Rocket Hosting – Super Fast WordPress Hosting that Looks Great!

Web hosting is a requirement for every site and blog on the internet today, but not all web hosting platforms are the same. Some are catered to extremely low-end hosting and cost just a few dollars per month, while other are catered specifically to big ecommerce sites that require super fast hosting and lots of storage space and immediate customer support.

Another huge component of web hosting, is knowing what type of platform you are going to power your site with, and how many sites you will be hosting through your preferred solution. This ultimately leads us to our next type of hosting, which is WordPress Hosting.

As WordPress continues to dominate the CMS space and power more sites than any other platform, the demand and need for WP-focused web hosting solutions continues to rise day after day.

And this is exactly what we are seeing with Rocket.net, a web hosting solution built for WordPress users, and created by hosting experts that have already been in the industry for several years now.

With so many different hosting solutions out there to choose from, today we are going to look at Rocket.net Hosting and see why they might be the right choice and best option for your site.

Rocket.net WordPress-Focused Web Hosting

Having been a website creator and owner for more than 20 years now, I can firsthand tell you that the process of choosing the right web hosting can be one of the most annoying and time-consuming processes out there. However, after the decision is made, you likely won’t need to log into your account that often, unless you are adding new sites.

With that being said, when you are choosing a new hosting solution, it’s important to go with a good one so you don’t need to change later on.

Rocket.net is a WordPress-focused hosting solution that has a completely customer user-interface that is extremely easy to use, while also looking quite awesome in comparison to other platforms.

The company was also founded by Ben, Aaron and Josip, whom all have extensive background in the world of web hosting and internet marketing. Through their previous work and experience in this space, they felt was time to create a hosting solution of their own… even with how competitive the market currently is.

And while the hosting market is extremely competitive, Rocket.net also already done a great job of standing out from the crowd, while also keeping their focus purely on WordPress sites and having solid goals and company standards in place.

You can learn more about the team and growth of the company, through the About page on their site.

Rocket.net Hosting and Features

When looking around for a new and reliable hosting solution, there are a few things you should be considering over others. As important as pricing might be to most site owners, the importance of data backups, immediate customer support and a hosting platform that is focused on WordPress, may quickly find their way at the front of your preference sheet.

In the case of Rocket.net, they have all of these areas covered, but they also don’t fall into the ‘few dollars per month’ hosting solutions — and nor should they.

Through the use of the advanced features offered by Rocket (include Free SSL Certificates, Website Firewalls, Full Page Caching, Automated Updates, 200+ Edge Locations and Automated Backups), they are already offering more than most of the competitors out there, while still also being quite competitive on their pricing.

Rocket.net Dashboard Member Area

Another key factor to consider when choosing your web hosting solution, is what the interface and backend looks like. Gone are the days (at least they should be) of logging into a premium hosting solution and seeing the ugly CPanel solution and trying to figure everything out.

Rocket.net has gone with a complete custom solution and interface that makes the process of adding domains, setting up new sites and complete site management super easy — while also being visually appealing.

You can see a screenshot of their member dashboard area below.

Let’s Start a New WordPress Site Using Rocket

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a website site, already have five blogs or even a network of 100+ sites… we’re likely always going to be adding new sites to our hosting at different times.

And with each individual host out there, the process is always the same for connecting a domain name to your hosting account and going live with a new WordPress account (depending on their platform).

While some hosting solutions might not offer WordPress installs at all, and others will offer one-click solutions, Rocket.net has a pretty fancy set up in place… which we will walk through right now.

1) Create New Site

First thing first, you will need to click on the “Create Site” button from your main dashboard area. Then you will be sent to the area shown below, which is where you can add your site name and geographic location.

2) WordPress Site Details

Since WordPress is the focus of Rocket.net hosting, you will likely be using WP with your new site.

To set this up, simply add your requested username, password, email address and language, and also if you would like to include Multi-site Support and WooCommerce.

3) Ready to Go Live!

Now it’s time to go live with your site. After filling out all of the previous content, you will be sent to the new dashboard area for your new domain and site. From here you can click on the “Get Started” button to proceed with the process.

