Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Ask Girl Geek: Website Security

Dear Girl Geek,

I have a website that includes text, photos, links, downloadable pdf files, and a video. Are there any steps I can take to make sure that this website is secure? I want to make sure that nobody can purposely shut it down and that nobody can intentionally change the content.
Lisa


Hi Lisa,
This is not a web design question, but a web hosting question. Contact the company that you host your site with and ask them your security question.

All I know is that if you have a good password for logging into your hosting account and if you change it monthly the likelihood of someone hacking into your site to change content is lessened. I'm sure there's more to it than that, so contact someone who understands internet security.
Good luck and thanks for asking.

Annette Vaillancourt
Girl Geek Web Designs: Custom Web Design and SEO for Small Businesses on a Budget
Call for a Free initial consultation
1-877-866-4335

Ask Girl Geek: Making Site Look More Professional on a Budget

Hi Girl Geek,
I was thinking it might be wise to get a webdesigner to help me make my website look more professional and to make my store look more credible, but I don't have much money to spare. I don't think I could afford to pay someone per hour, or just that they'd make the code easy enough to read that I could make changes as needed. What do you think I should do? Also do you think highly of paypal.com as a means for a business shopping cart?
James

Hi James,

Even if you have a small budget, it's worth it to have a professional looking site. I'd be glad to look it over and give you some ideas of how to do this on a budget. You can buy inexpensive templates and build the site around that. Although it wouldn't be customized, there are some pretty good templates out there.

Yes, I use PayPal all the time for shopping carts and think very highly of it. It's cheap and it's secure, and it can do whatever most businesses need.

Thanks for asking!


Annette Vaillancourt
Girl Geek Web Designs: Custom Web Design and SEO for Small Businesses on a Budget
Call for a Free initial consultation
1-877-866-4335

Monday, April 03, 2006

Ask Girl Geek: Marketing Self-Published Material

Dear Girl Geek,
How does one get self published material seen? Web marketing is a mystery to me.
Tom

Hi Tom,

I'd be glad to answer your question! I'll need alittle more information first. When you say "self published" are you saying you have the book in a paper format or is it an ebook (electronic book)? What have you tried so far?

Either way the best way to get it seen is to identify who your prospective readers are first. Then develop a marketing plan directed at them. This is true for the web or any form of marketing. I'd start with getting the book or ebook on Amazon.com or ebay.com. If you have a website, I'd set up a PPC (pay per click) advertising program on either Google or Yahoo.

This is just a sample of the many ideas I do as part of my consultation services.
Let me know if you want to know more about my services or if you need a website.

Thanks for asking!
Annette Vaillancourt
Girl Geek Web Designs: Custom Web Design and SEO for Small Businesses on a Budget
Call for a Free initial consultation
1-877-866-4335