Wordpress and Email Deliverability

[EricWPM]

Hello,

Background - I'm a small marketing company for a few local businesses. We have about 30 WP sites (20 personal and 10 small business) Just basic WP sites with security login plugins and contact forms. We try to keep plugins to 10 or less on each WP site. The personal sites get very little use daily. The business websites get less than 100 visitors each per day.

We've always used Reseller Hosting to keep all the websites with separate logins. Been with 3 top rated and reviewed Reseller hosting companies according to Web Hosting Talk (which is how we found KH) The first 2 had downtime issues and our last company has been great but every 60-90 days we have problems with email deliverability. We somehow end up on a blacklist for verizon or att or gmail, etc. It's a simple request to remove the blacklist but it is annoying to deal with. They said since we are on shared hosting we are at the mercy of others who use the same IP?

So we are looking at KH to get the Managed VPS-2 with possibly moving to the VP-3 as we grow our customer base. Sorry for the long intro!

Hope none of these questions are silly. We have limited tech knowledge but do know how to install WP and use FTP.

My questions are:

1) A few of our customers email contracts back and forth and timing is critical. So when emails get returned because of blacklisting it causes a big deal of concern from our customers. I don't think our customers are causing the blacklist because it's just business related type of stuff and nothing related to spam.

Being on a VPS means that we are the only ones using that IP correct? So as long as our customers don't cause the blacklist... emails should normally get delivered? If we get a bad IP for the VPS that someone else abused before us would KH help us get rid of any balcklists for that IP? Do IPs get checked before they are assigned to a VPS?

2) Is there a way for us to monitor resource usage? 30 WP sites sound like a lot but only 10 get any traffic at all. How would we know when it's time to move up to the next level for a VP-3?

We also use a Call Tracking program to track phone numbers for our local businesses. Again they don't get many calls per day but we do plan on growing our customers. Again related to resource usage but is there a way to monitor or get email alerts if we are getting close to using too many resources?

3) Since we are only familiar with WHM/cPanel we will be looking at Softaculous and the WHM/cpanel options to the VPS-2. Does WHM come with cpanel? We are using 2 other reseller accounts. Can we request our domains to be moved via cpanel at different times or do they need to be moved all at once? We want to consolidate all of our domains to KH but would probably need to do a few domains at a time. Is there a charge for this?

4) We only host WP sites. Do all VPS packages get setup the same or should we note how we are using the VPS? Not sure if that makes a difference when setting up the VPS?

5) We create Facebook fan pages for our customers. FB requires a SSL to be used. We would like to have 2 SSL certs so we would need 2 extra IPs with just a basic SSL. We usually just buy the basic RapidSSL through Namecheap. Do you guys offer to install the SSL cert on each domain and how much would it cost?

6) I know that WHM and cpanel get updated from time to time. Is that something that gets updated automatically or do we request to have them updated?

Sorry for the long winded questions! Hopefully they can be short answers

Thanks,
Eric

 

[Dave G]

Hello EricWPM

I am just a KH customer it may be best to contact sales via email but I will try to help.

1) A few of our customers email contracts back and forth and timing is critical. So when emails get returned because of blacklisting it causes a big deal of concern from our customers. I don't think our customers are causing the blacklist because it's just business related type of stuff and nothing related to spam.

If they are doing rapid email's to accounts like Yahoo or MSN(Hot mail) or what ever there called may cause them to be black listed I had a customer just the other day who was email pictures from there where house from his I phone using HotMail and he was blacklisted by HotMail

Being on a VPS means that we are the only ones using that IP correct? So as long as our customers don't cause the blacklist... emails should normally get delivered? If we get a bad IP for the VPS that someone else abused before us would KH help us get rid of any balcklists for that IP? Do IPs get checked before they are assigned to a VPS?

Yes you are the only one on that IP. I can't answer the rest of the questions in this section email KH sales.

2) Is there a way for us to monitor resource usage? 30 WP sites sound like a lot but only 10 get any traffic at all. How would we know when it's time to move up to the next level for a VP-3?

To tell you the truth for the price difference I would start with the VP-3. At the top of your WHM is a Load Averages when it starts to clime up over 5.00 or higher and stay there contact support

We also use a Call Tracking program to track phone numbers for our local businesses. Again they don't get many calls per day but we do plan on growing our customers. Again related to resource usage but is there a way to monitor or get email alerts if we are getting close to using too many resources?

