Drupal + Wordpress Hosting and Administration

Wordpress and Drupal are open source Content Management Systems (CMS). They are flexible, reliable, and let just about anybody edit or change a website. There are some parts of management that can be either confusing, or time consuming. Lots of people offer a service where they will setup a domain with Drupal or Wordpress for you and then help you with the more complicated bits. I've seen up front costs range from $500 to several thousand dollars. From that point on, the monthly fees vary from $100 to a several hundred. I provide a very similar service for much less.

For $150 initially, and $50 a month, I will do the following:

• Purchase a domain on your behalf and continue to renew it as long as you are with me
• Provide you with hosting on a open source server powered by Ubuntu and Cherokee. The server has the capability to support about 25,000 daily visitors per site
• Do all the initial setup to your specifications of either Drupal or Wordpress including consultation about your needs and what might suit you better
• Setup user accounts and permissions if you want multiple people to have access to the site
• Make any changes that you are either unwilling or unable to after the initial setup
• Keep your server up to date and secure
• Submit your website to popular search engines
• Setup your server with Google Analytics so that you can monitor your visitors and traffic
• Arrange for daily backups of the site's database
• Email services can also be provided (through Google Apps)

I can be reached by email or phone. I usually get emails within minutes and can fix most issues almost immediately after being notified. I accept payment by Paypal and personal checks.I am available for in depth consultation before you make the choice.

My service does not include the following

• Building a custom theme for your Drupal or Wordpress site (There are many excellent free themes, and I would be glad to show you where they are and experiment with some till we find one that you like. If you do decide that you need a custom theme, I can guide you on the path to getting a designer that will work with you)
• Moderating user comments if you choose to allow them on your site
• Hosting videos

The website you are on right now is based on Drupal, and is a very simple version of what you could have. You can post blog entries, have a forum, or embed a widget/service from a third party site (think twitter).

Both options have their ups and their downs, but in general:

• Wordpress is going to be better if you have multiple people who edit/submit to the site, and it's primarily focused on recurring entries (think changing specials or sales information)
• Drupal, while it does allow for a blog, is more focused on pages, with nested children, and can even be setup so that certain people will see more pages if they log in (think internal company bulletins for employees). You can grant managers the ability to change these pages, and only allow regular employees the ability to see and or comment on them. Drupal is harder to manage, but in the end offers much greater flexibility.

Interested? Use the Contact page to email me, or you can call me using the phone number on my resume. Here is a copy of my Hosting Agreement