What About Women in Tech?
This will be the SECOND in a two-part series about Laurence.
WH4S: And we’re back! So Laurence, talk to me a little bit about women in tech – maybe share some of your experiences or give some advice.
Laurence: I’ve been really fortunate in some ways that i have people in my life who are in tech. And what i mean is – surprisingly my father has been in tech my entire life. So you’d think I’d have learned and taught myself sooner but it never even occurred to me to learn to code back then. It took me a while.
And then my boyfriend is a software engineer. When we first met he was a designer and he ended up evolving. So I have these resources around me that have been super helpful in sticking with coding. I’m not sure I’d code if I didn’t have such great personal resources. You can’t control so many things.
But for women overall, having technical skills – and this is true for men too – is very empowering and it makes you so much more valuable. So women who want to be the freelancer or consultant, you can charge so much more if you’re doing something technical than if you’re doing writing.
So many people ask me, “How do I get started writing?” And I say, if you want to make money, don’t write. Do web development! I do get paid to write now, but it took me a long, long time.
So it’s very lucrative to have coding skills in freelancing and in full-time roles. And I think especially for women, knowing to code will make you a little more confident.
I was just reading something last night where a study was done with men and women about job ads. And women only apply if they met 90% of job qualifications, while men apply if they met 50%. Which to me isn’t very shocking. It definitely makes sense. But I think having the technical skills – which for me, has made me feel more empowered, lets us bring more to the table. And because of that coding has boosted my self-confidence.
When you have more confidence you can do things like negotiate your salary, speak out during meetings … that’s important.
WH4S: Any parting thoughts on this subject?
I also want to say that being “there” means more than you think. What I mean is, sometimes in the past I would feel guilty about not doing “enough” to help other women get into tech. (Something women often feel – not being “enough”!) But I now know that simply being there – in an engineering position, working in tech in one way or another, in some kind of leadership role – is enough because it shows other women (especially those younger/new in their career) that it is possible. Seeing is believing. If more women see other women in tech roles, they’ll know it’s possible they can do it, too.
Also, if looking to work full-time, notice the gender breakdown at the company. That’s one thing I noticed right away about Teachable: tons of women work there. (In fact, it could be a 50/50 split – which is basically unheard of IMO at a tech startup.) There were other companies I interviewed at that didn’t have as many women working there – and that stuck out to me. There were many reasons why I worked at Teachable – but one of them was because I noticed that they had lots of women there, and in leadership roles.
Check out these great articles by Laurence!
We’re looking at changing our servers around and we want to get your feedback on your current experience. How is your experience with your hosting package so far? How do you feel about the speed of your site and about our products in general? Let us know if you have any feedback below using our quick 5-question survey. If you’d like to remain anonymous, feel free to leave the name and email fields blank.
In other WH4S news, if you’ve signed up to beta test our cPanel course, it’s finally ready! You’ll be hearing from Amber today with the link to the class.
Finally, stay tuned for next week’s follow-up to our interview with Laurence Bradford!
Shout it from the rooftop, shout it in the streets – you’re the reason we continue to succeed here at WH4S and why we do what we do!
We have a ton of great teachers and students here using our hosting solutions. Now it’s your opportunity to tell us a little more about you. Share your portfolio with us and get 10GB of extra bandwidth for free! Plus of course, bragging rights that your portfolio was featured on a showcase!
Many of you have asked about your affiliate program link. When you sign up with us, you should receive your affiliate link right away in an email. If for any reason you don’t get this link, please let Amber know! Our affiliate program is a killer way to earn summer cash and we’d love to have you.
We’re still taking requests to beta test our cPanel course! We have a good number of people testing it out so far. We’re still shooting for a preview/release this week, but please bear with us! We’ll let you know more information as we have it. We’d love to keep you in mind if you’re interested.
Thanks so much for being a part of our company! We appreciate your business and are always here if you have questions or need help.
Our new cPanel course is almost ready!
Here at WHFS, we’ve been working hard to come up with great new ideas that will help you utilize your website and our various resources better than ever before. We’re super excited to roll out our new cPanel instruction course.
Many of you have requested some deeper insights into how you can best utilize your cPanel to better manage your website’s settings and your site itself. cPanel is responsible for everything from dealing with FTP users, installing a CMS like WordPress and creating/maintaining your user emails, so it’s important to know how to use it.
We’ll be offering courses like these as a customer-only or paid feature in the future, so we’d love for you to be the first to test it out and let us know what you think! We’re currently asking students who would like to learn a little more about managing their sites through cPanel to work with us and test out our course. If this is something you’d be interested in – or even if you’d just like to be notified when the FREE version of the course is live – simply fill out the form below and we’ll make sure to add you to the list/notify you!
Anything special you'd like to see in the course? Be sure to let us know if you'd like to test!
In other news, we’re still rolling out marketing materials for our affiliate program. If you haven’t yet signed up, we’d love to have you as part of the team! It’s a great way to make some easy cash over the summer while hooking up your friends and family with great hosting services. Check out this page to sign up if you’re a student, and click here if you’re a teacher.
Last but not least, we’re super excited about welcoming our new mascot! Any ideas on a name? We love this little guy and we’re happy to add him to the WH4S brand. Check out our new logo!
If you have any questions or concerns, we’re always here to help. Email Amber at opportunities@webhostingforstudents.com to find out more about our affiliate program. Have a great weekend!
We’re super excited to share our most recent news – our affiliate program is 100% back online!
