Website

[Aldaron]

Well, it looks like the free ride is finally over, and I'm no longer going to have free web space.

So, now I'm trying to decide if it's worth paying for a website. I get an average of around 50 hits per day on my trip reports, so it's nice to know that people use them, but I don't ever get any feedback, so I don't know how useful they are for others. And now I can easily share my pictures with friends and family on Facebook.

I'm also wondering if there are other ways to publicly share my trip reports without paying for web space.

What do you think, should I pay for web space or not?

 

[IntrepidXJ]

You can always share your trip reports publicly on this website

 

[Aldaron]

Interesting idea. I just Googled two keywords from my last trip report I posted on here, and my trip report on here was the third result.

 

[Aldaron]

I just Googled 'backcountry deaths', and my website was number one on the results, and my post about it on here was number four.

 

[Dan]

how were you getting it for free? it's not that expensive to get your own site, fwiw.

 

[Nick]

What Randy said!

So this is probably way more of a response than you want, but it seems applicable, so here goes... Backcountrypost used to be my personal blog/website. I built it back in 2007 from scratch, no wordpress or anything. It was a total pain! So I posted up all my TR's and then let it rot for several years, never updating it. Then a few years back I discovered the whole forum concept and really got into posting trip reports again because people actually would see them and appreciate them and interact with me. Totally different than what I had experienced on my personal site and it motivated me to get out a lot more. I still didn't do anything with backcountrypost at that time, just kept posting them to the forum I was using.

As time went on, I became pretty disenchanted with how that particular site was operated so I decided I'd go back to the blog and just cross-post. So I redesigned my site from wordpress to make it easier to keep updated. Did that for a while before getting really unhappy with that other place and then decided to start the forum here on backcountrypost because I knew a handful of other people who were in the same boat.

Before the BCP community, I was religious about posting my trip reports on the blog. But since, I totally suck at it because I only really want to post them here where the interaction happens. Am I biased because I started this site? Absolutely. But I think it's still a pretty valid opinion considering my history. The BCP blog still gets a fair amount of traffic, part of why I still try and keep it up, but if you look at it right now, I'm only caught up on trip reports to April 2012 and I did that in July! http://backcountrypost.com/blog/

Ultimately, I think doing the personal site is awesome and well worth spending the $6 per month for hosting. But at the same time, I'm a bigger fan of the community aspect on sites like this and if I weren't running a site, I would probably just post on the forum, if I believed in what the forum was about. Cross-posting your posts like IntrepidXJ, Udink, Bill, lostlandscapes and others do is a good way to have the best of both worlds, assuming you have the time, energy and money to keep it up. It's also pretty much copy and paste to cross-post depending on how your personal site is built.

And last... We'll be launching a new feature of BCP soon called the Backcountrypost Member Network that may be of interest to you. Short explanation; we'll have a section here at BCP with a listing of member-run outdoors sites/blogs for people to go check out and those sites will display a little mini-banner on their site linking back to BCP. The interlinking is great for everyone's SEO and I'm pretty sure people perusing backcountrypost would benefit from a 'directory' of similar outdoors sites to check out. lostlandscapes was our test site for the new system, check it out at www.timothypluta.com. Notice the tiny BCP Member Network logo in the bottom right hand corner of his site.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Cross-posting your posts like IntrepidXJ, Udink, Bill, lostlandscapes and others do is a good way to have the best of both worlds, assuming you have the time, energy and money to keep it up. It's also pretty much copy and paste to cross-post depending on how your personal site is built.

Keeping my personal website updated is important to me, but I also like the interaction on forums with the trip reports, so I did setup my blog so that I can write my trip report up there and then easily cross-post it to other forums. Once it's written up on my site it takes almost no time at all to copy/paste it to a few others.

 

[Aldaron]

Those are great points.

Dan Ransom , I had free web space because I have a friend with his own computer company, and I just used his web server. But now the company is being sold, so it looks like I won't be able to convince the new people to let me use their server! And, yeah, the hosting isn't terribly expensive, but I just want to be sure it's worth it before I commit.

nick, you make some great points. I recently added Disqus comments to my new reports to see what happened with that. So far, nothing.

