Shared Ssl Problem - Fasthosts/actinic 19/09/08

[RuralWeb]

I'm a little fed-up with some of the attitudes that it's basically the person who chose a specific hosting company who is to blame

Im sorry but at the end of the day its is - you are paying about £25pa for each of your sites which is very cheap and may not have been the correct back bone for your sites.

Hosting is the engine of your website and if you put a 175cc moped engine into a Rolls Royce of a site it is never going to go anywhere - this may have been the problem all along and why your sites are not performing well.

You sound pretty hacked off and I dont blame you but as lee says you have to become more positive about your sites. may I suggest you start a thread asking for a review so people can help you or if you dont want to do that then feel free to call me and I will take a look for you (no charge)

[OriginalTouch]

Hosting is the engine of your website and if you put a 175cc moped engine into a Rolls Royce of a site it is never going to go anywhere

Was my Mini not bad enough?!?

[RuralWeb]

Was my Mini not bad enough

Minis have pretty good engines these days

[chris ashdown]

Choosing a host is the same as choosing a location for a retail outlet, it needs planning, investigating and you need to take advice. Too often people make uninformed decisions, usually based on getting it done ASAP or saving £20 a year. You wouldn't place a new shop in the Bronx, so don't place your website there either, these are the incorrect decisions most people refer to.


This must be very frustrating for you and i genuinely feel for you, but you have the performance of 7 sites all anchored by a £160 spend, does that not strike you as a little strange. If £160 is such a large amount for these sites to be burdened with, why are you running 7 sites? It sounds like they could all be merged and save time, effort and running costs.


Every single pound counts to a lot of people, this isn't about you being skint while we all have lavish lifestyles on our own desert islands, most people are skint or careful at the moment. This is about business and the raw facts are that you have 7 sites sitting on hosting that wasn't working and £160 was tainting your decision on what to do next. If money is tight, then making the correct 'long term' decisions is infinitely more important for you.


At times of trouble we all need to pull our belts in and look at our situation to see what can be improved. There may be some justified reasons to have 7 sites, on the surface it sounds like a logistical nightmare for little reward, perhaps it is time to take a long hard look at things and possibly take some advice on the situation. I am sure this forum alone would offer you some great free advice or ideas to move forward.


Small guys usually come a cropper becuase they have made many wrong decisions along the way or they label themselves small and every decision they ever make is small. There is little to hold a website back from growing other than the site owner.


You sound very negative at the moment, don't be blindfolded into thinking that it is only you, most of us are feeling the pinch in some way or another. It's all about how you react to it and handle yourself through it.

You sound like a hard working dad working his nuts off for his kids and that is of great credit to you, if you can channel that effort and determination into making long term, correct decisions for your business, whilst also dropping the 'small' label and thinking 'big', I am sure you will be fine. I am yet to meet a determined, hard working person who does not get rewarded for their efforts. As the saying goes, the harder you work, the luckier you get.

Keep fighting, forget the sentiment and focus on the business.

Dont you feel you are being a bit (very large) condicending in this reply Lee

As we have seen its all ISP's that have problems at some time so how the hell do you do diligent research when the problem may be two weeks down the line, you only have to go through the threads to find disapointment with companies who have had great runs for a number of years and then hit big problems

I agree Fasthosts and the other cheap companies are not ideal for web business but telling someone which ISP is best is impossible, and size of company and number of servers also brings with it more problems aired than the small isp with maybe a few servers

[dave_finlayson]

feel free to call me and I will take a look for you (no charge)

Paul,

This is probably the best offer you will get all year (well, web related anyway). Make sure you make the call!

[leehack]

Anyway, I digress. In your situation, where the income of the sites is so important to you and your family, I think it is madness to put all your eggs in one basket. Fair enough, go with cheap hosting, it is probably more than adequate for you, but maybe consider spreading your sites over 2 or 3 hosts so that if one goes down, you still have some sites up and running on the other hosting and therefore an income stream still coming in.

This is excellent advice, if you need to use cheap hosting, then do so, but use 3 or 4 different ones. Just make sure they are actinic compliant. Separate hosting would probably help you on the SEO front too.

1&1, webfusion and tame the web are 3 companies that work with actinic and have cost effective hosting packages. Given your story, you may well find a couple of actinic hosting companies contact you from this and offer you a nice package.

We could take on Noel's HQ and have our own Actinic HQ day - woot. Spread the word, let's have a feel good day on Friday.

[leehack]

Dont you feel you are being a bit (very large) condicending in this reply Lee

Not at all Chris, i think that you either missed the point entirely if you think that or i did not relate what i wanted to say very well. I was trying to tell the guy he is not alone, many of us are in the same boat and get him focused on making correct long term decisions. You can try and make of it what you want.

