Online Sales Down So Far this Year? Don't Fret

comScore released a report today indicating that up until Cyber Monday (which was this past Monday, Dec. 1st), e-commerce sales had been down by about 2% compared to November last year. However, probably due to holiday sale prices many online retailers tout during the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy, Monday yielded a 15% jump over last year's Cyber Monday sales.

Additional key findings from the report include:

* Overall, retailers appear to be giving more aggressive discounts this year in an effort to encourage consumer spending; 51% of consumers surveyed indicated that the number of discounts and promotions seem higher this year than last year (compared to 12% who thought discounts were fewer).

* 39% of those surveyed indicated they felt the crowds at retail stores were fewer this year than last year, whereas 7% felt the number had increased.

Of course this is great news for our e-commerce customers here at IPOWERWEB. We truly hope your online sales end up following the post-Thanksgiving trend reported by comScore! Check out today's press release for more details on the report.

And at the risk of irritating some of our readers with an upsell, if you haven't already, it might be a good time to take advantage of a couple of the discounts *we're* offering for e-commerce-izing your site .... If this annoys you, feel free to skip the following bullets ;)

* CM4all E-commerce is available for 1/2 price off your first term (month, quarter, year) through Dec. 18.

* Existing ShopSite customers can take advantage of 1/2 price off their first quarter or year for ShopSite Manager or Pro (call us for details: 888-511-4678).

* PowerPay (our preferred credit card processing partner) is now offering the Authorize.Net Fraud Detection Suite--included with your payment gateway solution.

Okay--you can open your eyes again.

Find Wikipedia (MediaWiki) a Pain to Edit?

If so, then good news for you! Looks like in the near future, MediaWiki, the free open source software used to create Wikipedia, will be bringing in some new software developers to determine some of the barriers to entry for first-time editors. The Wikimedia Foundation was been awarded a $890,000 grant from the Stanton Foundation to make collaboration easier for those of us who have some great knowledge to share, but may not quite understand how to use the funky MediaWiki editor. Check out the full article on CNET >>

As you may or may not know, IPOWERWEB offers a bunch of open source applications through InstallCentral, our open source application installer. We don't have MediaWiki yet, but we're planning to add it (and a number of other applications) to our suite in the coming months. Keep an eye out--and hopefully by the time we add it, MediaWiki will have come out with a newer version of the software to make editing easier for everyone.

Want to Improve Search Engine Visibility? 15 Tips

If you use your website to get noticed--whether on a business-related or personal level--then chances are you're looking to increase your search engine visibility. I came across an article today in my Google Reader that outlines 15 solid tips for doing just that.

Written by social media marketer Mike Fruchter, this article is immensely helpful in outlining some key methods to getting search engines to "like" your site. And if you like what you read, I highly recommend following Mike's blog (or perhaps Louis Gray's, where the article was written) for more tips on social media marketing, or tech stuff in general.

So, without further ado:
http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/11/15-tips-on-improving-search-engine.html

Who are you, Customers?? We want to know!

So I'm hoping that a few of you have had an opportunity to try out our QuickStart Wizard, which we launched a couple weeks ago. If not, I encourage you to log into your control panel and try it out. We want all the feedback we can get because it's important to us that we construct tools in a way that enables you to get your account set up easily.

As a starting point, last week we actually brought a few customers into our offices to record and test the usability of both the QuickStart Wizard and our registration process. We used Webex to record their entire experience--yes, we analyzed every mouse click--and stumbled upon some interesting findings. I won't get into specifics for these tools at this point, since it's too early to definitively say what's working and what's not, but I think it's fair to say that we can't always predict what our customers will do and think ...

Because we're not mind-readers, but we want to know what you're thinking, I'm happy to announce that, at the directive of our new Director of Customer Experience (yay!), we've started a few rounds of customer focus groups, aimed to help us dissect the diverse brains of our subjects--ahem--customers. The goal of these sessions is to figure out a few different things:

• who our customers are
• why our customers choose us
• what our customers want
• what our customers aren't getting from us that we can improve/provide to them

So far, I think we've validated our suspicion that the type of customer we attract runs the gamut--anywhere from those who are completely new to web hosting and are trying to get their business online for the first time, to people who have been doing this since 1998 and have about 15 accounts with us. In addition, we learned that many of our customers choose us based upon the price/quality balance, which we see as a pretty nice compliment. When it comes to what customers want, as you might have guessed, these answers vary based upon experience level. As many of our preliminary findings have shown, we need to dig into these responses a bit more to determine who, exactly, our different user personas are, and what we can do to help satisfy each type of need.

One overarching theme we've found so far is that we provide a lot of services our customers don't know about. For instance, if you're worried about knowing when your site and/or email might be experiencing a service interruption (yes, I am admitting that they *do* happen from time to time ...), did you know that you can get updates sent to your email account on file via our CAML? (Pronounced "Camel," CAML is our "Customer Alert Mailing List.") This email notification basically lets you know that we've posted an Important System Alert in our Support Center, and that your site and/or email may be affected. We update these alerts as changes occur to keep you informed about the state of your account. To sign up to receive CAMLs, visit our Support Center and click the link below our Important System Notices that says, "Receive System Alerts via e-mail."

