Posted by Angela | 4 Comments

New Year’s Resolutions for Your Small Busine...

Now that Christmas has come and gone, the New Year is just around the corner. Starting a new diet, budgeting money better, and kicking bad habits are some usual New Year’s resolutions – but we’ve compiled a list of computer-related resolutions that you should consider for your business. 

1. Start a Blog

A blog is a very important companion to a Website. A Website should be concrete and informative while the blog should update the reader and provide some personality. WordPress says, “Many business owners have wised up to the use of [blogs] to deliver their business message – in a personal voice – through the power of blogs.” Maintaining a blog allows you to get closer to customers and even build relationships because you are simulating a conversation. And it’s not even hard to do. Blogging requires no previous experience and has no rules. But be careful; grammatical errors or any other errors can detract from your intended message.

Blogging also helps a Website’s chances of being seen on major search engines like Google or Yahoo. This is called search engine optimization and is very important for your Website. What’s the point of having a Website if no one can find it? Moving up the search results’ list is a great way to get more hits on your Website and adding a blog will help do just that. 

2. Take Data Backups Seriously

Backing up your data “can mean the difference between a slight computer setback and living through your own electronic apocalypse” (TopTenReviews Contributor). There is no reason not to do it. You can’t afford to risk all that information! Computers are not perfect; they can crash, they can get viruses, and they can even be stolen. The unexpected happens sometimes so back up your data!

Microsoft provides a list of what you should back up, how to back it up, and where to store the backed up information. 

 

3. Filtering: Spam, Malware, & the Web

Keystone’s Senior Technology Consultant, Adam Arnold, believes this is the most important resolution anyone can make for their business. He says,

“The perception of web filtering has previously been to keep employees from wasting time on the Internet. Now, web filtering is the new Anti-virus. Most malware infections come from Internet traffic and account for a large percentage of support costs. A solid web filtering solution can not only make the workforce more productive but decrease your risk levels and support costs at the same time.”

To save money in the long run and to keep work going smoothly, it is important to invest in real malware protection. And by real malware protection, I don’t mean AVG. Shop around and choose the best malware protection out there. It could mean the difference between a successful workplace and a crumbling one.

Spam filtering is also a major concern when talking about your work environment. A real spam filter, like Postini e-mail filtering service, will allow you to select what senders you wish to receive emails from and which you do not, while also catching threatening emails.

4. Create a Facebook Business Page

If you’re really serious about expanding your business online and need another outlet to find possible customers, creating a Facebook Page is a great solution. A Facebook page can reach a different demographic than what your Website or blog may be attracting. Also, a Facebook page will provide search engine optimization (like what I said about adding a blog in #1). It can also allow you to update customers frequently with short messages with the “status update.” You can use this to direct your Facebook fans to a new article on your blog or a new page on your Website. The page can provide all these advantages and creating one is free, which is definitely a plus. 

5. Use Your Own Domain Name for Business Email

Instead of using Yahoo or Hotmail for your business email activity, creating your own domain will really legitimize your business’s account. You have to admit, “help@keystone.net” seems much more reliable than “bearsfan4evr@hotmail.com” (neither of those are real, by the way). Image is a huge deal in the business world. You wouldn’t go to meet a potential customer wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. So don’t send them an email from the same account you’ve been using since high school.

Another reason to have your own domain: your own domain can lessen the chances of your emails getting caught in spam filters.

6. Embrace Email Marketing

Email Marketing is an alternative way to advertise and update customers about your business with the click of a button, sending one email to every customer you have. Email marketing can get your name out to potential customers while saving on paper and printing costs. Keystone provides an email marketing service called Keymail which allows you to send a customized email to every customer without it being caught by a spam filter. Instead of sending the message to your entire address book at once, Keymail sends the email to each customer, one at a time. This makes the email look and feel more personal while also saving you time.

7. Make Technology Decisions Based on Long Term Goals Instead of Short Term Savings

When you go to your computer tech guy and ask about some cheap product that promises spam filtering for your network and he says, “Yes, We have seen that before. Yes, it may save you money today. No, it is not a good idea,” you need to listen! Not just limited to spam filtering, cheap products are exactly what they cost… cheap! Keep in mind the value of the product and the fact that your computers and computer network are the backbone running your business.

