Surf7.net Blog

I have mentioned before in “10 tips for choosing a good domain name for your company“; one way to get a good domain name for your company is to register your domain name first before you choose your company name. Here is a cool and extremely fast way to do that. Try our new Random Web 2.0 Domain Name Generator to get new idea for your domain name. You are able to check the availability of the domain name instantly.

Here are some samples of really good domain names generated by the generator that are still available at the time of publishing this blog.

• setcut.com (register it!)
• jamfolders.com (register it!)
• lifemuses.com (register it!)
• slashdesks.com (register it!)
• simplebosses.com (register it!)
• behindshack.com (register it!)
• nugogo.com (register it!)
• conboo.com (register it!)
• setpeers.com (register it!)

Now you can have a Web 2.0 domain name for your brand new website.

The .ASIA registration is live at a special introductory offer of RM75/year. From now onward, you can register your desired .ASIA domain name (for example: yourname.asia) on a “first come first serve basis“. Also, the minimum registration period is now 1 year.

Why Register .ASIA?

1. Target more than 60% of the World population residing in Asia.
2. Create a strong presence in Asia.
3. Protect your brand from cyber-squatters.

How To Apply?
Visit our Order Center and search for your domain availability there. If it is still available, you can submit your application and we will proceed with the registration once the full payment of the invoice is made.

More About .ASIA

• .Asia registration policy
• .Asia reserve name policy
• FAQ on .ASIA

Hurry! Claim your .ASIA ownership now.

In Must have free softwares for your company, I have highlighted portable applications (portable apps) for many reasons.

Before I go any further, a portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

Personally, portable application has help me in a lot of ways. For instance, my web browser behaves exactly like it always do when I was away on vacation, I have all the required softwares ready for my presentation on that big meeting, the passwords to my online banks are with me while traveling and I have all the utilities with me to troubleshoot family or friends PC problems.

Here are more reasons why you should use portable apps…

Easy to install (and uninstall)
I personally don’t like software that anchored itself heavily on the Windows system files. It leaves a massive trial in the registry even after you supposedly uninstall it and it may slow down your computer. However, installing a portable apps is as easy as extract and use. If you don’t like the portable apps after some time, just delete it from your computer.

Easy to backup
If you do a clean reinstall of your Windows or buy a new computer, most probably you have to reinstall all your favorite applications and reconfigure them all over again. I have experienced this dreadful process until I used portable apps. Because portable apps never anchored itself to host computer, I can easily backup the applications by simply copy and paste the applications to another storage device such as my thumb drive. Once I complete reinstall my Windows, I can copy the applications from my thumb drive back to my host computer and all my applications are as good as it used to be.

It follows you!
OK, maybe I missed the main point here. Of course portable apps are meant to be portable. Like the namesake, you can carry your applications with you (just your applications without the computer!). This is particularly useful when you are on vacation. No more extra luggage for your notebook. Just a thumb drive in your pocket. When you want to go online, check your mail or chat with family members, all you need to do is find a cyber cafe and plug the thumb drive into the computer and start using your very own applications. No more worries about missing softwares on the host computer. Also, all of your data and settings are always stored on your thumb drive so when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

You can’t online over a cuppa in Starbucks with your thumb drive though. But hey, you are on vacation, remember? Another thing I would like to stress here. Since thumb drives are extremely portable (meaning small), they can be easily misplaced. You must install some kind of password protection on the thumb drive to protect your personal data. Some thumb drives come with this feature. If not, you can try out Folder Lock.

Freewares
Almost all of the portables apps in the market today are freewares. A great place to start is PortableApps.com. You can find almost all kind of free portable apps you ever need there. However, all of the applications are Windows based.

Don’t waste your company IT budget on softwares you can get for free from the Internet. Some of these softwares are better than the “standard” commercial ones. Here is the list of all the highly recommended free softwares. You are advised to use the portable version. Since you don’t have to install it and it doesn’t write anything to your Windows registry, you can just delete it if you don’t like it.

What is portable version?
According to Wikipedia: A portable application, or portable app for short, is a software program that does not require any kind of formal installation onto a computer’s permanent storage device to be executed, and can be stored on a removable storage device such as a CD-ROM, USB flash drive, flash card, or even a floppy disk, enabling it to be used on multiple computers.

