------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine ------- Vol 2, Issue 7 As Spring steals over the land, many of us turn toward thoughts of renewal. It's time to do the Spring cleaning, to open up the gardens, and to get the lawn mower ready for another season. Many people also take this time to upgrade materials for their businesses as well. They make grandiose plans to update their brochures, make new business cards and especially upgrade their Web presence. And that last one can be a real trick if you don't "own" your website. We'll talk about this problem below. ---------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue... ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Do You Own Your Website? Are You Sure?, Part 1 2. Blog Posts 3. Shameless Self-Promotion 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Do You Own Your Website? Are You Sure?, Part 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- On more than one occasion I've been called in to chat with a potential client about a project to upgrade their website. They're all excited about putting in a new event calendar or adding a blog feed to their front page. We're all ready to go when suddenly a roadblock rears up in front of us. They don't have control of their own website. When I asked for their access information (username, password, hosting service, etc) so I could take a look at the underlying structure of their site, they got a sheepish look on their faces. "Well, ya see, we have this problem..." -- and it is a problem. Here are just a few reasons why: 1. You are locked in to one designer. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Your current web developer may be a creative person and they may do a great job. Even the best, though, may not be able to handle all of your needs. Are you comfortable enough with your current web developer to tell them you want to work with an outside source? 2. Worse than #1, you might be locked into the site as it is. If no one has your access information, then how can you change the site? This may sound far-fetched, but I've run into this situation more than once. This usually happens when the person in charge of the website moves on to other things (whether they work for your company or not). They may or may not send you an email with your website provider information in it. In either case, the information eventually goes missing and no one knows how to actually login to the server anymore. This can lead to: 3. Loss of Web presence. For whatever reason, you no longer have access to your web server. Maybe the information was lost in a computer crash or staff turnover. Maybe you got into a fight with your web designer and he is holding out on you. For whatever reason, you can't make changes to the website any longer. In this case, sometimes the only thing you can do is start over again. This means that you might have to get a new domain name and a new hosting service. You might be able to retrieve the existing site, but if you've built up any kind of complexity, you are very likely to lose those advanced features. Oh, and all that effort you went through in order to improve your search engine visibility? Gone. Sounds like a potentially bad situation, right? It could be. Next time I'll write about some warning signs that you might be in for trouble in this area. See you in two weeks! Copyright 2008, Greg Peters ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Blog Posts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Links to posts on the "Clearing Up the Confusion" Blog from the last year: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 -- Google 101 http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2008/03/google-101.html "I attended an exciting presentation this morning put on by Google, Friends of CASA, and the NEW Center's npServ program. The lecture focused on the many benefits of various Google applications and services for nonprofit organizations. I'll go into some of the details in a later post, but there were two tools that I wanted to mention right away, just in case anyone reading this might have use of them...." Sunday, March 02, 2008 -- A View into Google Calendar http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2008/03/view-into-google-calendar.html "Those crazy kids at Google have one-upped me. I guess I can't blame them too much. After all, it's what they do. In this case, though, they've come up with a relatively simple way to embed a Google Calendar into a website (or blog, or whatever)...." ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Shameless Self-Promotion ---------------------------------------------------------------- The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your webmaster. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: You can subscribe to the "Clearing Up The Confusion" E-zine at: http://www.cyberdatasolns.com/ezine Questions: If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at: gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright and contact information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Greg Peters is required, with notification to the original author. We never send the "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-zine uninvited, and we NEVER share, sell or rent our mailing list to anyone. Your privacy is safe with us.