Your Web Site Newsletters #1 and #2

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Newsletter #1 - 30 September 2003

OK, I am just checking in with you for the first time since presenting you with your early Christmas gift --

you should have gotten, or will yet receive, a CD with the Adobe PageMill v.3 app on it, either in PC or Mac format, according to the puter I think you use.

Once you load it on your toy, there is the usual virtual manual in the HELP menu at the top of the screen. For those who prefer a manual in the paw, they are available on Half.com at a couple buckies.

I also added more info to the FTP page, and, time permitting I hope to add another page dedicated to some of the basics of PageMill --

why did I, as a general rule, select short and simple names?

1. Unless you have a really special need for a longer name (such as WhyAreHubbysSuchAssHoles.org), the shorter domain names are easier to remember and type in -- meaning that the computer user would end up on YOUR web site instead of some other one because they mis-typed the long name -- hey, it has happened to me several times even with ebay.com, getting ebat.com instead, but that is sort of logical since the keys are next to each other!

2. Short, meaningful words that just about everybody knows or likes or collects or has an interest in were the first domains to get registered 8 or more years ago and are virtually impossible to find available now -- by being slightly creative, adding an E or an I BEFORE the word, or an S AFTER it, sometimes does the trick, but MOST of them are probably also taken, and I think that adding numbers AFTER or BEFORE a KEY WORD is just plain dumb, as is the use of hyphens BETWEEN words, but, hey, people do it!

3. Over the last 2-3 years they have added a couple new TOP LEVEL DOMAINS to the basic original vintage dotCom, dotNet and dotOrg, such as dotInfo and dotWs, and MANY have jumped at the opportunity to register names with these designations -- another example are the relatively new Chinese TOP LEVEL DOMAINS having a CN ending -- example, Fossil.net.cn -- meaning that one could start from scratch with the highly prized short names again, and in this particular case, in a computer market that will be enormous in the not too distant future. The same thing is in the works for a new designation that the European Commision authorized recently, dotEU -- which they say will be operative by the end of the year or in early 2004.

So quite a few of my pre-Christmas surprises are dotWS domains, and I was VERY lucky to find them simply because many peeps got distracted for one reason or another and haven't checked them out yet.

4. Once you are the owner of a domain name, it is like real estate -- you remain the owner as long as you keep up the registration -- which can now be renewed for several years at a time -- they can be willed to somebody, just as property is. The domain can be sold, just as a house, and depending on how short and sweet it might be, some of them bring in big buckies! Over the years I have had innumerable peeps contact me about some of my domains -- Siamese.net, Turista.net, Fossils.net, among them -- but they were the same cheap twits who didn't bother registering them years ago and think they can get them now at the going general registration price, which is about $15/year at the present time -- when I started out, they were $50/year! Either you have the balls to do something at any moment in time, or you get left out in the cold.

5. Once you have a domain name, it is VERY important to keep track of renewal dates -- my only pal here in Trenton, Bernar, registered Pimpernelle.com some 7 years ago and had a kewl personal web site -- his problem always is and has been, an almost complete lack of focus on the trees -- he can sometimes almost see his own personal forest, but the individual components seem to get missed somehow. I think it was about a month ago that I last visited his web site -- then, a couple days ago, the early morning of 26 September 2003, I went there and kept getting that usual message that the server might be busy, yadayada -- just out of curiosity I went to see if he still had it and found that it was NOT registered, meaning that for whatever reason he missed the renewal date! In less than a minute I registered Pimpernelle.com AND Pimpernelle.net, and his old domain will be part of his Christmas present this year -- he wil have to reload all of the files he had on it. In the meantime I imagine that he might just wander over to his old web site, in a free moment which he rarely seems to have, and find it gone -- SURPRISE! When I first started, I had about 6 really short and popular names that I wanted to use, in English and Spanish, but somehow I also missed the REregistration date -- when I found the time to check on the things, they had been registered by somebody else already! THE VULTURES!

