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Laura, who set up her website in 2007, says that she tried to make it clean, modern and as straightforward as possible for visitors to navigate. Judging by your positive reaction, her recent redesign of the homepage and header to give a more professional feel has obviously paid off!

She said, “I have been using Mr Site for almost 4 years now and it's perfect for selling my jewellery.  My favourite tools are the ‘Google Analytics’ widget, which allows me to see where customers are coming from and what they are looking at, and ‘Sub menus’ –  perfect for grouping my jewellery into different collections. It's taken me a while to get the website to where it is now but I’ve  found the Mr Site Support Team to be very useful when I'm stuck with something. My advice would be if you want full control over your own cost-effective website then choose Mr Site!”

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This software is amazing it can also convert PNG,BMP and TIFF files into smaller JPEGs. So if your phtographer or artist this software will be your new best friend.

Here's the link to download Photo Vacuum Packer : http://gromada.com/vacum

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• Unique selling point – what can your business offer that others can’t? What services do you provide and what makes them special? Prepare – and practice – a 30 second summary of your company.
• Plan ahead – whatever the event, get hold of the invite list ahead of time and decide who you are going to meet. This also gives you time to research attendees to provide you with an edge.  
• Be interested – everyone likes to talk about themselves. Ask lots of questions about the other person’s business needs, find out what their goals are and then you can better pitch yourself as someone who they could find useful.
• No sales – networking is about building relationships, not closing a deal. That – hopefully – can come later.
• Body language  –  you might be saying all the right things but your body language can let you down. Take note of your posture, aiming for a straight-backed, confident stance. Shake hands firmly but without giving the impression you are trying to break your contact’s hand. Make eye-contact throughout. Smile occasionally, but not constantly.
• Give back – if someone needs a service that you can’t provide, but you know who can, don’t be shy to recommend someone else in your network. You pitch yourself as a problem solver, while making it more likely that the person you recommend will one day return the favour.
• Take notes – make sure you note down any important or potentially useful details about the contacts you have met and store this information carefully. This will help you make more of an impact when you follow up and can prove useful later.
• Follow up – this is absolutely crucial. You could send a friendly email, message them through LinkedIn or pop that information pack in the post like you promised…just make sure you build on the first meeting, while your contact remembers who you are.

Networking is something that takes practice, but once you've been to a few events you'll find that you quickly get the hang of it. Invest some time in making contacts - and in the long-term it could really pay off!

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The survey also found that two-thirds of social enterprises (businesses that are driven by a social or environmental purpose) are using networking sites Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in the day-to-day running of their operations, and almost the same percentage of those questioned believe that doing so will boost their income by 15% in the next year and a half.

However, it is estimated that just 10% of traditional small businesses are using  Twitter or Facebook to boost their brand.

Something for nothing?

Considering that most social networking sites are free to join, easy to get the hang of and only take a few minutes each day to update, it’s definitely worth considering your social networking strategy to see if you are making the most of its potential.

If you’re feeling nervous, remember it’s just a matter of getting involved and learning what works best for your business, even if you make mistakes from time to time. Not every social network works for every business, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to explore the benefits.

Even celebrities don’t always get it right – rap-star P-Diddy is a prime example. Demonstrating what not to do when he used his Twitter account to promote his brand of vodka, Ciroc, he posted the following:

“If it aint Ciroc it’s Pee Pee!!!! Let it be known!!!! Don’t drink the pee pee! Drink the Best!“. 

It should be noted, however, that this ‘statement’ came from a man credited with boosting the brand’s sales by roughly 48% in 2010 through his wily marketing strategies. What is it they say about all PR being good PR?

Learn by example

These days, Twitter is not just a forum for Steven Fry to let us know when he’s having a cup of tea. It’s an opportunity for companies with a minimal advertising spend to promote their products, a chance for employees to build relationships with customers and a way for like-minded entrepreneurs to develop business links with each other.

Simon Devonshire, General Manager of Small and Medium Businesses at o2, said, “I’m keen to look at how other businesses can learn from their (social enterprises’) success…its becoming an indispensible part of such businesses’ growth plans, helping them promote products and services, build their brands, and develop ideas and innovations”.

So if you fancy giving social networking a go…why not check out our top tips for getting ahead on Twitter by clicking here.

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Companies which either rent lines from BT wholesale or use BT’s Local Loop Unbounding (LLU) service, through which broadband providers install their own equipment in Openreach’s exchanges, would see costs go down.  For LLU, this is expected to be between 11.6 and 14.6% annually, while wholesale rental would go down in price by between 1.4 and 4.2% annually.

