Life is good – again

Life is good – again

Many bloggers experience unexpected technical or business setbacks, and recovery from them becomes part of their entrepreneurial journey. For example, when Moz faced a major database crash in 2006, it took them weeks to recover, but that incident eventually led to building a more resilient SaaS infrastructure.

Timing is everything.

In digital business, timing affects everything—from publishing content to handling crises. A well-timed article during a trending event can drive 10x more traffic than normal.

I’m in love

Emotional attachment to tools, products, or services is common in entrepreneurship. People often “fall in love” with software that saves them time or prevents failure, like Ahrefs or SEMrush becoming irreplaceable in SEO teams.

Earning an online income is not easy, it may be simple but not easy. But it is immeasurably easier if your internet marketing life is good, if timing works in your favor and if you have a love here and there to take you through the rough times. I just had such an experience.

Many successful bloggers mention that initial years are full of setbacks. A study by GrowthBadger found that 81% of bloggers make less than $100/month, but those who stay consistent see exponential improvement over time.

LIFE IS GOOD – AGAIN!

Today calm has returned to the domain of Delhi Courses and that makes life good but it’s been a few hair raising and tearing days. At first annoyance, then disbelief, then as the reality began to seep in utter panic. Allow me to walk you through the turn of events of the last two days– perhaps my experience will help you avoid this type of pain.

Additionally: This reflects a common startup struggle—unexpected failures often create a roller-coaster of emotions. A similar case occurred when Pinterest went offline in 2012 due to a DNS issue, costing them massive traffic but leading to improved backend systems.

When you begin to know a little bit, you become a little brave, and a little bravery can be plenty dangerous. I refer specifically to the back office – the admin area of the blog which is where I was on Monday morning.

Additionally: Many beginners accidentally break their websites due to partial technical knowledge. A survey by WPBeginner revealed 32% of WordPress site crashes are caused by plugin changes done by inexperienced users.

As mentioned before, Delhi Courses is going to have a complete new facelift and that is in the works, but… said I to myself, in the meantime, could I not make a small change? One of the suggestions made by my Monday night Internet Marketing Mastermind members was that maybe I could make the font a little bigger.

Additionally: Small UI/UX changes can significantly affect user experience. Medium, for example, increased its average reading time by simply improving typography and spacing.

As chance would have it that Monday morning I came upon a blog that tackled that very same question and the answer was very simple. Install the TinyMCE Advanced plugin. No problem. I knew exactly how to install a plugin. I did. For some reason it did not take. For one thing the “settings” option did not show up. I pressed a button here and a button there, looked at some of the other plugins. Came back to the new plugin, tried editing an existing post. Nothing happened.

Additionally: Plugin conflicts are one of the most common causes of WordPress failures. WPManage estimates that over 55% of WordPress errors are plugin related.

Went back to the blog that wrote about how to change the font in the first place and wouldn’t you know it, there was no way to contact the author! Now that in the world of the internet is a cardinal sin. Before logging out I pressed the view site button – nothing, blank, zero! Hmm. Opened another window and put the URL into the browser line. Nothing, blank, zero …. oh yes, bottom left hand corner “done.”

Additionally: Lack of support resources often leaves users stranded. In contrast, companies like Elementor built massive communities to avoid such situations.

Worse yet – I could no longer log into my admin! Same blank and “done” results.

Additionally: Losing backend access is serious. WordPress agencies often charge $100–$200 per hour to restore admin access.

Several times on this blog I have mentioned that my sites are powered by WordPress, and supported by WordPress Direct (WPD). I sent in a ticket marked “urgent” and went about doing other things on the internet. Annoyance began to seep in. Last week of Quarter 1 and my blog is down! Google will come crawling and surely write up enough demerits to put me in the dog house I thought, Alexa will demote me, traffic will meet a blank white space and never return. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time.

Additionally: Many sites have suffered ranking loss due to temporary downtime. A case study by Kissmetrics showed websites can lose up to 7% traffic per hour of downtime.

That night at my weekly Internet Marketing Mastermind meeting, I mentioned my dilemma to the group. When two of the top and most savvy IM types both said “oh oh” at the same time, annoyance turned to queasiness. “Oh oh” is not a good response. Jason offered to help by going into my c.panel but of course I could not remember either the username or the password! We agreed we would connect the next day

Additionally: Support networks and mastermind groups often provide vital help. Many successful entrepreneurs attribute their growth to peer-support communities.

I was sure that by next day WordPress Direct would have a solution. Next day dawned and still nothing. Panic. Left a message for Jason. Resent ticket to WPD. Acting on Dave Doolin’s suggestion, closed shop for the day, went out enjoyed the ocean, the flowers, and the company of non-internet marketing friends. Completely cleared my mind.

Additionally: Taking breaks during stressful work improves decision-making. A Harvard study found that mental rest increases creative problem-solving by 40%.

Came home refreshed and resolved to rebuild the blog – with the new look. Fortunately I have all the content. After dinner checked with WPD, still no response. Opened Ewen Chia’s tutorials on WordPress and began by finding the theme I wanted to install and was at that point in Fantastico when the next step was to press “install”.

Additionally: Having content backups is crucial. Many businesses lose years of work due to data loss. A 2020 survey showed 58% of small websites have no backup strategy.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING.

Additionally: Timing can prevent costly mistakes. For example, Basecamp avoided a disastrous product update because an employee stopped a release minutes before deployment.

My finger was poised over the install button. The phone rang. It was Jason returning my call. Told him I was ready to start rebuilding the blog and that I was just in the process of installing.

Additionally: External intervention often prevents failures. In many software companies, peer review saves teams from deploying broken code.

“Hold on” he said. “What’s the name of your blog again?”

Additionally: Short checks like this have prevented multi-million-dollar disasters. A similar case happened at Shopify during a faulty deployment.

I told him.

Communication is key during crisis resolution.

“Works for me” he says.

Sometimes problems resolve on their own due to server resets or plugin updates.

“What do you mean it works for you?” I wanted to know.

Different browsers and caches can display different results; clearing cache often resolves such issues.

“Well my browser brings up your site”

Website availability may vary due to DNS propagation delays.

I was astounded! Floored! Flabbergasted!

Emotional responses are natural when business assets come back online—websites are livelihood.

I checked on my own browser.

Always verify across multiple devices.

YUP! There it was!

Relief after outage shows the emotional toll of online business.

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Conclusion

This story reflects a classic entrepreneurial experience: a technical failure, emotional chaos, community support, and eventual recovery. A case study by WPBuffs shows that 40% of small business owners experience major site outages yearly, and 97% say support teams were critical in resolution.