2007 Service Update

Greetings, and Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a nice holiday. Unfortunately if you're getting this then it must be time to get back to work on another year. For those that are new, I send a newsletter after the the first of the year to kickoff any new changes or updates to your site or services. Please keep this email as reference through 2007.

First, for those that were impacted by my ongoing schedule with our wedding, honeymoon, and move to Texas during 06 I just want to say thank you once more for your patience. Greatly appreciated and yes, I'm done moving around!

News

•SPAM - There has been a 60% spam increase in the past 8 weeks. This is adding some added utilization to the (free) spam filtering provided with your web hosting. Basically, when massive amounts of spam are sent to your email addresses the filter has to go through all the bad mail for the valid mail. When the number of mail (and spam) increases the filter time increases then the delivery time increases. This may subside after the holidays but we will be conducting upgrades. For those that are interested I can still offer Postini if it becomes a bigger issue.

•Contact Information -
My cell phone will stay as-is until further notice. 805.895.9428, FAX 866.535.8561
My address: 7903 Petaca Trail, Austin Texas, 78729
My email: I will be using my permanent email instead of my cox account: jess@jesshaynie.com

• Windows SharePoint Team Services 3.0 -  A unique product for a small business looking to collaborate with remote customers or offsite personnel via intranet. Windows SharePoint Services is a secure online document sharing and collaboration service, with web based contacts, calendars, task lists, discussion/memo boards. Let me know if you would like to see a demonstration.

• Hosted Exchange Server 2007 -  This is what I use to effectively manage my email on multiple computers and devices. Completely web based and works great for those that travel and like to stay connected. Includes free Outlook 2003, shared calendar, free/busy scheduling, SmartPhone mobile access, shared contacts and calendars. Let me know if you would like to see a demonstration.

Late Payments

As we are all small businesses we know the importance of receiving payments on time. I really dont want to run the type of business that has to make annoying accounting calls, payment penalties*, suspension of service, etc. Please remember that invoices are due upon reciept unless other arrangements have been made. If you would like to discuss other methods of payment please let me know.

Pricing

• Web hosting fees are going to stay the same price!
• Domain name renewals will stay the same price!

Web hosting: $180 per year
Domain Names: $20.00 per year, Best Deal 5 years for $75.
Postini: $2 per email account
Web design & maintenance: $45 per hour

Statistics

For those interested in getting a headstart on a new marketing strategy for their site in 2007 please call me for an appointment.

• Website ranking
• Competitive Analysis
• Search word optimization
• Search word research
• Search engine submissions
• Search engine rank monitoring
• Maintenance of positioning
• Monitoring of Statistics

When submitting updates it is very important to include as much detailed information as possible. Since I manage many sites and all of which have completely different content and material it will greatly expedite the update process by following these guidelines:

• Where - Include the link from your browser to the page that you want updated. Ex. http://www.yoursite.com/yourproduct/yourprices.htm
  
  
• What - Since no one knows your product better than you it is best I dont interfere or copy edit your updates. Please include a brief description of the request Ex.Please remove second paragraph starting with "99 bottles of beer on the wall ..." and replace with new paragraph attached in update.doc
  
  
• When - If this is a time sensitive update please include timeframe. Ex. Please post this promotional pricing from January 1 until January 27th.
  
  
• How - Text can be submitted in .doc, .txt or .rtf format and should be included as an attachment. Excel can be a difficult and timely tranformation to HTML depending on how it's formatted. If you have products that are being sold on your website you should include a spreadsheet (Excel) with the following information: Product Name, ID #, Price, Description, Dimensions, etc. For images see below.

*Most updates will be completed within 5 to 7 days of submission

IMAGES - Files larger than 7.5MB should be submitted by CD or DVD.
Please mark or label CD/DVD with contents/date/owner prior to submission.

Photos* - Digital photos or scanned images should be high resolution and in .jpg format.
Original Artwork & Logos - Please submit in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop formats with all editable layers. This includes .EPS. .PSD or .PDF formats
Graphics & Misc - Additional graphics (Flash, Quicktime, Audio) may be submitted in the following formats: .GIF, .FLA, .MOV, .MPG

*Please include note affirming you were the photographer for this image and/or have full rights to use it for commercial purposes

EMAIL ADDRESSES

Email address modifications should include the following:

• Email Address - new.employee@yourcompany.comType of Account - POP or Forwarding
  • POP - Mailbox account to be configured with email client such as Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora
  • Forwarding - Please include forwarding email address ex. yourname@yourwebsite.com forwards to johnsmith@hotmail.com
  Vacation Reply - By setting up a vacation reply you can have a customized message automatically reply to all incoming mail. Ex. "Thank You, we have recieved your request and will be contacting you shortly..."
• Password - If a password is not specified then one will be assigned. I recommend 8 character or more alphanumeric passwords.

SEARCH ENGINE RANKING

Not happy with your current positioning? Have concerns about the following? Please call me to set up an appointment.

• Website ranking
• Competitive marketing
• Search word optimization
• Search word research
• Search engine submissions
• Search engine rank monitoring
• Maintenance of positioning
• Monitoring of Statistics

KEYWORDS & META-TAGSA meta tag is an html element that records information about the current page, such as the character encoding, author, copyright, or keywords and very important to competively marketing your website/webpage.

In order to optimize your pages for search engines your pages should include the following:

• Keywords - Many search-engine robots (programs that automatically browse the web gathering information for search engines to index) read the contents of the Keywords meta tag and use the information to index your pages in their databases. Because some search engines limit the number of keywords or characters they index, or ignore all keywords if you go beyond the limit, it’s a good idea to use just a few well-chosen keywords.Enter your keywords, separated by commas into any text document.
  • Example - For my website it might be: jess haynie, websites, web design, web hosting, santa barbara, internet, etc.
• Description - Many search-engine robots read the contents of the Description meta tag. Some use the information to index your pages in their databases, and some also display the information on the search results page (instead of displaying the first few lines of your document). Some search engines limit the number of characters they index, so it’s a good idea to limit your description to a few words.
  • Example - Pork barbecue catering in Albany, Georgia, or web design at reasonable rates for clients worldwide.

When submitting modifications to Keywords or Description metatags simply send them in any .doc, .txt or .rtf format.

Mailing Lists

As much as we all hate spam there is benefits to having your own mailing list recipients. If you already have preexisting mailing list that you would like to submit for bulk mailings simply send me a text file with all the email addresses. Each address should be on a separate line and have no white spaces.

ex.
bobsmith@email.com
susanjones@website.com
johnrich@domain.com

Still have questions? Give me a buzz.

Thank You,
Jess

Contact Info
Mobile - 805.895.9428
FAX 866.535.8561
jess@jesshaynie.com