Increased competition
Ofcom said in their statement that they has already seen increased competition in the telecommunications industry result in lowered prices for customers, both across the landline and broadband markets.
Of the nations’ 19 million broadband lines, over 70% are with providers other than BT. Prices have fallen by an average of 52% since 2005.

BT concerned
BT in their own statement welcomed Ofcom’s recognition of the investments they have made in the UK’s  communication industry, but said that it was ‘critical they receive fair return….to continue…investment.” They added that they questioned some of Ofcom’s conclusions and are expected to bring up their concerns during the consultation process.

Ofcom themselves will publish their final findings in August. Any savings that result, unfortunately, will take  a bit more time to appear on the bill – price cuts won’t be introduced until 2014.

You read more about this story on the BBC website

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“I founded Ellie Ellie in 2006 and, initially, was making children’s wear – however, I found it difficult balancing a part time job, whilst developing a brand. Then, in 2009 a friend suggested Mr Site and everything changed! It’s great for enabling small businesses to set up and run an ecommerce site. Without it, a similar website would have cost me a fortune and maybe I would have never got to live my dream. Ellie Ellie is now growing by the day and I even had to employ someone to help me over the Christmas period. Now I’m thinking about renting out my own office space as it literally is taking over my whole flat. I feel so lucky to be able to work for myself doing something I truly love and I really do believe that its success has come from using Mr Site!”

If you'd like to be the next Website of Month all you need to do is submit your story by emailing us at stories@mrsite.co.uk and tell us why you deserve the award! Please don’t forget to include your domain name in the email.

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Thanks to everyone who submitted a website this month – as always we received lots of great entries! February’s award goes to Jennifer Mullan of www.jeniusimageanddesign.co.uk who found a niche in the market to start her own business:

“After being made redundant from a full time design job, I have decided to work for myself as a freelancer, offering graphics and illustration services. I plan to specialise in logos and imagery for businesses such as hairdressers, beauty salons and wine bars, as well as designing stationery for parties and weddings.

I wanted to make the website myself so I could give it a strong female theme but as I am not experienced in digital design, I didn’t really want to get bogged down with learning website development. Takeaway Website is perfect for me as it lets you design bespoke sites without all the technical stuff – I’ve even been able to do all the illustrations, banners and flash graphics myself!”

If you'd like to be the next Website of Month all you need to do is submit your story by emailing us here and tell us why you deserve the award! Please don’t forget to include your domain name in the email.

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Over the last few months the Mr Site team has been developing an exciting new e-commerce product, with a whole host of new shop features. This product incorporates lots of the options you have been asking us for, including:

• More advanced product pages
• Category and manufacturer mapping
• Customer registrations and accounts
• Discount codes, gift cards, wishlists and relevant products widget
• Bulk buy prices
• Customer product ratings and reviews
• Improved SEO and blog options
• Plus much more

If you have an online shop and would like to beta test this new product or just register your interest, send us an email to beta@mrsite.co.uk – don’t forget to tell us your current domain name. We’ll be letting you know more details about the official launch over the next month; so please keep an eye out for emails from Mr Site!

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If however you ask a different person to build and maintain (ie update) your Mr Site website for you, we would recommend that you get that person to properly explain/demonstrate/document at least the basics of how your Mr Site website and email facilities operate. Consider what will happen when that person is on holiday or otherwise unavailable.

As a minimum, we would recommended that you understand :

- How to login to your Mr Site Takeaway Website account.

- How to keep your Takeaway Website account Personal Details record up-to-date (so Mr Site can send you annual Package expiry reminder emails).

- Know when your next annual Mr Site Package expiry date is.

- How to login to your Mr Site email (webmail) Email Administration screen.

- What Mr Site related email accounts/addresses you have got set up.

- How to login to your various Mr Site email accounts via webmail.

- If you (or someone else) has configured your Mr Site email account(s) in an email application such as Microsoft Outlook or Mac Mail, once you are happy that that facility is working - make a note (or do a screen print) of exactly how those settings are set up. Keep those details safe elsewhere. That can save time if for some reason you need to re-establish those settings at some point in the future.

- It is also a good idea to understand with which Registrar company your website/domain name(s) is/are registered with. In many cases it will be Registered with Mr Site, but not in all cases.

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In this article I will talk about how you can find details of your registrant and also details of the name servers. Name servers; tell where a website is located. Name servers are responsible for resolving, which is a special process in which a domain name matches the website address. The Registrant is the licensee of the domain name - this is the individual or company who has the right to use, sell or destroy a domain name.

http://www.whois-search.com

If you go to the above web address and enter a domain name, you will be able to find the contact details and the owner of the domain name. You can also find out which name servers your domain name is pointing too. You can also find out if a domain name is available to be purchased and also find out if a domain name is expired. The whois website is very handy to use and I recommend customers using that website if they wanted to find out information on any domain names.

