Email has many stops along the way.  Network traffic between the sender and receiver can slow down an email’s progress.

Big Inboxes
“My email is crawling! The speed of email (or, more accurately, the lack thereof) is a very common customer complaint. Often, however, the perceived performance has nothing to do with the speed of email delivery and receipt but rather with the speed of the actual email client. The email client is whatever program you use to read the email (e.g. Outlook, Mac Mail, Thunderbird, Webmail, etc.). If your email client is running slowly, the first recommendation is to check to see how many messages are in your inbox. In many cases, especially with webmail, inboxes containing a thousand or more messages can sometimes slow down how quickly the email program will launch and check for new messages. If you have a lot of messages in your inbox, clean them out. Throw away messages you don’t need. Archive messages you don’t need instant access to. Create subfolders to move messages into.

Weeding out Spam
Email clients have features to help you weed out the Spam (unsolicited email messages). Be sure yours is turned on and working. The best is if you can have suspected Spam messages moved out of your Inbox into a separate folder. You will want to review that Spam folder for the occasional legitimate message that may end up in that folder. Like your trash, you should periodically empty your Spam folder as well.

Big Email Attachments and Slow Connections
In general, email messages are small and should download quickly when you check your mail. However, if you have a really long message or an email with one or more large attachments, it may be slow to download. Furthermore, if you have a slow internet connection (e.g. dial-up, weak or intermittent wireless connection, etc.) that will further slow the fetching of email messages. For this reason, wherever possible you should avoid sending attachments in emails. In many cases you can send links to files, pictures, etc. which keep your outgoing messages small and fast and is more respectful for your recipients.

Email Delivery Speeds
When you hit send, your email message is sent over a series of servers before it reaches its final destination. If any of those servers or any of the network connections between servers is bogged down, the delivery of your message can be delayed. A delay of 30 to 60 minutes is not uncommon and it can sometimes take longer. In more extreme situations, the initial send may fail. In such cases email servers are designed to wait for a while then retry. They may do this several times. If a particularly long delay occurs, you may receive a “message delayed” warning email. In rare instances, messages may not be delivered until hours after they are sent. After a set number of failures and/or a long time, the message may be rejected outright and you will receive a bounced message alert to let you know the mail was never delivered.

Bounced Messages
If you receive a delayed message warning, do nothing and just wait as the message should eventually be delivered. If you receive a bounced, rejected, or returned message, your email did not go through. Take a close look through the returned message and you may be able to determine the reason. Here are some common reasons for email failing to be delivered:

• email address was mistyped (call your recipient to verify the correct address)
• email address no longer exists (call your recipient to find out if their email address has changed)
• your recipient’s email box capacity is maxed out (call your recipient and let them know in case they are unaware)
• repeated attempts to send the email failed due to a server or network error (call your recipient to let them know in case they are unaware)

When Deliver Time Matters
If you have a time-sensitive message, email alone may not be a good idea. Follow up the email with a telephone call or an Instant Message to verify receipt. If you or your recipient has more than one email address – particularly addresses at different hosts (e.g. Gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.) – you might try sending from and to alternate addresses. If you have no alternate addresses to use there is unfortunately little you can do to speed up the delivery of your email if. You’ll just have to be patient.

Additional Reading:

howstuffworks: email

Why does email take so long to be delivered sometimes?

Do not use the following for passwords:
- family, pet, or friend’s names
- special dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.)
- any word you can find in the dictionary (even foreign words)
- simple number sequences (”1234″, etc.)
- the same name as your website or email account
- your address, school name, etc.

Having troubles picking a password? Try a passphrase. Think of a phrase of words, remove the spaces, add in some numbers, upper/lower case letters, and you are good. You can substitute in numbers for letters. For example substitute the number “1″ for the letter I, the number “0″ for the letter O, the @ sign for the letter A, and so on.

If you are more visual than verbal, you could select a sequence of keys based on a pattern of keys on the keyboard. Again, don’t make the sequence simple and be sure to include a mixture of numbers, upper and lowercase letters and/or special characters.

