Many design companies will try to convince you to host your website for you. In almost every case, the costs are much higher than a third party solution.

In addition, if you ever become unhappy with the service that you are receiving from the design company, switching to another designer will be very difficult because you will need to switch hosting before any changes can be made.

Regardless of the domain name configuration, be sure to have the administrative contact for your domain name be your company name. Whoever is listed as the administrative contact controls the domain name. By having the domain name under your company name, no one can transfer your domain name without your permission or knowledge.

The reason this is important is we have seen customers lose their domain name because they were not listed as the administrative contact. In these cases the customer had to pay high amounts to get their domain name back.

For the website design and development companies that offer domain name registration and/or hosting, they often act as a reseller. Thus, they are using someone else’s services and are marking up the costs that you pay.

Look for a website design and development company that does not act as a reseller for domain name registration and hosting for the above reasons.

Look for a website design and development company that believes in forming a solid partnership with it’s clients. Don’t get locked into using a poor website designer and developer just because you use them for hosting.

We are here to answer any domain name and hosting questions that you may have.

1. Never reply or try to unsubscribe from spam. Spammers normally uses sophisticated programs to blindly blast out emails. By replying or unsubscribing, you are letting the spammer know that they have found a real working email account. You are now the perfect candidate for more spam, your email name gets labeled as “confirmed deliverable”, and the problem compounds. If you didn’t originally opt-in, do not opt-out or reply.
2. Setup a secondary email account. There are many free online email accounts available, like Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, YahooMail, etc. Setup a secondary email account and use this for any type of registration. This could be an online registration, printed product registration cards, or any other place where you are asked to provide an email address like for newsletters, subscriptions, membership directories, or online groups. This strategy keeps a large volume of emails out of your personal email inbox. Check the secondary account once every few weeks, quickly skim the subjects for anything meaningful, globally select all, and delete.
3. Be careful where you post your email address. Posting your email address on a website leaves it subject to be picked up by spammer email scraping programs. If you are going to list your email address on a website, ask your web programmer to encode your email address. This is a simple step that greatly reduces spam. Here is a link to a very detailed and technical article on how to encode your email address: http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/519/how-to-reduce-your-email-spam-by-75/.
4. Update your email filters. Most email programs, Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, have the ability to add individual email filters. Spend 10 minutes and learn how to use them. Once you get the hang of it, you can add a new filter in seconds, almost the same amount of time to recognize and delete the email. If you want a more aggressive approach, there are programs that you can use, spamMatters, SpamAssasin, and Spam Bully, that can help reduce spam as well.
5. Report the unwanted spam to the Federal Trade Commission. Send a copy of unwanted or deceptive messages to spam@uce.gov. The FTC uses the unsolicited emails stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive spam email. Does it help? Yes. Suspected “King of Spam” Robert Soloway, was recently arrested in Seattle for sending billions of spam emails.
6. Do not purchase anything promoted through spam. If you receive a spam email and are interested in the offer, go to a search engine and find the same product elsewhere. Do not support the spammer by purchasing the product.
7. Do not forward chain emails. Who wouldn’t want free M&Ms or to collect a huge inheritance from our long lost Nigerian relative? Remember, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is! The same is true for emails alerting about a new virus. Before you email everyone in your address book about a virus, be sure to check to make sure it isn’t a hoax. A good source is: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html.
8. Learn more. Visit www.spamhaus.org for detailed information about the fight against spam.

Hopefully these tips will help you reduce your spam intake. Good luck!

There are many reasons why you should have a website.

