When I set up my very first website, I used a web hosting provider that was recommended to me by a friend. It was supposed to be free hosting, but what I didn’t know at the time was that they then charged way too much for domain name registration. Not to mention the server space and bandwidth quotas sucked, and of course they overcharged for any additional space and traffic allowances.
But the real kicker was that their email servers were blacklisted for sending spam, which meant that my emails were going into my clients’ junk mail boxes — not a good thing when your business and your income is dependent on being able to communicate with your clients! As a result I ended up switching hosting providers.
I learned some pretty important lessons in my first experience with web hosting. For one thing, make sure the FTP server space and bandwidth you are allotted are enough for your purposes — not forgetting to take into account that your site might grow over time, of course. Also, make sure that the hosting provider has technical support that can ensure you don’t run into problems such as having your emails flagged as spam, particularly if you depend on your email for client communication!
Living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, I’ve been recently considering starting my own travel resources company. Having worked in various aspects of the travel industry for the past 30 years, I have a bit of information and knowledge when it comes to getting from here to there. What I’m not all that familiar with here in Tampa is interactive marketing agency information.
Given we are now in the Internet age, and it seems to be a veritable law that businesses are online with social media optimized sites, and do well to rank highly with search engine optimized pages, I knew immediately I was going to want to find a Tampa website design company that could help put my site, and business on the map.
I also knew that one of the things I didn’t want to have to deal with was answering phones, and as such I began to search for business phone answering services. Since it was going to be just me for a while, I knew that a professional, friendly and confident voice on the phone would do to serve my company well.
I was amazed at the options available out there, and ultimately opted for a company that had both live services (which I planned to use during the day) and pre-recorded answering capabilities (which are much cheaper) that I could use during closed hours.
Lately, I’ve been using secure file transfer to transmit sensitive customer data between our two facilities. We have an internal server that does nothing but hosted FTP, and I was able to use that to get a good majority of our customer data backed up. Lately, we have had some trouble being able to stay on top of all the changes to our server infrastructure. Implementing a simple server structure with secure FTP has been the best decision we’ve made. Instead of having to transfer the files using media that could be lost or stolen, we can just download the most important pieces for safe keeping. We can also set up a cron job to do these types of backups while we are at home or at work.
Automation is another lifesaver when it comes to our internal infrastructure. This is evident only when customers start calling in. There have been many times when customers need a random backup, and, since my employment, we have been able to guarantee at least 3 different points in time backups of their data. Secure FTP has been one of the many cornerstones in our infrastructure, and has allowed us to maintain customer data in an organized structure. Without these tools, our customers wouldn’t have the security that they need. We take the time to do it right.
I’m feeling pretty brilliant. I have compiled a CD of accompanying material for the whole year, including a lesson plan, a spreadsheet of assignments, and supporting materials like worksheets and articles that I want the kids to go over. It’s like an entire syllabus of materials on a single CD. I used the class picture and put it on the label (which I figured out how to do using CD labelers and CD printer sheets) and I printed out and labeled a copy for everyone in the class. It wasn’t even all that expensive, which is a little crazy.
I might lie about it in my budget report. It makes me think that the whole school should invest in CD printers or burners or whatever they call them these days; it seems like such an easy and effective way to reach the students. They all have computers, and those that don’t have a ton of time at home are welcome to use the ones at school. Isn’t it brilliant? I’m more than a little proud of myself, and I’m feeling very technologically savvy. As my students say, I’ve reached nerdvana.
Google is one of the Internet’s best friends, and now you can use it on your cell phone, too. The best example I can think of is the iPhone. My husband has one, and I am just amazed at what you can do on a phone when it has the full Internet. When you Google for directions to someplace, Google Local even finds your location for you, so that you don’t need to enter in your address yourself!
Say, for instance, that you’re going from work to your Washington D C dentist’s office. You’re already on the road and you’re lost. Instead of having to stop for directions, you simply pull out your iPhone and Google the address. Google pinpoints your location, and hey presto! You’re not lost anymore! Google gives you directions to the Washington DC dental servicefrom your current location. Next thing you know you’re getting your Potomac sedation dentistry done — right on time.
Even if you don’t know the address of where you’re going, you can use Google Local on your mobile phone to find your way. If you just look for the name of the business, Google will find it for you — and its address. Then you can map the location and get directions from your present location.
There is no end to the ways in which Google can improve our lives!
