Highlight Creative Web Development

Getting started: choosing a website host and plan

To own a website, you need website hosting. Hosting is basically like renting space for your site files to live online. There are hundreds of companies and options, and each company has its own set of features and plans.

Currently, my favorite hosting provider is Siteground. Their 3 plans are flexible, and cover a variety of needs. You can check their site for the full listing of features, but I’ll list some of the key points here:

All plans include:

• Speed: They achieve fast load times through a variety of methods.
• Amazing support: Their support is top-notch and 24/7
• WordPress related support: Their support staff are intricately familiar with WordPress.
• Security features to help prevent malware attacks, spam, and hacks.
• Auto-updates of WordPress, themes, and plugins: essential to keep your site running smoothly (you can always do this manually, but it’s nice to have it automated)
• Backups: daily backups (the lowest plan only stores one backup, the higher two store 30 days’ worth)
• Free email accounts

Which plan should you choose?

My recommendations are:

Choose the StartUp plan if you:

• Only have one website
• Expect to be in development mode for a while before going live, and don’t need the features from the other plans yet. You can upgrade your plan whenever you’d like.
• Don’t need a top-notch backup plan. This plan only stores one backup, so it’s not a good solution long-term.
• Won’t have an image-heavy site. (You’ll be limited to 10GB of space, and images rack up space quickly.)

Choose the GrowBig plan if you:

• Need a solid backup plan: You’ll get 30 days’ stored backups, and can easily restore from a backup.*
• Even faster speed (better caching)
• Bonus: comes with 1 year free SSL certificate.

The GoGeek plan has the same GrowBig features, plus:

• Even faster speed (databases are kept on SSD vs SAS drive)
• Staging: if you’ll be adding features to your site post-launch, this plan is for you! The Staging feature allows you to make easily make a copy of your site, and make edits there. When you’re done, you can click a button to make your edits live. It’s incredibly efficient and makes adding new features faster and safer.

Sign up here, or, ask me if you’ve got questions. Or, ask them–click the Live Chat button on the top right of Siteground’s website.

A note on backups: Siteground takes backups of your entire hosting account: ALL your domains and files, your email, databases–everything. It is therefore slightly more complicated than VaultPress to restore a backup, because VaultPress stores just your website’s files and database. You can read more about backups here.

Notes:
I don’t think Siteground is the answer for everyone. If I think a different company would be better for your specific case, I’ll let you know. If you would like to use a different hosting company, that’s fine, although I do ask that you run it past me first.

This post contains affiliate links. I will be paid a commission from Siteground if you purchase a hosting plan after clicking on a link from this post. However, I am promoting Siteground because I believe they are a great choice. If you prefer to purchase without using an affiliate link, go to siteground.com.

A brief introduction to payment gateways and your options:

A payment gateway is a service application that allows you to accept credit card payments online, either on your website, or through the payment gateway’s site (a popular example would be PayPal).

There are many payment gateways, and two basic types of plans: low per-transaction fee + a monthly fee, or a higher per-transaction fee, and no monthly fee.

Monthly fees are typically between $20 – 30. You’ll need to consider your income stream and what will work best for you. Not all payment gateways offer both types of plans.

The following are several payment gateways I have either heard recommended, or have worked with. They are suggestions only. You will need to do your own research to decide what’s best for you.

ISRAEL:

• PayPal: Customer service # 073-713-7777.
• 2checkout: They actually have their pricing on their website. View here.
• Cardcom/Ishurit Zahav: 03-9436100. They work with UPay to provide a competitive per-transaction rate.
• Bluesnap: Go to their site, and click the “Get Started” link, and as soon as it gives you the opportunity, ask to speak with a representative. I have heard that their prices are negotiable, although I can’t verify that.

US/Canada/UK:

• PayPal Standard: Everyone knows Paypal :) Paypal is easy to get started with and can be good for low-volume or flexible income streams. All payments are redirected through the Paypal site, which means you don’t require an SSL certificate and dedicated IP address (more on those here).
• Stripe: Stripe’s per-transaction rates are clear and getting set up only takes a few minutes. They’re very easy to work with, for developers and business owners alike.
• Authorize.net. For higher-volume, Authorize.net offers a monthly fee + reduced per-transaction fee.

Many payment gateways’ websites don’t have all the information clearly available. I recommend getting in touch with them directly with questions.

Choosing a gateway

If at all possible, speaking to a representative is better than emailing, as you’re likely to get the information you need more easily and faster.

These are a list of questions you may want to cover with them. (Not all may be relevant to you):

1. Hosted checkout vs. onsite checkout: Clarify whether you want to accept payments on your website, or via hosted checkout (on the payment gateway’s website). If a gateway offers both, you want to make sure the information they are giving you is for the type of plan you want.
2. Currency conversion: I live in Country X and need to accept foreign currencies on my website. What fees would I incur with your plan? (Make sure to cover monthly fees, per-transaction fees, currency exchange fees, and cross-border fees.)
3. Hold funds: Do you hold funds for a period of time, and if so, for how long? (Bluesnap, for example, holds money and gives it to you on the 15th of the following month. So you might wait up to 6 weeks to get your money.)
4. Transfer fees: Is there a fee when transferring money to my account?
5. Recurring billing: Do you allow automatic recurring billing? Do I need to do anything to set that up within XXX (name of company)?

