If you have your blog hosted with acswebservices and recently had your site shifted to our new server you might find some odd characters showing up - it does depend on what version of Wordpress you are using.  The characters I mean show up like this: Week’s

This has something to do with a clash between the newer software on the server and that version of Wordpress.  But there is a fix.  You can download the wp-utf8-sanitize plugin which I’ve found to be very useful.  It’s worked about 95% of the time for these strange character sets that show up.  Just download the plugin, unzip the file, copy it to your plugins folder in your blog and then activate it in the plugins section in your Wordpress dashboard.

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

Last year I did a post on viewing your stats, but newer clients won’t have seen that post. So I thought I’d write about it again, to help you see how your website is viewing.

When your website was listed with us, it would have also been registered with some of the major search engines. However, it’s updating, activity, blog posting (if you have a blog), linking to your website in your email messages and on your stationery and anything else, that is going to help drive traffic. Unless people know you exist, they won’t know to come looking for you.

If you have a lot of knowledge in your field, but your website doesn’t need updating often, why not look at writing articles and submitting them to ezine article sites? You can include a bio which links back to your website and will help increase visitors and therefore, potential sales from your site.

So, don’t miss the opportunity to make sure people know your site is online!

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Did you know that cpanel has stats available for you to view? You can log into your control panel and click on the image in the 4th line of icons. It will look similar to the one below.

WS/FTP Stats

Once in click on Awstats and you’ll see a visual display of the stats for your website. You can view previous months or the current month. It will show you your most visited pages, incoming links from other sites, search words used to find you and even the countries your visitors come from. You may even see spikes through the week for days that attract more visitors.

Very helpful if you’re working at promoting your site and finding out what works.

webstats, visitors, website, awstats, incoming links

I received a rather official looking document in the post yesterday and it was asking me to fill out in duplicate details relating to one of my domain names to help keep ‘the World Wide Web Register on the Internet up to date’.

Yeah, sure.  Like they would be sending this out to millions of people to try and keep something like that up to date. All the same, many will fall for it because it looks so legit.

Small print shows you are giving permission to GT@P permission to print the data in the ‘next three annual editions’ of a Web Company Register and that you will pay the bill of 877 euros.  The ‘contract’ comes into force one week after the signed paper has been returned in the post.

I did a search on this so-called register and found several warnings about this scam - it’s been around for years. Seems it’s taken this long to get through the ‘millions’ of domains for one to be sent to me. Amazing, I’ve had that domain since the mid 1990s.

I scanned the document so you can see what it looks like - the envelope is from Economique/Economy in France and there was a return envelope to use - I’ve already thrown it away but believe the address was Spain.