Over The Net

The little things....

2012-02-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

I received a call the other day when a customer was coming back from an ordeal in a courtroom. Seems he tried to sell his business to someone, but after almost a year of not making payments he wanted the business back so he was trying to use the courts to force the buyer's hand. So why did he call me? Seems that during the proceedings the buyer had mistakenly admitted that he tried to transfer the domain name and associated website but the "uncooperative" webmaster (me) prevented him from doing so. He even admitted trying to reach someone at Godaddy.com where the domain was registered to get it transferred, to no avail. The seller was very happy to hear all of this and just wanted to call and thank me for providing a service that he didn't even realize he enjoyed in that all of our domain names are as protected as the law allows and that we will never make any changes to a domain name without the registered owner's approval.

Did the customer need to call and share this with me? No, but it sure was nice to hear that partly because of our standards and commitment to our customers someone with bad intentions was not able to pull-off their scam.

We understand how important your website and domain name can be to your business and protect them as tenaciously as if they were our own.

En Espanol Tambien!

2012-02-01T09:46:00.000-08:00

Depending on your customer base, it may make sense to translate portions or your entire website to languages other than English. Why? It is proven that people like to work with those that they are comfortable with and by providing information in their native language they get a better sense that you understand their needs primarily.

Secondarily, your competition may not be doing this either and subsequently it gives your business an advantage over them and who couldn't use an advantage in these trying times?

Lastly, it is not as expensive as it once was and we provide translators that know and understand the importance of proper grammar, slang and other nuances that make a world of difference.

Open up the entire world to your business by speaking all the languages of your potential customers!

Word Press and Off-the-shelf websites

2012-01-20T15:44:00.000-08:00

Many times a potential customer will come to us and tell us that they have a website, they built with Word Press or 1and1 websites or another off-the-shelf DIY web building software, but they cannot be found in the search engines and want us to make this happen. Unfortunately, or fortunately for those of us that "build from scratch" Google, Bing and the rest are finding the merit of the DIY websites is limited at best and has begun flushing these sites out of their rankings so no matter what we try to do to help, it's a ship heading for an iceberg it will not be able to avoid.

A new customer was interviewing me and he stated that he was a NASCAR fan and wanted me to translate what we do to that so I stated that not only could we build him a fast car, with a great paint job which is about all that the others can promise, that we would also work on attaining sponsorship, putting a great team manager and pit crew in place and making sure that the announcer knew how to pronounce his name and would do it every chance they had.

Short story long, we're building him a race team to go out and compete day and night that we can assure him will consistently finish in the top 5 search results every day.

Whatever your goals are we can build a custom application that will give your business it's best chance at winning trophies (customers) and brand loyalty not just for the next race but for the life of your business.

How to Interview a Web Developer

2011-12-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

As we come upon our 17th year of service to our customers, I look back on all the interviews and proposals we have created in the hopes of gaining new customers and relish the experiences as each has brought new insight in one manner or another. One thing that always happens is the the following question always arises, "Why should we choose Over The Net for our web presence and website hosting needs?" I have a very good answer, but the following additional questions you can ask any web developer to see how they respond.

Is your work done in-house?
Is all of your labor domestic or is it sent abroad?
Do I own the work done on my behalf and can I move it if I feel necessary?
What language would you code my site in?
Is the site built for search engine recognition?
Do you have any examples of cause and effect where you built a website and it now ranks on page #1 of major search engines?
How will I be able to access the site usage statistics and what numbers are included in your reporting?
How often is my website backed-up?
Who has access to my customer's data and what is stored and how?
Who has access to my email accounts and how are the protected?

If at this point you are comfortable with the responses then you've found yourself a good partner on the web, but if not get in touch with us and we can assure you that your trust and your business could not be in better hands.

Over The Net - Bringing business to your business since 1995

Blind Dating the Search Engines

2011-12-07T17:45:00.001-08:00

Most of you probably have never seen the cult classic, "Amazon Women On the Moon!", and that is probably how it should be, but for those of you that have you may remember a scene with Steve Guttenburg and Patricia Arquette where she has the ability to look-up every single detail of his life up to that point. You can imagine how awkward some of this information was and so before the date even began, it was over.