If you want something really strong, you can use a random password generator. Here is one online tool.

Just beware, these passwords, though very secure can be difficult to remember!

2. Don’t forget them!
As soon as you change your password, use it several times. If you have had the same password for months, it can be difficult to change habits and use the new one. Furthermore, many folks like to let their browser cache their password so they don’t have to type it in every single time. You will want to test and retest your new password several times.

3. Change them regularly
This is an inconvenient but a highly recommended action to take. Every month or so change your passwords. Don’t use the same password for each account either. You wouldn’t ant the same key to open your house, your car doors, your safe deposit box, your office, and your filing cabinet, would you?

4. Keep them safe
You could have the best password in the world, but writing it down and sticking it to your monitor or putting it in your desk drawer or under your desk does you about as much good as leaving the keys to your car on the hood. Writing strong passwords down isn’t bad. In fact, you should write them down in case you forget them as it can be a real hassle to retrieve them if you do. Just don’t put them in a place other folks can easily get to.

Avoid sending passwords via email. It is too easy to accidentally forward or delete an email, and there are vulnerabilities which make email a less secure way of storing passwords.

Never, ever respond to an electronic request for a password. No matter how legitimate the request may be, no legitimate email will request any login information. Some companies like Hostbaby may ask verbally for your login credentials over the phone as a way of verifying your identity, but none will ask for it via email.

Be sure you have up-to-date virus and spyware software on your computer and that you run full scans periodically. Some of the more malicious viruses, trojan horses, and spyware may be able to capture your login name and password when you type them in.

5. Delete any unused accounts
Review your accounts and passwords (e.g. FTP, email addresses, etc.). If you are no longer using any of them, delete them. That removes potential entryways into your email and website that hackers could exploit.

Additional Reading:

Microsoft Online Safety: Create Strong Passwords

Tips to Keep Passwords Safe

How to Keep Your Passwords Safe While Surfing the Web

I will use good passwords

Password Safety: Tips for Keeping Passwords Safe

You have music and other stuff and you want to sell it online. What are your options? What are the ramifications of your choices? This article briefly covers several choices for selling your stuff online and the pros and cons of each.

The first question to answer is: what is it you are selling?

I. Physical CDs:
If you wish to sell physical CDs, there are two primary options you may consider:

A. PayPal
PayPal will allow you to create “buy now” buttons which makes it possible for people to send payments to you. The advantage is you may set your own price, and Paypal will only charge a small percentage on each transaction. The main issue to consider, though, is that you will need to keep an eye on your email for new payments, then do the order fulfillment (box, package, address and ship the CDs) yourself. Some people like the control, others may find it too much trouble to pack and ship each order.

B. CD Baby
Hostbaby’s sibling, CD Baby is a leader in selling music both in physical CD form as well as digital downloads. The margins are very good for artists, and (like Hostbaby) CD Baby is staffed with musicians and artists happy to help fellow musicians sell their music.  The best part about using CD Baby is HostBaby gets free submissions to CD Baby every year.

II. Merchandise
If you wish to sell merchandise (e.g. T-shirts, signs, mugs, etc.), you will either need to use Paypal and do it all yourself (see above), or you will need to find a company to do it for you. A few companies (with which Hostbaby and CD Baby are not in any way affiliated) are cafepress.com, printfection.com, and zazzle.com. If any of you has had experience with these companies, please feel free to comment for the benefit of others.

III. Digital Music Downloads
Here you have several options:

A. PayPal (see above)

B. CD Baby
CD Baby offers you not only the option to sell your songs as digital downloads, but you also have the option of having CD Baby sell digital albums and/or single songs through our Digital Partners (e.g. iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, and many more). Once set up, your albums and songs will sell and you just collect the checks. Be sure to use CD Baby’s very cool Buy Now buttons on your site!

