Domains

I've had a few calls now from various customers saying that they've had a phone call from some outfit calling themselves "The Internet Domain Registry" or some such similar name (it does seem to vary a bit). They call and tell you that someone wants to use your domain name and if you don't pay them £100 they'll sell it.

Well if you listen REALLY carefully that's not what they're saying - but boy does it sound like it!  If you hadn't already guessed it's a scam! What they've done is look up your existing domain name and see if all the variations have been registered - if not, you get the call....

The call is carefully worded to make you think you'll lose your domain if you don't pay them the money. Well you won't! What they are offering is another variation of your existing name, and they are overcharging you for it!

What they do isn't illegal or wrong (quite) it's a simple scare tactic to get you to part with your cash. So far as I can tell the charge they make is £100 for 2 years registration for any domain name. If you get a call from them and you are genuinely interested then let me know - I'll give you the same service (or better) for £50 for two years! Now can I say fairer than that?

It's been a busy period just recently! Loads of new sites some of which are live and some we're still working on here are a sample:

• Athlone Group - www.athlonegroup.com
  The Athlone Group builds, markets and delivers a high value portfolio of measurable start up, turnaround and business acceleration services which positively impact a client’s ability to achieve corporate objectives.
   
• Skyguard Technologies - www.skyguardtechnologies.co.uk
  SkyMinder from Skyguard - providing safety and security for lone workers Personal safety of staff is a legal responsibility you can help rotect them, when alone and exposed to violence or accident, with SkyMinder from Skyguard Technologies.
   
• BRM Line Marking - www.brm-linemarking.co.uk
  BRM Line Marking offers a range of road marking services including road and car park markings of all types.  BRM provides a high quality and cost effective service to clients, ranging from local authorities through to schools, contractors and private companies throughout the UK.
   
• Iris Communications - www.iris-communications.co.uk
  Suppliers of Navaho CAT Appliances. The Navaho CAT range of appliances are a complete Internet management solution designed to control, monitor and protect access to the Internet and enable staff to work effectively.
   
• Avatar Montenegro - www.avatar-montenegro.com
  Avatar International occupy a unique and privileged position in the overseas property market. With an impressive network of partners throughout Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, Brazil, Hungary and now Montenegro, they benefit from generations of local knowledge, so can help customers make the right choice.

Those are just a sample - there have been loads of updates to existing sites plus many new ones under development....

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Search Engines (OK, OK, I know I harp on about it!)

Serious bit! After the debacle of losing most of the independent search engines back in March and therefore Google and Overture now ruling the world search engine wise it's even more important to make sure your site is listed.

The rules are going to change again soon. At the moment there are effectively 3 search engines. Google, Overture and Teoma - one way or another these 3 between them power something like 90% of all the searches on the web. Come the end of this year or early next year this is gonna change. Microsoft (or more accurately MSN) are going to go independent and leave the Overture group where they currently are.

So what? I hear you say. Well rumour control has it that when the next release of Windoze happens the search function will be built into the operating system. So if Microsoft release the operating system and have their own search engine on the web it doesn't take too much effort to figure out which search engine they'll use for web searches. As most people will happily accept default values on system set up then it stands to reason that if you want your site to be found by people using Windoze (that's about 95% of all computers) then you'll need to be listed on the MSN search engine!

So how do you do that? - The obvious answer is to pay the horrendous charges demanded by Overture and hope you get carried across when Microsoft pull out. OK - as far as it goes that's pretty sound reasoning. However tests conducted by search engine optimisation companies in the USA (bless 'em) have shown that paying for listings in Overture actually makes your listing worse not better. So that method probably isn't the best way. I suspect the only way to gain the most listings and therefore be impossible to ignore is to make sure you are listed in as many search engines as possible and to make damn sure that you keep refreshing that listing.

WARNING - Sales pitch coming up!

