Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category
Posted by 428 Designs
Cyber Monday 50% OFF Promotion
Shared Hosting – as low as $2.48/month for their basic “Hatchling” plan.
If you have only one website to host, you’ll need the basic “Hatchling” plan. If you have more than one site (or plan to) go with the “Baby Plan” or “Business Plan” – these plans offer unlimited domains.
With these plans, it’s cheaper when you sign up for 36 months, this will give you the lowest price. All billing cycle options are eligible for the 50% discount.
The coupon code is CYBERMONDAY2010 (valid for new HostGator customers only).
This promotion will run Monday November 29th from 12:00AM – 11:59PM CST – Don’t miss it!
Click the banner below sign up with HostGator – great customer service, too!
Posted by 428 Designs
Lots of clients ask about simple photo editing. Not crazy Photoshop kind of editing, but something simple and easy.
Here’s where you go: http://www.picnik.com/
Crop, resize, rotate…add special effects right from your browser. And, yep, it’s free… and no registration required even! Upload your photo and go at it.
Of course, there are more options when you pay for a premium account ($24.95/year), but for simple photo editing, definitely check this out – perfect for bloggers and simple photo sizing/cropping for your website.
Posted by 428 Designs
In the past t hree weeks, I’ve heard the same number of people’s horror stories about losing everything on their computers because they did not have a backup. My first question is always, “Why don’t you have a backup?”
This, obviously, doesn’t come with any response that makes any sense to me. I’m sort of a backup freak. I backup weekly to an external hard drive, backup certain files daily to iDisk and have my online backup through Backblaze – which gives me great peace of mind – which you might enjoy as well.
Backblaze is an online backup which securely backs up everything on your computer (except for operating systems, temp files or files over 9mb). After your initial backup, Backblaze continually backs up your files as they change – no need to remember to backup. Be warned, the initial backup will take some time.
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Posted by 428 Designs
WE LOVE MAILCHIMP!
The more we use MailChimp, the more we love it. For small businesses that send email newsletters or contact customers not so regularly, you can start out FREE up to 500 subscribers and 3,000 free sends! When your list of subscribers grows MailChimp has a “Pay As You Go” option or a regular monthly subscription.
MailChimp also makes it easy to track everything – so you can see quick, detailed reports for your campaigns and even send out an automatic tweet to your Twitter account when you post to your blog.
That’s just the beginning…sign up for a free account and check it out.
Contact us for our special MailChimp set up plan for help with list setup, campaign setup and customizing your templates. We’ll add your opt-in form on your website to start growing your email list and also import your existing permission-based list.
Sign up for the 428 Designs newsletter. We’ll share tips, resources and more “cool tools” we’ve been trying out lately.
Posted by 428 Designs
Have you noticed the bar that appears when you scroll down on our site? You’re given the option to share on Facebook, Twitter, via email or search. Try it… scroll down, you’ll see it. It’s a cool plugin called Apture and it’s free*.
What is Apture?
From the Apture site: Apture is a service that allows bloggers and publishers to layer in nearly all media from across the web into their sites with one click. By transforming flat web pages into connected multimedia experiences readers can fluidly dive into related information without losing their place on the page so they can see, hear and truly experience the ideas on the page.
Search feature: You can enter a term in the search box within the Apture bar as well as highlight any word or term on the page and click “Search” and you’ll see results from our site, Wikipedia, Google and more. Try it, it’s pretty cool.
Check out the Apture site to see what else it can do. The bar is fully customizable so you can match the colors of your site and you can add your logo.
We’re still playing with it, but let us know what you think. If you want to try it out on your site just let us know.
* For sites with less than five million page views per month.
Posted by 428 Designs
428 Designs is very excited to be sponsoring a teleseminar series that can help you build your business!
The Promote U Business Building Teleseminar Series is being conducted by Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru! Lisa is an in-demand Branding Expert, Marketing Consultant and Business Coach with over 20 years of experience. And, she is the recipient of over 75 national & international awards for marketing excellence.
You don’t want to miss these teleseminars! You can choose to attend one or two, OR register for all 3 and receive a 20% discount.
Click here for all the details about each topic.
And here’s a snapshot of the topics and dates: Each one is ONLY $29!
Promote U Thru Brand Building: How to Create a Unique Brand Platform to Stand Out:
Tuesday, June 8, 2010: 10:00 to 11:00 am PST
Promote U Thru PR & Publicity: The Ins & Outs of Getting On-going Media Coverage:
Thursday, June 10, 2010: 10:00 to 11:00 PST
Promote U Thru Social Media: Solid Strategies for Using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube & Blogs:
Wednesday, June 16, 2010: 10:00 to 11:00 PST
Visit the event website for info and register today…space is limited: PromoteUGuru.com/teleseminars
We hope to see you in Lisa’s “virtual” classroom!
Posted by 428 Designs
So, your new website has been designed, developed and launched. It is now live and everything is right with the world.
Don’t forget you will need to keep tabs on how your site is performing.
You’ll need to monitor how your visitors are using the site; where they are coming from, what pages they are viewing, how long they are staying, and what areas might need improvement if the pages that you think are important aren’t getting the views you’re expecting.
Your Google Analytics reports are providing you with all of the information about what is going on with your site and your visitors.
You can schedule your reports to be emailed to you either monthly, weekly or daily.
As a 428 client, you should already be receiving these reports. If not, contact us today and we’ll get your analytics setup right away.
Posted by 428 Designs
What is Yelp? By Yelp’s own definition: Yelp allows consumers to share the experiences they’ve had with local businesses and lets business owners share information about their business with their customers. Simply put, it’s word of mouth– amplified.
I love Yelp and use it quite a bit, mainly for restaurants, but all sorts of local businesses and services are on Yelp and yours may already be listed.
You do not have to submit your business, Yelpers can submit it for you, which is why you may already be listed and reviewed so you should check and see if you’re there.
See if you’re listed here - (be sure to put your “Near” area in to make sure the search finds your business).
If you are listed, you can claim your business name and setup an account so that you can add your business details, photos and more information. If you’re not listed yet, just set up your account and create your listing.
Posted by 428 Designs
Question: I am getting spam emails from my own email address, what is going on? Am I sending these out to other people?
Answer: No. This is what is called email spoofing. You’ll see (hopefully in your spam filter) emails that seem to be sent from your email address.
While this is annoying, it’s nothing to be alarmed about.
With spoofing, the emails are actually originating from another SMTP server, not yours. So, you aren’t spamming, spammers are just using your domain name, to try and mask it’s true sender.
Posted by 428 Designs
This is post only refers to email accounts that are connected to your domain name/website ([email protected]).
If you are suddenly getting email errors and you’re sure you have an internet connection, here is the one quick thing to check. Is your website up and can you reach your webmail (http://mail.yoursite.com)?
If not, then it’s likely that your domain name has expired, which is why your email is not working. (more…)
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