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I’ve just created a Clientexec Snapin to enable moving a package between users in Clientexec without needing to go into phpMyAdmin and move data around in tables.

It is a direct solution to this feature request - http://wush.net/bugzilla/newedge/show_bug.cgi?id=776

You need this Clientexec snapin if

1) want to consolidate multiple users into one, that are actually the same person that signed on using different email addresses (creating multiple accounts for themselves - how annoying)

2) have regular tech savvy users that signup for other people and you then need to split packages off into their own separate accounts

You can see a video of it in action here

http://netrospect.com.au/clientexec-snapin-move-packages.php

Thanks

Aaron

I’ve had to forgo an article for this month, however put in a very important SEO tip regarding what shows up in the search engines when your website shows in the search results.

I see many sites that have not set this area up correctly. What’s the point in getting your website in the search engines, if when your link is presented along with all your competitors, you haven’t displayed the best text and put your best foot forward.

Your goal at this point is to get the attention of the searcher and make them click your link over someone elses. Check out this months newsletter to find out how to get what you want to say into the description that shows in the search engines and not what the search engines just happen to find in the first few words on your webpage.

October ‘07 Newsletter
http://netrospect.com.au/news/WSC-200710.pdfÂ

Aaron

I’ve written an article this month about how to be more productive with your time reading emails.

Plus my next SEO Tip is there. I’m also giving away a free month of hosting for current members only that take my survey. Link is in the newsletter.

http://netrospect.com.au/news/WSC-200709.pdf (Sep ‘07 Newsletter)

PS Good feedback from Dianne Simpson (faktree.com) whom specialises in Guest Amenities (you know those little bottles of shampoo that you get from hotels) [ see if you can spot one of my next tips in this sentence ]

Dianne took action on my SEO tip from last month about putting your keywords in the first and last sentence of your page copy, she is now #2 ranked in Google. What does that translate into, well more traffic for starters, and with more traffic the next step to turn your attention to is conversion.

Now that is a fantastic result and should urge you all on to take action to build your sites ranking. A little bit each month and it will work.

Aaron

So you’ve decided to get a secure certificate (SSL) for your website, for whatever reason, and you haven’t got a clue what to do next.

Well you have to jump through a few more hoops than normal to make it happen, check out my step by step process below and it’ll be smooth and painless.

I exclusively use and recommend Rapid SSL certificates for my web hosting members. And you won’t find a better service or more competitive prices in Australia for buying your SSL certificates than Trustico (aff)

So in order to make it easy for you to purchase and renew your certificates and keep your web host out of the loop as much as possible, follow this step by step guide.

Treat a renewal of your certificate as if you are buying a new one, it’s much safer that way. So with that in mind let’s go.

Step 1a. Contact your web hosting provider and ask them to create a Certificate Signing Request (don’t worry they will know what you’re talking about - and if they don’t I’d leave them and find another hosting provider pronto!) Provide your hosting provider this information

• Host to make cert for (eg websmartcentral.com)
• Country (2 letter Abbrivation) (eg AU)
• State (eg QLD)
• City (eg Tarragindi)
• Company Name (eg Web Smart Central Pty Ltd)
• Company Division (eg HQ)
• Email (eg aarond AT websmartcentral.com)
• Password

Word of caution here: some web hosting providers have an SSL icon in your control panel. DO NOT use that to generate your CSR. Why, because you don’t know what goes on behind the scenes and your web host may not be able to use what you’ve generated. Just give them your details and let them do this part.

Step 1b. Your hosting provider will enter that information into the web server where you account resides and it will generate the certificate signing request and you will be emailed the results. This garble of characters you can see in Image #1 contains your information you provided in Step 1a. The certificate company will use this information to generate a certificate that is yours and yours alone, that one else can replicate. It can only exist on the web server that it’s generated from. You must wait for this information before going onto Step 2.

Step 2. Head on over to Trustico (aff) to start the purchase (NB : their website may change between writing this article, but it will still guide you through the process). You need to choose your certificate type.

I recommend the Rapid SSL certificate, since it’s your base level model that will get you by in 90% of situations, you may require something bigger. Have a read around the Trustico website they explain a lot about the differences in certificates, and it’s outside the scope of this guide.

Step 3. Select if you are ordering a new product or renewing a product.

Step 4. Choose your plan length I recommend 12 months but you can choose a longer plan if you get insurance with it (which allows you to regenerate the certificate again should you move hosting providers) Choose your server type (in my hosting environment I use cPanel exclusively) Make sure you select insurance, it’s so cheap it’s worth getting it since it covers you as I’ve just mentioned should you change your host.

Step 5. Enter in all your details. Even if you are renewing treat it as a new purchase.

Step 6. Time to enter your CSR (Certificate Signing Request). Simply copy and paste the whole CSR section that was emailed to you. It will look like what’s in the image below, don’t forget to include the —-BEGIN and —–END text it’s important.

Step 7. Now you have to verify your details are correct.

Step 8. This step proves that you are who you say you are and that allows you to approve the certificate to be processed and generated for you. You MUST have a valid email address from any of the addresses that are listed in the image below. The automated system will look to the email that you in your domain name and offer that first, plus some others. If you don’t have any of these that are valid, then you MUST make one of the Generic Domain Emails valid, by setting up an email forwarder in your web hosting control panel (see the tutorial here for how to do that)

Step 9. Fill out your administrative contact details, which should be already filled in for you.