So how do you achieve that wonderful state of affairs? Easy, keep registering your site with the search engines. But it's not so simple - all the search engines have different rules and they change them! You could do it manually but that's real hard work! You could hire a search engine optimisation company to do it for you. I know a few of you have tried that and I also know that no one has been satisfied with the results. Now there is an alternative!

I now have access to an automatic system which will register and re-register selected pages of your site with all the major search engines according to their rules so your listing is at very least maintained. It's not a perfect system but after 3 months of experiments the results are positive.

It costs £30 per month (or £300 per year) per site and makes sure your site gets as much exposure as possible - it doesn't make you number 1 in Google or claim to, but it will make sure you are at least in there. Remember it's possible you could drop out of a search engine and if you don't know you could be losing business without ever knowing about it....

Want to know more? Drop me an email or give me a call! Contact details are on the website..

Slugs & Snails &
Puppy Dog Tales...

For all those who know me well a quick update on Ruby our Guide Dog pup... That's all gone sort of pear shaped! In the last month or so we've discovered that Ruby has DJD - or degenerative joint disorder, what this means is that she won't make it as a working dog. The workload of being a Guide Dog would simply be too much for her. This is obviously a bit of a blow because she was doing REALLY well - she's a tremendous dog and certainly one of the best we've ever had (she's the 13th Guide Dog we've walked so I suppose we should have expected something!) So what happens now? Simple! Guess who's just got another pet dog!!! Actually it's better than that - after so long discussions with Guide Dogs we're going to attempt a little experiment - Ruby is going to get some Guide Dog training and a harness and we hope to use her as an ambassador for Guide Dogs when we go off on our fund raising activities.... It's not always possible to get a real Guide Dog or puppy when we go visiting corporate clients to raise sponsorship or maybe they are too far away for a young puppy to travel so Ruby is going to be trained up as a sort of "example" Guide Dog. After helping raise £100,000 in corporate sponsorship in the last year Ruby doesn't owe anybody anything but she is just so good... The New Pup Just to keep you informed we'll be getting our Guide Dog pup around mid-August time. Her name will be Bella and she's also a sponsored pup. (She hasn't actually been born yet - so everything may change in the coming weeks but those are the plans!) Bella will be a full sister of Ruby, her mum is Trudi who we also walked a few years ago and dad is Samson a huge great soppy thing of a German Shepherd. The very pregnant mum is doing well... The Slugs and Snails The battle between the slugs and snails goes exceedingly well - the Hostas are doing fine and have hardly been munched at all. My secret weapon - Nematodes - or bugs to normal people. These are microscopic little beasties that kill slugs and snails in a totally natural way and are harmless to pets and plants and kids and everything. I must admit I had serious doubts when I first heard of them (on Ebay of all places!) but now I am sold! If you think you have a slug problem click on Slippery Sid the slug below for the website!

Still talking to to Liasonline about email marketing - it really is a good system and can be made to work. The only trouble is we've been so busy since the last email we haven't had time to do much about it. The only thing I can definitely say is that it does work! The last "Fridge Door" was sent out on a Sunday to 70 odd clients and by Wednesday of that week I had 4 orders for new sites from existing customers!

If it works for me it can work for you.....

Here's a film for you! If you're over 40 and a fan of the old Hammer horror films of the early 70's then don't miss this:

Van Helsing

It's a parody of the old Hammer films with a touch of James Bond thrown it for good measure. You need a weird sense of humour but if you've got one this is the film for you!

Once again the Hampton Court Flower Show looms and for the third year we're building a website to show the World of Water show garden taking shape.

This year's entry is Lazy Days designed and built by Pete Simms of LGS Ltd

See:
www.worldofwater.com/hc2004
www.worldofwater.com
www.lgsltd.com

Stargate SG-1 season 7 has just ended with the team sort of finding the "Lost City of the Ancients"

www.stargate-sg1.com

Next month and as a real treat not only does Season 8 start but the new spin off Stargate Atlantis begins - OK so it's only being screened in USA for the moment but it'll get over here eventually and when it does please don't call - the phone will be switched off!!!