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Let’s start by announcing that Mr Site's free Live Chat service will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year within the next few weeks. That’s right – it means you can now talk online to a Mr Site guru any time you need help with your website-and because its faster than sending an email and cheaper than picking up the phone; why not give it a try? Just simply log in to your account and click the Live Chat button in the top right of the Main Options page.

The other thing you may already have spotted is some small changes to the appearance of the Main Options page – the icons that were previously across the top of the screen, such as ‘Buy’, ‘Help’ and ‘Stats’, will be replaced with some new buttons. You’ll still be able to access all the same features, however, we think this new layout will make it much easier for you to use your Takeaway Website and should be a real time saver – plus it has allowed us to add the new ‘My account’ button. 

‘My account’ gives you a complete overview of your Mr Site account, and allows you to manage and control everything in one place. Within ‘My account’, you will be able to:

• Upgrade and renew your Takeaway Website
• Buy and add extra domain names to your website – even if they are registered with other providers
• Purchase extra web space
• Print any invoices or receipts for your payments to Mr Site
• Plus much, much more… 

You will find helpful articles about how to use ‘My account’ in the Mr Site Learning Academy – or click here for a user manual.

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• Set up as many calendars as you like and Mr Site will automatically install them into your site - either on its own page or as a widget
• You'll be able take electronic payments online, select a currency, choose a deposit of your choice and apply tax
• Look 'n' Book will generate booking reference numbers and send automatic invoices and confirmation emails to your customers
• Create and customise 'extras' for additional purchases, such as if you want to give your customers the option of adding breakfast or parking to a booking
• Apply special rates and discounts for specific dates in your calendar or block out any dates that you want to make unavailable
• Manually add any bookings that are taken over the telephone or via email
• Not only that…but you'll even get booking reports – including all customer details, any special rates you've set and the overall availability of your items. You can search, sort or print them and export to Excel

Just as you'd expect from Mr Site, we've removed all the technical jargon to make Look 'n' Book incredibly straight forward to use…making your life even easier. And, it doesn't matter what business you're in – Look 'n' Book calendars are flexible enough to suit all your needs. We've got a number of price plans for you to choose from, packages start from £4.49 a month, plus booking credits which are available from 50p a booking. We're so confident you'll love Look 'n' Book we're even giving you a free 30 day trial, with ten free bookings to see for yourself. 

For further information about Look 'n' Book and our price plans, please click here. But if you want to start your free trial today or find out what Look 'n' Book can do for your business, just email the Mr Site team at easybookings@mrsite.co.uk or call them on 0845 557 6103 and they will be happy to answer any questions you may have. We hope to see you Looking ‘n’ Booking soon!

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1) From the main options go to 'Extras' from the Main Options, followed by 'Add features', then 'Add/edit a shop'
2) Insert your Paypal email address
3) Insert the number of unique items you want to display on the first shop page
4) Select the shop page from the list of pages below; this will represent the first shoppping page
5) Insert the items information and save
6) Follow steps 1-5 for additional pages
7) Go under change content
8) Select the shop page
9) Rename the page under the box 'Type the title of your web page in this box' e.g. 'Shop Page 1 of 4'
10) Repeat steps 7-10 for every shop page

The above steps will create different shop pages that will display as separate links to your menu.

Now to make them dispaly as sub-pages under the main shop page follow these steps :

1) Create a main shop page which will act as the root page; to do so go to 'How many pages' from the Main Options andselect 'Add 1' and save changes
2) Now to attach the subpages go to 'Extras' from the Main Options, followed by 'Add features', then 'Submenu'
3) Select the subpage from the first box, e.g. 'Shop page 1 of 4'
4) Select the main shop page from the second box; normally named 'Shop page' by default, and save
5) Repeat steps 1-4 for all subpages

What also helps and many of our customers do is use the main Shop Page to create a layout of what these pages contain. For example if you go under change content and select the main Shop Page, you can create links representing these subpages eg 4 different thumbnails for items sold alphabetically on link 1 are letters starting from A to G, on link 2 are letters from G to K and so on.

The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which has been criticised for not taking a more hardline stance against Google, confirmed the deletion.

The first batch of wi-fi data, which included snippets of e-mails, URLs and passwords, was deleted in November.

But legal wrangles in other countries meant that the remaining data, all of which the firm said was collected in error, took more time to erase.

"We can confirm that the UK data has now been deleted, and that this has been independently certified," said Google.

The deletion was carried out by US forensics firm Stroz Friedberg.

The ICO welcomed the announcement and said that it had been sent a copy of the report confirming the deletion.

"This is inline with the requirements of the undertaking issued by the ICO and signed by Google last month," said a spokesperson.

