I interrupt the regularly scheduled program to give a shout-out to my new hosting company: WP Engine. A blogger-BFF found these folks — they specialize in hosting WordPress sites with “secret sauce” technology uniquely tuned to WordPress’ technology. I moved to WP Engine in desperation. I have become a fan — and want to offer them up as a resource to other bloggers, especially if you are making any level of a living on your blog. What WP Engine aims to provide — again, optimized solely for WordPress sites — is 100% uptime and speed, which is now part of Google’s algorithms. Here’s more about why I moved to WP Engine, and my experience:
Why did I move? When the New York Times told me it was doing a big story about my site, I knew I needed to get to a new host. Like. Yesterday. My old host had really nice and responsive staff, but whenever I had a traffic bump, my site was prone to crash. With the New York Times about to send a lot of fantastic traffic my way, I was sick at the thought of this happening!
I’ve been on WordPress since 2007. My blog has been hosted at two other companies since then — and as it grew, it outgrew both. It kept crashing whenever I had a lot of traffic, and it got slower as it got bigger. These other hosting companies were not specialized to handle Word Press – in fact, I didn’t know of anyone who was. Until BFF, who always has her ear to the buzz, found WP Engine, “the premier, WordPress-only hosting company.”
My site on the New York Times: From 20,000 --> 80,000 pageviews in one day, crash-free
So, once I knew the Times story was coming, I rushed over to WP Engine. They were very helpful in getting me all set up, with just days to spare. I was still worried. BUT: When the Times story hit, the day went off without a single hitch – even though my pageviews quadrupled. Oh, and yes, my site speed is faster, and WP Engine has helped me to identify some other issues I need to watch to keep speed up.
I’m a writer, not a techie, so I don’t really understand WP Engine’s “secret sauce”. But so far, so good – it’s rockin’ my site like never before.
Check it out: WP Engine
Disclosure: WP Engine did not ask me to do this story. But I am a client, and a member of their affiliate program — if you sign up through one of my links, I get a little spiff.
We’re in the New York Times today! 
Taking the road less traveled — makes for Lots Better Stories 
1959 time capsule house in New Zealand — never lived in! 
Become a fan
I had trouble getting to your site last night. No trouble this morning. Could be a problem on my end.
I believe there was some maintenance last night – due to some other provider issue. I’m telling you, this stuff is complex!
Congrats on the “New and Improved” RR, Pam! There just might be a pink bathroom out there somewhere which will owe its life to WP Engine.
Good to hear you’re so pleased with the new host. Although I haven’t ever had problems accessing the site, I don’t want to, not to mention you don’t need the headaches!
Coincidentally I’m researching just them, but when I look at your onload speed from The Hague, The Netherlands, being 22.91 seconds…, I really am curious how your site loade previously….
I just ran speed test – we use http://webpagetest.org. I loaded in 17.9 seconds. Slowing down my site are size of my images – something in my control — you can see the data right on webpagetest. Also, those ebay carousels on the homepage are slowing me down. When I don’t have the ebay carousels and am diligent about photo size, I can load in under 10 seconds — and even then, I have an image-heavy homepage. On google’s new pagespeed tool for developers just launched today (I believe) i run faster than 93% of other sites — i just ran the new test this morning. As far as my benchmarks — I have the “befores” somewhere, need to dig them up. I know I’m faster. Moreover, as I said in my post, an even bigger issue was that my site crashed often when I had traffic blips. Now, that seems to be a thing of the past and I made it through 4x traffic when my site was featured in the NYT. I am already a PR5 site — I was probably “okay” speed-wise with Google before — but I am always aiming for continuous improvement. So far so good.
I use the Firefox add on http://getfirebug.com/. Is very handy for coding your own site. I also mesured my site with web page test from Dulles….the outcome is very slow as well. Maybe it has to do with the infamous transatlantic latency…I also use many photos and a 5 full post grid for my blog in stead of abbreviation which could speed it up.
I am a long-time reader, but I don’t think I have ever commented. I just wanted to say you are as cute as a button! That picture of you is great!
Someday maybe I’ll send you some pics of our 1956 daylight ranch. Probably 15 years ago, I bought some great orange, brown and white wallpaper at an estate sale. About 5 years ago my hubby put it up in our kitchen nook. It has been one of best estate sale purchases to date. Everyone thought I was crazy back then, now they see the payoff!
Love the blog, glad I finally de-lurked!
Nancy
Why, thank you, Nancy! You have made my day. I do gotta admit: This photo has me rockin’ the 52. There were others where I did not look nearly so good, or so thin! Moreoever: Welcome out of lurking status. And YES, send me a pic of that nook. YES YES YES! retrorenovation [at] gmail [dot] com xoxo
Pam, I’m so excited to see the Forum back in action. I just noticed the link today, I check your site nearly everyday and thought perhaps it was a goner due to all the spam it had ‘injested’ not long ago. I may have to re-register as I’ve had problems posting comments here too.
Glad to be ‘back to normal’ now. Great to hear about the NYTimes.
You do not need to register. Read the instructions on the right hand side of the page. Please let me know if you have any issues!
You look good baby!! and I’m glad you’re happier in a faster blog land.