Think of your website as not only what you see, but every single detail of how it got there and it's inherent character and structural integrity.

1st impressions at every level from the search engines to your site visitors cannot be stressed enough because if you are not immediately appealing then your chances of success diminish greatly.

Let Over The Net help your business put it's best foot forward and vouch (construct) for your website's inherent integrity and worthiness of page #1 rankings.

The days of fooling the search engines is over, make this to your benefit before your competition does!

The frailty of Email

2011-11-30T14:40:00.001-08:00

My email is bouncing! We have all heard this cry from users that think they sky is falling and the system is failing, but most often the "chicken little" syndrome is just that, thankfully, and the user has just made one or more of the following common email mistakes:
1) Improperly addressed - greg@otnmail.com is not the same as gre@otnmail.com, or greg2otnmail.com, or yougetthepoint@yougetthepoint.cod - Be sure to read the bounce-message, if you get one as this is not a mandated response, to see what the issue is and always be precise in your addressing.
2) No subject line or "trigger" keywords in the subject line - Many email systems will reject or "bounce" messages for simply an absence of a subject in the subject line or if you happen to use a keyword or key-phrase that is common to spammers: Free vacation! Did you read this? Naughty anything! and so on.
3) Attachments - Too big, too many, not formatted properly, not named correctly (no spaces or special characters, including periods, within the file name) all cause many issues with email and so remember that the web only allows about 10 megabytes per email to be transferred so keep your image totals below this and you should have success.
4) Your server is a spammer! - Many people are shocked to learn that their little, harmless, innocent computers are actually "mail-slaves" to spammers using your machine to send out millions of spam messages, but it's true! Be sure to keep your computer's virus and system updates current and to turn-off the machine completely when not in use and you will greatly reduce the chances of being exploited.
5) I am sending this to all my friends and business associates and it keeps coming back! - When sending an email to a group of people be sure to keep the "To" line to one address and then place all others in the "BCC" or "Blind Carbon Copy" line so that they are not displayed to one and the others. Also, many ISPs will limit email to so many recipients per email so try to keep your groups under 100 people, or break them into blocks of 100. If one of the email addresses is bad and bounces this can also send a red flag to all and may get the email blocked for no other reason so be careful and keep lists up to date.

Got questions? Get in touch as we're here to help!

Spam and Eggs

2011-11-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

Spam, everyone hates it, so why does it keep happening? A multitude of reasons, such as:

1) People are still responding! As obviously suspicious as we all are, we all can be fooled depending on your level of computer knowledge and level of desperation. Many people see the "too good to be true" light go on and they run, others run to it. Here's my mantra: If in doubt, bail out! If you really want to validate, send the message to your local District Attorney for their blessing and go from there.

2) It's a numbers game and the cost to send spam out is nearly nothing so by sending out millions and millions of requests, even if only a handful fall for your trap you are still making money, and usually lots of it off of the deception.

3) Some spam isn't even intended to be read. They are simply "wrenches in the works" meant to slow down or take down mail-servers. The "Ted Kazinsky's" of the world using the machinery to destroy itself. Stupid, and a huge waste of money in the defense of.

4) Validation of your email address. How does spam validate my email address? In a couple of ways like if it does not bounce when sent-to, a receipt of delivery cookie attached that validates it made it through the destination's mail-server and by you clicking on anything, but especially the "unsubscribe' link. 99.99% of the time that you unsubscribe from an illegitimate mailer it will then put you on an, "active" list and sell your information as quickly as possible to other spammers.

So unless your reading something from the great Dr. Seuss, spam is never good.

The Cost of Being "Free"

2011-11-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

Recently a new customer came to us and said, "My previous host lost my website, can you bring it back?" Without any backups, or any other data to use outside of thier domain name, most would immediately say, "No, we cannot.", but Over The Net will go a step further to see if we can retrieve your website, even from a server no longer functioning. How? That's for us to know and you to benefit from, if ever needed, as we hope that backups are being made on your behalf to avoid this situation from ever becoming a reality.

