General

• How do I set up my email and access it?

• How much can my app idea earn?

• What about smartphone apps and PR?

• What are the key differences between an app and a web site, as marketing tools?

• Should I build a site for mobile browsers or build a smartphone app?

• What's the difference between Social Media marketing and other kinds of marketing?

• What are the differences between WordPress categories, tags and slugs?

• Do I need to backup my website?

• Can I access my email online?

• Will you purchase a domain name for me?

• My ISP (i.e. Shaw, Telus, Rogers, or Imagen) provides web hosting along with my internet access. Can I use that for my web site?

• How do I access statistics information (web stats) for my site?

How do I set up my email and access it?

If you have an account with CB&F, you can set up your email using the following directions.

Substitute your email account name for "accountname" in the following instructions.
Substitute your domain name for "yourdomainname.com" in the following instructions.

You can access it either as webmail, the way you may do with Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, or via an email client like Outlook or Thunderbird, or both. (By the way, I recommend Thunderbird as more secure than Outlook.)

Note that for security reasons I do not store your password. If you forget it, or would like to change it, please notify me and I will reset it for you.

Webmail

• URL: http://yourdomainname.com/webmail
• username: accountname+yourdomainname.com  (the whole thing, not just your name)
• password: (same as above)
• I recommend SquirrelMail, but you can use any of the 3 webmail engines.

Mail Client

• Mail Server Username: accountname+yourdomainname.com
• Incoming Mail Server: mail.yourdomainname.com
• Incoming Mail Server (SSL): mail.yourdomainname.com
• Outgoing Mail Server: mail.yourdomainname.com (server requires authentication) port 26
• Outgoing Mail Server: (SSL) mail.yourdomainname.com (server requires authentication) port 26
• Supported Incoming Mail Protocols: POP3, POP3S (SSL/TLS), IMAP, IMAPS (SSL/TLS)
• Supported Outgoing Mail Protocols: SMTP, SMTPS (SSL/TLS)

Note: although outgoing mail is supported, I recommend you use your ISP account, such as Shaw, Imagen, Telus or GI Wireless for sending mail. Many email clients, such as Outlook or Thunderbird, have problems if you try to use more than one account for sending email. Your messages will still show as coming from your yourdomainname.com address, but the traffic will go through your ISP's servers instead of the yourdomainname.com server.

Be sure to enable "SMTP Authentication" in your E-mail client or you may not be able to send mail.

If your e-mail client has trouble using a @ sign in the login, you can use +, :, or % sign instead, for example "accountname+yourdomainname.com"

How much can my app idea earn?

Big hits in the app store are really big. A camera app, Camera+, by Vancouver developers Tap Tap Tap, sold 78,995 copies on Christmas Day, 2010, grossing $78,200 in one day. They've now had more than 1 million downloads, and grossed more than $1.4 million in 7 months. Of course this is the cream of the crop, but it demonstrates the potential of the app store business model.

Much of the success of an app depends on marketing. Fortunately, Charles Buchwald & Friends have significant relative experience in marketing and advertising, and have strategic partnerships with some amazing companies. If you have an existing marketing campaign, chances are good your app can tag along without significantly increasing costs.

But, do be cautioned. Big hits in the App Store are the exception, not the rule.

That said, there are good PR reasons and other positive business strategy benefits from a well made and well marketed app.

What about smartphone apps and PR?

Apps can be good PR. App Stores promote good apps, and an app will get a lot more consumer attention than a mobile web site. There’s a good reason there are 350,000 apps on the Apple App Store, and magazines, web sites and TV spots devoted to apps.

An app with real utility will help solve problems for customers and potential customers. Customers like it when you help solve their problems. Successful apps get used over and over again. The fun and/or utility of a good app keeps users coming back—and that can translate into increased brand awareness.

Watch out for an app that is low quality or clearly lacking in utility at the expense of a promotional message. Consumers are savvy, and the negative buzz from deficiencies like these will quickly kill any other PR advantages.

What are the key differences between an app and a web site, as marketing tools?

The key differences are availability, utility and persistent presence.

Apps are available on a smartphone or iPad without the web. Wifi not available and no cell signal? Travelling away from home, with excessive data roaming charges? Slow connection and you want to see video content? No problem, it’s all available, instantly in an app.

