What is Domain Forwarding?

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A common question amongst business owners who are interactive in their approach to online marketing. “What happens if I decide on a better domain name?” “Do I have to move the website or have a new one built to mirror our current website?” Simple answer is no. For the reasons you sought a different domain name the most common being: “the domain name is too long”, “the new one is more catchier” or “it’s hard to remember”. Your domain name is really a first impression on the web, in search results on a business card. The domain name can make or break whether potential clientele visit your website.

So let’s say you’re printing out business cards and you want the new domain to be displayed instead of the old one, yet inside you’re wondering how can I get the new domain to lead to the current website. This is called domain forward, and much like my previous post “What are DNS Nameservers“, it is as simple as logging into the account you purchased your new domain with (domain management account) and viewing the options for the domain.

Unfortunately forwarding may not be available on all domain account management providers, but for a lot of the well known domain providers this is a free service. Simply find a field that says “Forwarding” and insert the URL (web address of your current website) into the field, save and voila, you’re finished. The settings may take between 3 minutes and 24 hours to take effect, but when it does, you can use your new domain name to print and market to your customers.

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What are DNS Nameservers?

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If you’ve heard this term, you’re probably in the midst of transferring your hosting account. If you’re not a web designer, the term DNS Nameservers could make you think that you have to jump into coding. Fortunately, you don’t need coding experience and finding DNS nameserver information is as easy as logging into your domain control panel and having the correct nameservers.

So what are DNS nameservers anyway? And what do they do?

DNS nameservers point your domain to the correct hosting account, so it can read the files on the hosting server to display your website. A good metaphor would be having the correct information on a credit application, if the computer doesn’t read the proper info on your app - it will not find your information in the system.

Back to the project, by this point your stress should have been alleviated, especially for the do-it-yourself web designer. Next, locate the login information to access your domain. Once you find it, login into your account and skim the pages of your domain manager until you find an area that says “Hosting”, “DNS” or server related terms.

Eventually, you will find two or four fields with the DNS Nameserver title. Normally you should have two, the first nameserver is your primary server, the secondary nameserver is your backup nameserver. The backup prevents your website from going down if your primary nameserver fails. 

After this information is completed and saved, you might have a waiting period of 1 hour to 48 hours depending on your domain and hosting provider.

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Why You Need to Backup Your Website

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This is a very common scenario: Chuck wakes up to find his website has disappeared from the web, he gets a “404″ error (or a default welcome) screen, meaning the page isn’t found. He runs to the phone and tries to call his web designer…  and the designer has also disappeared. Suddenly Chuck’s website is gone and he potentially lost the biggest form of “money while you sleep” marketing there is. Chuck is in shambles at this point and keeps trying to email and phone his web designer to no avail, he contacts other web designers and finds out he has to pay more money to have his website rebuilt, when just last night, he had a perfectly fine money making machine. Chuck’s nightmare could have been prevented. 

Backing up your website is the safest way to ensure that even if your website designer runs away, the server with your website on it spontaneously combusts or your hosting account defaults and erases all your data, that you still have a fully functioning website after the catastrophe.

So what steps can you take to ensure you save $600, $900 or perhaps even $2,000 worth of design, content and files?

1) Ask your web designer for a backup

On a CD, on a flash drive, in a zipped folder sent through email. It doesn’t matter as long as you receive it. They can charge for this service as it can take a bit of time to create the backup depending on the size of your website.

2) Use a FTP (File Transfer Program)

For the involved client, this can be a great way to save money while being on the safe side as well. Use a FTP program (CuteFTP, FireFTP, etc) which are downloadable from the internet at no cost to back your website up. This will require information from your web designer, such as the FTP username, password and host name. Once you’re ready to go move all the files from the server to the local disk into a folder properly titled “Website Backup”. More detailed instructions for using FTPs can be found online.

3) Mirror Image the Website on a Different Server

Using the FTP scenario with an unrelated hosting provider, you can back your website up into a cloud server seperate from the one your website is on. Which is an even better way to ensure that your website is not lost in desk paperwork or a catacomb of files on your computer.

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Figuring Out Your Monthly Website Fees

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The unfortunate part of not being web-literate is not understanding the charges that can be on the invoice from your web designer. “Am I paying too much?” or “am I getting a great deal” is one of the most common questions our company is asked when we meet with a client. Most of the time, a client will have spoken to a fellow business owner about the cost of their website and the designer’s reliability, because web design is a word of mouth orientated service field. A factor that regularily causes conflict itself is when their fellow business owner gets charged less than what the client did. But why? The most common answer is that the client wanted more pages, design work, animated slideshows, shopping carts or a full spectrum array of services that their friend didn’t want.