8. Ditch that Crap Hardware and Get a Real Computer

We’ve touched on this subject before but we cannot stress how important it is to have functioning equipment in the office. Slow, old computers can have a major effect on the productivity of your employees. That means wasted time and money.

Our Senior Technology Consultant chimed in on this topic as well. He says, “Follow 4 rules to buying a new computer: (1) Make sure it has a warranty, (2) make sure it has the professional or business version of the operating system, (3) make sure it has Microsoft office of some kind, and (4) make sure it is a brand name computer (Dell, HP, Sony, Lenovo). Don’t really care which one; just make sure it is manufactured and not custom built.”

9. Build a Real Website

Roping in more business usually comes from the connections you make and the people you know. But meeting people has its limitations, the Internet does not. That’s why a website is so important in any kind of business.

Websites from a free hosting service like Weebly are fine for casual bloggers or a personal website, but when we’re talking about your business, you need something a little- no a lot more professional. Yes, this means you will have to pay for the domain name and hosting, but it will also keep you from looking like an Internet fool. This is what potential customers are going to identify your business with. It needs to be sleek and professional with absolutely no flashing or scrolling text. The focus is your business and your message. Nothing else.

 

Hope these resolutions make 2010 a successful year for your business!

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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 0 Comments

How To Keep Your Emails From Being Stopped By Spam...

Here’s a scenario we’ve probably all experienced:  you craft a well-worded business email message, fire it off to the recipient, and then you get no response at all.  You may even wait a couple days.  Finally you call the person, only to discover your message had been placed in their junk box, identified as spam.

We’ve all had that happen, right?

As spam continues to be a growing problem, spam filters are working overtime to stay ahead of the curve–or at least play catch up.  And that can sometimes lead to periods where honest-to-goodness business emails get falsely labeled as spam.

We get asked all the time how one can go about ensuring their messages are delivered properly and not sent to junk folders, and the truth is that there’s no way to guarantee an email message’s delivery.  However, there are several things you can be mindful of that can help cut down on your emails being falsely accused.

Here now is the Keystone list of tips and tricks to help avoid seeing your messages incorrectly identified as spam:

• Don’t send spam. A bit of an obvious start, I know, but make sure you’re not sending spam messages.
• Don’t send “forwards.” Everyone has that one crazy uncle who keeps sending email forwards–you know those chain-type emails that suggest you “send this to everyone you know right now”?  Yeah, don’t send those.  Many are harmless, such as the cute-animal pictures I get from my mother every week.  But a lot of users are annoyed by such messages, and choose to mark them as unwanted spam.  Once enough recipients declare the message as spam, then you have a problem.
• Watch the number of CC’s. Putting 1000 email addresses in the CC line is one of the biggest red flags you can raise about the contents of your message.  Most spammers send their garbage to huge numbers of recipients, and many still use the rudimentary method of multiple CC’s.  Professional (and legal) email marketing programs are super cheap, and there are a ton of options to choose from.  These programs send messages one at a time, instead of en masse, and help you clear this major hurdle in your efforts to not be spam.
• Use a professional email domain. Hotmail and Yahoo email accounts are great for personal email.  They’re free and super easy to use.  But they’re not for businesses.  Buy a domain name (they’re pretty cheap these days) and set up your office email on that domain.  Hotmail, Yahoo, and other free web-mail accounts are much more likely to be blocked as spam.
• Avoid common spam words. What are the spam messages you receive usually about?  Medications, gambling, mortgage rates… right?   Avoid using these words in your message and subject lines whenever possible.  Avoid using similar or related terms.  Many spam filters are based on content, and using these “danger words” can get your message sent to the junk folder faster than you can say “cheap prescription drugs.”  Tough break for you mortgage lenders, I guess.  Just seems to be a topic the spammers are fond of.
• Avoid overdoing punctuation and capitalization. Even though you’re really excited about your message, try and avoid using 15 exclamation points in the first paragraph.  And don’t use all caps either.  These are common things the spammers do to try and grab attention, so you’re only making yourself look more shady.
• Follow the legal guidelines. There are rules and regulations, set forth by Congress, that govern what email marketing messages need to do to avoid being spam.  So once you’re finally on board with the concept of using email marketing instead of just mass-forwarding something to all your clients, you need to pay attention to these rules.  Mostly they dictate who you can send messages to and what that message needs to look like.  You have to obtain email addresses through your normal course of doing business–you can’t just send your marketing to anyone you like.  You also have to have a physical street address in the footer of email marketing messages.  These rules are crucial to follow; once one of your recipients reports your messages as being in violation of spam laws, you’re toast.
• Use multiple email addresses. Use a business email for business needs, and keep a separate email account for personal use.  Then you can use the personal account to send pretty Grand Canyon photos to your entire extended family and not risk the business account being labeled as spam.
• Know your domain’s email users. If you work with Bob, and both you and Bob have work emails at your business’ domain name (for example, bob@mybusiness.com), then make sure you’re all in the loop on what is and is not acceptable email use.  If Bob ignores the rules and sends a message about Texas Hold ‘Em Poker to a thousand people in the CC line… he’s probably going to be flagged as spam.  Then, future messages from other users on that same domain (like you, for instance) will also see an increase in messages labeled as spam.  Guilt by association.  So make sure your company has uniform email policies that everyone in the office is following.
• Get white-listed with crucial business partners. White-listing is the process of telling the spam filter which email addresses you definitely want to receive mail from no matter what they contain.  If you have partnerships with other businesses–people you’re sending email to on a regular or daily basis–make sure you have them white-list your email address.  White-listing will override most of the above-mentioned common spam identification methods and ensure your emails always get through to that person.

