New Hosting Service- JustHost

My New Webhosting Service- JustHost.Com

Why did I need a new webhosting service? I'm not even sure. I've got my blogs and websites so spread out over the place, I might just be making things harder on myself. But- I've been meaning to consolidate, so I wanted to check out this host and if all goes well, eventually I'll transfer all my other hosting to JustHost.

Yahoo Hosting

Right now I have a website being hosted by Yahoo, which I've kept out of laziness. They've been hosting it for about 10 years, but last year when I was extra-sick (I have Fibromyalgia and Epstein-Barr), I let the domain name slip. When I found out, I was all hurry-scurry to make sure I got it back, but since it had lapsed, I was warned that all of my content MIGHT be gone, and the only way to get it back was through Yahoo. So, I went back with them and was able to scrape up most of the content- problem was it wasn't formatted. So I've had to reconstruct the whole site again, which has been frustrating. It took me forever to build the previous site, even with their SiteBuilder tool. I'm no website designer. It was originally intended as a kind of personal catch-all for info, and as a marketing tool for my artwork, design and music, but not really as a money-making venture. Since it's now kind of hibernating, with broken links galore, I haven't decided what to do with it. You can see it here- vegicat. I have added no affiliate links and am not making any money off it, other than referrals for art/design/music.

Blogger

I have a couple of blogs (including this one here) and a website hosted on Blogger (Blogspot). I like the Blogger interface, and I like that the free ones are free. The .coms are not. It has been interesting researching and trying to find customizable templates for use on the sites. For example, I am learning how to add the 'read more' function, so that long posts like this one will fit better on the page. One frustration is that a lot of the free templates don't work properly, lose your widgets, or just don't look the way I want. Examples of 2 I keep tweaking with too much, and that I need to write on more are- glorybug and vegan-o-rama. Also, so few have the ability to change layout, font, colour or headings- and most of the headings aren't removable easily. Since it seemed that it wasn't possible to open a store of any kind in Blogger, I then decided to go the WordPress route.

WordPress

I had read good things about hosting a .com and then using WordPress in order to design the website. Easier said than done. I have not been able to get the hang of doing much of anything. Flipping back and forth between the host and WordPress is confusing and frustrating. Maybe not for professional website designers, but I'm not a professional. And, now, it's a whole new package of things to learn other than what I've figured out so far using Blogger.

My brain hurts! Considering that I still have at least 3 more websites that I want to develop, I'd better start getting the hang of it soon! Especially since so much learning (while good for me) cuts into the time I can spend writing on/developing my currents sites or to the writing that is actually bringing in money right now.

I hope my learning curve goes up soon!