Web Hosting Blog | Lunarpages Lunartics » Social Networking

Kings and Queens of the Hosting Cosmos!

Mitch — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:12:03 +0000

The Lunarpages community extends much further than this one blog. Sure, the Lunartics blog highlights an important part of the network, however it is only one cog in the machine that is the Lunarpages community.

So what are the other parts of the Lunarpages community of sites? We have:

Lunarforums.com – Our social stomping grounds where you can get to meet other Lunarpages clients, and share your stories and ask questions that might be troubling you. It is both kid friendly, and mother approved.
Lunarpages Web Hosting Newsletter – Check out the archives of our monthly client newsletter, which is always packed full of helpful tutorials, useful tips and other interesting aspects of the web hosting world.
Lunarpages Web Hosting Wiki – Over 300+ guides and tutorials on every aspect of Lunarpages, web development, and account management.

Last, but not least – we can not forget our social profiles on the Web.

The Lunarpages Community? The Lunarmunity? The Kings and Queens of the Cosmos? You take your pick. One thing though that can be said for sure is that Lunarpages has one of the best communities out there to date, by far.

Related Tips and Tricks:

Tips for New Facebook Users

Mitch — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:00:00 +0000

I have been spending a lot of my time on Facebook here recently. I am far from being a Facebook expert, however I do have a few tips for you if you have not tried it yet, or you were scared away. Here are some of my own Facebook tips for those of you who might be new to the social networking scene.

Don’t be Afraid to Be Social

I know a lot of people who have signed up for Facebook, and then said they, “Didn’t get it”. Usually, after that I ask them if they went out and commented on other people’s profiles, or message a few friends. The usual reaction to that is, “No”. If you want people to be sociable towards you, you have to be sociable towards them.

Go Search for Groups and Friends

Do not wait for people to come to you, you must go out to the people! Facebook has some neat tools when it comes to searching for friends and family members. You can even search for people you might have gone to high school or college with. A few months back, I actually got caught up with a girl I was in grade school with, and I probably had not seen in over a decade. There are many groups out there too, the best one of course, would be the Lunarpages Group on Facebook:

Come Join the Lunarpages Group on Facebook!

Alright, that might be a little self promoting, but that leads me into the next topic.

Market Yourself and Your Brand

Once you get Facebook down as a social platform, use it to promote yourself and your own projects. Via notes, applications and more – you can share your most recent blog posts, your tools and services you have created or even start up your own group dedicated to something you love. They say that word of mouth advertising is the best, and letting your friends know about something you have done via Facebook gives you an almost instant access to their browser, to have them go check it out.

What other ways have you or would you suggest to use Facebook?

Related Tips and Tricks:

7 Ways to a Better Web Site

Mitch — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:35:19 +0000

By Mitch “Self Helper” Keeler

The question is, “How do I make my web site better?” and the answer could be given to you many different ways by many different people. There are often seven rules I tend to live by when it comes to webmastering, so I thought I would share them with you so that you too can learn from my own trial and error.

1. Look towards your friends – Many people overlook their friends as people who can help with their web site. You can use your friends to write up content for you, hire them for work (design, writing or other) or even just ask them to spread the word around about your online resource.

2. Update on a schedule – You need to find a schedule for updating your web site and stick with it. If your web site it static (not updated often) then you might be able to get away with checking up on things every two weeks or so. If you have a lot of content being posted though, you need to set aside a certain time to work on the web site.

3. Do it right the first time – Don’t half way do things right and then think, “well, if it becomes a problem I can always fix it later” because chances are later will never happen because you’ll find something else to fill your time with. Even if it takes a little more time, doing it right the first go around might save you on time and aggravation later on down the road.

4. Branch out your ideas – Don’t be afraid to branch out to related topics. For an example, if you are running a web site about shoes and you want to add some more content to your web site, then why not talk about shoe laces or those gel thingies you stick in your shoes to make them feel better? Find areas you can branch out in so your idea well never runs dry.

5. Find others like yourself – You can’t run a successful site these days without socializing yourself. Get out there virtually or in the real world and meet others who do the same thing that you do. Talk about how they cover things, how you cover things and you might even build a business relationship that will benefit you later on down the road.

6. Don’t waste time on design – Having a aesthetically pleasing to the eye is a grand idea to be apart of, but if you have all cosmetics and no guts to your web site, then you are left with 9/10 of the Baywatch life guards.

7. Features are nice, but content is king – I feel like I have given this last tip the most, mainly because I would consider it the most important and if you can hit this proverbial nail on the head with your webmastering hammer you don’t need me helping you. Make sure the content you have is not just there to take up space. Make sure it is both quality filled and that somebody is getting something out of it. Check out each of your pages, and if you can’t say that somebody is better off by reading your page then you need to ditch it or re-work it till it is serving a purpose for the average user.

