Search for Wordpress hosting

Unless I find something better I'll be using Wordpress in future so I'm looking for hosting. Here is the list of hosts I've found so far.

I'm not totally sure what I want yet. Just seeing what's out there. I'm not set on this being my long term host. I've used hosting before but not for a while. So I know you only really know the market and what you need from it when you actually set up your site and use it. In most situations you either love what you have or get by for long enough. So I can't expect perfection in my first choice because I don't have the time to find it. Compromise is expected, I just don't know which aspects I will be compromising on yet.

Review Process

So the layout of this post is:

• Reviews: A quick search on the current market
• In the hunt: Hosts that fit my criteria
• Favourite: My preferred choice
• Failed the grade: Hosts that don't match my criteria

Related reviews and discussions

My search for "good wordpress hosting uk" returned:

• suitable wordpress host in the uk
• hosting-review: Top 10 Web Hosting Providers - Updated February 2014: Just alist of sites. I'm not clear what the metrics really mean. 

I found others but I quickly found some hosts that impressed me enough and then a clear winner.

In the hunt

These hosts are currently in the hunt as part of my current search.

Detailed review: As my review progresses I've begun a spreadsheet to make a thorough review easier

tsohost (My Favourite) : We're UK WordPress Hosting Experts, Supporting Over 10,000 Installations.

• package:
• Standard Hosting package at £2.99 a month (paying £34.99 for the year).
• Pro: £4.99/month (£50/year)
• Hosted software: The list of supported software isn't obvious. I found it in web hosting under the second 1 Click Apps section. Click on the title  "1 Click Apps" to expand the list which includes:
• Wordpress
• Drupal
• Moodle
• phpBB
• OpenCart
• 1 free domain name: What are their terms? Is it easy to migrate the name out?
• support: email 24hr, phone 9am - midnight
• I asked a question through the sales query tab on their site. Got a response within a couple of minutes. It was a tough technical question "Is it possible to use git with your professional hosting package?". Not something everyone would know. The way it was handled was very professional.
• used by: mumturnedmon
• review rgbartlett
• 2.5gb disk space
• network information provides an in depth explanation of the whole technical setup from network to server and database infrastructure.
• I like their backup statement "Unlike conventional hosting systems, we are able to take backups multiple times per day with absolutely no performance degradation. These backups are instantly browsable via our online control panel and files can be downloaded or restored at will with no need to contact support."
• Knowledgebase is a giant forum: Checked some recently updated threads on 
• .Net 4.5 and was impressed by the clarity of response. A lot of useful detail companies don't usually share. A good sign.
• Domain auto renewal period again very professional. Good clear explanations. This one took 16 days to reply though so not super quick

EVO Hosting 

Good UK hosting. More expensive than TSOhost. Not as much information available as TSOhost and everything EVO offers is matched or bettered by TSO.

• price: slightly higher at £64.99/year £6.49/month
• Faster web servers: For better performance, we use LiteSpeed, a premium web server that's up to six times faster than Apache. 
• Interesting but could that also mean compatibility problems.
• free domain for life: We'll keep your domain registered for you for free for as long as you host with us! Not included on monthly billing.
• I have to check they allow you to take it with you if you leave and don't charge extra.
• SSH Access Available (On request - Further T&Cs Apply) implies I can use git
• lists the software actually available including Joomla, Mambo, WordPress, Coranto, ocPortal, Drupal, b2evo, WordPress MU & More!
• Crowley said I have been using them for the last 6 months, as they are in the UK and my customers are too I get a better UK Google ranking on my affiliate blogs than if my sites were in the USA. Their support guys are great -- I can't say anything bad about them, you can install wordpress in 1 click using their Installatron and they give you a free domain.
• Their not standard hosting options could be a blessing and a curse. Could make things faster and easier but also make it hard to find support on google. 
• knowledgebase just a simple page with a few links. 
• 
  

34sp.com

• Good testimonials and sample sites: Of course these are presented by 34sp themselves. I like to see it but have to take them with a pinch of salt. Though they have got people to put their name and site to the 34sp brand and they have presented it well.
• Features and version easy to find
• weekly backups
• limited one click installers: phpBB and wordpress. No Moodle
• Data Centres and Network : sounds good but no match for TSOHost. They do everything here and more.
• Support
• forum though when I looked through there wasn't much recent activity. Particularly recent support activity!!!. Don't know the hours of forum support and its priority
• knowledgebase Seems ok. Information seems accurate, useful and easy to follow. Searching seems easy

bluehost.com

• feature list is clear and extensive
• .ssh access
• moodle, drupal, phpbb
• courtesy site backups. How often and not offsite!!
• detailed hosting plan details including server details if you choose advanced in the feature list then advanced features in the capabilities field. Impressive to actually see the server spec you are buying. 
• US host

Favourite

TSOHost are my favourite so far. They seem to match everyone else on price and features and then do more. The customer service seems implicit in what they do.

I didn't complete the Detailed review completely because it was hard to find all the information. That in itself helped make the decision. TSOHost has everything filled out because they made the info clear enough. In the end TSOHost beat their competitors on:

• support, 
• ease of use of their site: which implies ease of use of their services. What you see often reflects what you get
• price, 
• features
• backups

So the choice is hands down TSO Host. To top it off I heard such good things from mumturnedmon who hosts a busy wordpress site. Independent reviews make all the difference.

Outstanding questions

• Free Domain Names
• Q: who owns a domain your register?
• A: You do. We always register domains in your name not ours.
• Q: how easy is it to transfer out? any costs and requirements
• A: It depends on the type of domain. They don't apply restrictions and you can obtain the EPP(auth) code through their web admin panel and initiate a transfer without contacting support. Though some like uk domains require support to update the IPSTAG
• Q: Do I get to manage the DNS?
• A: Yes
• Site transfers
• Q: Does this include blogger to wordpress transfers?
• A: Yes
• Multihost
• Q: Can I host multiple wordpress sites each with their own domain name?
• A: Yes. I double checked the web hosting page and it's pretty clear. The number of sites depends on your package. Professional hosting would allow 6 separate sites.
• Database Storage
• Q: You can have unlimited mysql databases on a professional account but what storage limit will the DB be taking up? Is it the hosting storage or a separate one and what is the limit?
• A: Database storage is included in hosting storage. There is no separate storage quota.