The danger of dealing with "cheap" or "free" webhosting services is that they are not making these backups and you are totally responsible for their care and archiving. Unless you are in the business of backups, it is recommended to utilize the vast capacity and tools that we provide to our customers.

No stress webhosting is priceless, but we charge much less than that.

Contact us today to bring your business the piece of mind in knowing your investment is safe, online and backed-up daily.

Data Security and User Information - New Crackdown

2011-11-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

Regulators to Web Startups: Prioritize Privacy Protection!

Internet-based companies need to build consumer privacy and data controls into their online services to protect their brands, gain trust from their users, avoid civil lawsuits and prevent government probes, according to two regulators from the U.S. and Canada.

In a recently published article on PCWorld.com regulators state that you do not want to see them, and they do not want to see you because if they are at your door it means something bad has happened:

PCWorld.com

Even if you are a small company this is no excuse and can be very expensive both in terms of fines and consumer confidence to correct.

Over The Net's website hosting is both PCI and HIPPA compliant so let us help protect your business and both your valuable data and your reputation!

First Impressions

2011-10-31T09:25:00.001-07:00

The other day I inquired about getting some help from a vendor I did not know so I went to their website to see what they offered and while it did address my need, it was a very boring site that was not well designed so that was strike one.

I submitted an inquiry via their online form however as I was curious to see if the company was just a victim of a poor web designer's effort or if they conducted themselves as poorly as their website presented them. The form worked without error so I was encouraged, but it wasn't secure so that was not impressive. Lets call this ball one in keeping with our baseball reference as the barometer of satisfaction.

What came next was strike two, three and game over!

The email server that they used to respond from was located in Germany (and we only deal with domestic vendors for security reasons) and the email was malformed and was one giant paragraph. I made them aware of the email server not being domestic, but they refused to believe me and took my time by insulting my professionalism and demanding that I prove to them my accusation, which I did gladly of course.

Now if they make a change, or not, it will never be relevant to me as they have shown that their website was not a mistake, it is actually an accurate representation of how poorly they do business and conduct themselves.

You can see how your potential customer's first impressions on how you do your business must be as positive as possible so that by the time that customer makes their first contact with your business they are already impressed by your homerun ability!

It's A Team Game!

2011-10-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

One of our oldest clients, BeachCityLift.com, sent me a nice thank you the other day and said that website is generating one new client every business day for them. This site is not extravagant, didn't cost thousands and thousands of dollars and wouldn't win any color design awards, but what it does do is give both the search engines and the customers the information they seek in a consistent, easy to use manner that both cherish.

The search engines need to know what the site offers so by working with Beach City Lift over the years we have built their website to be the best sales person it could be, and it's paying off handsomely in new business each and every day.

Wouldn't it be amazing to have your website generate a new business opportunity for your business every day?

OverTheNet.com generates new leads for us each and every day as well so we're grateful to all the new customers we serve as well as the loyal customers (some have been with us since the beginning such as Calprop.com, WheatLumber.com, SheelerMoving.com and many others) that are the backbone of our business.

Contact us today to partner for new business opportunities tomorrow.

Thanks to Mike and all the good people at Beach City Lift!

Mapping the User Pathways Through Your Website

2011-10-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Today we tried to buy tickets to an exhibit at a famous Los Angeles Art Museum, in conjunction with becoming members, but unfortunately their system was so poorly designed that we gave-up and only purchased the tickets and will have to become members on-site.

Had the museum had the forethought of how users would interact with their reservation and membership systems the process would have been much easier to utilize and would deliver the money to the business more quickly and allow us to already have our membership cards and to not take anymore time and effort in that quest. As well, if we do arrive and the lines are too long to get a membership within a reasonable amount of time then we may pass and the museum loses again.

Mapping out each user type that will interact with your website (including both the front-end and back-end users) and how those that are new and those that have registered already will be treated and what options or features to highlight or point them to are presented is paramount to the success and longevity of your online presence. From start to finish each user type must be identified and provided messaging that entices them to stay on the website and to explore all the highlights that your business wishes to provide the users.