Another request we got was for more simplicity in our control panel. (Of course, that was said on the heels of one customer, who was more familiar with our services, indicating that he found our control panel to be very easy to navigate.) I'm not advocating that our control panel is the simplest tool to use (in fact, we're currently devising a strategy to improve the functionality/simplicity of the layout--so stay tuned), but did you know that we offer different control panel interfaces? We have four different control panel "skins," which you can customize to a certain degree. Just click on the "Preferences" link at the top of the control panel, and you'll see that you have four different layout options from which to choose: icon, icon plus, text, and text plus. We've even created an animated tutorial to guide you through your options for layout and customization.

Which brings me to my final point for the evening. We have lots of tutorials. And lots of help information in our Knowledgebase. I'm not saying we'll have everything you need in there to assist you with your account, but I just wanted to call out the fact that we do have online resources to help, and they're probably worth at least a look-see.

The bottom line here is that we want you to "help us help you." We realize we need to do a better job communicating some of the resources we have to offer, but it's also important that customers fill out our surveys to let us know what is, and what isn't, working. We cherish your feedback--both the good and the bad. So please keep it coming.

Improving "Early Life" -- What's Your Take?

So we've got some shocking news here at IPOWERWEB.

We've been informed that some of our customers get confused when landing in the control panel for the first time. Yeah, apparently it's not intuitive that when you click on "POP Mail," it's the same as clicking on "MailCentral." And who knew that it wasn't obvious that the "Set Site Editor" page doesn't actually let you start creating your website.

These nuances, which we tech geeks at IPOWERWEB have come to know and love (okay, not really), present a bit of a problem for new customers coming on board. Our site essentially says, "Our hosting plans include great website building tools, unlimited email boxes and a free domain name! Go after it!" And I guess the process of signing up and logging into the control panel for the first time doesn't mean customers instantly know that clicking on the "WebSiteCreator by CM4all" icon is probably their best bet for starting a new site if they don't know any HTML.

So where does that leave us? With a bunch of somewhat confused customers calling our support team within their first 48 hours on IPOWERWEB. Our bad.

But, before you throw in the towel, let me say this: we are looking to make a change. We get it now. We realize it's not fun for you to employ the "hunt and peck" method to figure out just which of those little icons will actually be the key to creating your first mailbox. We want you to be happy with your IPOWERWEB account, not feel like you've just stepped into a 2 sq. mile corn maze with no iPhone serving Google Satellite View.

And without further ado, let me present the first step to our solution. Our support, product management and development teams have designed and developed a QuickStart Wizard to walk customers through the first three steps to setting up a hosting account (which, coincidentally, are the top three reasons customers call us): adding a domain to your account; setting up mailboxes; and getting a site started and learning what the heck your FTP settings are.

But the greatness doesn't stop there. After you've run through the QuickStart Wizard for the first time (and completed all the tasks), it turns into a QuickStart Manager, which will always be accessible from the top of the control panel (next to the "Preferences" icon), should you want to go back and manage your domains, email and website from the wizard. Same goes for existing customers: even if you've already set up your account, just click the icon and try the wizard on for size the next time you want to create another email box, etc.

Okay, so bottom line? We want your feedback. When this product launches next week (fingers crossed), we want to know -- is it intuitive? Does it make setting up a domain, email address and website easier? What do you like? What don't you like? Tell us by leaving a comment! With your input, we'll be able to improve the next release, and ultimately use this tool as a model off which to base revamps of other tools in our control panel.

Set Up a Holiday Store

It's not to early to begin thinking about the upcoming holidays. November and December are the busiest shopping months of the year online! Why not take advantage of this and get a holiday store set up on your site? Don't have time to do it yourself? IPOWERWEB can help!

A typical online store can take several weeks at best to develop, even months under the most ideal conditions. That kind of time isn’t available in the middle of October to be ready for the holiday season, and we’d like to offer our customers who don’t already have an online store, the opportunity to establish a presence for their products, begin selling, accepting credit cards, etc.

· This promotion will run from October 15^th, and orders will be accepted until November 7^th.

Here's what you'll get:

• A complete online store solution and installation
• Fully-integrated online payment gateway using PowerPay
• FREE osCommerce Application
• Ability to add up to 20 products to the store
• Store administration training
• For orders received and customer requirements satisfied by November 7th, we will GUARANTEE completion of the website on or before November 22nd. If you have completed all of your ‘to-do’ list activities and we’re still unable to complete the website by November 22nd, we’ll give you a 100% refund.
• Price: Only $499.00

Get started now!

SubmitNet Partnership

Are you looking for a way to attract more visitors to your site? SubmitNet can increase your site's visibility, as it optimizes your site and submits it to all of the major search engines, month after month.

And, with no downloads or installation, SubmitNet makes search engine optimization simple, allowing you to access your SubmitNet control panel from any computer!

Increase your search ranking today with SubmitNet's Basic Plan, which provides you with automatic monthly submissions and reports, and is FREE with any hosting package. If you are looking for more, such as keyword and MetaTag analysis and creation, sign up for a Gold or Platinum Plan at a special IPOWERWEB discounted price.

