by admin | Sep 4, 2013 | Marketing Ideas, Random Postings, Social Media, Technology Ideas
Written by: Erin Trowbridge, Marketing Director
Tomorrow, I’ll be presenting at the Eau Claire Chamber’s Social Media & Marketing Conference at Florian Gardens, which JB Systems is also sponsoring, so I wanted to give our blog readers a sneak peek at what’s in store!
We have a lot of clients lately asking about how they can keep up with the mobile world, in relation to their websites. There are a few different routes to go that we discuss with our clients, including:
- A mobile app – This is a native software application that you download to your phone that performs functions or offers content to users. Many times, mobile apps have very specific functions (browse homes for sale, refill a prescription, check nearby gas prices, etc.). This type of mobile interaction is usually much different than the customer’s main website, so it requires a different set of information and requirements from the client. It also goes through a process to be approved and sold on an app store like iTunes, for example.
- A mobile website – This is a website that is independent of your main website. Mobile websites are usually hosted under a subdomain or different domain altogether (i.e. m.facebook.com or jbsystemsllc.mobi). Mobile websites are a great alternative if you want the flexibility of the web but want to offer users different content than what they would see on your full site. Many times, you’ll see something like ‘View our Full Site’ on a mobile site. The goal is to offer users quick, relevant information for mobile users, instead of inundating them with the full breadth of your full site content.
- A responsive website – This is the same as your website – only different. (What?!) Responsive design is a newer trend in web design that rearranges the elements of your layout to fit a wide variety of screen sizes, instead of just shrinking them, thus eliminating the need to pinch-and-zoom all the time. The result of responsive design is easier access to all/most of the content on your site, one set of web files to manage and maintain, better SEO, and lower cost in most cases.
I’ll be discussing these topics and other mobile trends, tools, and tactics in my presentation, as well as pros and cons of implementing these strategies. Look for a follow up blog post with more info from the presentation!
by admin | Feb 25, 2013 | Random Postings, Scams, Viruses, Trojan's Oh My, Technical Support
Many of our clients get solicitations from domain registry companies and DNS management services on a regular basis. They look like an invoice, and sometimes they even have what looks like legitimate information on them. But – beware…these are sneaky marketing pieces trying to get you to just pay it, when in fact, you may not have to. Here’s what they look like:
We have also had clients receive mail from places like Domain Registry of America, a company that handles domain registrations. However, their marketing piece looks like a notice of a domain expiring, and that by paying the invoice (or what looks like an invoice), all will be well with the domain name. Here’s what that might look like:
(Notice in both examples the areas in red….these are giveaways that it is just a solicitation, not a bill requiring payment.)
In the big picture of marketing, this tactic isn’t new. Magazines have been doing this with their subscriptions for years. But – in today’s technology-driven world, a domain name can make or break a business. The industry has made their money on fear – our fear of losing a domain, fear of our competitor getting our domain, fear of losing business all because we let a domain name expire. Wow! That’s powerful!
So, it’s no surprise that business owners and website managers are cautious anytime they receive a notice about their domain name. As they should be – it is important to pay attention to. However, there are easy ways to go about making sure that your domain name is well taken care of.
1. Check your WHOIS listing.
WHOIS is a directory of domains and their registration information. Look for the expiration date, and the “Registrant” info. Your company name should be listed as the Registrant. You can find your WHOIS listing by going to who.godaddy.com and typing in your domain name.
2. If you manage your own domain name with someone like GoDaddy, Network Solutions, ENOM, or other similar sites,make sure to set your domain name to ‘Auto-Renew’. That means that it will automatically renew your domain name for you without having to worry that it will expire.
3. When purchasing a domain name, purchase it for multiple years (max is usually 9 or 10 years). This not only takes the burden off of you to renew it every year, but it also gets you bonus SEO (search engine optimization) points!
4. Call JB Systems! Domains seem like the unknown to many small business owners, but it doesn’t have to be a part of your business that is shrouded by fear. If you’re ever in doubt, our team at JB Systems can check on your domain, or manage it for you.
by admin | Apr 6, 2011 | Random Postings, Scams, Viruses, Trojan's Oh My
by Gerald Bauer, owner of JB Systems, LLC
Greetings JB Systems Blog Subscribers! As most of you know, .CO domain names were announced at this year’s Super Bowl. We’re learning that many companies are buying up these domain names – just to sit on them and resell them at a later date. This is known as domain squatting and is frowned upon by most professional web agencies.
If you’d like your domain name in the .CO extension, please call us right away. Registrations are only $15.00 per year and we can secure it for you. As always, you own your domain name with JB Systems. Your receipt of purchase entitles you to that.
Call us before it’s too late – if another company purchases your .CO, they have legal right to charge whatever they’d like for you to obtain it. But at JB Systems though, $15.00 per year (like all of our domain registrations) is all it takes.
Until next time….
by admin | Dec 28, 2010 | Random Postings, Scams, Viruses, Trojan's Oh My
by Gerald Bauer, owner of JB Systems
It was recently brought to our attention that some customers were receiving “mock” emails from Charter Communications politely asking users for their email usernames and passwords. The exact email looks something similar to this:
————————————————————
From: customercare@charter.net [bcc12@rogers.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 12:35AM
To: customercare@charter.net
Subject: Your Account Update
Dear charter Customer
There are some changes necessary in order to upgrade your e-mail account.Please send us your e-mail
ID and password so that we can upgrade youraccount and avoid any interruption in service.
Thanks,charter Support Team.
——————————————————————————–
There are several things to note here – such as the improper capitalization of things – but most importantly, review the “To:” address – and note the [bcc12@rogers.com]. This is dangerous – at Outlook will “blind carbon copy” your reply to an address at rogers.com. Do you really think this is Charter Communications? Probably not!
Also – for everyone’s information – Charter would have all the tools necessary (or we hope that they would) to manage their email accounts without soliciting their users for passwords. NO EMAIL PROVIDER SHOULD EVER REQUEST A PASSWORD FROM THEIR CUSTOMER. This is bad practice – and they have the tools to manually reset the passwords if they needed to.
Until next time everyone – have a great holiday and stay safe – both offline and online.
by admin | Aug 16, 2010 | Random Postings, Scams, Viruses, Trojan's Oh My
Hi All,
JB Systems has recently uncovered a new scam attempt being sent by email.
If you receive any message with the subject “FINAL VERIFICATION OF YOUR ACCOUNT” - please disregard the message and delete it promptly. The email will ask you to confirm your email account and personal details, such as:
- Email Username
- Email Password
- Date of Birth
- Country You Live In
Once again – DELETE THESE MESSAGES.
JB Systems will contact you personally should we have any issues with your email accounts – or if we need to verify your information. We’ve taken necessary measures to block all future attempts of these messages on our mail servers but even that is never foolproof.
Thanks for tuning in – and let us know if you have any questions.
by admin | May 26, 2010 | Random Postings, Technical Support
Around 5:10PM today (May 26th) a couple of our dedicated servers experienced issues today resulting in approximately 2 hours of down time. We apologize for any inconveniences this outage has caused.
Engineers at our data facility today were notified of a down router this afternoon and around 7:10PM had the issue resolved. JB Systems responded to the issue within moments of it happening we’re happy to report a limited outage of only 2 hours.
We appreciate the patience and understanding of our clients, and we’ll continue to respond to issues like this in the most expedient of ways.
