Did you miss me? When I posted Please Do Not Disturb last weekend, I had no idea that it would be the last post I would write for a while. Such are the joys of the web. You see, I’m in the middle of moving my sites from one host to another. The first site went ok, bar a couple of email problems that are almost ironed out. This site wasn’t due to be moved for a week.
So when I woke up on Saturday morning to find that the site was unavailable, I was flabbergasted. No one had warned me. Several emails later I worked it out. Two things happened. First, IXweb was moving datacenters and took everyone offline without warning. That accounted for Saturday. Second, my reseller is in the middle of dispute with them. That accounted for messages about the site being suspended. (That also happened to my other site, which didn’t make me happy at all. ) So through, no fault of my own, I was blogless.
Then, a stroke of luck. I speeded up the move to my new host and used the last backup to restore the blog. Unfortunately, that meant that the last two posts weren’t there, but I was able to restore those from Google’s cache. (Thanks, bigbrightbulb). I figured it was time to cut my losses and move on, so that’s what I’ve done.
So here we are. There are still a couple of things that don’t work (like the contact form), and if you left a comment on the previous two posts, it won’t show up. (I have a couple of ideas for sorting that out.) Twitter has been a lifeline, with lots of great advice from my Twitter friends. Thank you all, especially James Chartrand, who made a great suggestion about dealing with the loss of my other site.
I’ve still got a few fires to put out, but I’m glad to be back, and I’m looking forward to writing some more freelance writing posts. Has anything like this ever happened to you?
(And by the way, this is not an April Fool’s hoax). 
Article by Sharon Hurley Hall
Sharon Hurley Hall has been mentoring writers here at Get Paid To Write Online since 2005 to help them improve and build sustainable and successful writing careers. Check me out on sharonhh.com. Feel free to connect with me online on Google+.
Sharon has written 653 awesome articles for us at Get Paid to Write Online
Twitter: @SHurleyHall | Facebook | Google+ | Blog → Writing Portfolio
{ 12 comments }
Glad you’re back! I’ve had similar problems tranferring hosts, so I know how NOT fun it is!!!
Good to see you back, Sharon. I’ve joined Twitter too… just starting out.
Welcome back, Sharon. Sorry you went through a period of feeling like a transient!!!!
Welcome back! I was checking in with your progress when I (rather infrequently) logged onto Twitter over the weekend, and felt your pain.
Glad you finally got the migration under control.
Wow that must have been stressful. I’m so glad it all worked out for the most part!
Twitter: shurleyhall
April 1, 2008 at 14:00
Thanks, Amy, Yvonne, Dana, Chris. It was a stressful weekend, but I feel like I’ve regained some control. Still a lot of work to do, but I can handle that.
Yvonne, yes, I noticed you had joined Twitter. I’ve followed you, I think, and caught up on some of the notifications I missed when email was down.
Twitter: TXWriter
April 2, 2008 at 18:34
Welcome back Sharon!
Don’t worry – we all go through those busy periods. All is well…
Glad to see you back online, no longer blogless.
Good luck with the rest of the fires. May you not run out of sandy buckets.
Twitter: shurleyhall
April 3, 2008 at 17:37
Thanks, Laura, Tam. I’m relieved that it’s all over and I’ve got an exciting new challenge with my new site.
Sharon,
Please delete my previous comment–obviously submitted when I wasn’t thinking straight! Here’s what it should say:
Sorry to come in so late on this, but I’ve been buried in work lately! Glad to hear you’ve managed to get it all worked out!
Thanks!
Jeanne
Bit late in the day for this comment, but I’m so glad you’re back up Sharon.
Twitter: shurleyhall
April 29, 2008 at 06:57
Better late than never, Sue.