As we have seen its all ISP's that have problems at some time so how the hell do you do diligent research when the problem may be two weeks down the line, you only have to go through the threads to find disapointment with companies who have had great runs for a number of years and then hit big problems

We are looking for just those companies, the ones who have problem free years and then just have a blip here or there, they are the exact companies with whom we should be hosting surely?

I agree Fasthosts and the other cheap companies are not ideal for web business but telling someone which ISP is best is impossible, and size of company and number of servers also brings with it more problems aired than the small isp with maybe a few servers

If you can show me one post in amost 9000 where i have recommended just one company or where i do not always say that hosting is 'subjective' i will be very surprised. Clara and Fasthosts are the 2 most problematic hosts mentioned on this forum and people should steer clear at all costs. There are 4 or 5 regularly mentioned who rarely (or never) get slated on here and they have the historical performance to boot - these are what new users or inexperienced users need to be using.

[PDS Arts]

The fact is that I did at least check for any incompatibility problems with Actinic and user feedback and the fact that it has been running perfectly smoothly for over two years seems to indicate there were no issues. As has been raised, nobody can forecast what is going to happen one month, let alone two years down the line.

I would also point out I am not exactly green when it comes to business, one of my degrees is a business degree and I have worked for a number of years in organisations rather than at home. I was also not overtly negative regarding the direction of my sites, more a little miffed regarding attitude towards those, like me, who have found themselves in trouble.

As for small-size mentality, which I do have to say was despite protestations a little condescending, is sometimes all that can be achieved. I was a much bigger seller with much higher gross turnover and profits, but situations change and I find myself needing to look after a 19-month-old son. I have no-one else who can do this and I do not make enough money for a child-minder and neither would I want to leave him with a child-minder. So I find myself working within a tight budget and despite my searching, I can still only find 24 hours in one day.

I cannot consolidate websites unless I go for the "guns and banjos" approach as most of my sites are completely different. Those that overlap are created that way because the method of selling is different and it does attract different people. I have worked in marketing for years and I do understand the benefit of doing this. When I created two supplementary sites to my main site I doubled my sales.

Realistically my sites do not need to the ability to handle many users at the same time and until I am in a position whereby I can push my ecommerce ventures to a new level, which is certainly not going to be before my son goes to school, I have to survive this way.

I understand the benefit of having more than one host, I agree that makes some sense. And I will consider what is going to be best to take things forward. There's no need to deconstruct my reply paragraph by paragraph.

The truth is that I am driving a mini. It's my mini and the engineer who has been servicing it for years has screwed something up.

[dave_finlayson]

Paul,

No deconstruction from me but just to reiterate my earlier post in case it got missed, I really would take Malcolm up on his offer to cast an eye over your sites, he's quite a clever chap! And as he said, please do post some links to your sites and we will happily see if there are any suggestions we have for improvements.

[leehack]

OK Paul, fair enough. I seem to have read you wrong, I apologise.

Your post came across like a bit of a sob story and you seemed to be a guy that needed a little boost or needed to feel like he is not alone at the moment. It's sometimes hard to address those sentiments all at once and I am clearly not very good at it.

With your business degree and your acumen, you clearly have more in hand than your post portrayed to me at least, so I will wish you good luck and hope all's well for you and your child in the future. Having a 14 month old lad myself, I can relate to many of your goals and hopes.

Good luck.

[OriginalTouch]

As a stay at home mum myself - with 3 little ones, I can also appreciate your frustration, trying to juggle your priorities and the guilt that often brings. However, the important thing is that you are at home with him. Many many fathers do not get to see their children at all, leaving at 8am and back at 8pm.
Look on the bright side - your son will know and love his father and that is what counts for the real future! This is getting rather sentimental!

[leehack]

As a stay at home mum myself - with 3 little ones

OH wow you are a brave woman . I am not sure if i could cope with 3 little ones, I guess they grow with you and you get used to it as the numbers increase. Unless it was triplets in which case all hell breaks loose .

[dave_finlayson]

Jeez, I am beginning to feel guilty now for not being self employed and not having any kids. Does having a slightly insane soft furnishings obsessed partner get me any sympathy?

[PDS Arts]

Thanks to all. So glad we're all friends (genuinely) because I hate it when forum threads get misunderstood and out of hand.

My first post, whilst certainly being partly biographical was also a call from the common man, attempting to highlight the general issue from a struggling quarter of the user base.

WWW.PDSArts.com
WWW.EnvelopeKing.co.uk
WWW.VintageStarWars.co.uk

PS - gotta dash, Freddie has woken up...

[leehack]

Jeez, I am beginning to feel guilty now for not being self employed and not having any kids. Does having a slightly insane soft furnishings obsessed partner get me any sympathy?

'fraid not dude, that just means she is normal, wait 'til you get married.