This entry’s prize: Two copies of Big Kahuna Reef 2: one for Macs (!) and one for PCs. Comment by June 9 to be eligible). Leave a comment with at least 30 words (to ensure they provide value) by June 9 to get an entry.

Our guest blogger today is a chick, and a very talented one at that. Oh, I’m not insulting her. She’s Paige Eissinger one of 2 Smart Chix who love to share their views from the coop!

Do You Own Your Web Site?

Of course you own your web site. You pay for it, don’t you? Don’t be so sure. You may be just a tenant!

Personally, I advise anyone who wants their own domain name to register it themselves with a reputable registrar like GoDaddy before he or she even creates a site. That ensures you that yes, you DO own your domain and have complete control over what web host you use. If, however, you prefer to hand that task over to a webmaster who will be designing your web site and providing your hosting, just make sure you ask a few simple questions up front:

• Who will be listed as the domain registrant? You may choose to let your webmaster be the administrative and/or technical contact, but make sure your name is listed as the registrant.
• How can I access my domain registration? Hopefully, your designer will be happy to share the login information with you. If the answer to that question is, “You can’t. I have to do it for you,” then you may want to look for another designer.
• How can I access my web site? Again, your webmaster should be happy to provide you with login information for your web hosting control panel. You need to decide up front with your designer which features your web hosting account offers and which features you can actually access via your control panel. It’s also a good idea to keep a local copy of your website on your own computer.
• Who will pay for the domain registration and web hosting? How will the billing be handled? Make sure both you and your webmaster completely understand who will assume financial responsibility for keeping those accounts current.

Asking these simple questions protects both your interests and those of your webmaster. In the event something happens to your webmaster, your web site will not be held hostage because you don’t know who to contact or how to access your domain and web hosting accounts. Your webmaster will feel confident in having you as a client if you show your willingness to assume your financial obligations on the front end.

Now, do you own your web site? You bet you do!

About the author

Paige Eissinger has owned and operated 2 Smart Chix LLC since 1999. She offers start up web site, blogging, and podcasting services for small business owners who need outside assistance to get started with a new web site or blog, or to maintain their current web sites. In 2004, she started Views from the Coop, an anti-geek technology podcast for non-tekkies. She currently co-hosts VFTC as an internet radio show on Blog Talk Radio with WordPress expert, Kim Beasley. Paige has personally experienced the frustration of small business owners with “hostage” web sites and helped them regain ownership and access.

A second Sidekick III case came in yesterday. It doesn’t work well. The first one had a leather-like cover and interfered with my interactions with the Sidekick. This one fits too loosely and gets in the way of using the device.

I spent too much time searching the Internet for case reviews and suggestions. With so many devices on the market and almost all of them having unique shapes and sizes — it adds up to a whole lot of cases. The same goes for screen protectors.

If you have a case for a mobile phone, handheld or other mobile device and a case or screen protector that you like — please share what device you have along with the brand / model of the case or screen protector. It’d give people a resource for when they’re in need of a good quality case or screen protector.

I can recommend two screen protectors and one case. Just not for the Sidekick III. For the Palm Tungsten III, I use the PA72 classic Vaja Case (didn’t pay that much) and mine is completely black.

For the same device, I use Brando WorkShop Screen Protector. I’ve had it for three years and it still works. It has a couple of bubbles, but they appear on the sides. This happened after I removed the screen once ages ago and couldn’t get the bubbles out. The first time I put it on, it had little or no bubbles. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t sell any for the Sidekick III.

The Dell Axim x51v has WriteShield Crystal Clear protecting its face. No bubbles at all and it works great.

I don’t like a cluttered desktop or Program List. Most of the time, I won’t let an application add icons to Quickstart (the >> between the taskbar and the icons on the left) or desktop, unless it’s a program I’ll access frequently. The most frequently applications get to live in Quickstart.

According to this Seattle Times article, Computer makers cut down on desktop clutter. Who needs to have an icon or program shortcut in multiple places?

Since I like things organized, this is how I set up my desktop, Quickstart and Program shortcuts in Start:

* **Keyboard button shortcuts**: Programs accessed daily (email, main browser, IM, Palm).

* **Quickstart and Start**: Frequently accessed programs not in keyboard shortcut (text editors, other browsers, business apps, Web design-related apps).

