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Do you want to track your blog authors with Google Analytics? If you are running a multi author WordPress blog, it is common to understand who is performing better and how you can optimize your authors to be the best performer.
In this article, I’ll share simple ways you can take to setup author tracking in WordPress with Google Analytics and MonsterInsights.
Installing MonsterInsights for Author Tracking in Google Analytics
Generally, Google Analytics do not provide a direct setup to monitor your blog authors. In order to have author tracking in Google Analytics, you need to create custom settings but this can be really complicated for newbies.
This is where MonsterInsights comes into play.
Using MonsterInsights plugin, you can easily enable author tracking on your WordPress website.
As a matter of fact, MonsterInsights is one of the best addons to understanding the complicated Google Analytics dashboard.
Integrating both MonsterInsights and Google Analytics will give you detailed reports about pageviews, bounce rate and even popular authors of your blog. Of course, you can add other custom dimensions to track the authors in WordPress.
How To Setup Author Tracking In WordPress With Google Analytics?
To enable author tracking with Google Analytics, head over to Insights » Addons » Activate Dimensions addon.
The next step is to connect Google Analytics to your WordPress (which is actually very straightforward). This can be done by entering the license key in MonsterInsights and click on Verify Key button.
Once that is done, the next step is to click the Tracking tab from the top bar. Next, head over to Custom Dimensions which is found on the left hand side of the menu or screen.
The next step involves clicking on Add new custom dimensions link and it will automatically display a dropdown list. You are required to select Author as your custom dimension—since you are installing MonsterInsights to track authors in Google Analytics.
The next step involves heading over to your Google Analytics backend. Head over to Admin » Custom Dimensions.
Create a new custom dimension with several fields.
In the Name field, you need to add Author and click on the create button. It is recommended to leave the other settings as default.
You need to match the index number of Google Analytics with Custom Dimension ID that’s available in your WordPress MonsterInsights settings.
If done correctly, here’s what you will see. Take note of the index number.
Now, visit the Insights » Settings page in your WordPress admin area. Under the Tracking tab, you’ll need to go to Custom Dimensions from the left-hand menu.
If the Custom Dimension ID is same as the index number in Google Analytics, then you don’t need to do anything. If the ID is different, then make sure to enter the same number you noted from Google Analytics’ index column for the Author dimension and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.
The next step is to create a custom report within your Google Analytics dashboard to start tracking the authors properly.
In order to achieve this, you need to go to Customization » Custom Reports which is found on the left hand side of the menu or screen.
Look for Report Content field and define the metrics.
In this case, you need to add Author in the option to start tracking authors.
Finally, you should complete the entire process by adding a custom author report.
Go to Behavior » Site Content » All Pages. Therefore, choose any primary dimension (for example: Page Title) and go to the Secondary Dimension dropdown option below it.
Finally, head over to Custom Dimensions and click on the Author option.
Once the setup of WordPress authorship, Google Analytics and MonsterInsights are done correctly, this is what you will see.
I hope you find this article useful and if you haven’t get your hands on MonsterInsights, I highly recommend you to do that right now!
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What Is WordPress Ping Services And Why Is It Important For SEO?
Publishing a new WordPress post is the easy part. Getting the post indexed by Google and hitting the first page of Google is challenging. Today’s article will be about WordPress ping services and the list of WordPress pings that you should be using right now. I hope you like this WordPress tutorial!
Does WordPress Updates The Ping List Automatically?
WordPress is one of the best CMS in the world and yes, WordPress do updates the ping list automatically.
However, most of the time the WordPress ping list is not really updated and limited in nature.
Furthermore, there is absolutely no harm in having even MORE ping list services, right?
Here’s the full list of WordPress ping list services I had been using for some good years now … and I recommend you to have the same too for your WordPress blog.
The process of updating the ping list in your WordPress is rather easy. Here’s how you can update WordPress ping list.
Login to WP-Admin
Head over to Settings
Look for Update Services
Copy and paste the WordPress ping list services into the box and hit save.
