Server Meltdown

Thanks for visiting WorshipIdeas.com! We had so much traffic this week we nearly blew up Godaddy’s servers.

This has been a busy week here at WorshipIdeas.com. I sent the newsletter out Monday night and by Tuesday the website had vanished (of course this would happen after I had written the hugely clicked-upon article Why Your Church Isn’t Bigger… and all those clicks ended up on a blank page or a Godaddy “coming soon” placeholder.)

I received a call from Godaddy early Tuesday afternoon. The tech told me that the website had received so much traffic they had to shut it down. He told me he’d bring it back online.

A half hour later the same guy called to tell me it was still getting so much traffic they’d have to shut it down again.

I’ve been with Godaddy for the past decade on one of their shared hosting plans. This means they have one server (computer) that hosts a bunch of other websites as well as my own. WorshipIdeas.com has seen a spike in traffic over the past few months and when I get a lot of traffic that slows down the whole server and all the other websites.

I’ve spent many an hour with Godaddy’s tech support this past week. What I appreciate about them is there’s always someone to talk to when you need help – 24 hours a day (and I’m a night person.) I’ve really enjoyed Godaddy and to be honest, hate to leave them. Unfortunately they just don’t have any hosting plans that fit me – it’s either inexpensive hosting for the masses or expensive private servers that require a computer genius to manage.

So late in the week when I realized I’d have to leave Godaddy I did a search for WordPress hosting (WorshipIdeas.com operates with WordPress – a free, easy platform to manage a website that’s also great for churches.)

I narrowed down my choices to WPengine or Synthesis. I bought a plan at both – and whoever helped me get WorshipIdeas up and running first would win my business.

Neither company offers phone support like Godaddy so I had to submit a support ticket through email. Synthesis replied very quickly while WPengine took several hours. In fact, I had WorshipIdeas up and running at Synthesis before I even heard back from WPengine! I also found the Synthesis tutorials a bit easier to follow and understand than the ones from WPengine.

WorshipIdeas.com was set up on Synthesis within one day and went live Saturday afternoon. I can’t believe how zippy the website is now.

So thanks again for visiting. I think I’m ready for you now 🙂