If you read my post from earlier this week, then you may have been saying to yourself "OK, Mike, I got it, but now get off your high horse and tell me what I can practically do!" OK, I will, because you're right in a way, not making the time to update your website is usually just a symptom of the real issue. And what we have found is that people just don't know where to start. So I like to suggest that they start with some simple starting ideas.

The following are thoughts anyone can use to achieve some outstanding results with a web site.

1. Know thy visitor! I can't underscore this one enough, understanding your audience is the basis on which everything you do with your site should be based. Take the time to understand who is coming to your site and who you want to come to your site. Are you trying to attract prospects, customers, partners, dealers, prospective employees, clowns and elephants, etc. Whatever the answer [and yes it's OK to have several] then be sure you have areas of your site to talk directly to each of them.
    
2. Give them a reason to come back. Providing solid, predictable and valuable content on a regular basis is a great way to keep your site fresh and attract returning visitors. Publish news and announcements, update events you'll be hosting or attending, post to a blog, record a podcast, publish a newsletter, create a resource directory, offer a valued link library, host an industry research area, and so on. The ideas are endless, and so can be the value to your target visitor.
      
3. Have a clearly defined call to action. When someone visits your site, any page of your site, do they clearly understand what you want them to do to take the next step? Should they pick up the phone and call you, fill out a contact form, email for information, buy something, link to another site, whatever the purpose, make it clear and easy.
    
4. Small, regular changes are better than infrequent, drastic ones. Don't wait until you have enough updates to bother. If you think it, do it! The quicker your ideas are translated into reality, the sharper, more interesting and better they will be executed. If I asked you how often you were going to update your site and you said "a few times a year," or "once a quarter," or even "once a month" - I'd probably reply with - "don't bother!" Seriously, don't get overwhelmed by the prospect. To quote Michael Jordan and Nike - "Just Do It!" - and do it regularly.
    
5. Pay attention to your traffic. Do you know how many people are even visiting your site. Be sure you know how to find and understand your site's traffic logs. And if you don't know, then find out, and if you don't have them, change host providers. Plain and simple, traffic trends can help you to appreciate which areas of your site are working and which are less then favorites.

And finally, understand the simple fact that your website is never done! It's not like a brochure or commercial or any other media around, because you always want to be changing it, adding to it and making it better. So try thinking in these terms, let me know what you think and how it works, and share your experiences by commenting right here on this post.

-- Mike

It's amazing how often I walk into a company and hear that "my website doesn't work, has never worked, was done years ago and hasn't generated a thing for me!" And it's always followed by - "but, this time it'll be different!"

In a situation like that it's with a little trepidation that I begin to speak, because there are many excuses as to why a website doesn't generate business, but more often than not there's one real reason. Them! Plain and simple, it's not a priority, - they put it up and like a brochure leave it to get dusty on the shelf.

If a company isn't able to devote the attention and time to a website to make it a living, breathing, dynamic version of the real-world company, then why would it work? And nobody wants to hear that they may be part of the problem. So, how do I come back from this scenario? Dig. Dig deep to understand what the obstacles are that prevent the site from being a priority, and give them the tools so that they can make time and not excuses.

-- Mike

From time to time someone asks what's going on this quarter with the hosting environment.  It is a great question and we are so busy we don't always stop to announce what we're doing!  So I thought I'd take a minute to post this list of strategic projects already underway...

Current Dovetail Internet Technologies Hosting Initiatives:

• Extending secure off-site storage practices.
  • New arrangements for data archiving and storage will enable us to extend the benefits of off-site storage.
    
• Increasing the capabilities of the core network infrastructure to gigabit bandwidth capacity.
  • Replacement of the core network with higher capacity switches will enhance performance and increase internal traffic speed.
    
• Continued improvements to resource management tool sets.
  • Many tasks performed manually by our staff will be automated such as user reports, domain reports, disk usage, etc.
    