So even though it ranges from designer to designer, primarily based on education and experience, we can give you an estimated range on how much service fees should cost. Also remember that there are other factors that could throw the estimations off, including location, monthly website support and the size of the project/website.

1) Hosting

This should not be more than $7-10 a month for a small business owner with one website. If your hosting includes a content management system, you need to ask if you can pay for the CMS in a lump sum amount. I have seen web designers attach a CMS charge to the monthly hosting fees (and the fee goes on for as long as you have hosting). Really, that charge is for profit, because unless you had your website payment deferred, designers have already gotten the full amount from the design.

2) Domain Names

This is a by company price. GoDaddy, 1 & 1, etc. will all charge a different amount for you to reserve your domain using their services. I’ve seen domain names range from $1 to $25 (non-premium domains), so you really have to purchase it based on the features and specials they offer with buying a domain. The most common length of a domain purchase is 1 year, so you want to always make sure you either have your domain on auto-renewal or you receive notices when it is going to expire. Otherwise, when the domain expires, it will be put on auction or someone can buy it and charge you $100′s or even $1,000′s to get it back.

Summary:

My biggest recommendation for a small business owner is that if you think you’re paying too much for your website, you probably are. With the average cost of a domain and hosting, you should be paying $9 or so per month, of course that does not include the cost of website design.

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How to Take a Screen Capture

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So a computer technician tells you to take a screen capture (image of your entire display) for computer diagnostic issues or you want to prove your friend wrong in an ”I told you so” trivia game. However in both scenarios, you need to figure out how. In this article I will show you to take a ‘picture’ of your screen. 

1. First thing is to make sure all embarassing tabs, minimized windows or files are out of view on the screen. I’ve had clients accidentally send me too much info when I asked for a screen capture. A screen capture will literally send everything you see on your monitor right now. Including the task bar, browser toolbars and desktop icons (if you’re taking a capture of the desktop)

2. When you have the screen ready to take the caputre, press “PrtSc” or “Print Screen”. This key is located near Pause/Break, Insert, Delete, Home and other keys in the top right quadrant of your keyboard.

3. Open Paint, (Start > (All) Programs > Accessories > Paint). This will open Microsoft’s ancient image editing software that is equipped on most, if not all Microsoft Windows computers by default.

4. On the top toolbar of Paint, click “Edit” and click “Paste”. This will paste the screen capture into the program.

5. To save the image, click “File” on the top toolbar and then “Save As”. Pick an image name and save it to a location you will remember.

Now you can attach the image in an email program or send it through instant messengers, to solve computer problems or to settle a bet. From the Paint program, you can also add captions and modify the image to show the issue you are having using the paint tools on the left area of the program.

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Ending The Relationship with Your Webmaster

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So you’ve become frustrated with your existing website designer and you need to break free? This process will break down some steps you need to take to make sure you get everything you need before they disappear from the planet.

You Need ALL the Login Information

That’s right, the number one thing you need to gather from there is every account the web designer created for you and the usernames and passwords to go with them. If they created this in your company name and refuse to hand over the information, you should explore having the company remove the account profile due to fraud or impersonation. Not only that, if they cause damage to your company website or accounts you may have a legal case. Moral web designers however, will need the login info to access your existing website, which may include your hosting account or FTP, your social media accounts and in special occasions your domain registrar or shopping cart if adding products. I have spent hours on end helping clients retrieve this data with companies like GoDaddy, WordPress, etc. Using your existing website build in most cases will save you money.

Straighten Out The Pay

 Make sure you have confirmation from your web designer that shows everything has been paid in full. Sometimes this can come back to haunt you and some web designers feel the need to use their power for mischievous purposes.

If It Ends Bad, Change The Login Information

If you already have the login information for all your accounts, make sure you change the login credentials, especially if the relationship ended in a bad way. If you don’t know how, contact a web designer immediately. At least this way you will be confident that no one is adding malicious code to your website, deleting pages or even worse, taking down your hosting account.

Find Out Who Your Domain Registrar Is

More and more web designers are using independent registrars leased under their company name to authorize and purchase a domain for their client. This situation is scary for two reasons, one is that they control the maintenence aspects of your domain whether you change your password or not and two and if it ends bad they can claim that you didn’t pay, which allows them to repo your domain name. Another unsavory aspect of corrupt designers. Before you get into a contract or work with a designer, make sure your domain is registered with a company like GoDaddy or 1&1.