About Me
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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Oxygen Builder Review
I recently co-launched a new WordPress website, WPMaven.net and I knew the mistakes I had did in the past with this blog (and other blogs).
As a WordPress fanatic, I wanted to create a strong framework and structure to ensure that I could easily do ‘changes’ to the website (when needed) without spending a whole lot of money hiring freelancers.
For starters, I wanted to stick to Thrive Architect and StudioPress and I realized that I should get out of my comfort zone. I should try for something new instead!
I did my research and I discovered Oxygen Builder which is said to be a pretty cool visual builder. Of course, there aren’t many Oxygen Builder review because of two factors:
There is no affiliate program for promoting Oxygen Builder plugin
This plugin is still rather new in the market compared to the competitors
It didn’t took long before I decided to grab the Oxygen Agency plan and started rolling out with the new WordPress website. What you will get below is the honest review of Oxygen Builder.
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Table of Contents
Is Oxygen Builder Worth The Money?
I decided to do something different in this WordPress builder review. Instead of going with the introduction, I decided to start with my personal opinion with Oxygen Builder.
Oxygen is a WordPress visual builder used mainly by website developers. At this point of time, it doesn’t come with any free version and the lowest tier starts at $99 for a 1-time fee.
Here’s where it really got my head turning.
One time payment, unlimited usage and unlimited websites?
This is either too good to be true (like scam) or it’s just really that good.
I first came across Oxygen Builder during the last Cyber Monday deal. While there wasn’t any deal with Black Friday and Cyber Monday on Oxygen, many people were still discussing about it. And just like you, I wanted to know more about Oxygen Builder.
The more I read about Oxygen, the more I was interested with it. So much so that I took out my credit card and purchase it some days later.
What Is Oxygen Builder?
Oxygen Builder is a WordPress visual builder that is geared heavily for users mainly in the WooCommerce and website development niche. Despite that, Oxygen Builder is still a great plugin for typical WordPress users.
Oxygen Builder is firstly created to allow website owners to fully control over their WordPress website design through simple but interactive control buttons.
Oxygen Builder Features
Let’s start this Oxygen Builder review by checking out the features, shall we?
Oxygen Builder is the only WordPress visual builder that is 100% compatible with both Gutenberg blocks and WooCommerce. Most WordPress visual builders work well with WordPress but not with Gutenberg and/or WooCommerce. This is exactly why Oxygen Builder is above the competition.
Speedy Performance
Oxygen is lightweight and by far, it is the fastest loading WordPress visual builder by default. On average, websites using Oxygen Builder has a loading speed of under 1 second. This astonishing feat is achieved through removal of all bloatload and clean codes.
Visual Builder
Oxygen Builder is a powerful visual builder that allows you customize anything and everything on your WordPress site without limitation. Through my personal testing and experience, Oxygen Builder offers the most comprehensive visual builder features for WordPress websites.
Comprehensive Design Library
As a freelance WordPress developer, I count heavily on design libraries (such as demos) to speed up the overall web development works. Oxygen Builder comes with over 100 ready made designs, demos and other building blocks/elements to help you create a WordPress website without delay.
Hit the play button and the video will give you a quick overview on what Oxygen Builder really is.
As you can see above, Oxygen is definitely one of the heavy hitters in the WordPress designing industry.
Why Oxygen Builder Isn’t Popular?
If Oxygen Builder is that popular among website developers, why isn’t it being discussed heavily and with the thousands of publications on Oxygen Builder reviews on the Internet?
Here are the reasons:
Oxygen Builder doesn’t have a free plan
Oxygen Builder doesn’t have an affiliate program
Oxygen Builder team is focused heavily in product development but lacks the marketing side
Okay, let’s face it. I’m a WordPress fanatic and a marketing guy. Oxygen is good, Oxygen is fun to use and I love Oxygen Builder. But no matter how many times I visit Oxygen official website, I was never remarketed in anyway.
