Most of you are aware we were down for most of Monday. The reason being, I was in the process of transferring the hosting of this site, the discussion forum, and the “This is How I Do It” workbook to my other Hosting account at Hostgator. I moved away from Bluehost.
I really have no idea what the cost difference is between the two, and frankly…it didn’t matter to me. I found several reasons to make the move:
1) The user interface of Hostgator CPanel looks like it is from 2010. The CPanel of BlueHost has a fuzzy look and appears to be from 2000. Sorry, just the way I feel.
2) With Bluehost, you have to mess with scripts all over the place for adding WP installs and upgrading. I like Hostgators Fantastico options for upgrading and downgrading.
3) I already had nearly 25 domains at Hostgator. Why pay for hosting twice?
So, What Process did I need to follow to transfer my hosting?
1) I contacted Hostgator directly. They quoted me $37 to transfer all 3 sites. That included moving the sites to my hosting, moving the discussion forum, moving the wordpress database stuff for the other two sites, etc.
2) I gave them a time for 10:00 AM EST to start the transfer. James had a doctor’s appointment in London that day, so I coordinated with him to transfer the DNS settings for the domain registry for theinfopreneur.net before he left that morning. So, essentially, the site went down…probably around 1AM on Monday night (because the DNS was pointing to a new hosting account, not yet established). By around 3 PM on Monday, Hostgator was finished with the transfer, and I was testing everything out. Looked good.
3) Now, I’m going to be working with James on transferring over the domain to my domain registrar (Namecheap), and then everything will be officially moved over where I can make quick and easy changes to everything.
It is really a simple process (to summarize):
Get Quote and open ticket from Hostgator. They migrate your sites. You change your DNS settings and you are done). I chose to change the DNS before the sites were migrated. Not ideal, but felt it was best to do it that way considering the circumstances.
Potential Pitfalls?
1) Your email account with your old hosting DOES NOT. So, immediately after I finished verifying the domains were properly pointing to the new host account, and things seemed to be saving properly, I created new email accounts with the SAME username, etc as was within the bluehost account.
2) I then, downloaded all the contacts to my PC from the bluehost email accounts, and then uploaded them to my email accounts with hostgator. That went flawlessly.
3) I can still access email at both hosts, but all new emails are going to the email account created at hostgator.
In hindsight, it was all a little scarier for me than it really was. I just thought, man…what if the wordpress files get corrupted, etc or something crazy like that. But, I just left it in the good hands of the folks at Hostgator and they did a great job.
Hopefully this post will be of assistance to any of you folks if you ever need to undertake such a task. It seems daunting, but for $37…I couldn’t pass it up. They bill on an hourly basis, and figured they would have 30 minutes of direct work involved. The backing up and redeployment did take longer (just due to the MASSIVE file size of all the images, posts, comments, etc).
Overall:
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
PS. I also figured out how to add the “Search this Site” capability in Thesis. Duh! It was just using the Widget and adding it to the sidebar. So, it is down on the right hand sidebar under the categories (Yes, the revised categories).
Hey Brandon,
Congratulation on moving yourself on Hostgator. I’m using hostgator from quit some time and it’s really awesome.
Thanks for sharing this great Review.
~Dev
Dev | Technshare´s last [type] ..How to Build a Great Brand for Your Blog
Extricate? Nah!
I like the detail. I’m going to move to my site to HostGator when the contract is due. Y0u made it sound so easy.
By the way, transfer won’t be complete without the “s” (check out the title).
Thanks B.
Gines´s last [type] ..Help Me with My HELP Section
Hey Gines,
You know what else…I believe if you setup a new account with Hostgator…they’ll transfer you for free. I’m pretty sure.
I guess they just like charging their current customers.
Nice. Hope it stays that way until next year.
Hey, don’t forget to update the permalink as well (if it matters).
Thanks B.
Gines´s last [type] ..Help Me with My HELP Section
Thanks for the reminder Gines.
I’m not sure what to do about the permalinks. Whether to keep them….or add the category (is that what you were referring to?)
Brandon
The permalink for this post is still:
…/06/tranfer-hosting…
Then again, this will break the links already sent out (tweets, shortened URL, to subscribers, etc). Unless you put in a redirection.
I think I’m complicating this one.
Up to you B.
Gines´s last [type] ..Help Me with My HELP Section
oh, yeah, got ya. Hmmm…you know..forget about it at this point. Thanks for letting me know.
Rule #23: Always double check the spelling of your titles.
Brandon
Sorry which titles u mean by ??
lol I missed that.
I believe B did as well.
The title of this post reads “Tranfer” instead of “Transfer”
Thanks for the heads up!
Brandon, I also moved of my sites to Hostgator after I was hacked twice on Godaddy in May. (I wrote about it on my blog, but CommentLuv doesn’t have that post as one of my 20 options…)
I did it a bit differently:
1. I told the readers of all my blogs that there would be no posts for a few days.
2. I had the domains transferred completely.
3. I changed the DNS settings.
4. I announced the change on my blogs, and on my Information Products blog I wrote a detailed post explaining why and how.
