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Switching a site from Hostgator to Media Temple in a few easy steps

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, I made the decision to move some of my mission critical WordPress websites from Hostgator to (mt) Media Temple and so far I have had a very positive experience with the company.  The process of migrating a website was fairly simple because of an auto-migration feature offered by Media Temple where all I had to do was enter a few credentials for my FTP and WordPress logins and they took care of the rest.640px-network_switches

Specifically, I took the following steps (combination of instructions from Media Temple and my own precautions):

  1. Create a Local ‘Migration’ Folder
  2. Export All Posts from Current Site
  3. Make a Local Copy of wp-content file via FTP
  4. Export Database Backup
  5. Provide Media Temple with My Login Credentials
  6. Initiate Migration
  7. Repoint Nameservers

There were a few hiccups that I ran into along the way.

  • The first site I migrated did not look the same as the staging site when I moved it to Production.  This turned out to be a simple issue with the theme where I had not activated the default menu.  Once I did that, it was all good.
  • Replicating a .htaccess file redirect that I had in place with one of my sites still does not seem to be working

A Final Bonus

It is such a breath of fresh air to have a human to speak to when I need support.  Media Temple offers as one of their support functions the ability to call a support agent using Skype.  I was never on hold more than a couple of minutes and each time the person that helped me was knowledgeable and pointed me in the right direction.  This further reinforced my resolve that moving my mission critical sites to Media Temple was the right thing to do.

Becoming more efficient as a web designer

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For the past two years I have learned a lot about web design in general and WordPress web design in particular. I demystified HTML and CSS for myself by taking the self-paced courses at Code Academy and then applied what I learned to customize some simple sites.

Through trial and error and a lot of ‘googling’ late into the night, I have taught myself a good amount of web design and WordPress skills.

I learned about the core capabilities of the WordPress CMS by getting a simple hosting account and experimenting.  First by migrating my personal blog from WordPress.com to my own hosting and then offering to take on some family and friends as my first clients.

As I gained more confidence, and my commitment grew, I increased my level of investment beyond just owning a hosting account.

I am now at a place where I have no doubt that I can be an exceptional web designer and a WordPress expert. I know how to get unstuck when I don’t know what I am doing and I have a borderline obsession with figuring out how to make my ideas come to life on the web.

My biggest obstacle is not talent or access to information.

My biggest gap is process.

It takes me too long to go from concept to implementation because I don’t have an orderly approach to my work. At the end of the project I have always produced work that my clients really like but it is sometimes too painful to get to that point.

The “figure-it-out as I go approach” is what has helped me learn as much as I have until now but I think its time to inject a higher level of professionalism and control to my work.

Inspired by Chris Coyier’s exceptional talk below, I realized that what I am missing is my own web design workflow that I can repeat and use to build consistency into my outcomes.

So over the next few months, as I work on my current projects, I will document my best practices on this blog.  I know I still have a long way to go towards my goals as a designer, and I am excited because I know that this particular step is going to completely transform my ability to consistently repeat success.