After clicking the “Get Started” button, it’s now just a matter of adding and connecting your domain name to the Rocket.net hosting servers. This is a simple three-step process which the platform walks you through.

If this is your first time walking through the process of setting up a new domain and WordPress site, Rocket.net makes it extremely easy and fast. If you’ve already done this a million times with sites, you will also appreciate the process and breeze right through it.

Rocket.net WordPress Hosting Costs

As most of us already know, web hosting comes in many different shapes and sizes. And along with these shapes and sizes, comes a world of a difference in hosting costs as well.

For example, most shared hosting solutions that offer $5 a month hosting, also require you to pay 12, 24 or even 36 months in advance to secure those prices. That is fine, but if you aren’t looking to pay hundreds upfront, it might not be the best solution. It also might not be ideal, since they are going to stick thousands of shared sites on the same server as well.

Rocket.net has considered all of these factors and have come up with a premium pricing plan that not only fits the needs of site owners, businesses and brands, but also allows for competitive pricing in the process.

WordPress hosting plans start at $25 a month when billed annually, and go up to $166 per month if you need more then 25 sites to be hosted through their platform. As you will notice, the more sites you need, the higher the level of a hosting plan you will need to go with.

* Rocket.net hosting is currently running a launch promotion special where new customers will get their first month of hosting for just $1!

And of course, all Rocket.net WordPress plans come with the super-easy WP install process and Free SSL, CDN and WAF for all hosted sites. If you already have sites hosted elsewhere and would like to move them over to Rocket.net, they offer full migration services for this as well.

Rocket.net Premium Web Hosting Support 

Along with premium hosting being offered by Rocket.net, they also promise to have some of the best customer support options in the industry as well.

Through the use of their email/support tickets, publications and announcements through their blog, a user-friendly Knowledge Base and network status, they are doing a great job already. And if you visit the site or log into your account, you will also notice that have Live Chat options as well.

Rocket.net Hosting for WordPress Sites

The process of starting a new website or blog is always a fun one, no matter how many sites you might already have. But it might not be a fun process if you have a slow web hosting solution that is super aged and not offering the advanced features being highlighted in this Rocket.net hosting review.

In order to create a successful website or blog, you need to have a premium hosting solution that not only can offer services that grow with your site, but also make it an easy and enjoyable process to work with.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out what Rocket.net has to offer and see if they are the right hosting for your site.

The Beginner’s Guide to Creating Your First Website Wireframe

Before you build a website, you need to plan it out. That’s where a website wireframe comes into play. Read on to learn how you can build your first one.

If your website fails to provide a good user experience, visitors are going to leave. With the help of a good wireframe, though, you can overcome this issue.

If you’ve never heard of a wireframe up until now, you probably have no idea how this concept can even help you. This isn’t a problem, though, as wireframes aren’t difficult to understand.

Keep reading and you’ll learn everything you need to know to create your first website wireframe. Take in all the information provided and your website will provide such a good user experience, visitors will come back, time after time.

What is a Wire Frame?

Essentially a wireframe is a bare-bones representation of the design of a specific webpage. It allows you to figure out what information you’re going to display on a certain page. It also gives you a sense of the structure and layout you will need to use for the page.

You can then use all this information to decide on the presentation of the page and how people are going to interact with it.

To be fair, you don’t need complicated software to help you design a wireframe for your site. You can achieve a lot with just a pen and paper. As long as you get the fundamentals right, your wireframe will still be useful.

Once you’ve created a wireframe, you can send it off to your website designers. They can then bring your wireframe to life by creating website elements that match your design. If you work in a high-tech career such as web development, you may even be able to customize existing website themes to suit your wireframe.

Deciding on a Wireframe Design

There is no one size fits all standard with wireframes.

The design that is best will depend on the website you want to build. More specifically, it’s going to depend on the users, the kind of experience you want to provide and what you want users to do.

If you’re stuck for ideas, you can study some of your competitors.

If you take a look at some of the larger competitors, you’ll be able to develop a sense of what is best. Especially considering that they may have paid web design agencies a lot of money to decide on what does and doesn’t work.

You can even study websites outside of your industry. If you come across a website design that appeals to you, save it for later. This’ll let you study it and perhaps incorporate some of the elements you like into your own wireframe.

