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Blog has been moved. Lost data. Back to November!

So, that happened. My blog has found it’s new home in znetindia servers. This is the second time I am moving this blog. I first had it with nettigritty, who had these servers made out of gold and platinum, and still believe in creating web hosting packages for 10MB (OMG! this is 2009!), turned out to be interested more in changing offices than giving any customer service. So I moved to this incredibly cheap, half the time offline (I found it out later), indyahozting.com. I got friendly with the owner guy, Ravi Iyer, and he gave a little better service. Then again it went bad. After trying the customer service many times, I tried calling Ravi itself, to find out that he sold the company to some other guy who only wakes up only when u have to renew some account.

By this time, I was trying a developer account with znetindia, and I was pretty happy with the performance. So, I decided to move my blog to these guys. And in November, I registered a 5 year hosting plan with a 5 yerar domain name plan with these guys. They assured me a smooth transfer if I do everything! That was okay for me. I downloaded and uploaded all my files to the news server, moved the database, everything. And then I asked them to do the domain transfer and pointing. I got back a mail within half a day saying that the domain transfer has been done. Smooth!! I started blogging again!

So, one day my hosting account with indyahozting ended, and I started seeing the account suspended page! I again raised a ticket with indyahozting and later found out that they didn’t actually move pointed the domain to my new hosting account! So all my blog posts from November is not updated in this database. I complained again, no response. I called up the company. They said they put up those “customer-care” numbers they put up on their website is not for someone like me who have a shared hosting account to call, but only for the BIG customers who has at least one ‘dedicated’ servers with them.

Now I am with this service provider who lies to their customers. And they wanted me to take a dedicated server with them! How thoughtful! Someday, I will definitely take a dedicated server with some company. But I am never going to take it with someone who is lying to their customers. What if they promise me a dedicated server and give me just a “server” which is not “dedicated”?? (Bad joke, I know)

Oh, I have registered a 5 year hosting and domain plan with them! I promise that I will not make any mistakes anymore! I will take timely backups! I will not raise anymore tickets! I hope the big boys in the customer support will let my poor blog to live quietly on their server!

I don’t know why I ended up with another terrible service provider. I could have easily registered with a service provider like lunarpages.com, who gives a very good support and also unlimited usage and bandwidth for a price less that $5 a month.

Well, now I have to say goodbye to all the posts from November. I guess that’s okay. Maybe it will inspire me to post something more interesting from now on!

March 31st, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: General, Technology | Leave a comment

Salesforce.com enters “Cloud Computing” space

Major Sales Force Automation software provider, salesforce.com announced their developer platform, Force Sites. The platform is primarily focused for existing customers, so that they can do new things with their salesforce.com accounts. They can build new external facing websites on their existing infrastructure on Salesforce.com

Well, the site is still on a “quick and dirty” execution state. You may be able to spot some bugs already.

Similar tools were available on these web based ERP/CRM tools for some time now. I remember working on some Netsuite modules a couple of years back. I think with this, we’ll see some serious developments in this area soon.

November 3rd, 2008 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Technology | Leave a comment

Copybox: the copywriter’s Photoshop!

Here is this new application called CopyBox which is trying to become “Copywriter’s Photoshop”. It was selected as one of the 50 applications to be launched at TechCrunch 50.

With the help of this application, copywriters can make their own display advertisements and use “variables” inside their copy to make it more appealing to the web surfers. For example, if you want to mention “Mac” in your ad copy and when somebody see the ad from a Windows you want to replace the word with “Windows”, you can do that using this software.

CopyBox is addressing the divide between copywriters and programmers. You can read more about it and request for a beta here.

I know the website has been set up in a hurry. But a little proof-reading will always help, especially since you are talking to the copywriters. Or, errors like this will happen!

Update: Copybox has corrected the typo on the home page!

September 9th, 2008 | Tags: , , | Category: Agencies, Interactive Ideas, New Media | 2 comments

Watch your customer blogs!

What is it like buying a gift card for the face-value and had to pay extra for the handling? Check this blog post on Church of the Customer Blog.

Handling fee, or manhandled?

The interesting part is, the business owner herself has posted a comment clarifying the issues.

Are you still going to ignore the power of social media?

August 1st, 2008 | Tags: , | Category: Social Media | Leave a comment

If you are writing for the web…

I think you remember the last article I published on my blog about the good landing pages. This new list of best practices will be helpful if you are writing for the web. Be it websites, landing pages or html newsletters.

  1. Construct paragraphs with two or three sentences. Make the first sentence interesting.
  2. Use simple sentence structures.
  3. Use bullet points and ordered lists.
  4. Try to limit your list items to 7.
  5. Write only one idea per paragraph.
  6. Start with the conclusion, and then elaborate the point. Essays will not work.
  7. Use active voice in the communication.
  8. DO NOT write for the search engine robots. Write for the normal users.
  9. Try not to use self referential phrases like “Click Here”, “Follow this link”, “this website” etc. Rather, use the hyperlinks effectively.
  10. Avoid overuse of all caps and text decoration
  11. Alert users when linking away from the current page
  12. A few links to pages with supporting content will be good. This can establish the credibility
  13. Try not to overuse “clever” or “cute” headlines. Headlines should be the summary of the page content. Unlike print, the web headlines may appear without the content, like search engine results.
  14. Try to give 2-3 word description for all the images used.
  15. Content should always have the most updated information.
  16. Content should be free from typographical and grammatical errors.
  17. Try to take advantage of the semantic web.  Try to provide good tags for the content you write.

I think I have covered almost all the points. Correct me if I am wrong!

August 1st, 2008 | Tags: , , | Category: Tips and Tricks | 2 comments
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