In January I set out to find a new web host and at that time actually entered into an agreement with WebHostingPad.com (I’m not even giving them the courtesy of a backlink). 

I should have been wary and backed out of my agreement as soon as I discovered that their pre-sales “chat” representative had misrepresented their service to me.   But I didn’t learn and when I was subsequently forced to change service because they changed to an environment that only allowed for secure FTP transmissions midstream I was beyond their 30 day refund period and they have since absolutely refused any kind of discussion on the subject other than we are right you are wrong and how could you Mr. Customer even consider using crappy software that only supports and ancient transmission protocol.

As I said back in January I was working on a web host replacement.  I have a number of websites and wanted to make sure that the applications that I wanted to run were supported.  In my presales “chat” I was specifically told by their agent (I copied the entire chat session to their management team) that they supported and installed Magento from their CPANEL application.  I even specifically pointed out that I didn’t see it in the official CPANEL application list.  He assured me they did.  I signed up.  Guess what…No Magento.   Now I can install,  and did install the application but I wanted a much easier plug and play.   When I complained about it I was pretty much told that the presales agent was mistaken and that I would have to install it on my own and that it wasn’t that difficult and then they went down the road of explaining what would need to be done.  If you are NOT familiar with installing software on a hosted web service by downloading the application, uncompressing it, uploading it to the appropriate directories on your account, etc… it can be an intimidating process.    As I said I did install it and I was angry about it but had moved other blogs, etc… so I let it slide.

Then came the April change.  We received a notice that we were no longer going to be allowed to use standard FTP protocols to transfer files.   They were all going to have to go to Secure FTP.  For normal file transmissions most FTP clients will support a secure connection.   The problem I had is that I had two blogs that are entirely based on uploads from my security cameras and from my Lacrosse weather station.  Both applications use built in FTP components to periodically grab images and weather data that I then display in my blogs.   These applications may be updated at some point in the future and when they are I would use the secure FTP component.  YES I know FTP is not secure because the “keys to the kingdom” are sent in plain text… This is why I create specific FTP logins for specific directories and why those web spaces are outside of my normal web app spaces.  When I explained this to the Tech Support department I was told there was nothing that could be done.  Secure FTP is the only method that they supported on a shared server environment and that I could upgrade my account to a dedicated server if that is what I wanted to do.   Since I had no choice I had to move my websites so I found another host.  Not very difficult to do… there are plenty of them out there. 

I then proceeded to migrate everything I had on Web Hosting Pad (Webhostingpad) to my new host and told them to cancel my account and process a refund.  Never was I told that there would be no refund.  But they sure went ahead and cancelled my account without a problem.  When I started questioning my refund… my first inquiry went unanswered.  My second inquiry came back with a response that I was beyond the 30 day refund date and no refund would be processed.  When I questioned further that their new policies made my websites inoperable and that I had no choice but to move they again questioned my desire to use software that used an ancient protocol and that they reserve the right to change their policies to protect their other customers because a compromised account was a risk to everyone and they didn’t want to get blacklisted, etc… Bottom line for them I was not entitled to a refund. 

It wasn’t a lot of money – I guess you get what you pay for is the moral of that story – but it is a matter of principle now.   If webhosts are allowed to make changes that render what you paid for inoperable they should offer a refund.   I wonder how long it will be before webhosting pad discontinues uses of Perl and or PHP because they pose risks for others on their shared servers and increase the potential they might get blacklisted.  Will they institute a policy to not allow you to install certain applications on your account because they also pose a risk…think applications like web forums, blogs, or even ecommerce sites.

Before you spend money at webhostingpad I would definitely think twice and always be wary of the fact that they may render your sites useless and that they really don’t care what you think.  Understand what you are buying… ask as many questions up front as you can.

I’ll keep you all updated on the status of this one.   I’m still pursuing a refund… Have contacted the BBB of Chicago and filed a complaint and I have also filed a complaint with our Attorney General.  Initial response to the BBB complaint is pretty much as above… They have the right to change their policies and I should not be using this ancient protocol… what was I thinking???

This article link will provide some great insight into Spam..  Things like who has the best and worst IT security, how much space is wasted, etc…

1 Billion Spammers Served | Deep Insights into Spam | Project Honey Pot

Check it out!

So in no particular order, here are some things that I consider when I build a post:

1. Structure of the post. By structure I mean the layout. Paragraphs are utilized, bold and italics where necessary, lists, etc. A post that consists of one long paragraph is probably not going to get much attention from readers.

2. Include a relevant picture on the post.  This adds a level of visual interest and in some cases could even be pertinent to the topic at hand.  Please keep in mind when using photos that you should respect the copyright of the owner.  

There are a number of services out there like Acobox where you can get hosted blog photos.  You can also use Flickr, or Google, etc…

3.  Spelling and Grammar should be checked on all posts.  No one expect all blogs to have professional copywriters with exceptional grammar and spelling skills but in this day an age obvious mistakes should be corrected.

4.  Link to other content.  If you make reference to something that is available on the Internet it is always nice if you can link to that content to make it easier for your readers to get there.  In the above paragraph I liked to all of the image providers that I mentioned… this is just an example.

5. Write to your target audience.  Blogs are not one size fits all.  You have a group of people that read what you write.  Try to keep your posts/articles on topic for that targeted group.  Don’t write about rocket science if you primary reader is the backyard gardener. (Unless of course there was some breakthrough in rocket science that is important for backyard gardeners to understand.)

Again, these 5 items may seem to be basic but it is absolutely amazing to me how often none of them are done.

