VPS.NET works with many of the largest WordPress sites -- we're very proud of it, and hosting sites like WooThemes.com and Yoast.com make coming into the office much easier. As a result, we've developed a unique method for transferring websites from your tradition shared wordpress hosting solutions, to a new WordPress VPS.

The first step towards getting started with the move is determining the platform to host your site on. Unless there is a significant detriment, such outdated software, or unreliable hosting, we typically suggest keeping the platform the same. This will prevent unnecessary path changes in the configuration of your wordpress site, or other stress inducing changes. With the vast majority of shared web hosting companies using cPanel to provide their platform, the migration can be fairly easy without many complications, as VPS.NET offers a turnkey cPanel VPS Hosting solution.

In the event that you'll be migrating to a new platform, whether it be a different control panel or a completely different operating system, we've come up with an outline of some of the key things you'll need to watch out for.

1. The path to the configuration file will likely change, resulting in an unusable site.
2. The MySQL database and/or usernames may be laid out differently, making it so your site cannot connect to the database server.
3. Different chmod settings; depending on the platform, you may need to set the read/write file attributes to a specific setting for it to work properly.

The second step is to upgrade your existing wordpress installation to the latest and greatest version. After the upgrade, make sure that all existing plugins have been upgraded, if necessary, and are still functioning properly. By confirming their functionality on the existing installation, will prevent potential unnecessary troubleshooting with your new hosting. If your install is already up to date, nice job, you can skip this step.

To keep things fresh and tidy, we're going to use a completely new installation on your new server. If you have something like Fanastico, Installatron or Softaculous installed on the server, you can use their one click installation tools. If not, you will need to manually install WordPress on the server. This can be done by downloading the latest installation at www.wordpress.org.

Next up, we'll need to download the content of your blog so we can restore it on your new server. To do that, simply login to your website using your favorite FTP program -- we typically recommend something like FileZilla, but with so many out there, it's really up to personal preference. You'll want to download the wp-content directory, and then robots.txt and .htaccess files, as these will also have site-specific customizations that you have made. Once you have downloaded them, you can login to the new server using your FTP program, and  instead of pointing the FTP program to ftp.yourdomain.com, you can point it to the IP address. Simply over write the existing files, from your new installation of wordpress and you'll be good to go.

Since we have the static content copied over, we'll also need to grab a backup of the database. Login to the PHPMyAdmin on your website, and choose to export your current wordpress database. While using the PHPMyAdmin export option, select ALL the tables, and choose to save as a file to your PC. Once the database has finished downloading to your local PC, we can now import it to your new server. Open up PHPMyAdmin on the new server, and choose the database you installed wordpress to. Once there, select the import option and choose the export that you downloaded to your PC from your old host.

Now that we have all your content copied over, we can change the name servers for your domain registrar. Most customers who are using VPS.NET will be able to use our Anycast DNS servers, allowing them to use dns1.vps.net and dns2.vps.net. If you have chose to setup your own name servers, you will need to use them to point to your web server.

Once you have confirmed that everything is functioning properly on your new WordPress VPS Server, you can cancel the account with your old web host. If you do run into any trouble with migrating your WordPress site to your new wordpress VPS with us, please do contact us -- we'd be happy to help!

To further touch upon last week’s article written about GPM (gross profit margins) and the two fundamental statements: balance sheet & profit (loss) statement, I wanted to further discuss the preparation of a businesses finances. There are two things to consider when starting a business or even managing a new business for that matter. Understanding how you are going to fund your business and when you can expect profits.

In order to understand how you are going to fund your business you better understand what your financing needs are in addition to the types of options that will be available to you. Money, or capital, not only helps your business get off the ground but keeps the business sustainable. Some options that exist for your business entail borrowing money, using business versus personal finances, and other eligible business assistance.

In my experience most young companies entertain the idea of either equity financing or debt financing. Equity financing is money that is raised by a company in exchange for a share of ownership. This is not limited to publically traded corporations but is a viable option for all facets of business. Obtaining equity allows a business to obtain funds without incurring debt, or simply put, without having to repay a specific amount of money at a particular time. Equity financing can come from a plethora of sources including friends, relatives, employees, customers, industry colleagues, or non-professional investors. The most common equity finance contributors are venture capitalists.

In contrast to equity financing, debt financing is borrowing money that must be repaid over a period of time, usually with interest. This debt can be short-term, which is fully repaid in under one year, or long-term, repayment is due in excess of one year. The difference between equity and debt is ownership. With debt financing the lender does not gain ownership interest in the business, and the return on investment is tied to interest payments. In general debt financing requires some collateral to guarantee the repayment of the loan and interest. If you are an LLC or private corporation the lender can ask for a personal guarantee in case of default in addition to the collateral placed against the loan. This tactic is used to mitigate lending risks as well as ensure the borrower has sufficient personal interest at stake towards making the business succeed.