Locked Out

By far the worst case scenario, the most time consuming and money wasting disaster possible. Your website designer has left you with a one page website you are not able to manage or have anyone else manage because the web designer has disappeared and changed all forms of contact. In this case, the website has to be rebuilt and you lost the money you spent already, unless you find a way around it by finding out where the hosting and domain is registered.

Explain to the Website Designer What Went Wrong

Most will have an alibi, but you need to tell them what happened to cause the disappointment. We as people and designers require explainations to grow and with your added input on how to make service more quality efficient and friendly want to hear your side of the story.

 

We at Kinetic Web Creations ensure that you will never be locked out, even if you wish to use another website designer. We automatically give you the account/login information we create during the process and the information you provided in an easy, convienent form for your reference. We also give you tips on how to keep that data in a secure place so it can’t be accessed by hackers.

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When To Unfriend a Friend

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This is always a difficult decision. If you’ve found yourself here, it means that you’re probably struggling with removing a friend from Facebook. Before I begin, I’m going to share a story I had when deciding whether it was the right time for me to remove a friend from the social network and then I’ll explain some ideals for deciding who stays and who goes.

My Story: For a few years in my life, I surrounded myself with someone who I believed to be a friend and someone I always hung out with. Well with aging comes knowledge and with knowledge comes common sense. I found I was being used (which I take responsibility on my part) to further an agenda that really had no benefits for me. I struggled letting go of the friendship which wasn’t just online, but it always seem to reinvent or reach different measures before I had a chance to really process it mentally. I struggled at least 4 times with the Facebook unfriend button.. I had shared my feelings and wanted to move on with my life. I couldn’t do it. I really couldn’t. It was more stressful thinking about pressing the button than actually ending the friendship. Eventually I knew that all the other times I had tried in the past had to happen because I finally felt comfortable with my situation. I released the friendship under equal terms and comfortably unfriended them.

You’re probably thinking “why didn’t you do it sooner?” Or “So what its just Facebook?” and that’s okay because I realize there are people out there who don’t see all of a story and decide to judge something at face value. But if you can relate to my story you know the pain that occurs, the stressful thoughts of someone commenting or stalking your profile. Or waiting for the dreadful “why did you unfriend me?” text. Well this is to all those people who need coaching. We will get through this together. I’m going to start off with some basic steps:

Is the Friend Abusive, Violent or Stalking You?

This is serious, you definitely need to be unfriend them on a social networking website and especially in your life as well. You don’t want affiliation generalizations to occur and most certaintly don’t want to entertain a potentially dangerous situation. There have been many cases of social networks allowing online bullying, which is becoming more and more present during the middle and high school aged teens. Luckily its starting to be regarded as a crime and it is, you shouldn’t allow those who bring you down, taunt you or cause you public humiliation to be connected to you in anyway, shape or form. Parents must also bear the burden of monitoring their child’s social networking accounts. In any case, whether you’re in school or out, never allow for someone to bully, stalk or abuse you online (or offline).

What’s the Friendship Status?

Is it good, bad, or neutral? Figuring out if the friendship is repairable might save you a click of the unfriend button. If you’re having an argument over the cost of tea in China then leave it alone. I’ve had people remove me because they disagree with a certain viewpoint I have. They saved us both some time and we’re better for it.

Damaging Credibility

If someone takes it upon themselves to damage your credibility, then don’t allow them to. What I can’t reiterate enough is that if someone is causing you harm, don’t let it continue. Its one thing to give constructive criticism, but another for someone to go Rambo because they disagree or you’re in a dispute with them.

To save yourself some time and agony, make a list of positive and negatives about keeping them on Facebook.. or use my “Can we still be friends.. on Facebook?” checklist:

Are they abusive?
Are they using you or your profile?
Has the friendship ended offline in a bad way?
Are they robots or scammers?
Are they keeping you up at night?
Is the Facebook friendship causing you stress?
Do you worry about revenge in your new life?

We hope this has helped you decide and take action with your friendship that is hanging in the wind. Just be strong and look towards the future!

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Friending Your Boss on Facebook

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This will kick off the series on Facebook Etiquette and how to handle the pressures of social media relationships. So you’ve either been working at a company or are being hired by a company and suddenly out of the clear blue sky you receive a notification of a friend request from your boss on Facebook. What to do, what to do?

