From now on for my existing clients, when you purchase a 4-hour block of maintenance or editing for your existing web site, you are guaranteed a turn-around time of 24-48 hours on all edit requests which take one hour or less!*
Plus, all of your maintenance and edits are now tracked on your unique and secure Client Portal Page. If you’ve purchased maintenance blocks in the past, you may not have heard, but now your maintenance is tracked in a password protected area, where you can easily see the time tracked, what was edited, and how much pre-purchased time you have remaining.
Some advantages to purchasing a 4-hour maintenance block include:
Read the rest of this entry »
Admittedly, I’ve never been all that worried about viruses for my own computer because I use a Macintosh computer exclusively. Until recently.
No, my Mac didn’t get the viurs, but one of my clients’ web page did, as did some PCs who clicked on her page! Because many of my clients know one another and I receive many referrals via networking, I encourage all of my clients who use PCs to have their computers scrubbed and cleaned!
So how did this happen, what are the risks, and how can you clean your computer?
Yes, they’ve been at it again with my clients. GoDaddy. I’m really REALLY beginning to despise them. If I haven’t said it enough, I will say it again…
All hosting plans are not created equal!
Here are some things that GoDaddy has done to me and clients of mine, in the not so distant past:
- They’ve scared clients into renewing services they don’t need like “Certified Domains” and “Protected Registration” – I still don’t see the value in paying MORE money for your domain to be “GoDaddy Certified” – and when a client of mine sincerely wanted to transfer her domain name and cancel her “Protected Registration” she was forced to fax very sensitive documents to GoDaddy – her Driver’s License, her business license or certificate of assumed name, tax ID number, etc. All of which are never a requirement for domain name registration, and frankly, an invasion of her privacy. “Protected Registration” is only to “protect GoDaddy” in my opinion.
- They charge for EVERYTHING – Want 5 email address? Sure! But you’ll have to pay $30 or more for 2 years for that. Want to renew your domain name? Sure! Just pay us! Everything is “piece-meal” and has a charge. Why should you have to pay for these things when there are hosting providers that give you all of these things FOR FREE with your hosting account?
- Good luck getting ANY refunds! – So, you’ve paid for 2, maybe 3 years of domain name registration FEES with GoDaddy, and you find out – “Oh! Tigertech.net gives me my domain name FREE with hosting.” You can TRY to transfer your hosting, and if it isn’t in “Protected”-land with them, they might allow the transfer, but I have yet to see any of my clients receive any of their money back.
- Poor Customer Service, and BAD Hosting Practices – From a webmaster’s standpoint, GoDaddy makes things incredibly difficult. I once reinstalled a new client’s site TWICE for them because of errors that kept popping up with permalink settings, only to find out that my client’s htaccess files were only updated ONCE per HOUR. I found this out from doing a web search to find that many folks had the same issue – and GoDaddy was the culprit. I’ve had clients’ GoDaddy admin screens all look different, and couldn’t navigate them easily at all. Even one of the techs at Tigertech had to “dig” to find the right screens on one client’s GoDaddy domain management page – JUST TO CHANGE DNS or Transfer a Domain Name. Plus, the only way I’ve gotten any kind of support from GoDaddy is with a direct phone call, and never less than 30 minutes of my time (meaning my client’s money). Setting up and configuring a mySQL database requires about twice the time as Tigertech.net, and THEN I have to log in to PHPMyAdmin JUST TO FIND OUT WHAT SERVER NAME TO USE to point to the database. Lots of extra steps, and lots of time wasters. (Apologies if this is too techy-jargon for some of you – just some things I do daily that they just get wrong).
So, why do I LOVE tigertech.net and why do I want to make it my mission in life to have all of my clients moved to their hosting plans?
Here are reasons to switch to Tigertech.net
- FREE domain name registration with your hosting account
- FREE renewals of your domain name with your hosting account
- 50 email boxes and 250 forwarding addresses FREE with the basic hosting account
- UNLIMITED bandwidth with ALL of their hosting accounts
- 10 MySQL databases FREE (that’s TEN!) with the basic hosting account
- If you’ve paid them for a year, but want to leave in the middle of that year THEY WILL REFUND YOUR UNUSED MONEY!
- The EASIEST and most THOROUGH support documentation you could imagine! Want to set up your email account on your iPhone, just go to http://support.tigertech.net/iphone – enter your email address, and the document gives you step by step instructions, pictures, and YOUR email address information filled in.
- BUILT IN FREE WEB STATISTICS with all hosting plans
And in my opinion, THE BEST support you can get with a hosting company. Send them an email with any question, and I dare you to stump them! They have even created custom mail routing for one of my clients who needed a customized email solution using forwarding and an external exchange server. THEY’VE NEVER LET ME DOWN, and that’s why I NEVER BILL FOR TIME in working with them.
So please! PLEASE! NO Daddy! Transfer your domains to Tigertech.net. I’ll help any of my clients do this FOR FREE!
Need a new web site you can also edit yourself when it’s completed? From now until December 31, I am offering the following web design special! After December 31, my prices will never be this low again!
Details:
- Up to six (6) distinct pages of content, in addition to an optional integrated Blog
- Wordpress driven blog/content management back-end interface (edit your own content easily after the design is completed!)
- Layout customization of a Wordpress theme (including graphics and photos provided digitally by client)
- A flexible calendar of events that can be edited by an end-user either through Wordpress or Google Calendar
- A standard set of 6 plugins for Wordpress for sidebar management, link and page management, spam reduction, and contact form creation and management.
