Outages like this at Rackspace are felt across the web.  They host some major sites like TechCrunch.

All of our sites and client sites are hosted in the cloud because they are so reliable.  We’ve never had a traffic surge related issue or any other downtime. The only time the sites have been offline are when Rackspace goofed on the server power.

Literally, there was a power failure as a result of some sort of maintenance they were doing.  Again!  Unfortunately, when an entire part of the grid goes offline, you can’t just flip the power switch back on and have the sites instantly back.   All of the hardware needs to be manually rebooted, tested, and deployed in a certain order.  That’s how a 5 minute power failure turns into hours of downtime.

I’ll give the RS guys a pass on this one just because their service really is amazing.  And their tech support staff really are the best in the business.  They really seem to care about helping you as best they can.  That’s pretty hard to find in this business.

Plus, the General Manager just sent a nice note to all of the customers admitting they f-ed up big time.

We live by high standards and clearly have not lived up to them.  We welcome any feedback.  If you would like a call from me, or anyone on our senior team to discuss these issues personally, please reply with a phone number.

We have work to do to earn back your trust.  We will not rest until we have.

Thank you,

Emil Sayegh

General Manager, The Rackspace Cloud

I like that he says they screwed up, and need to work hard to earn my trust back.  It’s refreshing to deal with vendors that call it like it is.

Picking which site to use when you are just starting a blog can be difficult when you have never blogged before. At the end of the day, the most important criteria in the beginning is ease of use. You want to be able to focus on the real task at hand: posting blogs.

Rather than talking about every blog site under the sun, lets focus on the top 2 most used blog sites: Word Press and Blogger. I should start by saying I have used both of these platforms and would recommend both. However, there are some subtle differences that will help you decide between the two.

If you consider yourself a “computer rookie” (great at checking email and surfing the net), I would definitely recommend Blogger. This platform is very basic, easy to navigate and provides plenty of flexibility for the “rookie”. In addition, the themes, or format of the actual blog have a very useful right hand column. You have the ability to add 19 different “gadgets”. This system of gadgets make it simple to add pictures, videos, RSS feed, subscription links, news reels, blog lists, polls, video bars, html, java scrip, Ad sense, and more. This area is like your own personal billboard, allowing you to add creativity, personality, and potentially monetize affiliates.

If you consider yourself more technical, and understand words like html coding, themes, widgets, plug-ins, and domain hosting you will likely be happier with WordPress. Many of the “Professional” bloggers use Word Press. Many people want to follow in the footsteps of the “successful” bloggers, and that is okay, just be ready to do a little extra learning and troubleshooting. Word Press will provide more depth, flexibility, customization, and have an overall cleaner look.

With WordPress, you can have a free account hosted at WordPress.com.  In that regard, it is very similar to Blogger. However, your advertising opportunities are very limited on WordPress.com.  Also, your design options are somewhat restricted.

Luckily, (and more importantly) you can install a fully functioning version of  WordPress on your own server.  Millions of people choose this method to create their blog.  It allows you limitless publishing capabilites.

The catch.  You need to get a host.  But don’t worry, there’s plenty of them out there.  Here’s a list of the best blog hosts:

• Startlogic
• Bluehost
• Yahoo (25% off your first 3 months with this link)
• Godaddy (which is offering a limited offer of $1.99 a month!)

You really can’t go wrong with any of these hosts.  Each one is a little different in terms of what they offer and how much they charge.  It changes quite often so it is a hard to keep up with the current offers!  So check out each one and pick the one that you think works best for you.

Either way you go, both Blogger and Word Press will allow you to get started blogging in 5 minutes. If you have never created a blog a few words of advice:

1) Check out other blogs in your niche, write down what you like

2) Stop putting it off, create your blog

3) Once you have created your blog, write your first blog post ASAP

Blogging is a great way to express your personality, share business ideas, develop a branded online presence. Take advantage of this free medium and you’ll be surprised as just how fun and addicting blogging will become.

If you are thinking about hosting your blog with Word Press or Blogger, be sure to check out these two examples:

Word Press Blog: http://www.moneyballmarketing.com/

Blogger Blog: http://www.bkhorwitz.blogspot.com/

What stopping you? I know, sometimes it feels like what isn’t stopping you. Everything these days is driving your cost of doing business up.

Luckily, your website shouldn’t be something that weighs your business down. As a matter of fact, with a minimal investment, you could turn that old site of yours from an eyesore into a revenue generator.

How? Well, I’m going to share some more tips and advice, so bookmark this page. You’ll want it later!

First, let’s kill one of the biggest myths I hear all the time: “I don’t need a great site because I don’t sell my products/services online. So what does it matter?”

Besides being flat out wrong, what’s frustrating about that comment is the hint of laziness behind it. Most business owners know full well that they need to have a respectable website if they want to be taken seriously in the marketplace.

“It costs too much to have a good site.” Wrong.

This is what derails most well intentioned business owners. Admittedly, they aren’t that technically savvy, so they feel vulnerable to sleazy coders out there. To avoid that, they end up approaching huge site building firms for something that is fairly simple. Consequently, the price-tag ends up being prohibitively high. So, that “web idea” gets put back on the shelf again until next year.

The fact is, you can get great web development services, you just need to know where to look.

The first place I always recommend is people you know. Ask other business owners who made their sites, or if they know a developer they trust. Most will share the info with you as long as you aren’t a competitor in the same space as them. They’re often eager to tell you about their experience too.

In general, people love to tell their stories. It’s likely the person was in the same boat as you before, and found their way through the fog. So they are eager to tell people how they figured it all out. Plus, if they teamed up with a good developer, they will usually want to pass that developer’s information on.

Otherwise, a great place to look is a place like Rent-a-coder. RAC is a site where coders and clients meet up. In a nutshell, you create an account on RAC, and post some details on the “job” you want done. Be as detailed as you can about what you are ultimately trying to get done with your site. Set a budget or leave it open to the marketplace.

Then, just sit back and watch the bids start rolling in. You’ll easily get 6 to 12 bids or more on your specific job. For each bidder, you can see their profile, job history, and satisfaction rating. You can then discuss the details of the job at hand.

Once you’ve settled on a coder, your payment goes into escrow. The RAC site holds onto your money until the job is done to your satisfaction. Once it is complete, RAC will pay the coder with the escrowed funds.

You’re protected because all communication between you and the coder happens on the RAC website. So let’s say that the coder fails to meet a discussed deadline or deliverable. There will be a record of said details on the website. From there, a RAC arbitrator will decide who is entitled to the escrowed funds. So your money is safe, and you don’t have to worry about paying someone and never hearing from them again.

What’s the advantage?

The advantages of using a service like this include huge cost savings, speed, and peace of mind. You’ll be dealing with a coder one-on-one, many of which work for big developers and take on side projects like this. You’ll also save big bucks compared to big development shops. And the service protects your money to help you from being taken for a ride.

What if I don’t want to spend any money at all?

Believe it or not, there are things that you can do to make your site much better without spending any money at all. What are they? You’ll have to say tuned for part two! (Read Part 2)

Also, you can host more than one site. So maybe you’re just looking to start off one site, but down the line you may want to expand. Or, you could share hosting with a friend to make the cost even less!

There’s also a system preinstalled called Fantastico. It is a mega load of web applications that you can install with the click of a button. So if you are not especially confident when it comes to app installs, this does all the work for you.

They’re worth a look.