Do You Own Your Domain Name?

August 20th, 2008

This is an important question to find an answer to. When you or your company setup your website, how did you get your domain name?

• Did you buy it yourself?
• Did you have someone buy it for you?
• Did it come as part of a package deal? (Meaning that you got your domain name as part of some ’special website deal’)

This may seem like a trivial matter for some people. However, I know of at least one business owner who found out the hard way your domain name is serious business. When he wanted to move his entire web site to a less expensive web hosting company he discovered that the domain name he thought he owned was not registered in his name.

The web hosting company was the authorized registrant on the domain, not him. Technically this means the hosting company owned the domain name - not him. You need to be named registrant.

There are three “contacts” for a registered domain name:

• Administrative
• Technical
• Billing

At the very least you should be the “Administrative” contact, and most likely the “Billing” contact as well.

Is this the case for you?

Some of you will know, like I do, that you definitely own your domain name. But what if you are not sure? Where do you turn to find out. I have the answer for you. You need to do a “whois” search.

Go to this web site, called AllWhoIs.

Once at this web site enter the domain name you want to search and its suffix (.com, .net, .org, etc.)

Press “search” and the results will show in the window below. Look to see if you are the registrant and administrative contact. If not you need to get in touch with who is to transfer the domain.

Anything to share?

Please do so in the comments

Not Up To Your Standard? Work Harder!

July 27th, 2008

People who produce work of a creative variety have a shared experience. Writers, designers, musicians, moviemakers, chefs, painters, et al. typically get into the game of creating for a living because they love to make things. They know what they like. They create because they love the process, the results, and want to make more of it.

Typically in the process of getting started in a creative career, and even in mid-career, you may find what you are creating doesn’t live up to your standards. It may seem like every piece of work you create doesn’t measure up. It looks, feels, sounds, or tastes terrible—at least by your standards. After a while frustration and depression can set in. Many people at this point quit. In the face of adversity they decide they cannot do it—they cannot persevere. They pack up their tent and give up on creating. The frustration of not producing work up to your taste and standards may seem too hard to get through—so you quit and stop working as a creative professional. It is easier to stop than to continue inflicting more pain. The road ahead looks too long to stay on.

Know You Are Not Alone.

This happens to more people than you can imagine.

• Why do they quit?
• Why do they give up?
• Do they not see the light at the end of the tunnel?

They feel they are going in circles and not creating anything of significance. The whole exercise feels like a fruitless effort, and nothing worse than feeling like you are wasting your time.

How to Transcend

So how does someone get beyond this and break through?

How do you break the cycle? It’s rather simple really.

You must do more work.

You must continue to create. Even when you feel what you are creating isn’t up to par. It’s the process that will eventually produce the results you are after. I have had this happen to me more than once during my career. I persevered and continue to work in my creative field today.

I recently came across a video on YouTube featuring Ira Glass from This American Life. He is talking about storytelling, but what he talks about applies to everyone in a creative profession and their career.

I found it inspiring and it’s definitely worth watching.

Your Prefs, Client Prefs, and Deadlines

July 9th, 2008

Many times in the course of working in a service business one works upon assumptions. You may know background information on a client and can perform many tasks based on what you believe to be your clients’ preferences. These assumed preferences are based on your knowledge of the client, your history with the client, and past behavior of the client. All of these can allow you to make an informed, assumed, decision and carry out a plan, or a series of tasks.

Well recently, I was working in exactly this fashion with a long-standing client. We were looking at hitting a deadline and publishing something by a certain day and time. The assumptions kicked in and long story short something went out the door that was not ready in the clients eyes. It was grammatically and syntactically correct. However, there was content that needed updating, and we did not have access to that information late in the day. So, things were queued up and sent out the door.

The ramifications from this were not severe. However, the amount of work and “triage” needed to resolve the issue were a bit inconvenient. It would have been a wiser move to hold on until the morning.

All of this of course is from the service provider’s side of the equation. From the client side things are very different. There is a deadline to meet and if there is wiggle room it will be used if need be.

So what is the take away?

• Confirm deadlines and deliveries with clients
• If the project is not ready, or you are unsure, renegotiate the deadline if possible
• Always ask if everything is complete with the project
• Get a physical signature, or email from client confirming that content can “leave the building” (We use a sign-off form for all projects, or if time is tight we ask for an email from them that grants permission)

It is rather easy to make sure all the “T’s” are crossed and “i’s” are dotted. Try not to get caught up in the deadline shuffle.

Do you have any tried and true techniques for handling deadlines?

Let me know below.

Happy 3rd Birthday

June 25th, 2008

HamiltonBerchman Design Group turns 3 this month of June in 2008. It has been a great adventure to start HamiltonBerchman and work with so many talented and interesting people. I have had the good fortune of working on some great projects and have had the privilege of helping many people and organizations get more from the Internet. Whether a complete web site or a consultation on Internet strategy and best practices it has all contributed to our success to date. I thank those of you who have been involved with me and HamiltonBerchman in any capacity.

What have I learned?
If there was one thing I have learned in starting this business its to never stop asking questions. Ask questions about everything; business, clients, projects, and yourself. Never settle for the status quo because there is always something that can be reexamined, revised, or improved. There is so much potential for growth by asking questions all the time, no matter the project or situation. Asking questions keeps you engaged, keeps you curious, keeps you learning, and it keeps you in the game.

So what is your Internet-based question?
How can I be of service? What do you need to know?

What is RSS and why you should care?

June 20th, 2008

With its early predecessors dating back to the mid-1990’s RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a fundamental tool in getting your content published to the widest audience possible on the Internet. Simply put, RSS is a web-based format for frequently updated content, such as blogs, news feeds, and podcasts.

Why does this matter to you and your business?
Because publishing content on the web matters if you want to get noticed. Good content helps people and raises your company profile as an authority and expert in your field or industry. Frequent content updates can contribute to better results with search engines when combined with other SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts.

RSS feeds are a simple way to package your content in a format that allows it to be spread to a very wide audience. And it makes it easy and convenient for people to receive what you have to publish. A company called Common Craft has done and excellent job at creating a short video presentation of exactly how RSS works, in plain English.

Here it is for your viewing pleasure and a BIG hat tip to Common Craft who create great explanation videos:

Let us know what you think.