Can't help you with this as I don't under stand how you track phone calls through a web server?

3) Since we are only familiar with WHM/cPanel we will be looking at Softaculous and the WHM/cpanel options to the VPS-2. Does WHM come with cpanel? We are using 2 other reseller accounts. Can we request our domains to be moved via cpanel at different times or do they need to be moved all at once? We want to consolidate all of our domains to KH but would probably need to do a few domains at a time. Is there a charge for this?

Yes WHM comes with cPanel. I can't answer the rest of the questions but you, yourself will have the ability to bring accounts over one at a time.

4) We only host WP sites. Do all VPS packages get setup the same or should we note how we are using the VPS? Not sure if that makes a difference when setting up the VPS?

I would say they are all setup the same unless you request something special to be installed on setup again contact sales via email on this.

5) We create Facebook fan pages for our customers. FB requires a SSL to be used. We would like to have 2 SSL certs so we would need 2 extra IPs with just a basic SSL. We usually just buy the basic RapidSSL through Namecheap. Do you guys offer to install the SSL cert on each domain and how much would it cost?

From what I understand the new WHM/cPanel will allow you to run multiple web sites from one SSL cert as for installing a cert it not very hard and because you will have root access WHM will allow you to install certs your self.

6) I know that WHM and cpanel get updated from time to time. Is that something that gets updated automatically or do we request to have them updated?

You can update WHM/cPanel and other software yourself or set it up to do auto updating there are options in your WHM to set this up your self or contact support and they will do it for you.

I hope this helps.

 

[kitchin]

Ask tech support to tune your Mysql after 24-48 hours of live use. If you're not using most of your memory when under a peak load, it's not tuned ?? Correct me if I'm wrong, peeps.

One difference between Reseller and VPS is that hosts tend to leave things as they are on a VPS unless you ask. Don't know about KnownHost, but it's pretty common. On a Reseller, the host is more likely to be matching development with their shared hosting services. That said, a VPS is better. WHM with root access has about three times the features of WHM on a Reseller. Or three times the menu proliferation!

Another difference on some VPS's, including KH, is that your DNS nameservers are on your own domain name: ns1.___ and ns2.___, instead of your hosting company's. You will not be using ns1.knownhost.com.

KH tech support is very responsive, and that's what your paying for, versus an unmanaged VPS.

As far as resource monitoring goes, there is a control panel outside WHM for the container, and you can get real-live stats there. You can also log in by SSH and type "top" to get more detailed real-time tables. But to get nice historical charts, you probably want to install something else. It's a VPS so there is an incredible amount of stuff you can install from the Linux world. The only problem is figuring out what.

I've had the same experience as you going by recommendations at Web Hosting Talk. It's a mixed bag and if you read deeply and search for "circlejerk" or "circle jerk" you'll find some cynics. The blatantly bad hosts and fly-by-nights get bad reviews, and the highly rated hosts are always at least decent, but often could be better. You're looking at hosts that cost 1/3 what Rackspace costs, after all. And I don't even know if RS is that good. (WHT is where I have found my best hosts though, after I finally giving up on local companies in my area.) I consider a host with an open forum a almost a requirement. I don't care if there are problems as long as they are addressed.

<edit>Reseller accounts do have one advantage. If you think one account might get out of control and slow down your other sites, then you can get CloudLinux on a Reseller but not on a typical VPS. It's not that great though. You don't get any control over or reports on what gets squelched. It's all magic behind the scenes. The much hated BlueHost uses something else between shared accounts, BetterLinux, that does log throttling, for what it's worth.</edit>

 

[EricWPM]

Hi Dave G and Kitchin,

Hey thanks for your answers! I figured with it being the weekend and also a holiday that answers might be slow here Maybe it will be best for me to email sales directly. Thanks again for your helpful replies... KH is definitely looking like the right choice!

@DaveG Just FYI, for the call tracking program from what I understand it's a MySQL DB program that uses special tracking phone numbers that are recorded and forwarded to a business. So a customer calls a business, the phone call is routed through the program and tracked for time of call and length of conversation, as it is being forwarded to the original business phone number. This way a business still receives the call from a customer but we know what tracking phone number they used to call the business. It's helpful to track how effective certain types of advertising are.