Apps can provide utility that websites and pages cannot. It's not so much about programming limitations, since the latest JavaScript and HTML5 coding can do all kinds of great stuff, it's the consumer perception of the smartphone as a tool, not just an information browsing device, with tools like calculators, converters, and tools that take advantage of the array of sensors, and so on. An app with real utility will help solve problems for customers and potential customers. Customers like it when you help solve their problems. Successful apps get used over and over again. The fun and/or utility of a good app keeps users coming back—and that can translate into increased brand awareness. I’d like to have an inventory of my personal items… what I have and what I wish I had. A web site or web app would require registration, including username and password, verification, and recoard tracking. With an app it’s available in an instant, no logins, no waiting.

Apps persist; one that is downloaded and used, even infrequently, shows at the very least a recognizable icon every time the user views that home screen. Unlike a website, this has more potential to build that all important brand awareness.

Should I build a site for mobile browsers or build a smartphone app?

It's not an "either or" question. If you have have a CMS-based website, and we think there are many very good reasons for doing so, then check out the many great plugins that automatically reformat your content for your visitors using WAP browsers and other smartphone based browsers. Then check out smartphone app development, because 1) it's a very different experience for your users 2) it can be great PR for your company, group or organization, 3) some apps have the potential to make good money, and 4) there are effective ways to reduce the risk of development time and costs.

What's the difference between Social Media marketing and other kinds of marketing?

You can buy attention (advertising); you can beg for attention from the media (PR); you can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales); or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free: a YouTube video, a blog, a research report, photos, a Twitter stream, an ebook, a Facebook page. (via Randy)

What are the differences between WordPress categories, tags and slugs?

Categories only apply to posts. For example, you might have a "News" category, "Products" category, and/or a "Press Releases" category, etc. Tags are a sort of freeform category system… just another way to organize your info and for visitors to access your site. Although you may not have a formal category called "Canada", you could have tags for Canada, France, Germany, etc., and tag your posts accordingly. Then visitors/users could find posts that pertain to those (regional) subjects. Slugs are just a way to fine tune URL's for pages and posts. Unless you are working on some detailed SEO, or you tend to have very long article titles, you can probably safely ignore them.

Do I need to backup my website?

Our servers are backed up automatically every week. Also, each server is mirrored in real time by another one in a different data center, so if there's a problem with one, the other takes over.
If you wish to keep a copy of your site, you can use the tools in the cPanel site control panel to download a local backup.

Can I access my email online?

Yes! Visit the address in this form: http://yourdomain.com/webmail

This way you can check your email from a friend's computer, at the library, on your smartphone, and other ways.

Log in using your email address as your username, and your email password.

You will have 3 different webmail viewers from which to choose. I prefer Squirrel Mail, but you may wish to try all 3 to see what works for you.

Will you purchase a domain name for me?

I recommend that businesses and organizations directly own their own domain names. Your domain name is an essential asset, like a business name, and I think you want direct control over it.

It's easy and quick to purchase and renew domain names with a service like v2reg.com.

My ISP (i.e. Shaw, Telus, Rogers, or Imagen) provides web hosting along with my internet access. Can I use that for my web site?

Yes, you can use it... but ask yourself, first: do you want to depend on the customer service from them when there is an issue with your site? Would you want to leave your site there if you switch service providers? And can you easily connect a custom domain name to this site?

The answers to these questions are often an unequivocal "No!"
Hosting with a separate, dedicated service more than offsets the nominal fees, and brings personalized, responsive, flexible service. Ask us about hosting with us, or about the several other good, local hosting providers.

How do I access statistics information (web stats) for my site?

Access stats via the cPanel account control panel:

• Access your cPanel control panel at an address in this form: http://yourdomain.com/cpanel
• Enter your username and password. (They are the same ones you use for FTP access. If you don't have them, please ask.)
• (Feel free to use any and all of the cPanel tools, but please ask or do your research if you are not familiar with them, as you can disable, erase or corrupt your site with several of them.)
• Select "Web/FTP Stats".
• Select a stats package. I recommend Awstats.
• Note that you can view the current month or previous months, or years.
• I suggest you pay particular attention to the following stats:
  • number of unique visitors
  • Pages-URL (the most popular pages on your site)
  • Connect to site from (links to your site from other sites)
  • Search Keyphrases (phrases visitors are using to find your site)

An alternative would be to insert Google Analytics code (or similar tools) into your pages, and then use their online tracking tools.