With Google's new Panda algorithm the, "user experience" counts for-or-against your website's ability to be ranked on page #1 and that positioning can mean tens of thousands of dollars in savings from not having to pay for keywords or banner ad placements, which are becoming less and less effective as users seem to prefer "generic" listings as opposed to "pay to play" scenarios. Inversely, the money that can be generated from page #1 placements can be egregious.

Over The Net's 16+ years of experience in graphic design, website structure and functionality is an asset that your business deserves to possess. Let us help you provide the path to success online.

Online Sales Person / Customer Service Rep

2011-10-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

While your business' goals should be refined down from this start; all websites should either be the very best sales or customer service employee you could ever hope to hire, or even better, be capable of doing both jobs with ease.

When a customer or potential customer arrives at your website the message delivered must convey to the visitor that they are where they intended to be and the issue or need that they have can be resolved by utilizing the website. Why is this so important? Think about your own experiences and those times when you thought you could resolve a need or an issue via a website that you thought would for sure, "be the one", but alas fell short of the goal and you either left without further interaction or had to call or contact the company becuase the site left your situation unresolved. Not good, and more expensive to the business because now an actual person has to answer a call or email and the cost of that gets expensive per incident quickly especially when compared to the cost and value of having an effective website that resolves issues and sells products or services autonomously.

Take this concept to the next level and set sales or customer service performance goals for the website and check the sites usage statistics, sales information and data, contact form usage and other barometers of your website's activity to gauge how effectively these goals are being accomplished and where room for improvement lies.

The economy of scale and your ROI can improve greatly by building an effective employee instead of trying to hire one as all the sick days, workers comp issues, health care and other expenses related to employees are not relevant to the investment in your website because it will serve your business 24/7/365 without any of the issues or costs associated with an actual employee. Further, a maintenance contract with a reliable vendor to update your website would be a vendor relationship and not an employee type and would provide similar benefits in terms of not incurring the expense of hiring people to do these in-house.

Contact us today to help your business put forth the very best sales person and customer service representative you could ever hope for.

What's In A Domain Name?

2011-10-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

When launching a new business, either online or a tactile store-front, one of the first considerations must be "is the .com version of the domain name available?" Unless your business is a non-profit and can use the ".org" extension, you must try to attain the .com version of a domain name becuase all the other extensions are largely useless when it comes to being found by the search engines.

Try it yourself on any commercial or product centered term and see if you find any .net, .fm, .co, .am, .whatever sites are listed. See, I told you.

Why? .com was designated as "for commercial use" and subsequently if you want to be known as a commercial enterprise this is the choice you need.

As the web explodes it is harder and harder to find creative, easy to spell and easy to remember domain names and much like beach front property, if someone else owns it now it is going to be expensive usually to get it from them. Add to that any kind of revenue being generated from Cash Parking or click-through money and now the numbers are large enough to buy a beach front house in Malibu.

Over The Net owns and manages over 700 domain names and has the expertise and knowledge on how to be creative with your domain name strategy. As well, OTN has brokered deals for far less than anticipated and bought domain names on behalf of our customers.

Who registers the domain name, with whom it is registered, how many other domain names they own and so on also count positively, or not, with the search engines so if you start off in the hole it will only get deeper.

Contact us today to start the process of developing your internet and website strategy along with your needs and goals so that your business and customers get the right domain name and overall plan for success.

Content Management Systems - Pro and Con

2011-10-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

Very often when we see a request for proposal or are working with a new client to assess their needs they state that they want a content management system so that they can make their own updates. Content Management Systems work for some applications better than others so when considering if you need this here are the pros and cons of such systems:

Pro - Users can be assigned to make updates on their own via a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get, sort of) editor. This allows users to make changes to your website without having to know any HTML or coding knowledge. This very blog is an example of a content management system, which is a must because the public needs to be able to utilize this site and not have the coding knowledge in order to be successful.

