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Introducing the new Dell 24″ Flat Panel Monitor! Save Up to 15% on Select Flat Panel Monitors.
Save Up to 15% on Select Flat Panel Monitors!

Offers are for a limited time only and subject to change.

* External Hard Drive: For hard drives, GB means 1 billion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less.

As many of you know, we’ve been searching for over a year, for a house in the Asheville area with office space to expand our business (we outgrew our current space quite a while ago). A few months ago we expanded our search into other areas and have found the perfect place in Chattanooga. We found out, only a few days ago, that our offer has finally been accepted, and without a change to the original closing date which is February 28th. So, we have just barely a week to pack and move house and office. For the next two weeks, please bear with us as we continue to be available for any emergencies. We plan to be fully operational by the first week in March. During this transition, our web hosting servers will be totally unaffected. We’ve arranged for extra monitoring and support at the data center while we are not fully online ourselves.

Since virtually all of our web design and marketing projects are handled with communication via email and phone there should be no change to the level of service that you’ve become accustomed to. In fact, we look forward to raising the level of our service in our new and improved work environment. For any of you that require in-person, onsite service, we are prepared to accommodate those needs with scheduled visits to the Asheville area. We are excited about this new opportunity and growth. If you have family, friends or business associates in the Chattanooga area, please refer them to us while you continue to refer us to your Asheville area contacts as well. If you are ever in the Chattanooga area, please be sure to contact us for a visit.

As long as we are on the subject of change…. please think about your website and whether it needs any changes. It is a good idea to update your website with minor content changes at least once or twice per year. You may want to review your website to see if it still reflects who you are and what you do. Are there any services listed that you no longer provide? Are there any new services that you now provide that are not listed? Is all of your contact information correct? Are there outdated links to other websites on any of your pages? Does your business have a new direction or focus that needs to be emphasized? Do you need some ideas on how to drive more targeted traffic to your site? We can help with Search Engine Optimization, a Pay-Per-Click campaign, a Press Release or some new Articles, to add relevant content and keywords to your site. Now (well two weeks from now, really) would be a great time to consider freshening the content on your website.

Vulnerability in Server Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution. For more information on this vulnerability, and to download the update, see Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-040If you have your Windows system set to automatically download critical updates then you should be all set. To double-check you can click Start -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs — then look in the Currently installed programs and updates list for Security Update for Windows XP (KB921883) — it will be pretty near the bottom of the list. If it’s there then you are all set (for this week anyway), if not you should download and install it immediately.

If you are responsible for system security or system support then this patch should be at the very top of your to-do list — or, better yet, scratched off of your to-do list because it is already done.

by Elizabeth Kirwin, Sidhe Communications
& Mike Pires, 4yourwebsite.com

One question which should concern all internet marketers is — What are the search engines looking for? Search engines are based on computer logic, which sees information in text or numerical form, and has a hierarchical approach to font sizes, typefaces, and repetition of words or phrases. This article will give details about search engine preferences and explain how website content can be constructed to cater to these preferences to increase ranking on Google and other search engines.

Is Your Site a Template? Google Ranks these Sites Low

If your site is a template (mortgage, real estate, etc) and Google reads many sites repeated in the same format on the web, this picky search engine may kick your site from the top to the bottom of the list.

Repetition of Industry Keywords

Industry specific keywords can be harvested from website statistics programs or constructed from a strategic plan to draw the right traffic to a site. For example, a realtor would want to repeat the words retirement, relocation, and purchase a second home along with a geographic location to draw long distance homebuyers to their site. By repeating industry specific keywords, a company or organization may increase site ranking in Google. Article writing on a given topic is a very effective tool for placing repetitive keyword text on a home page.

Page Title, Headline, Subhead, Bolded Text

Choose your page titles very carefully and be sure that they include your most important keywords. Not only does this increase the relevance of your page to the search engines, but it also looks better in the search results. When your page title looks better in the search results more searchers will choose your page from the list of possibilities, the more searchers choose your page, the higher it will rank. Be sure to use your keywords liberally in a headline, in subheadings, in the first sentence of the page and in bolded text. This will help your page rank well, while at the same time reassuring the internet searcher that they have landed on a page that is pertinent to what they are looking for.