Decide What Type of Boss You Have

Before going any further or accepting the friend request, you need time to process and think about what type of boss he or she is. Are they easy going? Free spirited? Open minded? Overly conservative? Overly liberal? All these matter, because a lot of people are easily guided by their belief systems of how things should be. Most of the time these beliefs get people where they need to go however often damaging relationships and friendships along the way and leading to a very singular thought pattern. So either way, decide what type of boss you have and decide whether your profile content is going to make them angry at you or promote you for employee of the month. If you don’t add him/her, you’re going to get reminders at work or they might think you have something to hide. This is especially true now that Facebook is becoming more and more like the morning newspaper with coffee.

Strategize and Personalize

Now in this instance, I don’t recommend changing who you are on a social networking site especially after being who you are for so long. This friendship however, could make or break your career. There have been stories of employees getting fired from their jobs because of remarks they’ve made on Facebook and other social networking sites. More specifically over things they said about their job, relationships, religion, political beliefs or not sharing the same sports team. Now this may be hard to comprehend for the serial Facebook user because they are so connected and tied into status updating, they forget who is their friend and later suffer the consequences. If you feel your boss is open minded and doesn’t really mind what other people say, let alone have the time, then your’e pretty safe. However if you sense potential tension in the air.. its time to breathe, take a moment and start looking at ways to censor your profile.

Nifty Facebook Feature

Facebook has a feature that not all people know about. The ability to hide specific individuals from viewing certain posts, photos, albums, notes, etc. It wasn’t always available but now with security and jealousy being a leading cause of Facebook turmoil, it would be a great time to take advantage of it. Now it might seem like I’m saying “be sneaky”, but in all actuality I’m not. Remember that there is a lot of repression in the workplace that can backfire when you least expect it, and people join social networks to… be social. Most don’t want to have tomatoes thrown at them because of a status update and most don’t want to worry about offending someone in particular, so this is a good feature to utilize.

If Possible, Express Concerns

If you are upfront and outright and feel okay telling your boss that you are not comfortable being Facebook friends, this may be a good idea too. Being honest is seen as a gifted quality in business, so if they ask why, tell them the truth.. “I don’t feel comfortable sharing my personal realm with you because I keep business seperate”. This will hurt their feelings, but it won’t be as damaging if they learn you have made outspoken remarks against their political party or that you secretly don’t like your job.

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Password Security: Choosing Your Password and Ensuring Security

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With all the recent database hackings occurring all over the world, this is a good time to review how you can ensure the best possible security for your accounts; and how to browse safely, without having to worry about someone acquiring your information. Let’s look at a few different techniques and explore how this happens to begin with:

Where It Starts

When you open an account on a website and choose your password, it gets stored in that website’s database. I’m sure you’ve heard the term “SQL injection” if you’ve been following the news on companies getting hacked. As much as it seems controversial, the hackers are correct.. if they are able to access a company’s database, imagine how many others are doing the same and not spreading the news as publicly. It’s scary when you really think about it. Most companies have a clear label for their SQL databases and its not even required for the techniques they are using. No matter how bulletproof you believe your account is, it’s never really secure unless you created the database yourself and implemented your own customized security features. Passwords can make a difference though, as in the case of a popular website that was hacked and the only passwords they were able to access and leak were those with very few characters or ones without numbers, which spared all those who had chosen to add numbers and more characters. The hackers ended up leaking that information to the public and many victims had a lot of work to do.

Choosing a Password

I’m going to start off with a few standards when it comes to choosing a good password…

1. Always include numbers and letters
2. Include at least 5 numbers
3. Include at least 8 letters
4. Choose random letters and don’t use words that relate to you
5. Choose different passwords for different accounts
6. Go beyond what a website’s automatic password security bar says is fair or great
7. Always write the passwords down and don’t rely on your browser to remember
8. Store your passwords in a safe place, if you own a business keep them out of sight from your visitors

Now I want to reiterate Number 5. When the hackers released a victim’s account information, in many cases they were able to gain access to that victim’s email account and other services too because the victim used a single password for all their online accounts. This is never a good idea, that also compromises all the accounts you had linked to your email address (social media, bank accounts, etc).

So Many Passwords, So Little Memory

I wouldnt normally suggest a program that I didn’t think would help. As you’re reading this you’re probably wondering “How am I going to remember all these password with all these characters?” I recommend RoboForms from Siber Systems, they have an amazing level of security that allows for a plugin to be installed into your internet browser so you don’t have to worry about typing the passwords out. Everyone I know who has used the program has recommended it and I use it also. Works for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, starts off with a 10 account minimum and you can purchase the premium version for around $12, which most people do. Now this leads into the next topic..