One more suggestion, not on this list, that I can share with you is have a passion for what you are doing. If you are working on a web site of any kind, and you don’t care about it – it will show in your final product. You have to think of your web site as a child of your own, and treat it as such. Take care of it right, and it will grow to become a success, no matter what your final target might be.

Related Tips and Tricks:

5 Tips to Make Your Site Sticky

Mitch — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:56:12 +0000

By Mitch “Tipster” Keeler

Think of it as one of those sticky fly traps you hang outside in the summer to keep the flying insects away from your BB&Q. You don’t want to just lead people to your site, you want to lead them to it – get them interested and then catch them. Don’t let them go because they might not come back. Hooking visitors is a sweet science I am not sure anybody has really mastered to a T (or Mr. T). These tips should help you get on the right track though when it comes making your visitors come back.

Social Interaction – Add something like the AddThis.com or ShareThis.com badges to your web site so that people can share that information with others in the way that suits them best.

Vote – Don’t overlook the idea of adding polls to your web site layout. Giving your viewers something to do will keep them on your web site a little longer. One easy way of getting a poll up and running would be via PollDaddy.com.

Blog it – Think your web site is a little light weight, and could use some more “meat and potatoes”? A blog would be a great way to fill your web site out a little more and keep your visitors coming back for more. I would highly suggest installing WordPress for your blogging needs, but there are many alternatives.

Build a Community – Forums always come in handy to help build a community or start one. SMF is probably the most reliable of the bunch in my opinion. With it your visitors can talk with you and each other.

Syndication – If you can, toss in some RSS feeds for your visitors to grab. This way they can subscribe to your web site’s content, get updates about your latest news, and have a trail back to your web site past that first visit. Once you do get an RSS feed going hook it up with a service like FeedBurner to track how many people are subscribing.

Know of anymore helpful tips to make you web site viewers come back for more? I’d love to hear ‘em.

Related Tips and Tricks:

Easy Bookmarking for Your Visitors

Mitch — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:11:52 +0000

By Mitch “Loves Sharing” Keeler

Got a question sent my way the other day from a Lunartics reader who wanted to know my suggestion for the easiest way to add those “bookmark at..” icons onto your web site layout. There are many different routes you could go but my favorite is AddThis.com.

They make it super easy to add this functionality to any web page. All you have to do is sign up, login and then copy/paste the code into your web site template or design. They also work with a slew of the content management systems out there (like WordPress, Joomla, and more).

It is also being used right now by: TIME, Tower Records, TechCrunch, PGA, EW, Lonely Planet, Topix, IGN, InStyle, and many more so you know you’ll be in good company.

Related Tips and Tricks:

HostingCon 2007 – The Low Down

Amy — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:04:16 +0000

By Amy Armitage

Sheesh I’m tired! Wednesday night I finally arrived home from HostingCon 2007 with loads of swag and about 200 business cards! This year it was held in Chicago and for me it was the BEST one yet!

We arrived on Sunday night and Tiara hit the hay because she was too tired after spending all weekend partying? .. umm reading Harry Potter? (now that’s just embarrassing lol) .. Anyhow, after I settled in an unpacked my massive suitcase I met up with Jeff Cohen from Internet Litigators, his beautiful gal Jackie and adorable daughter Phoebe and we dined at Gibson’s Bar and Steakhouse. During our meal I told them the story of giving away my hubby’s chicken to a homeless guy (on one of our first dates actually), so with that we bagged up the left over lobster, steaks and cheesecake and went on a mission to find a hungry soul on the streets of Chicago. After Carson Daly declined my offer of yummy free food (he really was at HostingCon!), a lovely old fella was delighted to accept our culinary gift. On the trek back to The W Hotel, we met a New Zealand rugby player who tackled me on the sidewalk and a 21 year old horse named Caruso.

On Monday morning after a night spent tossing and turning from the LOUD air conditioner I took my tired ~~ass~~ eyes over to the Navy Pier and listened to the dry comedic tones of Neil Patel and the marketing and SEO tips of the socially talented Ben Fisher. Neil only said crap ‘bout 3 times and cussed maybe twice. He really behaved himself. I got a lot out of that session as you can see from all of the links in this blog post to our competitors (invisible .. I hope) .. heh .. wha? A girl’s gotta try right?

Next session was about Green Hosting and the challenges most hosts are experiencing with Data Center power, costs, cooling etc. It was moderated by Isabel Wang (she’s totally gorgeous btw). The panel included DreamHost CTO Dallas Kashuba, SoftLayer COO Sam Fleitman and SWSoft Director of Marketing Doug Johnson.