* **Desktop**:
– Infrequently accessed applications that I use from time to time (spyware checkers, video editor, Belarc Advisor).

– Applications I’m currently reviewing (I uninstall the application when I’m done).

– Applications I want or need to check out (otherwise I’ll never remember to search for them in the longer All Programs list).

* **All Programs**: Everything else.

Developers like to create their own folders and sometimes, a folder within a folder (this annoys me). So I get rid of sub-folders (usually it’s just one — makes no sense), and move the apps up into the main folder. I take the following:

\> Program Folder > Subfolder – Application – Uninstall

And change it to the following:

\> Program Folder – Application – Uninstall

I also have generic folders like Games, Communications (instant messenger apps), Media (media players and editors), Palm, and PocketPC. I move related apps into their folders and delete as many subfolders as I can. Thanks for indulging me — my apps look much better as I reorganized them while writing this entry.

I try to limit All Programs to three columns. Any more than that starts to spill over too far. At one point, the All Programs list crossed over to my second monitor. That was a sign to clean up.

I finally got around to trying out my digital camcorder that I lucked out and found a great deal on it. I recorded my daughter’s team’s volleyball game last night and experimented. First, I would start/stop between plays to keep it short, but it has a slight delay when starting and stopping, so I stopped that.

In volleyball, the referee stands atop the net on a small platform. That platform gets in the way when watching the game. You miss out when players move into specific spots. I tried filming while directly behind the ref, standing on the gym floor where I could see the whole game in front of me, and sitting on the side where our players played.

The camcorder came with CyberLink PowerDirector Express and CyberLink PowerProducer. I started with Express hoping it would be a quick job — pull the videos together and burn to a CD. Instead it was time-consuming and frustrating. In Director, I added the title and text at the start of each game. Unfortunately, the text appeared over the video rather than on a blank screen. It didn’t have any features to add text that didn’t overlap the video.

OK, fine. Not a big deal. Moving on. I put the videos together in order and produced an MPG file. When I was ready to publish it, PowerProducer opened. There, I could create chapters and a menu like you see on videos. Once done, I burned it as a VCD. It created four folders and nothing that was obvious for clicking on to watch the video. I could play it, but an average user wouldn’t know what to do when confronted with folders with no executable.

The VCD didn’t work on our DVD players. Paul said he has created VCDs before and they worked on DVD players. But that wasn’t important it would be viewed on the computer rather than a DVD player. So I tried making a VCD using Nero instead. Same result. Another wasted CD. In the end, we burned the MPG to the CD using the regular burning option. The MPG landed on the CD and it plays fine on a PC.

I’m no media expert as I’ve never had a need to edit videos and burn them till now. There has to be an easier way to produce the CD and have it load the menu or run the movie as soon as the CD is inserted into the PC. I’d like to figure out a simple process for creating DVDs for DVD players and for computers that may not have a DVD drive. Anyone? Anyone?

More and more businesses are adding tech support reporting features, knowledgebases and expanding frequently asked questions — including businesses whose core business doesn’t include technology. Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid, has a tech support-like reporting tool — the kind of tool you expect to find on web server hosts and software development companies.

Michael Port is a coach. He helps people grow their businesses by getting more clients. When you contact his company, you send a regular email. No filling out a tech support-style form. The reply has a tracking number and indicates whether the problem is open or closed much like what you see in tech support-style emails.

This is a creative use of a tool that was originally meant for technical businesses. It helps companies ensure they follow up on all issues. A one-person business could benefit even if the person is well-organized. I’ve recognized Kayako’s application on a few web sites.

However, a company wants to help a customer find the answers before receiving a direct contact. Yes, it saves resources — but helping customers help themselves also gets them their answers faster. Many support applications search the database for keywords resembling a customer’s trouble ticket before submission. The best results appear and the customer might have the answer right there. If not, then contacting the business is the next step.

This application can be tied to a knowledgebase to ensure the customer checks there first. Not all users are savvy about online self-help and may not consider looking for answers in the knowledgebase, FAQ, forums and numerous other online resources before resorting to direct contact. Some sites, however, did a lousy job of trying to help the customers help themselves. One experience had me going through the knowledgebase, entering keywords to get relevant results … after all that, I still didn’t have my answer and it was time to contact the company. It took a lot of effort to find out how.