Con - Have you hired your employees, or do you wish to be, a website designer or maintainer? The amount of time and expense associated with having employees learn, master and make updates is often far greater than expected. How many updates are being made? How often do these updates happen? Is there a way to automate these updates? How much is a maintenance contract to have these updates done on our behalf? All very good questions to ask when considering a CMS backend.

Pro - We don't need to rely on, or pay, some flaky web company to make our updates.

Con - Any partner that your company works with should be as reliable as any employee you could hope to hire so do the homework and get referrals to insure that your website partner can make updates within 24 hours or less or will communicate exactly what the situation is and why.

Pro - The search engines are doing a better job at indexing these sites so it doesn't matter.

Con - While this was more true, the new Google algorithm discounts sites against the "quality of experience" so template sites that rely on a generic and often duplicated style will not rank as highly as a site that is specifically designed for your business and your customer's needs and expectations.

Pro - I'm done, if you have something else to add please do so in the comments area below.

Cons - 1) Employees can make changes as they wish; good, bad, ugly, destructive or just not done correctly and subsequently not good for business. This can also include ex-employees getting into the site to do their worst.

2) There are a lot of factors in user-satisfaction, image postings, search engine optimization techniques and overall website design and interface that is knowledge your employees and your CMS provider will not be able to provide.

3) The expense of employees (the days off, the sick days, worker's comp claims and so on) is often far greater than a reputable website partner will ever be so work out a maintenance contract that allows for all the updates your business needs at a rate that makes the ROI justifiable. Monitor this contract to be sure that you are using what is needed or adjust as you need.

4) As these systems are set against templates the flexability to update the site to change with your business and your site's user preferences is limited and may require an entire site re-design instead of a simple addition to the existing layout.

5) Site security against both mal-postings and actual loss of data is far greater via these sites than it is against an individually built and hosted website due to the interface required to accommodate updates.

We do provide CMS systems at Over The Net because in some applications it is appropriate and is the best solution for the application presented. There is no prejudice in our assessments of your need and will always strive to provide the best and most effective solution to your business.

Domain Name Scams - Get Protected!

2011-10-10T09:03:00.000-07:00

Almost all of our customers at Over The Net rely on us and GoDaddy to handle their domain name registration and protection services. We are responsible for domain name renewals as well as any changes that need to be made to each domain name.

Domain Registry of America however is an evil scam that sends people phony "renewal" notices trying to trick the owners to change thier domain name "Registrar" to their service. Everything can be lost once this happens as they are not legitimate and cause much more harm then they have ever done good.

Over The Net has expanded services and protections that keep our customers to falling for this by mandating a certain and specific series of questions and actions be performed before allowing any changes to the domain names we supervise and own ourselves (which totals over 500 domain names in-mass). This keeps the "pirates" and other bad people from stealing what is rightfully your property.

These protections are included in our domain name registration, which you would normally pay extra for if others even offered this service, to keep your value high and to your domain name safe.

Don't take chances, get your domain name protected and properly registered today!

Reasonable Expectations

2011-10-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

A few days ago a customer sent me an email saying how frustrating it was to use our system and setup a new employee's email address. This is a serious anomoly because our system is ultra-user friendly and we have tons of people utilizing our system every day without issue so I knew something was amiss.

I gladly went to the customer's location to see what I could do to solve the mystery and get back to everyone being happy, including me. Upon arrival I was told both that the email was and was not working so I went to the machine that held the answer as to which it was. What I found was nothing. Nobody had setup Outlook on that machine with any of the user's settings so no wonder it wasn't working.

Once I input the settings the multiple "test" emails came pouring through.

Here's the thing; I would have been much happier to find the account setup, but incorrectly input or whatever, rather than to find nothing.

If you ever face a situation in the computer world where you cannot figure it out, try to search online for a solution or even call a tech and ask for assistance, but don't hide from it or do nothing and expect magic to happen.

Total accountibility and customer satisfaction is all that Over The Net is about so we will go the extra mile to make our customers happy, but in situations beyond our scope we can only help so much so the more you can command your tools the better off you will be. All within reason of course as you do not need to know how to write HTML or build your own computer, but mastering your Office tools and basic computer user knowledge will keep you and your computer happy and productive.

