Greetings.
It is time I renewed sending out these newsletters. I took an 6 month hiatus from them, so I have a lot of catching up to do.
If you are unable to view this newsletter in color (with pictures), please go to the following link.
http://www.CCFDesign.com/asp/webdesign/newsletters/.
I have removed the public link from my web site, because these newsletters have a lot of information that
I am only going to make available to my clients. So, save the link as a favorite (or go through your admin
area - if your site has that capability).
There are some concepts in here that I mentioned in previous newsletters - that is for the benefits of the new clients who might not have seen them yet.
This month's Agenda:
1. New Server
In March, I finally took the leap to purchase a dedicated server for all of my sites. The cost for this server is around 15 times what I was paying before, but I wish I had done it sooner. I have a lot more control over what happens on the server. Before, with a shared hosting reseller account, when the server would experience technical difficulties, I was at the mercy of the host when it came to getting information and fixes. I had problems with the mail servers going down, the statistics not updating, database connectivity reduced, slow download, dropped services etc. Whenever there was a problem, I tried to send an email, and sometimes did not get adequate responses, or slow service.
With the new server, I have full control over the service. If there is a problem, I can go in and troubleshoot the problem, rebooting the server if necessary. In the six months that I have had the server, I have not had any problems with it - and now have around 100 domains on it.
Additionally, I can buy programs and put them on the server to make upgrades to the admin area (more below). For instance, one of the problems I had with the admin area was that if you wanted to upload a picture to your site, and the picture was 2 Megabytes big, your site visitors would see a 2 MB file. If your visitors were on dial-up, this would really slow down their rate of viewing your site (perhaps even crashing their connection). Now, I have a program that resizes pictures as you upload them.
I also have a very advanced web statistics program that cost around $800. It is very reliable and collects a lot of information that you can use to analyze where your traffic is coming from and what your visitors are seeing. Additionally, I am paying for a faster internet connection with the server, which makes file upload quicker, and also translates into sites that load quicker.
As I move CCFDesign into the future, this server is going to make it much easier for me to add advanced components to the sites. Additionally, I might start a few meta-sites, that will display your animals for sale on other sites. For instance, I now own TXGoats.com (there is nothing there yet), but I am have all of the sites that are in Texas automatically update their sales to this site (giving another venue for people to see what you have for sale). 2. Admin Area
First off, if your site doesn't have an admin area and you would like the control to be able to make real-time changes to your site, please let me know.
Most of the past year, I have been upgrading the admin area. Every new CCFDesign.com site comes with a way for you to quickly manage the content on your site. For the most part, this includes adding animals to the sales page (as well as the category pages)
Here are some of the things you can do in the admin area.
Add / Modify an Animal |
You can add an animal to appear on the for sale page, or on a category page like Bucks, Does, Wethers, New Kids, or Show Goats. In the admin area, you can add the following;
- Name
- Sex
- Breed
- DOB
- Price
- Sire and Dam
- Expand to a 3 Generation Pedigree
- Description (using a text editor to allow formatting)
- 3 Pictures
- Captions for the Pictures
You can then update the information at your convenience, including changing the sale price, marking the goat as sold, replacing the pictures with updated pictures, changing the captions, moving the goat from the bucks to the sales page, or deleting the goat from the site.
There is also a way to generate paypal links that you can send in email to allow a customer to pay online by credit card. |
Add Page Text |
On the site, you will have a number of areas that you can directly update the text on the page. This allows you to make temporary announcements on your site at the touch of your fingers.
Most people use these areas to indicate that they have posted new goats for sale, or that they are going to be attending a particular show over the weekend, or that they have acquired a new buck.
An HTML editor is present on the server, allowing you to format your text in a variety of ways, including using bold text, colored text, HTML headers, and tables.
This simple to use system allows you to frequently make small updates on your site -- something search engines like to see to know that the site is an active web site. |
View Contact Forms |
| Every time someone visits your site and fills out a contact form, their information is added to your database. So, if you have email difficulties somewhere down the line, your forms are saved and you will not have lost those contacts. |
View Website Statistics |
| Through the admin area, you will be provided with a link to view advanced statistics of your site, including the number of visitors your site is getting, how they are being referred, and what pages they are looking at. |
Coming Soon... |
The admin area is continually growing. Here are some components that are going to be added in the next few months. |
| In the past couple of weeks, I have been working with one of my new sites to develop a content management system, where you can essentially change around 90% of the site. Some of the things that you will be able to do are below: |
Satisfied Customers |
| I can set up a page where you can upload testimonials and pictures from sales you have made on your site. This is a powerful way to show people that other buyers in the market have confidence in your product - and will be easily updated in the admin area. |
Pictures Pages |
| With the pictures pages, you will be able to upload pictures to your site that do not seem to fit with any of your other pages. As an example, you might have a few llamas on your farm, but they are not for sale, and you do not want to showcase them in their own page. With the Pictures pages, you can put their pictures there, and put captions for all of the pictures. This will be a great way to update your friends and family with new pictures of your (human) kids or grandkids. |
Home Page Pictures and Content |
| You will be able to make changes and additions to the text on your home page, as well as other pages. Some people just want to change a single picture at the top of their home page on a reoccurring basis. Soon, this capability will be realized. Additionally, this could extend to other portions of the site - allowing you to replace a winter picture with a spring picture, then a summer picture. Also, you can make changes and updates to your About Us page |
Spam Free Guestbook |
| Over the years, a number of people have asked if having a guestbook would be a good idea, and until now, the answer was usually no, because they were subject to immense amounts of spam. Soon, however, I will roll out a spam-free guestbook, that has moderation capabilities and image verification. |
| ...and that's not all. There are other things in the planning stage. If you have any additional ideas for what you would like to be able to do on your site, don't hesitate to ask. Most of these ideas came from existing customers who had a desire, and the admin area allows that to be fulfilled. |
| Some of the capabilities are in the testing mode, and I need people who are willing to test the system out and help me make it better (and identify any bugs that might be present). If you would like any of these new capabilities added to your site, please let me know. |
3. Special
I am not running any advertised specials right now, but might have something later in the summer. For the new customers, this is where I let you know about specials I might be advertising - so you can pass those along to any friends you know who might be thinking about getting a web site.
That's all for now. As always, let me know if you have any updates
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