Companies need to work on leading the customer in the right direction going through the various routes before giving up and making contact. I prefer to find the answer myself. It exercises the brain, keeps the problem solving skills sharp and gets answers faster. More reading on Do-it-yourself Support from Target Marketing Magazine.

I appreciate companies and organizations that take advantage of the Internet to make it easy for customers. This list includes Amazon, Carter Blood Care, and a non-profit organization that lets customers go to its web site to schedule a donation pickup.

The other option is to navigate the nightmare of an IVR system. I discovered an IVR system for the first time in the early ’90s and this wasn’t a trend I looked forward to. Read how difficult it is to work with an IVR system through the relay service. The entry also refers to two positive stories.

Good Experience explains that customer service isn’t the same as the customer experience.

Businesses need to offer multiple ways to reach them for help or support. Online AND telephone support. Though we prefer to reach a human without navigating the IVR system, realistically — some companies can’t handle the amount of calls they get and need help. IVRs aren’t going away. The key thing is for businesses to provide multiple contact routes and make it easy to find their contact information online.

Church of the Customer Blog shares many stories related to customer service. An important factor is for companies to listen to the blogosphere and the web about what people say about their products or brand. Looks like my old post on Earthlink picked up recently — but I’ve yet to see Earthlink respond.

Back online at my main PC. Still shaky from the whole experience. What we had to do (Paul is my hero) is repair Windows. In doing so (thanks to Scotty), we learned that Netscape and Firefox hijacked some of the DLL files. Why is this happening?

We also learned that SyncToy and Carbonite don’t like each other. SyncToy backs up my data to the network drive while Carbonite backs up online. I’m going to look for another online backup system as I’m not comfortable with Carbonite because:

* It runs all the time (hence, SyncToy not liking it)

* The restore process was shaky

What I mean by a shaky restore process is that when I went to check to see what files had been restored on my laptop, nothing was “there.” I’m assuming that I can’t access the files until the store is completed. I might be wrong — but it just didn’t work for me. Besides, I need an app where I can schedule online backup at a different time from SyncToy so they play nice together. It’s important to backup to both a separate network drive and online.

SyncToy can’t backup to an online server unless it’s on the network. Besides, I don’t have a server big enough to hold my files. I plan to look at Mozy per Peter’s suggestion.

The most disconcerting thing is the Firefox and Netscape (Mozilla apps) theft of the DLL files.

BTW, the network drive had one problem. I couldn’t access it from my laptop. Gotta figure this one out.

Looks like the hard drive died. I don’t know what happened as when I got on the computer, the login screen appeared in low-resolution. After fiddling with it and watching the PC freeze — I had no choice but to turn it off.

What’s really annoying is that my network hard drive was off for the past few days. I wasn’t aware — so it didn’t get to back up any work I’ve done since … I don’t know when. I hope I can get to the data as I’ve written a few articles. Needless to say, this isn’t a good day.

It’s frustrating to finally get a backup system in place — even trying out Carbonite for online backup — and this situation doesn’t allow for a quick recovery. I started using Carbonite within the past week, and I don’t know how much of my data made it to its servers.

Golly! I spent too much time trying to do something that should be simple. Tried Google Earth, Wayfaring, and Frappr to create a map showing the locations of the places (hotel, services, restaurant, my house, and party spot) for a weekend-long celebration. Wayfaring wins. However, the printout of the map appears blurry. I’ve tried zooming, cutting, pasting, pulling hair and nothing worked.

I attempted to create a map from scratch in Visio with help from these mapping sites. The worst! I deserved every B in art from elementary school through college. I remember seeing beautifully done homemade maps with ancient software. Why can’t I do something simple like that?

What have you find that works?

This problem comes and goes. When it comes, however, the problem happens a few times a day. I can’t find the pattern except maybe Internet Explorer. The programs slow to a crawl and I close each one as soon as the PC lets me. I tried to find the Microsoft Knowledgebase (kb) article that sounded much like the problem I’m having, but can’t relocate it.

I’ve studied the KB articles and the problems don’t apply to my situation. I have Windows XP SP 2, I don’t have the speech app running, and a few other things. There’s not enough information to narrow down the search. Strange situation considering the problem stops for a while and then starts again, and does it repeatedly.

Wish I could narrow down the problem and have more information. This is too broad to find the right information.