Snoitulos Ten

There are so many unsavory people out there… occasionally we get a call from a client wondering if an email or letter is legit. When we get one ourselves, we try to post them here so you know to be on the look out – Here is an email we got a couple days ago:

Dear CEO,

We are a domain name registrar centre in HongKong which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally, we have an important issue to confirm with you.

1. On the July 14,We received a formal application from a company named ” … Continue Reading

Our Data Center performed a physical move of our servers last night. The maintenance window was to be from 11 PM Pacific until 1 AM Pacific. With an expected down time of 20-30 minutes. Had all gone as planned this window is the lowest traffic window for our servers.

Unfortunately, all did not go well. And one the Windows Apps server did not reboot. Technicians are working on the problem but I do not yet have an ETA for the servers to be back on line. The contingency plan is to install a new server but that will take time … Continue Reading

I was listening to talk radio yesterday morning (like I do every morning) and heard 2 separate ads that made all the standard claims “best quality, lowest price, etc.” but then they both ended with “Family owned and operated for XX years.”.

I wondered if anyone cared about this anymore? If all things were equal and you were making a purchase, would you opt to go with the product that was manufactured by the Family Owned and Operated Company? Does family owned and operated somehow equate to good service and tangible value? I’m not sure it does.

I think the … Continue Reading

Why don’t you guys provide FTP access like all the other hosting companies? Why is your hosting more expensive than…?

We get asked these question and ones like it all the time. And the simple fact is that hosting appears to be a commodity until you have a problem. Recently one of the Industry giants was attacked by a virus infecting thousands of WordPress Blogs. Then re-attacked infecting several other open source applications like Joomla and simple HTML sites. According to Eddie Schwartz, chief security officer with NetWitness, hacks like that of [Network Solutions] are all too common. “We see these … Continue Reading

I love taking a shower. Not only does the water on my head and body feel good, but it seems to be the ultimate stimulant for getting the brain to think about things I normally do not have time to consider. This morning, I found myself contemplating business relationships. We have spent the last 6 years building a company. Yet many people, who do business with us, consider the person they deal with the company.

A case in point, recently I read a Linked In recommendation … Continue Reading

People often ask me what tools I use to make my life on a PC easier… well here is a list of some of my favs.

1. PixResizer (http://bluefive.pair.com/pixresizer.htm) easily allows you to resize one or multiple images. Please, please use this or http://profusionproducts.com/resizer/ to resize your images before you load them onto your website.

2. TweetDeck – I manage a few Twitter and FaceBook accounts and TweetDeck makes this simple from one interface

3. Pixie – (http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.php) ever wonder what the hex, RGB, or CMYK value of the color on your favorite website is? Well wonder no more, Pixie is a … Continue Reading

My degree in psychology does not qualify me to sell a technical product. When I first got in this industry (almost 6 years and 2,300 websites ago) I thought, boy, do I have a lot to learn. And that was true, and I almost let it cripple me.

Now, for those of you who do not know me directly, I am not short on confidence. My parents told me I could do anything, and I believed them. So when given the opportunity to start a company selling web solutions, I said why not and jumped in with both feet. Unfortunately, the … Continue Reading

We get asked this question a lot. Do I really need a website? Why do I need it? When writing up a proposal for a potential client, I found myself answering that very question. Although this argument was for a service based company, it holds true for any industry from retail to industrial.

Dollar for dollar when you consider any other advertising money you spend, an effective website will return more on your investment, but you have to have a web strategy in order to achieve this return. We (NSNA) can help you develop and manage that strategy.

The web … Continue Reading

The very words Trade Show make some small business owners shudder. A Trade Show can take a lot of time and most of the time that’s something a small business owner just doesn’t have. With some careful planning however, a trade show can not only be fun they can be profitable as well.

Here are 10 tips we’ve picked up from attending a lot of shows, not only as vendors but participants as well. They may be basic but the best tips usually are pretty basic.

1. … Continue Reading

For us PC users, there is no pre-loaded software application that allows us to turn any document into a PDF. I’ve heard that this is easy to do on a Mac, but have not verified it (any Mac users out there who wish to post the instructions here would be thanked profusely). The easiest application I have found to turn any document (Word Docs, Publisher files, PowerPoint Files, Images, etc.) into a PDF is a Free download call CutePDF. Once you have downloaded and installed CutePDF creating the document … Continue Reading