So far I’m happy with Hostgator. I hope we both made the right long-term decision.
John Soares´s last [type] ..Free Webinar Series on Creating Information Products
Hey John,
I never had hosting with Godaddy but I had some domains with them and hated them. They were so hard to work with and customer support was sad.
I just wanted to get the ugly part out of the way first. That’s how I eat my food also…save the best for last.
Brandon
I’ve been using HostGator for probably about 1.5 years and have never been down. I love the CPanel also.
Glad to get your vote of confidence in Hostgator. Godaddy got hacked again yesterday and today. I’m grateful I got outta there.
John Soares´s last [type] ..Donate-Tip Buttons on Your Site — Do They Work?
You’re kidding…that is absolutely insane. I’m glad I’m not in their camp either.
Isn’t it crazy all of the “housekeeping” things we have to do to keep our businesses afloat???
Crazy I tell ya’!
Congrats on the switch over. It is a scary thing, because you never know how it’s going to affect your files. Everything looks good!
I’ve been meaning to ask you about the forum. Who do you use to set that up and where would I go to implement one myself for a new blog? Thanks!
Hey Richard, the TIP forum is powered by VVBulletin and is a pretty well trusted discussion forum for folks. If you are familiar with your blog, you can probably handle the install of the forum.
Brandon
Brandon,
Thank you for the great review of our service and transfer department. We look forward to being your host for many years to come. Make sure you follow us on twitter @HostGator and if you ever need anything, we are here 24/7.
Josh Loe
Customer Service Manager
HostGator.Com
Hey Josh,
Not a problem. You guys did a great job and it’s cool to see you have a roving Social Media department as well.
Can you put a word in for me about getting a free year of hosting?
Brandon
Hey Brandon,
Glad everything went so well. This post really took the “scary” out of it for people who want to make a switch.
Jean Sarauer´s last [type] ..Celebrating Our Blogging Success
Hey Jean…Yeah…one call to Hostgator’s tech support and we were rolling.
Take care,
Brandon
Hey Thanks for sharing your experience with transferring to Hostgator.
It will be of real help if I decide to move hosts.
I have now heard from almost everyone that hostgator is the best webhost. Every blog I visit, mentions Hostgator!
-Nabeel
Your welcome Nabeel. It was a very easy experience….and you can see from another comment…even Hostgator came here and commented. That’s cool.
Thats great. I just moved my site to Hostgator as well. Since my site is still new and has a small database, I was able to get mine transferred for free. It went well only had some permission errors that the tech missed the first time around. They took care of the move faster than then their time they promised it would take. I wouldn’t recommend any other host right now…
element321´s last [type] ..14 Useful Articles for Bloggers, WordPress Users, and Social Media Users
Cool. Thanks for the feedback.
So, everyone out there on the fence about hosting…I guess you can see who to use right now?? Also, was good to confirm about the free option for some people transferring.
B
PS. This is comment #11,910. Who will get #12,000 ? Who wants it?
I actually moved Wassup from another host to BlueHost and I am thrilled with their hosting package, especially because they use CPU throttling. I have no problems at all with scripts but that’s probably because I’ve changed hosts on more than one occasion.
I must admit of all the hosts I’ve used BlueHost is the best.
Sire´s last [type] ..FlexSqueeze Latest Update Absolutely Rocks
Hey Sire,
thanks for the info. I’m not sure what CPU throttling is, but my website load time dropped from “70% of sites are faster than mine” to like “50% of sites are faster than mine” just by changing to Hostgator also.
Hey, you know what…as long as it is working for you, keep on going. That’s great.
One more thing…I see your last blog post…flexsqueeze latest update. Is this a new, as in new update? I just Bought Flexsqueeze like 3 months ago. I’ll have to check into that. But one thing I can tell you…I absolutely love FlexSqueeze compared to this Thesis theme as far as usuability. Flex is sweet.
Later,
Brandon
Yep, it’s the latest updates with even more features.
Sire@WassupBlog Rocks Your Socks´s last [type] ..I’m Not Getting Enough Sex What Can I Do?
Cool. Thanks for the heads up…will have to get the update.
Thanks.
Well.. This really making me to move to Hostager, since my current local hosting shows often downtime..
I even heard if cpanel & domain credentials are provided to them, they can transfer with no downtime !!
even this is the way i moved from my old hosting to the current hosting..
Anyways, Hostager is Best ever seems so !!
Hi Siddhu,
Don’t know if they are the best ever, but I’ve certainly had good experiences with them so far. thanks for stopping by.
Brandon
thx for explanation of process..
vijayraj @ methods2earn.com´s last [type] ..Hostgator Offers First Month Hosting for 1 Cent Almost Free
your welcome vijay.