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  • Bad Web Host: The What, Why and How

    Bad Web Host: The What, Why and How

    How do you know if your web host sucks? How do you check if you are using a bad web host for your website? Or even worst, are you struggling to keep your server uptime on a positive side?

    In today’s web hosting market, there are just too many web hosting services that are under performing. Searching  for the term “cheap WordPress hosting” on Google will gives you an approximately 1,010,000 search results.

    The truth is, there are many (and I mean M-A-N-Y) web hosting companies that offer super cheap hosting services but comes with subpar performance. Downtimes, inaccessible websites and above all, unsecured ports that leads to website hacks are just a few to name.

    I’m sure you get the point and even heard about them!

    How do you determine a web host is bad?

    The million dollar question, if you ask me.

    I used a fair share of shared web hosting services and this often comes lingerring in my head.

    How do I know the web host I’m using is a bad web host?

    How do I determine if the web hosting service I use is not ideal?

    Carry on reading below on some of the ways you can determine if the website is good (or bad) for your website.

    1. Bad web host makes your website slow (slow website loading speed)

    slow loading speed

    How fast does your website loads? Does it takes over 5 seconds to load or under 1.5 seconds?

    Here’s what Google says.

    2 seconds or less — that’s how fast your website should load if you want to retain the happiness of your website visitors and getting love from Google.

    And here’s a BIG, BIG fact to take note.

    You don’t need to use premium WordPress hosting like WP Engine (click here to see its latest pricing review) to make your website loads under 1.5 seconds. You can achieve that simply by using a shared web hosting like I do in the test below.

    fast website loading speed

    As you can see above, my homepage is massively 2 MB and it takes 1.37 seconds to load completely. So, how do I achieve such results?

    It is important to understand that the above combination is required to achieve the fastest loading speed for your website. Of course, a good web host will outdo the bad web host at anytime of the day!

    If you want to dive more into website loading speed, here’s a quick video for you.

    How to check for website loading speed?

    My favorite go to tool would be Pingdom Website Speed Test. It is free to use and works like charm. It also comes with a good reporting feature that allows you to understand which part is slowing down your website and how you can solve the issue for a faster website.

    test for website speed

    Diving through the reports will give you an idea especially if you are using a bad web host. The response time (in milliseconds or ms) will help you to easily weed out the bad web hosting services.

    2. Bad web host gives you a lot of errors on Google Search Console

    Another way to check if you are using a bad web host is through Google Search Console.

    Head over to Google Search Console and select your account/website of choice.

    This is what you will see on the dashboard.

    errors on google search console

    A bad website hosting company will often lead to many errors including server errors and 404’s. At some cases, you will also get server connectivity issues which means website visitors will have problem trying to access your site.

    If you are a freelance website developer, freelance writer or affiliate marketer who uses website to generate leads, you are going to literally cry because you are not getting sales!

    no sales

    I’m using a bad web host! What should I do now?

    You are at the cross road and I totally get it. We all make mistakes and the pain is real. You might also feel sad and disappointed with the current web host because they are making you lose business.

    If you are looking for a good web hosting service that doesn’t burn a hole in your wallet, Host With me (web hosting for beginners) is a great option to start with. At only $6.99 per month, you are going to get a way much better shared web hosting performance and experience — and I can guarantee you that or 60 days money back guarantee no matter what your reason!

    If you are looking for an enterprise web hosting or web hosting for high traffic sites, WP Engine is an excellent choice. The performance, security and support levels provided by WP Engine is best to none that I have tested.

  • Server Uptime & Website Availability: How To Avoid Website Going Down?

    Server Uptime & Website Availability: How To Avoid Website Going Down?

    Do you know that server uptime is important? 

    A website that is down will lead to many issues, from losing revenue generation stream (if you are selling anything on your site) to losing readers.

    As a blogger and affiliate marketer, no one wants to have an inaccessible website. However, do you know that you need to pay attention to your server uptime?

    Must Read: The Ultimate Guide in Finding The Best Web Hosting for Small Business

    What is server uptime?

    what is server uptime

    Server uptime is considered the time the server is running. When the server is up, your website is accessible and all the good things happen.

    Uptime is a computer industry term for the time during which a computer is operational. Downtime is the time when it isn’t operational. Source.