So, in my pre-January making resolution mode I am going to once again make the resolution and commitment to post periodically to Projects Possible. 

Some of the upcoming articles that I am working on include some commentary on the bailout(s), A couple of great websites that I have been enjoying, and my Thanksgiving thankful post. In the meantime keep checking us out.   If past history holds true you know you won’t be overwhelmed with tons of content multiple times throughout the day.

Photo courtesy of gutter

• The Search Bar located in the Navigation Bar
• The “exploding” navigation bar… when you hover over a page with sub pages they will appear below it.
• The size of the sidebar
• The tabbed sidebar section highlighting posts in various ways
• The clean display of the posts.
• Featured Articles (not in use yet but soon)
• Did I mention it is free?

If in your browsing through the blog you happen to notice a problem  in any area of the blog please let me know.  I will get it corrected as quickly as I can. 

Known issues as of today’s (8/5) email:  The Wine Cellar page is cutting off text on the right side.  The You Tube at the bottom of the sidebar does not consistently load.  Some video content will not play.

WordPress allows me to block this spam in a number of ways including Akismet (their spam filter plugin) and options to not post comments automatically but to wait until they have been approved by me.   Unfortunately, I do not have the time needed to review every piece of spam so Akismet has been a lifesaver for me.   I can periodically just load up my comments and see that Akismet has already flagged them as spam.   With one click they are gone and if I never do anything with them in 30 days they are automagically gone.

Bloggers beware…  If you are new to blogging you need to get yourself protected and sooner rather than later.  I found when I first started the blog that I very rarely received a piece of spam but now it can be literally a hundred or more in a weekend and as I continue to post additional content and opinion it just gives them that many more messages to latch onto.  Do yourself a favor, get your spam protection in place early!

There may be times over the weekend that the blog will be unreachable as I work through things.  I might even play with a new theme or two.  I’m finding that I’ve had a couple of comments about things being somewhat difficult to find so I might simplify.   I love 1Blog (my current theme) but if you aren’t using the features it doesn’t do any good to have them right?

Stay tuned… we’ll see what happens!

This is the first edition of the Online Auction blog carnival.   For those of you not familiar with a blog carnival, think of it as a magazine related to a specific topic.  Authors will submit their posts/articles to the carnival and then an editor (me) will put them all together for my readers to enjoy.

This carnival is specifically related to online auctions.  If you have any thoughts or comments related to the online auction environment then we would absolutely love to have them posted here for all readers to enjoy in a quick, concise format.   You can click on the submit post link above it will take you to the correct submission page.

This is the first edition of this carnival and there were not too many submissions…  All are related to eBay so I have broken them into separate categories

eBay Auction Tools

Bill presents a review of a tool that he uses to place SNIPE bids on items on eBay.  Sniping on eBay is the act of bidding in the last few seconds of an auction not giving any of the other bidders an opportunity to react to your bid.  The article titled Free eBay Sniping Software – Gixen Review can be found on his blog Projects Possible.

eBay Auction How To

Raymond presents a great article called eBay Guide To Buying and Selling Wholesale Products posted at Money Blue Book.  In this article he points out some great tips for buying and selling on eBay and points out quite a few SCAMS that are in play and what you can do to avoid getting caught up in them.   Great reading for all eBay buyers and sellers.

eBay Auction Controversy

Raymond also presents Feedback About eBay’s New Pricing Structure and Policy Changes posted at Money Blue Book.  With eBay’s recent announcements about changes to their platform, there are a lot of opinions out there as to what if anything this is going to do to the eBay venue.  This article gives one viewpoint.

Bill presents a different viewpoint in these two articles found on Projects Possible.  The first article My Thoughts on the eBay Seller Strike list the pain points for sellers and the author’s view of those pain points.   The second article Another eBay Seller Boycott – May 1 discusses the continued dissatisfaction of the sellers and their intended boycott to begin on May 1.  This one also has a link to a YouTube video that is circulating.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of online auctions using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.  Remember this carnival is about anything and everything related to online auctions.  I’d love to get some posts about different online auction sites, tools that you use to bid, buy, list, etc… Next posting will be in the middle of April.

Technorati tags: online auctions, blog carnival.

Blog Carnival
online auctions - archives | submit post

Stumbleupon

I mention Stumbleupon in particular for a couple of reasons…  First, I am intrigued by the concept and I really enjoy “stumbling” from site to site in the categories that I enjoy.  Stumbleupon has been likened to “channel surfing” for the Internet.  The second reason is related to site traffic.  I can usually tell when I have a post that has been bookmarked on one of the social bookmark sites.  Site traffic soars!  But what is the quality of the visitor.   I think in the case of Stumbleupon, more than the others, you get a reader clicking into your site, they read the title or see the picture and then stumble on if you don’t immediately capture their interest. 

All of this has me asking the question… How important is Stumbleupon to me?  Should I be building my posts specific to that crowd?  How can I build my posts to work for ALL (or at least most) of the bookmark sites?

Many years ago my mother wrote a children’s book.  I just loved this book.  It was a take on “Row Row Row Your Boat” and was a journey that the child was taking down the stream and all of the things that he might see.  We submitted the book to multiple publishing companies for consideration and they all came back with rejection letters.  At that point I just kind of let it die.

As I think about that little book, I now can’t help but wonder if perhaps self-publishing might be an option.  If you look at an Internet site like Author House it just seems so easy.  I do my little bits of writing here on this blog and I would probably never publish a book… but I think I might like to revive my mother’s children’s book ambitions.

Have you ever self-published?  I would love to hear of your experiences…