After funding and sustaining your business operations the next question is always tied to making money. One key question I am often asked by startups is, “When will I start seeing profits?” The answer to this question lies in the breakeven analysis. This tool is used to determine when a business’s revenue will outpace its expenses, which is also known as, making a profit. In order to determine this extensive research should have been conducted on start up costs. Generally speaking this can be obtained from the business plan (if you do not have a business plan it would be beneficial to begin there). Knowing what your expenses are going to be will inform you of the sales revenue you need to cover those expenses. In addition to market demand this should help set a guideline for pricing of your products as well. For established businesses or business units, to calculate the breakeven point, identify all of your fixed and variable costs.

Fixed costs are typically referred to as overhead because they are needed to run the business but not attributed to sales volume. For example, rent, administrative salaries, telephone lines, and other non-sales volume related expenses are considered fixed costs. Variable costs are just the opposite and are tied directly with sales volume such as additional servers, increased bandwidth, and disk drives. Knowing your fixed and variable costs will help determine how many unit sales are needed and how much to sell them for to breakeven.

For example, if it costs $25 to create one virtual private server, and there are fixed costs of $1,000, the break-even point for selling the Virtual Private Servers would be 40.

(If the price of each server sold was $50), 1,000 (fixed cost) / (50 – 25) = 40 Virtual Private Servers.

Revenue = $50 x 40 units sold = $2,000 | Fixed Cost = $1,000 | Variable Cost = $25 per unit sold = 25 x 40 = $1,000 | Net Income = Revenue – Expenses or $2,000 - $1,000 - $1,000 = 0 [Break-even].

In the same analysis, selling 41 virtual private servers would be the point of profitability. 41 VPS x $50 = $2,050 - $1,000 – (25*41) = $2,050 - $2,025 = $25. Undercutting or underestimating your variable and fixed costs is only going to undermine the integrity of your analysis. Be sure to include realistic figures and be able to support how you derived these numbers. Many investors will pick this analysis and ask you how you plan to get to the number of units needed to break-even. If you have any questions please feel free to contact Doug@YIPFolio.com.

Doug C. is a Financial Analyst for a top 20 Fortune 500 Financial Services company and owner of YIPFolio Financial & Management Consulting Services. He specializes in Financial & Accounting services including balance sheet, P&L, fixed assets, and capital funding. He has spent several years in the Hosting and Technology industry while consulting management and senior management on all aspects from raising capital to managing daily cash flow. Doug received his BS in Finance from Fairfield University and resides in the Greater New York City area.

Rus, you’re the newest addition to VPS.NET team, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself?
Thanks for welcoming me. I've been in the internet industry for 15 years starting up when the wee-waaarhh dialup noise was the best way of getting online and spent the last 8 or so years working with virtualisation and cloud before it was called cloud. There has always been special place for technology in my life and I used to love being an early adopter, playing with the latest gadgets. Even now I like getting my hands dirty trying out new things and a good tinkering is one of my favorite ways to spend a few hours.

Outside the high life of running VPS.net. I'm a father to my daughter, a husband to my wife and a convenient source of food to 5 cats, 3 guinea pigs and a dog. I enjoy gaming with Skyrim taking up far too much of my free time. My new years resolution is to learn to play the piano which so far has got me unto playing 3 Blind Mice. Of course by Xmas 2012 I will have a top 40 chart hit

Your resume says you’ve got a bit of experience in hosting, want to talk about that?
Many years ago I started hosting using a bit of software called User Mode Linux which was a precursor to today's virtualisation platforms.  In that time I've seen resources go up, prices go down and technology just growing by leaps and bounds. The things that are being done with clouds now-a-days we couldn't even image a few years ago. Whatever the future holds its going to be an exciting time to be in the industry.

What kind of tricks have you got up your sleeve for VPS.NET and its customers?
Well we've got some lovely new HP Sans rolling out in Q1 as well as a few new funky products and offerings. I can't say too much currently as they are still under wraps but they are going to be fantastic offerings for the entire VPS.net and UK2 customer base. A little sneak preview however is that this year we are aiming for new locations with Europe being our first stop in the first 3 months of 2012. For the other 9 months well you will just have to wait and see.

Where do you think Cloud Hosting will go in the future? Is it a niche product or something that the mainstream is moving towards?
Cloud is going from a new thing to just the way things are done so soon cloud hosting will just become hosting as it becomes commoditised. The new big thing will be the way we interact with the internet. Most people consider their phones to be a device but if you
take that device, add on augmented reality, 4G connectivity you get the ability to have a virtual realm hooked into the real world. The ability to just look at a building using a smartphone and then it pulls up a full HUD of information isn't that far off. Taking things
being integrated even further with the screen being a contact lens, hooked up via a fast wireless connection to your smartphone opens up possibilities that we can only barley in visage today. Cloud will provide the infrastructure, while the smartphone will deliver the experience.