1. Your competition is already on the web. Do a quick search in Google or Yahoo for your type of business. Chances are you found a few of your competitors. Guess what? So did your potential customer. But because you don’t have a website the potential customer will never know about you.
2. Your potential customers are searching the web. Today more than ever, people are using the internet to search for and purchase products and services. The days of the Yellow Pages are quickly fading. The website is an excellent resource for consumers to gather information, compare products and services, and to get an idea about prices. From the comfort of home, your customer can research a purchase without the pressure of a salesperson. Your customer will most likely visit at least a few sites before deciding to take the next step in the buying cycle. Make sure you have a website so you can be one of the businesses of choice!
3. Your website is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year long. There is no other marketing medium that can be as available as a website. Day or night, weekday or weekend, your customers will be able to access information about your products and services. Many customers will do their research after they get home, have dinner, put the kids to sleep, and finally have a chance to sit down and relax. If you have a website you are still open for business!
4. Your website can reach new markets, locally, nationally, and globally. A website is an incredible marketing tool for the small business. Being available to the entire world, you are open to many more opportunities and to people who many not have otherwise found your business. In almost any business you will hear the importance of location, location, location. With the internet, you can be located in a garage in a small town, and still be wildly successful! On the internet we all have an equal chance at the best location.
5. Your website can save you money by lowering other marketing costs. Successful marketing efforts incorporate multiple advertising mediums. Your business will need to find the proper mix of print, web, direct mail, TV, radio, and billboard advertising. Unless you are a very unique business, you’ll never be able to advertise in just one medium, but a professional website will allow you to lower the costs in some of the other areas. An additional benefit is the connectivity of a website. It will last longer and is more cost effective to make quick changes than some of the other advertising medium.
6. Your website can help reduce your labor costs. A good website will do two things, increase sales and increase efficiencies. Your website can be like having an extra person, automating repetitive tasks and processes. It can also help organize information, allowing your employees to be more efficient.
7. A website expands your existing advertising. Because of the flexibility of a website, you can go into much further detail than a print brochure, a sales call, or any of your other advertising medium. People search the internet for information because they have a question, problem or need. Use your website to answer the question, solve the problem, and to show you can help.
8. A website helps build your credibility. We all have competition. A website is an excellent way to begin building the experience your customers will have when working with your business. Before your customer steps foot in your business or before they pick up the phone to call you, chances are they have visited your website. Make sure that you have a website that gets the relationship off to a good start. By providing a professional website you can show how you are different and why the person should use your business over your competition. The internet also allows you to compete against any other company, big or small. Your website is your storefront and it can be as impressive as any other.
9. Information is easy to change. There is no other advertising medium that can be updated as quickly as a website. If the prices, products or services of your business change, these edits can be made in minutes vs. having to reprint a brochure or sales sheet. The brochure is still important, it may have been the tool that got the customer to the website. But the website can offer the latest and greatest information about your business. A website also centralizes information. Instead of having multiple price catalogs out in the hands of your customers, you can have one page on your website that provides the most current pricing. A professionally developed website will provide you access to change this information as you require, using a content management system. What used to take days to change can literally take minutes.
10. Your customers can buy your product online. One of the most powerful aspects of a website is the ability to sell products online. It offers the flexibility and convenience for your customer and is more cost effective for your business. Having the online store open 24/7 also increases your opportunity for more sales. Websites are often used by larger companies to promote and to sell clearance items. Because the audience of the website is so much larger than walk in traffic, you can sell more specific or niche products.
11. Your website makes it easy for customer referrals. Word of mouth advertising is still one of the most powerful advertising channels. When your product creates a buzz or gets popular, make it easy for people to spread the word. One of the best things you could hear your customer say to a potential customer is, “check out their website”. Be ready for this customer, have an easy to use and informative website. Turn the potential customer into a new customer. With a little creativity, you can select a good web address that will be easy for your customers to remember. Much easier than a phone number or address.
12. Your website can improve your customer service. One of the most useful strategies that can be implemented on a website is providing a support section or a frequently asked questions page. In every business, we all have a list of FAQs. Improve your customer’s experience by providing the answers to these questions. Also, by having a support page or knowledge base, you are showing your customers that you care not only about the initial sale, but the longevity of the relationship. Quality and price are expected, but good service can still be hard to find. Your customers will remember how easy you made it when they had a question or service issue. A happy customer is a repeat customer.
13. Your website is a great marketing research tool. Every website should have some type of statistics and analytics tracking implemented. This will allow you to see what products and services people like the most, and which they like the least. It also shows you how much time people spent on your website, what pages they viewed, what page they were on when they left your website, what time they viewed your website, and much more. This information is extremely helpful and often acts as a guide in making business decisions. You can also use your website to track special promotions by creating specific landing pages. For instance, on your next postcard mailing, instead of sending your customer to your home page, send them to a specific page within your website that is only accessible directly. Thus, you know that the number of hits on that page are all due to the postcard mailing. What a great way to measure the effectiveness of your other marketing efforts!
14. Your website will help you stay connected to your customers. A great strategy to use to help maintain top of mind awareness is by mixing your other marketing efforts with your website. You can provide a printed or electronic newsletter that directs people back to your website. You can advertise a new product by adding a brief message in your email signature block, which points back to your website. The more organized information you can add to your website, the better. Add articles, tips, or other useful information that provides value to your customers. Also, have an email or newsletter signup form on your website to cultivate new customers!

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