The sooner you submit your site, the sooner search engines will recognize it! So, optimize your site now!

E-mail through Exchange Hosting

Use Microsoft Exchange so that you can use Outlook to Access, Sync and Share E-mail, Schedules, Contacts and Tasks with everyone in your business.

Right now, IPOWERWEB is offering a FREE 2 month trial of Exchange hosting!

Exchange Hosting, the latest in e-mail management and collaboration from Microsoft, allows you to take your communications to the next level--and on the road!

With Exchange Hosting you can ...

• Access your e-mail, contacts and schedule from any location via Outlook
• Use your PDA to sync your e-mail, contacts and schedule
• Share e-mails, contact info and schedules with clients, employees--even family members
• Utilize Microsoft Outlook for your computer and Outlook Web Access for online access

And, it includes free Microsoft Outlook desktop licenses (load it on all the machines you use!)

Learn more about Exchange Hosting

The 2 month trial won't last long, so try it out now!

Promoting Your Web Site

Your Web site is a valuable marketing tool. Are you taking advantage of it?

Leveraging Your Domain Name: If you're not including your Web site address on your business cards, e-mail signature, stationery, flyers, brochures, advertisements -- anything and everything you create for your business -- you're missing out on valuable opportunities for potential customers to learn more about the services you provide. Are you using an e-mail address at your domain, or does your return address promote yahoo.com or gmail.com instead?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM): When done right, search engine marketing can reach a very targeted audience. It takes some money to establish a presence, but IPOWERWEB hosting plans include free credits for some of the major ones: $50 for Google AdWords, $50 for Yahoo! Search, a 90-day trial for the Best of the Web directory, etc. They're free to try, so see if one or more of them work for your business, and if so, use them to get some additional momentum behind your brand. If you're really ready to dive right in, TargetClicks can be an effective SEM option -- and they do all the work for you.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): We also have a team of search engine experts who can help you optimize your Web site so that search engines link to you naturally, without having to pay for placement via ads or sponsored links. SEO plans start for as little as $149 -- but we'll give you a consultation for free! Learn more about or SEO services >>

Hurry, 4 days left!

Only 4 more days of IPOWERWEB's Free 6 month Web hosting sale! Regular price is $7.95/month, but right now you can get 6 months for free when you purchase 6 months. That's equivalent to $3.98/month a 50% savings from our regular price. Sale ends on Sunday, so hurry and buy today!

Rapid SSL

IPOWERWEB is introducing a new dedicated SSL certificate called the RapidSSL. Before now, we only offered one type of Dedicated SSL Certificate, the QuickSSL Premium Certificate, issued by GeoTrust.

RapidSSL is like the QuickSSL Premium Certificate in that it:
- Offers commercial-level protection starting at 128-bit encryption.
- Is compatible with 99%+ of browsers.
- Safeguards access to your site over "https," rather than the less secure "http".

However, the RapidSSL Certificate differs from the QuickSSL Premium Certificate, because RapidSSL:
- Is backed by RapidSSL, not GeoTrust.
- Is not compatible with mobile devices.
- Comes with a $10,000 RapidSSL Warranty against mis-issuance of a certificate—not the $100,000 GeoSure Protection Plan, which covers loss of use, theft, or corruption.
- Costs only $39.95/yr, as opposed to $99/yr for the QuickSSL Premium Certificates.

More information on our SSL Certificates >>

Community Directory is Live!

We're excited to announce that we just unveiled the community directory to the public! Check out the listings by visiting:
http://www.ipower.com/directory

The free listing promotion is over, but we're still running a special where you can list your site for only $1 per month. Sign up Now!

Design Services on Sale

What's stopping you from adding a blog to your site? Or a news feed? Or a photo gallery? If you don't have the time or aren't sure how to get started, we can help!

Our Web design professionals can integrate these services FOR you, saving you both time and aggravation, while making your site an exciting place to visit. After all, if you aren't interacting with your site visitors, you're going to lose them!

Best of all — for a limited time, our most popular services are on sale at a fraction of what they would normally cost.

SAVE BIG ON SITE ADD-ONS
Have you seen our "à la carte" menu for Web development services? Our design team doesn't just do design — we can help with anything from copywriting to e-commerce! Check out our full menu »

For a limited time, we've put our most popular services on sale, including:

• Gallery2 photo album application
• WordPress blogging software
• The award-winning Joomla! content management system
• Integrated rolling news feeds
• Dynamically generated FAQ pages
• Lead-generation/contact forms

Save now on these services and more! Or give us a call at 877-513-7446 for a free consultation. Tell us what you want to do, and we'd be happy to walk you through your options!

RatePoint partnership

One way to sweeten customer experience is by demonstrating that you welcome and are receptive to feedback. And nothing says "good business" like receiving positive reviews--it's direct proof of your success! In an effort to help you solicit and display customer feedback on your site, we've partnered with a company called RatePoint--and as a valued IPOWER customer, you have access to a 60-day trial membership. If you haven't activated your free trial yet, learn more about it.