I just emailed sales@tsohost.com with these questions. I got an instant reply with a ticket number which I find a good sign. I now have a solid reference I can use any time I contact about this query.

Now I just see how long they take to respond. I'm quite excited to get started but it's a big decision so I need these questions answered.

Response

About a minute later I got the following response. It's pretty general so I feel it's ok to share.

Hi Colin,

We always register domains in your name not ours. We are your registration agent but the domains are yours. That means if you ever want to transfer them out then you can do - we won't stop you.

With Nominet (UK domains) the domain will be registered to you or your company, with us just being the TAG holder. With gtlds you have the ability to change the registrant, technical and admin contact details through the client area.

In terms of transfer outs, you can get the EPP (Auth) code through the client area, as well as unlock the domain name. That means you do not need to contact us to move the domains away. If you have a UK domain and want to change the IPSTAG away from us, just open a support ticket and we can do it right away.

On our systems, space is allocated for everything in one go. So you can use that space for website files, emails, databases, logs etc -- it all comes out of one pot. The only other limit we set space-wize is that a database should not be bigger than 1GB. If it is then it becomes inefficient on shared hosting and we'll suggest you move it to a virtual server instead.

Wordpress migrations are usually pretty straightforward. We can move the files and database, then update the wp-config.php file to get it running through us.

If you are moving from a self-hosted Wordpress (or another blogging platform like Blogger) it's slightly different. There is an import tool we can use to do it for you. However, bear in mind you may need to reupload images and so on, as our migration team usually require full access. We always try our best though!

regards

--------

I'm very impressed. A nice clear answer with plenty of advice and detail and a lightning fast response. Of course when you contact sales in any company you generally get a faster response than contacting support but it's a good sign. I'm convinced any way. 

It's a risk who ever I go with but these guys seem to be really high quality.

Failed the grade

US hosts but the exchange rate suggests I could buy more there.
http://wpbloghost.com/

• not impressed couldn't find a list of features
• prices are around £5/month - £8/month
• You don't know what you get for your money

site5 Failed because they're US based and no better than UK offerings. Couldn't find enough detail

• seems ok. US based in Texas. Provide server specs, 
• no monthly plan for cheaper options
• recommended by t31os who said  i also found http://www.site5.com to be very good, very fast response times to tickets etc... but this was Posted 4 years ago!!!

Penelope’s Guide to Blogging

So I've started reading Penelope Trunks blog and I have to admit I'm quite fixated. The way she writes just draws me in and I want to share everything. You know how it is when something resonates with you. Of course I don't want to just share everything I read because that's not what blogging is about.

Today I'm sharing Penelope’s Guide to Blogging because it is typically straight to the point. I've been exploring various approaches the past few months and learning a lot and found much of it resonates with Penelopes advice.

I notice that she has created a bunch of posts on a topic and then made each post the title of each paragraph. That's the vision I have. Her focus on getting on with it speaks right to me. I believe you get good at what you do regularly and that's what I'm finding. When I look at older posts compared to now I see a marked difference.

Success will take time

I like her comment about lack of readers and that you won't make money directly because I feel it's true. Like anything there are the high flyers and the rest of us. The few make most of the money. Those are often the people who get the most readers. That takes time and effort. Just like any venture you rarely succeed early on. It's just nice to be reminded early on to give you better perspective on your results.

I also add things to my blog that I want to read. That's the main criteria I set. If I feel I really want a record of an article later on then I post about it.

I like having Multiple blogs

That is also why I break one of Penelopes guidelines. I have 3 blogs and I'm planning more. The reason is because my core passion covers so many topics from 3d virtual reality and programming to biology and sport. As one it just seems like a mish mash of ideas. Separately each blog has a focus I can build on. As I go I link them up but for now I feel it helps to have separate blogs for a clearer focus for each.

I big advantage is that I can try lots of different things out. I believe in achieving success through learning which means trying ideas out. I'll be moving to wordpress soon which is a big change. Having multiple blogs allows me to spread the risk. I'll move the least popular or challenging blog first. Make all the newbie mistakes and do a better job with each successive blog.

It's obviously a lot more work but then I got 5 A levels with this approach where most get 3. So I could aim for 50 points when everyone else could only get 30. They had a lower maximum point limit. I had to work harder but once I realised how each A level could help the other it all got quite easy.

So I've taken Penelopes basic list of points to give you a checklist, check out her article for the full detail, I found it a useful quick primer on a fun and practical way to approach blogging.

• Post: Easiest instructions for how to start a blog
1. Ignore buzzwords.
2. Pick a topic — you can change it when you know what you’re doing.
3. Spend two seconds choosing software.
4. Post something right now.
5. Practice, practice, practice.
6. Ignore your lack of readers.

• Post: How to use links in your blog
• Post: Blogging is essential for a good career
• Post: Don’t waste your time worrying about typos on your blog. Just post.
• Post: Reality check: You’re not going to make money from your blog

Advanced Topics:

• Post: Linkbait: Trying to get big bloggers to link to you is stupid. Just write good posts.
• And one more thing. I have found that if I am nervous to post something”?if I think I might look bad or reveal too much or give advice that people will hate“?these are the posts that people care about, because they further my connection with people and further the conversation we’re having, and connection and conversation are the crux of linking. (…more)
• Post: Starting a second blog: NO!!! DON”T DO IT!!!
• Post: How to blog about a co-worker (or someone else close to you)
• Post: How to get your blog mentioned in print
• Post: Blog ROI: Consider measuring the success of your blog by if it improves your sex life
• Post: Blog under your real name, and ignore the harassment

Who are PrimeSense? Microsoft Kinect and Apple

Primesense are a fascinating firm because they developed the sensors that made Microsoft Kinect possible. The Israeli company are the market leaders in providing computers with the ability to read natural gestures from humans like moving their arms and body. This enables us all to interactive with our digital devices without a mouse, game controller or other device. We just use our selves as the input device.

This evolution is opening up tremendous opportunities for interactivity and experience in the virtual landscape of computers, tv and any digital device.