Of course, I truly appreciate this but heck, this is going to hurt their sales by far.
*P.S. There is a possibility that I might not be the type of target audience that the Oxygen team wanted, but I know I certainly took out my credit card to purchase Oxygen Agency plan!
What Are The Advantages Of Oxygen Builder?
Let’s start this review by going through the features offered by Oxygen Builder. It is important to note that I will only review Oxygen Builder features that are unique to it (to put everything in context).
Now, I helped launch and design WPMaven.net using Oxygen Builder. So, what I’m sharing is based on my personal opinion and experience using this visual builder.
1. Oxygen Is Compatible With WooCommerce and Gutenberg
By now, you know the amount of effort is put into Gutenberg builder by Automattic team. Every visual builder I had used did not work well with Gutenberg—but Oxygen is different. It integrates perfectly well with Gutenberg block builder and the experience would be any more smoother than I wished for.
But hey, don’t just hear my words. Watch this video to learn more!
2. Powerful WordPress Visual Builder for WooCommerce
You can now build your own WooCommerce store as you wished, with Oxygen Builder. Yes, Oxygen Builder is the first WordPress visual builder than is fully integrated with WooCommerce.
If you love WooCommerce, you are going to love Oxygen Builder even more.
This is what I mean.
3. Super Fast Loading Speed
Are you a WordPress speed fanatic like I do?
If the answer is “Yes”, you are in luck!
Oxygen’s clean code output and lightning fast load times keep your website visitors and search engine bots happy. On average, websites powered by Oxygen loads under 1 second even with the shittiest web hosting provider.
This is because Oxygen Builder has zero bloatload and clean codes to ensure that your website only loads relevant items and not everything under the sun (which will lead to slower website loading speed).
How about the Oxygen’s loading speed compared to Beaver Builder, Divi and Elementor?
Here’s the stat:
As you can see above, Oxygen is 50x leaner than Divi, 25x leaner than Elementor, and 10x leaner than Beaver Builder. Oxygen generally only loads the scripts and styles absolutely required by your design.
But the other builders load everything, even when you don’t use it. Animation styles, icon libraries, motion effects, slider scripts, and much more are loaded on ever page, even when you won’t be using 95% of it.’
The below are 3 reasons why Oxygen Builder WordPress is the fastest visual builder in the market.
CDN Friendly. Use CloudFlare, Amazon CloudFront, or any other CDN. CSS is cached and query strings are avoided, making Oxygen work with all CDNs.
Google Font Weight Chooser. Force the use of only the chosen font weights, reducing the amount of font files that must be downloaded to display your site.
Bloat Eliminator. WordPress loads various unnecessary scripts and styles by default, which you can disable in Oxygen in one click.
4. One Time For Unlimited Usage
Last but not least, I absolutely love the pricing structure of Oxygen. For such an intuitive drag and drop builder, it comes with three pricing, $99 for visual builder, $149 for visual builder and WooCommerce integration, and $169 for visual builder, WooCommerce and Gutenberg integration.
The best part?
All these plans are one-time payment for unlimited websites.
I don’t know you, but heck, this is by far the best deal of the century for WordPress fans, website developers and WordPress bloggers.
There are several disadvantages using Oxygen Builder. And just like any other visual builders in the market, there isn’t a perfect website builder out there.
The biggest challenge using Oxygen Builder is the learning curve. Sure, Oxygen Builder is created for beginners and rather easy to use, but it certainly isn’t a straightforward WordPress builder that you can use instantly (especially when you lacks coding skills).
The core concept of Oxygen Builder is to provide the maximum flexibility for website owners to customize their WordPress website. While this is good, most beginners might find it challenging as the features can be really comprehensive.
Take a look at the above. While the layout looks sweet (c’mon, the layout is way better than Elementor, Thrive Architect and Divi combined!), it can be really confusing for WordPress newbies.
I took around 20 minutes to understand the entire flow of using Oxygen and another few hours creating website designs correctly.
