An 18 Year Search For A Great Hosting Company
I’ve been on the internet since what seems like the dawn of time. This was confirmed when not long ago I actually found a disk for AOL 1.0. Stupid me threw it away. Shortly after, I read that someone supposedly got over 9k for one on ebay! but.. I digress (because if I don’t I might cry). We’re not here to talk about providers, we’re here to talk about hosting companies.
Back in those early days there were a ton of cookie cutter hosting companies. I tried them all. I had websites for my gaming clans as well as various other hobbies and interests that we won’t get into (I was young and stupid). I was constantly trying to find my niche so that I could get my piece of the pie. Oh yes I was going to come up with a brilliant site and make millions. Then, out of nowhere I lost myself on IRC. For years. Internet Relay Chat for those that aren’t in-the-know.
Skip forward some 18 years and here I am. I’ve gone from knowing everything about the internet and computers to maybe knowing more than most, but not as much as I should. Damn those chatrooms and the countless hours I wasted! My only solace is that in those years I did learn some scripting languages and I actually met my husband on IRC. I’ve since quit them of course (no not my husband silly!), along with all the other time wasting instant messaging programs. Why you ask? Well, I found my niche! I am a Mommy Blogger. I bet you never would have guessed that from the name of my site, am I right?
A Successful Website Needs A Reliable Host
Now that my site has become profitable I plan to fine tune it and finish what I have up my sleeve by the end of next year. What you wonder, does this have to do with hosting companies? Well, you can have the best site in the world but if your hosting company sucks, quite frankly so do you. If you have customers or readers who rely on your site being up but you have a hosting company that repeatedly fails you, do you think your customers are going to blame the hosting company? No of course not. They’ll blame you.
That’s where Lunarpages comes in. They’ve been hosting my site for almost 3 years now. Do you know how many problems I’ve had with them? None. Zip. Zilch. Hard to believe isn’t it? I’ve certainly dealt with my fair share of hosting companies over the years and believe me, about 95% of them had serious flaws.
3 years ago when I found Lunarpages I was skeptical simply because of all the problems I’d had in the past with companies simply shutting down, refusing to answer their phones, poor customer service and even companies that are owned by people that live in foreign countries you’ve never heard of! In fact I had a really bad experience setting up my husbands band site and having the domain name somehow locked right under my nose. I was then basically blackmailed in order to get it back, which I passed on. It took me quite some time to get over the anger from that situation alone.
One Click Installation
With Lunarpages I have been able to host my lovely little blog without any problems at all. Setting it up was even a cinch. I use WordPress and it just so happens to be an application that’s already provided for you and that you can set up with one click. It literally took me a day to have everything up and running and that’s only because I played around with everything in my cpanel and had a good look around the place.
Great Customer Service
I know there are a lot of you that would love to host your own blog with your own domain name or even your own website. Some of you probably have no idea what you’re even doing. Sort of like me with a lot of web related things these days. Well Lunarpages have great customer support. They don’t outsource it either, which makes it more personal. Along with this they also have a presence on Twitter and Facebook which make it a lot easier to keep in contact with them.
The Verdict
Overall I have been extremely pleased with Lunarpages. My site has never been down, I don’t have to worry about bandwidth, or customer service that is never there. On top of all this they have tons of information available for you on their site if you need the help to get started, like I did and they have a premium restore service that costs very little, so if I make a big mistake I know my stuff is still there and they’ll help me retrieve it. Your experience may vary but I have definitely had a great one. I look forward to many years with Lunarpages.
The Giveaway
I’m excited to tell you that Lunarpages has offered to give one of my readers 12 months free Basic hosting + a domain name. That’s an ARV of $100+. And don’t let the “Basic” fool you. It’s what I use. So..you want your own site? Why don’t you check out what the Basic plan has to offer by clicking the banner below and after your done come back and enter the giveaway. And remember if you don’t win make sure you “like” Lunarpages on Facebook. They regularly have contests.
(Now Closed)
Congrats to the winner – Kate Dunn
Thank you to everyone who entered!
Prize: 12 Months Free Basic Hosting + Your Own Domain Name
To Enter: Please complete the required task. If the required task is not completed then none of your entries will count. After that you have several other ways of getting extra entries. Make sure that for each one you do you leave a separate comment. Each comment counts as one entry. Please leave your correct email addy.
Required: Tell me why you’d like to win
2 Extra Entries
* Follow me publicly on Google friend connect (look to the right in my sidebar)
* Follow me on Facebook
* Share this giveaway on your FB and tag my fan page if you know how
* Follow Lunarpages on Twitter @Lunarpages (leave your twitter name)
* “Like” Lunarpages on Facebook and tell them I sent you
* Grab my new button and put it on your site (if you’d like to exchange let me know)
5 Extra Entries
*Subscribe to my site by Email or RSS then check your mail to confirm it (See top left corner of blog sidebar) (leave 5 separate comments to count as your extra entries)
1 Extra Entry Per Day
* Follow me on Twitter @detroitmommy and
this post Leave me a comment with a link to your tweet. You can come back each day and retweet for 1 extra entry per day. Just make sure to leave a comment each day you do it!
