twigglebooked-in 3.0

Why Your Web Designers Should Host Your Website

2012-01-25T17:22:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of web hosting companies out there. The funny thing is, very few of them offer web design services. If your company website is hosted with one company, and receives web design services from another, consider what options your web designer has for you. There's a chance you can consolodate both services and bring them under one roof - you'll be doing yourself (and your web designer) a big favor.

You'll find that your web designer may provide his/her own web hosting services. Hosting is expensive and extremely high-maintenance, and for this reason many designers do not host in-house. Instead, they rely on the bigger players (like Rackspace or Peer1) to host their servers for them. Yes, you could go American Gangster and go straight to the source to host via Rackspace and Peer1 yourself, but then you're cutting out your designer who's responsible for the support of your website in the first place.

The Top 3 Benefits of Having Your Web Designer Host Your Website:

For these reasons alone, you may want to consider letting your web designer host your website:

1) Security/support:
Having your website hosted by your designer keeps everything under one roof. You'll only have 1 phone call to make if you run into any issues. Your web designer knows your website best and is best-positioned to offer support.
2) Technology:
If your website is more advanced (for example contains a database, Content Management System (CMS), job board and/or data capture forms), you might be creating a headache for yourself if you host with someone other than your web designer. These bells & whistles are often built to run on specific server platforms and software with precise configurations, and not all servers/hosts are created equal. You're better off deploying your website on your web designers server which is already custom-configured and ready to rock.
3) Hosting is a tricky business:
If/when something happens with your website (a server glitch, a virus, downtime, etc) you don’t need 2 vendors (a host and a web designer) pointing the finger at each other. Anything/everything service and support related should fall on your web designers lap, which is how most of us like it. Keep your web designer accountable and responsible for all web site related issues.

The Truth About Rackspace Hosting

2012-01-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

Rackspace Hosting

This is the second installment of a large series of blog posts regarding the service and support of web hosting companies; including pros, cons, ratings and the ultimate bottom line.

Web designers rely on hosting companies to service and support their website(s). Larger web design companies rely on the "big" web hosting companies service, support, AND infastructur to support DNS servers, ftp servers, testing/production servers, databases and more, in addition to their basic web and email hosting needs.

I've developed on average 4-5 websites per month for over 15 years. By that math, I'm closing in on 1,000 websites. Each website requires hosting, so given my experience I believe I am well positioned to offer some credible (and yes, personal) opinions on several website hosting companies.

Most people use the internet as a platform to rant and voice only negative experiences. I'll try not to be that guy. While I do have negative comments I want to include some positive ones too.

About Rackspace Hosting:

Rackspace was born in the late 90's, and was recently rated one of the Top 100 Places to Work by Fortune magazine, which stands for something. They host 40% or more of the Fortune 100 and are considered by many to be one of the most accredited hosts in the world. When you start looking into Rackspace, you'll read all about their Fanatical Support program. Do not underestimate the importance of support from your web host. The hosting business is all about support, and Rackspace is all about Fanatical Support. Look into it.
Considering Rackspace Hosting? You'll Want to Read This:

Rackspace competitors do a very good job of creating nice websites, fancy banner ads, throwing around 99.9% uptime guarantees, and selling whatever smoke & mirror sorcery they can to convince you they are the best host in the world.

Rackspace doesn't play those games. If you visit Rackspace.com, you'll learn about their Fanatical Support, which is their bottom line and biggest competitive advantage. Take the time to CALL them and have a discussion about their hosting services. You will not be disappointed. If you choose Rackspace, they'll guide you every step of the way (account creation, server setup & configuration, deployment, etc).