Now, the second disadvantages using Oxygen Builder is that the content will be ‘held hostage’ by the plugin itself. In other words, the content on the website will be in codes and if you uninstall Oxygen, your entire website will not be readable.
Oxygen Builder Competitor: Thrive Architect
Until date, Thrive Architect is the only WordPress visual builder that do not hold your content hostage. In other words, you can uninstall Thrive Architect at anytime and the content on your website is still readable.
Thrive Architect Demo
About Me
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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Chasing For The Best Page Builder for WordPress
It has been over a decade that I use WordPress for personal (side hustle), business and promoting a service. One of the smartest things I had learn and discovered from my journey is that a page builder for WordPress is probably the best, God-given gift to all WordPress users.
No, I’m not preaching how good a WordPress page builder is but if you are blogger or a website owner, you know exactly what I mean.
With the constant change in technology especially in WordPress, which is the best page builder for you?
Carry on reading this post to learn more on the best page builder for WordPress.
10 WordPress Builders Tools That Rock
Build more websites, posts and pages faster with these awesome tools.
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Summary
Want to discover the best WordPress page builder plugin of all time?
The reason for my choice is simple. Thrive Architect is simple to use and by far, this is the fastest drag and drop WordPress builder plugin. A page builder is meant to speed up the process of building pages and websites (and not cracking our heads to understand how the coding works).
Using Thrive Architect, you can build new pages, landing/sales pages, blog posts and homepages under 5 minutes or less. And the visual builder is best to none. You can read my review here.
But wait. Thrive Architect may be best for bloggers and affiliate marketers. How about web developers?
I glad you ask.
If you are a web developer, I recommend you to go with Divi by Elegant Themes. The reason is simple. If you are serious in using front end editor to build your client’s WordPress website, there is no other tool that works better than Divi. Powerful from it comes, Divi is best used when you have strong background in CSS and HTML.
For the record, you don’t require coding skills to use Divi. However, having coding skills under your sleeves certainly help to make web development much easier.
Thrive Architect
Thrive Architect is a state-of-the-art page builder plugin for WordPress. Managed and developer by the popular ThriveThemes.com, this is the most popular WordPress builder tool in the market today.
For the record, 75% of the blog posts and pages in this blog is build using Thrive Architect.
Curious to see Thrive Architect in action? You can check out the demo right here, or head over to this blog post that was build entirely with Thrive Architect.
Pros (8 counts)
Front-end builder
Compatible with all major WordPress themes and plugins
Affordable (one-time payment for lifetime updates)
Constant updates (close to bi-weekly updates)
New product features launched every month
Fastest page builder for WordPress plugin
Over 275+ ready-made demo available
Don’t break your website upon uninstalling the plugin
Cons (1 count)
Most of the themes are build with several core concepts (core concept looks are fitted well for bloggers only—you might need to change some settings/layout to fit your personal needs)
The above is based on my personal experience using Thrive Architect (been using this plugin since beta time). While Thrive Architect is very useful and powerful (I really, really love it), I still don’t use this plugin that much especially with my client’s website.
Overall, Thrive Architect is a very solid page builder plugin for WordPress in which I truly recommend to bloggers and WordPress website owners.
Divi had gone a long way. Owned and designed by ElegantThemes.com, this is one of the most popular page builder tool for WordPress developers. The first few version of Divi (both theme and builder plugin) were kinda buggy. But, they did step up the game. The launch of Divi 4.0 was the change maker in the web design industry.
I don’t use much of Divi on this blog but this new venture of mine, ArticleSumo.com is created entirely based on Divi framework.
The most popular page builder tool for WordPress developers
The best visual builder tool (WYSIWYG)
1-click import demos
Wide range of demos and designs for homepages, pricing page, contact us, about us and sales pages
Most affordable WordPress builder tool
Divi comes with both a dedicated builder plugin and Divi theme
Membership includes unlimited access to everything (other themes and plugins)
Lifetime pricing is available (massive discount and best value)
Cons (1 count)
Divi is heavier than most drag and drop builders which may impact website loading speed
If you are a website developer or managing multiple WordPress websites, Divi theme and Divi builder plugin are the best options for you to go with. Compared to other WordPress page builder tools, Divi comes with unlimited usage—which means you can install it in as many websites as you wish.
