Did You Know?
How cheap is “cheap” hosting vs a “cheap” VPN?
In a private Facebook group for WordPress hosting someone who’s trying to save as much money as possible asked a specific question about two hosting plans. They’d initially bought a plan from commodity provider HostGator but had been advised to switch a more premium SiteGround account. It was time for them to renew on SiteGround…
Read MoreGood reasons not to rely (completely) on backup from (even really great) hosting plans
So another participant in a private Facebook group for WordPress users echoed something I’d said about the importance of making your own backups. Similar to David Innes I use [a commercial backup plugin] for Scheduled backups ([cloud-based storage firm] is my choice, but there are many others)…And a lot of people when backups have been discussed…
Read MoreSpring, 1998, building my first website with my son…
It’s funny how much things have changed since I built my first website back in 1997 or so. It might have been for a hand-coded “blog” I tried to manage all in HTML (not a good idea, but WordPress and precursors like MovableType weren’t really a thing yet.) Or it might have been for an…
Read MoreAbout WordPress and image compression
A contributor to a WordPress Facebook had a question about image compression: I have [an image-optimization] plugin installed to compress my images and I noticed while doing a bulk compression that there are multiples of the same image (in different sizes) that it compressed. I did not do this manually. It seems that something created…
Read MoreCase Study: Converting an old page-builder website
On a Facebook group for the Beaver Builder page builder, someone asked “Maybe a crazy question… Would it be possible to take HTML from another page builder and import into BB?” Here’s how I answered the question. I did this just the other day (Thursday!) It was a horribly slow site built with an expired…
Read MoreDo we ever use “store bought” themes for websites?
Here at RealBasics we build all new and rebuilt websites using the popular Beaver Builder page builder [non-affiliate link] products. On a Facebook group we follow someone asked: How do people explain using BB plugin and theme to clients? When comparing to other agencies who buy [heavily-advertised commercial theme company] themes and use demo content……
Read MoreReviewSignal’s WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks for 2019 are out!
Every year SignalReview runs a series of long-term benchmark tests on a wide array of hosting companies, ranging from bottom-of-the-barrel shared hosting to very high-end enterprise hosting. I particularly appreciate this in-depth review because so many others focus entirely on the bottom-of-the-barrel, cheapest offerings from every provider. That might be fine for hobby, personal, or…
Read MoreShould you stream audio or video from your shared hosting account?
It’s not a good idea to stream audio or video directly from your WordPress website. Especially on shared hosting. Uploading may be easy for you but can be glitchy for your users, and costly for mobile users on limited data plans. On a Facebook group for new WordPress users someone asked “Generic Website questions pertaining…
Read MoreHow much to build a (Real Estate) website?
In one of the Facebook groups for WordPress developers I follow someone asked: “Question what is the average charge or cost to a customer to build them a real estate web site?” And someone answered: “Anywhere from $1500 to $100,000.” That was not a flippant answer. Here’s why. I happen to be working on this…
Read More