Graphic Name Tags and Keywords

If you were designing your web pages just for the search engine spiders you would not use graphics at all, but it is necessary to strike a balance between making a page that is pleasing to look at vs. one that will satisfy the search engines. Choose images for your page that also relate to your keywords and make sure that your keywords are in your image alt tag. Make your image alt text describes what the image actually is. Look at your page with the images turned off to be sure that all of your images have accurate, useful and keyword-rich descriptions.

Link Text

Link text is one of the most important ranking criteria. If you want to see how powerful link text is, try a Google search for “miserable failure”. You will find George Bush’s official bio and Michael Moore’s home page at the top of the list even though neither page contains the phrase or even one of these words!

Keywords in Menu Items and other Internal Links

Internal links within a website direct users to your other pages. Keywords in menu items and other internal links are critical because search engines read them as another link. Don’t waste links on text like “Click Here” or “This Page”, use your keywords instead. Think of the link text as a vote to the search engines for what your website is about. When you vote make sure to use your keywords, if you won’t vote for your own pages then who will?

Inbound Links

How many times is your website mentioned on the web? This is another way search engines rank sites. Each time your site is mentioned on the web, insert keywords to introduce the site instead of “for more information” or “click here”. Also, be aware that when inbound links are embedded on other sites, your site rises in ranking - any link will help, but a link with your keyword(s) is best. Article writing and syndication on the web ensures that inbound links to your site (contained in bios) are resident on many sites. Writing and disseminating national press releases on the web is another way to increase the number of inbound links. Links to the website are repeated in the press release.

Outbound Links

Placement of links with websites of prominence is most important. This creates traffic. However, a savvy internet marketer will choose placement of links on web pages selectively, to increase company profits or an organization’s visibility. Use outbound links that help an internet surfer find even more information about your target keywords and you will increase your website’s level of authority for your keywords.

Reciprocal Links

The general consensus seems to be that reciprocal links don’t really help your search engine ranking and, in fact, can actually hurt your page rank if you are not careful. Swap links with websites that are already ranked well for your keywords and/or sites that will use your keywords in their link text. This will generate quality traffic to your site even if it does not have an effect on your page rank. Don’t link to sites that have nothing to do with the subject of your keywords and especially do not link to sites that are nothing but a bunch of uncategorized links, links to these free-for-all link farms can do more harm than good.

Planting Invisible or Tiny Text Behind Home Page

Uploading massive amounts of invisible keyword writing on the home page was once a favored tool of web designers. It is no longer a good idea to mask keywords on the page in any way. Search engines may be fooled at first and your site may land on top of the list for a while, but once filters are run to detect this, search engines may semi-blacklist your site or remove it from results completely. Avoid trying to trick the search engines and stick to techniques that enhance your website’s usefulness and relevance to its target audience. The rankings, the traffic and the loyalty of your visitors will follow automatically.

The next Sober Worm hits tomorrow, patch your system now! Since there is no official patch available from Microsoft we are strongly urging all of our clients to patch their system manually and immediately. Be aware that this patch will prevent you from being able to double-click a picture and viewing it with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (there is a work-around for this if you have Firefox installed). Here are the instructions:

Click Start -> Run then enter CMD into the dialog box and click OK

At the command prompt type the following exactly and then press ENTER:

regsvr32 -u %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll

You should then see a dialog box that says “DllUnregisterServer in C:\…\shimgvw.dll succeeded.”

Click OK and your system is patched.

Next Click Start -> Control Panel and then Double-Click Folder Options. Then Click the File Types tab and find GIF, JPE, JPEG and JPG - change the “Opens with:” program for all of these to Firefox.

Now you are done and safe from the impending Sober attack.

Of course you should also make sure that your Antivirus program is installed properly and up-to-date. We strongly recommend a manual virus signature download to be sure that you have the very latest signatures.

Note: Microsoft has finally issued Windows XP Security Update for Windows XP (KB912919) that resolves this issue, Once you have installed this update successfully you can safely reinstate the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer by following the above instructions to open a command prompt window and then type this command:

regsvr32 %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll

You should then see a dialog box that says “DllRegisterServer in C:\…\shimgvw.dll succeeded.” Click OK and your system is all back to normal.

If you also changed the “Opens with:” follow the same instructions as above but click the “Restore” button for each of the file types.

