Hi there and WELCOME to the new Monthly Newsletter for Mildura Internet.
With this newsletter I hope to share some useful information with our customers and contacts. Each month I will feature some tips and advice on websites, the internet and computers in general. Seems every day there is something new released so I am sure there will be plenty to talk about. If you have a specific inquiry about something - let me know via email mildurainternet @ gmail.com and I'll try to cover it in an upcoming newsletter.
Feature Article: Signs It's Time To Redesign Your Website
This months feature article come from Site Pro News. It's all about knowing when its time to update your internet website (something we did ourselves a few months ago). I'll post some highlights here and you can find the full article at Signs It's Time To Redesign Your Website.
Designing your first website is a stressful undertaking. It requires you to dig deep into your business in order to write the copy for your site. Unfortunately, websites don't last forever.
Some signs that it's time to redesign your site include:
- Your business has changed or grown
- Your site looks like it was designed in 1995
- The information on your site isn't User-Friendly
- You apologise for the site when referencing it or handing out your business cards
- You're not getting good results in search engines
- It's not bringing in good result and helping you make sales
- Your site is costing you a fortune to upgrade
Christmas Is Coming - Time to update?
Just a reminder that Christmas isn't too far away now. If you're planning on having some holiday specials for your business, now is a great time to prepare the new content for your website.
To get the best out of a promotion you really want to offer it for a reasonable amount of time. No point spending weeks or months preparing for a 2 day sale. A Christmas promotion might start in November and run right through till December 25 (or longer depending on the offer).
So if you need to update your website for Christmas (or School Holidays, Valentines Day etc) please get in touch with us and we can help make your next promotion a successful one.
Website of the Month - The Weather Channel / Elders Weather
Normally this section is to highlight one website I've found over the last month. But I thought I'd break that rule in the first newsletter and get that out of the way.
The Weather Channel website is an online version of The Weather Channel, well, Channel, on Austar / Foxtel. I like their site because its pretty clean and simple. Very easy to get a quick update on what's going on. The main reason I continue to go there is the nice satellite map for rainfall coming (or not). I know you can dig this up at the BOM site, but I've just never found that as friendly to get around.
My other website is the Elders Weather Website. While its not as clean an simple as the TWC one, there is a lot of good information on one page. And there is a lot more detailed information available easily too. Again I find it easier to find stuff here than the BOM site. If Elders Weather had a nice satellite map then I'd probably only go here.
What's you're favourite Weather Website? Leave a comment or send me an email.
Application of the Month - FREE Anti Virus from Grisoft AVG
OK I'll say upfront I've been a Mac user for several years now so viruses don't really concern me. I'm guessing you can never say never, and one day Mac's might be vulnerable. But so far it's been 3 years of not having to deal with them monthly / weekly / daily to any great extent.
However I do have one install of Windows XP I use for testing, and of course many customers and friends still use it. So it's a fact of life. I previously used Nortons / Symantec Anti Virus / Internet Security. However I found it to be fairly bloated (installing lots of things I didn't need / want), slowing down my computer when it was running and downloading large update files every week - or day. And then it still didn't work. For $120 a year.
Several years ago companies like GriSoft started offering their Anti Virus programs FREE for home users. I guess they want you to use it at home and maybe upgrade to more expensive options or install it at work and pay for it there. But the FREE home version has done the job for me and many other's for a long time.
It is well maintained - regular updates. The program itself is hardly noticeable running in the background and updates are handled automatically and are quite small and quick.
Before you stump up another $100+ for an Anti Virus subscription - consider the FREE and (IMO) better option.
Or buy a Mac.
Special October Offer from Mildura Internet
Each month in the Newsletter I'm going to put in a special offer to say thanks to those reading it this far. For this month I am going to offer a 15% discount for any website upgrades (or even new sites) ordered before November 30. Just mention this offer when you contact us.
Finally - Subscribe - Your Plug
Firstly - THANKS for taking the time to read our first newsletter. Would love to see some feedback in either comments or email me - mildurainternet @ gmail.com
To continue to receive the newsletter you can either visit the site every month to read it, or subscribe via our RSS feed. With RSS you receive the newsletter in your reader as soon as I publish it. Lots of RSS readers available - my current favourite way however is the excellent Google Reader.
OR you can simply contact us and we can subscribe you to our mailing list. Of course we wont use your email for anything nasty or pass / sell it on.
Your Plug: In this section we would like to help someone promote their small business to others. If you own / run a small business with less than 10 employees (or so) and would like to take 50 words to promote yourself to other businesses - let me know. Maybe even include special offers to readers. Your Plug will be on a first come, first served basis - as long as the text is easy for me to use. 50 words max plus a website / phone number. No cost - just good Karma.
Thanks again for reading. Lot of introductory stuff this month so it's a bit longer than I'd planned. Looking forward to making this a regular feature of Mildura Internet's website.
Shine On
Michael