RatePoint provides an official "consumer-approved" seal for your site that visitors can click on to read real reviews, as well as submit their own. You then approve positive reviews, which posts them to your site, or respond to any negative feedback privately through the RatePoint-moderated dispute resolution process.

Plus, you can solicit additional feedback through a suite of RatePoint's site tools, which include customer feedback buttons and popups, auto-generated e-mails, customized surveys and more!

You can increase customer retention and show your visitors that you're a company that's worth doing business with by trying RatePoint, free for 60 days.

New! Community Directory

You can be a part of IPOWERWEB history! The first 2,000 customers to join our new online community directory get a FREE listing. We expect those 2,000 listings to fill up fast, so get your free listing now >>

By adding your listing to our new diretory, you'll be promoting your site to the thousands of visitors our site receives each day. Listings are searchable by both keyword and by category.

Plus, you control all aspects of your site's listing, including your URL, keywords, category(s) and a short 3-5 sentence description of your site—after all, you know your site best!

The directory will be made public on August 20th, but be one of the first 2,000 customers and get a free listing now!

PowerPay Merchant Processing

Do you sell product through your website? IPOWERWEB partners with PowerPay for merchant processing. Through our partnership, you can get discounted pricing for your shopping cart to accept credit cards on your website. As an IPOWERWEB customer, you'll save on the application fee, setup fee and more discounts. For more information and detailed pricing, go here.

You can apply online or call PowerPay directly at 877-775-6900. Don't forget to mention you're an IPOWERWEB customer to get the discounts!

Carbonite PC Backup for FREE

I mentioned there would be more free things coming in my last post. Well, this is just one of them. It's called Carbonite and it's an automated file backup and restoration for your PC. According to Carbonite, every year 43% of computer users lose irreplaceable emails, documents, photos and other files. By running the Carbonite backup, you'll never have to worry about your computer crashing again. Carbonite is a small application that you download onto your PC and it provides automatic backups so that if you ever lose anything, you'll be able to recover it in just a few clicks.

IPOWERWEB is including 2GB of Free backup to all our customers. If 2GB isn't enough for you, you can upgrade to unlimited for $49.95/year. Try out the 2GB for free now!

Sorry MAC users, this currently only works for PC's.

Google Adwords Credit Increase

Previously, IPOWERWEB gave a free $30 Google Adwords credit with every hosting account. Well, we just increased that amount to $50! Now you get a $50 Google Adwords credit plus a $50 Yahoo Search Credit for a total of $100 in search engine advertising credits! This will go a long way in getting your advertising campaign started. Check out everything else you get for free with your hosting account and keep an eye out for more things coming soon!

Great Summertime Special

For only $4.95 per month you can take advantage of our summertime web hosting special. You can host an unlimited number web sites with just one IPOWERWEB Pro Site plan.

Have a Wonderful Fourth of July

We at IPOWERWEB would like to wish you and all your loved ones a happy and safe Fourth of July. As always we are available 24x7x365 by phone at 888-511-HOST(4678) OR via email at Support@IPOWERWEB.com.

Only 6 Days Left!

Only 6 days remain until our BEST SALE EVER ends. For a limited time any person can purchase our award-winning Pro Site web hosting solution (which comes with a free domain name) for only $3.98 per month. Our Pro Site web hosting plan has never been so cheap and it's the best time to take advantage.
We understand that many of your monthly expenses have risen in recent history, one thing that has gone down in price is IPOWERWEB hosting.

$7.75 Domain Names

You may have noticed the image above on the left-hand side of every IPOWERWEB page. For only $7.75 (less than two gallons of gas) you can register your own domain name with IPOWERWEB. This is a great deal and one of the lowest prices in the domain name industry. To learn more either visit our web site www.IPOWERWEB.com or call us at 888-511-HOST(4678).

Web Hosting For Only $3.98 per Month

The famous IPOWERWEB Pro Site web hosting plan is now on sale for only $3.98 per month. The image above is a snapshot of our homepage for the current sale. Our Pro Site web hosting plan has never been priced so low and time is running out. Take advantage of this unbeatable price before its too late.

Version 6 of Google's AdWords Editor Released

Google's AdWords Editor is a tool that enables you to manage all your AdWords campaigns. The AdWords Editor allows users to update their campaigns while offline and upload changes at any time.

If you wish to download the latest version of Google's AdWords Editor (currently version 6), please visit Google's web page - http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/.

Best of all, Google's AdWords Editor is compatible with PC's and Mac's.

Google Commemorates The Birthday of Diego Velázquez

Diego Velázquez was a leading Spanish painter in the court of King Philip IV. Velázquez was born on June 6, 1599 and in honor of his birthday Google has a special logo today.

Our Award Winning Pro Site Plan is Still On Sale

IPOWEWEB web hosting is a great deal at the annual rate of $7.95 per month. But when the world's most popular web hosting plan is on sale for only $4.95 per month - you must take advantage of it.
Our Pro Site Plan has made us one of the world's largest web hosting providers and it includes everything you need and want without any hidden fees.

Each Pro Site Plan includes:

*1,500 GB of Disk Space
*2,500 Email Accounts
*Google Webmaster Tools
*$80 in Free Online Advertising
*Host Unlimited Domain Names

The Spring Sale won't last for long. To learn more about our web hosting sale, please visit our web site - www.IPOWERWEB.com.

