Unable to Upload Media in Managed WordPress Hosting

You’ve been trying to upload media to your blog, and inexplicably, it won’t go through. You check the upload path, and it seems correct. You even double and triple check all the file details. Perhaps you’ve followed all the right procedures, and yet, the file just won’t upload. Don’t worry; you aren’t alone. This is a fairly common problem that newcomers to WordPress face.

It’s important to note here that not all managed WordPress hosting providers are created equal. Some providers make it easy for you to upload and publish content, while others make it nearly impossible. Below, you’ll discover the details you need to know about uploading and publishing media to your blog on a managed WordPress hosting plan.

Why Should You Care About Uploading Media In Managed WordPress Hosting?

The short answer is that you should care about this because it can be a pain to manually upload media to a server when it isn’t working the way it should. If you’ve ever tried to upload a large file to a web host and experienced a catastrophic failure, then you know what I mean. It’s frustrating to see all that work go to waste because of a host failure. This is why you should care about uploading media in managed WordPress hosting: it can save you both time and resources if it goes smoothly.

Manual media uploads are an obvious pain point. Not only do you have to complete an upload form for each file, but you have to make sure that the file gets uploaded to the correct location on the server. This can be tricky, especially if you’re doing it remotely, and it’s incredibly error-prone. Luckily, there are automated tools like ImagePress that can greatly simplify this process for you. Using these tools involves very little effort on your part; all you have to do is upload your files, and wait a couple of minutes until ImagePress does the rest. You’ll discover multiple benefits to using automated tools like this, so it’s worth the minimal effort.

How Easy Is It To Upload Media In Managed WordPress Hosting?

This is the other part that matters most, and it has to do with how easy it is to upload media in managed WordPress hosting. Let’s take a look at the various tools and features that can make this process simpler and more enjoyable.

The first thing you should expect is that your hosting provider should make uploading content as simple as possible. Some web hosts will even provide you with a one-click-upload button that makes it simple to add media to your site. If they don’t provide this button, then they don’t deserve your business, because it’s very easy to create one yourself. You should also look for a hosting provider that offers a multiple-file-upload capability, so it’s easy for you to add more than one item to your media library at a time. This makes a massive difference; trying to upload a large document or image and doing it one piece at a time is extremely inconvenient, and it’s easy for errors to happen. Having the ability to add several images or documents at once greatly reduces the possibility of errors and the overall time required to upload content.

Another key feature to look for in a managed WordPress hosting provider is the ability to recover from errors. It would be a great relief to discover that your host was able to automatically recover from any errors that occurred during the upload process, and bring your content back online. This should be a given, but many providers skimp out on this feature, so make sure you ask about it explicitly. It’s also worth looking at how frequently the host upgrades its software, because frequent upgrades can greatly reduce the amount of error messages you’ll see during the upload process. Finally, make sure you try out the support chat, because while it might be easy to get in touch with a human being via phone, email, or live chat, you’ll discover that many hosts don’t provide this option, which can be frustrating if you need assistance during the upload process.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of actually uploading content to your blog on a managed WordPress hosting plan. We’ll use the WP E-Commerce plugin to create a store that sells jewelry, and the Hello Fresh WordPress plugin to create a blog post about dinner plans, for the purposes of this example. You’ll discover how easy it is to use these two plugins together to create a quick e-commerce store or blog in the next section.

Create A Store Using The WP E-Commerce Plugin

To get started, you’ll first need to install and activate the WP E-Commerce plugin. This plugin automates the process of setting up an e-commerce store inside of a WordPress installation. Once installed, you can navigate to Settings → WooCommerce in your WordPress administration area and take a look at the settings. In most cases, you won’t need to touch these settings; the plugin does the heavy lifting for you and takes care of installing and configuring all the necessary software and websites to make it work. There are several different plans available, so you can choose the one that suits your needs best. Bear in mind that some plans may require additional fees, so it’s worth looking into what’s included in the package before purchasing.

Set Up The Blog Post Using The Hello Fresh WordPress Plugin

Now that you have a store set up, it’s time to configure the blog post that you’ll use to promote the store. The Hello Fresh WordPress plugin simplifies the process of setting up a blog post, and it can even pull blog content directly from your e-commerce store, so you don’t have to manually enter all the blog post content. This can be a great time-saver when using this plugin, so make sure you take advantage of it whenever possible.

We’ll use a combination of the WP E-Commerce plugin and the Hello Fresh WordPress plugin, along with a couple of Chrome extensions, to create a blog post about the importance of vitamin C in human health. First, you’ll want to install and activate the Hello Fresh WordPress plugin. Then, from the WordPress admin area, navigate to the Chrome webstore and search for the WP E-Commerce plugin. Installing both of these plugins will create a pop-up button that you can click on in the WordPress admin area, which will launch a Chrome window with all the necessary plug-ins installed on your blog. You’ll see a box at the bottom of the Chrome window with the URL of your newly-created blog post, which you can click on to continue to the next step.

Configure The Blog Post

Once installed, it’s time to configure the blog post you created. The first thing you’ll want to do is login to your WordPress admin area and click on the Dashboard menu item to bring up the blog’s admin area. From here, you can configure general blog settings like the site’s name, design, and color scheme. Then, from the Tools menu, click on the WP E-Commerce menu to access the plugin’s settings. Here, you can configure which payment methods the blog accepts, whether or not to include comments in the blog posts, and what type of content to include in the posts (i.e. news articles, recipes, product reviews, etc.).

Now, let’s take a look at what each of these settings means. The first setting is the site’s name. This will show up in the address bar of your browser once you’re on the blog’s homepage, so make sure you use something that’s easily recognizable. As for the design of your site, you have a couple of options here. You can choose to have the blog use the same design as your e-commerce store, or you can create a new design for the blog that’s completely different from your e-commerce store. If you go with the first option, then you won’t need to make any further adjustments to the blog’s settings. However, if you choose the second option, and click on the Save button at the bottom of the WP E-Commerce settings, then you’ll have to adjust the blog’s settings manually in order to achieve the desired look and feel. Keep in mind that unless you have a good understanding of HTML and CSS, then there’s a good chance you’ll end up needing help from a web developer to achieve the desired look.

As for the color scheme, it’s quite simple. You can choose a single color or a pattern that continues across the entire blog, or you can choose a combination of colors. Just make sure that you’re consistent throughout the site, otherwise, it will appear messy and unorganized. You’ll also want to make sure that the branding for your e-commerce store and blog are kept separate, otherwise, you might confuse customers as to which product is which. This is why it’s a good idea to use a different logo for your blog than for your e-commerce store.