When creating the wireframe for the site, put some thought into the hierarchy of the pages. This isn’t a necessity, but it can help you decide on the way someone’s journey will ‘progress’ as they click through your site.

Things to Avoid When Creating a Wireframe

If you’ve never created a wireframe before it’s easy to make some simple mistakes. One common mistake is to overcomplicate the wireframe. You need to keep things as simple as possible.

Avoid using colors. Try to keep your wireframe grey scale. You could perhaps label what color certain sections are going to be. You could also have a separate document that details the colors of your brand.

You also need to ensure your website is easy to use on a mobile device. If you haven’t done so already, consider creating a wireframe for a mobile version of your site. You should not assume that the desktop version of your homepage is going to automatically be good for people on a mobile device.

Especially when you consider that people using a mobile device may have different needs than those who are browsing on a desktop device. You need to ensure that your website wireframe reflects the differences in needs.

If you have to, consider asking some people ahead of time, why they’d visit your website on a mobile device. For instance, suppose a lot of them say they do so to find contact information. You need to make sure your wireframe makes it easy for people to find out how they can get in touch.

Importance of Improving Your Wireframe Overtime

Once you decide on a wireframe, your decision does not need to be final. Sure, you don’t want to change your wireframe every month. But there’s nothing wrong with making some adjustments every six to twelve months.

In fact, if there are changes to the way your business works, you probably will need to make adjustments to your wireframe. This will make sure people are aware of the changes or that they can at least experience them.

When you do this you can even consider things like the font of your site. You should avoid going over the top with fonts.

Yes, you’ll want a font that represents your brand. But you need to make sure the font is easy to read and not quirky, for the sake of being quirky. Remember, you need to make sure you’re providing visitors with a good user experience.

Adjusting the wireframe can be difficult, so you might want to use some data to help you. Consider reviewing Google Analytics data. This’ll help you figure out how people are moving through your site. You can use this to guide wireframing decisions. Especially if there is a page that has a high bounce rate.

Do You Understand the Importance of a Website Wireframe?

If you want to design a website the right way, you need to go through several stages. One of those stages is the wireframing stage.

In this post, we’ve reviewed some of the things you need to consider when creating a website wireframe. You should first understand the purpose of a wireframe. You also want to review what you need to avoid doing.

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself when creating a wireframe. You don’t have to get things perfect. There’s always the option of reviewing your site and making changes later on down the line.

Interested in how you can rank videos on YouTube? Check out this blog post for some tips.

Web Hosting 101: WordPress Hosting vs. Regular Web Hosting

A strong and sustainable hosting platform is the first step to hosting a stable website. Business owners or professional bloggers who are looking to host their websites on WordPress should take a moment to analyze this question. When it comes to WordPress website, the prowess of WordPress Hosting plans is superior to regular web hosting. We are not belittling the power or features of other hosting types. However, in a discussion specific to WordPress CMS, a critical analysis of other hosting types becomes relevant.

The attempt of this article is therefore to understand different hosting types vis a vis the hosting needs so that you can make an informed decision.

When we talk about Regular Web Hosting, you will bump into the following options –

  • Shared Web Hosting
  • Dedicated Web Hosting
  • VPS (Virtual Private Servers)

Each of these platforms are powered by the hardware built and the software environment to host a WordPress website. However, there are other solutions that are custom built to the needs of their environments as well, one such example is WordPress WooCommerce hosting, which caters to site owners and brands that want to use WordPress, but also want to have an ecommerce interface as well.

As with all hosting platforms, there will be pros and cons to each. Let’s discuss some of the restrictions you might come across with each hosting option.

Shared Web Hosting

Price – $5 to $20 a month

A shared web hosting is the most popular hosting option out there. Most entry level websites are hosted on shared plans. Shared plans are affordable and the computing resources of the plan is enough to meet the needs of most entry level websites.

However, the problem arises when your website needs computing resources. For example, WordPress.Org recommends hosting WordPress website on hosting platform that supports:

  • PHP version 7 or higher,
  • MySQL version 5.6 or higher.
  • MarianDB version 10.0 or higher.