The Good Thing About Rackspace Hosting:

Rackspace is knowledgable and reliable. I remember when I hosted my first dedicated server with Rackspace they took the time to point out a few things I could configure, including a secondary firewall, to help secure the server and protect it from intrusion as best as possible. I had never, ever, had such a consultation with any other web hosting company. Rackspace wasn't repsonsible for my server settings, and they didn't have to make these recommendations, but they did because they care. I've contacted Rackspace on several occasions for assitance with things I was sure I'd get charged for (for example, setting up scheduled tasks at the server-level), but they're always happy to help and to this day I've never received a bill for what I'd consider to be service above-and-beyond their SLA (Service Level Agreement).
The Worst Part About Rackspace Hosting:

I thought long and hard about this one. There really isn't a "worst part" about Rackspace, they're a solid hosting company and seem to have all of their bases covered.

Since I committed in this blog to write something from both sides of the fence, I'll mention one reoccuring issue I've had with Rackspace: We host dedicated servers with Rackspace and rely on their support techs to install SSL's for some of our e-commerce domains. For some reason, Rackspace always finds a way to screw up this process.

I suspect that it's one of those things where your growth and size can be one of your downfalls. A simple SSL install request involves several departments: 1) The tech you request help from, 2) The department responsible for delegating who gets what additional/unique IP addresses, 3) The department responsible for SSL and security, and 4) The department/guy tasked with putting it all together (including IIS configuration, DNS updates, etc). Rackspace techs are very dedicated and meticulous, however I believe one of their faults is letting a support request change hands more than what's really necessary.

My Advice to You:

Choose Rackspace. They're a tad more expensive than their competitors, but it's worth every penny. When sh*t hits the fan and you're dealing with a blown router, a DOS attack, a SQL injection attack or the next Nimda Virus, you'll be glad Rackspace has your back. In my years of experience, I have to say that Rackspace Hosting is by far the best host in the world.

The Truth About IX Web Hosting

2012-01-22T12:56:00.000-08:00

IX Web Hosting

This is the first installment of what I feel will be a large series of blog posts regarding the service and support of web hosting companies; including pros, cons, ratings and the ultimate bottom line.

Web designers rely on hosting companies to service and support their website(s). Larger web design companies rely on the "big" web hosting companies service, support, AND infastructur to support DNS servers, ftp servers, testing/production servers, databases and more, in addition to their basic web and email hosting needs.

I've developed on average 4-5 websites per month for over 15 years. By that math, I'm closing in on 1,000 websites. Each website requires hosting, so given my experience I believe I am well positioned to offer some credible (and yes, personal) opinions on several website hosting companies.

Most people use the internet as a platform to rant and voice only negative experiences. I'll try not to be that guy. While I do have negative comments I want to include some positive ones too.

About IX Web Hosting:

What I know of this company is they provide a shared web and email hosting service. The setup for each service is done through a do-it-yourself control panel. You can get setup in minutes with a credit card and be on your way to hosting your website with this company. It's not a bad process at all. They're legit, too, I belive a US-owned company operating out of at least Kentucky but likely other States too.

Considering IX? You'll Want to Read This:

If you ever seek help from IX, you'll quickly discover that it's near impossible to reach a certified tech. You'll find yourself in a 24/7 "support" chat environment with either Anatoli, Vladimir or Sergei. These guys are the bottom-of-the-barrel support types that we all hate - they read from a script, make you jump through hoops with Q&A's, send you canned responses from their LivePerson chat software, and then ultimately tell you that they cannot help you and must escalate the issue to other techs. The majority of the time, after this is all said and done, they'll put the onus on you to create the support ticket yourself. This sucks, because you have to start from square one again and reiterate your problem.

The Good Thing About IX Web Hosting:

They're cheap. From my experience they are one of the cheapest hosts around, and their uptime is pretty good. Cheap hosts, like GoDaddy, set theirselves up for exponential growth. It's only a matter of time before this business model turns successful enough to become a hosting powerhouse and invest more money into your infastructure. If IX can hold on and make it, they'll be a serious contender in a few years.