OK, I would really like to complete the transfer process as soon as possible so I can go on to other things --

For the dotWS domains all that is needed is for me to initiate the transfer (which I did), and it costs you nothing -- in most cases I already signed you up with directNIC to facilitate things on my end -- the recipient is supposed to sign the transfer papers, no need for a notary, and send them back to directNIC -- I sent my copy already, in most cases -- if you haven't gotten the papers, you can call them [504 679 5170] or log onto their web site and email their support gang (and they are usually very prompt to reply) and they will either FAX or send them to you snail mail. I prefer actually calling them on the phone since I am the old fashioned kind, I guess.

For the dotNet domains, as few as they are, YOU have to sign-up for a FREE directNIC account, and request the transfer of your new domain gift (make sure that you type it in CORRECTLY) -- they then contact me, and since they already know that I am doing this, it is relatively easy -- it does take a couple days to go through the main registry, but is usually completed within 2-3 working days -- and there is a charge of $15 for the transfer, BUT it also gives you an added year of registration, meaning that you don't have to worry about it again until 2005.

In either case, with the dotWs OR dotNet, you then get FREE web hosting for your domain -- 20 megs of space, which is a real lot for starters -- and there are three options for the FREE hosting -- with small ad banners at the top and bottom of each page, with the ads in frames ( DO NOT USE frames with your web site -- they SUCK! ), or with pop-up ads, which I prefer -- your pages are neat and clean, free of ads, just like on paid hosting web sites, and it is almost fun shooting down those small pop-ups!.

Also, in either case, you can elect to have PAID hosting, which is a meesly $15/year -- NO ads, the same amount of web space PLUS some added extras, such as having your pics HOT LINKED to your eBay auctions (which means they show up in an auction listing, using your web site address as the URL of each pic-- you cannot do this with the FREE hosting). I pay more or less that amount/month for EACH of my 5 main web sites for hosting, so it is a really great deal. Over the last 2 weeks I have been taking advantage of their FREE hosting for many of my registered domains, a couple of which I may develop more as time permits.

There are also some FREE email options associated with a domain -- EMAIL FORWARDING gets any mail sent to your domain delivered to your usual email address -- for example, an email sent to Webmaster@MFSOAB.com would be forwarded to one of my AOL email accounts that I use specifically for that purpose.

You can also get a bunch of what they call POP email addresses, which basically means that you can send and retrieve emails from any computer anywhere at your directNIC account domain POP mailbox -- your email address might be something like, Sonny@MFSOAB.com -- I never use the thing, so I don't have all the details, but you can find them on the directNIC web site -- when in doubt ask their service peeps -- I always do!

So there you have it -- please get the transfer completed asap -- only then will you be able to do something with your new domain, change my sample starter page, etc. With the copy of PageMill you now have, you could download that sample page and the graphics files to your computer using FTP once I put them on your new server (I believe that there is an FTP app right in the PageMill program -- I always use FETCH on my Mac, but it is an old clasical app for Macs only), and REuse all or parts of what you download on your web pages -- needless to say, if you want to grab animations, pics or backgrounds from any of my web pages, feel free to do so.

So take some time to familiarize yourself with PageMill -- or if you want to use some other web page app, wonderful -- whatever you use, once you get started and get the hang of it, you will amaze yourelf at what you can create WITHOUT knowing a thing about HTML, just as I always amaze myself -- and I always discover new stuff as I go along, which is also fun!

If you ever have any questions, ASK -- and get that transfer done already!

Sonny

Newsletter #2 - 2 October 2003

Here are more useful tips about your domain/webmaster options once you have your domain in your directNIC account -- once you log onto your account you are greeted with this page

Clicking on CUSTOMER SETTINGS in the main tool bar you have these options --

DO NOT do anything with #3 or #4 -- you might want to use #8 -- forget about #9.

1. NOT for dotWs domains -- You might want to SECURE your domain from potential domain vultures by adding that option from the list (CUSTOMER SETTINGS option #10) --

what this simply does is make it more difficult for someone to just come along and grab your domain in some devious way -- one doesn't really have to worry too much about anyone appropriating a domain, but it does add a higher level of security, just in case someone attempts it. Your setting may be on NORMAL SECURITY -- to change it just click on the lower CHANGE button.