While Microsoft brought the technology to the mainstream through their Kinect platform it is rumoured that Apple were the originally intended patron. Turning down a deal at the time preferring Siri, the voice recognition technology, instead.

Apple just bought Primesense signalling an about turn in strategy and triggering inevitable speculation on the reasons why. Forbes speculated why without coming to a conclusion. cnet say it's to enhance their maps offering.

What I notice is that PrimeSense are incredibly passionate in the concept of natural interaction with digital devices. To the point that they have developed thier own OpenNI (Open Natural Interface) standard and development kit linked to OpenNi.org. This is the kind of leadership I would hope for from the leaders in Natural Interaction.

As I learn more about Apple, having recently bought my first device, a macbook air, and then an ipad mini I learn that under the hood the standards they set are particularly high. Git and Unix spring to mind. They care about incorporating best of breed technology into their infrastructure and ultimately consumer products. This takes time. So I am wary of listening too much to the gossip I hear about failed mergers. It's never as simple as just plugging a company and its technology in.

We're still waiting to see where this will all lead. The first signs are that the Primesense web site has stripped all news and other info. I remember reading that they had shrunk their technology so much they were now aiming for mobile phones. That implies it will be in iphone and ipad soon. When and if isn't clear. What purpose they would have isn't clear either. The most obvious application is for Apple TV. A real game changer and the most common rumour.

What makes most sense to me is owning the platform not the app the Structure sensor is a fully funded kickstarter project promising amazing potential for Apple products. Now that Apple own the OpenNI standard they can ensure projects like this get the best support possible. Taking the competitive advantage away from their rivals. Structure for example allows your device to scan a room and generate a 3d model. What this means for users isn't Apples concern. That's for app and device manufacturers to explore. Apple has just ensured that they will do it on Apple products.

I'm certainly growing in my faith in the Apple brand and its mission as I learn more about it.

What we do know is that tt's certainly an exciting time to follow tech.

Related news

• Structure sensor: Capture the world in 3D on your phone

Are comments now part of Google search results and core to SEO?

In Blog Commenting – A Practical Guide for Bloggers an interesting point was raised. I can't say that it's really new. People have been saying how useful commenting is for years but I haven't seen anyone make the point that comments are now search results.

I'll look more closely into this now that this point has been made. The idea is interesting because I'm thinking why wouldn't Google include them. Googles main focus is on truth and fact and their search business is about gving the customer precisely what they want. The rise of social has thus provided a new type of fact, the comment.

When I search for solutions to problems, which I'm doing right now with a unix issue, the answers I want are in the comments, not the main post or discussion start. So the theory makes sense to me. I'll now watch for the practice. 

Thanks to Karen Jain for this insight. I visited his google+ stream after he left a comment to learn more. His comment led me to the article. Kind of proving the point.

I believe the route google has taken is circuitous. For years they've been investigating ways to curate and organise social data and activity. Google+ is core to this but they've been trying long before.

Fascinating to see that comments may now be a key part of their strategy.

Affiliate Marketing: Finding what products and brands fit?

I have 3 blogs I would like to use affiliate marketing with:

• colchambers.co.uk exploring human performance and sharing what I learn including 3d worlds, software development
• competitiveurge.co.uk competing: business, sports (particularly tennis), education
• cellyoursole.com gaining health through activity and understanding your body better

The challenge is in finding the right affiliates and products to promote so I'm wondering what guidance you can give. I've had a quick browse and quickly felt I could do with a little support picking the right things

Competitive Urge

For the competitive urge I found fantasy sports this is from twist, I forget whether I found this through MoreNiche or elsewhere but right now I'm just trying to pick the relevant genres. Then I can find specific brands and products. I played fantasy sports before and enjoyed them so I can see the fit with CompetitiveUrge though I'm still looking for more ideas

Cell your sole and colchambers are trickier

Cell Your Sole

Cell your sole is in the health and lifestyle area but most money is made through pills and nutrients. The complete opposite of what my site is about. Apps that help you get healthy fit as do review sites or maybe health programmes. I wonder if you have any ideas. The key is about helping people get more active and help them see the benefits. Pedometers, personal trainers, fitting movement into your day. Stuff like that

Colchambers: Human Performance

Colchambers is my general stuff following my lifelong passion to understand my body and get the best out of it. Something I want to share with my family. A combination of cell your sole and competitive urge and also my day job as a programmer. I'm an entrepreneur and inventor. I'm currently exploring unity3d for designing 3d virtual worlds and just bought a macbook air to make development easier and as part of an entertainment solution. These might give you some ideas.

Taking my time

So, you may see why I will take a while to get the most out of affiliate advertising. If you can help please get in touch. I'm already using amazon affiliates and adsense so I have put some effort in but I like exploring options. I'd like to support products that fit my existing interests. If you can help me then I'll get there sooner.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

I've been hearing a lot about this recently so I am on the journey to understand what it is, whether it fits me and if it does,how to make it work for me.

The main idea is that you shouldn't get all your revenue from the one place. Ads are fine but other options are available. I keep hearing that Affiliate marketing is a useful option so I want to see if it stacks up and what it could mean for me or you.

A quick search found

Definition

A definition of Affiliate Marketing:

In affiliate marketing a 'publisher' (essentially an individual or organisation with a website) acts as an outsourced digital sales team for your business, promoting your products in return for a commission. 

They do this by carrying promotional adverts on behalf of an advertiser and if visitors to the website click on this advert, the link takes them to a site belonging to the advertiser. Dan Cohen

Tips and intro

"You have to regard it as a business and, in a year, once you've put in the time marketing your website, mastering search engine rankings and adapting your content, you can give up the day job." Robert Parker, 25, from Leeds

Nam offers provides a  good introduction in what is affiliate marketing: Rise of the new economy. Giving practical examples of markets you can find existing affiliate offers so they help you see how this can be a practical solution that fits you.