Memorial Day 2008

Memorial Day is an American holiday in honor of every U.S. soldier that passed away during their military service for their country. Memorial Day is always celebrated on the last monday of May.
Due to the nature of Memorial Day, not every search engine has decided to create a special logo for Memorial Day.

The following is a note from Google on why the company decided not to have a special logo in honor of Memorial Day.

"We understand your interest in seeing a Memorial Day Google logo. If we were to commemorate this holiday, we'd want to express reverence; however, as Google's special logos tend to be lighthearted in nature, this would be a particularly challenging design.
We wouldn't want to create a graphic that could be interpreted as disrespectful in any way.
We have a long list of holidays that we'd like to celebrate in the future. We have to balance this rotating calendar with the need to maintain the consistency of the Google homepage...
Regards,
The Google Team"

Below is an image of Yahoo's logo in honor of Memorial Day.

Google Leads the Search Engine Industry in April

According to ComScore, in April 2008 Google led the U.S. search engine industry with 61.6 percent of all searches performed by Google. Google increased its shares from the month before, March 2008, where the search engine leader performed 59.8 percent of all searches. Yahoo came in second place for the month of April 2008, the search engine performed 20.4 percent of all searches.
MSN followed both Google and Yahoo, coming in third place with 9.1 percent of all searches.

Google Health Launches

On February 22, 2008 we informed you about an ongoing project related at Google, where the company will be able store all health records for people with a Google account.
Well....Google has just launched Google Health. According to Google Health's web page -

"Google Health puts you in charge of your health information. It's safe, secure, and free.

*Organize your health information all in one place
*Gather your medical records from doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies
*Keep your doctors up to date about your health
*Be more informed about important health issues"

What is the Definition of Web Hosting?

We should point out that every persons definition of web hosting may differ. We at IPOWERWEB believe that web hosting is a service that provides Internet users with tools necessary for storing and publishing information, images, video, or any content accessible via the Web.

IPOWERWEB is an example of a web hosting provider. If you wish to learn more about our web hosting products and services, visit our web site or give us a call at 888-511-HOST(4678).


*If you don't already know this we have a dictionary on our web site that can provide you with the definition of nearly every web hosting and Internet related term. If you feel that we are missing any important terms please let us know.

Birthday of Walter Gropius

Walter Gropius is regarded as the father of modern architecture. He was born on May 18, 1883 and in honor of his birthday Google has redone their logo.

Most Reliable Host....Consistently

According to Netcraft, IPOWERWEB was one of the most reliable web hosting providers for the month of April 2008.
This was not the first time we have received this honor by Netcraft and it surely won't be the last.

Pro Site Web Hosting On Sale

Our Pro Site web hosting plan, the world's most popular web hosting solution is currently on sale for just $4.95 per month.
Below is an image of our Pro Site web page - http://www.ipowerweb.com/products/webhosting/business-web-site.html

vDeck Login on our Homepage

Our users can now login to vDeck 3.0 from our homepage - www.IPOWERWEB.com.
Below is an image of the customer login link along our left-hand border.

The Anniversary of the First Laser

When visiting Google today you will notice that its homepage logo looks a bit different.



Today marks the anniversary of the first laser. Theodore Maiman demonstrated the first working laser on May 16, 1960.

Logo and Site Redesigns For Mother's Day

Many search engines (particularly the big ones), redesigned their home page and/or logo in honor of Mother's Day. Here are some pictures from around the Web.

Mamma.com - The Search Engine for Mother's Day

When you think of a search engine, either Google, Yahoo, or MSN most likely come to your mind.
Although because it is Mother's Day we would like to remind/inform you of another search engine, Mamma.com.

Mamma.com was one of the Web's first search engines, launching in 1996. In June of 2007 Mamma.com was renamed Copernic Inc. but before the name change Mamma.com's slogan was "The Mother Of All Search Engines".
Check Mamma.com out for yourself - c'mon its Mother's Day.

Have a Wonderful Mother's Day

Today is the second Sunday of May, which means it's Mother's Day. We at IPOWERWEB would like to wish you and your loved ones a wonderful Mother's Day.

In Need of a Mother's Day Gift?

Are you looking for the perfect Mother's Day gift but just can't find it?
Allow IPOWERWEB to help, our Pro Site web hosting Plan has never been priced so low. For a limited time you can purchase our award winning web hosting plan at only $4.95 per month.
An IPOWERWEB web hosting plan is the perfect gift for any mother - to learn more about our web hosting give us a call at 888-555-HOST.

Web Hosting Sale - Only $4.95 per Month

We have lowered the price on our most popular web hosting plan, the IPOWERWEB Pro Site plan. Any person can now purchase the world's best web hosting solution for only $4.95 per moth.
Below is a portion of our new home page for www.IPOWERWEB.com. If you are looking to get a new web hosting plan, the time to get one is now.

