Periodically I get the above help message and there are some simple things you can do straight away.

1. Is your web space full?
You can login to the control panel to check that. You should see that you still have space available, or it will let you know if it’s full – usually there is a warning message generated but if your mail box has filled quickly, you might not get it.  If you find that your webspace is getting full quickly, you may need to upgrade your webhosting service to a bigger web space.

2. Is there email blocked in the mail server?
Perhaps someone sent you a huge file that can’t download. If that’s the case, view the offending email and print it off, if necessary, then delete it from your mailbox in your control panel. After that everything should start to download again. You may get repeated messages – that’s normal because the server kept trying to deliver repeatedly and would start all over again till it got to the spot where it was stuck.

3. Have you tried shutting down your computer and starting back up again?
It might just be a temporary problem and rebooting your computer may clear the error.

4. Is there anything else I should know?
Have you recently had something change on your computer, or even changed ISPs?  We may need to do some testing to see what else could be causing it.

Many of you will know that I use SpamArrest to handle my incoming email and process spam as well. I used to wake up in the morning and find 3-4 pages full of spam with the occasional unapproved email amongst it all. It is now less than a page that comes through overnight. What has made the difference?

I disabled the challenge message a month or so ago. Can’t remember why I did it – perhaps I read something somewhere or was thinking about it. At any rate I figured that spammers might not pursue my addresses (I have several listed at SpamArrest) if they didn’t get confirmation back that the address was live, i.e. the challenge message.

Whether or not, that’s the reason, only time will tell, but for now it seems to be working and I’m happy that I don’t have to wade through more than a dozen or so messages in the morning before getting on with my day.

If your web hosting is with acswebservices or acs-webhosting, then you have the ability to set up a blog on your website with Wordpress. If not already installed, you can log into your control panel, scroll down to Fantastico at the bottom of the screen and then install Wordpress from inside Fantastico – if you have a website, make sure you create a folder for your blog otherwise it will overwrite your website home page with the blog page. If in doubt, I can do it for you – all part of the service.

Many people wonder if they should have a newsletter or a blog – you can elect to do either or both. It really depends on what your aim is.

Fresh/new content on a website is what search engines need to keep your website higher in the listings – old/stale sites drop down the list. So, it’s a good idea to have at least monthly, new content to post onto your website and doing it via a newsletter or blog is ideal.

My personal preference are blogs and the reasons for this are:

• Blog posts are picked up by Google and other search engines within minutes (I have proven to myself that a new blog post is available via Google in less than 10 minutes) after being published.
• A blog post, when published, uses the subject heading for its url address – often these are keywords that people can search on, to find you.
• You can literally log in, write and publish – you don’t need html knowledge or a web publishing program.
• You can pre-write your articles to publish at planned dates so if you’re away for a period of time, they still publish.
• You can write to your blog anywhere around the world, even via a cafe internet – you don’t need to be at your own computer to do it.
• Blog posts don’t need to be lengthy articles – they can just be a para or two so you don’t have to worry about how much content or filling up a page or two.
• In the Wordpress dashboard you can see if others are linking to your site or writing about you with links – always good to know!

What a blog or newsletter on your website will do, apart from providing fresh content to your site, is establish you as the expert in your field. And let’s face it, that’s what you want to do, isn’t it? Become the ‘expert’ that others will seek out when they need your service or product.

You don’t have to be a fantastic writer, but if you are concerned about your writing ability, then engage the services of a Virtual Assistant (VA) to assist you with that. Most VAs have a good command of the English language and an ability to correct grammar, spelling and even write copy for you.

There are other things you can do for your website because it is your online presence and brochure and you want people to see what you do. So make sure your website address is listed on the following:

• Business cards
• Brochures
• Letterhead
• Any other stationery
• Printed advertising (like the Yellow Pages or in newsletter)
• Develop a signature block and include your website address for whenever you email people or participate in online forums
• On your car
• On your merchandise
• List your website with directories you come across – even local council web directories

Just because you have a website doesn’t mean it’s ’set and forget’. You need to continue marketing and networking as always – it’s just that the website is available 24/7 and people can look you up, or find you, providing you make it easy for them.

If you’re new to our web hosting services, make sure you visit our blog for more information on making the most of your website.

Cheers, Kathie

Occasionally something just won’t work. If you’re new to being hosted and don’t quite understand how things are set up, then please do not hesitate to contact my office. An email in the first instance is always best but you can follow up with a phone call if you haven’t heard from me in 3-4 hours, during business hours.

Be assured I want to provide you with the best possible service as your web host but if I don’t know you have a problem, I don’t know that you need help. Sometimes it’s just a simple thing that needs doing and I can help you work it out.