Hosting is a separate service best provided by those that specialize in hosting.  I recommend Big Scoots hosting or Flywheel Hosting (affiliate link – see full disclosure here).

Background Information

A website is simply a series of files that a browser computes as an interactive site.  A “host” is the computer that your website files live on.  When someone visits your site, your domain name (www.site.com) says “go to this host and get those files!”

Obviously you don’t want your computer to be a host – can you imagine if your site went down every time your battery died?  Instead, we hire super computing companies to host our files.  This helps with speed of delivery and uptime (the amount of time your website is accessible to the world).

Popular hosing companies you may have heard of include: GoDaddy, BlueHost, BigScoots, WPEngine, Siteground, and Flywheel (to name a few).  You can absolutely choose one of these companies to go to on your own (though please let me give you my recommendations for which to choose!).

Why are there Limits?

Hosting plans often start for websites with up to 10,000 views a month and under 3GB in size. If you get more traffic or have a larger website, then we will choose a different plan to meet your needs.

Most TpT Seller Websites get traffic in the 5,000/month category.  If you get more THAT IS AWESOME!!!!  But that means that you need a slightly bigger plan to accommodate your traffic.

Another thing to note is do get email through your host! ([email protected]). When your site is down, your email is down.  I learned this the hard way.  Instead, pay $6/month for GSuite and have peace of mind forever.  I can help you set it up if need be.

I check all sites at a minimum weekly (more often daily). If there is an important update to prevent security issues, we will address those right away. I often wait a week or two before implementing major WordPress or theme updates so that all the bugs get ironed out first.

Maintenance is covering your basic security, updates, and backups – three of the most important things you can do for your online business! (I’ve seen sites lost with no backups and sites hacked – it’s not pretty!)

Most requests from clients fall into one of three categories:

• SITE EDITS
  A site edit question usually starts with something like “Can you add, can we adjust, can we implement, can we change…”
  
  
• CONSULTING
  I am so happy to share the things I have learned over the years! (And don’t forget the client portal has lots of tutorials!). Consulting questions start with things like “Can you recommend, can you look at this, what plugin could I use for….”
  
  
• TROUBLESHOOTING
  The other category of requests I get fall into the troubleshooting category. “This isn’t working, this is broken, this doesn’t appear right, this doesn’t do what it is supposed to do,..”

All Site Edits will be billed at your discounted hourly rate.

Consulting and Troubleshooting questions will be comped for the first 15 minutes each month and then billed at the discounted maintenance hourly rate.

Compare this to a lawn service you might have. The service comes twice a month and cuts your grass and clean up leaves. If you hire them to take out a bush or install new flowers, it will be billed. If you call them for a consult, they are going to answer your questions up to a point, but then you must pay for their expertise.

This plan is so we can continue to serve you as well as sustain the business going forward.

• Creation and formatting of images for your site.
• Creation and formatting of pages for your site.
• Creation and formatting of posts for your site.
• Changing design elements of your site including menus, links, sidebars, fonts, etc.
• Setting up and formatting email collection forms.
• Setting up and maintaining your email list.
• Setting up an e-commerce platform.
• Loading or formatting of e-commerce products.
• Interpretation of Google Analytics or Google Page Speed Insights
• SEO Optimization (recommendations can be made but work requires additional fee).

Every site is different with hosting, theme, and various plugins installed.

There is no way to predict how the 1000s of options available will interact.  There is no way to predict how a plugin developer’s update will conflict with another plugin or theme.

Examples of troubleshooting questions I get include:

• My fonts are missing.
• This picture is skewed.
• There is funny code at the top of my site.
• I am getting a 504 error when visiting my site.

Many times an issue is a quick fix, but other times the issue is complex and involves 3rd party support.  The maintenance package does not include fixing 3rd party problems. 

Maintenance includes 15 minutes of troubleshooting and consulting a month.  Edits and feature additions are not included.

Every site is different with hosting, theme, and various plugins installed.

When questions are asked, I am required to have knowledge or research options that will be compatible with your current website set up.

Examples of consulting questions I get include:

• An order came in but was dated 3 months ago. What happened?
• What is a good plugin for offering rewards?

Many times the question is a quick answer, but other times the issue is complex and involves significant research.  

Maintenance includes 15 minutes of troubleshooting and consulting a month.  Edits and feature additions are not included.

Due to the nature of the virtual service, once initial setup has been completed (usually within 3 business days of purchase), there will be no refunds or pro-rated refunds of services offered.

If you decide to discontinue services, I will make a backup of your site and give it to you.  In addition, if you are hosting with me, you will have 14 days after the contract expiration date to migrate your site.  After 14 days, your website will be deleted from our servers and access will no longer be available. I will continue to keep a backup of your site from the time the contract ends.  Should you wish to come back to my services, I can only guarantee information and updates up to the point of contract termination.

Yes you can, but the cost will be 10% higher.  This is to protect our time in setting up your website and keeping it maintained.  Should you decide to leave hosting and/or maintenance services, understand there will be no prorated refunds of any kind.  

The installation and setup is not free, but I have a developer license for the following plugins/themes which you may use under my license as long as you are doing maintenance with me.   *Note: Not all plugins have a developers license and you may need to purchase a license per site.

• Elementor Page Builder – a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) builder for easy building of fancy websites.
• Divi Theme or Divi Builder – a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) builder for easy building of fancy websites.
• Monarch social share – social share buttons for your website and posts.
• Bloom forms – create beautiful forms for collecting leads – integrates with most email marketing services.
• Divi Overlays – create lightbox mini-window popups for anything!  Click on an image and have contact forms popup.  Popup pricing.  The sky is the limit.
• Divi Bars – create a hello bar at the top or bottom of a website.
• I will also add a premium caching plugin (plugin chosen based on best practices at the time).

In addition I currently have access to special pricing to premium licenses to help your site with social shares, pixel implementation, and various WooCommerce features.

Yes I do!  See this page for more information.

You can read my general terms of use here.

You can read more about me here!  I have two successful TpT stores – one for music education resources and one for clipart.  I have formal education in both music education and technology.

Two TpT stores and a web developer business? No, of course not!  Just like you are looking for help, I have help too. I have a curriculum director for my TpT store and an admin assistant for my businesses.  I am actively looking to grow my team in all areas.  I am realistic with clients about wait times and what is involved in all projects.