Free Hosting for 6 months

Recommend a Friend and we'll give you 6 months free website hosting.  This Christmas we've a great offer for you worth up to £474.00 on our top package.

All you need to do is recommend a friend and as soon as they sign up to NCompass Hosting we'll give you and them 6 months free website hosting.

Small Print:

1. We'll add six months to your renewal date, so if you renew annually, there'll be nothing to pay for an extra 6 months.
2. If you recommend 2 friends will give you 12 months, 3 friends  18 months and so on.  The sky is the limit.
3. Eligible only after your recommendation is signed up
4. Closing date 31st March 2012.

It's a fairly simple offer, but if you can persuade people to transfer their hosting you us, we hope they'll be pleasantly surprised.

• Superb Customer Service - via telephone, email or helpdesk
• Great Value for money
• Fully customisable hosting, Linux, Windows you name it.
• Every type of hosting available from help with AWS through to basic website hosting

And then there's our other expertise within webdesign, email services, SEO, Social Media, marketing, consulting, maintenance and much much more.  No website hosting company will ever provide the range of services that we do.

A proper Back Up Solution for Websites

If you are still not following my Blog then please start now, just add your email address in the right hand column.

Now, it's Christmas Time again, something like 25% of all eCommerce is taking place in these 3 fraught weeks and the impact across the Internet is under severe duress.  When you read that Amazon Cyber Monday sales have risen from 2.3million orders last year to 3 million this year you know the Internet is picking up steam.

What then happens if you website goes down... As some of mine have done today... What do you do?

Most hosting companies have a 99.5-99.9% uptime agreement, but this invariably only covers you over a previous 30day period, but even at 99.9% that still leaves a possible hour per month of downtime, which at Christmas is critical.  Couple this with the fact that most hosting companies only consider refunding a proportion of the fees you pay them... and that's pennies these days.

I've encountered this problem ever since I started web design almost 15 years ago... the Internet is inherently not built for this... Let me explain briefly:

Your Domain Name maps onto an IP address that is assigned to a specific server/computer somewhere, there about about 9 computers around that world that control this mapping system, it's complicated...

But in that single sentence you can see the issue, the IP address is assigned to a single server and that cannot be changed... mores the problem, if there is a problem with the server - you access it to alter the IP address.  And because there are only a limited number of computers in the world that do this domain name to IP mapping it takes time for them to update, usually we call this propagation and this can take up to 72 hours to happen around the world.

These days you're looking at propagation taking 2 hours minimum, but more usually 24 hours (or over night)... by them everything will be working properly again and any changes you made will have been pointless because you just have to change it all back.

The system is flawed.

There are other complications, especially with databases... you can effectively only have a one database being updated by your website at a time, changes made to it are not replicated in real time to another database... that's a headache because now it means if you do revert to some sort of back system... the data you need is often not there.

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The Solution

Launching an all new service at NComp@ss we're going to make this story a thing of the past for you. We're going to offer the ultimate back up solution so that this problem will never happen again.  We not going to cure your host of their problems or change any SLA agreements, but we're going to set up your website in such a way that in less than 10 minutes you can swap over your Website to a completely backuped up system.

It'll be a manual request - it has to be, you will need to contact us and say - swap - but we'll handle all the nitty gritty.

Roughly this is how it will work.

1. You host your Domain Name with us on a specific DNS - where we can independently control where your website resides.
2. Next we will back up your entire website - daily and fully, we will also back up your database.  We will be able to set the frequency of this back up process, for example you might want the database backed up every 30 minutes
3. A third layer of back up can be requested if required.
4. Unlike hosting companies we will have access to multiple host, DNS services, your actual website and any other tools we might need.
5. Back up email will be available as well if required or effected.

A note - this is not cloud hosting - much of the cloud hosting services today still tie you to the 99.5% uptime guarantee, they still link your domain name to an IP address and thus to a specific server or service.

And finally a note of costs, it is envisaged that every website will have it's own needs and it's own requirements, so costs can be worked out accordingly, but in reality we're looking at about £10 per month, or slightly more for bigger websites.  Contact us directly for a quote.

We can give you the ultimate fail safe solution (something hosting cannot), but a manual decision to 'goto backup' is still required and that allows you to control your website and give you complete piece of mind for your website.

Happy Christmas Shopping.

Google Adwords Remarketing Explained

The concept of remarketing is an age old one, advertise to the people who have already shown interest before... let's take an example.

You're a shop owner - people walk in and browse your shop... but maybe they don't buy anything... Wouldn't it be nice if once they have left the shop they see a bill board or other advert showing the very thing there were looking at only moments before, or maybe even a few days before.

Imagine you could infiltrate their television with a Advert with products related to what they were looking at in your shop.

Or maybe - if they actually brought something, a TV for example, you could advertise a CD player, speakers, home cinema, films to watch and so on.

Of course all that is impossible.  No shop owner can advertise to such a precise level.  But for good or bad the same is not true on-line.  And indeed if someone visits your website and if they purchase something... well scarily Google can track it... Especially if they found you via Google Adwords in the first place.

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Let's go back a few steps and see what is happening here. Because we should be clear this is not some sort of stalking or cyber spying, Google and others have gort around that stumbling block, this is about a user actively responding to an advert you (the shop owner) have placed on Google. Normal activities do not count. Google's only tracking you if you click an advert.