When added with the lifetime subscription of Divi theme, you are bound for some massive savings and deals.
Overall, Divi theme is a great page builder for WordPress … one which I have absolutely no regret in purchasing.
Are you still looking for the best page builder for WordPress?
Leave a comment below and tell me what you think.
About Reginald
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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The ULTIMATE Guide To Sales Page Templates
Now, hold on there genius. Do you know what is a sales page and why every marketer on Earth is chasing for the best sales page templates? **Cough, cough. Frank Kern squeeze page is really awesome. Cough, cough.**
A sales page is a page that turn ordinary visitors into buyers. These sales pages are highly customized to encourage conversion. A well-crafted sales pages can make you hundred thousands of dollars, if not millions. An experienced sales page consultant or sales page copy writer can earn up to ten or twenty thousand dollars for a single sales page template.
Having a good sale page template is the key for sales, conversions and a thicker wallet.
Today’s topic will cover everything about sales pages—from what is a sales page to building the best sale page for conversion.
I hope you are in for the treat today … because this is exactly what you will be getting.
What Is A Sales Page Template?
According to Instapage, a sales page is a standalone page created with one specific purpose in mind, to secure sales for your product. The product or service you’re selling on your page can differ depending on your industry or niche. However, the purpose of your sales page remains constant – getting visitors to convert into customers.
For me, a sales page is a tool that converts customers into potential buyers. A sales page must be there in every step of the marketing funnel to avoid losing the lead.
Sales pages are often divided into two main types:
Long-form sales pages
Short-form sales pages
Don’t be confused with both the terms above. As a matter of fact, both types of sales pages (above) are very similar in design. This includes the pitch of your product that you will walk through with the website visitors and ultimately convincing them to take action.
The only difference between a long and a short sales page is the actual length of the page.
What Is A Short-Form Sales Page?
I really like creating soft-form sales page templates. These sales pages are complex, comprehensive and extremely straight to the point.
Instead of (possibility) running around the bush with a super long sales page template, visitors are pulled into a much shorter sales page template.
Here’s a great short sales page template by Ramit Sethi.
Sample of a short sales page template
If you are wondering, this is one of the top performing short sales page templates I had ever seen. So, how do you replicate one like this (in terms of layout and conversion)?
Let’s get down into business and boils down what this page has.
A descriptive and long headline convincing you on why you need to download the “Dream Job Secrets”
A cool graphic that showcases the cover and title of the guide (it looks a bit old school, isn’t it)
Bullet points explaining on what you will get right after filling up the form (super duper important)
The creation of strong credibility especially with the short “about” section right after the “$10.000 in 10 minutes”
Visual cues directing you to the call-to-action buttons and images
A smartly done, color-contrasting CTA button with clear “100% privacy. No games, No B.S., No spam” disclaimer
Lastly, further declaration of authority with logos of reputable publications where the author and his products have been featured
You see, creating a short sales page template doesn’t require much coding skills (if that’s you think) thanks to today’s technology.
Sales page template builders such as LeadPages and ClickFunnels make the creation process as easy as A, B and C.
What Is A Long Form Sales Page Template?
Now, what about long form sales pages? For starters, a long form sales page template is a lengthy page that explains what the product is, and how it can be the solution to the given problem. A long form sales page is focused in relaying all the needed information about the offer to entice the visitor to make a decision.
While a long-form sales page includes all the elements of a short-form sales page (i.e. a headline, form, CTA button and image), the “hero” of the page is the copy because that’s what really matters. The amount of copy makes the long-form sales page long, which is why the copy should get the most attention.
Here’s my personal experience with long form sales page templates.