C. Digital Media Companies
Digital media companies will let you upload any digital content (mp3s, PDFs, whatever) and have them sell them for you. Most will collect payments through Paypal, so you will be paying the Paypal fee, plus whatever transactional or monthly fee the digital media company charges. The nice thing is after setting it up, you will not have to do anything but collect payment. Just be sure to calculate all the fees between Paypal and the digital media company to make sure it makes financial sense. Two digital media companies (with which Hostbaby and CD Baby are not in any way affiliated) are payloadz.com and e-junkie.com. If any of you has had experience with these companies, please feel free to comment for the benefit of others.

Creating Buy Now Buttons

After you have set up the stuff you want to sell, you will want to create catchy links on your website for people to use. Hostbaby has several help articles to assist you. If you currently have simple text hyperlinks to your online store(s), definitely check out the following articles!

Adding Paypal Buttons
Adding CD Baby Buy Now Buttons
Adding iTunes buttons

Test Everything!

Once you have your buy now buttons installed on your website, try them out. Be sure to try them with different computers (e.g. PCs and Macs) as well as with different browsers to ensure they work consistently for any potential visitors and buyers on your site.

“A web browser is a software application  for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web” (from Wikipedia). Examples of web browsers include (but are not limited to (in no particular order): Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (aka “IE”), Mozilla’s FireFox, Apple’s Safari, and Google’s Chrome. PDAs and internet-ready smart phones have their own mini-browsers as well.

Search Engine Definition

“A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list of results and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files” (from Wikipedia). Examples of popular search engines include but are not limited to: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Bing, Ask.com, etc.

Most web browsers now have search engines built into them for fast, easy searches. Because of this, many people mistakenly think their browser is “yahoo”, “google”, etc. Furthermore, people are so used to typing information into the search engine window that they completely ignore the very important Address window (aka Address bar or URL window).

Here are pictures of popular browsers showing both the address window and the search engine window:

Firefox:

Safari:

Internet Explorer:

Note that in each of these browsers, there is an address window at the top/left and a search window in the top/right.

Chrome is unique in that it doesn’t have separate windows for web addresses or search items:

When to use the Address Window

Notice that the content in the address bar typically begins with http://

This is the unique address of the web page currently being displayed. This is also known as the URL (short for “Uniform Record Locator“). If you know the precise address for a web address, you should enter it into the Address Window. You don’t have to type in the http:// as most web browsers will enter that in for you. You probably don’t even have to type in the www. that often precedes most web domain names. So you may save yourself some time by no longer typing http://www. when entering in an address.

Often we hear of people typing in a web address either into the search window, or into a search engine web page directly. If you know the address, simply type it into the Address Window and save yourself several steps and clicks.

When to use the Search Window

If you do not know the correct web address or if the one you have doesn’t seem to work, use the Search Window. Type in words that would distinguish the website you seek from other sites. If you get too many results or do not see the site you seek quickly, you may try narrowing your search using some search engine shortcuts.

Google search shortcuts
Google and Yahoo search shortcuts compared
Search Engine Math

Additional Notes on Browsers and Search Engines

Most search windows built-into browsers will also let you select which search engine site to use. Try each one out and see which one works best for you. You should be able to make that one the default.

Sometimes when installing new software you will be asked whether it is okay to install a new search engine bar into your browser. Since most browsers already have a search engine window, it makes little sense to add another one as it will take up space on your screen and may adversely affect the speed of your browser.

Here is a website that shows your IP address, your browser, browser version, and operating system FindMeByIp.

If you own a website, it is a good idea to install multiple web browsers. Here is an article explaining why.

If you would like to learn more about how to increase the score and ranking of your web site with search engine, check out this article.

Years ago a student burst into my office brandishing a floppy disk and blurting out, “I lost my whole thesis off this disk and it is due this Monday!!!” I asked, “did you make a backup?” and he answered, “uh…no…I’ve never needed one until now!” I could only imagine someone with a flat tire on the interstate saying, “well, I’ve never needed a spare tire until now!”

