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Suspect Domain Name Renewal “Invoices”

safe domain name management services
safe domain name management services

It's Not A Legitimate Domain Name Renewal Process

So you get what looks like an invoice in the mail that your domain name renewal is due. You know you have one and send in the payment not thinking twice about it.  A few months later you get another notice saying that - again - your domain name renewal is due from a different looking invoice. The second invoice is probably the one that is legitimate.  So what's going on?

It kind of amazes me that Domain Registry of America (DROA) and Liberty Domains have gotten away with how they market themselves for as long as they have. At the same time, I gotta hand it to them for how they do it. I suspect their primary revenue stream isn't from registering and renewing website addresses.

DROA and Liberty Domains send their solicitations in a format that actually "looks" like an invoice to "renew" your domain name - implying you have already registered through them.

However, if you read the fine print, it is not an invoice but a solicitation for them to "become" the new registrar for your domain.

Graphic Memory manages many of our client's domain registrations through our partnership with one of the major domain registries - Enom. Just from Graphic Memory's client base, over the years both entities have duped many of them into sending in a payment. I can't tell you how many times we have had one of our clients or their bookkeeper call us saying they thought they already sent in their domain name renewal and why were we sending an invoice for the same. We've also had numerous calls from confused clients who know we manage their domain and wondered if we still managed it.

This SCREAMS of fraud - or is it? Domain registries have made it tough to transfer a domain due to the implications it can cause. If you send the payment, there is no way they can transfer your domain from where it currently is as they are generally locked from transferring without a fairly complex authorization process. I don't think either is having anyone take the time to call you to initiate the transfer process as well.

So, if this is the case, and both claim to be and operate as legitimate domain registry companies who know this, why send these forms of solicitations if they know it does not follow transfer protocol?

The kicker is, when asked, I found that many of our clients who sent in a payment never bothered to try and get their money back. With the bill typically being about $35.00, I guess many figured it wasn't worth the time to try.

WOW! Multiply that by probably at least a few hundred thousand other entities who thought the same way each year and SOMEONE IS MAKING SOME MON-EYYYY!!! This has gone on for at least 10 years that I know of and they still continue to do it. I have to figure the only way they get away with it is they ARE legitimate domain registrars and DO refund your money right away... provided you bother to do so.

Absolutely brilliant concept for making a lot of money - although a suspect means to do so.  PLEASE! Throw these domain name renewal solicitations in the trash when you receive them.

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Social Media Today – From Words to Pictures

visual social media marketers
visual social media marketers

A Social Media Chronicle

Since the dawn of social media’s time, we have been using text to convey our messages.  Most platforms have allowed for other media too…Pictures, videos, etc.  It seems like with every passing day (and passing platform) however, that audiences are craving more visual stimulation!  Not too many years ago, when you scrolled down your Facebook newsfeed (or even MySpace—Remember that guy!?), it was largely words.  Users generally kept their pictures in albums, occasionally sharing them.  As time has gone on, people have started using pictures and video more and more to convey their thoughts.  From dealing with many companies/organizations across virtually all of the realms of business, it seems like graphics, pictures, and videos are getting more and more attention; while pure text updates are being more frequently overlooked. Thus is the state of social media today.

Even on short, text-based platforms like Twitter, there are more and more attention-grabbing pictures/links/videos showing up in the feed.  Blogs almost always come along with relevant pictures.

The best indicator of this trend seems to be the huge success of Instagram.  People want to keep up with what their friends, family, and businesses/people they like are doing.

However, people have less and less time to do this.  Social media is a constantly growing and changing beast.  Much like the internet and websites as a whole, there is a continuously growing over-saturation.  EVERYBODY and their mother (literally…my mom is on most social media sites I use!) is using social media to stay connected.  It’s becoming more and more difficult to stand out if you don’t have a bright, flashing sign pointing to your page.  Well, maybe not that…but interesting, funny, and relevant media other than text.

People don’t only want to hear about what you’re doing.  They want to see it.  They can relate more to this.  Think of a story that your friend has told you about something funny they saw.  You might giggle a little, but be honest…you couldn't really care less.  Now imagine if they snapped a picture of this hypothetically hilarious thing.  You could share that moment with them after the fact, because you saw it too!

Going back to the flooded social media market, remember that most people are following/befriending/liking WAY more people than they could possibly know in real life.  If you’re on a 5 minute break and scrolling through your social media, you’re not likely to stop and read every single line of text by every person you ever met at a networking meeting or friend’s get-together.  You’ll usually do one of two things (or both).  One being that you may scroll through looking for people you know well, largely ignoring the rest.  And, two being that you will probably scroll through and only stop when something catches your attention.

My personal opinion is that in time, we will start to see more and more Instagram/Flickr/Pinterest-like platforms cropping up, and some of the text-heavy platforms will slowly start to become ghost-towns.  I’m not saying it’ll happen overnight, but I think that’s the way things are trending.  And even if I’m horribly wrong about that, pictures and videos seem to perform the best across the social media board, regardless of what platform you’re sharing on.

Just remember…with social media today pictures and videos go viral- text generally doesn't.  Keep it interesting, fun, and relevant; because show and tell is WAY more attention grabbing than just plain “tell.”

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WordPress Child Themes – Why They are So Important

wordpress website designers

The beauty of WordPress, the part that makes me love it so much, is the ability to customize pretty much any piece of a theme to your heart’s content. The downside however, is if the appropriate steps aren't followed, you’re in for a world of headache and trouble down the road. This is where the role of WordPress child themes become important. While there are countless amazing WordPress themes that can be used straight out of the box without changing a thing, I still have made core changes to every single site I've developed for one reason or another. You may be thinking “Well, so what? What’s going to happen…?”

The Problem Is Down The Road

When an update for a theme is released, you always want to install and apply it. Not only does it include new features or bug fixes, but often security upgrades are included protecting your website from malicious attacks. But, what happens to the changes? By installing the updated version of the theme, it’s telling WordPress to style everything based on the theme as is. If any changes to files have been made, including the CSS for things as simple as color changes, every customization will be overwritten. Imagine having to completely redesign and configure a site with EVERY update!

Sounds scary and troublesome, doesn't it? Don’t worry, that is where a WordPress child theme comes in. A child theme, when taken down to brass tacks, is a copy of the essential files of a theme that can be edited and customized without ever losing any changes when the parent theme is updated.

Using a WordPress child theme can also save your skin if something goes wrong in your customization phase. You’ll never have to worry about ruining your theme in the event of coding errors, it can always be reverted back to the parent if things get too hairy.

The biggest problem I encounter when taking over a website built by other design firms or the client themselves is I've yet to see anyone use WordPress child themes. Whether you’re using a developer/designer or working on your site yourself, cutting out this step will only hurt you in the long run. So, if WordPress child themes are so amazing, why is it such a small percentage of WordPress users use it? Sometimes it’s because no one knows of their existence or perceived far too difficult to put together. Now that you’re in the know, we can talk about just how easy it really is to implement.

Plugins, Plugins, Plugins!

There are a ton of great plugins available to facilitate the creation of WordPress child themes with the most minimal effort, but my personal favorite is the Orbisius Child Theme Creator available as a free download from the WordPress plugin directory. It is really just as simple as installing, choosing the theme to copy, and letting the plugin do the rest. By default, it will create a blank copy of the header, footer, and style files for you to get creative with. You can also create copies of any other file manually through the Orbisius Theme Editor within the admin panel to go even further.

So go on, get fancy! Just remember that WordPress child themes should be an important part of your new WordPress installation.

For more information and complete documentation on child themes, please visit the WordPress.org Codex.