Remembering Passwords on the Go!

I don’t recommend traveling with passwords in paper notebooks or even on your cell phone, as they are also getting hacked.. especially Apple’s iPhone. I recommend finding a PDA type device (iPod Touch, Palm, etc.) that can be password protected (never too much security) where you can store your passwords. These devices only connect to the world via internet connection by choice and you would not have to worry about the classic phone line hacking.

Remember.. Stuff Happens!

Life will always be happening whether we like it or not, so choose to protect yourself in the right manner. You never want to beat yourself in the head after you find out that a company’s database was comprimised and you chose not to update your password to something more secure. Even if your account information ends up going public, you’ll have the comfort of knowing that not all your accounts have been hacked and end up spending hours fixing the damage. Better to invest the time before it becomes an unexpected inconvienence.

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Craigslist Job Postings for Seekers

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This is part two in the articles focused around Craigslist job listings, this one is for the unemployed in need of work. This article will layout how to decipher a Craigslist job opportunity scam from a legitimate employer. Most of these tools work currently, though scammers have found ways around these tips. But rest assured that a scammer will still make some or all of these mistakes. Craigslist is a very popular service to use when find a job, its free, its simple to use and very straightforward. However people will take advantage of that and try to use you in their game of selling or scamming.

Always Look for a Company Name

Businesses who don’t list their company name in their ad or reply emails are mosy likely scams. They want your money and are not interested in actually hiring you for a position. If they tell you that its secret and don’t want to unveil the idea until you meet, be suspicious of it being an MLM or job that will require you to make an initial downpayment for getting hired. Always research too.. use the search engines to see if the company has any complaints or reports about bad business or check with the Better Business Bureau.

Bad Grammar

Many times these false ads will include grammar/spelling mistakes. An average individual or company is limited to one or two mistakes at the most, anymore than that and you can safely assume the professionality of the business. The same goes for your replies too, you must maintain good grammar when you reply and respond to ads.. never use text language and stay away from acronyms.

Pyramid Schemes/Multi Level Marketing

I have been critical of these advertisements (which aren’t allowed on Craigslist to begin with). You can read about MLMs everywhere online. Basically you have to get people to buy a product or service and make sure they have you listed in the affiliate application so you get a portion of the money when they sell product or end up recruiting others if they join. You get sent a welcome kit (which costs upfront) which includes forms, marketing materials and sometimes even a starter website. Eventually somewhere down the line people find out these are not sustainable as they have recruited everyone close to them and then they have recruited everyone in the same relationship circle. Now you’re left with everyone around either being enrolled in someone else’s downline or not being interested because they already know about your MLM and its scheme. Great for some people who are great at marketing and at the very least good part time work, however it can destroy friendships and relationships.

Work From Home Jobs

These are dangerous as well, usually has you making a payment so you can get sent materials or performing data entry, stuffing envelopes or putting craft pieces together. These are not real and you do not get paid. If you want a work from home job, ask to meet with the person/representative locally and verify that this is a legitimate business. No matter how persuasive, always do your research.

Navigating Your Email Replies

This is the fun part, you get to put these tools to good use, if you posted a resume on Craigslist and they responded.. they don’t actually have your email address if you chose to keep it anonymous. So lets go through a checklist to verify the email was sent by a legitimate company:

1. Email Address: they should have sent it from a professional email address. If it appears to be a Yahoo or Hotmail account be very aware. Here are some samples of what a scammers email address might look like: hotcakes30332@____.com (notice numbers after a name), fnjsdnosdnv@____.com (email address that makes no sense), BettyMyers230@_____.com (numbers after a name that doesn’t match the senders name or is listed at a Yahoo or Hotmail address). Scammers are getting smarter with how they create the addresses. Legitimate businesses should have their website domain (like for us, it would be info@kineticwebcreations.com) listed after the name or position.

2. No Company Description: Is pretty self explainatory, if they don’t tell you what they do or who they are, there’s no point in replying.

3. If they want you to signup for a website to take a quiz, submit to a credit report or do something else that seems out of the box – DON’T. A normal employer does not take any of this information from you before meeting you and going through the standard hiring process. Be intuitive and use your gut. Don’t ever submit to doing something because you’re desperate, you will get caught in the web of identity theft and end up having to clean up a huge mess on top of being unemployed. Search smart and when in doubt, don’t do it!

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