By Amy Armitage

Welcome to the November issue of Lunarpages News! As usual we have a stack of great articles and a new contest that ends in February 2008 with the biggest prize we have ever offered!

In this issue read about:

• What We are Thankful for!

• WordPress Contest - Win 5 years Web Hosting AND $1000!

• Hottest Holiday Gifts for Nerds + a $30 Off Web Hosting Christmas Coupon

• Extreme Interview with XRez.com

• Lunar Legal - Top-10 Annual Website Legal Review List

• Enhancing Your Website & Firefox Tools for Webmasters

• Top 8 Online Applications for Designers

• Lunarpages Staff Interview: Nick Cummins

• How to Setup Google Analytics

• And loads more

Enjoy!

-amy

By Amy Armitage

Last week in the USA we celebrated Thanksgiving. We had about 20 people over to our house and after 2 days of cooking I was thankful that I have a large enough home and plenty of food to share with our friends, that I didn’t poison anyone with my cooking, and that the cleanup is done! So it got me thinking about what some of the LP crew are thankful for at this time of year.

Following are their responses:

Andrew Delira (System Administrator II, LA) - I’m thankful i don’t have kids that would have killed me this year during Christmas and for Heineken!

Richard Dubois (System Administrator, Las Vegas) - The things I am most thankful for are my friends and Family that provide support during the challenges that life sends us each day. Without the family and friends support I don’t think I could be where I am today. I also am thankful for finding this job at Lunarpages as I was in retail before this and wow what a difference.. The people I work with are great and support each other in the same way that is why I consider each one of my co-workers as close friends.

Tommy Wong (CSR, NC) - I’m thankful the world hasn’t ended yet!

Chris Hart (Cage Tech, Las Vegas) - I could go on all day about how I am thankful for my mother, wife, and beautiful children (which i am!). But what I’m really thankful for is Lunarpages. You have given me the greatest opportunity in which to be challenged, appreciated, and rewarded; of anyone to date.

I cannot express my gratitude in words, of how my wife is now able to be home with the children, how each day I learn voluminous quantities of invaluable tech knowledge, or how my committed and studious work ethic is finally recognized and met with zeal by my corporate officers. Needless to say, I could get all weepy and emo over it, but my tears would freeze to me face in the frigid air of the A/C in the colo.

Tiara Rea (Affiliate Manager, La Habra) - I am thankful for my awesome boss, Amy, who is also the coolest boss in the world. Did I mention she’s awesome?

[Amy: Ok yes.. it is review time.. but she means it.. really]

Tiara: But really: I am thankful for my awesome job, the health of all my friends and family, and my two kitties who get to celebrate their first Christmas this year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Tiara Rea

Well, it’s definitely that time of year again when the weather is cold and snow starts falling…unless you’re out here in Southern California, where it’s actually very pleasant and warm lately. But despite the weather, it does feel like the holidays are here and there’s such a positive vibe in the air.

At Lunarpages, we definitely picked up on that vibe, because we’ve got a lot of awesome news to announce this month, including a pretty sweet discount for all you Lunarpages customers! Read the rest of this entry »

By Amy Armitage

It’s almost December, and here at Lunarpages, we’re filled with the holiday spirit! With our employee Toys for Tots drive, our annual Christmas Party coming up quickly, and Christmas, and New Years right around the corner, we decided to do something really cool to give back to our customers.

In Lunarpages-fashion, we’ve decided to start a WordPress Theme Contest!! All you need to do is come up with the coolest, prettiest, most out of this world WordPress Theme and upload it to our site for the chance to win!

Just about anybody (with a few exceptions) can participate in the contest and the prizes are fantastic!

First Prize is $1,000 cash and 5 years free hosting on our Basic Plan

Second Prize is 3 years free hosting + $300 cash

Third Prize is 1 year free hosting + $100 cash

Read the rest of this entry »

As the year draws to a close, December is our month for annual client reviews. We recommend that all of our clients conduct an annual legal review of their existing policies, procedures and content and, in general, there is no better time then the end of the year. The following are some of the areas we consider in our review.

1. Review Terms of Service

Read your Terms of Service. Look for things that are outdated, that you don’t do any more or which have changed. Look closely at your guarantees, payment terms, and agreement term and termination provisions. If you have one, include your acceptable use policy in your analysis. Mark it up and send your comments to your lawyer for review and incorporation into your TOS or an explanation as to why the change is unnecessary or ill advised. Generally changes that make sense to you will also make sense to your lawyer. There are instances where this is not true so clear anything of substance with experienced Internet counsel.

2. Review Privacy Policy

Read your Privacy Policy. Make sure that it still reflects your privacy practices. Be certain that you are doing what you promise that you are doing. Speak with your tech people directly if you are uncertain. Be sure they are familiar with your policy. Make any changes that seem to make sense to you and have them reviewed by your lawyer.

3. Evaluate Trademarks

Verify your trademark status with the USPTO. Search the Internet for your company name and domain names to see if anyone is improperly using your marks or anything confusingly similar.
Examine your own site for any use of trademarks that you do not own or have the right to use.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Tiara Rea

You would think it would be getting hard to find great-quality websites after a couple months of interviewing. But one of the greatest things about working for a web hosting company is that you are never at a loss for incredible websites maintained by webmasters with incredible stories.

This month, I was able to track down one of our biggest sites and also one of the coolest, as I browse this site often and offer its address to customers asking what kinds of sites our servers can handle. Enter XRez.com, one of the most unique sites you’ll ever find online – but don’t take my word for it; let’s hear what Eric Hanson, the man behind the most extreme photography site on the net, has to say.

Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Tiara Rea

Black Friday is always the most intense day on the planet…well, at least here in the US, especially in Orange County! People drive like maniacs, the malls and even grocery stores are crowded beyond repair, and if you so much as considered heading out to take advantage of a sale, you had to get there at the crack of dawn to be considered on time.

The holidays can be a mess, especially if you’re shopping for nerds, who require some of the most intricate and elaborate gifts in the world. Here at Lunarpages, we’re all a bunch of nerds at heart, and so I thought it would be nice to supply you guys with the top gifts this holiday season for your nerdy, geeky, dorky, super-freaky family and friends. Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Tiara Rea

Everybody wants a beautiful website, but sometimes it’s hard to know what’s missing or what can be added to take your page from just OK to really amazing. If you search in Google for tutorials or tips, you’re sure to find thousands of suggestions from millions of websites and webmasters, so it’s sometimes hard to sort through it all.

Since it’s the holiday season and all, I figured I’d be kind enough to compile 3 really simple tips for webmasters to use to enhance the beauty and usability of your website. Remember, this isn’t just about making it “pretty”, because to me the ‘beauty’ of a site can also mean clean code or an added technological edge. So here’s my 3 quick tips. I hope you enjoy and use them wisely! Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Todd Austin

Being a designer, running my own design studio, I find that I am increasingly turning to the web to help me run my business. There are, it seems, eleventy billion web based applications out that do just about everything. From billing, to banking, to collaboration on projects, to even online office productivity.

I’ve made a list of the top online applications I use on a daily basis. Which ones do you use? I know with the multitude of applications out there, I must be missing some. If so, what are they, and what are their pros and cons?

1. Basecamp - Basecamp is a web-based tool that lets you manage and track projects (or simply ideas) and quickly create client/project extranets.

Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Tiara Rea

Most of us here at Lunarpages wear a variety of hats around the office. I answer sales calls, tend to our wonderful base of affiliates, and work with Amy on a lot of marketing and campaign management. Amy herself does just about everything, and our sales and support staff can often handle some billing and other various issues that come up. We just all like to pitch in and help when help is needed; plus, that makes it easier to handle overflow and assist as many customers as possible.

For our staff interview this month, I thought it would be nice to talk to someone who I know very well and who some of you guys may have even spoken with…though I kind of hope not, as he handles a lot of the bad stuff like abuse investigation. At any rate, he’s one of the hardest workers here at LP and does just about everything he can to help us all out! Read the rest of this entry »

By Mitch Keeler

When it comes to browsers that give the webmasters a lot of control and tools to use, you can look no further than Firefox. With the right extensions and toolbars - Firefox can in fact become the web developer’s best friend.

Firebug - you can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page!

Web Developer Toolbar -A Toolbar with every web dev tool you could ever need or want.

FireFTP - A FTP program built right into your Firefox browser, two birds - one stone.

FireShot - FireShot is a Firefox extension that creates screen shots of web pages.

FoxyProxy - An advanced proxy management tool that completely replaces Firefox’s proxy configuration.

IE View - Make short work out of checking your web site in both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

ColorZilla - You can get a color reading from any point in your browser, quickly adjust and paste it into another program.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Mitch Keeler

Out of all the web site statistics tools I have looked at and checked out for some reason I keep coming back to Google Analytics. There is plenty to come back for, as it is the most in-depth free web site stats package you are going to find.

I find after talking to webmasters for any extended amount of time though that some people are intimidated by the process of setting it up. They think it is too complicated or just something they don’t want to bother diving into.

Sure some of the features give you more information that you probably need but better to have more than not enough. To help those who still have butterflies in their bellies - here is a step by step guide to get you going.

Getting Started with Google Analytics…

Go to the Google Analytics web site and sign up for an account or login with your Google login details. You already have a Google account, right? Post login, click on the “setup” button to get going with the setup process.

Give Google Your Web Site’s Details…

Next you load up a screen that wants you to put in some information about your web site. Type in your domain name, account name and set your time preferences. The account name will be the group name for the series of web sites you use Google Analytics on.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Mitch Keeler

Over the month of November I have been updating the Lunartics blog with all kinds of cPanel tips, how-tos and help articles. To finalize the cPanel theme for the month, what better round up could I share with the Lunarpages Newsletter audience than each tutorial that was written up this past month? Enjoy!

Need Help Setting Up Sub Domains?

Getting going with a sub domain inside of cPanel isn’t that difficult of a task to do - if you know the right steps to take to make it happen. The sub domain option allows you to add sub domains to your account. This feature is very useful as people can access subdirectories in your site through a simpler domain name than using your domain name and directory names.

Want Easy E-mail Account Setup (via cPanel)?

Getting going with your very own e-mail account is the first thing that many people do when they finally get that welcome e-mail in their inbox. From cPanel you have the ability to add extra e-mail accounts to your main account. You can setup as many as you have room and bandwidth to support - but let us not get ahead of ourselves.

How to Set up Password Protected Folders?

There are a few confusing issues with cPanel and how to get things going, and one of the most asked about cPanel features that some people have problems with is password protected folders. You can protect directories within your site from browsers by using a password to protect them. This allows you to restrict material to only authorized users or store sensitive material online. This has the same appearance and effect as the password protection on cPanel.

Can I Setup an FTP Account the Easy Way?

What is FTP all about? It stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is the TCP/IP standard way of transferring files across the Internet and between computers. An FTP account is the quickest and easiest way for you to get content up to your hosting account and down from your hosting account. If you need to transfer many files, using an FTP client is the best way to accomplish this.