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| SYSTEM
NEWS/UPDATES:
Live Help Service now available |
Real-time Text Chat and Customer
Support Hosted Service
Do you remember the famous electric razor commercial with the
on-screen guy saying "it's so good, I bought the company"?
Well, we recently
installed the servers, software, and database system to
provide live help to our customers (you!) and realized this
capability is something that everyone should be able to
offer on their own websites too.
So we're pleased to
announce that our Live Help Service is now online and
available as an option for your own site. As a "hosted
service", everything runs on our servers and equipment so it
is easy to add to any website - even sites that are hosted
on your own servers or somewhere else.
Our service supports
multiple departments, and simultaneous multiple "operators"
so it's suitable for any size website, big or small.
Please be sure and
take advantage of our special FREE trial offer. It's
the best way to see how it works "behind the scenes" and
test-drive it without any cost or obligation.
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| TECHNICAL
TIPS:
Windows XP "System Restore Point" |
Windows XP has an excellent
capability called "System Restore Point". This is a
safety feature that many people are not aware of.
A "System Restore Point"
is a snapshot of critical operating system systems that are
saved to a hidden file on your hard disk. If
necessary, you can restore your system to a previous state
by using this feature.
It only takes a few
minutes and is extremely valuable. In technical terms,
when you ask Windows XP to create a system restore point
windows makes a copy of the system registry, device driver
information, and other critical internal system data and
saves it to a file.
Although Windows XP will
occasionally create a system restore point automatically
(when it thinks it is about to perform a possibly dangerous
activity) the best way to use this feature is to explicitly
create your own restore points.
Each time you make any
configurations to your system such as adding new hardware
(even USB devices such as camera, scanner, or printer) or
installing new programs, take a few extra moments to create
a restore point first.
Now, if the installation
fails or you have a problem, you can quickly rollback the
system to the state it was in just before the installation
and try again.
Remember, system restore
points are saved to disk so even if you totally mess up your
system and have to reboot, you can still rollback (as long
as you can at least startup the system in "safe mode").
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| MARKETING
TIPS: How not to "make a splash" with your site |
Today I was fortunate enough
to visit Search Engine Strategies 2004 (one of the benefits
of living right in Silicon Valley). The show promotes
itself as the "Premier Event for Search Engine Marketing &
Optimization" and I found it very interesting.
Seeing all the advanced
software techniques and consultants reminded me of a
conversation I had just the other day with a new website
owner so I'll pass along a tip that most of us know, but
often forget:
Don't try to make a
"splash" on your homepage. When the only thing on the
first page of your site is a fancy flash animation, big
photo, or intricate artwork you really only impressing
yourself.
Web site visitors are
often looking for specific information or solutions.
They don't like being detoured by "intro pages", "landing
pages" or "splash pages". More often then not, they
won't bother to click on the "skip intro" link you have
politely provided - they'll simply click and go somewhere
else!
Even worse, flash
animations, graphics, and similar intro pages are invisible
to search engines. Search engines can see only the
text (words) on your page and cannot read the graphics so a
splash page looks like a plain white sheet of paper to the
search engines!
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| QUICK
LINKS: Voicegateway.com
Direct Access |
90-days Free - Submit your
site to 200 Search Engines: http://seo.voicegateway.com
Free 30-day trial - "point &
click" store builder:
http://www.merchant-in-a-box.com
Register a new domain:
http://www.voicegateway-domain-names.com
Services Summary: http://www.voicegateway.com/services/default.htm
Update your contact/billing info: http://payment.voicegateway.com
Tech Support Request: http://www.voicegateway.com/support/reqsupport.htm
Tech Alerts free subscriptions:
http://www.voicegateway.com/contact/techalerts.htm
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