Host Unlimited Domain Names with IPOWERWEB

One IPOWERWEB Pro Site web hosting plan will give you the opportunity to have unlimited domain names hosted.
This means that in many cases you may not be required to have more than one web hosting account – One IPOWERWEB hosting plan should be enough. Regardless of your Web experience the IPOWERWEB Pro Site hosting plan is capable of supporting all your needs. Our Pro Site hosting solution has been tailored to serve the needs of beginners and professionals for over 6 years.
$7.95 gives you all the web hosting features the Internet’s professionals use and of course includes IPOWERWEB’s award-winning 24/7 customer support. Give us a call in order to learn more about our web hosting plans - 888.511.HOST

Stamp Prices Rising

In February we told you that the prices of U.S. postage stamps will be rising on May 12th. We would like to provide you with more information on the new prices.

As of May 12, 2008 the prices will be:

First-Class Mail letter (1 oz.) $0.42
First-Class Mail letter (2 oz.) $0.59
Postcard $0.27
First-Class Mail large envelope (2 oz.) $1.00
Certified Mail $2.70
First-Class Mail International to Canada and Mexico (1 oz.) $0.72
First-Class Mail International to all other countries (1 oz.) $0.94

Google Now Enforces Its AdWords Display URL Policy

On April 1st, 2008 we reported that Google was to begin enforcing its new display URL policy. In many cases AdWords advertisers were still allowed to have different display and landing URL's.
This no longer seems to be the case, As of now Google strictly enforces its display URL policy. So if you have any AdWords ads that do not share the same display and landing URL's - make sure everything is in sync.

Cinco de Mayo

Today is Cinco de Mayo, marking the Mexican victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on this day in 1862. "Cinco de Mayo" is Spanish for May 5th. Below is a picture of Yahoo's logo in honor of Cinco de Mayo.

Microsoft Takeover of Yahoo Not Going to Happen

Microsoft has officially withdrew its offer to takeover its competitor Yahoo. The following is a link to Microsoft's press release regarding its withdrawal.

Google TV Ads Now Open to All

In January we announced that Google AdWords will start supporting TV ads. Well for the past few months it has been limited to a small number of AdWords advertisers. Google has announced that this is no longer the case and that its TV advertising program is open to all AdWords advertisers.
Best of all Google is offering a promotion to help you get started. Google will help you pay for the creation of your TV ad (if it costs no more than $2000).

Nintendo Wii Not Dropping in Price

It's common to see the price of gaming systems drop after they have been on the market for a few years (or in some cases months). The price of the XBOX and the PS3 have lowered in recent months, while the price of the Nintendo Wii has remained the same. Nintendo is now saying that they have no plans to decrease the price of their popular gaming system. This means that if you are looking to purchase a Wii as part of your weight loss program and don't want to pay full price, you may have to wait a bit longer.

Brand Images on Cell Phone Ads

Google has announced that it has introduced the support for mobile brand-image advertisements according to the keywords people search for on their cell phones. Because cell phone screens are relatively small, Google will only display one image ad per search. Mobile image ads are available in 13 national markets: Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the UK, and the United States.

Check Whois Information via Google

Checking the Whois information for a domain name has just gotten easier. All you have to do is search Google for "Whois domain.com" - and let Google do the rest. Google uses Domain Tools for the Whois information and if you click on the Whois search result link, you will be sent to the Domain Tools web site.

Yahoo Reports Quarterly Profits

Yahoo posted its quarterly profit - the company's net income for the first quarter rose to $542.2 million. This is compared with the $142.4 million Yahoo profited in the first quarter of 2007.

Google's Earth Day Logo From 2004

We know what Google's 2008 Earth Day logo looks like, but have you wondered what Google's 2004 Earth Day looked like? Below is an image of Google' 2004 Earth Day logo.

Happy Earth Day

Earth Day is celebrated by many people throughout the world. It is day intended to raise awareness about issues that affect the Earth as well as a day of appreciation for the Earth's environment. Some company's have changed their logo/homepage design in honor of Earth Day. Below are some images from around the web.

Election Time: Pennsylvania Democratic Primary

Not only is today Earth Day, it is also Pennsylvania's Democratic Primary. Registered Democrats in Pennsylvania will have the option to choose between Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in order to represent the Democratic party in the upcoming presidential election. A total of 187 delegates are at stake and polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Check Out Our New Homepage

We recently redesigned our homepage and would love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment.
The design of a web site can always be improved. VISIT OUR WEB SITE - IPOWERWEB.

Tests To Improve Your In-flight Experience

Air France is currently running an in-flight experiment where passengers can not only send and receive messages but also make telephone calls. Passengers on the select AirFrance aircraft will be able to make calls at 30,000 feet. The voice aspect of the trial is believed to go on for about three months. So if you plan on flying with AirFrance you may be able to be a part of this trial.

Google Exceeds Expectations, Again

The first quarter ended on March 31, 2008 for Google and they reported earnings yesterday evening. Google reported revenues of $5.19 billion and a net income of $1.31 billion. Google exceeded expectations and their stock price is on the rise.

AT&T Cutting Workforce

AT&T has announced that it will be cutting 1.5% of its workforce. The layoffs will cost the company $375 million in the first quarter. AT&T reports that one of the reasons for the layoffs is due to the poor economic situation in America.