And I have pretty much been cross-posting here and my site...and FB, also. And that's what's got me re-thinking everything. For starters, it's like triple the work (or so) to do that. Secondly, the program I'm using to post my pictures on my site is pretty outdated, and it's not at all easy to cross-post. Of course, the text of the report itself is easy to cross-post, but putting it all up on the website is terribly time consuming. Like you, Nick, I get behind in posting to the website, and then I literally end up spending an entire weekend trying to get caught up...and that's usually after only being about four or five reports behind.

I would like to figure out a better way to post them on my own site, but I just counted, and I have 284 trip reports posted. Of course, the older ones are less trip reports and more just pictures, but I still don't know what I would do with them if I switch to a better platform.

Like IntrepidXJ, I would prefer to have my own site, as well as cross-posting here. I enjoy the interaction with the reports that I get here, but I also want to be sure I always have quick and easy access to them and I can easily tell others where to find them. So, how can I streamline the process? What's a good method for posting reports on my own site (because the one I use now sucks), and what should I do with my current trip reports if I switch to something else?

Thanks for the input, everyone!

 

[Nick]

What are you using for a backend now? I think wordpress is the way to go for a personal site. It's always up to date and has the most options as far as styling and plug-in functionality. Hell, I do websites for a living and every one of the commercial sites I run are wordpress-based. It's powerful stuff.

 

[Aldaron]

I taught myself HTML before it had a version number after it. Which explains why my site is so basic. I'm using a Mac program called Shutterbug to post my reports and pictures.

 

[Nick]

Yikes.. it's gonna be a lot of work, but if I were in your shoes, I would start a wordpress site and start migrating all of it into it. With as much content as you have, it would almost be a shame to not put it into a more functional (and prettier) package that can last for years and years. It's pretty easy to start the wordpress site in a sub-directory, get it all developed and perfect and then make a few mods to have the root load off the sub-directory. I'd be happy to help in any way if I can as I have quite a bit of experience in moving/maintaining wordpress systems. Ask Tim, I like to help.

 

[Aldaron]

I don't mind the work...in fact, the obsession can be nice for awhile!

Okay, I'm convinced...let me go incur some credit card charges...

And then I have to get caught up on my TRs on here...

 

[Aldaron]

Now I've just got to decide on a host. I've been agonizing for 2 hours over $2 per month...I'm probably stupid.

 

[Nick]

Who are you debating between? I have experience with many hosts and some strong opinions...

 

[Aldaron]

Well, I see good reviews on webhostinghub.com, but their price is $9/month after the first three years, and that's expensive compared to others. webhostingpad.com is cheap, but I'm afraid you get what you pay for. ipage.com seems like a happy compromise in price, but they have lower reviews, and I'm not sure they have all the comparable features.

 

[Nick]

hmm.. I've never even heard of those, must be somewhat new as I did a ton of research on places just a couple years ago. Anyway, I've dealt with quite a few places. I run BCP through LiquidWeb but they're not really a great option for a small personal site. I do a VPS through the so it's about 12x more expensive than regular shared hosting.

I'd check out Bluehost if I were you. They're local, been around forever and have a very clean, accessible control panel with everything you need in an intuitive interface, something that is very rare in the web hosting market. Several of my work sites are hosted on them and it's 10x better then the ones that are hosted at Dreamhost, XMission, Fluid, etc. The kinda screwed me over once several years back with BCP because I was storing files but I guess I was technically breaking their rules. Honestly, as much as they pissed me off, it says a lot that I'm now recommending them over everyone else I've tried/looked into...

 

[Aldaron]

Here's one site I was using for reviews: http://webhostinggeeks.com/

Bluehost is in their top 10, but at number 9.

 

[Nick]

Keep in mind, almost all of those review sites are either run by hosting sites or by people getting paid by hosting sites. There is a LOT of static in the hosting market, hard to get through it all. If you want to really get a good host, get one that doesn't offer unlimited everything and charges you an extra $3 per month. In my experience, they'll generally provide you with a much better product. Just sayin'...

 

[Aldaron]

Yeah, I was sensitive to all the static, but you're right, it's hard to wade through it all. I think it's time for bed.

 

[Dan]

i used to host my site on godaddy - changed to bluehost after the SOPA fiasco. been with bluehost the last couple months, definitely stoked on their stuff. i've done a couple sites through them now.