche market without servers and the associated hardware found in today’s data centers. In order to keep the web thriving, providers must use tons of electricity, contributing to the environmental concerns plaguing the earth today. Data centers are located throughout the world, most of them allowing CO2 among other harmful emissions to pollute the atmosphere. To reduce data center emissions and help preserve the earth, a number of web hosing companies have opted to go green.

The Power Behind Green Hosting

Green web hosting was scarce a few years ago, however, recently this type of web hosting has come into the limelight. There are a handful of companies who started off 100% green while others have gradually converted. Even some of the most widely known providers have made the switch to offer a more eco-friendly web hosting product. Many begin in the office by recycling waste paper and utilizing bio-fuel for heating purposes. This leads to the data centers where servers thrive off alternative sources such as wind, solar and geothermal energy. Some have went out and purchased RECs (Renewable Energy Credits), a certification which assures the company is using alternatives forms of power.

Slowly but surely, the web hosting industry is making the transition to more efficient operations. There are a few companies that go far and beyond to make sure they deliver green hosting. For example, Green Web Hosting is one host that encourages its employees to telecommute in attempt to reduce pollutants caused by everyday transportation. Some run an entirely paperless service to cut back on the unnecessary usage of trees. Others will actually plant a new tree for each new customer they sign up. Many of them will also offer discounts to customers who aid in environmental causes with their websites. Green web hosting emerged from nowhere to become the preferred choice for an increasing amount of people.

Reliability and Performance

There are some who question the performance and overall reliability you receive with a green web hosting platform. In actuality, renewable energy is proven to be just as reliable and effective as conventional electricity. Green hosts are successfully running their businesses just as everyone else is. Like the traditional provider is equipped with electrical backup sources, these companies are prepared to produce renewable energy to keep the operation flourishing.

Is Green Web Hosting for You?

Green hosting is great for obvious reasons but not everyone is ready to convert. Some are turned off because the price varies and can be more than traditional hosting. Cost aside, you want to find a company that is reliable and provides a quality service most importantly. With the backing of a respectable green web host, you can feel good about your role in saving the earth.

Pressing Information

Rupert, a good friend of mine posed a website/CMS question to me last week... he's looking at managing and archiving articles and educational pieces he posts on his site's home page, and asked me for some opinion. I happened to have some to offer, centering around my to-date WordPress experience.

Here's how it went:

MY FRIEND: "...I'm looking at a couple of open source content management systems, and it occurred to me that you have more experience with this than I do..."

AND THEN ME (it's a long one!): Thanks for the click-thru test (I'd asked him to check my new AdSense deployment). I think you may be responsible for the 90 cents I earned today, and now I know adsense is somehow working.

On CMS, you're right, it is veRy much like blogspotting. I'm not sure I could tell myself or anybody else what the substantial difference is. To answer your question, yes, WordPress will accomplish what you want but you have to commit to the whole platform (themes, plug-ins, widgets), unless you know how to convert your already existing html site (or just your desired parts of it) into being WordPress-able for the backend management. Talking about your Read More and Categorizing and Archiving.

This means looking for a WordPress theme that 1)pretty much already does the functions the way you want and 2) has enough customizable stuff to make it look the way you want. Header, footer, images, colors, fonts, etc.

It really is a different environment to that of the from-scratch jewel that you have (i'm being serious). Once you jump into the backend and see all the crazy cool stuff you can do and manipulate, I think you will be sold as I am. My friend is a great, driven explorer of the code :) and did a fantastic job building his own html/css site, CartoonThunder.com.

Especially when you start putting stuff together for clients! You can offer SO many cool and valuable features that are impressive and, I have recently found, expected by clients. It goes way beyond what you and I are capable of programming at our current knowledge base(s).

To me, it's kind of like those aluminum pipes you were talking about; although you didn't make them, shape them, etc., you do polish them and install them they way you like and to what suits your needs - they become your product...

Also look at Joomla with the same eye as WordPress. I got my left little toe wet with that platform a while ago. In my opinion, has the same mission as WordPress but with some different flavors & attitudes.

You already know about the platforms being free -- there are t-o-n-s of equally free themes and plug-ins available. I have a little experience with a couple of the not-free themes, too, and well, I liiiiike it. Also have had fairly good experiences with support from forums and theme authors.

Here's a suggestion: create a subdomain, upload & install WordPress 2.8 (downloaded from wordpress.org). Find a couple of themes that look interesting, download them and then put them into the WP 'themes' folder in your subdomain and start playing around. Probably take you less than 30 minutes to do those installations.

Have a monkeytastic afternoon.

As it turns out, my friend dove into some css & java juice that lead him to an alternative solution - one that allowed for some custom content management without switching his entire operation over to a CMS platform. Perhaps there will be more to come on this.

WordPress Advocate

So far I am on the proverbial band-wagon with WordPress, and have no indication of needing to jump off. Almost two years ago I started messing around with WordPress, in the sense that I thought their "look" was very polished and had the smell of professionalism that I was looking for. Yes, it's true, I can smell 'em. I started where most people do, at wordpress.com for the free hosting, lots of free themes and lots of forum-based support to go alongside the extensive knowledge base. Today, I'm into customizing the free and not-so-free premium themes using the self-hosted platform. Version 2.8 today - zero cost downloadable at wordpress.org.

I was already self-teaching my way into the world of HTML and had learned a bit about manipulating templates; it was new to me and the free-dom (yep, free/no cost/take as many as you want) of WordPress allowed me to delve in a little deeper. Using the analogy of a caveman scrawling on the rock, progressing to the use of crayons, then moving up to a pencil (ouch, sharp end), to today's use of the more permanent Sharpie marker, I can say WordPress lets me do things with websites that are just plain cool.

These days, I use WordPress to provide products to clients, and I also spend a lot of time exploring the hundreds of things that can be done with themes, plug-ins, widgets and all the other geeky-nerd stuff that keeps me up way past bedtime. A big "plus" to learning about this stuff is the opportunity to make some money.

Look at what most businesses want and need - a basic, professional online presence coupled with the ability to sell their product directly and/or educate visitors about why their products and services are the best. That premise allows me to build that basic, professional website at an affordable price for the small business owner.

There are business people out there don't have the time or the desire to know about how any of this works, they just want it working for them! Here is where the knock of opportunity can be heard. I do not advocate being opportunistic in the negative sense, rather taking positive action to use aquired skills and knowledge to help a business owner take ethical advantage of their online opportunities.

I do advocate using WordPress to accomplish that goal.