Some tips on how to do it well:

• 7 Big Mistakes New Affiliate Marketers Make A useful intro list to help you keep on track. It reminds you that a business like approach is still key. Understand what you add and build on that. 
• A beginner's guide to affiliate marketing an excellent introduction to the industry. Well explained providing a nice guide to starting. Key insights include:
• There are publications and communities devoted specifically to affiliate marketing (see for example,www.affiliates4u.com) and it is also moving up the news agenda for more general marketing magazines.
• Do the simple things first. For a really straightforward start you could just apply to an established affiliate program, choose your preferred advertisers and opt for something called automated ad codes.
• Affiliate marketing: hard but lucrative: The guardians view. Provides and excellent overview and lists some of the key affiliate marketing firms
• Affiliate Window, offers high street brands ranging from fashion to electronics, and members can choose niche specialisms within each category.
• The Internet Advertising Bureau's (IAB) affiliate marketing council chair, says "Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to generate an income from online advertising, regardless of the size of your business,"
• MoreNiche, an affiliated marketing company that allows third parties to sign up for free, and whose member retailers pay commissions of up to 40% a sale
• Affiliate marketing for beginners: A guide written by Andrew Slack MD of MoreNiche.com featured on smarta
• Find a mentor - When first starting out there's a steep learning curve.
• Join a community - In addition to a mentor you should also consider joining a community of likeminded individuals. Here you can ask questions and get lots of unique feedback. Some leading affiliate forums include, Affiliates4U, ABestWeb andWickedFire.
• Don't spend money - The aim of affiliate marketing is to make money, but it's also very easy to spend money
• This is not a get rich quick scheme
• Enjoy it - Affiliate marketing should be enjoyable and you have the flexibility to work when you want, where you want, and on whatever niche you want.

Amazon Affiliate

On my to do list I've been intending to review some of the stuff I have recently bought from Amazon. I already have an affiliate account. This quick search has convinced me I have to put this task to the top of my list and do it. 

What I have done is add the deals widget from the amazon affiliates admin page. The current adsense banners aren't doing much so I feel like trying something new. Exploring what's out there. At least I'll learn something.

I don't expect it to make much difference but then it won't hurt. I understand that you need to explain why a particular product is adding value.

I've already tried the affiliate links in book reviews:

• The Court Jester by Mansour Bahrami
• The Talent Code

MoreNiche

I've heard enough about MoreNiche so I visited their site. While there I signed up. I generally sign up to most things. Straight away I'm impressed. You get your own manager assigned with a phone number to call and email address to get in content. Assuming these details actually work that is the first time I've been given a real person to work with.

I don't have time today to take things further. My approach is always to see what I can get done in 10 minutes. Signing up and having an account is always a start. I expect to get some emails to remind me to take things further and I've got this post to push me too.

Your personal dashboard is quite well put together. You have the 5 first tasks todo:

• Pick your first product to promote
• Send 10 Visitors Via Your Affiliate Link
• Speak to your personal mentor
• Make Your First Sale ( Sales : 0/1)
• Make 10 Sales ( Sales : 0/10)

And a bunch of useful links in the nav bar.

Exciting so far. Lets see how far I get with this. given the initial questions of what I would like to promote I saw a bunch of gotchas. The categories were:

• Weight Loss
• Health and Beauty
• Anti Aging and Pain Relief
• Teeth Whitening

Nothing wrong with the categories but I am going to have to think and learn a lot how to talk about things the way I would like. Given time I should figure it out I'm just so used to the hype surrounding health and wellness. 

What is the best cloud application production infrastructure for me?

This is another exploratory post considering the way forward this year. Blogging is now core but still just one strand of a wider goal I've been pursuing for years.

I see blogging as conversation but also specification and wider thought. In the process of delivering a product or service I've found early discussion and collaboration to be essential. Blogging is the simplest way to do that.

I can easily try ideas out. Present them, get feedback and see what people actually use or engage in. It also allows me to pursue many different paths of though. See where they lead and develop the core concepts of an idea better.

The long term vision though is to produce media and programs ultimately leading to games and experiences. So the question today is what is the best infrastructure to support this. Now the web has become a utility and most products and services support it you can basically take your development and production process where ever you go and get the job done. At least you can if you pick the right tools and learn how to make them work in your workflow.

First I'll brainstorm my current thoughts to see what I already have in place or could put in place. See if this covers enough bases and look for holes in the idea. This should also give you more of an idea of what I am rambling on about.

Essentially I'm asking what is a good enough, or brilliant, development and production setup that works at work, home and out and about. Is there one or must I compromise and where?

What I want to do and how I currently do it

• Blogging: Blogger and Wordpress. Will move to self hosted wordpress early this year
• Unity 3d: code stored in github, Store output files in dropbox public folder
• HTML 5: code stored in github, developed and published through cloud9ide
• Content store: Dropbox public folder. Works on all devices, reliable and built for scale
• Distributed Versioned file store: for managing codebases. Use github free version.
• Learning tools: planning a self hosted moodle install
• Web server: PHP is the language I use the most and supports the most popular web software I'm likely to use
• Drupal, 
• Wordpress
• Moodle

The questions I have are many and varied and I'll answer them over time. Here are a few to give you can idea of where I am going:

1. Is there one host that would do all this? I don't think so and I don't think I would want it. Too much lock in. The hassle of so many different solution is balanced by the freedom to connect and switch them as needed. AWS or bitnami for example
2. Do web hosts support github these days or is ftp still the norm? github is so much more straightforward. Cloud9ide does it so well.
3. Is it possible to provide data and server side programming on a web host and use this as required in html 5 and unity applications? Seems a relative no brainer. Just haven't got round to it.
4. Is dropbox a good enough content delivery network (CDN)? Isn't designed for professional use but for now is it good enough. What metrics should I gather?

Creating this article has been useful already. It's helping me formulate what it is I'm actually trying to do and see that I do have most of it already in place or I know it can be done and how to do it. 

Essentially I feel we're entering a world where many parts of the infrastructure that support an application or experience are distributed. The networks and data rates are so good and reliable and the tools understand how to make it work easily enough. 

For example I think the way Tennis results are expressed isn't very good. I find it really hard to follow the tours as a result. All I need is a reliable source of results in a format I can reinterpret as requoired. Then I need tools to visualise this data in ways that help me follow the tour and understand the results better. 

That's just one example out of hundreds. The infrastructure you would need is 

Data provider

The web server provides and stores most of the data. Handling the following jobs:

• something to pull in the data, 
• turn it into a standard format 
• and store it. 
• Then supply it when needed. 

