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 October 2007 Newsletter |
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[ Top ] October Product Update
As always please do not hesitate to contact me directly with comments, critcisms and suggestions! Bulk Domain Registration The DNR team are happy to report that customer can now search and register multiple domains from one simple form which is now live on the UK website. .Asia Pre-registration If you haven't already invested in an SSL certificate, November could be the right time to make that step. Secure sockets layer (SSL) encrypts information before it's transmitted over the Internet, ensuring no one can read it in transit. Thomas Herbert
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Stay in Touch with Hostway Elertz
Now you won’t have to miss a message about your service again because the elertz system will inform you, directly in your browser – and if you’re not online or logged on, it can even be setup to SMS your mobile phone. So if you're an exisitng customer and want to be kept in touch about your hosting service* without worrying about whether it’ll get through your email system or not, sign up for this FREE tool now. Benefits Include:
How it works:The service comes in the form of an Internet Explorer toolbar*. To install the toolbar, simply click on the 'Elertz Download' link within your Sitecontrol news page, and when prompted, select "Save" and save the file to your desktop. Close all browsers, run the wizard and the toolbar will then be installed. You will be able to uninstall this at any time through 'Add and Remove Programs' in the Windows Control Panel. *The toolbar is only available for Internet Explorer at the moment but will be available for other browsers shortly.
Simply visit the Hostway Elertz Download page from within Sitecontrol, click on the availble Hostway Elertz and they will be installed automatically for you. You will even be prompted if you you would like to include the SMS notification for this elert. If you no longer wish to recieve the announcement you can disable or remove the Hostway Elert from with the toolbar's options. To install the toolbar, simply click on the 'Elertz Download' link within your Sitecontrol news page!
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SEO Workshop Do these 10 exercises to start your program of search engine fitness: 1. Search your site on the top search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN see how many links your site has—type link:http://www.mysitename.com in the Google search box. Search key terms and see who ranks high. Check how many links they have using a simple search—link:http://www.highrankingsite.com. 2. List your site in a directory. This is where the search engines start. DMOZ is free, so use that first. It takes a little longer than Yahoo to be listed, but you'll save the $299 Yahoo Directory fee. Use both if you have the money and want quicker results. 3. Pick relevant terms. The terms you use to describe your business may not be the terms people are searching on. Use a keyword selection tool like Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com) or Overture (inventory.overture.com) to get some directional data on search term frequency and actual search phrases. 4. Use search-friendly terms in the file names of your pages. These are the names that show up in the universal resource locator (url) "address" bar at the top of your browser (e.g., http://www.mywebsite.com/search_term_everyone_uses). Search engines place heavy emphasis on file names. 5. Insert invisible meta tags at the top of your HTML using this syntax <META NAME = "KEYWORDS" CONTENT="popular term 1, key phase 2"> page. Search engines see them, browsers do not. Be sure to include relevant popular terms in the tags. 6. Use heading text (h1...h6) to highlight key terms <h1>Key Term</h1>, for section headers instead of bold and italics <b>, <i>. Search engines place more emphasis on heading text. 7. Use alternate text to describe images: <IMG SRC="filename" ALT="Description">. Search engines look for text, not images. 8. Make sure that all the important pages in your site can be reached through internal text links, not just menu navigation. Search engines cannot see graphical buttons or the text in them. 9. Include a site map. Search spiders use site maps to index your site. These and other useful tools can be found in the Google webmaster section (www.google.com/webmasters/tools). 10. Ask for links from high-ranking sites. Use email to contact the webmaster and tell them why they should link to you. Analyze their sites to see where/how they link to others and ask for similar links. Industry directories and reference lists are a good start. Don't mass email. Customize each request and use a spreadsheet to keep track of what requests you issued and when, and to schedule follow-up emails. And, very importantly, don't fall prey to quick fixes or guaranteed placement schemes. Using tricks to exploit search engine algorithms will eventually backfire, resulting in penalties in the form of ranking downgrades. Stick to the basics, be patient, and move on. Organic optimization should not be a full-time job (unless you are doing it for a lot of companies). Taking these first 10 steps puts you on the path to search engine fitness. Remember, links, content, design, and persistence win the race. Cet Geschickter is principal consultant and founder of Open Method, an Internet strategy consulting firm (www.openmethod.net). He also has a blog: www.dotcomstrategist.com.
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Customer Relationship Management Source: Yankelovich Partners Apr 2004 (www.yankelovich.com) If that's the consumer market only a couple of years ago, what does that say for the even-more-savvy business to business market today? Let's face it in today's environment there are more companies, producing more messages, to more prospects than ever before. And people are getting tired of it, suspicious of it, oblivious to it and down-right fed up with it. I've spent the last 15 years working in advertising and marketing both on Agency side and client side, off-line and online. And you know what? I'm kinda getting frustrated with it too! Frustrated by the fact that much of the marketing these days has lost its way. That too many companies are trying to 'sell' poor quality products to people they know really don't need it. That companies are ignoring the needs of the very people they're trying to persuade to buy their products. That there's too much of a 'just grab the cash and forget about everything else' attitude. That even if businesses genuinely have a good product or service, they still mistakenly go down well-trodden marketing paths that don't deliver the results they really need because they're not addressing the issues they really need to. It's not that marketing is no longer effective. It's that current marketing strategies are based on a marketplace that's not what it used to be and are being driven by too many internal factors other than the one real thing they should be being based on - your prospects! It's being led by numbers, by statistics, by budgets, by targets, by a 'we've got a product, let's sell it' attitude, rather than by a focus on what REALLY matters to an individual who's looking (or even doesn’t realise that they need) to solve a problem. Everyone talks a good game. They 'say' they look after customers. They say they understand their customers and what they want, they say they develop products that work. They say they spend time and money developing ads that 'sell their products'. They say…….. But you know what? Do you ever get the feeling that there's something fundamentally missing from all this activity? Do you ever feel that that's just all it is - talk? That no matter what they say they do, that they don't really 'believe' in what they're doing or 'practice what they preach' ? That it's just not getting the desired results? That it's not quite 'hitting the spot' so to speak? Well let me tell you know - It doesn’t have to be this way! Marketing is in fact - really simple. I mean REALLY simple. It shouldn't really be called marketing at all because essentially it's as simple as having a business providing a product that somebody realises they need and is willing to pay for it. If the basic premis is right, everything else falls into place with a minimum of effort. Wouldn't you like to come across as being the kind of company that people would like to do business with, fairly and honestly, for a fair price, knowing that they're going to get a good deal and want to come back for more? Rather than being a company that's eyed with suspicion by your prospects or even worse, totally ignored? KEEPING IT SIMPLE (the old 'K.I.S.S' adage), KEEPING IT RELEVANT and most of all KEEPING IT COMMON SENSE. Next issue I want to start the ball rolling by talking about why customers get turned off by marketing efforts designed to benefit the company NOT the customer and how stepping back, refreshing and recharging your marketing efforts can change the focus from just ‘doing marketing’ to actually changing the customer experience. [ Top ]
And finally... If you have a technical query relating to your Domain Name(s), web hosting plan or VPS please write to support@hostway.co.uk or start a support ticket in SiteControl. If you have a feature related query, or wish to discuss alternative options please write to sales@hostway.co.uk For product related Ideas & suggestions write to:
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Hi! And welcome to October's product round-up, there are a few things I need to run you through this month, including two items of important domain news, and a juicy SSL deal you won't want to miss out on. 
Realtime notification of any changes or maintenance to your services that we want you to know about
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Receive alerts on your mobile phone if you are not logged on
Quick access to your site control panel in a single click
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Be kept up to date with news at hostway without intrusive email messages
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