Domain Name Corp scam

People, be very careful if you receive an invoice from any company besides myself that is purporting to register your domain or hosting or anything like that.

Two of my clients within the past week have received fake invoices from "Domain Name Corp" about their websites.

Here is the ACCC report on the scam: https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/buying-or-selling/false-billing

Be careful out there. I provide a full-service product - always consult with me before paying any invoice about anything web-related.

Some social media experimentation

Over my time as a web developer, I have heard many conflicting things about the value (or otherwise) of dedicated Facebook pages for businesses.

To be honest, my opinion was coloured somewhat by my age and the fact that I don't have half a million 'friends' - I figured that it was probably worth worrying about only for certain businesses and probably only for the upcoming generation of entrepreneurs.

Lately, however, I have had some experiences that have caused me to re-evaluate this stance. A significant number of my recent clients have experienced success in getting their name out using Facebook - enough that I figured it was worth an experiment.

Accordingly, I have made up a new page for my business:  http://facebook.com/BallaratBusinessWebsites

I'm going to be posting stuff there and see how we go with creating some buzz.

Wish me luck!

Study shows getting online is a financial winner for small businesses. Especially in Ballarat!

Last week the Ballarat Courier published a piece citing a Price Waterhouse Coopers study showing that Ballarat businesses have the potential to unlock $39,000 worth of economic growth per business just by getting online and streamlining their procurement through the digital economy.

http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/3392914/39k-for-web-embrace/

As a newcomer to Ballarat, I can vouch for this study - it is a source of amazement how many excellent domain names have not yet been snapped up by local businesses.

With the coming of the NBN to Ballarat, this is a unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor of what should be a growth industry.

http://ballaratbusinesswebsites.com.au

Bootstrap 3 - not a bad system as far as templates go

Usually, I'm not one for using templates when crafting websites. In my opinion, they usually look too much like a template (how many WordPress websites do you need to see before you know what a WordPress site looks like?)

But while browsing online for a new formatting technique, I came across the templates at http://startbootstrap.com and was pleasantly surprised.

Tailoring the CSS is not for beginners, but I must say that the templates had elegant solutions for eternal web development questions such as:

• Responsive websites for devices
• Simple to use & extensive animation support
• Mobile friendly webpages

I also found http://www.w3schools.com/bootstrap/bootstrap_grid_examples.asp very useful as well.

Highly recommended.