Regardless of the cause, data loss is inevitable. The best protection is to make backups of any data you would prefer not to lose. This article explains how to back up your web site content, your email, and contacts.

Backing up your website

It’s a good idea to back up your website once a year or before you are about to make any significant changes to your content or design. It is also critical to back up your site if you are transitioning from one hosting company to another.

If you host your site with HostBaby, daily backups are made of your site. However, if you want more control over when and what is backed up and how long that backup is saved, you can make and save your own backups.

If you have a HostBaby full website, backing it up is very simple. Just use FTP to download the entire contents to your local Mac or PC. Once there, you can opt to copy it to a CD or some removable media (e.g. USB Thumb Drive, etc.). Be sure to label it with the current date.

If you have a HostBaby Wizard account, there are a couple of manual backup/restore techniques you can use. They are outlined here.

Backing Up your Webmail Addressbook

If you access your HostBaby email through a local client (e.g. Mac Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.), you can back up your address book within your program. Refer to your help files or use your favorite search engine for instructions how to do this.

If, however, you access your email strictly through Webmail, you will want to back up your email addresses for safe-keeping. It’s pretty easy to do. Here is a help file explaining how.

Backing up your Webmail messages

Again, if you access your HostBaby email through a local client (e.g. Mac Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.), you can back up your email messages within your program. Refer to your help files or use your favorite search engine for instructions how to do this.

If you only access your email through webmail, you can easily back up your messages either by setting up an email client which will download copies of your messages to your Mac or PC. If you want to back up individual messages, you can use the webmail Archive feature. Both methods are described here.

One powerful way to improve your search engine score is to include links to popular websites.

1. If you have any videos on YouTube, add them to your site. A recent Hostbaby blog post dives deeper into adding videos to your site.
2. If you are on Facebook, add a Facebook Badge to your site
3. If you use Twitter, share your tweets on your site.
4. If you use Myspace, add that link to your site.

II. Adding links to online stores

1. Add links to stores that sell your music. If you sell your music through CD Baby, use the cool “Buy Now” buttons CD Baby offers. You can search for your album buttons using the CD Baby Link Maker.
2. If your music is available through iTunes, add links to them as well.
3. Other online music sites (Digstation, Rhapsody, etc.) and basic stores (Paypal, Payloadz, e-junkie, etc.) also may be embedded into your site.

III. Enable Share-It

A recently added feature to wizard accounts is the “Share It” feature, which makes it easy for visitors to share your web pages on their social networking (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) sites. It’s a great way to get some fan-driven viral marketing rolling. A recent Hostbaby blog entry explains how to use this feature.

IV. Build an online community with a Blog

Blogging is a great way to communicate with your fans. If you enable comments to your blog articles, you have the potential of building an active online community fans. This takes a commitment as you will want to make sure you submit new blog entries as well as respond to fan comments, but the more traffic generated, the more your internet search engine score will be increased. Here’s a blog entry giving an introduction on how to blog.

V. Forget Meta-Tags

One obvious omission from this list is using meta tags. Meta tags used to be a significant factor years ago in search engine indexes and scores – so much so that they became overused to the point of being meaningless. In fact, Google no longer even uses meta tags. Forget about using meta tags. If interested read more about them here.

How do search engines work?

Since the web is constantly changing and growing it takes time for search engines to discover and index new web sites. The process search sites go through to find and index new sites is automatic, but takes time. A new site such as yours may not show up on a major search engine site until several weeks after it has been published. If you are interested in learning about how search engines work, here are a couple articles that get into the nuts and bolts:

• How stuff works: Search Engines
• Wikipedia: How web search engines work
• Search Engine Watch: How search engines work

Submitting your own website to search engines

The good news is that you can expedite this process by manually submitting your website to search engines. You only need to do this if your site is relatively new (e.g. less than a month old) and not yet appearing on any search engines.  Here is a help file with links to popular search engines to which you may wish to submit your site.

Related articles:

Promoting your website

Putting your website on top of the heap!

