I quit

“I Quit”!
That’s what I whispered as I sat sobbing in front of my computer screen 2 days ago.
Has this ever happened to you? Go on, it can’t just be me…..

I’ll tell you in a moment what drove me to that decision but first let me tell you what happened next.

Once I admitted defeat I decided that the next step was to look for a job. I didn’t want this responsibility any more. Then I started visualising what it would be like to work for someone else instead of myself. Stress free! Well, maybe not. But then I’d get bored. I know I would. I’d start telling my employer how to run their business.
I’d miss my customers, they’re part of my life now. I couldn’t duck down to the beach when I wanted to. I couldn’t be in charge of my own destiny.

Drat. I can’t quit.

What happened (this could happen to you)

3 days ago, on Sunday (Australia time) we discovered that all our major money-making web sites had disappeared. This is scary but not usually permanent. The server that hosts our websites had crashed.

If this happens to you, simply contact your host via their help desk and let them know. They will take this very seriously and usually have it fixed quickly.

This is not what happened to us. Our web host did not take it seriously. In fact they seem to have disappeared as well. We emailed, sent tickets through their support desk, Skyped them (over the last 2 years I have had numerous Skype conversations with the owner Kenneth Fox) but no response.

So I rang them. Bad sign. Their phone is disconnected. Really bad sign.
More emails, and now twitter, facebook, Warrior Forum and eventually I started ringing every Kenneth Fox in the Chicago area.

No response.

Why worry?
Your web host is one of the most important relationships you will have in your web business. We have used Windy City Web Solutions for over 2 years now. Their service was incredible. I had never experienced such amazing service before so we transferred all our web sites to them. They got us out of so many problems over the years and you will find numerous articles on this blog raving about them.
Our business relationship grew so strong we became Joint Venture Partners and I referred our customers to him to buy a special hosting package called Wonderful Web Hosting. I knew my customers would be cared for.

But something changed a few months ago.

I don’t know what, but Kenneth seemed to disappear. I knew he had some illness in his family so cut him some slack. His staff started to get really sloppy and service started to drop. We started talking about changing hosts, but that’s not something you rush into. Wish we had.
I was worried he was really ill (or dead) but found out, just 2 days ago that he was active and online over at The Warrior Forum.
Man oh man, do I feel betrayed. He just stopped caring. We still haven’t heard from him or any of his staff. So we can just assume that we will never get our web sites back online.

Can you see why I wanted to quit?

So what happens now and how does it affect you?

Anger is such a waste of energy. I could go into victim mode and blame and rant and rave but how does that help?

Instead, I choose to concentrate on the things I CAN change and stay focused on my power. There’s no use looking back. Just decide on a clear path forward and start taking MASSIVE action.

We have no choice but to recreate our web sites from scratch. This is not a little task. If you are a gold member of Wonderful Web Women or Wonderful Web Seminars you know how incredibly big these sites are. There is a bucket-load of resources in there!

In each case we had backups but here is where we have learned some really, really tough lessons.

Did you know when you back-up a dynamic, data-base driven site the back-up files have things such as “click here to download your MP3 recording” but the actual MP3 file is not backed up? AHHHHH!!!!!

We have learned some tough lessons this week and have investigated how to prevent this happening again. To us and to you. We are refining a reliable, automated system of backing up all our websites so if a server dies, we just have to do a few steps to switch to a replicated site.

In about 2 weeks (I’ll let you know the date) I will host a special call just for gold members of Wonderful Web Women and Wonderful Web Seminars. On this call, myself and the incredible Charly Leetham who heads our tech team, will share with you the exact system we will be implementing and show you how to do the same in your business. My wish for you is that you never have to go through this.

Sites affected & when they will be available to you again

Wonderful Web Solutions: This one is already back up. It was quick to do because we had only just finished making it so had all the files on hand.

Wonderful Web Seminars: We expect everything to be ready for our gold members by Sunday. You are our top priority as I know many of you are in the process of planning launches. In the meantime, all the audios in the program are on your iriver players and the DVDs we sent you have heaps of content. Please email or call us if you have any questions on anything. We will help you.

Wonderful Web Women: We have started recreating this site already and expect to be able to provide great resources to our gold members next week. In the meantime, we are planning a special gold members’ only coaching call to share with you the risk-management system we have devised so this will never happen to you. If you are contributing an article chapter for our 3rd collaborative ebook, your chapter is due at the end of the month. I’ll send you more info a bit later. Read on to find out what ideas I have in mind for Wonderful Web Women.

Wonderful Web Hosting: If you have organised your hosting through Windy City via the Wonderful Web Hosting package, it seems as if your sites are ok. We also have sites that are on the same server as yours and they are still OK.

We’re not willing to risk it though and have started to transfer all our web sites on that server to a new host. We have chosen to go with Hostgator as we really want to work with a big business that is not as likely to go out of business. They also have a great reputation. I recommend you do the same.

Hostgator will do the transfer for you if you contact them. If you need any advice, please email me or ask questions here on the blog. Of course, you can transfer to any host you choose and most of them will do the transfer for you.

A beautiful, strong Phoenix arises from the ashes

Sometimes great opportunities come disguised as disasters. I had been thinking of making some dramatic changes to Wonderful Web Women but kept putting them in the too-hard basket. After all, if it’s not broken, why fix it? Now it IS broken so I am free to create my dream program from a blank canvas (mind you, with an incredible amount of products and resources to start with). What I have planned will let me provide even more ACTIONABLE help for you and will be even more valuable than before.

I’m actually quite excited by the prospect and I’d love you to have input into this beautiful Phoenix. So watch out in the next day or so. I will be sending you a short survey to find out what is in YOUR dream program. One lucky person will win a lifetime subscription to the new and improved Wonderful Web Women.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your wish list here. Why not share?

Also, any questions you have at all, please ask them here as I’m sure others will have the same questions too. Of course, you can always email us or connect with me on twitter or facebook.

Cheers

Janet