So there you go.  There will always be exceptions, of course.  Spam-blocking is an always-evolving endeavor, and the filters are changing and improving their methods all the time.  But by following these simple rules and guidelines, you’ll see fewer of your messages go to the recipient’s spam filter.  Good luck, and happy emailing!

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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 2 Comments

Why Do I Keep Receiving Non-Delivery Receipts for ...

Have you been getting a bit more spam lately?  Yeah, we all have. 

There’s a new kind of unwanted email that we’re all seeing a bit more of lately, called an NDR.  NDR stands for Non-Delivery Receipt.  It’s that error message you get telling you that a previous message you sent was unable to deliver.  Only lately, many people been getting NDRs for messages they never actually sent. 

So the email says something like “The message you sent to Steve could not be delivered because….”  But you don’t know any Steve, and you never sent a message to Steve.  So why are you getting this error?

Easy.  It’s spoofing.  We covered spoofing back in January, letting you know that messages you may receive that appear to come from yourself are just some hacker’s attempt to “spoof” your email address.  Apparently, with a little ingenuity, you can make an email appear to come from whichever email address you wish. 

It’s become a favorite tactic of spammers, because most Average Joe’s are more inclined to click on something or reply to an email if it’s coming from a sender they trust.  So spammers started spoofing real emails to try and entice you to let your guard down.  Having your email spoofed doesn’t in any way mean your computer or your server has been invaded or compromised by hackers.  It just means someone (or some automated program) either guessed at your email address or scraped it off a website someplace where it was published.

So the new issue is that some of these messages the spammers are sending are going to email accounts that don’t exist–or at least don’t exist any longer.  And that causes the email server to spit out an NDR back to the sender.  And since the sender spoofed your email, you’re the one getting the NDR. 

Postini–our preferred email filtering service–is actively pursuing a fix to this problem so that your inbox isn’t overflowing with NDRs.  And we know that many of you currently have inboxes that are filled with NDRS because several of you have called us to ask what’s going on.

Rest easy.  The fix is coming soon.  Until then, you can just ignore the NDR–assuming it’s for a message you didn’t initially send. 

Every time email and email filtering gets more sophisticated, the spammers respond by creating a new wrinkle in their tactics, resulting in a new kind of headache for you.  Spam isn’t going away, folks.  In fact, it’s only going to grow more prominent and more advanced.  Thankfully, you’ve got us to help keep you informed–and hopefully you have a powerful professional spam filter like Postini, who are on the cutting edge of the technology used to fight the spammers. 

If you’d like to learn more about Postini, you can do so here on our website. 

