Testing My Website is Down

With 15 years experience, and rare reports of “my website is down” from clients, the fact a site does not display is usually a local issue. If your site is online but slow to load pages, it’s more likely an issue from the hosting service provider. Otherwise, this tutorial may help. The best way to … Read more

Webmaster Academy for SEO Best Practices

Google is the top authority on search engine optimization strategy and recently opened their free Webmaster Academy for SEO best practices. Unlike our “Top Secret” graphic illustration here, Google openly shares advice for webmasters to improve their position in search results. In brief, ranking well with Google means providing a positive user experience for your … Read more

PayPal Email Phishing Scam

Watch out for any email notice like the PayPal email phishing scam in this graphic and check out the red arrow that points out one very important clue. The greeting reads “Dear customer”, and text shown in our red handwriting explains why you should be suspicious: “PayPal will ALWAYS send email that has your first … Read more

Stuck in WordPress Maintenance Mode

Use this fast tutorial solution to resolve being stuck in WordPress maintenance mode while doing updates in the admin backend. Solutions: Option 1: Select the browser BACK button to return to the admin updates page. Select the update button again, and wait until the system completes the update. Failed? See #2. Option 2: Connect to … Read more

New 2013 WWW Name Options

Is the world running out of www domain names? The best common website domain name extensions ending in .com, .info, .net, or .org are probably taken. New 2013 www name options opened up in September will help site owners concerned with the dwindling supply of relevant www names.

OkLandRush

ICANN, or the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers, is the worldwide non-profit authority responsible for coordinating assignment of www domain names. Since the original group released in 1984, new extensions have been created for generic as well as country or industry specific entities.

The new gTLD (generic Top Level Domain) extension options announced by ICANN earlier this year are scheduled to begin release in September 2013. These include commercial domain name extensions listed here alphabetically and ending in:

ads • agency • associates • booking • business • career • careers • center • ceo • company • corp • ecom • enterprises • farm • forum • gives • gle • global • gmbh • inc • institute • insure • lifeinsurance • llc • llp • ltd • ltda • management • marketing • new • news • ngo • partners • press • sarl • services • solutions • srl • studio • trade • trading • ventures • wiki • xin

Our advice is beginning your strategy now to acquire certain domain name extensions like .corp, .inc, .llc, or .ltd that are related and match your corporation or trademark brand. Get in line now to avoid problems later.

For example, in the USA business owners may incorporate by state, so it is not uncommon for multiple companies to have the exact same corporate name. Don’t put off your strategy if you want to register [your company name].inc or .corp as soon as it becomes available.

GoDaddy Support of Registration Phases

Our advice for business owners looking for an approved registrar to register a new gTLD on their behalf is ordering through GoDaddy. They have created a watch list option for gTLD release dates, so you can get notification alerts during the rollout period. Here’s a summary of the registration phases:

Each registration phase has a defined date for acceptance and processing.

Pre-registration lets you submit a registration request ahead of its date. GoDaddy collect pre-registration requests and holds them in a queue until it’s time to submit (at the opening of Sunrise, for example).

Sunrise is a registration period specifically for trademark holders.

Landrush occurs after sunrise. It’s a premium registration opportunity for those wanting an early, non-trademark registration.

General Availability is first come, first served registration. It’s open to the public but subject to registration requirements (like membership to an organization, for example).

Source: GoDaddy gTLD Extensions Page

Be sure to explore the left navigation options on the GoDaddy link above to browse more of the 100’s of new gTLD extensions by category.

If you’re a business owner, yes… you should care. The new gTLD extensions provide a unique way to promote your brand. The time to ac

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WordPress v3.6 New Release

Our advice is to update your WordPress installation whenever new revisions appear on your dashboard under the left tab for Updates. These could include the core WordPress files such as the latest WordPress v3.6 new release, plus plugins or themes. Visual clues that WordPress needs updating are shown in our illustration, and include a black … Read more

Java Vulnerability Risk 2013 Tutorial

Avoid a serious computer security risk reported in US Government breaking news with this Java vulnerability risk 2013 tutorial. You likely have Java running on your computer. Visiting the wrong website could put you at risk. The US Department of Homeland Security issued this warning on 10 Jan 2013, and then already updated details yesterday … Read more