(Don’t know how to show me you RT’d? Just place your mouse directly under your tweet where it says “1 minute ago from web” and click to get the URL of your status update. Copy and Paste.)
Good Luck!
Giveaway is open to all, 18 yrs of age or older. Any posts not including the requested information will be deleted. This giveaway ends: Sunday, January 2, 2011 12am EST. Winner will be contacted immediately and announced Monday January 3, 2011. In the event the winner does not respond to email within 48 hours I will choose another random winner. I will be using random.org to do this
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Disclosure: I received 12 months free hosting, however this did not influence my opinion in any way, as I have been a paying customer of the above company for 3 years. All opinions are my own. Your experience may differ.
I subscribed by e-mail (natashagt (at) live (dot) com) #5
everyone is always on me about starting my own blog..i committed to getting one up and running by feb. this would be huge!
tattgiff at centurytel dot net
gfc follower1
tattgiff at centurytel dot net
gfc2
tattgiff at centurytel dot net
fb fan1
tattgiff at centurytel dot net
fb2
tattgiff at centurytel dot net
i like lunar on fb but i can’t post..got a mssg saying i wasn’t authorized? never seen that before?
tattgiff at centurytel dot net
following lunar on twitter1
tattgiff at centurytel dot net
lunar twitter2
tattgiff at centurytel dot net
email sub1
tattgiff at centurytel dot net
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tattgiff at centurytel dot net
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tattgiff at centurytel dot net
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tattgiff at centurytel dot net
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tattgiff at centurytel dot net
This would be a dream to win- and a sign that I should finally get motivated and start my own business. That’s one of the reasons why I’d like the hosting from LunarPages. Thanks for the great giveaway.
wakeupangel at gmail dot com
I have a blog (sort of) and I have spent a lot of time learning how to add email subscription boxes, buttons, etc.. However, I am now stuck. I am not sure where to go now. I really want a great blog one that I can be proud of.
Thank you for the entry,
I am a gfc public follower as Nikki Davis. #1
I am a gfc public follower as Nikki Davis. #2
I follow Lunarpages on twitter, nikkidavis05. #1
I follow Lunarpages on twitter, nikkidavis05. #2
I have your button, #1
http://faitfullyfrugal.blogspot.com/
I have your button, #2
http://faitfullyfrugal.blogspot.com/
I follow you on twitter and tweeted giveaway,
http://twitter.com/#!/NikkiDavis05/status/21581046885650432
email subscriber #1
email subscriber #2
email subscriber #3
email subscriber #4
email subscriber #5
Thank you again for the entries! This is a fabulous giveaway. Hopefully whoever wins will be able to get their blogs going with Lunarpages and after a year of free hosting, can build their blog to begin paying thereafter.
I would like to win to have extra income. I’m sure that a little extra will make a big difference.
Followed you publicly via GFC as biyagko_barbaru.
I’d like to win because I am on blogger still (yeah, I know) and while I love my site and what we’ve been able to do with it, I’d love to expand and since my husband was medically retired this year, the funds just aren’t there- pretty sure within a year, I could make enough from blogging to pay for the hosting myself, just have to get started.
GFC
FB Sherry Conrad
Twitter Lunarpages dddiva
GFC 2
FB 2
Twitter Lunarpages 2
I like Lunarpages but could not find a spot to write on their wall
Sub google reader 1
Sub google reader 2
Sub google reader 3
Sub google reader 4
Sub google reader 5
http://twitter.com/dddiva/status/21597427463102465
My husband has gone without a lot of things since I changed jobs. We went ahead with the change because we really wanted to foster care a special needs woman that is near and dear to us. Anyway, when we did that his website expired shortly after. Since then he’s had to live without it and I really hate that. We just can’t afford the hosting right now. So I’d love to win this for him, because he really deserves to have something he enjoys. Thanks for the giveaway!
michedt (at) gmail (dotcom)
1 Follow publicly via GFC
michedt (at) gmail (dotcom)
2 Follow publicly via GFC
michedt (at) gmail (dotcom)
1 Follow you via Facebook- iiiyadirf (michelle tucker)
michedt (at) gmail (dotcom)
2 Follow you via Facebook- iiiyadirf (michelle tucker)
michedt (at) gmail (dotcom)
Follow Lunarpages on Twitter @Lunarpages. @iiiyadirf
michedt (at) gmail (dotcom)