And P-L-E-A-S-E make sure that your Antivirus program is installed properly and up-to-date.

Offer expires December 26th, 2005

This does not mean 10 years ago, or even 10 months ago - sometimes it can mean 10 minutes ago!

A Website owner that knows everything there is to know about today’s Internet technology, who doesn’t keep up with the constant changes for even a few months, will be working with an ever increasing proportion of obsolete expertise and knowledge. This constantly changing face of technology, and especially search engine protocol, requires that Website owners do much more than just stay abreast of today’s technology and search engine requirements.

Optimum Website posturing means more than just keeping pace with the present, it requires the predictive vision and ability to see the very root essence of technological and search engine evolution. It is an art that brings the searcher and the searched together in the most ethical and up-to-date orchestration of art, information and technology.

Mike Pires, co-owner of, www.4yourwebsite.com, located in Asheville, North Carolina, was a master of computer technology when computers were still in their infancy. While many of us know computers only as that convenient purchase package of communication hardware and software that we bought from our local Electronics or Office Supply store, Mike has been delving into the inner workings of bits and bytes for several decades. What was a daily reality for Mike was little more than an awe-filled possibility for many of his generation. This broad perspective in the field of computer technology, allows Mike to skillfully lead his team with a level of expertise and insight that is not often found in this highly competitive market of Internet web design, programming and marketing.

As a Website Designer and Marketer, Mike knows from years of education and experience, that the present state of computer technology and Website optimization is only a momentary pause in this ever unfolding field of communication and search engine mechanics. This understanding allows www.4yourwebsite.com a clear advantage over their competitors.

Mike and co-owner, Stephanie O’Guin, working with a team of specialists, pull together all necessary resources for their client’s best purpose. www.4yourwebsite.com researches and utilizes the most contemporary tools for today’s online advantage, while anticipating and preparing for up-and-coming trends that will give their clients a clear leading edge in tomorrow’s market.

Adding to their full range offering of services in the field of Website and Database Design as well as Custom Programming, Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Marketing, www.4yourwebsite.com also offers full Press Release and Copywriting services. Entire packages, both large and small, are all affordably priced, allowing almost any individual or business that Website they only dreamed was possible.

If you would like more information on how you can have a Website of your own, or improve the functionality or visibility of one that you already have, contact www.4yourwebsite.com.

When all goes well it is as simple as follow the instructions, mail it in and get your check.

Just in case it doesn’t go smoothly be sure that you keep copies of everything (order numbers, case numbers, names, dates, etc.) and document all of your communications. We ended up too frustrated by email and phone call dead ends, so we made 5 copies of everything that we had (19 pages in all), wrote a 4 page letter to go with it and mailed it all to:

Dell, Inc.

One Dell Way

Round Rock, TX 78682

We sent a copy to:

• Dell Customer Service Department
• Technical Support
• Dell Management
• Rebate Fulfillment Department

And a CC: to Michael Dell just for good measure.

Since all is resolved, we won’t bore you with the details, but here is the intro to our 4 page letter:

Dear Dell:

Here’s the short version of my ordeal with Dell:

You owe me $200 and a hard drive. Please send them now.

Here’s the long version….

I am writing to you out of sheer desperation and frustration and praying SOMEONE at Dell can help me out. I purchased the two Dell computer systems referenced above, back on 2/7/05. I placed my order online…. 4 more pages of details…

We mailed everything on 8/20 and started getting phone calls and email responses on 9/1 from David C. from the Resolution Expert Center; David is, indeed, a true Resolution Expert. Our issue was now given an OMNI case number and things flowed like fine wine (which we had already been driven to drink much of during this ordeal). We received exceptional communication and unprecedented follow-up that included several phone calls and more than 15 emails (all of them with useful and pertinent information). We have been issued credits for our rebates (one on 9/8 and one on 9/9) and our brand new replacement hard drive arrived yesterday (9/9). So, after seven months of being in the depths of Dell, our hell has been completely and Delliciously transformed to a heavenly resolution in less than a week.

We wish that Dell could have provided more people like David C. and this level of customer service (like Sharper Image and Target do so well), on the front end. Nevertheless, our faith in Dell has been restored. Thank you David C., we will continue to endorse your company and your products.