Need a website? This one’s for you.

Hey witches, I don’t usually do reviews, that’s not what I’m here for. But I wanted to give a quick shout out to my webhost Lyrical, for their outstanding customer service. They go above and beyond.

As you know, I was with Wix for the past two years. I didn’t love them, and my site wasn’t accessible for blind users, but the user interface was easy enough I could manage it on my own. It didn’t look professional (especially on mobile) and worse, it wasn’t secure enough to sell books through. There’s a surprising demand for signed paperbacks that I wanted to be able to meet, but it didn’t seem possible to do that safely with Wix.

So I decided to make the jump to WordPress, and my friend Diana from Our Blind Life pressured me pretty hard to give lyrical a go.

I was due for my yearly renewal. “Lyrical will save you money…”
Fine! I’ll give it a go.

I cried a lot, rebuilding the site from the ground up. Learning how to work through the back end of WordPress (which isn’t drag and drop like Wix). Figuring out themes, because that’s how you make your website look a certain way.

With Wix, after you set your initial layout, you’re stuck with it. (They warn you before you commit). With WordPress, you can change at any time. If you’re willing to put in the effort, that is.

Making the new website was hard. Traumatising, even. I’m not going to lie. Web design isn’t a skill I possess. But I’m stubborn as fuck, and sometimes that’s all you need. Where are my Taureans at?

Roadblocks popped up at every turn. Heck, sometimes there wasn’t even a turn. There was just pothole after fallen log. But Joseph at Lyrical Host was there. Every step of the way. For every stupid question. Every time.

Things I submitted tickets for include (but aren’t limited to):

• Theme doesn’t look like the demo did.
• How to change the big photo at the top?
• SSL encryption. Please make it go.
• I broke my website. Can you reset it to default?
• There’s a weird overlay on my title images.
• When I move my blog post over all the paragraph spacing disappears. Please assist.
• It’s still not working.
• How to make the pricing in Aussie Dollars?
• Products are showing either as giant, or vastly different sizes.
• My brain is bleeding.
• Why do the review fields have no text?
• Please help me claim pinterest.

Not once did anyone tell me I should just hire a damn web designer, though by rights they should’ve.

If you’re thinking about starting your own website, I can’t rate Lyrical Host higher. And yes, I did save money by changing over. Not only are Lyrical’s plans cheaper, but they allow me to pay in my local currency.

I even have this handy code, so you can get 10% off your first plan:

ourblindlifejoin31

If my low-level marketing skill didn’t completely sell you on Lyrical, here’s an interview with Jenny Brown from Lyrical by Diana at Our Blind Life. Diana is very passionate about her reviews and does a much better job than I could. (She reviews books too!)

Thank you, wonderful team at Lyrical Host, for all that you’ve done for me.