    You get website visitors, chance of selling your products online and more importantly, opportunity to make more money online.

    Now, let me ask you. Do you know what happens when your website is experiencing downtime?

    • No accessible
    • Zero or low count in web traffic
    • No chance of solving unless someone notices it
    • Loss of potential income

    More importantly, the feeling of having a website downtime is bad. You are angry, feeling miserable and it certainly felt like having the world crashing down on you (when your primary income generates directly from blogging).

    Take a look at the image below.

    is my website down

    See the traffic drop (red arrows) which happened to one of my niche site in the month of April 2018.

    Few days back, I was trying to understand the reasons for my low earning from this specific site. After going through Google Analytics, I was shocked and angry.

    My cheap VPS service failed me big time.

    As you can see in the images, there are several downtime experienced which leads to the overall server uptime. In this case, my website was not loading properly and visitors are getting errors.

    How to check website availability?

    One of the best way to monitor website availability is through ManageWP.

    What is ManageWP and What Does It Do?

    ManageWP is a WordPress management console (or dashboard) which comes in very handy to those who need to manage more than one WordPress site at a time. 

    ManageWP is a free to use, website monitoring tool that allows you to monitor not only the server’s uptime but as well as the overall health of your website.

    You can easily customize your dashboard setting and it works well with Google Analytics too (which is a huge plus).

    managewp dashboard

    While ManageWP is a free tool to check on your server uptime, there are additional options you can go for such as getting real time notification on your website and SEO monitoring which starts at $1 per service.

    Change web host to experience better server uptime

    You know I’m always a fan of web hosting and working with a web host that cannot guarantee my server uptime is really bad.

    The biggest problem when it comes to server uptime and web hosting is that most web host services offer 99% uptime. But do you know that the 1% downtime equals to 87 hours or slightly over 3 days?

    Time is money, and I rather pay more money than having my website constantly inaccessible.

    Yes, I moved host. Previously, I’m paying around $12 per month for a VPS. I got to admit that it is way better than most shared web hosting services but the downtime is killing me.

    Bonus Material: Finding for the best and cheap web hosting services that come with great performance? Read this post.

    I went on migrating to the all-time-favorite, FlyWheel.

    With FlyWheel, I get:

    • checkVPS even for the smallest plan
    • checkNo downtime to worry about
    • check24/7 support and monitoring from FlyWheel’s team
    • checkA server that is optimized for WordPress
    • checkGuaranteed server uptime
    • checkSecurity issues are no longer a problem for me

    The pricing structure for FlyWheel is really good and it is way better than most of managed WordPress hosting services in the market.

    Here’s the pricing structure:

    getflywheel pricing

    My niche site isn’t huge and it is slightly below 5,000 visits in a month. Thus, spending $14 ($2 more than my previous VPS) is a no brainer. More importantly, it is a massive win for me!

    FlyWheel Alternative?

    WPEngine is the next closest alternative to FlyWheel and WPEngine is often recommended as one of the best managed WordPress hosting for beginners and business owners. 

    The new pricing package for WPEngine starts at $30 per month and comes with Content Delivery Network (CDN) services to further speed up your site!

    Bonus: Spot checking your website uptime

    Do you know that you can also check your website uptime on the web?

    Here are some sites you can use to check if your website is accessible or down:

    Summary: Server Uptime and Website Availability

    To recap, website owners need to play more attention on server uptime and monitor the website availability.

    Having a website down is bad only for your income streams but also for your brand.

  • Keyword Suggestion For Website Owners: Top 5 Tools You Need To Use Today

    Keyword Suggestion For Website Owners: Top 5 Tools You Need To Use Today

    What is the best keyword suggestion for website?

    I wish I have a definite answer to that, but sadly I don’t. There are many keyword suggestions tools you can use but there is no one size fits all.

    Don’t worry, I got you covered. In this post, you will find the top keyword suggestion tools that I personally use and recommend.

    My all-time-favorite keyword suggestion tool — KWFinder

    kwfinder review 2018

    I have used many keyword suggestions tools and KWFinder is by far the best tool money can buy.

    KWFinder comes with a free account (up to 5 keyword searches a day) or you can get subscribe to remove the limitations.

    When it comes to finding the best keyword suggestion for website, KWFinder is the best if you are serious in ranking your website on the first page of Google.

