Theme Thrift has brought together products from a variety of talented WordPress theme and plugin developers and are having a 6 day sale with proceeds benefiting the victims of Hurricane Sandy. 100% of the earnings will go to The American Red Cross.

You’ll get 13 premium WordPress themes and plugins from some of the best in the WordPress business.

The price is… wait for it… whatever you can afford to pay!

They have different tiers of donation from $10 to $100, and like I mentioned before, the entire amount goes to The American Red Cross.

If you want more details about this awesome project and how you can receive amazing products and still walk away feeling like you’ve done something great today, check it out here. Remember, there are only six days left.

If you’re reading this from your inbox or a feed reader, click through and check out the fancy new site design. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here.

Even more exciting than our new site design, is our new pricing structure. I’ve been worried for a long time that our pricing is too high for the average WordPress user, so we’re introducing a new, lower priced plan that covers most of the basics that people worry about. Check out our “Starter” plan. For $25 a month you get all of the following:

• 24/7 Security monitoring from Sucuri and hacked site cleanups - If your site ever becomes infected with malware or viruses, we’ve got your back.
• Daily site backups of your database and all your files - We backup your database and files to remote servers at Amazon. If any part of your database or files get lost, we’ll be able to restore them in a hurry.
• Updates of WordPress, WordPress plugins, and WordPress themes - All of your software stays up to date which keeps things running smoothly and prevents security issues.
• WordPress video training – You get access to 17 professionally produced WordPress training videos that will walk you through all the aspects of using your WordPress site.

I figured those are the things that most people who use WordPress worry about, so I cut out as much overhead as possible, and got the price down to a competitive level that I think provides a great value. If this is the plan you’ve been waiting for, wait no longer. Sign up today.

Simplifying our Pricing

Click to see our pricing page

Following our old pricing table was probably kind of confusing, so I’ve cut out a lot of the fluff and reduced everything to the absolute basics. I also completely eliminated one of our plans to simplify things even more.

As you can see, I’ve widened the pricing gap a bit for the different support plans. Our “Specialized” plan is what was previously known as our “Blogger VIP plan.” Our “Business” plan has come down in price, but that’s due to less design and development time being offered. We found that most of our Business clients didn’t need a full four hours each month, so we decided to downgrade the plan and give them the option to add more time if they need it. Yay savings!

I really hope that everything is a lot more clear and easier to understand now.

These pricing changes will not have any impact on our current customers. If you have a current contract with us, we’ll honor that forever. The only exception would be if you want to change to a different plan. Even then, we’re happy to discuss discounts for already being loyal customers.

New Mission

I’ve wanted WP Site Care to have a purpose bigger than maintaining websites for a long time, and today is the day that’s finally going to happen.

As some of you know, I have a son with autism. It’s a disorder that now affects 1 in 88 children. I’m passionate about generating more awareness, doing more research, and developing therapies and support systems for children and adults with autism.

That’s why I’ve decided that 20% of every new customer signup will go to AustismSpeaks.

That means, for every Starter signup, $5 will be donated. For every Specialized signup, $19 will be donated. And for every Business signup, $59 will be donated.

It’s not a huge amount of money, but I’m really excited about posting a photo of the first check made out to Autism Speaks with your help. And then doing it again and again every month.

If you have any questions about our new pricing, our new site design, or our new mission, feel free to leave a comment or send us a note.

Thank you for all of your support thus far, and here’s to a great future!

In the book, three WordPress developers whom I look up to very much are interviewed about security best practices for WordPress. They give some great tips and commentary on keeping websites safe. The book even has a TL;DR in the back so you can get right to implementing great security practices on your site without reading the first 28 pages! Although, I’d highly recommend reading the first 28 pages, because that’s where I found this gem from WordPress developer Rachel Baker:

On Github
Follow @rachelbaker

I believe as a developer community we have to get better about setting expections. We sell WordPress as “easy” and it is easy to a point. In five minutes you can be up and running with a dynamic website with zero coding knowledge. There are a wide variety of pre-built themes and plugins, where with a few clicks, customizing that website is a matter of visiting an “options” page. The expectation is that everything is that simple. However, behind the WordPress dashboard are PHP, CSS, and JavaScript code files that connect to a MySQL database. To our clients and customers it’s complicated, and they don’t understand how WordPress works or the purpose of various files/folders. We are giving our clients fish, not teaching them how to fish or even what goes into fishing.