I pretty much dislike long form sales pages because:
Terrible page design
Crazy low readability (if you are going to use long form sales page templates, make sure the content is readable)
The copy is written in a hyped-up manner with many exclamation points and different colored texts
Finally, most of the products and services that use long form sales pages are often scam (a super big, no-no for me).
What’s the best long form sales template that I have came across?
Here’s one by Unbounce.
Why this sales page template is one of the best?
The hero image is spot on (describing what the page is all about)
The choice of font is well thought through and looks great on both mobile and desktop view
Sufficient white space to avoid wall of text
Photo of the author with logos for credibility and trust
Ends with a strong testimonial from a happy client
Most visitors dislike long form sale page template because it felt scammy and it takes forever to reach to the bottom.
If you are planning to use a long form sales template (and you are a beginner), I recommend you to use sales page builder such as ClickFunnels to easily create a high converting sales page.
Where To Find The Best Sales Page Templates?
Most website owners build websites and landing pages not through coding. Instead, they spend a couple of hundreds (or lesser than that) by either buying sales page template builder or cloud sales page builders.
There are many sales page template sellers in the market including:
The most common and important factors when choosing a good sales page templates are:
Ease of use
Low learning curve
No coding skills required (hiring a sales page consultants/developer could costs thousands)
Affordable (either one-time payment or low monthly subscription)
Large library filled with sales page templates and demos
1-click demo installation
Easy integration to major CMS including WordPress, Shopify etc.
Building an effective sales page template takes time and effort. If you want to build sales pages fast and effective, it is always recommend to go with builder tools.
What Is The Best Sales Page Template Builder?
As stated above, there are many options that you can choose.
Here are the common ones that I highly recommend (which I also use myself).
ClickFunnels. The easiest landing page builder that doesn’t suck. This is a full suite sales page template builder tool that comes with everything you need to make your business a success, including email marketing. Priced at $97 per month, this is one sales page template tool that business owners had been using over the last 3 years with massive track record. Start your 14 days free trial now.
LeadPages. If you are looking for a cloud sales page template builder, this is a good option. LeadPages is used by big brands, including small business owners and bloggers to create powerful sales pages. With pricing that starts at $25 per month, this is a popular choice for sales page template builders. Start your 14 days free trial right now.
Thrive Architect. Last but not least, Thrive Architect is my top sales page template builder because it integrates well with WordPress and it is the most affordable tool. To make the deal even sweeter, Thrive Architect comes with over 275 ready-made sales page templates for you to choose from! You can try Thrive Architect with one-time payment of $67 for lifetime access and with 30 days money back guarantee. Get Thrive Architect now.
Summary
In a nutshell, sales page templates must be constructed properly to ensure high conversion rates. At the same time, the sales page template builder tools must be affordable because you don’t want to burn a hole in your pocket.
With that being said, which is your favorite sales page templates? Leave a comment below and tell me all about it!
About Me
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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What Is Semi Dedicated Hosting (And Why It Matters)
I got to be honest that I am never satisfied with my blog loading speed. While “never” sounds like “never”, this is always the case. Regardless how good the server is, I am constantly searching for the best WordPress tweaks, using the best WordPress hosting (I’m hosted on a semi dedicated hosting by the way) and cache plugin to make my site loads faster.
And in many times, I broke my site countless times—like literally once a week or more!
Here’s the thing. Google and your website visitors are no fan of slow website loading speed. But with the constant demand of visual-first website, we often load the website with tons of iframes, images and other forms of media to boost engagement. While these setups look awesome to the eyes, it is extremely bad for website loading speed.
In this post, I’m going to share with you why I decided to move from WPX hosting to a semi-dedicated hosting.
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The Web Hosting Challenges I Faced In WPX Hosting
WPX Hosting is the real deal in managed WordPress hosting. They are awesome and I highly recommend them either. I like their support team (a lot) because they resonate well with me. They took time to understand my problem and were often kind enough to ‘chip in’ when I needed help. I even published my personal WPX Hosting review (which I highly recommend you to read).