Visualise the data

 The tools to visualise the data include:

• HTML 5 developed and published within the cloud9ide editor or dropbox public folder
• Unity developed within the unity editor published in dropbox public folder

Both have excellent cross platform ways of sharing and visualising data. 

Content delivery network (CDN)

Dropbox hosts the media files for me including the unity files. It hosts images too. Not a good place for videos.

Youtube hosts many of the videos I share and some I have uploaded. 

Should this be my web server instead or is it best to keep these things separate?

Distributed Code Management

Git manages the code throughout the infrastructure and gets it where it needs to be. Currently using the free public version.

I'm asking questions like:
Which hosts support a git workflow?
Should my wordpress sites be under a git workflow?
My gut tells me not yet. Just get good WP hosting first so I learn what that's like. Get a separate git hosting elsewhere and when I'm ready combine the two some how.

For now I'm just surveying the scene.

My search returned plenty of results with people doing just this so it's possible.

• Workflow for working with git and WordPress
• you need .ssh access so VPS or a dedicated server is required.
• need a private git hub repository if you have premium wordpress plugins or themes.
• Keeping WordPress Under [Version] Control with Git
• example.gitignore file
• wp-content/uploads should you track it?

Graphics and image Editor

I'm using the pixlr editor app in chrome. So it is the same across all my desktops and does the basics I need for now. Mainly editing photos. Resizing them for web. Accepts photo urls as well as local files. Means I don't need to install a separate image editor on each desktop and maintain it. 

Blogging Platforms: A look at Wordpress

In my search for the right blogging platform for me I expect to go with wordpress unless a recent alternative shows up. This is a post I am writing as I go. I'm hoping to make a decision in the next month or two but life often gets in the way and deadlines drift. That's life. I keep notes like this all the time but it's the first time I've made them public. I have just noticed how much I benefit from others sharing their notes so I am doing the same.

So the obvious questions are

• what I actually want to do with blogging?
• why wordpress? 
• what does WP offer and why is it better than blogger. 

what I actually want to do with blogging?

The first question is what are my needs for the future?

1. create content: It's relatively easy to create content right now but I feel it should be much easier. The blogger mobile app for example ruins the formatting of existing posts so I'm put off using it and rely on desktop browsing. Not good. Lots of other issues.
2. connect: Blogger connects easily to google plus but nothing else. I'm looking at other options like livefyre. I want automatic publishing to major platforms. Though IFTTT and others get around this.
3. promotion: It's a lot of work right now to promote what I do. I hear wordpress has a lot of plugins to help
4. monetise: Blogger does well so far in allowing adsense but overall the feeling is amateurish and the stats seem unreliable
5. Admin: Blogger doesn't have great admin tools. The mobile app doesn't even report stats.

Why Wordpress? 

Wordpress is the tool for the majority of bloggers I know of or hear about, professional or amateur. My experience of wordpress has really impressed me considering my 7 or see years experience of blogger

Quick Review

My wordpress blog life as play gives me a basic insight into Wordpress. I started it a few years ago but left quickly because there were a few things I couldn't do. Mainly it was about restrcitions on what you can embed but now I don't have the same concerns. If I host I should get round any problems anyway.

So I thought I would just list the features I really like:

• The editor: 
• putting it fullscreen is lovely 
• pasting test in is easy. Blogger needs a lot of formatting
• Quick draft: Now I have found it I love it. Something I've been needing
• php and opensource: I'm a developer who write php code all day. So the ability to adjust wordpress if I need to is a nice option to have. Not expecting to do anything but this is not an option with blogger. 
• related posts: Categories done as I have always expected. Every post ends with a list of related posts determined by the categories it is assigned to. With blogger I'm having to do this manually. What's the point of that?
• Social: 
• Blogger does an OK job. Publishing to G+ was particularly good until I started scheduling posts. Now they don't appear there unless I share manually. What's the point.
• on tennisfrontier I can post to all the big networks but also customise the post to the network. Set key tags for each using @, # or whatever.

I also post on tennisfrontier which runs wordpress. This is properly setup i.e. not the basic hosted package so I get a chance to see more of the plugins that are available. The content sharing and promotion options are much better. Particularly the ability to coordinating social media campaigns for each post.

Wordpress.com

I am still learning what wordpress can do by running my blog life as play. It's the next blog I want to focus on and now I'm a starting to think properly about it.

• how to setup a wordpress.com blog: A useful article that showed me a few features I hadn't noticed. The sharing options that I have been looking for.

Install

I am likely looking for a hosted service. Thought I checked with a frind who set up a self install wordpress site. He said wordpress isn't particularly secure by default. So most of the work was in setting up the right security plugins. He chose these:

• BulletProof Security
• Look-See Security Scanner
• WP-Sentinel

Self hosted

So I just found some guides for transitioning from blogger and wordpress to self hosted word press. I know there will be a lot of these out there and planned to search in time but I came across these today. Worth including

• mumturnedmon: Going self-hosted: my step-by-step guide for wordpress.com users
• host: tsohost :We're UK WordPress Hosting Experts, Supporting Over 10,000 Installations.
• package: Standard Hosting package at £2.99 a month (paying £34.99 for the year).
• Hosted software: Couldn't find a list of software they support. Wordpress and Drupal were shown in their demo
• Transfer your followers and email subscribers:  Over 40 and a Mum to One shows it is possible, you just need to find the right forum on WordPress! So here’s the link that explains what you should do, note the Jetpack Subscriptions requirement (note: at the time of going to press the support forums were very busy and limiting queries to upgraded users).
• tots100: what we learned at back to blog school
• must have plugins for word press users
• how to set up a self-hosted blog

Plugins

Word press is all about the plugins so I looked at what is popular then checked a few more sites:

• 40+ essential WordPress plugins including plugins focused on
• related content
• security
• revision control
• google analytics
• dropbox backup
• SEO
• Tweet old post
• The Best WordPress Plugins same as previous article just different plugins
• unity
• unitydog
• unity web player plugin
• Embedding unity into your wordpress site

Tutorial sites

• wpbeginner.com
• 14 Most Common WordPress Errors and How to Fix Them

Git

I use git a lot now. I basically swear by it. I'd rather use this instead of ftp if I could. So, naturally, I'm going to look at how to use it with my hosting and with word press.