At this point Google can track the whole process, for years they have collected data on time, location, keywords used, ads responded to, and so on... it was only a matter of time that Google would allow us advertisers to use this data.

So when you switch on Google Adwords Remarketing (under Audiences in your account) - you're actually just using the data you are already collecting.

What happens is the following:

1. Potential customer clicks/responds to your advert
2. They are tracked through your website, products shown or bought
3. They leave your website, but Google remembers that user has visited your website
4. Now when the potential customer visits other websites that display Google Adverts it puts two and two together...
5. Your adverts are shown repeated (within reason) until the user responds again and look sat your website a second or third time, or they make a purchase.

The pros from a marketeers point of view are massive, the opportunity to advertise only to those that are already interested is great.

The cons however exists as well, repeat adverts can annoy, offend or even harass people.

For now the numbers speak for themselves, remarketing is garnering huge interest because quite simply it works.

With a caveat - and this is important - it will work much better for some people than others, particularly business with a long lead to sale time... to reassure, increase brand awareness and emphasis commitment to prospects is vital to long lead time to sale customers.  So these are likely to be the Adwords customers Google are aiming for.

Blogging - what's it for?

I thought I'd refocus attention on the Blog for a bit... Why do we do it, why do we recommend scratching heads, thinking of ideas, jotting things down, planning what to say, creating stories, digging out news and the odd photo.  What is the point of a Blog.

The answer is as always with the Internet thee days, it's complicated.  The Blog however should be seen as a massively useful tool for your on-line presence, here then are a few top reasons in my view.

1. Interaction - Blogs allow your customers and target audience to publicly interact with your company, service or personal ideas.  Customers can comment directly on your articles and say what they think of you.  I always recommend answering them however negative their views might be.
2. Responsiveness - Blogs allow you to be flexible - you don't have to stick to the corporate Branding... if anything I don't self promote enough, in fact I rarely promote anything at all.  Blogs give freedom to express your ideas beyond the website.
3. Planning - Blogs are essential to planning your campaigns, if you put a Blog at the very centre of your marketing strategy, then it makes newsletters, mailing lists, social media, website content much much easier - no longer do you need to think up 3 stories for the e-Blast, no longer do you need to find a home for that Video you made the other day.
4. Technical - it really is easier to update a Blog than having to constantly edit your website, it's also extremely search engine friendly, often articles in Blogs appear on Google within days.  You can also customise Blogs easily adapting to your latest logo and colour scheme.
5. Fun - I'm going to add this, because there is nothing better than getting real feedback for what you're doing... encourage comment, ask for opinions, ask questions, encourage debate and participate... just as you want people to contribute to your block, write on other peoples Blogs to.  It all adds the fun.

Now for a couple of hints and tips... whose reading your Blog anyway?

1. A major goal should be to encourage people to 'subscribe' to the Blog... if they subscribe they will get email updates (just like newsletters) each time you update the blog... This can almost replace the need for separate newsletters.
2. RSS Feeds - you can use the data from the Blog feed in many different ways, form allowing people to follow you, to publishing your Blog on Facebook and Twitter, you can add Blog content to your website and manipulate the data as you see fit.

The answer to whose reading your Blog is as many people as possible, the more the better... But like everything this has to be encouraged and promoted.  But the more relevant and thought provoking content you can provide and the wider you can distribute this content the bigger your readership will be, which in turn makes it all extremely relevant to your overall web presence.

Please subscribe to my Blog in the right hand column.

Blatant Advertising - But what is the family for?

If any one is looking for a Christmas Present this year - my sister has written a lovely straight down the line, top notch and delicious book called 'Plot to Pot' and it is a great book about vegetables and cooking.

Proper book, and really good Christmas Present for anyone anywhere.

Another friend has written 'Land of Later On' it reached 3rd on Amazon and has been doing really well, so it must be good. If fiction is more your thing, then this too will make a great Christmas book for someone.

And thirdly, if you after a book that is more boyish there's Who Pays the Piper. Thsi book has been on the shelves for a while now and is still doing really well.

If only I could write a book!

Your Telephone Number

I'm worried - on a recent UK trip I only took my phone with me, I used it to look up everything I needed, from train times to clients telephone numbers.  I looked up plenty of websites on my mobile.

I was staggered at how many websites incorrectly displayed their telephone number.  My phone as does I am sure most people's has the ability to link and call, all I have to do is press the number and I'll dialling the person/company I need to.  Why then do so many of us get this wrong.

Let's cut to the chase - the ONLY format your telephone number should be displayed in is +442071938278.  No spaces, no brackets, hyphens, or leading zeros... put your number as you expect a a phone to use it.

What not to do:

• 44 (0) 207 193 8278 - no plus sign no calling
• 0207 193 8278 - people cannot call from abroad
• +44 (0)207 193 8278 - that zero really gets in the way.

About the only thing you might get away with are spaces... most phone will ignore these at least.  But by far the biggest problem is having the leading zero.

If I don't earn at least £200 from changing various clients website to reflect this - I shall be very disappointed. My advice is to try call your organisation from your mobile website, if you get through then you have a better phone than me.