While I always felt that WPX Hosting is the best managed WordPress hosting, it struck my mind rather hard—I’m paying $49 per month to host 3 major websites and one website having over 150,000 visitors in a month.
WPX hosting is one of the best WordPress hosting providers
Being a geeky web guy, I wanted to make my money worth. With WPX Hosting, my website is constantly loading around 1.62 seconds with 2.1 MB in size (homepage) and around 117 requests. For the record, my website is huge and chunky, and WPX hosting does an awesome job to minimize the website loading speed to slightly over a second.
But I wanted more.
In the past, I had 700+ ms loading speed and I wanted to do more. I ended up tweaking W3TC more than the recommended setting. Again, W3TC is known to be buggy, really complicated at times and I managed to shave off 0.1 seconds on average.
Having 1.5+ s loading speed isn’t making the cut yet.
I went over to WPMU DEV and used Hummingbird Pro … which lead to multiple crashes and tons of headache. I thought W3TC was hard but Hummingbird Pro was even worst. The plugin isn’t bad—but the way it works doesn’t fit my needs and my current website setup. Using Hummingbird Pro, my load time went from 1.5+ to over 2.1 seconds. That’s 0.6 seconds additional even with the help of WPMU Dev CDN.
I ended up ditching Hummingbird Pro and went back to W3 Total Cache.
My hunt for a faster website speed doesn’t end here. Instead, it opens up to a whole new environment.
I Decided To Move From WPX Hosting to A Semi-Dedicated Hosting
Migrating my WordPress website from WPX hosting to a semi dedicated server
I have reseller hosting which I dedicated to serving my clients. For years, I had the highest tier in reseller hosting package (that the company can offer) and I was seriously under-using it.
The web host threw me a question—asking me if I want to move my money sites back to my reseller hosting. Bear in mind, I did host with them some years back and the speed was “just okay.”
Mind you, I was reluctant but I kept my mind/options open.
I gave them my scenario: High traffic, massive database and all the stuff they could not imagine.
And they came back with a simple and smart solution.
They proposed I create a new cPanel account under my reseller hosting and allocate additional resources to the cPanel. Not only I could boost the performance of the server, but my website can also load way faster!
Here’s how the website loading speed looks like right now.
Semi Dedicated Hosting speed test using Pingdom at San FranciscoSemi Dedicated Hosting speed test using Pingdom at London
These are pretty sweet stats, right?
What Is A Semi Dedicated Hosting?
The differences in semi dedicated hosting vs shared web hosting
A semi dedicated web hosting offers more performance over typical shared web hosting.
In a shared web hosting, you are hosting your site with hundreds or thousands of websites. You have no control on who your neighbors are and server customization because you are paying a rather cheap price (like $2.99 per month).
In a semi dedicated hosting environment, it is different—you have more allocation of server resources through lesser websites hosted on a specific server (or living in a nice cozy housing environment). Servers in semi dedicated hosting are also oftentimes much stronger and powerful, thus being able to provide a lot of firepower to your website.
Do you know? A Semi-Dedicated Server, is an affordable solution offering you more resources than Shared Server but is more affordable than a Dedicated Server!
Want to know more about semi-dedicated web hosting and how you should really consider using it?
Watch this short video to learn more!
Choosing A Semi Dedicated Hosting?
Do you know that there are over 5 steps you need to do before you are able to choose the best semi dedicated hosting for your business?
These are the exact steps I took (and I recommend you to follow them as much as possible).
1. Server resources
I believe the most important part of this is to understand ‘under the hood’. What are you getting is critical because you are going for semi dedicated hosting for power a.k.a. server performance.
Here are some of the important server performance you should take a look at:
Number of dedicated cores
Number of shared cores
Disk space
Memory space
2. Datacenters
Most semi-dedicated hosting services allow you to choose your datacenters. The easiest way to define this is by understanding where your website traffic is coming from.
