September 18, 2012 19 Comments

Why I Switched to Synthesis for My Hosting of ChrisBrogan.com

Synthesis Managed WordPress Hosting

The other day, my website went down hard. I’d been hacked in a very big way. I contacted my web host at the time, and found that they could only help me as far as my server install. Being that Linux was working fine and that WordPress was at the application level, they couldn’t help beyond that. So, the very best customer service in the world was great, provided my problem was with my server.

To fix the problem of the hackers, I turned to my hero-in-my-pocket, Snipe. That got me most of the way fixed. Then, I had a little more help from the wizards at Sucuri (who everybody but me seems to already know about). That got me back on track.

But it wouldn’t have worked all the way through unless I moved onto Synthesis hosting (affiliate link), which is part of Copyblogger media. Derick Schaefer and his team at Synthesis got me the rest of the way there. Why? Because they live and breathe WordPress. This was the missing element from my prior hosts. They were the gods of server uptime and performance, but they stopped before the application level. I’m not saying that Synthesis is eager to get into the tweaking my WordPress business, but they most definitely exist to help WordPress sites thrive.

That’s what I’m working with Synthesis for [chrisbrogan.com]. You should give them a look-see for your own pursuits. I bet there’s some value there. Should you have a business priority site that you need up and alive and it runs on WordPress, I’d work with Synthesis.

Synthesis Managed WordPress Hosting

Note: many of my other smaller sites are still hosted by InMotion hosting, and I enjoy their service just as much.

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Genesis Framework

Genesis Theme Framework

The Genesis Framework empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Whether you're a novice or advanced developer, Genesis provides you with the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation that takes WordPress to places you never thought it could go.

With automatic theme updates and world-class support included, Genesis is the smart choice for your WordPress website or blog.

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  • OBVAVirtualAssistant

    That was sad to hear. I wonder how the
    hackers work. Now and again I do hear this and one of my relatives just faced
    the same problem and had registered the problem so some action can be taken
    against such hackers. Synthesis seems to be a saver will surely share the same
    information with others.

  • http://twitter.com/calgreg greg cryns

    Did
    Derick Schaefer call you or did you call him? I am a curious marketer.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      You could say I’m a friend of the Copyblogger family. Because I had some problems, the team as a whole reached out to me.

  • http://www.ricardobueno.com/ Ricardo Bueno

    Dude, the new website looks GREAT!

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Gracias, sir. : )

  • http://www.facebook.com/mikemerrill Mike D. Merrill

    Great company. My blog is on Synthesis as well. Great team over there.

    • http://www.facebook.com/mikemerrill Mike D. Merrill

      Oh and the website looks outstanding

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      Cool and thanks, Mike. Hope you’re doing well. Nice to see you here. : )

  • http://purchaseplr.com/ Jessica Kihara

    I had never even realized there were certain hosts that are better able to help with WordPress issues. Thanks for recommending Synthesis. I seriously do not want to lose any of my work, so I’m going to look into them.

    • http://chrisbrogan.com/ Chris Brogan

      They do a great job for me, that’s for sure. : )

  • tom@morethanpepper

    thanks for the tip for future host choice

  • http://twitter.com/SocialLoans Peter Renton

    I had just switched to Synthesis the day your post came out after reading about it from Darren at Problogger. The transition process was very smooth – just one small problem with the search function on my blog not working. But they fixed it immediately and since then it has been smooth sailing. I love having a host that really knows WordPress.

  • Patti

    I am considering Synthesis for a new site, but I am torn between them and a smaller hosting company (justhost or inmotion) because the site will be brand new and I am assuming it will take a bit of time for it to grow. The dreamer in me says to go with Synthesis first, because WHAT IF?!

    What are your thoughts?

  • donna jackson

    I got hacked too,via yahoo since these too accounts were liked to my social media and facebook,it took me a week to sort it out,and ill never get back ten years of content on yahoo.when they close down yr account because of hackers they dont keep your data,really awful week. In future I wont use yahoo while,travelling thats how they hack in. They sent a false google alert that someone was accessing my account.

    luckily my tumbler and other blogs are linked to my gmail. when i login on a different ipad or ip google sms me a verify code.

    hard lesson

  • donna jackson

    oh and Chris your new blog looks awesome :)

  • http://twitter.com/BCotlove Brian Cotlove

    Hi Chris,

    Just discovered your website and I love it. I wish I had discovered this post a month ago when I switched all my sites from 1and1 to A Small Orange (ASO). Although I love ASO for it’s pricing, the backend isn’t the greatest user experience in the world. Wondering if you could speak at all to the admin side of using Synthesis.

    Thanks in advance for your reply!
    - Brian

  • http://www.theworkingbee.com/ Michael Belk

    Chris, I am contemplating a premium theme like Genesis or Thesis, but I do not know enough about the SEO benefits or are they really worth the investment.

  • http://www.dragonblogger.com Justin Germino

    I am not using Genesis but switched to Synthesis Hosting 3 weeks ago and the performance is outstanding, my pageload times and load testing results have been amazing.

  • Z_Lauren_Z

    Another happy Synthesis user.

    Support is OUT FREAKIN’ STANDING.

    For those debating – if you run a few sites do what I did: moved my essential, cannot be down or hacked site to Synthesis and kept the others with my current host.

    If/when the others take off or if I decide to put more work into them I will move those as well.

    Cheers.