The Worst Part About IX Web Hosting:

When their servers go down, you're better off switching hosts. This is the most logical action as it's quicker than waiting for them to resolve the problem. Their support is so bad, that when they go down they're likely down for days, even a week. My last downtime experience with them was when an email server of theirs got nailed with spam or some time of DOS (Denial of Service) attack and created a massive backlog of email on the server that brought it to a screeching halt. I experienced a similar type of outage with Alentus, who had it fixed within 48hrs, but IX took about a week to fully resolve the issue.

My Advice to You:

If you have one or two low-maintenane websites (such as personal websites) to host, go with IX Web Hosting. If you have many websites (especially client websites) and support is of key concern, do not choose IX.

who is registerservicedomains.com?

2011-01-20T16:04:00.001-08:00

They're domain hijackers! If you've found this blog post, you likely already received an email from registerservicedomains.com warning you to hurry up and renew your domain name(s). Funny thing is, they are not your domain name registrar. Do not renew with them, do not give them any money, simply ignore them and delete the email.

Best advice:

If you have a website designer, ask him/her anything you need to know about your domain names, don't trust the random emails from people like registerservicedomains.com.

If you don't have a website designer, just goto http://www.whois.sc/. Type in your domain name and click "lookup". The following page will reveal your true administrative and technical contacts.

Leave a Copy of Message on Server

2010-11-25T10:24:00.001-08:00

Ever notice some email messages don't appear on your blackberry or iphone after you've read them on your PC? Do you get emails to your work PC only to go home and find them missing from your home PC?

If you're using Outlook, you'll experience the above if you are not leaving a copy of the email message on the server (the mail server).

It's an easy fix that you can do yourself. Check out the step-by-step instructions on how to Leave a Copy of Message on Server from hosting.com: http://www.hosting.com/support/email/pop3.

Credits: hosting.com

What You Need to Know About Malware

2010-10-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

What is Malware?

Compliments of wikipedia: "Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code."

Why You Need to Be Concerned About Malware

If you own a website, it can be attacked by malware. If infected, malware will use your website as a host to continue spreading throughout the web via your visitors computer systems. As a website owner, you need to share the responsibilty of ensuring your website and web hosting environment is safe from malware attacks.

What Your Web Designer Needs to Know About Malware:

One of the most common ways malware is spread throughout the web is by FTP. We refer to this method of attack as a "brute force ftp attack". If you have FTP, and if malware can hack/crack your username and password, it can infect your files by embedding certain code into your web pages, usually your index or default pages. When those web pages are loaded/viewed by visitors online, they will be hijacked by malware and turned into a host to begin spreading the malicious code to other visitors systems and websites.

Best Methods to Prevent Malware:

Using a strong username/password combination for all your FTP accounts will help, but if your computer systems are compromised by a virus or spyware you can kiss that peace of mind goodbye. We recommend restricting your FTP servers to allow vistors to connect ONLY via approved IP addresses. Popular FTP programs have this capability, however you can go one step further by applying IP rules to a firewall behind your FTP and/or web server. This means nobody/nothing (malware included) can connect to your FTP server (even WITH the correct username/password) unless they're coming from a trusted IP address.

Bottom line: take the steps to prevent unauthorized access to your web and ftp servers, and you'll help prevent malware.

Why IE6 Sucks

2010-07-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

If you're using IE6, upgrade now.

Aesthetics & Functionality: Why Web Designers Hate IE6

IE6 is rife with CSS incompatibilities and doesn't support a number of other web standards or functions. Many javascript operations and cool jquery tools that make Web 2.0 sites look and function better than the previous generations are also not supported in IE6. Nowadays it's nearly impossible for your website to be competitive if you're concerned with keeping it IE6 compatible.

Obsolete browsers (IE6 was released in 2001) are a challenge for web developers, despite that it's easier than ever (and MUCH more important from a security standpoint) for users to run the most current versions available.

Privacy & Security: Why You Should Stop Using IE6

IE6 has well over a hundred documented security issues, many of which can't be patched, and 24 of which have been labelled as "serious" vulnerabilities. Microsoft has admitted IE6 sucks, and has blamed it's own product for a series of hacks and malware attacks throughout the net.