• How to Install WordPress Plugins and Themes from GitHub

Blogging and comments: Livefyre Wordpress only?

Part of considering the best blogging platform for me and investigating word press is considering what I lose migrating from Blogger. Blogger has been  particularly slow recently thus taking more time to work with. That's annoying but a topic for later.

Right now I'm considering comments. Blogger gives you something because it's built straight in to google plus which is a growing platform that's increasingly useful for traffic and discussion but it's only one place. I'd rather connect to all and let my visitors decide how they want to connect.

I've seen livefyre on several sites and found it useful. so I checked it out a little more.

Default Install

Is it a no brainer or a bit of work? You get 4 options as standard

• wordpress
• tumblr
• custom
• Joomla

Implying wordpress is a no brainer install. 

Blogger install

Can you add livefyre to blogger then? a quick search apparently you can. 

Doesn't seem too hard. Next question is which of my blogs I might try it on.

Is there a good Blogging platform using Node.js?

So I'm considering a new blogging platform.

However I like to consider my options and see what else is out there. Node.js interests me because I am a programmer and Javascript was the first code I learnt professionally. I actually used JS with ASP, yep that's a pretty rare combination, to do a lot of server side programming. So Node.js is just the same concept to a much higher level and it's very popular. I understand it power twitter no less.

If you have any ideas or recommendations please comment or get in touch. I am always open to ideas.

So. My quick search for node js blogging platform returned

• ghost.org interesting. Sponsored by microsoft, is that a good or bad thing? seems slick, young and focused on simplicity. Is it too new, will it last. 
• poet hmm a blog generator. What is that. Open source, maybe it sets up the infrastructure for a blog.
• blogging module at nodejsmodules a list of popular blogging modules for node js for reference. Haven't reviewed it yet.  

Fit for daily life

Another example of being fit making daily life easier is when I popped out for a walk around a local lake with some friends and their kids. I noticed how important fitness was. I was carrying one of the kids most of the way. It felt much like doing squats, presses and arm curls all combined.

My five sets of tennis really helped with stamina. It's built up my shoulders very well. It also helped yesterday when I was doing some DIY.

Basically lots of daily things work better when you're fit enough. So life becomes much easier when you're fit.

My idea with these posts is simply so explain why I care so much about being active. It isn't about living longer or even losing weight. It's about having more fun, really living your life. Being fit simply allows you to live your life to the full much more. That can't be a bad thing can it.

What made the Wright brothers successful

I needed a little inspiration in the challenges of being an entrepreneur and inventor. I just checked out the Wright Brothers because at the time they pioneered human flight there were hundreds of others trying to do just the same. I wanted to understand how long it took them. What kinds of things they did. How much detail they went into and what they focused on.

What I already knew is that many incredibly wealthy and well connected entrepreneurs were also trying but didn't get the results. I wanted to understand why. Was it a fluke or was it down to process. Were the Wright Brothers better inventors, or was their relative lack of resource beneficial to them in some way. It would be a nice story it if it were.

What I learned so far was that they did the basic thing good engineers do. Tested, prototyped, gather thorough data. They also didn't do everything themselves and it was their choices and way of thinking that led to success.

Many others were building stronger engines and propellers. The Wright Brothers focussed on controls. What I feel that means is that others focused on quantity e.g. power and lift while the Wright brothers focused on quality or controlling the power. This explains why their first official flying craft didn't actually do much. It only went a meter or so in the air and sustained that for a short distance.

They didn't care about height or speed at first. Just in level controlled flight. They conducted many glider tests before hand and developed their mechanical skills so they could develop what they needed. Along the way they built a business making bicycles because it helped them pursue their love of flying.

Essentially I feel it is their holistic approach to invention. Seeing that others could deliver the required power but they couldn't control it. The limitation was therefore control not power and that's what they perfected.

They also investigated how birds fly. Learning how they adjusted their wings to tilt their bodies and turn. Many engineers believed a plane should stay level and used the principles of a train on a track. In the end we have learnt that the best solution is a mix between a bird and a large fish like a dolphin. The wings may be inherently unstable but less susceptible to upset by gusty cross winds. Tilting the plane to aid vertical and horizontal movement uses the plane itself to aid the process. Providing a much greater force with relatively little effort. Leaving the control planes in the tail for finer control they don't have to focus on providing lift itself. Instead, they just control where the nose of the plane points.

This is very similar to a formula one car. just the reverse idea. In a Formula One car the wheels control power and direction. The rear wheels are only concerned with power. The front are only concerned with control. All wheel drive is best for rallies and dirt tracks not racing on tarmac where the separation of control and power is key.

So it is essentially a similar principle. The Wright brothers used gliding to teach them about control and leaving motor driven flight until later. They followed others attempts that used more power and different styles of craft but stuck to their original idea that the pilot must be in full control before power be added.. Everything must be designed around this concept.

They also believed that the basic wings and engines required already existed. They learnt to fly unpowered craft first. Others just put engines and untried controls together and tried them out without learning to fly unpowered first. They often crashed.

The brothers experience with bicycles also benefited them because they knew from experience that leaning to help steer and control a bike is the most natural thing. With open minds like this they could see how common this approach was in the natural world.

Overall this process reminds me of Darwin. He felt that much of the knowledge was already there. He did many tests himself and compiled many statistics but clearly built his ideas on the foundation of others work. He felt there needed to be a complete story but the essential ingredients were already in place.

Throughout the analysis of the Wright Brothers work it is clear how much they learned from others. Putting it together and seeing the whole was most important. They don't claim to have many original ideas except how they put the overall control surfaces together.

Essentially they built a powered glider. Thus building on decades of proven knowledge ensuring that if the engine failed the pilot could still land safely assuming he knew how to glide. It also ensured that any one who knew how to glide could learn how to control a powered glider. The simplicity is a big part of their success.

It was fascinating to learn so much. The workflow sounds so similar to other entrepreneurs that have had success. I'm thinking of Apple among many others. Good to know.