Step 10. Agree to the subscriber agreement

Step 11. Review your order is correct for billing

Step 12. Choose how you are going to pay

Step 13. Onve you’ve paid you will then receive an approval email which will need to be responded to.

Step 14. Then your certificate will be issued to you via email.

Step 15. Send that information in to your web hosting provider that created the orginal CSR in the first place, and they will install the certificate onto the server and assign it to your hosting account.

Step 16. Job done! You can test the certificate has been installed correctly by browsing to the https:// equivalent of your main domain (eg. https://websmartcentral.com/ ) You will then see a lock somewhere along the bottom of your browser window, which when you click on it then you be presented with your secure certificate.

That’s it, if you follow this step by step guide you will be successful in buying or renewing your SSL certificate.

Aaron

This month I just have to alert you to a growing trend that I have been witness to. If you don’t look after your domains, you may just end up having them stolen away from you.

Read the August newsletter to find out more, plus I’ve got an SEO tip of the month now. Just enough info to get you moving and implement before the next month.

Once again paid up members of my hosting get this newsletter directly sent to their door every month. If you would like a copy sent to you then signup for some hosting and I’ll add you to the mailing list.

Click here to get the August PDF newsletter.

http://netrospect.com.au/news/WSC-200708.pdf

Aaron

Well after a bit of a hiatus of newsletters, I’m back and back with a vengence now. As you will come to see. My newsletter is my main form of marketing now, and it’s full steam ahead.

This month I cover getting contacted by your visitors, which is extremely important, and where I see so many people fall down, even the big players.

Also this month is the first month where for my current hosting customers and a few select still in the pipeline to be customers will get my newsletters sent to them directly to their door in the mail.

How many hosting providers do that. Just one my friend. This one.

For the rest of you, you can just download the PDF to see what I have to say.

Here is the link

http://netrospect.com.au/news/WSC-200707.pdf

Aaron

Here’s a brand new look and full of great content newsletter for January.

Print it out if you need to, to make for easier reading.

Here is the link to the newsletter.

http://netrospect.com.au/news/WSC-200701.pdf

Inside this newsletter you will learn about how effective Blogs can be to your business. I could write many newsletters on this topic, but this is an introduction to blogging and a prompt and push to get you going.

Of course as always I give it to you straight.

This newsletter I’ve also used some content from Yaro Starak over at Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

As always feedback is greatly appreciated, give me your thoughts or experiences on blogs, just leave me a comment.

Aaron

Here is the December newsletter better late than never eh.

http://netrospect.com.au/news/WSC-200612.pdf

http://netrospect.com.au/news/WSC-200612-Exhibit.pdf (There is an extra exhibit part to this newletter)

In this newsletter I go through reading and understanding your website logs. You would be crazy not to familiarise yourself with this part of your internet business.

So much information is on offer inside your web logs which will guide you if you know how to read and intrepret them, to refine your website to suit your viewers needs and in turn product more profit for yourself.

Trust me it’s not that hard once you know the fundamentals, which this newsletter will give you.

Check it out and post a comment here on the blog if you got something out of it.

Aaron

Well I’ve just upgraded to IE7 on my new development laptop and it’s very refreshingly different. Microsoft apparently took one and a half years to develope it and it shows in it’s maturity as a browser.The down side is that there is still a shovel load full of web users that still have IE6 and IE5, so what to do if you make a website and want to see if it works in the major browsers, not just the browser that you happen to have installed on your development system.

You can run side by side installations of Firefox and Opera, but IE has always dragged the chain on this, due to IE being so heavily integrated into the operating system.

When I upgraded to IE7 I definately at least wanted to be able to have IE6 on the same machine. Well the dodgey hacks and workarounds that you will find if you do a web search on the topic, just didn’t work for me. Mostly they didn’t address that once you upgrade to IE7 the underlying DLLs that drive the browser are not backward compatible. So a cutdown version of IE6 just isn’t good enough for a true result.

Microsoft have finally acknowledged this and now have released a special IE6 virtual machine image to handle just this. Seems like massive overkill, but it works so I can’t complain.

Check out the Microsoft MSDN blog about IE6 and IE7 running together, and go and sort out your IE6 and IE7 on the same machine problem once and for all.

Of course the other alternative is if you have multiple PCs lying around you can have a separate machine setup with each IE. Which I have also done.

Aaron

82% of small businesses will have Internet access by 2011, of which 88% will have broadband connections, according to a JupiterResearch Report “Market Profile: Understanding Online Small Businesses”.78% of small businesses currently use the Internet on a regular basis, according to JupiterResearch.

Sonal Gandhi, JupiterResearch Analyst, said: “Small businesses spent over $43 billion in 2005 in business purchases online, their online influenced off-line spending is likely to be considerably higher”. [source]

David Schatsky, President, JupiterKagan, said: “The growth of the overall online small business market and decision makers’ increased comfort with doing business online will impact their total online spending,

Companies that target small businesses should take advantage of the size and openness of this market online”. [source]

—

Now isn’t that an interesting statistic. I should think that those businesses are online already and getting setup to trade online or increase their marketing through online efforts will be ahead of their offline only competitors.

Aaron