If you are serving a wide range of web visitors from the US, then it is logical to have your datacenter located in the US for faster delivery. However, if you are serving web visitors from around the world, I recommend you to have it served through datacenters in the US or Europe for more global reach.
3. Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Integrating CDN into a semi dedicated hosting will speed up your website loading speed
Semi dedicated hosting often comes with more firepower … and having a CDN could lead to an improved website loading speed (faster than fast).
A content delivery network or content distribution network is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and high performance by distributing the service spatially relative to end-users. Wikipedia.
The usage of CDN allows static files to be pushed through faster and more effectively—thus, your website visitors will enjoy much faster website loading speed.
For example, I am using semi-dedicated hosting using HostWithLove. It comes with CloudFlare and CloudFlare Railgun which helps to speed up website loading speed.
4. Semi Dedicated Hosting Price
Last but not least, pricing matters. Semi dedicated hosting is always more expensive compared to a shared hosting service.
Knowing how much you can spend in web hosting, along with the performance, would allow you gauge the semi dedicated hosting service fee (on average).
There is no point too much or too less for semi dedicated hosting services that you don’t require.
Best Semi Dedicated Hosting Services
There are many semi dedicated hosting services that you can choose from. Scroll below to discover the top ones that fit your needs.
Not many web hosting services offer semi dedicated hosting. Therefore, what you will find below is a list of reputed and high performance web hosting companies that offer both semi dedicated and dedicated hosting.
HostWithLove. This is still my number one option—simply because this website is hosted with HostWithLove and I’m super happy using them. The most basic semi dedicated hosting package starts at $14.93 per month and comes with 2 dedicated cores and 2GB RAM. Take a look here.
BlueHost. While BlueHost is not my top favorite, this is an excellent option for website owners who require tons of server performance. Dedicate hosting starts at $79.99 per month and it comes with 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for all your website processing needs. Take a look here.
SiteGround. A good alternative to BlueHost is SiteGround. Currently, it offers datacenters not only in the US but also around the world. The most basic semi dedicated hosting package is called as GoGeek plan and its hosting plan starts at $11.95 per month. Take a look here.
NameCheap. If you are looking for powerful semi dedicated/dedicated servers, NameCheap offers affordable dedicated hosting services that starts at $36.88 per month. The lowest hosting package comes with 4 dedicated cores and 8 GB DDR3. Take a look here.
Exabytes. If you are looking for dedicated servers in Malaysia, Exabytes is an excellent choices to go with! Priced at RM499 per month, these servers are excellent choices for startups and heavy traffic websites. Take a look here.
Serverfreak. Last but not least, Serverfreak is an alternative to Exabytes … especially when you don’t require much server performance and the heavy price tag. Semi dedicated server plans start at RM180 per month that comes with 20G SSD space, 2 dedicated cores and 2 GB burstable RAM for sustainable performance. Take a look here.
Which Semi Dedicated Hosting Services Do I Recommend?
How to choose the best semi dedicated hosting servers?
This is an excellent question … one in which it depends highly on your requirements and needs.
If budget is not a concern for you, I recommend you to go with BlueHost. This web hosting company offers reliable performance and multiple packages to ensure that you get the best dedicated servers for your website.
If you are in a tight budget (like I do), I recommend you to go with HostWithLove as this is by far, the most affordable semi dedicated hosting service that comes with massive performance.
Of course, if you rather go for the big names with affordability in mind, SiteGround GoGeek hosting offers an unbeatable pricing!
Summary: Semi Dedicated Hosting
Semi dedicated hosting is not for everyone. It is best for websites with high traffic and best when you require dedicated resources for your website.
On average, semi dedicated hosting is priced higher than most basic web hosting services and in return, it comes with superior performance.
If you are serious in blogging, I recommend you to get a semi dedicated hosting for better server performance, uptime and increased in user experience.
About Me
Young at heart and a deep passion for entrepreneurial success, Reginald is devoted to share everything he had learned about online marketing with the public. Follow him for more awesome postings.
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