Up and Running, Again!

That was a job and a half! I've ported my Wordpress site from their hosting to my new web host, so I could use a self-hosted package. (I've been dying to get my hands on full Google Analytics implementation!)

My domain was languishing on mapping, even though I'd updated my nameservers. I couldn't figure out what the problem was (asides from impatience at the treacle movement of DNS propagation). I flushed the DNS. I cleared my caches. I badgered the Wordpress team, on the forums and via Twitter. There seemed to be a major security issue, so I updated the SSL certificate. (Alas, I've been too accustomed to other people doing this on behalf.)

However, the main thing is it's now all working again! I have Analytics! (Yay!) I have plugins! (Double yay!) I also have a slightly guilty conscience that it may have been more to do with invalid security certs and a lack of patience. I'm very grateful to a friend who did a lot of kind hand-holding, and to the Wordpress team for putting up with my rants and fixing the unmapping.

Job done. On to the next job. :)

Hosting for Keeps

After a mere 2.5 months of opting for the WordPress premium hosting package, I'm already feeling buyer's regret! I'm really hacked off by the lack of Google Analytics integration and not inclined to triple my original payment to upgrade to business hosting.

So, what are my options? The first and most obvious is: choose to live with the restrictions - for at least another 9.5 months. That's like having a third pregnancy! I don't handle that kind of timescale well. The second option is also obvious: pay for the business upgrade and suck up the huge expense. My budget is extremely tight, right now, and that's not something I really want to consider. The third and final option is: move to self-hosting with an independent web host. That's going to be a regular headache of choosing a cheap package, repointing the domain name, dealing with my site stats tanking for up to 24-48 hours at least, and trying to get a refund on the remainder of my WordPress subscription.

To be honest, none of these 3 options are filling me with joy. I think I might look into the hosting options and then decide whether it's worth the hassle and whether I can live without Analytics for longer. After all, I managed without for nearly 10 months on the free WordPress account... it's just so tantalising when I'm focusing on pro-blogging to have such a useful tool almost within reach but not quite there. (It's also really annoying that it's super easy to implement on my secondary Tumblr blog. Analytics, Quantcast, you name it and I can stick it on my Tumblr blog.)

I think I kinda know what I'm going to do in the end. I just don't want to face it right now. I have a lot of background issues that are taking higher priority over blog admin. Even this post is a bit of displacement activity - in a rather cryptically therapeutic way!