It’s Time For My Annual Non-Solicited Endorsement of WordPress Hosting
Posted on October 14, 2019 Posted by John Scalzi 7 Comments
Around this time 11 years ago, I switched Whatever to hosting on WordPress, after a couple of years of struggling to keep the site up and running on days when lots of people came to it to read what I had to say. I made the switchover, and guess what happened? Nothing! Which is to say, in all the time since, I’ve never had to worry if the site was up, or handling the load of a rush of visitors, or otherwise happily chugging along. It’s been 11 years of that not worrying, and I gotta tell you, that’s a pretty good feeling. I have WordPress hosting to thank for that.
Also, in a larger and more philosophical sense, if you are a person who is doing creative things, I really recommend keeping and maintaining your own personal site, even if it’s just a simple, humble blog. Social media sites come and go (when Whatever switched over to WordPress hosting, MySpace was the king of the mountain, for example), but a personal site can be a permanent place for fans, clients and peers to find you and engage with your work and thoughts.
WordPress has a number of plans to accommodate your needs as a creative person and a business, up to and including its comprehensive VIP service. I use WordPress, and I recommend it. WordPress never asks me to post this annual endorsement, but I do it anyway, because I appreciate more than a decade of uninterrupted service, and because I think it’s been a good company to work with and to host my words on. If you need a Web site, or if you have a web site and are looking for a simpler and more reliable way of keeping it online, then consider WordPress for your site needs. It’ll do the job.
Finally, thank you to all the folks at WordPress who keep Whatever up and running and accessible. I appreciate it more than you know, even with this annual unsolicited endorsement. Y’all are pretty great.
I use WordPress for my author site. I don’t use the VIP service, as I’m still a tiny fish in the SFF pond, but I do have a Business account, and it makes running the website so much simpler for me. It’s at least in part thanks to these unsolicited endorsements that I chose WordPress, so thank you for that.
It’s so lovely to see a post somewhere on the internet about something that *is* working as designed and *has been* working as designed for, y’know, more than 3 months or so. It is cheering to know that somewhere out there, there *are* competent people…
I’ve been on WordPress for about two years now and I haven’t yet decided how I feel about it. When the computer asks me how likely it would be that I would recommend the service to a friend, I give it a 5 out of 10 and, when asked to elaborate, I write “mileage varies”. But I don’t regret being here and if need be, the site is exportable.
I like it too. The new interface isn’t as user-friendly, but it is very stable and offers a lot for very little cost.
I use WordPress for my work portfolio site. It’s pretty straightforward and I’ve never had to worry about whether it’s up or not. It’s nice to have something that just works.
I tell people all the time, either you want to be a sys admin or you want to blog, but if you host WP yourself you’ll be a sys admin.
Just started my own Book Review blog on Word Press …. I’ll have to reserve judgement until next year. Incidentally I just read your little gem: A Very Scalzi Christmas…loved it. I’ll post it next week, when I get back from vacation. As usual, I love your writing … especially “Sarah’s Sister” .. keep up the great work!
Best, Lou Jacobs