Microsofts own Director of its Security Response Centre admits IE has been responsible for website attacks resulting in theft of intellectual property and personal information.

Your Options

If you like Internet Explorer, but want to upgrade to a newer/safer version, click here.

Firefox is a good alternative, too, you can download the latest version here.

Credits: graphos.ca

Why You'll Never Blog

2010-06-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

You're Shy
You prefer to stay under the radar, and you'd rather not create an audience.

You're Concerned About Liabilities
You'd rather not risk saying something stupid or hurting someone's feelings.

You Don't Have Much to Say
You couldn't possibly come up with enough material to fill a blog.

You Don't Have That Kind of Time
You're busy enough as it is, there's no way you can spare the time to write.

Nobody Cares
...Right?

Don't think you'll ever start blogging? Technorati thinks you will. So do I. Chances are you'll be blogging in one way or another very soon. In fact, by Wikipedia definition, you're already blogging if you're on Facebook: A blog is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

You're Shy
Start a blog, and you'll be surprised how many people want to read it. It's writing, not public speaking.

You're Concerned About Liabilities?
Keep it PG-13.

You Don't Have Much to Say?
You won't realize how much you have to say till you open your mouth and get on a roll. Start by blogging about your company, interests, hobbies, or current events/topics that interest you.

You Don't Have That Kind of Time?
Yes you do, everyone does. What you don't have time for is writing 10,000 words, mulling it over, revising, changing, and being too critical of your own work. Go with your gut and write whatever comes to mind. Don't sweat the small stuff. Keep it simple and to the point and you'll be surprised how quick and easily your blog will grow. You can even download Blackberry and iPhone apps that allow you to post blogs automatically in seconds.

Nobody Cares, Right?
Wrong. Alexa, the web information company, maintains a list of the most popular sites on the web. Take a look, and you'll find that nearly all of them are social networking and/or resource-sharing websites.

Using Photos in Web Design

2010-05-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

A cool post from sixrevisions.com, "Excellent Examples of Using Photos in Web Design"... a pretty awesome post, check it out:

http://sixrevisions.com/

Scam Alert: ASIA Brand and Domain Name Disputes

2010-05-03T11:58:00.001-07:00

One of our clients called today after receiving a suspicious email. The subject line is "Notice: Brand name ***** dispute ASIA". It's a scam. You can pretty much ignore every email you receive pertaining to your domain name unless it comes from a) your web designer, or b) your original domain name registrar.

Here's what the email looks like:

"We are the department of Asian Domain registration service in china. we have something need to confirm with you. we formally received an application on April 30, 2010. one company which called "VSC Investment Company" are applying to register "thermokingedmonton" as Brand Name and the following Domain Names: ***** After our initial examination, we found that the Domain Names applied for registration are as same as your company's name and trademark. these days we are dealing with it, hope to get the affirmation from your company. if your company has not authorized the aforesaid company to register these, please contact us as soon as possible. In addition, we hereby affirm that our time limit is 7 workdays. if your company files no reply within the time limit, we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by VSC Investment Company"

There are variations of this email going around with different motives. If you receive the email, chuck it.

Reference URL 1: http://www.firetrust.com/en/blog/chris/domain-name-scams

Reference URL 2: http://www.rumblepup.com/chinese-domain-name-fraud/

Best Day/Time to Send e-Newsletters?

2010-04-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

Given all the variables it's difficult to pinpoint a perfect day/time to send e-newsletters. However, a little observation and research might help you draw your own conclusions.

Mondays & Tuesdays
These days are usually spent addressing priority items, and it's likely your email is not critically important. Statistics show that Mondays are also slow days for website traffic - an indication that people are simply busy with other tasks, making up for lost time over the weekend, or not surfing the web or writing/checking email on these days compared to the rest of the week.