    While KWFinder pricing starts at $49 per month, there’s a free version that allows you up to 5 searches per day.

    Affordable keyword suggestion for website — Long Tail Pro

    long tail pro 2018

    Make no mistake. Long Tail Pro is still one of the best keyword suggestion tool when it comes to performance and pricing.

    Long Tail Pro is a cloud software which allows you to find long tail keywords easily with the goal of ranking well on search (Google).

    While the SEO competition is stiff, Long Tail Pro is still a popular choice among top bloggers such as Neil Patel and Pat Flynn from the Smart Passive Income.

    Long Tail Pro offers a free 7-days trial and pricing starts at $25 per month. In terms of pricing, Long Tail Pro beats KWFinder out of the park anytime of the day.

    All-in-one keyword suggestion tool — SEMrush

    Last but not least, SEMrush is definitely one of the must-use keyword suggestion tool for 2018.

    SEMrush doesn’t only offer keyword research but as well as monitoring and social media management under the hood.

    SEMrush can be challenging to use for beginners but once you get a hang of it, it will be one of the best tools you will ever use (even with the massive price tag on it)!

    You can try SEMrush for free using this link only (worth over $99).

    How to choose the best keyword suggestion for website?

    At the end of the day, it boils down to the performance (your needs) and the amount of investment you are willing to make.

    KWFinder, Long Tail Pro and SEMrush are all great keyword suggestion tools and in the right hands, they can easily increase your website ranking in just a few short weeks.

  • Start A Web Design Business With No Experience: How To Find Your First Client?

    Start A Web Design Business With No Experience: How To Find Your First Client?

    With many businesses digitizing their operations and shifting their focus to the online market, there are several opportunities created for the computer-savvy. For one, more web designers are needed to meet the rising demands for such services. As you’d expect, every business that’s joining the current trends needs a functional website to boost its online presence.

    Therefore, if you have the necessary skills, you can make a killing in this field. However, like any other industry, competition is an expected barrier for any beginner. Inasmuch as starting a web design business with no experience can be difficult, and sometimes frustrating, there are few tips to keep in mind for long-term success.

    In this article, you will discover the exact steps you can start a web design business with no experience at all. This article will give you insights on how to start your very own website, run your own ads on social media, and even work with other professionals that can help you.

    I recommend you to bookmark this article because I’m going to share some important facts and tips not shared anywhere else — and more importantly, I don’t see anyone is talking about this because it will affect their business!

    *P.S. Web design business often requires some level of copywriting/essay writing skills. If you don’t have it, make an essay for me using DoMyEssay.

    How To Start A Web Design Business With No Experience?

    The most important keyword here is not “web design business” but it is “no experience. How can anyone start a web design business successfully, let alone without experience? It can be intimidating at first, but it’s not an impossible dream. With proper strategy and framework, you can achieve a lot of fame within a short time period.

    As you prepare your strategy, keep in mind that web design and digital marketing go hand in hand. Therefore, as someone with no experience in the field, it would be a good idea to outsource marketing-related tasks to reputable agencies like Black Digital Group. This way, you can concentrate on matters design and integrate digital marketing tools here and there as advised by your selected agency.

    Important note: The goal is to start a web design business with the shortest time possible without experience. As your business grows, you need to start focusing and growing your company (hiring web designers for more advanced features etc.)

    Question: Can I really make money as a web designer without experience?

    Absolutely! You will not get tons of business when you just start, probably just one or two for the first month. From there on, you will need to sharpen your skills in lead generation and converting leads to paying customers.

    Ultimately, the goal is to convert the home-based web designer business into a full-fledged, thriving business. This can only be achieved when you have the right strategy and the right team member to support your work.

    Getting Started As A Fresh Web Designer

    With zero testimonial and nothing to show in your portfolio, it can be very challenging to find a client. It’s important, though, that you don’t panic, especially when you can’t find a single person or company to work for.

    What should you do? Freelancing is your best way because it instantly expose you to thousands of potential clients. More importantly, you can start for free.

    The first step is to sign up for a freelancer account. Make sure you create a new account to enjoy the free upgrade to Professional for 30 days. Again, click here to sign up.

    Verify your account and make your profile as complete as possible. Be descriptive of what you can offer — always remember that clients hire you because of what you can offer them.

