The Great
This is a story about my website hosting migration. My summer started wonderfully. Due to planning ahead, I was able to take a 5-week road trip getaway, leaving my business running smoothly on its own. When I came back, I spent another two weeks on a meditation retreat.
By mid-July, I was happily getting back to business activities when I noticed that my hosting service was up for annual renewal. Calculating that it was going to be a pinch paying for that plus quarterly taxes, I thought I should look for a less expensive service. Finding an inexpensive one (based outside the U.S.) that was recommended by several different websites, including Forbes, I jumped!
The Bad
But that’s when the trouble started. I tried to start the website hosting migration process, but it wouldn’t work. Since the new hosting company didn’t have a call-in service, I had to ask their “chat” what to do. Their chat was a bot. It told me that I had to get a backup of my website and install it on their site.
Once it was installed, I was told that the database file wasn’t there. Consequently, I went through hours with the bot trying to install it. Then this new hosting service gave me the wrong codes for switching the nameservers with my domain company. Suddenly, my website was down, because of having the wrong nameservers. I tried to request changing the nameservers again, but in order to validate my request to change the nameservers, the company had to send me an email. No email came. I tried several times.
The Worse
Then I realized that because my business email was connected to the site, it was also down now. So I had to call that (email) company twice before I got someone who showed me how to change the validation to a text.
To make matters worse, it was my turn to be promoted by about 15 collaboration partners. I certainly hadn’t counted on it taking this long to switch hosting services (usually it takes one to two days). Since I didn’t know how long it would take to fix the problem, there was nothing else to do but cancel the promotion.
The Worst
I tried doing the website hosting migration again by changing the nameservers and this time it said that I had tried too many times and had to wait 7 days before trying again.
At this point, standing way back, I deliberately decided to remain calm and not get upset. I said to myself, “OK, I’m just not going to do any business for the next week and simply do what I might do if I were retired.” And so, I ended up spending several days enjoying working on a landscape painting.
After four days (out of their recommended seven), I thought I’d just try changing the nameservers again. This time I got a validation text and it worked. I was thrilled. I waited the standard 24 hours and – voila – my site was up! But when I looked at the pages, they had all lost their formatting. In yet another conversation, the bot finally connected me to someone in the chat who said the problem was my site’s theme. (This was a theme that I have had for over 10 years.)
The Better
That was when I decided to draw the line, fire the hosting service, and look for another one. This time I searched for a host in the U.S.– one that had call-in service. I found one who had those qualifications, plus they had an added “green” feature that resonated with my values. Hosting services use an enormous amount of electricity to host websites, and it’s a growing issue because it’s not sustainable. The new company said that for every unit of electricity they use, they put 3 times that amount back into the grid.
That was the clincher for me. Plus, they were still cheaper than my original hosting service. So I signed up and clicked the button to migrate. It worked and took only about an hour. I was able to change the nameservers easily. Then there were some other things that needed to be changed, and when I emailed them about it, they did it for me. The whole painless process took 2 days. My site was back up and looking correct. My email was back up and working. And my collaboration group rescheduled my promotion for the next week.
Lesson on Website Hosting Migration and in Life
This website hosting migration scenario could have been extremely stressful for me, but instead I choose to not let it get to me. Instead of getting mad or frustrated, I asked what the lesson was. I think it was to demonstrate to myself that I should just take things as they come, don’t react negatively, and remember that everything always works out in the end—and many times for the better. I hope my experience and lesson can help you the next time you experience a setback or disappointment. Don’t let it get to you – it’s not worth it. Find your joy and let things work themselves out.
(P.S. The sustainable hosting company is called GreenGeeks.com They also plant a tree for every website they host.)
