THE INTERNET SURVIVAL GUIDE

Greetings from Out of Nowhere.

Below are some of our helpful newsletter articles. Our intention is to give you clear, easy-to-understand information that will keep you safe and profitable on the Internet.

We sincerely hope this information benefits you and your business.

SAVE YOUR COMPUTER AND YOUR WEBSITE
November 17, 2006

Internet Explorer 6 (the website browser most of us use) has a major hole in it, making your computer very vulnerable to malicious material on the Internet. To protect yourself, it is VERY important that you keep up with your Window’s Critical Updates (update here ), which “patch” these holes. One of the latest Window’s updates includes an upgrade to Internet Explorer 7. This is the most recent and necessary update to the most popular browser.

Just so you know, this is a universal problem. A new vulnerability was found in Flash 8. To protect your computer, you need to update to Flash 9 here. Likewise, if you use a Mac, instead of a PC, its media player Quicktime was recently found to have six holes. (If you have Quicktime, update it here).

Here’s the inevitable news. We’ve heard through our professional associations that many websites are not working well with the new Internet Explorer 7. So far, we haven’t noticed any problems with websites we have built but there is no guarantee that there won’t be issues now or in the future.

The closest analogy we can find to what we’re talking about has to do with computers, in general. One day, you purchase a great computer – it’s fast, has lots of memory, a great video card, etc. Then, time marches on. Within only a few years, your computer is freezing, occasionally giving you the blue screen of death or, at best, slowing down to a crawl. What has happened is that you continue to load the latest software and your old computer can not keep up. In the time that you’ve owned your computer, computer technology has likely doubled (or even tripled!) and the new software is not written for you old computer.

The same exact thing happens with a website. Websites are viewed through browsers, computer programs that read and interpret the “language” of a website, HTML. A website is not really just text and pretty pictures; you can see what a website really is by clicking here.

When we build a website, we build it for the current technology. After a period of time, as technology marches on and browsers develop and change, your website may start to look “broken”. If your site is no longer rendering correctly in the new browser(s), you will need to have your website code updated so that it can keep up with the new technology. If you find this to be the case, please contact us to make these updates. We will review your site and give you an estimate to make the changes.

Like a car that needs maintenance or a computer that needs to be upgraded, your website also needs the same occasional care to stay in good working condition.

DROWNING IN SPAM!

Have you noticed more SPAM in you mailbox lately?  We have!!!  Despite employing good programs like Spam Assassin associated with our website hosting account, SPAM still makes it to our inbox. 

What’s the best solution for dealing with it?  Take advantage of your email client – that means Outlook or Outlook Express if you are on a PC.  You can set your own filter rules that tell Outlook what to do with emails that you identify as spam.

Recently, I noticed a lot of SPAM in my email box that said “Hi ____”, with the blank being the first name of my email account.  Since I collect lots of different email, the subjects were “Hi Marybeth”, “Hi Don”, etc.  When I looked at the contents of these emails, they were recommending certain stocks.  I identified certain words in the email that I know my friends and clients will not use (Current Price: ) and then I created a filter for that phrase.

Here is how to set up a filter in Outlook 2003:

1. In Outlook, from the top menu, select "Tools".
2. From the drop down menu, click on “Rules and Alerts”.
3. A small screen opens and you will see two top tabs:  “Rules” and “Alerts”.
4. The active screen is “Rules” and this is where you will create a rule to filter out certain emails.
5. Click on “New Rule”
6. Make sure “Make Rule from a Template” is selected.  This helps you create the correct language for Outlook to understand your rule.
7. Step One (the first white box you see) is to “Select a Template”.
8. In this case, you choose, “Move messages with specific words in the subject to a specific folder.”
9. Step Two (the second white box you see) is to “Edit the Rule Description”.
10. Click on the words “specific words” in the rule you are creating.  This will open up at new small window.
11. In this new window entitled “Search Text” enter the phrase that identifies the SPAM as SPAM, in this case, I enter “Current Price:”.  Click Add. 
12. Click OK and that pop-up window goes away.
13. Now, in Step Two, click on the word “Specified”. A new small pop-up window entitled “Rules and Alerts” pops up. (You are now telling Outlook what to do with the SPAM.)
14. Use the small scroll bar to scroll down to the folder entitled “Junk Mail”.  Highlight “Junkmail” by clicking on it.  Click “OK” and that small pop-up window goes away. (You just told Outlook to put the SPAM in the Junk Mail box.)
15. Now you are back in your “Rules Window” window.  Click “Next”.
16. This new pop-up window will allow you to change the rule from  “Find this text in the SUBJECT” to “Find this text in the BODY”. (If the offending spam has the identifying words in the Subject, you can stop here and click "Finish".)
17. You will see a series of check boxes.  CHECK only “on this machine only” and “with specific words in the body”.  Uncheck all else.
18. Click on the “Next Button”.
19. Click “Move it to a specified folder.”
20. Click the “Next Button”.
21. You can select any of the exceptions, but I don’t need to because I have been very careful to select text that I know my friends and clients won’t include in their emails.
22. Click the next button.
23. In Step 1, name the rule.  I usually use it’s default name but you can customize the name.
24. In Step 2, click “Turn on the rule.”
25. In Step 3, you can review your rule if you want.
26. Click the “Finish” button.
27. You are now back in your main Rules and Alerts window.  Click the “OK” button.
28. Ta-Da!  You’re done.