    Here’s a sample profile for you to refer to. Of course, I only offer copywriting and marketing on Freelancer.

    freelance web designer

    Why choose Freelancer?

    It is a professional and prominent platform where clients are often looking for freelancers. And at one given time, there are thousands of web designing projects up for bidding.

    web design freelancingfreelance web design gigs

    Take a look at the image above. 2,231 web design projects are up for bidding at this point of time!

    Do you know that the average web design project is approximately $300?

    Imagine you have one project per week. That’s $1,200 for you per month, even without you leaving your day job!

    Crazy right?

    Cold Calling/Email To The Local Businesses

    You should be bold and be daring to reach out the local businesses to help them create an online identity.

    The easiest way to start this is rather simple. Randomly search on Google for joints or businesses in your area.

    If the Google search results show only Facebook or Twitter account, I’m pretty confident that they do not have a website.

    What you do next is to reach out to them and focus in speaking or emailing directly to the person in charge.

    While cold calling is one of the best ways to make get clients for your web designing services, be prepared as this is one of the toughest ways as a sales person.

    Nonetheless, if you are desperate to get for sales, you should use cold calling (with a template) to ensure that you are using the right words and convincing the potential clients on your services.

    Get web designing clients using the Internet

    There are over a billion questions asked every day on Google and it makes all the sense for you to rank on Google.

    After all, organic traffic from Google is one of the best ways to get sales and clients for your web designing business.

    But, how how to start a web design business with no experience?

    Solution #1: Start by creating a website

    A blog serves as your online branding machine and I love to consider my blog as my PR Manager.

    You don’t have to create 500 pages WordPress blog to talk about your experience and skills in web designing.

    You can start with only under 5 pages website that showcase your skills.

    My favorite go-to website builder is Thrive Architect and it allows me to create simple, beautiful and high converting single page website designs in minutes (see below).

    single page website design

    By having an online presence, you will stand a better chance to get more clients directly from Google when you are targeting on the right search terms.

    With proper strategy, you can easily increase your Google ranking by multiple folds.

    Looking for alternatives to Thrive Architect? Here’s a complete comparison between Thrive Architect vs Divi vs WP Beaver Builder.

    Solution #2: Social media advertising to the rescue

    The second solution to starting a web design business with no experience is through social media advertising.

    After creation of a website, you should create ads to drive traffic back to your site.

    Social media advertising can be costly if you have messed up the targeting. Therefore, be really specific on who your target audience are and the interest groups that most likely to convert.

    Generally, you should have a complete persona which includes:

    • Age
    • Location
    • Gender
    • Work experience
    • Work title
    • Industry
    • Company size

    With proper targeting, you can reduce the cost of advertising by multiple folds at the very least!

    Why Work With A Web Design Agency? 

    Once you’ve grown your web design business and you gain many clients, you might want to consider working with a web design agency. For instance, you can work with FatCat Studios or any other reliable web design firm while you’re still hiring and building your in-house marketing team.  

    In this way, you can assign other tasks from your clients to them without worrying about the output result. You’re confident that the digital marketing agency will provide excellent services that you also aim for your clients.

    Summary: How to start a web design business with no experience?

    There are many ways you can start a web design business with little to no experience. While the start is often rocky, there shouldn’t be any reason stopping you to achieve your dream!

    If you don’t have formal training or background in web design, it makes sense to learn from the best web design agencies in the market. There are many free tutorials, certification courses, and training seminars that web design agencies offer nowadays. Some agencies even have a dedicated section on their website that provides design tips and how-to guides that you can read or download for free or for a small fee. You can get started from there.

  • Cleanest WordPress Theme: Thrive Themes vs StudioPress vs Divi vs WP Beaver Builder

    Cleanest WordPress Theme: Thrive Themes vs StudioPress vs Divi vs WP Beaver Builder

    Cleanest WordPress theme. All of us are looking for a clean, simple and elegant WordPress theme.

    But there’s one problem. We are spoil with choices. Which is the cleanest WordPress theme we should be using today?

    As a seasoned blogger, I understand and resonates with you completely. I am always in the hunt for the best and cleanest WordPress theme — and this also one of the reasons why I constantly change my theme (at least once every three months).

    In this article, you will discover some of the top and best clean WordPress themes for 2018.