Along these same lines is the expectation of being able to buy a templated or cheap website and make money from it as this is a falacy that has played out many times over with no success stories in their wake. It takes money to make money is still and will always be true. What is important is ROI (Return On Investment) because if you spend $1 dollar and only expect to get back $.50 then you're good, but if you expect to spend $1 and make a million dollars you should buy a lottery ticket because those chances are actually BETTER than the odds of the website generating that revenue. However, it is very possible to start with a modest budget and make some very good money each month if the following conditions are met 1) You spend what is needed to be competetive with the existing websites and business' you are competing against. 2) You are willing to work hard to attain new customers and keep existing customers coming back via communication by email and other means. 3) You have some kind or marketing advantage, including a well-built website and a good, easy to remember and spell domain name. 4) Paying attention to your site's activity and statistics to learn as much as possible about both why certain things succeed and why others are not as popular. 5) Be flexible with the model and go with what your customers want and use most and not what you think is important. Adjust the model to incorporate what your best margin item is or the service you wish to promote the most within what the users are most likely to use or visit so that both sides get what they want. A little give and take is common anymore on the web. 6) Be reliable and accountable and do all you can to legitimize the business via links such as the BBB or a secure SSL signature for ecommerce sites and always strive for excellent customer service and you'll have a better than everage chance at success.

A website company that cannot work with your business to ascertain your goals and needs in order to provide you a cost and user effective website is selling you short. If your website is not the best sales and/or customer service representative for your business then you need to make a change. Your website should set the standard for your business and when current or potential customers arrive they should recognize immediately that they are where they should be and want to come back.

My expectation is that these blog postings are helpful, am I correct? Let me know or ask me a question that's been bugging you Greg@otnmail.com

Netiquette - The hidden rules of the web

2011-10-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

Netiquette is the concept of being polite in your communications on the web. Many of the following applications or advice are concerned with Email and messaging, but some have to do with the web in general. If you have any questions, or doubts, contact me via email at the link below and I'll be happy to help.

OK, so here are the rules of the road:

1) MY MAKING THIS ALL CAPS MEANS I'M YELLING! By using all capital letters this conveys unhappiness / yelling. Also, when you compose an entire message in all capital letters it is very hard to read.

2) Punctuation is not mandatory because I'm using email or my cell phone, right? The more professionally you can present your communications, regardless of device used, the better it will be received and reflected upon your professionalism.

3) You are so cool! ;>) Not! At least not if you are speaking in a professional capacity as cute "emoticons", "avatars" and all variations of "cutesy" graphics or keystrokes are not at all cool.

4) Chain mail is never appropriate to forward, to anyone really due to it's many levels of horrible side effects, but certainly not within professional circles or associates.

5) Do not share anyone's email address in any capacity without approval. Even the best of intentions can result in the worst of spam.

6) Try to be consistent in the manner in which you communicate with others and try to reinforce agreements or expectations in a written format so that all involved see your perspective in writing. A "paper trail" of email correspondents always is good to have if needed.

7) Email is not so intrusive as a phone call is because email can responded-to as desired where a phone call demands a response, to answer or not, immediately. With all the demands on one's time, lag times in email systems and other factors such as graphic, key word or other filtering mechanisms that may slow delivery the best advice is to use email as much as possible, but be patient with its recipients.

8) Downtime is going to happen with all systems and while it's essential to have a responsive partner / employee / vendor that needs to know that something is awry, pestering them is not going to bring things back any sooner. Any service provider or IT person worth their salt wants nothing more than a quite, happy customer so know they will almost always (with Over The Net it is not an option to have anyone unhappy) react as quickly as possible to restore service.

9) Social media sites and communication portals such as Twitter can provide both personal and professional opportunities that are very positive, but those two worlds must not collide! The most evident case of this was when a elementary school teacher posted innapropriate images of drinking on their site and the kids / parents found them. Oops!

10) Strive to be the user that understands their systems and devices, is polite and professional in all communications, doesn't spread or foster negative email and treats others as you wish to be treated and you won't ever be considered to have poor Netiquette.