Creating a multiple page GWT app

I've been playing with GWt for a little while in my spare time. Just expanding the stockwatcher tutorial I talked about before. and experimenting with a few ideas. I've been wondering for a while how to link up multiple pages and start building a more complex app.

Well, I I've just figured out the way that works for me. Thought I'd post it for any one else that's confused. I'll start by taking you through the journey that led me here.

First I had to accept that GWT is about building Advanced AJAX based applications. Just like desktop applications you only get one entry point. So how do you navigate around? Turns out GWT has an Anchor tag and you can easily assign click events to it.

A quick test later and I found that the simplest solution was to create a new load method for the page I wanted to create. Whether I create a new class or not is not the point. I just wanted to prove I could control the onscreen components and use the underlying divs much like a canvas to paint on. I found that I could clear the canvas using RootPanel.get("root div name").clear().

ok, so hopefully it's becoming clearer. To put this example together I've included code snippets that hopefully explain this in much more detail. I've only included the key details assuming you've filled in the other aspects like creating a proper loadPage method. I've just been using that from the stockwatcher tutorial for simplicity

//instantiate the link
private Anchor prototypeLink = new Anchor("Prototype");

// append link to a display panel and assign a click event.

loadPage(){ 
   prototypeLink.addClickHandler(new ClickHandler() { public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {         
       loadPrototype(); } 
   }); 
   .....

   mainPanel.add(prototypeLink);
}


 // Then create the destination method and see what we can change
protected void loadPrototype() { 
   // clear the app name
   RootPanel.get("appTitle").clear();
  // add a new app name
   RootPanel.get("appTitle").add(new Label("Prototype")); 


   // clear the canvas
   RootPanel.get("activityList").clear()

   // add a panel
   RootPanel.get("activityList").add(currentActivityFlexTable);
}


The point of all this is that I learnt that I can clear the canvas. So I can paint and clear it at will. I can also therefore keep multiple views loaded but only display them when necessary. That's my assumption any way.

Just hope this helps.

Presenting the Guardian University league table

As an example of how easy I'm now finding it to present online data I thought I'd use the Guardian University league table.

I was inspired by the article 'Liberating data from the Guardian... Has it really come to this?' to present the data in the guardian article University guide 2011: University league table as a series of charts to make the data easier to interpret.

I learnt that google docs spreadsheets can import data from web pages and other items into formats that charting tools can understand. Previously I was entering data by hand. Now I know I've got a bunch of import tools to help me.

Tennis Mania, so much potential but too many problems

hmm, I was really happy when I found the tennis mania application on facebook, I know.... sad, mainly because it has a really simple but addictive tennis game that works over the web and is free. Cool. I thought this is good for a laugh cos I'm a tennis fan and have been looking for a tennis game on the web.

What's better is that it's built around a community of 50k+. Challenging others and competing in tournaments is what it offers and I've been enjoying building my player up and playing. the downside is that i've just seen too many things wrong with it. Potentially seriously wrong like this error message

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'FacebookRestClientException' with message 'Feed action request limit reached' in /home/tennisus/public_html/fb/class_facebook/facebookapi_php5_restlib.php:3017 Stack trace: #0 /home/tennisus/public_html/fb/class_facebook/facebookapi_php5_restlib.php(857): FacebookRestClient->call_method('facebook.stream...', Array) #1 /home/tennisus/public_html/fb/readstr.php(24): FacebookRestClient->stream_publish('is playing tenn...') #2 /home/tennisus/public_html/fb/index_live.php(11): require_once('/home/tennisus/...') #3 /home/tennisus/public_html/fb/index.php(9): include_once('/home/tennisus/...') #4 {main} thrown in /home/tennisus/public_html/fb/class_facebook/facebookapi_php5_restlib.php on line3017

As a software developer I can say that this is a seriously bad thing to let a user see.  I've just seen these kinds of errors one too many times from tennis mania. That's one problem but there are more. So what's a blogger to do? Write a blog about it and see if I can get them to listen. So here I go.

The next problem is spamming. Yep, I tried playing today and I couldn't until I allowed tennis mania to publish on my profile at any time without asking. I tried pressing no about 10 times until I realised I wasn't allowed to play until I allowed it access. I thought, 'fine, I'll just go into facebook and remove access'. So after I allowed access I played a couple of times. My wife then bitched that every single time I played a game, something like 10 games in 6 minutes, ok I was a bit bored, it appeared on my profile so she had to hide it. So tennis mania spammed my wall and annoyed my friends, consequently I've removed its access to my wall. But now I can't play tennis mania again.

hmmm. I'm stuck. I'm not going to allow it to spam my wall so if I can't play then I can't play. That's life. I really want to play but they've lost a user. I just don't know who to speak to, to get this fixed. Problem is that  it's made me wonder about how the aplication is made. I've put up with a lot of  problems with it because it's the only tennis game app on facebook but errors as serious as those I'm describing make me question what's going on underneath. The number of software and privacy errors I've seen indicates much more serious software and privacy issues underneath so I've started to wonder if they want access to my profile in order to sell my details. That may seem a stretch but the point is they've lost my trust. As a developer I know that seeing this type of error is indicative of poor and lazy programming. to see it as often as I have indicates this is endemic. If they're as slack with this then I wonder what else they're slack with. So my trust has gone and so has my faith that they're being honest with me.

Shame I'll just have to find another app. There are plenty. None of them are about tennis though. Boo.

Learning: What would Facebook do?

Just  listening to Free: the future of a radical price by Chris anderson of the long tail. Making me consider how paid for education fits in with a market based on giving away most things for free.

I assume I'm not the first to consider this. Just thougth I'd log a few of the models that come to mind.

1) Provide and use free content. Charge for assessment and for tutoring time to enhance your understanding of the content and chances in the exam.

2)Provide basic free examinations including certificates with basic grading. Charge for more detailed feedback highlighting strengths and weaknesses and support in how to improve.

3) Make exams and content free, make it easy to share results and support. The way facebook enables entertainment and social life. Learning could be made easy, free and intuitive with one site where all learners and tutors can easily get together, have fun and learn at the same time.

Where would the money come? I've noticed how farmville in facebook  has grown to 80 million users because your game is built by obtaining objects. You either generate money in the game or recieve these objects from friends. Many of the most interesting and fun items can only be bought with cash. Often as little as £2-£3, the price of a pint or burger. Payment is just a couple of clicks and you'll get your item instantly.