Yahoo Search Marketing Changes its Minimum Bid Format

Yahoo Search Marketing(YSM) has done away with its universal minimum bids at $0.10 per click. YSM now plans to use a quality metric in order to calculate the minimum bid requirement for each keyword. The quality metric will be based on the following two factors:

1. Value - the number of bidders and their bid amounts in a particular keyword market

2. Quality - the relevance of keywords, or how frequently users click on the ads associated with them relative to competing ads. 

Microsoft Live Search Update Underway

It is being reported that MSN's Live search engine is either rolling out a new update or cleaning up its update from late March 2008.
If you are interested in the ranking of your web site on Live.com you should definitely do a search to see where your site is located for your related keywords.

Tax Day Is Here

Today is April 15th and that means its tax day. Here are some helpful tax day tips:

*Visit the IRS web site and file online - http://www.irs.gov/

*Call the IRS for information. Representatives will be available until 10 p.m. at 1-800-829-1040.

*Keep a copy of your completed tax forms.

*Find a post office that will stay open late - www.usps.com/tax

Tax Day Specials

Tax day can be a stressful day for many people. Companies like Dunkin' Donuts, Papa John's, Staples and Office Depot are trying to make it a little better.

Dunkin' Donuts will be giving away free donuts who purchase coffee. Papa Johns will be selling pizza for $10.40. Staples and Office Depot will photo copy your tax forms for free today.

Tomorrow is Tax Day

If you are yet to file your taxes, tomorrow is your last day (unless you are receiving an extension). The deadline for filing state and federal taxes is midnight tomorrow - so if you have procrastinated until now, you are running out of time.
You can always visit the IRS web site to receive more information about filing your taxes.

Google AdWords Ads Now Live on Yahoo Search

On Wednesday we reported that Google and Yahoo were working on a partnership to have Google AdWords ads run on Yahoo. Well it has now been confirmed that the partnership is now live and in effect. AdWords ads are now running on Yahoo's search engine.

If you manage any ad campaigns thru Google you do have the opportunity to disable your ads from running on Yahoo, meaning that all AdWords advertisers are not required to run their ads on Yahoo. It is believed that only 3% of Yahoo's searches will run AdWords ads and the current test will run for about two weeks.

Crude Oil Prices Hit All-Time US High

Most people won't like to hear this, crude oil prices hit an all-time high in the US at $112. 21. At well over $100 per barrel the price of crude oil may lead to even greater bad news for the US.
U.S. gasoline prices don't seem to be declining, the following chart is the latest information presented by the Energy Information Administration.

We Help You Get Your Site on Google...Fast

Some of the most successful web sites on the Internet have a strong presence on Google. You can surely succeed on the Internet without the help of Google, but it is not very easy. If you manage a web site you should do your best to have a strong presence on Google. At IPOWERWEB we understand this and therefore provide our users with a free $30 Google AdWords credit in order to get started. This credit is a wonderful jump-start to get your site on Google. Best of all there is no catch. All you have to do is purchase a new web hosting account with IPOWERWEB and that's it. The AdWords credit is available to all of our new and existing web hosting users.

Google Ads on Yahoo?

It is believed that Yahoo will beginning testing Google search ads on its search engine result pages. As you probably know Yahoo and Google are competitors and Microsoft has been attempting to take over Yahoo in recent months. According to a statement by Microsoft, the partnership between Yahoo and Google will "consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google's hands."

It will be quite interesting to see how the relationship between Microsoft and Yahoo plays out.

Less Than a Week Until Tax Day

This year Tax Day will be on April 15, which means income taxes are due to the Federal Government of the United States in less than a week. Last year Tax Day was on April 17 but that is not the case this year. Make sure to have your taxes filed by next Tuesday.

Keyboard Shortcuts When Searching

When using Google Labs in order to perform a search you may notice that you can participate in an experiment where Google will provide you with special keyboard shortcuts each time you search.

67% Of All US Searches By Google in March

Google received approximately 67% of all searches in the US during the month of March (until the 29th). According to Hitwise, Google received 64% of all searches during the month of March 2007 - so things are looking good for Google. Yahoo came in second place for the month of March 2008 with 20%, MSN in third with 7% and Ask.com in fourth place with 4%. 

Visit Your Local Starbucks Today

You local Starbucks has a surprise for you today - but in order to receive the surprise you must make it to you local Starbucks by Noon (Eastern) or 9am (Pacific).

Here is a link to the Starbucks Store Locator.  

Windows 7 Coming Next Year

According to Bill Gates, Microsoft is planning on shipping Microsoft 7 in the next year. The original plan was to have Windows 7 released in 2010 - but those who are interested may be in for a surprise.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Do You Think You're Smarter Than a 12th Grader?

US News and World Report has released a quick test that average American seniors in high school should be able to pass. This means that if you have graduated your senior year of high school you should do well on the test.
Click here to take the quiz.

Good luck.

NCAA Mens Final Four Begins Today

There are only 4 teams left in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The four teams remaining are North Carolina, Kansas, Memphis, and UCLA.

After the two games played today, only two teams will remain. The NCAA tournament is a single elimination tournament that initially started with 65 teams. The final game will be played this coming Monday, April 7, 2008.