I saw Josh from DreamHost and he muttered something ‘bout a basketball game but he was too tall and I couldn’t hear him properly ;)

I had a lovely dinner with the team from TechPad Agency on Monday night along with around 30 invited guests including InterMedia (Robert & William), Ben from Reseller Guide (he is the NICEST guy), Ben from HostNine, Justin from StartLogic and my all time favorite jet setting playboys Brian and Greg from Best of the Web! They are such a blast to spend time with.

Our table was the loudest one of course.. lol.. Mindy’s hubby Todd was quizzing me on Australian slang and the more we drank the louder the laughter.

So what is root really? ;)

Ping!Zine (my all time favorite web hosting mag) were there handing out EXTRA LARGE bright orange t-shirts. Keith tried to convince me I could look professional and wear my shirt as a dress the next day to the exhibit hall… ummm.. no… With this accent it’s hard enuff to be taken seriously.

Got to catch up with the amazing minds of eBridge Marketing Solutions (Frank and Hartland) and Hartland actually said EH! to me so I was stoked on that.

Dave and Jamie from Hosting-Review took me for beer on the pier on Tuesday afternoon (couldn’t get them to say eh unfortunately).

Aaron and Shane from FastServers [their servers aren't as fast as Lunarpages Servers ;)] were so lovely and we attended their spectacular cruise on Tuesday night. Aaron’s a super snappy dresser too. Sorry we didn’t make it to Rush Street but.. welp.. I’m an old gal and my feet hurt A LOT from wearing stupid girl shoes all day.

Here are some happy snappys:

Amy & Mindy

Neil, Brian & Greg (Best Group on the Web)

Aaron (FastServers), Mindy & Todd

Ben (TechPad) & Amy

Amy & Brian (Best Guy on the Web)

Derek (Strike a Pose) from Techpad

Ben (HostNine)

Eddie (Globat) & Amy

The TechPad Agency

Justin (StartLogic) & Amy

Amy & Keith (Ping!Zine)

Keith from Ping!Zine

Neil Patel

Neil & Amy

Amy & Greg aka Popeye (BOTW)

Neil (again)

Justin & Kyle

Amy & Ben (ResellerGuide)

Mindy & Tiara (sea sick)

Michael Low (WebhostingStuff) & Amy

Biggest Regret – (apart from not being able to play with Matt from BlueHost’s iPhone longer) was the people I was unable to catch up with, François from B2Evolution (sooooooooo disappointed), Mark from RatemyHost, Scott from WebHostingTalk and Richard Guzzo (fellow Aussie) from FindMyHost.

Cooooolest Giveaway – TechPad won the prize for their board game all about servers called ServerMania.

Most Annoying Stupid Drunk Industry Person – Some dufus named Scott who I would NEVER do business with.

Fastest Talker – Eddie from Globat (that’s saying something considering I was there)

MOST Seasick – Tiara (she got friendly with the toilet bowl)

Best Dog Chit Chat – Justin Reynolds from StartLogic

BEST Couple – Mindy and Todd!

Awkward Moment – I complained to Greg from Best of the Web about the idiot whose alarm went off early Tuesday morning and woke me up. Turns out it was his alarm and he was staying in the room next door to mine (oopsy).

Classic Session Moment – When Derek from TechPad posed the question “Will it Blend?”

Most Genuine Person – That would be a toss up between Michael Low from WebhostingStuff and Ben from WebhostingUnleashed. Both absolutely fantastic guys!

It’s not often you can hang out with like minded geeks who don’t ask you what web hosting is when you tell them what you do for a living. I met some fantastic people at HostingCon including David from TouchSupport (hi David!), Mario from R1Soft, Markus from Web Hosting Search, Brett from Webmaster World, Douglas Hanna from Service Untitled and stacks more!

It was a pleasure to be in your company and to meet you all :D

Random Posts

Get Pownce’d

ReTodd — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:20:05 +0000

Author: Todd Austin
originally posted on designreverb.com

I have a few Pownce invites to give away. If you want one let me know in the comments. Are you on Pownce already? If so what do you like/dislike about it?

I thought Pownce would take the place of Twitter. I use Twitter for those quick status updates. Sometimes I just want to post a quick blurb on whats going on, and Pownce just doesn’t seem the place. I’ll use Pownce for anything that requires a bit more thought or if I’m looking for conversation and replies. I have both Pownce and Twitter updates on my new blog now. :)

What is it?
Pownce is a way to send messages, files, links, and events to your friends. You’ll create a network of the people you know and then you can share stuff with all of them, just a few of them, or even just one other person really fast.

Here’s a screen of the desktop client. I think its pretty slick, especially since you can do everything from here that you can on the site. The main bonus I see for Pownce is that you can send files.