News and articles from Hyperlink

Are you Frustrated by Spam and the Risk of Being Infected by Email Viruses?

Spam and virus infected emails are huge problems. Many networks are now reporting that up to 90% of all emails are either spam or infected with viruses. This is a huge problem for businesses as it can reduce productivity and profitability. Expert observers also say this problem will only get larger, compounding the problem for businesses.

But, this does not have to be a such an issue. Your email can be filtered before it even reaches your mail box, saving you time and allowing you to increase your productivity and profits.

Gone are the days when a simple filter was enough to protect your business from spam attacks. Buying, maintaining and upgrading your own anti-spam filters can be expensive, both in terms of money and your time. Often, this software gets outdated very quickly.

31-Mail Advanced Email Filter will block and filter between 95% to 99% of all your unwanted email before it even gets to your network, servers and PCs. This means you will save time managing your Inbox and reduce the risk of being infected with the thousands of unknown viruses. 31-Mail Advanced Email Filter will ensure you will have ongoing protection regardless of the increasing sophistication of spammers and virus producers.

So, deal to spam and viruses before it touches your Inbox. Apart from costing less, 31-Mail Advanced Email Filter offers you following benefits:

• Significant decrease in spam email: Allowing you to focus on your business.
• Massively increased protection from email viruses: Deleting viruses and other threats before they can wreak havoc on your computers and network.
• Externally managed solution: So you do not have to manage and get stuck with outdated software and hardware. You have nothing to install.
• Updated filters and constant surveillance: To ensure that you have the best level of protection in a ever changing threat environment.
• Totally affordable protection: You will spend less money and no time than trying to manage the problem yourself.

SPECIAL OFFER - One Months Free Trial

We are so confident that you receive a significant reduction in spam and email viruses we offer you a full one-month's FREE trial so you can try with no risk. If 31-Mail Advanced email Filter does not live you to expectations we will gladly return things to how they were.

Special Pricing: One domain: $7.00 +GST per month (up to 10 email addresses).

Contact me directly on (04) 801 8034 to arrange for your One Month's Free Trial.

How easy is your site to read?

I hate to use the word, but I will use it - 'usability'. For many, you will be thinking about the number of click to get from one part of your site to another. It's a huge subject. But I want to keep this simple and focus just on one area that can have a massive impact on your conversion rate.

What I want to focus on right now is the easy which someone can read the content of your website. If your text is too small, your visitors won't even bother struggling to read, they will just go somewhere else (probably to a competitor).

You may have been convinced that small text will make your site look good, and that it is all part of the aesthetics and design of the site. But, quite frankly, people come to your site because they are looking for something, if they cannot read your content because it is too small, you will lose the opportunity. Sale lost - period.

But, it's not just the text size you need to be concerned about, colour and contrast are also important. A good number of sites use grey text on a white background (admittedly, there are many shades of grey, so I am not suggesting a blanket ban on all shades of grey). But, it's really important that there is good contrast between the background and the colour of the text.

It's a fact that eye sight deteriorates with age. Your job as a website owner must be to make things as easy as possible for everyone who visits your site. Without being able to see what you are offering you will get no sales, leads or enquiries. And isn't that the objective of your website?

7 Tips to Make Your Website Easy to Read and Use:

1. Ensure the navigation is prominent and at a place where people expect it to be - at the top, or down the left-hand side.
2. Use font sizes that are reasonable and ensure there is good contract between the background (preferable white).
3. If your site is large, have a site search at the top of the page where it can be readily found.
4. Make your links to other pages and sites look like links (use the standard underline convention).
5. Make sure that important information is at the top of the page.
6. Use short paragraphs.
7. Have a Site Map (a real helpful feature for search engines as well!).

Client focus: The Windmill Quality Cakeshop

The Windmill Quality Cake Shop is a family business that has bakeries in Porirua and Paraparaumu. It has been in business for 38 years, baking a mouth-watering array of breads, cakes, slices, wedding cakes and delights for special occasions everyday.

The Windmill Quality Cake Shop was an early adopter of the Internet and had its first sight developed by Hyperlink in 1998. The current website was developed about four years ago and right now plans are afoot for its third website. When I spoke to Michael Thomas, the Manager, he said, "We could have kept our existing website going for longer. But I know it is really important to keep things up-to-date. Peoples expectations change, and we have to respond."

I asked Michael if he thought a website had been important to his business. Michael was adamant it was. He said, "It really is another shop front to our business. For us it gives people a really good idea of what we can do, without coming to see us." This was especially so when people were looking at such things as birthday and wedding cakes.

What had surprised Michael were catering orders he received from businesses. All as a consequence of a website. One point he emphasised to me was, "When you get a website enquiry, you must respond immediately." Once, he told me, he responded to a enquiry about three hours after it was received. Unfortunately, even within that narrow spectrum of time, someone else had responded and got the job. Often, he said, people are make the same enquiry to different websites.

"Without a doubt, having a website has really benefited our business" said Michael, "it truly has given us another shop front that works around the clock for us." Some enquiries come from overseas, especially , he said, from ex-pats returning home to have their wedding. Quite high on their agenda is arranging their wedding, and a wedding cake is a high priority.

"I always felt that a website would benefit our business, but didn't quite know for sure," he said, "but when we received our first order, a strange feeling at first, I knew we were onto a good thing." As far as the future is concerned Michael said the web can only become more interactive, with the use of both audio and video, and this is something that he is thinking of.