Just a quick note: Our office will be closed on Monday, September 6th for Labor Day. We hope everyone has a safe, fun, and relaxing holiday weekend!
(We’re also looking forward to the Popcorn Festival and all that delicious-but-heart-attack-inducing food that starts next week… how about you?)
Just received today: a letter from Domain Registry of America! They’d like kindly remind us that we have a few domain names set to expire within the next few months. How nice of them! (You can click on the image to the left for an example of what these letters look like)
This letter can be really deceiving if you don’t pay close attention to what you’re reading. In the middle of the third paragraph is hidden the words “This notice is not a bill.” I don’t know about you, but it sure looks like they’re trying to pass it off as one!
A little research turned up this lovely bit on the Domain Registry of America’s (DROA) business practices courtsey of the FTC:
DROA is a re-seller of domain name registration services for a company called eNom, Inc. (eNom), an accredited registrar of Internet domain names. It allegedly conducts business by sending mass-marketed direct mail to U.S. consumers, soliciting them to transfer their domain name registrations from their current Internet domain name registrar to eNom. According to the FTC, DROA’s mail solicitations to consumers appear to be renewal notices or invoices from the consumers’ current registrars, advising them that their domain names are about to expire, and requesting payment for “renewal” of the domain name registration. The Commission contends that DROA has mailed millions of such “renewal” notices captioned “IMPORTANT NOTICE,” to urge consumers to act quickly to avoid “Register Lock” or “loss of your online identity.” The company further warns, according to the FTC, that if consumers “lose their domain name” it may be “impossible for you to get it back.”
Not only are they scamming you into thinking you need to renew your domain name with their company… they’re also charging you more for it, too! If you receive one of these letters in the mail, ignore it and trash it!
The full FTC press release on the company can be found here
We recently worked with the US Open Commission to design a new website for their annual Rock N Ribs event. This fundraiser includes competitors battling it out for the best ribs in town and bands of various styles showcasing their talent on the main stage. Did you know there’s also a car show, too??
The new site is a complete overhaul of their previous one. We were able to get pretty creative with this one! We wanted to really showcase the event and all it has to offer so we added a prominent photo rotation right on the front page.
Otherwise the new site is pretty simple and clean, making it easy to find the information on the event! To take a look at the new site click here.
On June 1st, 2010 Neighborhood Image launched a brand new and improved MarionOnline.com to its readers. The new site is a huge step forward for us and brings a lot more features as well as more potential for future development. We’ve brought our readers a more user-friendly interface, making it easier and faster to access content, as well as cleaning out a lot of the clutter that made the site hard to navigate. For our advertisers we’ve added in not only larger banner ads, but also more advertising options, offering advertising opportunities for any budget!
While nothing is forever, we plan to do several things now and into the future, including:
Sean and I would like to thank everyone for their support in the process of the changeover to the new format. We’re really happy with the final product, and we’ve had so many great responses about it from our readers as well! I’m excited about the change, and I can’t wait to see where things go from here as we add new content and such to the site!
In honor of Earth Day, we’re bringing you a week of earth-friendly tips and information!
Everyone talks these days about being green – reducing your energy consumption, recycling, etc. But have you thought about what powers your website? A website is there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We shut our computers off at night but the Internet is still there! Shutting a server down every night just isn’t an option.
The company that maintains our server space has taken it upon themselves to do what they can to reduce the carbon footprint servers have. The average server has nearly the same climate impact as a 15MPG SUV! Multiply that by the thousands of servers in the world and that’s a lot! How do you counter that? Our server manager has purchased Renewable Energy Credits, equaling out to be about 130% of their electricity usage. So not only are they compensating for what they are using, but they’re giving back as well!
In honor of Earth Day, we’re bringing you a week of earth-friendly tips and information!
How can you practice “green” marketing? With a website! When you use the internet for your marketing you’re not using paper or ink for printed materials. And, best of all, information that is wrong, out of date, or you just want to change doesn’t have to be reprinted all over again with all the expenses involved with it – all it takes is a quick change to your website and it is done instantly!
In honor of Earth Day, we’re bringing you a week of earth-friendly tips and information!
Did you know that opting for an electronic invoice reduces paper usage for the invoice and envelope, as well as the emissions from mail trucks used in the process of having the invoice delivered to you in the mail! If you’d prefer not to receive a paper invoice or bill each month, we offer the option for an electronic invoice sent directly to your email!
To start receiving your monthly invoice through your email just send Sean an email, or give us a call at 740-751-6548 and let us know!
I’m curious! Websites all have things that bother those of us that use them. I have a few ‘favorites’ that bug me, one of which is those ads that not only enlarge to cover up the information you want to read that is typed below it, but also make you wait x amount of seconds before you can even close it.
Leave a comment and let me know what your pet peeve(s) are!
One of the most important things we try to stress is to put your website on everything your name is attached to. You wouldn’t place an ad in the newspaper without having your address and phone number on it so customers can contact you, right? You wouldn’t pay for business cards or other materials and then not hand them out, would you? Your website should be the same way. It may seem obvious to some, but I still see places that have websites that don’t advertise them!
Websites aren’t an “if you build it they will come” thing. Sure, some search engine optimization will make it a little easier for customers to find you through sites like Google, but they can’t and shouldn’t be your only source of website traffic. Your website address needs to be tagged on everything - online ads, phone book listings, business cards, letterheads, etc. Don’t put a website up and worry about whether people will find it – push them to it!
Spring weather is here (mostly – we are in Ohio, after all), and this time of year always turns my mind to opening windows to let fresh air in, getting the garden and yard ready for flowers and vegetable plants, and fixing things around the house that I didn’t want to do in the cold winter weather.
With this change of seasons, why not take some time to go through your website and see if some things can be ‘freshened’ up or cleaned out? It can be as easy as clicking on the pages within your website and taking notes of any links that don’t work, images that don’t show up, and outdated text that needs corrected.
Think about some ways you can freshen up your main page – even if its just rearranging the content so it looks new and different or changing a few images. Perhaps you have a new product or service you’re offering since you last made changes to your site… now would be a great time to get that information added!
And while we’re on the topic… what about your email? If you access your email through a webmail system, or if you download it to Outlook but still keep a copy online just in case, take the opportunity to log in and clear out all those deleted emails permanently! Emails in your deleted/trash folder still take up space on your hosting.
Tired of your inbox getting full of advertisements from places you have purchased from online? Scroll to the bottom of the email and follow the directions to unsubscribe and save yourself extra time in the future by not having to filter through them for the emails you really need!
Got a big mess that you need to clean up? Contact us – we’ve got plenty of brooms and buckets to help you out!
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