We know the NDRs are annoying you–we’re getting them too.  But it’s a temporary thing that will be sorted out soon enough.  If you have specific questions, or if you think your NDR problem is not the same as what we’re describing here, feel free to shoot us an email or call our office and we’ll be happy to take a look. 

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Posted by Eric Jackson | 2 Comments

Free Ain’t Free

Most who have taken “Intro to Economics” in college are familiar with the term “TAANSTAFL.” My Econ 101 professor wrote that on the board as soon as he walked into the room. He proceeded to explain: “If this is the only thing you learn or remember, you’ll be far ahead of most of the world.”

For those who weren’t introduced to the term, please allow me to decode it for you:

There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

Yes, it’s bad grammar, but it gets the point across.

There is always a price to be paid with “free,” period. There are no exceptions. Either you’re paying with your time, your connections, or you’re paying in ways you don’t yet comprehend. You may never understand how you paid, but trust me…you did.

And free software is no different.

Some “free software” installs code on your computer that allows someone to track your Web surfing habits. They view your online history then push pop-up advertising, specifically related to your interests, as you surf the Web…wasting your time and annoying you to no end. But hey…that software was free, right?

“SpamAssassin” is a popular “free” spam-blocking application. It’s quite popular amongst the free software set.

When SpamAssassin blocks suspected spam, it creates a message that tells you why that particular message was blocked. It compares the incoming potential spam message to a list of criteria that might indicate a message is spam. If the domain name the message is being sent from (such as kbsweb.com) hides the identity of the owner, SpamAssassin considers the message potential spam.

Sounds like a good reason to block mail, right?

Unfortunately it’s a terrible idea. Over the years, scammers and rogue domain registrars have utilized the public database of domain owners as their own private spam and direct mail database. Despite the fact that the organization created to police the registrars has specifically disallowed such behavior. By posting your real address, phone number, email address, etc., you’re essentially giving these scofflaws your exact location and a way to contact you.

The market, being the ultimate genius, started to offer “private registrations” for your domain names, thereby thwarting the would-be spammers attempts to contact and defraud you. Millions of domain owners utilize this service. Millions.

As I mentioned previously, SpamAssassin made the ridiculous assumption that if a domain owner is hiding their contact information using private registration services, they’re probably a spammer. SpamAssassin utilizes the database at open-whois.org to determine which domains utilize private registration.

Here’s what open-whois.org has to say about “privacy”:

What do you have against privacy?

In a word: nothing. This is not about privacy, but about accountability. The Internet is built upon cooperation and accountability, anything which undermines accountability is a bad thing. The usability of the WHOIS database is seriously undermined by anonymous domains.

Open-whois.org’s stance on privacy and the Internet is patently ridiculous. It might have been feasible for everyone to be committed to “cooperation and accountability” when the Internet was a few thousand benevolent techno-geeks fifteen years ago. I’m pretty sure you can agree that it is not a good description for the Internet in 2008.

So, fast forward to me on the phone talking to a customer who wants to know why emails he is receiving from certain senders all go to his junk mail folder. Ugh.

Freedom isn’t free…and neither is software.

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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 3 Comments

Getting Spam From Your Own Email? Not to Worry

A lot of the SPAM email you see in your inbox comes from strange email addresses.  I’m sure you’ve noticed some of them.

Some SPAM even appears to come from your own email address.  If that happens… don’t worry.  We get SPAM messages all the time from ourselves.  It’s often a source of amusement to me, in fact.

As this article points out, the email address that appears in the “from” field has basically nothing to do with where that message really came from.  Sadly, it’s terribly easy to set up a message to appear as though it’s coming from a trusted source.  From the article:

In fact, so-called address spoofing is such a common trick that it’s become a major tool in phishing scams. The hope is that a suspicious recipient will just look at the sender, see it says “admin@ebay.com” or “service@paypal.com,” and assume the message is legitimate. Of course, it’s as phony as a three-dollar bill, and if you click on the links in that message, you’ll be whisked off to a scam website.

Long story short… you should have good antivirus and anti-spyware software running to protect your machine, just in case you ever click on a phony link unsuspectingly. But, in general, getting SPAM messages from yourself doesn’t mean that your account has been compromised.

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