Google Placing Humans on Mars?

The Virgin Group, owned by Sir Richard Branson, has partnered with Google to establish Virgle. Virgle's goal is to create the permanent settlement of humans on Mars. The organization plans to send a number of spaceships to Mars, if you're lucky you can join them.





Unfortunately (for some people at least), the Virgle Project is one of many April Fools Day pranks by Google.

AdWords Users Must Follow URL Policy Starting Today

A little less than a week ago we explained how beginning on April 1st all AdWords ads must follow Google's new landing/
display URL policy. Well today is the first of April and it means that it if you are running any ad campaigns thru AdWords you now must follow the new URL policy.

Have a Great April Fools Day

Today is a great day to perform pranks. April Fools Day is celebrated in many countries. If you plan on fooling people, try not to take it to far. But then again - most people should be prepared to be fooled, at least we hope.

Telephone Support Hours For Yahoo Search Marketing

Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM) has changed its support hours. In order to contact a live person at YSM, you must do so during the following times:

*Monday - Friday: 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time

*Saturday: 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time

*Sunday: Closed

In order to contact YSM's telephone support, call them at 866-924-6676.

The One Year Anniversary of the IPOWERWEB Web Hosting Blog

Believe it or not, one year has passed since we launched the IPOWERWEB Blog. We would like to thank all of our readers for your feedback and support. Make sure to keep visiting our blog and the IPOWERWEB web site.

YouTube Now Provides Analytics

Every time we watch a YouTube video we are able understand how many people have seen the video and what they think about it. Nearly since the beginning, YouTube has allowed users to post comments, rate videos and view the total amount of views for each video. Below is an example of how people analyzed user activity and were able to gain an understanding of a videos popularity.



Things are a bit different now. YouTube has recently announced that it has released an analytics program known as YouTube Insight. YouTube Insight is a free analytics tool that allows people with YouTube accounts to learn more about the videos they have uploaded.
YouTube Insight will allow YouTube video uploaders to understand where their visitors come from, how they find out about the video, and much more. You can view your YouTube Insight information by logging into your YouTube account.

Host Unlimited Domain Names with IPOWERWEB

With just one Business Pro plan you can host as many domain names as you want. That's right, for just $6.95 per month every IPOWERWEB hosting user will have the ability to host as many domain names as they wish with just one package. This means that by having one Business Pro hosting plan you can host 55 different web sites, or more if you wish. To learn more about our web hosting plans and features, please visit www.IPOWERWEB.com.

Business Pro Web Hosting Plan Only $6.95/Month

The IPOWERWEB Business Pro web hosting solution, our most popular hosting package, is now priced at $6.95 per month. For $6.95 per month your Business Pro plan will come with the following features:

*1500 GB of disk space

*Free Domain Name

*Website Builder

*The ability to host unlimited domain names

*2,500 E-mail Account

*24/7 award-winning live technical support

...and much more.

If you are in need of a new web hosting plan, the IPOWERWEB Business Pro plan is the right solution for you.

.Com Domain Names Below the VeriSign Price

VeriSign recently announced that it will increase the price to register .com domain names to $6.86 per year.
IPOWERWEB domain names currently cost $6.85 per year, making IPOWERWEB one of the world's most affordable domain name registration providers.

Version 12 of AdWords API Released

Google AdWords has launched the latest version of its AdWords API, version 12. Version 12 of the AdWords API will include the following changes:


*An expanded code sample library

*AdGroup.id type change

*New budget fields in Campaign

*Added CPC bidding for placement-targeted campaigns

If you are an AdWords API developer and is currently using version 11 of the AdWords API, you have until July 28, 2008 in order to make the switch. Beginning on the 28th of July, version 11 will be discontinued by Google AdWords.

How Do You Get Google Sitelinks?

When you search on Google for the word "IPowerweb" you will notice a set of links under the first organic result.



Have you ever wondered why some sites have sitelinks while other don't?
At the moment sitelinks are generated automatically, meaning that Google employees don't go around selecting which sites deserve sitelinks and which sites do not.
According to Google, sitelinks are created in order to assist users in navigating web sites.
If you own or manage a web site with sitelinks and wish to remove sitelinks from your search listings, you may do so via Google's Webmaster Tools.

Microsoft Will Raise Yahoo Offer

According to Citigroup, Microsoft will probably raise its offer to purchase Yahoo to $31 per share. It will be interesting to see how Yahoo responds, Yahoo company shares are priced at $28.52 per share while writing this post.

Video Ads With Yahoo Search

We just mentioned how Google AdWords advertisers can now run video ads alongside their text ads. Well Yahoo Search Marketing does this as well.
When searching for the words "shop honda" you will notice the Honda logo within the Partner Results section.



Below is an image of the Honda logo within the Partner Results section. Under the Honda logo there is a button which reads "Play Video".



Once you click on the "Play Video" button you will notice a window open that will play the entire video.
This is a shot of what the video looks like.




With both Yahoo and Google running video ads along with their traditional text ads we must wonder if MSN will follow. If companies do find running ads successful, we may eventually see video ads replacing text ads.