Charles Tips – Web Developer Checklist

It’s increasingly difficult sorting good companies from bad ones on the Internet. There are still ways to find the best, reliable web development companies. We’ve compiled this recommended checklist as a starting point. The order these are in isn’t necessarily important since ALL points are important!

Check to see if your web development company:

will ensure that YOU own your website when it’s paid for
is legitimately registered to do business within its State: NH MA ME VT
has been in business for at least 10 years
has several or more people
carries workman’s compensation on its employees
carries liability insurance
maintains a committed presence in networking groups
is accredited and has a good rating with the Better Business Bureau (https://BBB.org)
understands your community and reciprocates by referring business to you
has a phone contact where one can at least leave messages
has an email contact where one can send information
provides automatic site updates at no additional ongoing charge
backs up websites every night for at least a month
provides website encryption (SSL) at no additional ongoing charge
does not require hosting or domain contracts
does not overcharge you by selling sell inflated monthly maintenance plans
provides partial hour web work billing (9 minutes work charged 9/60 of hourly rate)
can respond to most maintenance requests in 3-4 days
has general familiarity with trademark and copyright issues
is proficient with WordPress through experience and training

Over upcoming weeks check here for details about each. Contact us with any questions, we exist to serve you!

Charles Tips – Email Etiquette

We’ve gone off the deep end attempting to communicate entirely via email. Are we saying what we mean so say?

The “Subject:” should reflect the current content – especially in replies where the original idea has changed.

To ensure questions are responded to, keep the message simple and stick to expecting one answer about one question. People generally do not answer multiple questions.

Use a courteous greeting and closing. Email does NOT have voice inflection. Words appear demanding when you USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS or numerous exclamation points – or terse when you treat email like text messages.

Including the previous message helps recipients understand your response. Generalities cause confusion and unnecessary back and forths.

It’s polite to include a “signature” with your name, your affiliation, your phone number and perhaps your address to enable easy followup.

Attachments are not meant to blast information to many. A giant file to a huge group is wasteful and rude. Large emails over phones is frustrating.

Messages requiring immediate attention are best dealt with via phone calls. Don’t assume people check email constantly.

Check the recipients list. Replying to ALL sends to ALL recipients. It might be shared with unexpected recipients.

Be careful what your message contains!

Charles Tips – Web Hosting

Hosting is where your website physically resides on servers attached 24/7 to the internet. Here’s some info for finding a good web hosting company:

Local – Best sticking with local folks. Computers have glitches. Knowing someone who can explain issues is important.

Customer Service – Nothing’s worse than being ignored. Many companies don’t interact with their clients. Find one you can actually reach. Conversation shows if they can explain things in understandable terms.

Longevity – Ensure they’ve been at this a while. Lousy companies don’t generally survive the test of time. The longer they’ve been around the better they usually are at providing service.

Reliability – Backups are a must. Good hosters back up websites nightly. If your company is a reseller of services – a “middle man” – they’ve no control over servers. Avoid such an arrangement.

Security – Your host should perform regular server updates. WordPress sites require security updates as well. You should be able to perform those.

Contracts – Avoid contracts. Deal with hosters that allow you to quit when you want to. That way they’re always striving to provide good service – not just when it’s time to “renew” with them.

Contact us with questions. We’re glad to help.

Charles Tips – Shopping Local

Here we are in the Shopping Season. Lots of business people talk about shopping local. Many don’t walk the talk. Shopping local works when it’s a reciprocal process – when we buy from each other. It isn’t always feasible – but making a best attempt is beneficial for most – and noticed.

The web is mostly about business. Stuff gets sold. It’s about making sales directly online and/or encouraging brick and mortar store visits.

I’m a strong proponent of local shopping. As a web guy – not a financial expert – common sense tells me spending my money in another part of the country (or the world) prospers THAT place at my neighborhood’s expense. Many businesses justify shopping elsewhere for web related services because they’re simply price shopping. Is that really the best deal?.

Ask yourself “What is new business worth?” One single piece of business in a year due to a direct referral from your web vendor (or its employees) usually more than covers any perceived difference in web costs. Even if that business is the vendor itself.

Ask us WHERE you’re hosted so you know WHERE your web services money goes. Plenty of truly local businesses are right around you to do local business with.

Charles Tips – Introduction

Welcome to The Web Corner!

Charles Oropallo, CharlesWorks founder, Peterborough NH
Charles Oropallo, who owns and founded CharlesWorks in 1998 in Peterborough NH

Charles Oropallo from CharlesWorks in Peterborough NH will be bringing you articles on popular web topics with helpful hints. Most are simple, some are for the more experienced. All should be useful and educational. We will address:

    • Passwords with our focus on making them secure – yet easy to remember.
    • Common Internet scam information about domain name renewals to perhaps save you a lot of grief going forward.
    • More Internet scam information about Directory Listing scams to again save you a lot of grief.
    • SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in layman’s language and how it works.
    • Current web design products like WordPress – a free content management system for building websites.
    • Some information about spam and how you get onto those spammer’s lists.
    • Common myths and misconceptions about domain names aimed at helping you protect your online brand.
    • The ease (or not) of website self-maintenance for do-it-yourselfers.
    • The importance of shopping local and supporting your own community.
    • Things to know about email security on your phone or on your computer or on your tablet.
    • Website hosting and the advantages to local servers vs cloud storage.
    • The occasional pitfalls of having your friends help you with your web needs.
    • Reviewing your website now and then.
    • A little about email etiquette and things to avoid.
    • A common email extortion to ignore.
    • Secure Socket layers (SSL) and the surrounding hype.
    • Some tips and thoughts about choosing domain names.
    • Free counters and issues surrounding most “free” web stuff.
    • Info about a common “you need to update your email” scam.
    • A brief explanation of “the cloud” as applied to the Internet.
    • Social media – Facebook in particular – and how it relates to your web presence.
    • How long you have to get site visitor’s attention.
    • Who owns your domain and info about domain ownership.
    • Checking up on your web content and the minimum needed.
    • Checklist to help you find the best web developer.

And more! We’ll update this page over time with the topics we cover each week!

Lots to share!

Email us with questions/suggestions. Check back here at Charles Tips each week to see our weekly installments!

Charles Oropallo (Charles@CharlesWorks.com) started CharlesWorks in Peterborough NH in 1998. His team has performed website design, hosting, search engine optimization (SEO) and related web services for thousands of web clients on four continents.