Web Development

1. Text editor - Notepad++ (Portable version)
2. Web page editor - KompoZer (Portable version)
3. Testing servers - XAMPP (Portable version)
4. File comparison - WinMerge (Portable version)

Graphics & Pictures

1. Image viewer - IrfanView
2. Photo and image editor - GIMP (Portable version)

Internet

1. Web browser - Mozilla Firefox (Portable version)
2. Free PC to PC call - Skype
3. Email client - Mozilla Thunderbird (Portable version)
4. FTP client - FireFTP (Firefox extension)
5. FTP client - FileZilla (Portable version)
6. Telnet & SSH - PuTTY (Portable version)
7. RSS feed reader - Sage (Firefox extension)

Music & Video

1. Audio editor & recorder - Audacity (Portable version)
2. Media player - VLC (Portable version)

Office

1. PDF viewer - Sumatra PDF (Portable version)
2. PDF creator - PDFCreator
3. Office Suites (alternative to MS Office) - OpenOffice.org (Portable version)

Utilities

1. Antivirus - AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
2. CD/DVD burner - InfraRecorder (Portable version)
3. File compression and archiver - 7-Zip (Portable version)
4. Backup tools - Syncback Freeware
5. Password managers - KeePass Password Safe (Portable version)
6. PC Auditor - Belarc
7. Disk usage statistic - WinDirStat (Portable version)

REGISTER NOW FOR SHORTER INTERNET ADDRESSES

Did you miss the priority entry period last year?
No worries! Public registration opens on Tuesday, 25th March 2008.

Now you can register for our new shorter Internet address companyname.my

Why get a shorter address? Shorter Internet address will offer you the following :

1. You will gain an impactful identification mark within the global Internet community as it is easier to remember
2. You can span across any industry (as the name will no longer need any categorization of type of entity) to promote your products and services
3. You are protecting your intellectual property & brand name. Failure to register your name using shorter suffix companyname.my leaves it open for other entities/parties to take up the name, that may result in trademark issues later
4. It is faster and quicker for foreign Internet communities to recognize you as a Malaysian brand selling to the global market

This registration is open to the public and applications will be processed on a FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS. SO HURRY! to secure your Internet address.

Register now to protect your organization’s unique identity on the World Wide Web!

After months of research analyzing global Internet practices and corporate clients’ requirements, we are pleased to introduce our latest solution! The Corporate Website Design Package, specifically developed for corporate level companies and organisations. 80% of our clients are corporate companies.

With our sound understanding of the fundamentals of successful corporate Websites, our technicians and programmers have integrated all the features needed to groom your company’s Website into a more cost effective and successful corporate website. Bundled with the Surf7.net Package are these state-of-the-art features!

1. Search engine optimized.
2. A content management system (CMS) for easy & immediate Website updates.
3. Professionally designed web templates with customization services.
4. Advanced online contact form for enquiries & email messages directly from your website.
5. Google Analytics ready.
6. Surf7.net Biz 2 web hosting plan (first year free).
7. Create unlimited web pages.
8. Blog ready.
9. Site-wide search engine.
10. Create unlimited links.
11. RSS feed. (what is RSS?)
12. Create multiple interactive forms for your visitors.
13. Social bookmarking. (see 11 small icons below)
14. Auto generate site-map compatible with Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines.
15. Priority support on CMS usage issues.

LIMITED TIME OFFER!!
We are giving 50% discount if you purchase this package before 15 April 2008. After that, it will be at the regular selling price of RM1,998.

You have called 100, do all the troubleshooting and yet your Streamyx connection still won’t work. Don’t smash your monitor or crush the modem yet. You still have one more option to turn to. Yes, that’s right. The good old 56k dial up Internet connection to the rescue. Many people do not realize that they still can connect to the Internet using dial up after they have terminated their 1515 TMNET account. Instead of dial to 1515, you dial 1315! No registration and login id/password required. Read more »

We’re happy to announce our all-new Ticket Survey system. At Surf7.net we’re extremely focused on our customer feedback and are constantly looking for ways to improve our service/support. With this new system it will allow our management team to get direct feedback from you (the customer) on how our employees are performing through our ticket system.

It’s very important to us that we maintain a high level of customer service to ensure the happiness of our customers and smooth day to day operations in our office. We are currently implementing several different methods to improve our service and this is a huge one as it allows customers to not only grade the support the receive but the ability to request direct contact with a manager at Surf7.net. That’s right! You can simply request it in the form and we will have a manager get in touch with you ASAP.