SPAM

1. Use more than one email address
Consider creating more than one email address. Use one for your legitimate email correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues. Use another for any online activity such as online shopping, posting to forums, leaving comments on blogs, and anything else which would possibly reveal your email address to people other than family, friends, and colleagues you email directly.

2. Use contact forms where possible
Rather than posting your email address on your website, consider using a contact form. This allows visitors to your site to send you email without having to open an email program, manually entering your address, etc. This has two advantages: First, visitors using public  internet terminals (e.g. public library, internet cafe, etc.) won’t have to log into their email program. Secondly, posting your email address on your website makes it easy for nefarious people and their special email-harvesting programs to capture your address and add it to their list of SPAM victims. One drawback is that you may want to make your email address easily available to the people you want to contact you. Some people compromise by posting their email address on their website slightly modified, but still understandable to human eyes (e.g. “Email me at hostbaby (at) hostbaby (dot) com”).

Hostbaby wizard account holders have access to a great online contact form to allow web visitors to send in email. It includes a security code to ensure humans are using the form, not SPAM program. Learn more about it here.

3. Use less common email addresses
The most common email addresses are those that begin with “info”, “admin”, “webmin”, “contact”, and “me”. Because they are common, generators of SPAM will send email to those addresses since the probability is high they will work. You should consider avoiding creating email accounts with these names (ie. don’t use “info@yourdomain.com”, etc.).

4. Use SPAM filters
Preventing SPAM from even getting sent to you using the methods above is ideal, but eventually, SPAM will find its way to your email inbox. At that point, SPAM filters can offer relief.

Most email services include some sort of SPAM filters. These are services which inspect incoming email and make a judgment as to whether it is legitimate email or not. A good idea is to create a SPAM or Junk Mail folder and have suspected SPAM routed to that folder. You will want to inspect that folder occasionally as legitimate email may sometimes get improperly flagged as SPAM. Depending on your email system, you can tag such email as “Not Spam”, or add that email address to your white list. Conversely, if you seem to get a lot of SPAM from a particular site, you can restrict them by adding them to your black list. Many email clients (Outlook, Mac Mail, Thunderbird, etc.) also include their own SPAM filters and allow you to create “Rules” specific to the kind of spam you are receiving.

Hostbaby customers have access to Spam Assassin, which will allow you to configure how strict the filter will be, add address to your white list or black list, and to move suspicious email into a dedicated SPAM folder.

• Internet Explorer (those on version 6.x should seriously consider upgrading)
• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari
• Google Chrome
• Opera

Here is a list of browsers available for Mac:

• Safari
• Mozilla Firefox
• Opera

Here are some additional articles you may find helpful:

• Clearing Browser Cache
• Clearing Browser Cookies
• US Government issues IE security warning

Resize Images for Image Bank

Most digital cameras take pictures at very high resolutions. Images for web pages should be much lower resolution to ensure fast loading and display for online visitors. This article explains how to resize pictures and includes links to several free online picture resize/ crop tools.

Log Into New Wizard

All Hostbaby wizard account users should be using the new Hostbaby2 wizard to take advantage of the latest features and fixes. This article explains how, as well as what to do if you encounter login problems.

Adding Dates to New Calendar

Hostbaby has recently added new features to the calendar. This requires a different sequence for adding events. This article explains how.

How to export, clean up, and import addresses into Listbaby

Many people have large contact lists they wish to import into Listbaby, which is Hostbaby’s mail list program. The data file must be in the proper format. This article explains how to clean up the data to ensure a smooth import into Listbaby.

Adding CDBaby Buy Buttons to your website

If you have recordings for sale on CDBaby, there are some very nice Buy Now buttons you can enter into your website. This article explains how.

Changing your Credit Card online

Hostbaby customers may check their charges and payments online, make payments anytime of day or night, and change the credit card we have on file. This article explains how.

Streaming Audio Player

Hostbaby customers who want to have music play for website visitors should refer to this article.