The cost of delivering the game is so cheap and number of users so high it doesn't take much to turn a profit.

What if students were either on a learning version of facebook or in an app on facebook itself. They're learning and, answering questions discovering concepts. For everything they do they receive game money and experience points. and objects to use. Like access to virtual microscopes. Simple apps for their mobile phone. A free ebook. In a digital world there is no end of things that interest people that can be used as incentive.

I can see that I'm going into this example but I think it has potential. What if students earnt big points for taking on responsibility. they became the teacher for 10 minutes, an hour or a day. They earn the responsibility by gaining experience points and showing knowledge in a particular area. Maybe others suggest they become the teacher.

So as teacher they lead a group and teach them something. The group rates their teaching. The group gets a little reward as discussed above just for taking part and also rates the teacher. The higher the teachers rating the better bonus the teacher gets.

A key point I've just realised is that this is a way to get the students to also be the teachers. You no longer have to pay directly for lecturers. You can still have lecturers but they have earn the earn respect of the group and deliver what others actually want to pay for and follow. It's just the result of throwing the ideas of the new economy into the learning arena.

It's got potential because it massively reduces costs. Most of what you receive is cost nothing or very little. things such as bandwidth and servers are going down every year. What you're doing is bringing the models that have made Google,  Amazon and ebay so strong in so little time. Removing the middle man. Connecting learners to teachers and providing transparency in quality.

What you need to work on is ensuring quality learning gets recognised. Build tools that help you identify this.

In farmville you can build your farm as you want but start the same as evryone else. What if you started a course the same as everyone else. course items were available as you progress through the game and gain xp. Yet you can purchase them at different times and store and use them how you want.

From new economy rules such as those in What would Google do by Jeff Jarvis this approach does many things

• Gives control to the people, learners and teachers
• Makes education providers a partner of learners and teachers 
• Makes distribution easy. things can easily 'go viral'
• PUts focus on intelligent organisation. Just make it easy for learners and teachers to get in there and share
• Develops a gift economy: 
• Replaces scarcity with abundance
• Gets barriers out of the way. removes middlemen. Brings learners and teachers together
• Less control more trust
• New ethics: Make mistakes well: No teacher is perfect. Experts have generally learnt by learning from their mistakes. Learning to anaylse and learn from mistakes as a great skill. Rather than avoiding mistakes. Use it as a chance to learn. See the truth in the mess.
• Answers are instantaneous
• Simplify, Simplify: Just get peopel communicating. Remove all the barriers. If some one has problems talking help them. Find out ways to help them communicate. If they have trouble listening, help them too. An envrionment that's focused on communication and collaboration is a wonderful learning and teaching environment. The rest is just content. 
• Encourage enable and protect innovation. good art is innovative, it's new. The best engineering is innovative. encourage people to take chances with their learning. there are generally so many version of a correct answer but being able to find all those different answers is a skill in itself.

Gamers expect intuitive introductions, not manuals

I prefer the idea that new software and applications should teach you themselves how to do basic tasks. I'm used to this because I grew up playing computer games. Games are designed for children. Children can't or won't read big manuals. They just want to play the game. Normally the first few levels of any game are designed to teach you the skills to reach the next level. So learning and teaching are built in. You're not expected to ask any one else for help.

I also see it another way. It's just fantastic customer service. The experience is designed entirely around the user.

So I've been wondering how far this has come across in the web. I'm pleased to find that, atleast ini web games, this is still true. I've gotten into Farmville and Social city recently for this exact reason. I'm enjoying the idea that by seeing how games are now brought to the web I can remember what a great user experience these created,. it then gives me basis for what I want to bring to the applications I build.

I just got reminded about this because I just tried a new game out Super City that went through a whole bunch of events and guided me the whole way. They highlight each icon they want you to touch, exactly where you should place an item and basically explain everything.

Just wanted to record that the amazing and intuitive introductions I was used to as a child gamer are now becoming common, atleast for gamers, of any age on the web. So let's see how long it takes for this to permeate all software.

Why your cloud services aren’t safer than any other software

Just had to link to this article to give some background into the philosophy behind cloud services.

I'm now using backupify to backup my online life. This is the reason why they've provided the service and I think they make some good points.

My public calendar

I've been wondering how to track my daily life and activities for a while. I'm finding little ways of tracking some. Then I thought I'd start making some of this public just like I share things on this blog. Why? the same reason it's useful to put my thoughts up. the value in sharing.

I'm just planning to share ingredients and recipes of things I've been cooking. I've been storing this in my calendar as part of figuring out how to make food fun, healthy and easy to prepare. It's just an ongoing experiment but I've been wanting to relate to it in articles so having it shared directly seemed easier.

I use google calendar so I've just created a new public calendar. All I need to do is switch items to the public calendar to make them public. to make them private again i just need to switch them back. that's really all I should need to do. Hopefully I can then use my mobile phone for cooking and update through the calendar app to the web directly.

Simple web tutorials

some people I know are very new to the web and computers in general. So I like to help out by giving some tips and tutorials. Thought I'd start putting them up on my blog to help share and because a big part of learning is about immersing yourself in the environment and letting yourself adjust.

So this is about introducing the concept of blogs to people and how rich they are in information.

Gmail
Once you start using mail regularly your inbox will quickly get so full you have trouble finding mails and conversations. That's when it's time to start using the search box at the top of the gmail screen more effectively. Gmail has the ability to find all mails sent by someone (from:), sent to someone (to:) and many other rich features.  There is a full list of search terms, but lets just start with finding all mails from a friend:

• in the search box type 'from:' then start typing your friends email address. You may see a list of addresses matching the letters you've typed. this is 'autocomplete' working for you. If so, click your friends address. 
• When you have 'from:yourfriendsemailaddress' in the search box click 'search mail' or press 'enter'
• You should now see a list of all the mails from your friend. magic!!!

You can use all the other search terms in exactly the same way, so now I've shown you one you can do them all. It takes a little practice but if you get no results remember there are always other searches to run or places to look to find what you're looking for. So don't fret just Google or ask some one who knows.