It may be possible to install WordPress on hosting with PHP 5.2.4+ and MySQL 5.0+ versions, but the WordPress team strongly recommends that you use more up-to-date versions to protect your WordPress website from security vulnerabilities.

On a shared environment, the end user (website owner/blogger) has no control over the software environment. The software infrastructure is tweaked to support various platforms equally- Joomla, Drupal, Magento, WordPress. All these are Content Managed Systems (CMS) and may seem similar on the surface.

However, each of these platforms have specific software dependencies and resource consumption. Since, WordPress is the most popular CMS, WordPress hosting plans are designed to serve and support websites that are developed on the platform.

Dedicated Hosting

Price- $50 to $1000 per month

A dedicated hosting environment will offer more control and power to a WordPress website. You can install the desired and the latest versions of PHP, MySQL and other software to support the WordPress theme, plugin and widgets of your website. The performance will not be an issue. But, there is a catch. Greater control translates to more responsibility.

For starters, you need to have a thorough understanding of the hardware and software components to run and operate a server. Moreover, if you lack technical expertise, you will have to hire a dedicated resource (experts in WordPress domain) who will be responsible for updating and maintaining the software/hardware of the physical servers.

In short, you will have to invest both time and money to host a website. At the same time, it is an utter waste of resources if all that you are looking is to host a WordPress website that has software dependency, but the criticality of the data is not as demanding to switch to dedicated server.

The dedicated web hosting option works well for Banking systems, Government agencies and hospital administration that carry classified data and information. It is not suitable for a WordPress website that displays art catalogs or a simple blog.

VPS (Virtual Private Servers)

Price- $30 to $70 per month

Virtual Private Server is a popular hosting platform that a majority of mid-sized enterprises rely on. More expensive than shared hosting but significantly cheaper than dedicated hosting, VPS is answer to a website that has –

  • Dynamic needs
  • High traffic
  • Advanced security requirements
  • Specific software dependency

Be it Managed or Self- Managed VPS hosting plans, the software environment can be customized to support your website. So, even though the computing resources and physical servers are shared, the VM (Virtual Machines) creates dedicated slots to run and operate a website independently.

Although the software environment of VPS can be set up to support a WordPress website, the system administrators running the VPS infrastructure may not necessarily be WordPress experts, and the platform may not have tailor-made features like Automated WordPress updates, etc.

WordPress Hosting

Price- $7 to $70 per month

Finally, let’s talk about WordPress hosting. As the name suggests, WordPress hosting plans are designed, customized and supported to host WordPress websites. The price of WordPress hosting can vary between $7 to $70 a month. This difference in price depends upon the backend hardware (shared or dedicated) that the service provider is using. Whether you want to opt for a reasonable or experience WordPress hosting plan depends upon the nature of your website and business.

However, WordPress hosting is very powerful and business owners or bloggers do not have to worry about the following things of their website-

  • Speed
  • Scalability
  • Daily Backup
  • Uptime Score
  • WordPress Updates

The WordPress hosting provider takes all the above aspects of the website carefully. Hosting providers offering WordPress hosting plan specialize in the domain. The reliability of the support is superior and your website receives the following advantages. This is something many large brands using WordPress consider before moving forward with their own sites. With brands like The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The NFL, Mashable and Perez Hilton all using WordPress to power their sites, it’s extremely important to have a reliable hosting solution in place to make sure their sites are up and running as fast as possible at all times.

  • Single Click Installation
  • Automatic WordPress updates, therefore the website is always secure
  • Access to various WordPress themes
  • Access to thousands of plugin libraries
  • Blazing fast page load as every aspect of the hosting environment is tweaked to support WordPress website
  • Built-in WordPress caching
  • WordPress-CLI Enabled (controlling WP from a command line)

Final Verdict on Web Hosting Solution

For a WordPress-based internet site, a WordPress hosting plan is a clear winner all the way. The platform will not limit the resources that you need for your website. Neither will your website suffer from a performance issue. Moreover, you will be able to host your information in the most secure environment with WordPress hosting. To learn more about how to create an authority WordPress blog, be sure to follow my 7 Day Blog Challenge step-by-step video series.