    Let’s dive in, shall we?

    My favorite cleanest WordPress theme is …

    I want to start this article by sharing my all-time-favorite, cleanest WordPress theme and it is no other than Thrive Themes.

    It’s true that I had used dozens of WordPress themes since I started blogging back in 2004 but it terms of favorites, nothing comes close to Thrive Themes.

    I have been using Thrive Themes three years back and it is the best and cleanest WordPress theme I had ever used.

    What makes Thrive Themes my top choice? Here are the benefits using it:

    • Comes with an intuitive drag and drop builder (that doesn’t sucks)
    • Clean codes and is free from malicious codes
    • Professional support team to assist 24/7, all year round
    • check-circle-oEasily import demos with just a few clicks
    • check-circle-oCustomizing the design is easy and doesn’t require coding skills (at all)
    • check-circle-oHighly affordable
    • check-circle-oComes with multiple themes for choice and plugins to make your blog stand out from the crowd

    Here are the top four themes which I personally love from Thrive Themes.

    Rise Theme

    Rise theme by Thrive Themes offers clean design for bloggers and affiliate marketers

    Pressive Theme

    Pressive is a professional theme for corporate websites

    Minus Theme Cleanest WordPress Theme

    Minus is the cleanest WordPress theme I have ever used

    Performag offers a clean WordPress theme for magazine

    Performag offers a clean WordPress theme for magazine website

    Thrive Themes doesn’t only offer clean WordPress themes, all the themes come with conversion-focused areas to ensure that you can generate more leads, email subscribers and ultimately, grow your income through your blog.

    StudioPress — An excellent Thrive Themes alternative

    Make no mistake. StudioPress is one of the best WordPress themes in the market that is not only affordable but extremely versatile.

    StudioPress comes 62 premium WordPress themes under its hood and the list is ever growing!

    studiopress wordpress themes

    Yes, you are right. StudioPress doesn’t only offers clean WordPress themes, it also offers a wide range of features such as:

    • SEO-ready WordPress themes
    • Powered by Genesis Framework that offers reliability, security and performance
    • Strong community that provide support
    • Beautiful, mobile-responsive designs
    • Ultra-flexible foundational codes (clean codes)
    • Blazing fast performance
    • Rock solid performance

    If you are wondering, StudioPress is on par with Thrive Themes (click here to read the comparison between StudioPress and Thrive Themes) in many fronts. The only visible shortfall using StudioPress is the drag and drop builder which StudioPress lacks of.

    Apart from that, StudioPress is one of the best options if you are looking for the cleanest WordPress theme.

    WP Beaver Builder — For experience website developers

    Last but not least, WP Beaver Builder is an excellent and clean WordPress theme. You may have heard about WP Beaver Builder and how effective it is especially for website developers.

    WP Builder Builder or Beaver Builder in short is an extremely popular choice especially for website developers because it comes with some nifty features.

    Just like Thrive Themes and StudioPress, the Beaver Builder comes with some powerful features such as:

    • Dozens of gorgeous page templates
    • Position images and text with precision, and build column based layouts in minutes
    • Separate your page builder from your theme and get complete control of your content

    I got to admit that WP Beaver Builder isn’t really built for beginners and bloggers and it is slightly geared towards developers.

    Nonetheless, WP Beaver Builder theme is definitely one of the cleanest WordPress themes in the market today. Click here to see WP Beaver Builder theme in action.

    Divi by Elegant Themes

    Last but not least, Divi is definitely my top choice when it comes to choosing the cleanest WordPress theme.

    Divi by Elegant Themes is one of the most intuitive WordPress builder that allows you to create beautiful WordPress themes in minutes and not days.

    Divi is comes packing with all the features you ever need to clean a clean WordPress theme from scratch.

    And what makes Divi a great choice is the super intuitive drag and drop builder. Take a look below.

    divi 3.0 drag and drop website builderdivi 3.0 reviewcheap drag and drop website builder 2018

    Divi makes it extremely easy for anyone to create their own WordPress theme without coding skills.

    Summary: Choosing the cleanest WordPress theme

    What is your favorite theme when it comes to clean WordPress theme? I hope you find this article useful and tell me what you think in the comments below!

    At the end of the day, Thrive Themes, StudioPress and Divi are excellent and cleanest WordPress theme in the market today.