Important Note:  In this example, we identified text in the BODY of the email that I could use to identify an email as SPAM.  Sometimes, the SUBJECT of the email has identifiable text such as : ) that I also know my friends and clients won’t use.  If you’re filtering email with identifiable text in the SUBJECT of the email, you can stop at step 16 and click “Finish” at that point.

Another Important Note:  Be aware of which text in your email is real text and which text is in an image.  Your filter can not read text in images, so you need to choose identifying text in the real text of your offending email.  Spammers will often misspell certain words like "youre".  You can use words or phrases like this to help your Outlook identify spam (assuming, of course, that your friends aren't awful spellers.).

As you get more familiar with the Rules and Alerts section of Outlook, you will see that you have all sorts of choices to help you manage your email.  WeI encourage you to explore that function.

ARE YOU NOT USING YOUR JUNK MAIL FOLDER? SET ONE UP NOW!!!!

Here are the instructions to use your Junk Mail box in Outlook 2003:

1. From the menu at the top of Outlook, select “Actions”.
2. From the dropdown menu, hover over “Junk Mail”.
3. From the pop-out menu, select “Junk Mail Options”.
4. In the pop-up window, the first tab is Options.  In here, select “High” filtering.
5. Also select the last option, “Don’t turn on links….”
6. Click on the OK button.

Now that you have high filtering on, you must check your junk mail box periodically to make sure Outlook didn’t put any of your friends in there.  If you do find a friend’s email in there, you can single click on it and then select "Not Junk" from the top menu.  This will add their email to your "safe senders list".

What can YOU do to improve your website’s ranking in the search engines?

There are many strategies to make your site rank more highly and one strategy in particular that YOU can do it all by yourself. One part of a site’s ranking has to do with how many other websites are linking to you. This means that if you can get other websites to link to your website, then your ranking goes up!

The first place to start is with directories. Directories are websites that list other websites; they are usually industry related. You will find directories for retreat centers, yoga studios, auto repair places, and almost all other businesses.

Here’s how you find these directories:

Go to a major search engine, such as Google, and type in your search terms, for example “auto repair” or “fort worth auto repair”. Look at the results. Click on them. Some of these you will notice are directories. Somewhere in these directories there will be information on how to get listed. Usually you will just have to fill out a form telling who you are, giving a description of your business and your website domain name. Occasionally these directories will require you to pay a small fee for your listing. You will have to consider if this is worth it. But remember this, if you put in your search terms and find their website, so will your potential clients. They could be looking in these directories for your services and you may want to be there. In this case, listing yourself in industry-related directories helps you in two ways: 1) their link to you will help your own ranking in the search engines and 2) they may drive new customers to your website.

Other ways to improve your ranking in the search engines include optimizing the text and images on your website, updating your metatags, link exchanges, and creating pay-per-click campaigns. If you would like to educate yourself on SEO (Search Engine Optimization), we recommend this site: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2167921.

Out of Nowhere offers SEO services and if you would like for us to send you information about what we offer, let us know. Our business is to make you more successful.

Contact Us About SEO.

Success is in the Air!

Our business has been growing and I'm sure your's has, too.

We are continually learning new techniques and technologies and we are building an expert web development team. We now have specialists in graphic design, database programming, flash, photography, video, sound, search engine optimization and of course we still offer our excellent personal customer service.

If your business is developing, changing, and growing as well, ensure that your online presence reflects your success. Is this the time to update your look or add a new functionality? If you feel your online image is falling behind as the online world steams ahead, please consider using Out of Nowhere to take you and your website to the next level.

Out of Nowhere is where your vision becomes reality!

Contact us for SEO services.

What Do You Think?

Our best marketing tool is a personal referral from a happy customer.

If you like the service we have provided you, we invite you to write a short "testimonial" for us to put on our website. We have created a new page just for your voice.

Why take the time?

• You'll be supporting small business!
• You will be featured on our testimonial page.
• We'll create a link to your website, which can drive more traffic to you and can potentially increase your ranking in the search engines.
• Because you're a really nice person!

We would be so grateful for your contribution.

Email your testimonial to info@outofnowhere.net

 

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