Ultimately, selecting a payment gateway is a decision every business needs to make for themselves, but I’d be happy to weigh in once you’ve narrowed down your choices.

A guide to troubleshooting your WordPress website:

1. Update your website: Check the updates in your dashboard (Dashboard > Updates) and make sure everything is up-to-date. Read this post on updating and backing up your website if you are unfamiliar with the process.
2. Login with an Administrator-level login: Your website has a custom user role called “Easy Admin,” which streamlines your dashboard for everyday use. Try logging out and logging in again with the Administrator level login. If you’re not sure which login to use, check your Users list and check for users with the Administrator user role. Find one with an email address you have access to, and login with that. (You may need to reset the password if you don’t have it. That’s fine–it’s for your use.)
3. De-activate plugins: Did you recently install a plugin? Try deactivating it and seeing if your problem clears up.
4. Clear your cache: If your website isn’t reflecting recent edits to text, products, or images, try clearing the cache. You may need to do this in two places:
   1. In your dashboard: go to the caching plugin’s page and click “delete cache.”
   2. In your browser: follow these directions if you aren’t sure how to delete your browser cache.
5. Still stuck? Get all the details: If neither of the above work, please fill in the form below. It helps provide me with all the details I need to solve your problem efficiently.

Collecting secure payments on your website: SSL certificates

To collect payments on your website, you’ll need two things: an SSL certificate, and a payment gateway.  This article discusses SSL certificates. For information on payment gateways, read this post.

Note: Some payment gateways also offer hosted checkout, which means payments are processed on their website, not yours. (You may have seen an example of this with PayPal.) With hosted checkout, you don’t need the SSL or dedicated IP address, as you are not collecting sensitive information. 

What are SSL Certificates?

An SSL certificate allows your website to process payments securely by encrypting information entered in the site. So when your customer inputs her credit card info, it’s safely inaccessible.

A site with an SSL certificate has a url that starts https (instead of http), and a bright green lock symbol:

Both of these indicate to users that your site is secure.

Cost

SSL certificates cost approximately $50-$75 per year, and can be purchased from your web host. You’ll also need to purchase a dedicated IP address through your web host, which costs a few dollars per month. (In layman terms, it gives your website a permanent address for the SSL certificate to attach to.)

When comparing website hosting plans, bear in mind the costs of an SSL certificate and dedicated IP address. It’s possible that the added costs will make a higher-level plan the best value.

You’ll notice that some hosts offer a “shared SSL certificate” in their plans. Don’t pay attention to that :) You only want a private SSL certificate. Shared SSL isn’t as secure, and will pop up with a warning message to users. You want to go with private SSL, although if your web host is offering several choices for private SSL certificates, the cheapest is usually fine.

There are many levels of web hosting, depending on your needs. They cover all types of scenarios, such as super-speedy loading time, huge amounts of visitors, and more. Unless I’ve specified otherwise in a discussion with you, most sites can start out with a shared hosting plan. It’s simple enough to upgrade to a different plan if needed.

(Unclear on the difference between web hosting and domains? Read about it here.)

I recommend Bluehost and HostGator as excellent web hosting companies. Both work seamlessly with WordPress, are well-priced, and have fast, helpful customer support.

There isn’t a big difference between the two companies, and either is a solid choice. You can compare their pricing structures to see which best fits your needs, and go with that company.

You can compare the basic plans here:

Each plan comes with different perks that may be important to you, or may not be needed. Two things to watch out for are:

1. Monthly prices: They usually advertise the lowest price possible, usually available by signing up for several years at a time. Occasionally, there is an introductory monthly price that rises to the regular rates in the second year. They are still good prices for quality hosting, but it’s something to be aware of.
2. SSL certificates: If you will require an SSL certificate, you’ll notice some plans offer “shared SSL certificate.” You don’t want that. Read about SSL certificates and some things to look into here.

Purchase hosting with Bluehost     Purchase hosting with HostGator

*These are affiliate links. I will be paid a one-time commission if you sign up using these links. It doesn’t affect you at all, and I really appreciate your clicking through from here! :)

To purchase a plan, after clicking a link above, go to:

Before you buy, check for coupons!

Like any other store, web hosts occasionally run sales. Check for Hostgator or Bluehost coupon codes before making a final purchase.

A domain name is simply your website’s address or url, like www.highlightcreative.com. If you purchase a url, and visit it, all you’ll see is a parked page from the registrar. In order to build a website, you need a “home” for the files and databases that make up your site. That’s called web hosting.

A company that can register domain names is called a registrar. A company that provides hosting plans is called a web host. Most web hosting companies are also registrars. To own a website, you’ll need both a domain and a hosting plan.

It’s possible to purchase a domain from one company, and hosting from a separate company, or, they can be purchased simultaneously from the same company.

• If you don’t have a domain or hosting:
  Hop over to the post on web hosting to learn more about companies I recommend. You can purchase a plan from one of these companies that includes a domain and hosting.
• If you already have a domain, but not hosting:
  Read the post on web hosting to learn more about companies I recommend. When you sign up for an account, you’ll just purchase hosting, not a domain. Then, send me your domain registrar’s login name and password. I’ll connect the two accounts.
• If you already have a domain AND hosting:
  You’re all set, then, aren’t you? :)I’ll need to double-check your hosting plan to make sure it’s compatible with WordPress. Send me your hosting company’s website, and your account login and password, and I’ll let you know if anything needs to be done.