Send me an email with your questions: Sales@otnmail.com

Net Neutrality aka Network Neutrality or Internet Neutrality

2011-10-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

The term "Net Neutrality" (and all the associated aliases) is like the Internets version of it exercising its First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and to not differentiate between how data is processed.

So what does this mean to all of us? Specifically, network neutrality would prevent restrictions on content, sites, platforms, types of equipment that may be attached, and modes of communication. Second, it makes illegal any kind of restrictions on data and how it is transferred and this is actually a problem that is challenging the legitimacy of the campaign in support-of this effort.

While very notable people such as Vinton Cerf, considered a "father of the Internet" and co-inventor of the Internet Protocol, Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web, and many others have spoken out in favor of network neutrality so where could the downside be?

Just like the "Pro" position has some credible endorsements so does the "Con" side in Bob Kahn, co-inventor of the Internet Protocol, has called the term net neutrality a "slogan" and states that he opposes establishing it, but he admits that he is against the fragmentation of the net whenever this becomes excluding to other participants. Opponents of net neutrality regulation also argue that the best solution to discrimination by broadband providers is to encourage greater competition among such providers, which is currently limited in many areas and as always money and the Oligopoly that controls our channels of communication want to keep it limited. Also, some claim that differentiating content and types of traffic is the only effective way to manage and deliver content as quickly as possible to such a vast user group.

These rules are set to be enforced this November, but many lawsuits have been filed and more are to come that want to block this effort for the reasons stated. Who will win? Hopefully the American people overall, but probably only a few law firms and a couple of mega-conglomerants will benefit.

The Importance of Website Design

2011-09-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

If I had a dollar for each of the times that someone came to me and said, "I built my own website but it does not appear in Google or any of the other search engines?" I would be wealthy enough to buy a baseball team. So why is it that Google and the rest of the search engines demand that a qualified, experienced website designer be used before your website will be found against anything more than your typing in your domain name exactly (and even then it sometimes fails)?

The answer is the same as why one is discouraged from representing themselves in court, "You cannot do as good a job as someone that has been trained and educated in these manners."

Now is this to say that all web designers are qualified? No. Most only know how to make pretty pictures and spinning flash stuff and have no clue as to how the search engines work as it is a very complex set of variables that goes far beyond what the site looks like including how images are presented, how the content is formatted, who was used to register the domain name, where the site is hosted and the quality of that service, how long the web designer has been in business and on and on.

Kit cars are great and fun to build and you must have an advanced knowledge mechanics to be able to build one correctly, but even the finest kit car isn't going to be able to qualify for the Indy 500 so if you want to race you need to take the Speed Shop's mantra to heart; "Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?"

Only the lottery and Las Vegas promise a generous return for a minimum investment and we all know how unwise it is waiting for either of those to pay off so do not expect to be able to pay the minimum unless you expect the minimum.

Over The Net has always been value oriented and will work with your business to provide the greatest amount on your Return on Investment so contact us today and get in race or get in the stands and be content with cheering others to victory.

Statistical Forensics

2011-09-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

Are you old enough to remember the TV show "Quincy"? Jack Klugman played a medical forensics expert on TV for many years where he analyzed the deceased body to get clues as to how they expired. Yes, I am an old guy, but young enough to know that statistical forensics should be a part of your website's and your business' reputation management strategy, search engine optimization and content or layout analysis and maximization.

What is statistical forensics? Unlike with Quincy, websites are living organisms that accrue usage statistics on how, what and why people are using, or abusing, your website and online profile that must be analyzed in order to understand exactly what they are telling you. Just like with Quincy, clues can be derived from the body of statistics that will provide insight into how customers, competition and threats are poised for or against you so that one can better prepare themselves and their marketing to make the most of the good while minimizing the bad.

Over our 16 years I have found that many companies are attentive to their site usage statistics initially, but over time their interest decreases because lets face it, to most of us numbers are boring. However, in order to really succeed and / or to build appropriate offensive and defenses strategies, these boring numbers must be analyzed and understood to derive the, "clues" that will position your business ahead of the rest.