How do you start? Simply navigate to http://blog.surf7.net/survey/ and submit your review. Please be sure to include the ticket number that your review pertains to so we can follow up with your submission properly.

“Anyone can create a website!”, exclaim Kevin, my 12 years old nephew who just posted his first entry in his Blogger account. Like young Kevin, many people has this misconception. Even though what Kevin just did was something I can be proud of, but creating a successful corporate website is not a child play. It is a continuous journey that requires effort and lots of technical knowledge. Any experienced webmaster can tell you this. Without proper technical knowledge, your website will be just another pile of HTML files lying unnoticed in the vast cyberspace.

You know your website is successful when…

1. Your website rank higher than your competitors’ website in Google on your targeted keywords.
2. You begin to form a new department dedicated to handle sales lead from your website.
3. Your returning visitors is more than 50% every month and stays for more than 30 minutes.

So what makes a successful corporate website?

1. Search engine friendly - The common problem I have seen with most corporate website is they are not optimized properly for search engines. Even though there are many factors in determining your website ranking in search engine result, having a website which in “not ready” for search engines will simply throw away all your efforts, no matter how many incoming links you have or how great your contents are. FYI, 90% of our sales begin in Google. So search engine is important! Don’t neglect it.
2. Regular content updates - Another problem faced by most website owners is they find it too troublesome to update their content. Most of the cases are due to lack of proper tools. In the end, they gave up and left the content unchanged for years. Regularly updated content is one of the “secret” to a successful corporate website because other than your visitors, search engine also love fresh content. Editing your web pages or even add new web pages should be as easy as writing an email.
3. Attractive Design - Your website design is very important after you manage to generate huge traffic to your website via search engines. A good impression stays forever and it will persuade them to stay longer so that you will have more opportunity to convince them to buy from you. A good design should project your corporate image the moment your visitors look at it. It must not be too confusing and easy to navigate.
4. Easy Contacts - You know your website campaign is successful when you are overwhelm by phone calls and emails from your website visitors. That time, you might want to set up a new department dedicated to handle your website sales. That is why your visitors should be able to reach you conveniently online and via telephone or email.
5. Know your visitors - Are your visitors leaving your website after 1 minute and never come back again? How do they find your website? If it is from search engines, what keywords do they use to find you? These are some of the information you should know if you want your website to be successful. The more you understand your visitors and their preferences the easier it is to convince them to do business with your company.
6. Reliable facilities - A successful Website must be supported by a solid IT foundation with minimal downtime and a proficient technical team.

Top 10 tips for choosing a good domain name for your company:

1. Contain your company/brand name.
2. Does not contain hyphen or numbers (unless necessary or they are part of your brand)
3. Easy to spell. Should be able to spell correctly just by listening to it.
4. The lesser the words, the easier to remember and more valuable the domain name will be.
5. Always make .COM your first choice. If it is taken, then only go for .NET, .BIZ or other general TLD or country code TLD (if your company is based in Malaysia, register .com.my NOT .co.uk or .com.sg).
6. Descriptive. People should be able to get a hint about your website or business from your domain name. If it contains key terms, it may help in search engine ranking.
7. With the price of domains getting cheaper, anyone can afford to register multiple domains just for one website. Especially for domain with generic names, don’t just register .com only, register .net, org, .biz, .com.my, etc… as well.
8. Proof read it. Make sure your domain name cannot be read in other ways that brings totally different meaning or worse, embarrassing meaning.
9. Make sure the domain name is not a trademark of another company. Legal battle of domain name dispute is not pretty. To make sure you have a clear name, check it with your attorney or a trademark company.
10. If your desired domain name is taken by someone else and you have the budget, offer to buy the domain name from the current owner. Who can resist a good price? A good place to start is at Sedo.com.

I am sure it is getting harder and harder to get a domain base on the above tips. So my suggestion is reverse the process. If you are a new company, search for the available domain names and REGISTER THE DOMAIN NAME FIRST before you choose your company name. You don’t want to spend millions of RM on branding and find out all the good domain names have been taken by someone else.

If you already have a company name, for example; Acme Sdn Bhd and it is in pet food business but acme.com is already taken by someone else then you might want to consider registering acme.com.my or acmepetfood.com or even both.