When a non-technically inclined web site owner speaks with an experienced programmer, technical jargon frequently enters the conversation. Some programmers do that intentionally, just to show off their expertise. For others, it is just the way they talk because they are immersed in a technical working environment. If you get confused talking with IT people, you may find this jargon guide to be handy. Read the rest of this entry »
Every on-line merchant needs to develop a list of transaction issues that should trigger deeper scrutiny of an order. Let’s face it, due to the anonymity of the Internet e-commerce fraud hits almost every merchant to one degree or another. Even if a credit card company approves a card as valid, if the card is later found to be stolen or the card owner claims he or she did not order a product, the online merchant most often gets hit with a chargeback and must absorb the loss. Read the rest of this entry »
The World Wide Web Consortium, also known as the W3C, is the organization tasked with setting and maintaining the international standards for common Web scripting languages, such as HTML, XHTML and cascading style sheets (CSS). Their web site offers several valuable tools that assure that a Web site is compliant with international coding standards. First and foremost is the W3C HTML and XHTML code validator. Read the rest of this entry »
Despite anti-spam laws, the amount of spam e-mail messages I receive has grown enormously. You probably feel the same way. The problem with spam laws is that someone has to enforce them, but the e-mail spam problem is so enormous that only the largest and most aggressive USA spammers get prosecuted. Foreign spammers are not subject to USA laws and are much harder to identify. There are, however, some fundamental things that you can do to lessen the amount of spam that you receive, particularly if you have a business. Read the rest of this entry »
FileZilla is a real nice FTP utility that competes well with WS_FTP, CuteFTP and other popular tools. The best part about FileZilla is that it is a free download from Source Forge. Read the rest of this entry »
When starting an e-commerce Web site or any type of business on the Internet, selecting the very best domain name can sometimes make the difference between the success or failure of the business. This task should therefore be given serious thought and not performed haphazardly. Read the rest of this entry »
Thunderbird is a very powerful free e-mail client found at Mozilla.org. You will find it to be very easy to use, but not always intuitive. One of the questions I’ve been asked several times is with respect to setting up mailing lists in Thunderbird. This is actually very easy to do. Read the rest of this entry »
Online auctions have become a great place to sell a wide range of products and services, either casually or professionally. This selling channel is dominated by eBay. You can view eBay either as the world’s largest garage sale or the world’s largest classified ads site. Read the rest of this entry »
Almost everyone who uses Mozilla Thunderbird is impressed with the tons of features that are built into this free e-mail client. However, as with most freebie software, it is not always very intuitively designed and some things are not easy to figure out. Read the rest of this entry »
Online auctions have become a great place to find bargains on a very wide range of products. By far the largest name in online auctions is eBay. If you are a savvy bidder you can pick up some tremendous bargains in eBay auctions. We have been buying and selling products on eBay since 1998. Here are some of our favorite bits of advice for new eBay buyers. Read the rest of this entry »
