In the past two weeks we’ve seen an abundance of spam emails going out. If you receive an email that looks anything like the following example delete it immediately. It is spam known as ‘phishing’ – an attempt to gain information from you or have you click a link that will direct you to a URL that could cause you or your PC harm. The email will look like this;

Dear user of the netclimber.com mailing service!

We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (info@netclimber.com) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:

http://netclimber.com/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=info@netclimber.com&from=netclimber.com&fromname=info

Best regards, netclimber.com Technical Support.

Message_ID#LZ3BWLTN309JSTO25W

On closer examination you will find that the links within the email are masked and will not actually go to the address showing, but instead they will link to a sub-domain address set up to look like the address you see but inside a domain that is set up for ‘phishing’ – quite often this domain will be foreign – ending in .fr or .ru or something else.

DO NOT CLICK THE LINK IN THE EMAIL. Delete the email and warn your friends to be cautious as well.

Hi everyone! We’d like to wish all of you a very happy New Year this 2010 ! We wish you all have a very successful year and look forward to working with you again.

Congratulations to Neil Corbett of the Delta Hospital Foundation for being first to correctly answer our trivia question in the Nov-Dec Lynchpin Newsletter.

The correct answer was “Lays”. Thank you to all of you who entered and be sure to sign up for our newsletter if you haven’t already, and you’ll have a chance in January to win! Neil received a $20 gift certificate for Taverna Gorgona greek restaurant in Ladner.

The impact of a handwritten thank-you note is often overlooked in today’s fast-paced “why-write-something-when-I-can-email-it” world. Handwritten notes are rare, which makes them that much more meaningful to the recipient. When you write a note by hand, ensure you are using stationary that includes your business logo and company contact information. Consider having small note cards or single sided note paper designed for dual purposes – thank you’s and general notes to others. Happy writing!

Our Nov-Dec 2009 newletter went out. Check the newsletter link at the top for access to all issues.

Today we’ll speak briefly about Content Management based web sites. A Content Management site (CMS) allows the owner of the web site to manage the content on the site. CMS is dynamic. The administrator of the site can enter information using an admin panel and submit and the information is immediately live on the web site for visitors to view. A CMS site is ideal if you have the time and/or staff to keep information on the site up to date. It removes the need to have a web developer make changes on your behalf. Although there is a greater initial investment for a Content Management System, there are obvious savings over time as you look after updates whenever required. In addition, you can manage the changes in the most timely fashion because you do not have to wait for a 3rd party to assist you – instead of emailing the web developer to make a change, just add the content you would have emailed directly into the CMS admin panel and your changes are complete.

A CMS site can have a wide variety of options; menu management, multi level menus, additional content management, news and events management, file management, photo galleries, product management, e-commerce, and much more. The costs of developing a CMS site relate to the customer’s requirements. Developers may offer a custom CMS, proprietary CMS, or publishing applications or software such as WordPress, Drupal or Joomla for example.

Content Management is the ideal investment for any client that has information that needs to be changed regularly and has the staff or time available to take care of those changes. Some content management web sites developed by NetClimber Web Design include Ladner Business Association, Ladner United Church, West Coast Seeds, South Delta Minor Hockey Association and Tsawwassen Business Improvement Association.

Last time we talked about ‘the design’ and how it relates to the overall cost of a web site. Today I’d like to speak about static sites. A static site is a flat site, pre-designed and then uploaded to a host server. This is an ideal option for a small site that won’t need content changes very often, or for clients that don’t have time or staff to manage ongoing changes to their web site.

A small static web site is usually a lower cost than a dynamically driven site, but the client will incur costs each time the site content requires a change unless they have html and ftp experience and the necessary software available. The cost is still relevant to ‘the design’ as discussed in our previous article.

Next time we’ll consider costs and benefits relating to a dynamic content management driven web site.

We meet clients all the time that want to know what it will cost for a web site. There is never one easy answer to this question. It relates to a number of aspects that make up a web site. Today, I’d like to speak about the ‘design aspect’. Every web site needs a design. Its a visual aspect that is very important. Will it relate to your overall ‘brand’? It definitely should, but for many it doesn’t. If you have an opportunity to create a brand this is a great starting point. Choose a design that will create recognition for your business and product. If you already have a graphic designer, ask the graphic designer to work with the web designer to create a complete concept. If you don’t have a graphic designer, you may want to get one prior to planning the web site or you should discuss branding with the web designer so that the proper graphics are available at a later date when you’re ready to extend the brand.

This does not answer the question “What will a web site cost?” but it will be the first step towards considering your requirements when getting an estimate for a web site. We’ll review more considerations over the next week to help you plan a budget for your site.

We all know that professional photography can make a significant difference in marketing materials – both web and print – but sometimes we need just one perfect image, or we want a photo to portray an idea although it may not be something we can easily photograph within our business. An example is one of our clients who chose to enhance his web site appearance with photos of a killer whale, as well as photos of various areas of the world he does business in.

Our client’s business is Orca Strategy and his site is http://www.orcastrategy.com . Using a stock photo service like Istock Photo (http://www.istockphoto.com), we were able to get a few photos to enhance the visual appearance of the web site without having a hired photographer available to shoot these specific photos at various locations around the world.

We would always recommend hiring a photographer for your business specific photos whenever possible, but sometimes that option is not available to you, and when its not, consider a stock photography option.

Nowadays there are a lot of options for web browsing. The most common browsers are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. As of October 2009, Firefox was the most used browser, with Internet Explorer a close second although equally split between IE8, IE7 and IE6 at 10-15% each. The problem is that over 10% of users still use IE6, a browser that is no longer supported by the most popular sites, including Gmail, Twitter, MySpace, Orkut and Facebook.

Since its launch in September 2008, Google Chrome has increased its popularity to 8%. Not bad, considering Safari and Opera are still at 3-4% and have been around for years.

If you are still running Internet Explorer 6 its time to upgrade. Security vulnerabilities alone are a good reason. If you haven’t tried them yet, consider checking out Firefox or Chrome.