I am in Dublin. We relocated on Monday/Tuesday. My Internet access is going to be shaky for 5-10 days so I’m afraid today’s Byte is really just a quick Irish lesson.
We are living in Dublin until June. My husband is starting a PhD program. He’s from Dublin and there’s no tuition for him here. (In fact, even if you’re not from Ireland, college tuition here is pretty affordable compared to the US.)
We arrived yesterday morning. So far the weather has been amazing – which is great since I think it has rained every day this summer, until now. We are learning all about Irish bureaucracy. (You need a letter from the school to get a bank account, a letter from the bank to get a school pass, a letter from anywhere – except the one we had – to get a library card.)
We will be chronicling our year in Dublin on our blog (http://10qs.wordpress.com) – not much there yet (due to shaky access). But we’ll be posting soon, including pictures!
It seems as if I have email filters on the brain this summer. Although for a change of pace I’m going to talk today about how to make sure that your email reaches your recipient and isn’t caught in a spam filter. Here are 5 quick tips:
- Don’t use spam-type words in the subject. You know them when you see them (free, urgent, you may have already won); your spam filter knows them too. For a list of specific words not to use check out the following site.
- Minimize use of colors and capitalization. Both will send a red flag to the filter.
- Use a signature file (contact info at the bottom of your email). This will actually gain you respect in the eyes of the filter and it provides ready contact info to the recipient.
- If or when you cite a web site in email use the full address (include the http://) or the spam filters will put you on alert. Also using the full address ensures that users of all email clients should be able to link to the site.
- For 16 more tips, check out the following article: 20 Ways Opt-in E-Mailers Can Outsmart Spam Filters.)
I had reason to look up the US Postal Service web site this week (http://www.usps.com) and I thought I would report in on some of the features:
Zip look up: http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp
OK I’ve been using this for years. Type in an address and they’ll give you the zip code
Mail Forwarding: http://www.usps.com/receive/choicesfordelivery/receivemailinotherplaces.htm
You can request online to have your mail forwarded if you have a credit card with the new address but I also found out that you can have your mail forwarded anywhere even overseas. It costs $1 to do this online, but it’s free if you do it in person.
Keep in touch: http://www.usps.com/netpost/stayintouch.htm
You can place an online order for a real letter or postcard to be sent to a given address.
History: http://www.usps.com/postalhistory/infomercial.htm
You can learn all about the history of the mail.
I don’t often do this but I read an interesting article in the newspaper that I thought I would pass on: http://www.startribune.com/389/story/1362043.html
It talks about how to save college age kids from ID Theft. They gave a “no call” number for credit card companies: 1-888-567-8688. Apparently if you call they will take you off the billions of lists to get credit card offers you usually get in college.
They also warn about giving away too much person info online because that can help hackers guess your passwords and to put a flag on your credit report, which might help recognize an issue before it becomes a problem.
The FTC also has a great site (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/) that can help prevent and clean up ID theft.
For college students I think it’s also wise to remind them that what you say online may haunt you forever. Google never purges their database – and if you thought home movies were embarrassing – imagine explaining a chat room archive to a future boss or spouse.
A friend of mine has a web site that used to do very well on Google. But suddenly he has fallen off the Google map.
Just to make sure I tested his site here:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/sitestatus And yup, he wasn’t listed.
When a new site isn’t listed, I don’t worry too much. When a site that’s been around for more than a few months isn’t listed, I get worried.
The first thing I did was check Google’s web site guidelines:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
First I scroll to the bottom of that page and check out their quality guidelines and make sure that the site adheres to those rules. If not, I fix it. Then I re-submit the site to Google.
Google outlines the process of adding a site to Google. Generally I use the “add a URL” link (http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl). I check back after a few weeks. If we still aren’t showing up, I create an XML site map (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/sitemap-generator.html). Actually I use this tool (http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/) to do it.
I don’t start with the XML site map because I have had some mixed luck with it – but the nice thing about it is that it will provide you with some information on how Google views your site and that can be helpful in diagnosing any possible problems.
It doesn’t happen very often – but it does happen that a web site gets blacklisted by Google. The steps above should help fix it.
Thanks! Ann
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All week I have been doing training in New Ulm Minnesota. In the class many people have created their own web sites using a tool called Web Site Tonight (https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/hosting_build_website.asp). It’s a service where you can create and host your web site without learning html.
I have been so impressed with the folks in the classes. Here are some of the finished products:
http://www.newulmeyecenter.com/
http://antiquesplusnewulm.com/
http://www.rothherzogcpa.net/
http://www.loandluluphotography.com/
http://www.nuaga.com/
The next step is to submit the site to search engines. I said I’d look up the 4 addresses I would use to submit for the folks in New Ulm and I thought I’d share them with you too:
Google: http://www.google.com/addurl
Yahoo: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html (You’ll need a Yahoo; it takes a few minutes, but the account is free.)
DMOZ http://dmoz.org/add.html
MSN http://search.live.com/docs/submit.aspx
On a personal note – I am happy to report that so far all of our family and friends in the Twin Cities are safe despite the recent collapse of the 35W Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Bridge). Clearly my heart goes out to those who are not as fortunate.
