Note – It’s always a best practice to maintain a complete site back-up before proceeding with any software updates — whether that means your WordPress software and/or any plugins you may have installed on yoru site.

Once a back-up has been completed, you may follow these steps (click to enlarge screenshots):

• Login to WordPress and select the link, highlighted in yellow, to update WordPress
  
• Select from two options – automatic update or manual (download to update manually)
  
• Done
  

What’s the difference between Domain Name Registrations and Web Site Hosting?

Domain Name Explained

Your Domain Name is like a mailing address which allows the post office to send you mail. If you want to know how to get somewhere, you need an address and your domain name is basically an address for people to find you online: www.YourName.com

Many clients ask if they should purchase a country-centric domain extension (where applicable). For instance, Canadians can purchase www.YourName.ca and this registry is only available to people/businesses in Canada. Similarly, a person living in the UK could purchaes www.YourName.co.uk. I think important to start with the user-friendliness of your domain name. And here are a few points to consider when choosing your domain name:

• Keep it Simple - you may not be Coca Cola (yet!) and need to think about branding yoru business. If you ever plan to place this name on more than business cards (i.e. screened on a vehicle, etc.) the name should be short enough and catchy enough to read–
• Memorable – would your domain name be memorable enough to recall if it were mentioned in a verbal conversation? if it’s a mouthful to say, it might be difficult to remember
• Spelling – try to keep in mind that you might have a clever name because you’re an exceptional wordsmith… but if your visitor is not, it may be difficult for them to type you in by memory

So with your name chosen, you essentially have an address in which you can send visitors to view your site. Next, you need a place to store the site itself!

Web Site Hosting Explained

The best way to explain a web host is this – it’s a publicly accessible computer. You may hear the term “server” — another word for a type of computer. Basically, it’s a computer server set-up to allow people to see the files stored on it. And once the Domain Name has been connected to the server, a visitor can type in your domain name and view the files (your web page) online.

There are codes, or name server records, which are provided by the domain name registrar. Sometimes these are called DNS records. In order for the web host to be connected to your name, you must enter those records at the web host. The domain name company will email you these records or you can login to the domain name registrar to retrieve them. Once you have them (copy them your clipboard) you can login to your web hosting company and paste them inot the field provided for NameServers / DNS.

It will then take up to 48hours (approximately) for the connection between the web host and domain name to be completed.

1. Domain Name – What is a Domain Name?

The address of a website is the domain name  – for instance, www.goldenpinecone.com is the domain name for this business. When you purchase a domain name, you will do so through a domain registrar. Learn more about domain names 

2. Web Hosting – What is Web Site Hosting

Your web site is made up of files, images and scripts and all of these components need a home. That’s where web hosting comes in. Your web hosting is essentially a computer which allows the public to view these files. Looking for web hosting?

Connecting the Dots

Once you have purchased a Domain Name and selected the right type of hosting for your site, you will need to connect the two.

Your web hosting company will supply you “name servers” or “DNS records”. An example of name servers could look like this:

ns1.google.com and ns2.google.com

You will have to login to your Domain Registrar and find the link to “manage” your domain name and once on that screen, look for another link or reference to “change name servers”. They will typically provide two fields (or boxes) to fill in the name server information as provided to you through your web host.

Be sure to save your infomation!

Waiting Game — Up to 24 Hour NameServer Propagation Period

It used to be a very long wait for nameservers to take effect — now the wait time is as short as 24 hours. In Vancouver, we have two main Internet Service Providers (or ISP’s): Shaw and Telus. Depending on how often they refresh their information, the wait time is reduced. Your web host is not to blame for the delays — it’s a waiting game from this point forward. The fastest turn-around I have seen was under an hour.

the cobbler with barefoot children

It’s exhilarating to launch a new site and feel the sense of accomplishment with a job well done.

And the rapid pace in which we work often means that we are the “cobbler with barefoot children”.
Just like your site, www.goldenpinecone.com needs to be updated occasionally, and we were so happy to luanch a new (and we think improved) design after months of working hard on *your sites!

We’re still loading in new portfolio listings – we’ve done a lot of work over the past couple of months are are delighted to showcase it for you.

Stay tuned as we roll-out these exciting new projects in our Portfolio.

It’s been an absolute delight to work with team Olympic – they approached the project with enthusiasm and a keen sense of direction. The site offers a crisp new face to Olympic’s online profile and wonderful team photos were created by star photographer, Sarah Murray.

It’s an exciting time to market your online presence – and our solutions make long term maintenance easy.

What’s coming down the pipe? I have several projects on the go now and have been remiss to update the site to show new work. Some of the projects include some new offerings (not yet listed here) and I’ll be revealing those once this cluster of new sites are complete.

Stay tuned! And, enjoy the first days of summer.

Social media can be much more than nuisance narcissistic posts if you choose to leverage it for your business — we’ll save that for another discussion but today, I want to rant a bit about this new market of (so-called) social media experts. First, let’s just be fair and say that my teenager (and/or yours) is probably more qualified to call themselves social media “expert” than most trying to sell this service. It’s not that mystical – really. Make sure any person/company provides you with clear, tangible goals. And get it in writing.

I love how brutal Zach Dunn is in his article “Social Media Bull$*#t” — a small snippet:

… let’s see an example of this. Suppose a client says they need to find a new way to survey customers. How could you respond?

• The Vague Answer: We’ll use social media.
• The Concrete Answer: We can set up a polling contest across Facebook and Twitter. Fans and followers can respond to the survey. Once a week three people will be randomly selected and given the featured prize.

Even though the concrete solution isn’t the most innovative, you hopefully get the point. Instead of offering a pseudo-answer by way of buzzword, a tangible example is given. Notice how the term “social media” doesn’t even need to appear.

Working with a client this week who wanted to use a free web hosting service, I noticed my cynical side searching to find the “catch” behind this too-good-to-be-true offer. Sadly, my instincts were right. Like Mom always said, if it seems too good to be true… it probably is. So here’s the deal – every free host my client found did have a “catch” to ensure they were required to upgrade the account to a paid account. In the end, they get you!

The cup is half full though! Better to know this upfront rather than later. Here’s some risks that may have occurred had they decided to use the free host:

• Customer Service – are you a customer if the service is free? It’s more like a favour, really. Why should they jump to help you when you’re not paying for the service?
• C R A S H – even paid servers experience the dreaded “down time” periods which leave visitors wondering if you’re out of business. What if the server crashes, or is down for a few hours, taking your site down with it. There’s nothing free about lost business due to unreliable service.
• Email – if your site is down – you’re also not getting email from your site. If you’ve set-up email on your domain (i.e. sally@yourcompany.com), your email service is also down when the site is down. Just think about it – no site – no email. How long will it take you to notice you’ve been cut off when nobody can even email you?

In summary, FREE means you’re not a priority customer, on their best server, and they’re not required to be responsive to you. In fact, it’s almost as if you owe them.

Not much is free. In fact, this effort was a time vampire.