Episode 6 of The Social Media Monster podcast is a conversation with my guest Tom Sliker on website platforms, the differences between WordPress and Drupal, and why a site builder might choose one over the other. Tom has developed on numerous platforms, has worked in all levels of IT operations, and has been my friend for about 15 years.
Note! There is a discount code at the end of this page…
Who to use as a web host is a hard question. I agonize over it constantly. I have tried most of the hosting companies out there, large and small. Since the number of times this question gets asked is increasing, I decided to conduct full scaleresearch, send out a survey, and come up with a final answer. Well, that answer is DreamHost. Let me say that again, once and for all, I recommend DreamHost for hosting.
If you do a little bit of research, you will find that some of my sites and blogs are still using Godaddy.com and that they are a bit less expensive than DreamHost. I have been using them for several years now and have been fairly happy with them – for the most part. Unfortunately as my sites have gotten a bit more successful, and I have had to work with them on a near daily basis the GoDaddy flaw has appeared – they are slow. Both in turn-around time when I have had a support request and in response time for web pages, GoDaddy is just slow. At times my websites have become so slow that they essentially time out, become unresponsive, and people report to me that a site is down. That is something that just can’t happen. Period. And don’t even get me started about the pushy nature of their add-on sales when you are simply trying to buy something.
In the survey I sent out to web experts and friends on Twitter, many reported having the same problems with GoDaddy. The individual recommendations varied, but in the negative category there were many similarities. After culling through those, looking at response times, prices, ease of use and every other bit of data and opinion I could find the choice came down to HostGator and DreamHost. Before you say, “what about x?!”, be sure that I looked at tons of hosts. I concentrated on hosts for small to medium business sites, not personal sites, and not major enterprise sites. I was looking for hosts that provide for tools such as WordPress or Drupal as well as custom programming and databases.
For $8.95 per month, DreamHost provides unlimited storage, bandwidth and SQL databases. Now, is unlimited really unlimited? Of course not. You can read what DreamHost has to say about unlimited hosting on their site. That is fine with me. Just as the all-you-can-eat restaurants place a limit on the food at some time, so do hosts. The important thing is that they provide you with an upgrade path if you do exceed that limit. If you are so popular that your site exceeds the “unlimited” limits, then you move up to their virtual private servers for only $15 per month more.
In addition to all of the direct reasons, I also like DreamHost for being green. They bill themselves as being carbon-neutral, and are members of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership program. With all the ways we destroy the environment daily, I believe it is important to try every avenue possible to reduce our impact.
As my hosting contracts expire with other companies I will be moving all of my sites over to DreamHost. But, I will also be watching to make sure they don’t lose their top spot. If their support fails, their speeds slow, or their ethics falter, I will be the first to let you know and we will start the recommendation process again.
And now the discount! If you enter the code PALMETTOBUG when you register for your hosting at DreamHost, you will save 50% on your first year’s hosting! That brings the per month cost down to less that $4.99. Again, just use promo code PALMETTOBUG for those savings.
When you are not in the office playing webmaster to record a podcast or interview, you will need a good compact portable recorder. These can also be used to record sound effects, make notes to yourself or record important meetings for the sake of documentation.
The one I use is the WS-300M 256 MB Digital Voice Recorder by Olympus. It is great, I love it, and it is no longer made. I use it because I have it and it records with great quality while being exceedingly small. At this point, I have no need to replace it because of the fantastic job it does. If I were to recommend one now, it would be the new model in the line, the Olympus WS-500 Digital Voice Recorder.
There are lots of small digital voice records available, but I prefer these because they offer a good balance of quality and price. Additionally, they plug directly into your Mac or PC’s USB port like a thumb-drive so there is no cord to carry around and lose. Either of these devices will run for over 15 hours on a single battery, so it is highly unlikely that you will ever run out of power. The built in stereo microphones work well, but they also have a jack for external microphones. When recording a speech or presentation I hook up an Olympus ME-15. You simply clip the microphone onto your collar or lapel and drop the recorder in your pocket.
You actually could record your entire podcast on one of these if you don’t want to record directly to your computer. Or you could use it to record while driving, out on a walk, or on location doing whatever it is you podcast about. You could, but I normally don’t. The next time I talk about equipment I will show you the microphone I normally use at my desk.
WordPress 3.0, the thirteenth major release of WordPress is now available for download. Major new features in this release include a great new default theme called Twenty Ten. Theme developers have new APIs that allow them to easily implement custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus (no more file editing), post types, and taxonomies. Make sure to look at the new default Twenty Ten theme which shows off all of those things. Developers and network admins will appreciate the long-awaited merge of MU and WordPress, creating the new multi-site functionality which makes it possible to run one blog or ten million from the same installation.
Just wanted to let you know a bit about the tools I am accumulating to do the podcast. This first thing is my headphones. I will post about other tools in the future, and you all probably know I use a Mac, but thought I would let you know about the headphones now because they are on sale!
I picked up the Audio-Technica ATH M20 Stereo Monitor Headphones about a week or two ago after reading so many reviews that I was going cross-eyed. I was looking to replace my last pair of headphone because the cat got hold of them. Yes, the cat. The cord was chewed into pieces and the headphone pads were ripped to shreds. So, after reading all the reviews and comparing all the prices, I picked up the Audio-Technica ATH M20 because the reviews were good, the quality seemed excellent, and truthfully – they looked large enough to fit my big head.
In addition to wear while I record The Social Media Monster podcast, I also wanted them to have good range response so I could use them to listen to music and other podcasts. And let me cut it short and just say, they have great quality and tone. Some people have said they are a little big. I don’t know if that is that case, but they fit me perfectly and have a nice padded head band area so they are comfortable against my less-than-hair-padded head. I also love the thicker coiled cord. It is substantial and seem not near as likely to give in to “wear and tear” as the cord on my last set of headphones did. Continue Reading »
These are the slides from my April 13th talk at the Charleston County Library’s Small Business and Not-For-Profit Networking Lunch entitled “Talking Twitter”. The audio of the presentation will be posted shortly as the next in my series of podcasts.
Note: If you click on “View on SlideShare, the slides will be larger and you can also download the presentation.”
I seek to empower people by making technology a vehicle for driving businesses and communities. Just as you drive a car without worrying about how the engine operates, I will take care of your information systems as a data mechanic. This lets you drive the technology, instead of it driving you. I provide social media, web development and PC and Macintosh support services for small businesses and not-for-profits in Charleston and the surrounding South Carolina Lowcountry.
Episode 6 of The Social Media Monster podcast is a conversation with my guest Tom Sliker on website platforms, the differences between WordPress and Drupal, and why a site builder might choose one over the other. Tom has developed on numerous platforms, has worked in all levels of IT operations, and has been my friend for about 15 years. 