Wednesdays & Thursdays
Statistically, website traffic is high on Wednesdays, indicating people have more time on a Wednesday, having settled into the work week and recovered from the weekend. The traffic spike evident on Wednesdays could also be an indication that consumers research and plan on Wednesdays more than any other day of the week.

Thursdays are popular days for email marketers. Keep an eye on the e-newsletters you receive, over half are likely to arrive on Thursday. The logic here is that consumers are starting to think about the weekend and are in a responsive mood; the perfect time for advertisers to deliver their pitch.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday
These can be good days to send e-newsletters, as it's likely your audience has more downtime on these days than any others in the week. Email traffic is traditionally low on weekends - an indication that competition will be light. However, you should also consider that most people don't work on weekends, and aren't in front of a computer 9-5 like they are during the work week. Also consider that many people take Fridays off, and there are long-weekends or holidays to factor in, and if your e-newsletter is promoting a weekend event chances are your recipient has already made plans.

My advice: Experiment. Try sending your e-newsletters on different days of the week and track the results. Monitor the frequency of emails sent by your competitors and from others whom you feel are good email marketers. Consider the date of your event (or the day/time of your sale), and calculate how many days in advance you feel your audience needs to make a decision, plan and then respond.

The Importance of "Free" Business Models for .com's

2010-04-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

If you build it, they will not come, especially if they have to pay for it.

The success of many online businesses is largely attributed to adopting "free" as a business model. First and foremost, building a community of users, followers and subscribers. Free is always an attractive offer - there's no objection to price - all of a sudden signing up doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Convincing yourself that "free" as a business model works, then sticking to the plan, can be tough. It doesn't seem like a common-sense approach at first, but if you try the exact opposite chances are you'll find yourself frustrated by an evident lack of interest from surfers, lack of steady traffic and consistency, and ultimately a lack of sales.

Internet start-ups are rarely an overnight success, they are considerable time investments. If you don't invest the time or fail to have an online marketing plan -- you'd better plan to fail.

After your website is built, spend your time finding new friends online, give them something to share with their friends, offer free advice, contests, giveaways, free resources and free networking opportunities. Make this a daily habit and then watch your community start to grow.

After you've attracted a loyal community of users, built credibility and established a solid reputation, all the potential revenue streams will reveal themselves and you'll be ready to take your website to the next step. These revenue streams will likely present themselves as subscription or advertising opportunities.

More on Free: Why $0.00 is the Future of Business
More on Free: The Free Business Model: A Strategy for Attention, Traffic and Profits

Support: Email Issues

2010-04-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

A few clients were affected by email delays and/or downtime starting around 5pm on April 9th. No email was lost and mail was flowing again on Saturday morning, April 10th. Click the link below to read more, or leave a comment if you have any questions.

More Information: View full details

SEO: Content Content Content

2010-04-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

Have your sights set on top spot in Google? Our first recommendation to clients on the topic of SEO is to write solid content for their websites. Produce golden articles, biographies, case studies, testimonials, blogs, press releases, white papers and more.

Google wants to deliver useful, thorough, and authentic content to its users. Keep the content fresh by updating it frequently, keep it current and well worth the read.

Producing good content from day one may turn out to be the biggest advantage you can give yourself in the SEO race.

Should You be Tweeting on Twitter?

2010-04-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

Twitter, like other social media tools, is simply an outlet for you to communicate with others. It's a platform you can use to spark discussion between you and your customers and keep everyone informed with what's going on in and around your company.

Yes, company websites are platforms too. However, the problem with how they communicate with your audience is that they're often too official. Tools like Twitter specialize in communicating what you are doing or thinking in the real world.

Twitter can be used as a 2nd avenue for consumers to explore your company - reading beyond your website home page where the typical show & tell is expectedly written by your marketing department. Tweets are unscripted, conversational and authentic. It's a treat for customers to read what CEO's and management are doing or thinking, and it's a treat to be in-the-know and receiving information straight from the source.

