Purpose & Goals
The purpose of the website is to create a portfolio that highlights my experiences, skills, and academic projects in e-commerce and digital marketing. This website will allow me to present myself in a professional way to potential employers, collaborators, and peers, and also help me to practice the hands-on skills in WordPress
My main goal is to use the website to communicate the skills I have developed through real-world practice, such as product development, online retail operations, supplier coordination, and digital marketing. The site will also include insights from my academic work at Douglas College, showing how I combine hands-on business experience with formal training in digital marketing.
The target audience for this website includes employers in e-commerce and marketing, as well as partners who may be interested in working together on new projects. I expect this portfolio to grow into a long-term professional resource that demonstrates my entrepreneurial journey and supports my future career opportunities in digital marketing and e-commerce.
Hosting Provider Selection Rationale
Control panel: DreamHost does not use cPanel; it uses a custom DreamHost control panel for sites, databases, email, and billing.
WordPress / Managed WP (DreamPress): DreamHost offers Managed WordPress (DreamPress) tiers with built-in caching, staging, daily automated backups, free SSL, and extra services (starter site, migrations). Example tiers and promo pricing are shown on DreamHost’s WP pages.
Backups: DreamPress includes automated daily backups (retention varies by plan, such as Basic/Plus/Pro; retention windows differ; Pro keeps longer). For non-DreamPress products, DreamHost also performs automated backups, but retention/restore options vary; best to enable or download external backups for mission-critical sites.
SSL: Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates are supported and renew automatically.
Email: DreamHost sells a Professional Email product (25 GB mailbox example) and some hosting plans list email availability. DreamPress and VPS plan pages reference “email @ your domain” included for those plans; check the exact plan text before purchasing.
Storage & bandwidth: DreamPress and VPS plans advertise NVMe/SSD storage (e.g., 60 GB, 120 GB, etc.) and unmetered/“unlimited” bandwidth on many plans. Verify each plan’s spec.
Domain & extras: DreamHost often includes a free domain for 1 year with annual hosting plans; domain/privacy options are shown on pricing pages.
Support: DreamHost offers live chat (advertised as 24/7 English & Spanish) and ticket/support portal; response times and phone/callback options vary. Server locations: DreamHost data centers are in Ashburn, VA; Hillsboro, OR; and Amsterdam (NL). You can see/set data-center info in your control panel.
On the home page, there is a menu about hosting and a submenu about WordPress hosting. I chose an annual subscription. The average monthly pay is $2.99. On the top left corner, it shows the $USD The total amount is $35.88