Happy New Year!!!

Posted on January 5, 2012

I cannot believe December is over! Between our Christmas party for the PSitez team and all the holiday madness it has been quite awhile since my last post. I have a few important things to go over with you all in the New Year.

#1 If any of you heard about the GoDaddy boycott, it is something we are participating in. We have moved 14 domains to NameCheap.com and will no longer be using them or referring our clients to them. Their business practices have spurred our involvement in the boycott and if you would like to also transfer your domain it is something we can help you with.

If you were not aware of the boycott, here are a few resources for you that spurred our involvement:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidcoursey/2011/12/28/idiot-godaddy-deserves-boycott/

http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/26/godaddy-transfer-update/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/05/why-the-esa-is-wrong-to-support-sopa/

We encourage all of you to do your own research on this SOPA bill as we know copyright is a big issue in the photography industry also. Another alternative bill to look into would be the OPEN Act.

GoDaddy’s original support of the bill is not the only reason we are pulling as much of our business as we can from them but it is a factor. Mainly we want to be involved with businesses with the same business ethics we put into our own company. Not to mention, I LOVE elephants! (have to read the first recommended article to understand that one) ;-)

#2 We have an abnormal amount of people suspended for nonpayment. We are assuming it was because of the holiday and we did try to postpone suspending as many as we could over the holidays. If you have been suspended please email us at billing@portfoliositez.com and we will help you get your site back online. Please be aware, this is done after 3 overdue notices are sent out over 10 days. Suspensions of sites are a last resort to get the client’s attention to the billing issue that has arisen. As soon as payment is made the site comes back up and email is updated.

If this is embarrassing we do apologize but we have no other recourse in these cases. We cannot keep services active that have not been paid for. Clients with this issue may want to consider changing to the discounted Yearly payments as we have far less issues with those than we do with Monthly payments.  Also, please be aware, no matter how frustrated or angry you are at the suspension we cannot tolerate profanity. If one of our employees used the profanity we have seen in emails to us they would be fired IMMEDIATELY. When a client does this it is our policy to ban them from our services and their site with us will be terminated.

Please be aware because we are a small “family-run” company all you need to do is ask us for an extension, if you are having trouble making your payment on time. We often give the extension because we would much rather avoid having to suspend your site. We also offer holds to our clients for just $2/month if you have run into financial trouble. Most of the time though these overdue payments come from issues with PayPal. Because of this we do now also offer credit card payments. The credit card option gives us more control over when and how you are charged which also helps us to avoid suspending sites.

#3 Less serious more exciting news: WPPI is coming!! ;-) We are so excited to be participating in the trade show again and we are busy making plans. We always have so much fun meeting our clients and cannot wait for this year. Make sure to post on our Facebook giveaway for a chance to win a free full pass to the convention. It includes access to all the classes as well as the trade show and that giveaway ends later today.

Everyone have a happy and prosperous New Year! :-)

 

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Flexcart Version 2.0

Posted on November 28, 2011

We have added new features to the Flexcart! If you already have a Flexcart all you will need to do is update, there is NO charge for upgrades. If you are considering purchasing, all new orders will be set up with these new features included.

Here is a list of the biggest changes:

  • Image Stats
  • Non-Image Products
  • FTP Upload Capabilities
  • Favorites and Compare Images icons can be turned off (set at client level)
  • DPI setting for Digital Downloads
  • Coupon Limitations Settings
  • Package Descriptions
  • Packages can have an Auto Coupon (when used with coupon limitations, this allows the ability to discount specific other items when a package is ordered)
  • After order has been placed, “change payment method” and “pay now” buttons are available on the “view order page” that clients can access at any time. Availability of “change payment method” is set in general settings of cart admin.

We are continuing our improvements of the cart and plan to have more and more features for you all. If you have any suggestions for features please let us know.

If you have not checked out the Flexcart before you can see our sample here: http://www.portfoliositez.com/flexcart. The password to enter the cart is “test”. Be sure to take advantage of our Thanksgiving sale to receive $10 off or $100 off depending on which service you want. That sale ends today so order soon!

CONTEST: Don has been working very hard to get this release out to you all. Post how awesome Don is on our Facebook wall and we will select a random person from those posts to win a free Flexcart.

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Giving Thanks Sale!

Posted on November 21, 2011

We are most thankful for our clients this Thanksgiving and to show our appreciation we are running a sale. :-) Use a promo code below that applies to you for any new orders. The coupon can only be used once and does not apply to your regular subscription payments.

GVGTHANKS15 – $15 off – for current clients wanting an added template, a switch to any template including Flexsitez, or a iPad/smart phone mirror site.

GVGTHANKS10 – $10 off – for new clients when they buy our service options for a flashsite, blogsite, Flexcart or Flexsitez.

GVGTHANKS30 – $30 off – for our Standard Owned License options, including the Flexsitez Owned License.

GVGTHANKS100 - $100 off – for our Premium Owned License options, including the Flexcart Owned License.

Sale ends Monday, November 28th.  Happy Thanksgiving!! :)

 

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Hackers and Security

Posted on November 17, 2011

For the second time, since we started PortfolioSitez.com, we had one of our servers hacked on Sunday. Our hosting company recommended we do a restore from backup to make sure there was nothing else malicious on the server that would allow them back in and we were able to successfully use a back up from our weeklies. These things never go as smoothly as we like and some information was lost for our clients on that server. If you have not yet read my post on backups please do and make sure to take your own whenever you can. This can be especially important for blog posts as those can be lost if any new ones are posted after our server backup is taken. Every post I write, I write out in Word to make sure I have a secondary copy on my computer and this may be best practice for you if you write a lot of blog posts.

We are unsure of how they got in but they only replaced our index.php files with their own image and no other information was compromised. They did not seem to be after any one person, they simply did it to prove they could and ruin a lot of people’s Monday.  We have taken new security measures on our end and we have a couple to recommend to ensure this does not happen again.

  1. Update, update, update! Make sure you update your WordPress to the newest version as soon as they release it and any other third party modules, such as Machforms. These updates could help with any vulnerabilities that showed up in the previous versions.
  2. Passwords! Do not use the same password for every aspect of your site with us. Change your password to the cPanel, email addresses and your admin frequently. Try to use passwords with numbers, special characters and capital letters intermixed.

We are aware it can be difficult to remember all of your different passwords but this is the best security habit you could pick up. I personally use eWallet on my Mac, to keep track of all my passwords, and it is awesome. It syncs with all my devices so I have access to my passwords whenever I need them. A free utility we recommend to our team is PasswordSafe. It does not sync with other devices but it is another great utility for keeping track and free is always good. ;-)

If you come across anything suspicious connected to your account or site with us let us know immediately; the biggest one being passwords changing without your knowledge. If you feel your site has been compromised in any way do not hesitate to bring to our attention.

On a lighter note, as we come into the holiday season we wanted to remind everyone we will be closed next Thursday for Thanksgiving. We are also running on half days next week since it is such a slow time for us and it allows us to spend much needed time with our families. We should be able to keep up our customer service standards but you may notice a bit longer of a wait on our responses for tech support. We will start a contest and sale next Monday so be sure to check back. :)

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Cutest Little Photo Prop

Posted on November 8, 2011

…I have seen in awhile! Found these a couple of weeks ago and figured I’d share it with you all. The website is CrownedEmbellishments.com and they make these adorable little crowns.

 

 

I want one!! ;-)

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