After reading that passage I actually broke into a really awkward dance involving the Dougie and an uncommon version of the Carlton. I’m not proud of what I did [Please stop searching YouTube]. But that doesn’t make what Rachel said any less important. It’s  vitally important.

I’ve worked with bloggers and small business owners of many different skill sets. Many hear about how great WordPress is go straight for the “one-click” installations. During the excitement people often forget that running software on a web server means that they are now responsible for protecting their content and ensuring everything keeps running smoothly. People aren’t familiar with servers, or code, or common security threats. They know their content is “online somewhere,” but don’t really know who’s watching over it or what their webhost is really like.

It’s a good idea to do some homework. Here are three quick things you can do right now to become a more responsible site owner:

1. Download the Locking Down WordPress eBook from Code Poet. I read the entire thing in about 15 minutes and I think I’m a pretty slow reader. If you see a tip that you’d like to implement and you’re not sure how, shoot us an email and we’ll get it setup for you:  support@wpsitecare.com.
2. Make a commitment to start learning more about how your WordPress site works. There are great resources all over the web to learn about WordPress. It doesn’t take long. Commit to 10-15 minutes per day. Check out Easy WP Guide, a guide for getting started with WordPress that has instructions that follow the flow of the WordPress dashboard. If you enjoy learning with videos, WP101 is a great resource. There’s a small fee for access to some of the videos, but it’s well worth it in my opinion. The videos are superb quality. If you’re one of our monthly site maintenance clients, access to all of those videos is included in your monthly fee.
3. Ask questions. It’s a fear that all of us have. We don’t want to sound dumb or uneducated, but that’s how we learn. Well, that and Google . Here’s a great list of WordPress folks on Twitter who can answer questions that you’ll surely have. You can also check out the WordPress forums.

Remember, this isn’t about becoming a code monkey or a developer yourself. That’s not why you started your blog or website (probably). This is about taking responsibility for your website, protecting your content, and keeping everyone who visits your website safe from internet parasites.

If you want help learning more about how your WordPress site works, just send us an email, hit us up on Twitter, or even leave a comment below. We’re happy to help.

Special thanks to Brad Williams  @williamsba and John Ford  @iamjohnford for their contributions to the Locking Down WordPress eBook. Also thanks to Andrew Norcross  @norcross for sharing Easy WP Guide.

Starting right now we’re giving everyone a free WordPress blog setup. This isn’t a “limited time offer” or a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” This is a service that we plan to offer for the long haul. If you’re interested, you can get started right away by clicking the grossly over-sized orange button. If you’d like to find out more about the service, read on.

Set Up my FREE WordPress Website >>

We’re offering this service for two very specific reasons.

1. We LOVE WordPress and want everyone to have it.
2. Webhosting companies gives us a bonus when we refer new customers to them.

You see, this isn’t exactly an act of charity We get paid a little cashola when we send you to buy hosting from one of our partners. They get a new customer (you), we get a commission (from them), and you get a new website(from us)!

What’s included?

The cool thing about this service is that we’re not going to collect the referral money and then go do a “one-click” install of WordPress. That takes literally less than 5 minutes, and if that’s all you need, we’ll show you how to do it.

• We install WordPress – We use the old school method of installing WordPress that requires creating databases and uploading files and all that fun jazz. The reason we do it that way, is to keep your site more secure. There are little details we take care of along the way that will really make your blog less vulnerable to hackers.
• We install plugins – We install a series of WordPress plugins. We include all of the following plugins by default:  Google Analytics for WordPress, WP101 (WordPress video training), W3 Total Cache, Image Widget, WP-DB Backup, WordPress SEO by Yoast, and Akismet. If there are any other plugins you’d like included in the blog setup, you can tell us about them when you sign up.
• We install themes – We’ll install the WordPress theme of your choice. We’ll only install free themes from the WordPress repository or premium themes that have been purchased directly from a reputable theme developer. There’s too much risk involved with installing themes from wherever online. Again, you can let us know the theme you’d like to use when you get started.
• We provide video training - With every free blog setup we include 17 professionally produced videos that will give you step-by-step instructions for using WordPress. The training videos are great for novice users and even people who have been using WordPress for a while. Even better, every time there’s a change in WordPress, the videos are automatically updated as well.
• We configure database backups for your site – We’d hate for anything bad to happen to your blog, so we schedule database backups to protect your posts, pages, menus, and other important settings. These backups don’t protect your photos and other files, only your database. You can check out one of our maintenance plans for better protection.
• We’ll add a logo to your site – Upload your blog or company logo to us and we’ll integrate it into your design free of charge.
• We provide free support – That’s right. For 30 days after your site setup, we’ll answer any questions you have about your new site. After that point, we’ll encourage people to sign up for one of our monthly maintenance plans for ongoing support.