2. It is always kewl to get the search engines to index your web site and pages, and that option is available -- RESOURCE CENTER -- SITE SUBMITTER --

clicking on that link it brings you to the page where you fill in your domain name, starting with www, for example -- www.MFSOAB.com --

then just follow whatever they ask on the next page/s -- have some KEY WORDS relating to the content of your web site ready to type in the given space and eventually when someone does a web SEARCH, your site/pages will show up in the listing -- after a couple years the search engines usually pick them all up anyway, but this way it is done somewhat faster, in theory.

3. For the time being, if you want one, you can add some kind of a hit counter to your web page, but you have to do it through one of the ratty free services from elsewhere, which, in general, suck. On a lot of my web pages I have switched to using the counter provided by Andale, the one that eBay uses (it's at the bottom of this page), but I did it in a round about way -- and as we all know, they are down half the time anyway and are not very accurate! You can get much better visitor stats right from your directNIC account page -- IF you can find that info -- I can't seem to!

4. EMAIL FORWARDING might be something that you want -- that means that if a viewer of your web site wants to email you, they could address the email to webmaster@MFSOAB.com and the email would be forwarded to whatever address you want it to -- it also means that you can use different web site emails for different stuff, for example -- you have a Beanie page, and the link you give for contacts about Beanies might be Beanies@MFSOAB.com -- a section might be dedicated to PLANTS, and you would have an email link for information about that section directed to Plants@MFSOAB.com -- I think you get the idea ---- for these details click on the DOMAIN MANAGER and choose EMAIL as the DOMAIN VIEW --

you then get a screen that shows which email options you have selected -- click on the MAIL option --

you are then brought to the general EMAIL SERVICES page --

if you ONLY want the emails directed to Webmaster@[your.domain], then type in Webmaster@[your.domain] in that space, add your current or other email address in the FORWARD TO part (DO NOT use those dumbass Hotmail or Yahoo accounts as they always seem to have some kind of a problem) and click ADD RULE --

IF you want what they call a CATCH ALL forwarding address, which means that any and all emails directed to that web site, no matter which ones you provide on the different pages, you would type in *Webmaster in that first space, WITH the asterisk in front of it.

5. I have never used POP MAIL accounts for anything, so I cannot offer suggestions about them -- they are useful as alternative email addresses when away and connecting to the WWW, PLUS they allow you, apparently, to not only receive emails directed at your website, but then you could also send replies to them from your web site address, as well as have some kind of Newsletter for special projects -- the POP option is the first one listed on the EMAIL SERVICES page (see above), and you are totally on your own there because I never used them for anything. They are probably more stable and useful than Hotmail and Yahoo, but they do also have size and other limitations, which is explained on that info page. Personally, the fewer email addresses I have, the better -- somewhat less complicated in general.

6. For other helpful info there are other menu bars with further options --

take some time to browse the directNIC web site to familiarize yourself with all the kewl stuff that you can do with your new toy -- and most of them are either FREE or have a very low nominal cost/year!

7. Don't forget -- you now have your own address on the Internet -- use it on your business cards, letterheads, and if you do the eBay thing, include it in your cover letter when you send the winning items out and as a link in your ITEM SENT emails -- make postcard or larger sized fliers, perhaps with those small tear-off tabs at the bottom having your web site address on each of the tabs, and post them at the local supermarket, on the counter of your local post office, at a friend's shop, at that country auction in the sign-in area -- send a note with all of your greeting cards, especially at Christmas time -- and do your own promotion of the latest pics of the kids, the pets and plants, collections, or whatever on the online newsgroups you are on -- you are now a venerable WEBMASTER!

8. If you really get interested in perhaps finding other AVAILABLE domain names for family or business, you can always do a generally rapid real time SEARCH at the following -- if it slows down or you get a SERVER BUSY message, try early in the morning -- they get many thousands of inquiries every minute and sometimes get bogged down --

Finding a Domain	D O M A I N
File Transfer	F T P
WebMaster Info Newsletters	N e w s l e t t e r s
Flags, Animations + Backgrounds	A Y U D A S
Graphics File Basics	P H O T O S
Graphics File Fun	Photo Fun
Open in New Window Code	HTML Code
Animated GIFS	A n i m a t i o n s
Adobe PageMill v.3	I am working on it

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