In my interview with Location Independent I said: “The hoops you have to jump through to prove to a foreign hosting company that you’re legitimate in Ghana…well, just imagine there are seven hoops and they’re on fire and they keep shifting them…”

I should have said banks, not hosts. My bad. Anyway, I live in West Africa. You have no idea what that does to your ability to access anything digital, financial, and web-related.

But guess what happened when I called Hostmonster in the US from outside my little house in northerm Ghana in the late afternoon to confirm I was, in fact, me so I could set up this WordPress blog?

I started third in the queue, 2 minutes I was second, and then I was first. That’s when, after stating my name and that I had just sent my application, the nice lady confirmed my application, done.

I now had a host for this web site. It cost me about US$2 to make that call and find a real, smart and helpful person on the other end. I now had a web host and functional site.

Next day I had a problem. Of course. I’m not a complete digital loser, but I’m not far from it. Ok, I’m better than I was, but it’s been a tough road.

Help

Lucky for me I discovered the “HELP” tab on the hostmonster control panel. I clicked. And that’s when I saw “Live chat help”. I didn’t believe it. You wouldn’t either if you tried doing anything online from where I live.

But, a window popped open and pure, delicious type started appearing on the other side. I explained my problem to a real person. At least I think they were real. If they’re not human, I don’t care, because every time this window pops open a real helper appears and answers my questions within five minutes. They have helped me fix my little WordPress problems countless times. Sometimes I call them and, guess again, I don’t wait.

Here is their help desk. Try it and see.

I honestly did not believe their claims about help. Maybe that’s what being in Ghana for 4 years does to you. Customer service is generally spoken in that Alien-ese here. I do believe, however, the Hostmonster’s is top-quality. It really is. Just now I had to ask another question and I have the answer.

I use WordPress and had plenty of headaches when I was hacked by someone who got my password through not very nice means. Hostmonster reloaded my back up and helped enormously when I thought I would have an extra-galactic meltdown.

Like I said, I don’t care if they’re human. I care that they get the job done, that they help and that I can access them.

Wanna know more? I wish I knew this 6 months ago. Anyway, for more, here you go:

Oh yeah, and if you do sign up and host with them you get loads of freebies like submitting your site to search engines which did more than a bit of good in increasing this new site’s searchability.

You can import WordPress in one buzzlebop click. Yes, that’s good by the way. Don’t worry about reading all that gop on WordPress’s site. Here, at Hostmonster, it’s your one-click import. I automatically upgrade WordPress with one click too.

There are free sitebuilding tools. You can test mail delivery services too. You can easily password protect important directories.

Take it from someone who knew nothing about WordPress in December 2009. They are worth it.

Find out about your best and most stress-free web hosting options here.

Help by LiminalMike