That’s about as much free as we know how to do right now but we’ll keep brainstorming new ideas. Anyone need new shoes?

If you’d like to sign up now for your free WordPress blog, go sign up now. If you think this would be helpful to one (or many) of your friends, don’t be afraid to spread the word! We really appreciate it.

Set Up my FREE WordPress Website

PS: We haven’t forgotten about our free 6 month Blogger VIP memberships. We have to make sure the winners can claim their prize. Winners will be announced soon.

Thank You WordPress graphic designed by Brian Gardner.

I have to tell you that I’m so ridiculously excited to have you here and for the start of this new venture. I’ve been supporting and building websites in the WordPress community for about 3 years now, and I feel like my experience combined with a passion to continue learning and provide stellar service have finally reached a level that is going to allow WP Site Care do some pretty remarkable things.

For a long time I’ve noticed a disconnect among developers, business owners, online publishers, and webhosts. Clients who purchase websites immediately go back to the developer who built it only to get crickets. Webhosts get frustrated when an end-user submits a support ticket that may as well be written in Japanese (considering it’s not a Japanese support forum , and developers and designers want to focus on the creation of new projects, not the maintenance and upkeep of old ones.

That’s why I decided WP Site Care was a model that will benefit everyone involved. Think of it as a concierge service of sorts. We do everything we can to make technology an asset, not a barrier.

We understand developers

We’ve designed and developed enough websites to understand what developers are looking for in an ideal work environment. It’s hard enough to stay focused on active projects, let alone manage all of the inbound mail for “little tweaks” past clients want done.  We’re in the process of building some cool packages specifically for developers so stay tuned for that.

We understand technical support

We also have experience in the webhosting and customer support game. We understand that 90% of the time the hardest part of finding a resolution is identifying the specific issues. We’ve been doing this on a smaller scale for a while now and have found that because we’re able to identify and communicate the exact issues more quickly, we’re able to get problems fixed a whole lot faster.

We understand business owners and publishers

Having owned businesses previously, I know personally how frustrating it can be when technology gets in the way of a sales goal or completing a task. I’ve also been a blogger for a long time and understand the feeling of “all I want to do is write this stupid post. WORK WITH ME INTERNET!” Our solution is to take a proactive approach. Think of us as Jiffy Lube or eating a balanced diet. Working with us means you’re making an investment today to avoid catastrophic costs or issues down the road. We do our best to keep bad stuff from happening in the first place. Not only that, we’re invested in your goals and want to do whatever we can to make your website help you achieve them.

Education

The last thing I wanted to cover during this launch post is our dedication to keeping our users informed. Even though we take care of most of the dirty work, we still want all of you to have the resources you need to learn more about WordPress if you want to. That’s why we’ll be publishing weekly tutorials for some common and not-so-common tasks in WordPress. We’ll also be releasing a free video tutorials. If you’d like to receive those posts, or get details on promotions we’ll be running, you can put your email in the box at the bottom of this post.

Moving Ahead

We have a lot of really fun things planned and we couldn’t be more excited to get started. We want to establish ourselves as the company that listens, so if you ever have thoughts on how we can improve, tweet us or shoot us a message. If we end up adding your idea to our business, we’ll send you 50 bucks.

If you have any questions about what services we provide, you can check out our FAQ and Features pages.

FREE STUFF

Finally, what would a launch post be without something free? And why don’t we make it something awesome?

We’re going to give away 2 Six Month Blogger VIP packages!

Entering is simple. Just leave a comment on this post with your worst blog disaster. If you’ve never had a major blog problem (you’re lucky), just tell us why you need this subscription. We’ll leave entries open until Saturday night at midnight Mountain Time.

The two winners will be chosen and sent their free subscriptions on Monday.

Here’s to a very bright future for WP Site Care! Thanks for being with us from day one!