• Increasing backup capacity.  
  • Having complete the implementation of a gigabit SAN we will be adding more backup drives with higher capacity, updating the backup software and replacing the backup servers.
    

Have a wonderful day!

--Mark

When you look at the version number on your favorite software you might ask why all the numbers?!

At dovetail we split up our numbers and give marketing control of the first 2.  So novo version 5.2 is what we will advertise and talk about when discussing features.  The rest of the numbers are for technical support and link back to a tracking system that we use to manage the source code.  These numbers are referred to as the "sub" version numbers.  In the case of novo 5.2.145 the 145 relates to the "revision" number in our subversion system.  That allows us to know exactly what version of every program file was used to make that release and therefore allows us to support that specific version.

I won't get into the 4th digit but suffice it to say that one means something to the programmers too!

Have a wonderful day!

--Mark

We have completed the renewal and installation of the SSL certificate for webmail.dovetailinternet.com. 

You should no longer receive a warning message when logging into the email web portal.

Thank you for your patience and your feedback is always welcome.

Posted: 2:01:24 PM EST

We are currently working to resolve an expired SSL certificate for webmail.dovetailinternet.com

If you are logging into the web based email portal to retrieve your email you may receive an error "There is a problem with this website's security certificate."  This is caused by the SSL certificate being expired.  The data is still being encrypted however the expired date will cause most browsers to display the warning.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and are working to resolve that. 

We currently expect this to resolved within an hour.

Posted 11:01:18 AM (EST)

We get that question every day. SPAM! We all hate it!

SPAM! Yuck! At Dovetail we've continually invested in helping to keep Spam to a minimum for our hosting customers. In fact some 80% + of all email that is sent through Dovetail is actually never seen. Yet we all still get spam.

And it seems to come in waves. Quiet. Quiet. And then BOOM! a bunch of new emails for what ever the greatest new stock or prescription might be.

Why does this cycle keep repeating itself. Well, quite frankly because spammers are smart! They keep coming up with new ways to get past the blockers.

The latest cycle has seen the use of PDF attachments that contain the spam message. Often they contain your email name in the title to help them even seem more valid.

This approach has proven to be extremely effective for spammers, and just as frustrating for those who try to combat them. PDF's are the standard file format used by business to exchange documents. We could simply block all emails with PDF's attached, but that's not going to work now is it. Miss getting one important document and your business suffers, so we put up with it.

But we are doing something, constantly. We monitor all email patterns regularly and "teach" our anti-spam systems to help do a better job determining what is spam and what isn't. We work with our vendors to communicate what our (and our customer) frustrations are with spam and, of course, we update our spam signatures every few hours.

While I know that spam will continue to be a problem as long as email is used, I hope that understanding how we approach it and how the industry keeps evolving may help illuminate just how much effort goes into really trying to keep it to a minimum. Just remember, on average every user who has an email address hosted at Dovetail would receive about 400% more mail daily and all of it would be spam.

-- Mike

It never seems to cease to amaze me the way that technology has revolutionized the way to work and communicate.

I'm sitting here on the Long Island Ferry, in the middle of the Long Island Sound. It's expected that there'd be wireless on board these days, and sure enough there is, but I'm connecting on my cell over their network.

Though this is not new, it's still amazing the reach the 'net has to every corner of our lives - and think that as a nation we are well behind other parts of the world when it comes to mobile, personal communications.

- Mike

Just yesterday, I was on the phone talking to a prospective customer about the many ways they could re-vamp their website and make it an integral part of their business. We talked about many things, but the one that really had legs in their case was the thought that their site could become an online resource which shares their expertise with the world.

Too many times companies view knowledge as something that should be held inside the organization.

"If we let it out then people won't need us!" is the most common fear.

While this could be true if done to an extreme, our experience says the opposite, that giving a little yields a lot.

So if you're looking for a new way to capture leads from your site, give your visitors something; allow them to have direct access to your brain-trust; and keep giving them more. By doing so, your may just find that your site becomes a destination that harnesses the web!

-- Mike