My personal background and education in finance gives us a unique perspective that others cannot provide. This knowledge, along with our years of experience on the web, can be your greatest ally so contact us today before you have to identify your website, or even worse your reputation, in the morgue.

Sales@otnmail.com

Search Engine Optimization - Reputation Management

2011-09-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Reputation management firms will say that they provide search engine optimization for your current website and any other websites that you wish to promote via "page stuffing" or "keyword loading" or many other techniques that may be effective for a month or two, but are not sustainable and will get your site removed altogether. Altogether? Yes!

Do not fall for these scams as the only way that Google and the other search engines will ever rank your website high in their indexing is by using a proven developer, a reliable host, a legitimate domain name registrar and by having the website correctly built.

Can anyone do this? No! Why not? There are too many variables and the complexities of each search engine's algorthm as well as the legacy of each of the variables above. Even if you find someone to design a nice site, that is hosted with a cheap hosting company and there is no search engine support you can kiss your chances of being found goodbye.

Google, Bing, Yahoo! and the rest are always looking to improve their services and results so sometimes you'll get lucky, for awhile, then the competition changes and you're washed away.

As well, it used to be that you needed to worry only about positive keywords and phrases to associate with your website, however, this is no longer the case as you better protect yourself and your business from negative keyword exposure and negative domain names as zealously as possible. If not, damage control AFTER the fact is much, much more expensive than a pro-active strategy.

In closing, the best analogy I can make is this: search engine indexing is much like growing fine wine grapes in that there are a ton of variables, including the length of time the vines have aged (or been on the web as it were - we're going on year number 16 so that is ancient and legendary in web years), how the grapes are blended, stored and many, many other things that all have to be mastered or else you'll be drinking vinegar.

Get your advantage today Sales@otnmail.com

Domain Name Strategy - Offensive and Defensive

2011-09-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

The domain name market is both an ally and a nemesis in that if you can attain a domain name that meets your business' needs and goals you are truly fortunate, but if someone else owns the domain name you seek this can truly be an expensive challenge to overcome.

Domain names are much like beach-front property that can never be duplicated or built-over. Once secured, domain names can be put to work, left to lay dormant or used for Cash Parking purposes to generate income on the merit of the domain name alone.

If your business cannot find a suitable .com version (all the others are pretty much useless in the search engines, unless your business is a not for profit and then .org works fine or .edu for school applications) of a domain name you are not alone as they are becoming harder and harder to attain. A registrar like GoDaddy.com has many, "speculators" that have bought-up domains in the hopes of one day finding a buyer that must have that domain name. Fair market, right? Right! many say as both positive and negative domain names must be considered to both take advantage of the positive and downplay the negative as much as possible.

Your business must employ a domain name strategy that is comprehensive as buying domains from speculators, allowing your competition the opportunity to own them or having lecherous firms use them to thier advantage will cost your business dearly.

Contact us today to improve your tomorrow Sales@otnmail.com

Google's New Panda Algorthm - One Nasty Bear!

2011-09-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

The manner in which Google will begin ranking websites will punish, "page stuffers" and other tricks of the SEO trade that try to fool Google and the other search engines into rank your website higher.

Many reputation management companies rely on these techniques so you will be punished for their efforts and your website will vanish from their results.

Here is a great article on what the changes mean and how they effect the rankings:
Google Panda Article

Get your corporate profile evaluation today and know your points of exposure before it's too late!

Sales@otnmail.com

Reputation Management Services

2011-09-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

Does your company:

know all the Points of Vulnerability Online that can Negatively Effect Your Business?

have a Domain Name Strategy both Offensively and Defensively?

have a Google or Bing Ad Word's and Banner Ad's Campaign Manager and Effective Strategy?

know how Social Media is being Used Against Your Business?

know how your Management's Personal Profiles are Exposed and Managed Online?

attain Top Search Engine Rankings Against all Positive and Negative Keywords?

understand the Expensive of Not Controlling All of these Variables?

Contact Us Today to Protect Your Corporation's Online Integrity and Reduce Lawsuit Expenses and Negative Exposure Opportunities:
Sales@otnmail.com