Domain Registry of America once again sent us a letter regarding the expiration of one of our domains. We get a few of these a year and so do some of our clients.

If you get one – Do not pay.

click image for a larger view

The letter looks like a bill and tries to convince you that the best thing you could possibly do is to send them money. If you do, you will be paying 2-4 times what you should be, and you will be transferring the registrar account for your domain to them.

Domain Registry of America purposefully sends these letters out so they will be received before your actual registrar sends out a renewal notice.

Domain Registry of America sends out millions of these domain expiration notices. Each year thousands of people pay these “false bills”. Don’t be one of them.

Have you forgotten when you last renewed, the expiration date or even with what company you registered your domain? You can easily get information about your domain, that is: if you didn’t opt for private registration. Go to Network Solutions’ Who Is page and type in your domain name.

FAQ:

Do you have to renew your domain name?:

Yes you do.

Are there other obligations as a domain name owner?:

Yes, each year you must verify the contact information listed by your registrar. You will be sent an email from your registrar with a link where you can verify your information.

Domain Name Registrar defined:

A company you buy a domain name from and renew it each year. These companies are accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or by a national country code top-level domain (ccTLD) authority, to manage the reservation of Internet domain names in accordance with the guidelines of the designated domain name registries and to offer such services to the public.

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Your Website Security Upgrade

2011 saw the greatest number of website security incident investigations ever. As the internet becomes more and more prevalent in our lives so do the security risks and website hack attempts

We know you take your website seriously and trust us with keeping it online, updated , compatible, available 24/7 and secure.

I do want to assure all current and future clients that none of the websites hosted with Elegant Eagle Web Design have been hacked nor have any hack attempts been noted or reported. Even so, I believe it is important to be proactive and offer even more protection from security risks.

Immediate security enhancement:

Password Lock-Down

After 5 failed attempts to access the admin area of your website the access portal will be locked down for 30 minutes.

By May 1st 2012 all websites hosted with us will have a password lock-down system in place.

As we expand and roll out the features of what we will eventually comprise the “Peace of Mind and Security Assurance Package”, the entire full range of security enhancements will be 100% free.

Continue reading “Security Upgrade” »

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It was late, I’d been on the web all day…and that is when it started.  I decided to take a few images and create some custom “under construction” pictures. I am sharing this one here for anyone who wants to use it.

Feel free to download and use as you like.  Enjoy.

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Editing a WordPress page is easy. Check out the short video below to learn how.

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After saying “hey, I want a website”

So, you want a website for your business. The variety of what you can do online is amazing and at a fraction of the cost compared just a few years ago.

Options are good, so you want to know:

• what you can do
• what you want to do
• what you should do
• but most importantly what you need to do to fulfill your business’s strategic objectives.

A website is not like a stand alone add in the yellow pages or a flyer it is a dynamic, engaging, current and relevant promoter, informer, and sales mechanism for your business 24/7.

1. Why?

How does a website fit into your overall business strategy? Knowing what you want to accomplish with a website will have a major impact on the next 5 points, and if you haven’t answered this question then you do not yet have a strategy and it will be impossible to strategically think about the following considerations. Continue reading “6 website design considerations” »

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WordPress is search engine friendly out of the box.  Follow these steps to optimize your pages and posts for SEO (Search Engine optimization).

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Creating a new page in WordPress is easy with the built in editor.  If you are familiar with word processors you will find it easy to create and edit new pages in your wordpress website.  This short video will show you how.

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Almost every web designer has a process that they follow and I thought it important to lay mine out. This will help both designer and client to know what is expected, where we are in the process, and what the next step is.

Please also see: Building a Website is like Building a House

1. Analysis
1. Purpose of website
2. What do you want the website to do for you?
3. What experience do you want to create for the visitor?
2. Specifications
   1. What specific features do you want?
   2. SEO requirements
3. Design Parameters
   1. How many pages
   2. What “look & feel” do you want
   3. Basic hierarchy of content and menu structure
4. Design & Development
   1. The 40% build
   2. Review, modify, define colors etc..
5. Finalizing content (concurrently with step 4.2)
   1. Text and media (pictures, sound, videos etc…)
   2. Key word rich
6. Coding and Design Completion
   1. Polishing and finishing
   2. Final client approval
7. Text & Launch
   1. Text all links, functions, and addons
   2. Deploy to live server
8. Promote
   1. Social media
   2. SEO
9. Maintain
   1. Updating / adding content
   2. Back ups
   3. Updating addons, ensuring integration compatibility, and core program updates

Not all steps are necessary in every project it depends on the size and complexity of the website.  There are also clients who want to add, update and modify content themselves so we might add a training and/or “how to videos” component to the process.

Questions or comments?  Don’t hesitate to contact us.

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Step by Step

Experience has shown that when building a custom website for a client, it is best to do it in steps. And to let the client know what those steps are and what responsibilities they have along the way. It is important that the client know what they can expect from me and they know what is needed from them to move the process along.

Like Building a House

Building a website is a bit like building a house. A builder friend of mine told me that it takes approximately 40% of the time and resources to lay the foundation, put up the frame, and 2x4s to divide up the interior to separate rooms and such. Its not pretty at that point and none of the finishing work is done, but the buyer can walk through and get a feel for the space, the window placement, the hall widths, the doors and cabinet layout. Changes at this point are relatively easy; ie, move a door down 3 feet, make a window larger. Once the drywall is up, the windows framed, the molding and painting done, changes can involve major expense and project delays.

The 40% Build

The same is true in building a custom website. Therefor, I will send a link to the client and they can follow along as I build the website. In the beginning the colors won’t be exactly what the clients wants, a few corners may be rounded and the client would like them square, pictures may be generic low quality fillers and text may be nonsense, just to see what it looks like. What this does do though, is give the client a chance to get a feel for the website and browse through some of the ideas we had talked about and see how it looks on the actual website.

We may want to try different colors, picture sizes,/placement and module configurations. All easy to do at the “40%” stage. We can even bring in other people at this stage to get more eyes on it. When we are satisfied then I’ll work on making it smooth and elegant, with quality images and colors that work together.

For more see the 9 Step Process to building a website

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It is not by accident that WordPress is one of the  most used platforms for creating websites.

What can you do with a WordPress website?

• Simple blog site
• Scalable webdesign  - start small and build as your business builds
• Social media integration
• Advanced SEO  -  Get found on the web
• Tables                  Continue reading “WordPress Statistics” »

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