Not quite feeling it? Check out Flight Centre's Twitter Page, with over 5,000 followers, or one of Walmart's Twitter Pages with over 10,000 followers, or the Edmonton Oilers Twitter Page with over 12,000 followers. See what these companies are sharing and how their audience is responding. You'll likely see a benefit, even if only a small one, to using Twitter yourself.

Don't have much to say? I bet you do. Followers can listen in on your thoughts for expanding your business, plans to hire new staff, new/upcoming products & services you'll be offering, industry events you are attending, products you've tested, contacts you've made, awards & accolades you've received, projects you've finished, partnerships you've made, associations you've joined, promotions you're having, and more.

Many social media tools do relatively the same thing - they give you a new platform to communicate with others. If you're thinking of setting up a Twitter page, do yourself a favor first and do your research. Go where your customers are. If your customers are using Twitter, you should be there. If your competitors are using Twitter, you should be there.

Twitter is not for everyone, and certainly does more for some industries (like news and entertainment) than others. If your research proves that your customers are NOT using Twitter, they're likely somewhere else... maybe Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, or one of the many other social networking scenes out there.

Alert - Domain Registry of Canada Scam

2010-04-01T11:44:00.001-07:00

Four of our clients in as many days have reported that they received a domain name renewal notice in the mail from Domain Registry of Canada. This is one of the oldest scams of it's kind, but unfortunately people still fall for it. If you receive the notice, tear it up. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

Reference 1: http://www.twistimage.com
Reference 2: http://www.ripoffreport.com
Reference 3: http://www.barrywheeler.ca

Is Link Exchanging Good for SEO?

2010-03-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

Short answer, yes. A website with reciprocating links to other credible websites in your city or industry will achieve better Google ranks than a website without. Many of our clients in #1 spot in Google share reciprocating links with their vendors, suppliers, manufacturers and partners. Although a small piece of larger SEO-puzzle, it's definitely worthwhile.

Do You Need a Content Management System (CMS)?

2010-03-06T22:28:00.000-08:00

A Content Management System (CMS) is a web-based tool that allows you to update your own website. Content-managed websites are more expensive than regular websites, but keep future maintenance costs low as you rely less on your web deisgner to make updates for you. Over time, your savings will likely justify the cost of building a content-managed website.

Here are a few things to consider before deciding if a CMS is right for you:

1. Are you selling products online?
2. Does your website receive a lot of traffic?
3. Do you like writing, editing and designing?
4. Do you have time to write, edit and design?
5. Does your website content/information change frequently?

If you answered yes to all of the questions above, you should definitely consider a CMS for your website. If you answered no to one or more of the questions above, you likely do not require a CMS.

Website Traffic: Hits vs Sessions

2010-03-01T22:16:00.000-08:00

A common question asked by many our clients is: what's the difference between website "hits" and "sessions"? It's important to know the difference when interpreting your website traffic reports to determine the real volume of traffic your website is receiving.

Sessions
Each "session" represents a unique visitor. Your visit to this blog is recorded as a single "session". If you leave and come back tomorrow, your visit will be recorded as another unique session.

Hits
Each page click is recorded as a "hit", and several hits can be made by a single session. A common misperception is thinking your website received 10,000 hits in a month -- when in fact those hits could have been made by 1,000 "sessions", or unique visitors.

Stock Photos vs Professional Photography

2010-02-26T15:46:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, the less stock photos you use, the better. Even with the options available from large stock libraries like istockphoto.com, the web seems to be full of stock-junk. It reminds me of the days when every second website you visited was a FrontPage template.

Visitors to your website can smell stock photos from a mile away and will sense the negative connotation of a shortcut and/or misrepresentation. Professional photos are original, authentic and a true representation of your company, people, products and services. They do not misrepresent.

The Red Piano on Bourbon Street, West Edmonton Mall, had the option of using stock photos on their new website. Although more expensive, they decided to go with professional photography. I think it was a good decision, see for yourself:

Website: http://www.theredpiano.ca