Adam Sicinski

I have read on other blogs that if you have a desire to take your blogging seriously that you must begin by setting up a blog on your own host server. This of course made sense to me. I discovered through my experience of using WordPress.com that there are some significant limitations in terms of the flexibility you are allowed in setting up and managing your blog. However, setting up a blog on WordPress.com was very easy to do – you only needed a general understanding of word processing and writing emails, to successfully operate and manage a blog. On the other hand, a WordPress.org blog was something that I really wasn’t too familiar with. Yet I needed to take this step in order to move forward with my online plans.

At this stage of my journey I had all these unanswered questions racing through my head:

• Where should I start?

• What host should I choose? Are they all the same? Are they reliable? What potential problems could I face?

• I live in Australia, does that mean that I should host my blog in my own country, or can it be hosted internationally? Does it really make a difference?

• How in the world will I install WordPress on this server?

• How will I know if I installed it correctly?

• Who will help me figure all this out?

• How can I get all of this setup with as little investment as possible? - I’m a big believer in investing as little as possible into new projects and ventures. I have been burned in the past by investing money on business ventures that just didn’t come to fruition as I would have expected. That money went down the drain. The main lesson I took from those experiences brought me to the realization that I should be investing as little as possible to startup projects, while working as hard as possible to bring them to fruition.

Finding the Perfect Host for My Blog Gave Me a Headache!

My first objective was finding a reliable host that provided a large amount of disk space, bandwidth and had a large database of happy customers. I probably spent about a day looking through sites like Find My Hosting and Web Hosting Talk to get a comparison of the different hosting services that were available online.

Throughout this period of research I found that every host – large or small – presented me with a dilemma. Apparently, there was at least a handful or more former customers who provided testimonials of their horror stories and experiences with their hosting company. To me their stories were shocking and somewhat frightening. Some could no longer access their websites, some lost their entire database and the hosting company took no responsibility for the loss of this information, while other user’s websites were offline for ongoing periods of time leading to a loss of business and revenue. These stories really opened my eyes to the potential problems that I may face.

However, what I realized was that no matter what hosting company you decide to settle on, there will always be someone who will give you a horror story of their experience. Simply type into Google the host’s name followed by the word “sucks” – and prepare yourself for some eye-popping criticism. However, don’t allow that to deter you from setting up your blog on one of these servers.

My early research indicated that it didn’t make a difference whether I hosted my blog within Australia or on an overseas server. I basically settled on 4 potential cost effective hosting companies that I believed would be reliable and provided me with the space and bandwidth I required for my site. Here is my preferred list of host providers:

• Dreamhost
• Bluehost
• Hostgator
• Lunarpages

I wasn’t sure yet which of these hosts would be the best fit for me. However, that was clarified the moment I came across Ninja Blog Setup.

Setting Up My Blog with Ninja Blog Setup Service

I would have never thought in a million years that there would be a FREE service available that would automatically setup your WordPress blog for you. Throughout my research I came across other services that were offering to setup your WordPress blog for as much as $100.00 to $150.00, yet here was Ninja Blog Setup that offered to do it for Free, and within 24 to 48 hours. Moreover, they don’t just setup your blog, they actually take the time and care to install your chosen blog theme, and many other essential WordPress plugins that will fast track your blog’s success.

Now, even though the Blog setup service is free, you are however asked to sign up with a hosting company that Ninja Blog Setup recommends. To my surprise the 4 hosting companies that I felt were the best fit for my first WordPress.org blog were on this list.

I decided to use adamsicinski.com as a test blog to try out the Ninja Blog Setup service before setting up a similar site for IQmatrix.com. So if for instance something didn’t go as planned, I wouldn’t be too distraught about the process as this was not going to be my primary website.

Here is a breakdown of how simple it is to setup your blog using the Ninja Blog Setup service:

• Visit the Main Ninja Blog Setup page and select one of 5 hosting companies that the Ninja recommends.
• Visit the hosts main page and sign up to a hosting plan in accordance with the instructions that the Ninja provided you with.
• Once you have paid and setup your host, come back to the main Ninja Blog Setup page, scroll to the bottom and fill out the WordPress setup form. Make sure that you copy and paste the email you received from your hosting company (confirming your plan) together with any passwords and other instructions they provided you with. Also insert the email address you would like to setup for your new blog and provide the Ninja Blog Setup team with other information about the template and any other instructions or questions you may have.
• If all goes smoothly (as it did for me) you will usually get your blog setup within 24 hours. Mine was actually setup within 12 hours. You will receive a confirmation email from Ninja Jon who will provide you with follow up instructions for making some minor adjustments to a few plugins that were installed.
• You are now ready to take on the world with your new blogging machine.

I couldn’t speak more highly about the customer service and quick email response time of the Ninja Blog Setup team. They provide a very reliable and professional service, and most importantly they won’t leave you hanging after your blog has been setup. They are always an email away and will assist you with any questions or problems you may have with your WordPress installation. Ninja Blog Setup also has a great list of resources, videos and instructional tutorials about WordPress that will set you on the right track.

Creating a Cost Effective eCommerce Website from Scratch

Thanks to Jon and his team, I was now feeling pretty comfortable with my Dreamhost hosted WordPress blog. Everything was working smoothly and I was confident and ready to get IQ Matrix up and running. However, with the Study Matrix Art website I needed a little more than just a blog. I actually needed a good, robust and reliable eCommerce solution that would allow me a great amount of flexibility to grow and expand my business online.

Over the next few posts I will discuss the process I underwent in setting up an eCommerce site and provide you with a little background about the IQ Matrix project and how that came into being. I will also make mention of an ambitious eCommerce website I helped to setup and the learning experiences I gained from this venture. I’m hoping that these next few posts will provide you with a good understanding of what it takes to setup, operate and manage an eCommerce website on the web.