Addendum:  I’ve had a response and it appears that the apache is incorrectly serving the index.htm page for viewing rather than the index.php so I’m manually removing the .htm page off the affected sites while they investigate the cause.

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.

Those with the other server on acs-webhosting.com have no changes to be reported.

Thank you.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Many people confuse Graphic Designers with Web Designers and I agree that many Graphic Designers also do websites, but not all Web Designers are graphic designers.

When I have people approach me to do their websites and they start telling me what logo they want and other images, I have to explain that I will need to outsource that work for them, unless they know a graphic designer themselves. I cannot provide that service to them personally. For that same reason, some people send me files created by graphic designers and expect that I will be able to access them or edit them - and frequently they are in a program that the graphic designer used.

I can certainly create websites and even use existing templates that have been sourced and purchased on your behalf, but I’m unable to edit graphics or create them from scratch. And there are many other web designers who operate the same. Consequently many work with teams so that they have graphic designers and others assisting them on some sites.