*$405 package price applies to sole-proprietor and non-profit (without employees) pricing. Other businesses with employees pricing is $505 (discounted from $550). Package does not include additional pages, the use or purchase of stock photos, creation or editing of video or audio, or extensive editing, resizing, or digital restoration of photos. Additional options can be added to this offer when pre-paid, or added after initial design in a Pay-as-you-go fashion.
**Client agrees to provide as much content, graphics, logos, photos, and media in digital format as possible. Converting of media to digital formats shall be billed at an hourly rate, including any other external costs or expenses.
Recently, my preferred web host, TigerTech.net, announced that it will be upgrading all of it’s web hosting plans.
As if their hosting plans weren’t good enough – now when you sign up for a hosting account with TigerTech.net, you receive at least 10GB of space and UNLIMITED bandwidth! This is a new podcaster’s dream come true! For an additional $1 per month, you can double your storage space to 20GB!
This is making me re-think my need to send folks to podcast host services like Hipcast or LibSyn to host their podcast media.
And, as always, because I trust them impecably, if you are a client of mine and host your site with TigerTech.net, you never pay me for any support interactions with them on your behalf. Yes you heard that – NEVER. Feel free to contact me if you are still hosting with someone else and need to make the switch to TigerTech.net!
It seems like a trend once again. As more of my clients wish to use social networking and Web 2.0 features in their blogs, they also want a more robust and trackable RSS feed.
I recently added Feedburner email subscription sidebar widgets to ElizaOne, Inc. and Call That Girl’s websites.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it’s a way for your customers to receive your blog posts in an RSS Reader application (along with all the other blog posts from blogs which they subscribe). But, as a blogger and Social Media Marketer of your business, maybe you want to see how your RSS is doing, or have your RSS feed really WORK for you.
Enter Feedburner!
Now owned by Google, Feedburner lets you take control of your RSS feed. Through Feedburner, you can see detailed statistics for your feeds, know how many folks are subscribed, subscribe folks to have blog posts sent to them via email, find out who’s clicking through links on your blog (and how often), etc.
They even have a great primer on the basics of RSS.
If you’re a client of mine or a blogger who’s interested in Feedburner, feel free to contact me about integrating Feedburner’s features into your Wordpress site!
My favorite hosting provider, Tiger Technologies, is offering a special incentive for web hosting until the end of July. If you sign up for hosting, or transfer your hosting to TigerTech by 11:59pm PST on July 31, you will receive your first four months of hosting FREE!
TigerTech has long been my hosting provider of choice, for MANY reasons.
- You never have to pay for Domain Name Registration
- They have a track record for environmental advocacy, and they are carbon neutral
- The user experience with a hosting account couldn’t be any easier – no horrible jargon, advertisements, or hard to read control panels to decipher.
- Above all – THE BEST customer service I have ever encountered from an internet hosting company – hands down!
The best advantage also, if I work on your web design project and you host with TigerTech, I will not charge any time for set-up of emails, hosting, or any other issue you may have that pertains to your hosting. I’ll take care of these these things for you FREE OF CHARGE, because I believe they are that good, and I trust that I will rarely, if ever, encounter any technical problem with regard to host servers with TigerTech.
To take advantage of this offer, click the image above to sign up for 4 months of free hosting!
Some of the questions I am asked all the time are “Can you really make it financially as a freelancer?” or “Can you make a lot of money that way?”, “Isn’t that risky?”, and a more recent one from a ‘former’ freelancer – “How can you compete with companies and online job bid sites that have such low prices or just want to put in the lowest bid?”
There are a couple of things that I believe separate the happy and successful freelancers I know from the “other guys” for lack of a better word. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo by John Lorenz
Recently, I assisted Leigh Ann Phillips, a musician and Sound Healing Therapist, to make many additions to her web site – www.leighannphillips.com.
I absolutely love working with other alternative and holistic practitioners, as well as musicians. It allows me to collect and gather all of my passions together – music, healing, and web design!
Leigh Ann’s website was already beautifully in place, with the help of photographer, John Lorenz. However, adding almost 30 pages of new content seemed cumbersome with both Leigh Ann and John’s busy schedules. So, Leigh Ann contacted me to place new pages for CDs and Books, as well as Crystal Tones Singing Bowls that she is now selling!
Kathy McTavish
I was also very lucky to meet Leigh Ann at a sound healing workshop she held in Duluth, MN, and to connect her with Cellist, Kathy McTavish, who played just beautifully with the 20-something singing bowls brought to the Spiritual Deli last month!
For more information about Leigh Ann Phillips, her music, singing bowls, and sound healing, visit her web site:
I recently helped Sonia Warmack, a bookkeeper and owner of SRW Books, Inc, to move her Wordpress.com blog into her own hosted web site. Because the job was very straightforward, and she already had a blog, and simply wanted to migrate everything to her own website (with a few modifications), Sonia took advantage of my new Pay-as-You-Go service option.
One of the great features of the professional social networking site, Linked In, is all of the great additional applications which you have access! One of the best applications that is integrated with Linked In is your very own blog on Wordpress.com. This is a great way for people to get started with wordpress as a blogging tool.
After you’ve mastered the inner workings of Wordpress.com, your next step might be to integrate your blog into your business web site, or to step into a Wordpress-based website completely.
If this is your stepping stone into the world of Wordpress, I congratulate you! When you migrate your blog into your site, or upgrade to a Wordpress driven web site, you’ll notice that your back-end interface is almost completely THE SAME as what you used on Wordpress.com! Easy!
Be sure to visit SRWBooks if you are in need of part-time bookkeeping as well!
http://www.srwbooks.com/
Scott Schumacher is an independent web designer, 