In case you haven’t signed up with us before, here’s the skinny: Each time you tell a friend, family member or colleague about our products, you get 20% of the sale. This can really add up. Because our hosting products are some of the most affordable out there and designed for students, it’s an easy sale – and each time you do make a sale, you get paid!
We pay out on the last day of the month via PayPal and will deposit whatever money you request into your account at the end of each month. With school in session again in the fall, it’s a great way to make some extra cash!
Teachers, we have a special program for you too! Check it out here!
We’re committed to your success! If you have any problems signing up or any questions, please contact Amber at opportunities@webhostingforstudents.com. And current affiliates, look out for your first set of creatives to help you promote your affiliate link! They will be hitting your inbox next week.
There’s plenty of incentive to making sure your site is as secure as possible. From our end, we do everything we can to make sure state-of-the-art technology and hardware are up to standards. We’re one of the top website providers out there when it comes to making sure everything is up to date and we’re running one of the best server systems possible in terms of quality and integrity.
However, no matter how advanced the host or hosting program, website installs can still be vulnerable. We’ve talked before about recommending a website like WordPress. Web Hosting for Students is great when you’re using an easy to manage CMS like WordPress; however there are some security vulnerabilities you should be aware of, no matter what CMS or structure you decide to run your site on.
First of all, not all CMS systems will auto-update. It’s important to keep a consistent backup of your website files. If you’re on WordPress, this also includes using the WordPress Export Tool to download your database so you don’t lose all your content. Make sure you also use a backup plugin! Because of space constraints, you’ll really only want to save 1-2 backups.
You’ll want to click and follow prompts that encourage you to update WordPress or your CMS, making sure you have a backup of what’s already on your site for safekeeping.
It’s important to keep your site updated. As your CMS provider identifies security vulnerabilities, the software will be updated to reflect new security measures. You don’t want to mess around with site security!
It’s also important to use secure passwords. It might seem like a pain, but the longer your password and the more special characters and variation you use, the less likely the chances of a hacker getting into your site or someone you know logging into your website. You should also try to vary up your password across services to add and maintain that extra level of security.
If you’re using WordPress, try to stick to only the minimum amount of plugins you need. Plugins have the tendency to conflict with one another or even with an updated version of WordPress, so make sure to check your site after any new plugin installation or site update!
One last note: We are now offering FREE SSL!!! which you can activate for your account within cPanel by going to “Let’s Encrypt SSL”. Let us know if you have any questions!
Creating a Student Website: Why Use CMS Systems?
Creating a website doesn’t have to be painful. You can also individualize content and create your own student website without having to know how to code. There are plenty of ways to get your information out there on the web – whether you’re looking at building a site for projects, a blog or vlog, starting your own business or featuring a portfolio. There are more ways to do it than you’d believe – and if you have questions on how to get started, we’re here to help!
CMS stands for content management system. To make it simple, this is how you’ll add and manage content on your website. Everything that you’ll feature on your site is considered content, whether we’re talking about pictures, videos or text. So the first step is deciding what type of content you’d like to feature. The second is pushing that content out there.
WordPress. One of the most – if not THE most recognized and popular CMS system, WordPress is easy to use and install and super flexible. WordPress gives fairly easy to follow instructions and there are forums out there to help you if you’re not technically proficient on the back end.
Joomla. Once you get it installed, you can use its drag and drop interface to configure your site to look how you want. Both WordPress and Joomla work on “theme” type systems where you can add a skin to your website that allows the look to be completely customized. There’s very little guesswork – for both, you just swap your own information into the existing info that’s in your theme or skin.
User note – we tend to like WordPress a little better due to less learning curve and flexibility. Keep this in mind!
WooCommerce. If you’re going with WordPress, Woo has a fun and flexible platform that will allow you to sell your wares direct from your own website. It’s fairly easy to install and use, so why not give it a shot? In the “Plugins” section of your WordPress dashboard, do a search for Woocommerce plugins and take a look at all the user-friendly, easy-to-configure options they offer.
Read more about where our students come from, and check out your plans below!
Never made your own website? We’re glad to help! The possibilities are endless – whether you’re working on your own personal project or gearing up for Fall of 2016, Web Hosting for Students is happy to help you think of some ideas for your first (or second! or third!) website or web project.
Your Band Website. Produce your own music or take part in your own band? WHFS domains and web space can be used to install various CMS as well as a stand alone website. These sites can be integrated with Bandcamp, Soundcloud or other music apps to ensure you don’t exceed bandwidth and you keep your new fans up-to-date on shows.
An Art Portfolio. If you’re an artist – whether you’re interested in painting, photography or fashion, WHFS is proud to offer CMS capabilities for sites like WordPress. With WordPress comes a world of possibilities, including easily creating and uploading your own online portfolio. If you haven’t yet decided what late-summer internship to go for or you’re considering your class creation possibilities for next year, you’ll find your online portfolio easy to update and useful. It’s also a great idea to have your portfolio site in place when you print out your next set of business cards.
A blog or showcase for your personal writings. It’s easy to set up a blog or even vlog, especially if you’re linking from somewhere like Youtube. Your thoughts are easy to capture and record even from a smartphone or tablet when you have the space online to store them. Whether you’re interested in sharing a travel blog or vlog, talking about future art or personal projects or recording your adventures with friends or family, a blog or vlog is a great choice to record your life. You can also hook social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, Instagram or Twitter to your blog.
No matter how you choose to show off your style, having your own space on the web that you maintain and control is super easy with Web Hosting for Students. Our plans and pricing are as affordable as they come, and our customer service and support aim high to get what you need. Get ready for summer’s end now and start working on and showcasing your best online before the next school season is under way!
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