The ICO has come under fire for not taking action against the firm, which first admitted to collecting information from unsecured wireless networks in more than 30 countries in May 2010.

For more on this please click on here which you will be directed to the BBC news website.

As you are all probably aware, from the 4th January 2011 VAT in the UK will be increasing to 20%. To ensure all our business customers are prepared for the change, we asked our friend Duane Jackson, Managing Director and Founder of accounting software KashFlow, for some helpful advice to keep your accounts flowing:

“Another new year, another change to the standard rate of VAT. After dropping to 15% in 2009 it reverted to 17.5% in 2010…and now for 2011 the VAT man has decided the new rate will be 20%.

The financial impact of this change will vary from business to business – if you mainly sell to other VAT registered businesses then the effect should be unnoticeable. If anything there’s a positive element to it, as it means you’ll have slightly more cash flowing through your bank account.

If you’re selling to the general public or non-VAT registered businesses then it’s not so positive. The increase either needs to be applied to your prices, making your products or services more expensive or you’ll need to absorb the increase by making less profit. Not a nice position to be in.

If you’re using the right accounting software then the technical impact should be virtually unnoticeable, for example, if you’re using our KashFlow Online Accounting Software then it’ll be dealt with for you automatically. Your default VAT rate will be changed for you and any repeat invoices you have set up will automatically be updated to the new rate.

But if you don’t have an automated system that can deal with this for you then you might need a little guidance. Typically, anything you invoice on or after 4th January 2011 should be at the new rate of 20%, however, there are some exceptions:

• Supplies made prior to 4th January – if you provide goods or services prior to 4th January but invoice afterwards then the old rate of 17.5% should be used

• Continuous supplies – if you’re providing an ongoing service (perhaps office cleaning or leasing of equipment) then you may apply the VAT rate of 17.5% on the portion of the service up until 3rd January and then 20% on the portion on or after 4th January. If you decide to do this you need to make sure you can demonstrate how you calculated it and that it’s fair

There are other, more rare exceptions, and if you’re in any doubt you should speak to your accountant. And remember…as if all the hassle with the VAT rate change wasn’t enough, then there’s another important date in January – January 31st is the deadline for online filing of your Self Assessment tax return!

If you’d like some help with your accounts, Mr Site customers are invited to try a 60-day free trial of KashFlow’s incredibly easy to use accounting software, with tools to make running your business as hassle-free as possible. Just click here to get started.”

You may already be aware that we recently trialed a Live Chat support service and due to an overwhelmingly positive response, we are very pleased to announce that this will now be running permanently, for all customers. This means you’ll be able to get support from the Mr Site team seven days a week, open up to 21 hours a day. Even better news is that Live Chat will be open as normal all over the festive period, too!

In the past, lots of people have asked us for additional support in the evenings and over the weekend so we are also happy to let you know that you can now connect completely free of charge to a Mr Site support guru almost any time you like! We’ll have gurus available from:

5:30am - 1:30am (GMT) Monday to Friday
11:00am - 6.00pm (GMT) Saturday to Sunday

Over the coming weeks we are also looking to increase this to 24 hours a day, seven days a week so Mr Site support is always on hand. When you need to speak to a guru, click on the Live Chat icon found in the right hand corner of the Main Options. If our guru cannot answer your question they will submit a service request email on your behalf for further investigation should it be required.

If you have been experiencing any problems logging into your webmail (either via your Takeaway Website account or http://mail.yourdomain.com), please ensure you are using the correct case for your password.

If you are using Outlook, MacMail or any other email software, you will also need to ensure your password is correctly set – if you have any problems changing this, please click here for further instructions. Alternatively if you need to change your password please click here for instructions.

It must be said – what an outstanding month for Mr Site websites! We had so many excellent entries, we just couldn’t choose one so as it’s the festive season…we’d like to give a mention to our top websites this month:

www.iwoodesign.com
www.no-me.co.uk
www.diddle-iddle-iddle.com
www.melindamulcahy.com
www.homesweethomedorset.com
www.hannahpeters.co.uk

Well done to you all for your brilliant websites – and thanks to everyone else who submitted theirs, too! If you'd like to be the next Website of Month all you need to do is submit your story by emailing us here and tell us why you deserve the award! Please don’t forget to tell us what you’re domain name is too.

Also check out the angel on our tree made by Megan:

We hope you're all having fun putting up your decorations!

Colourlovers, as the name suggests, is an online community of designers that create and share colour palletes with anyone that is inspired by them.  For beginners, they make it easy to browse for colour inspiration using ready-made palattes and patterns, or by searching for colours using HEX or RGB codes.

Once you've found a lovely pallette that compliments your business / website, you can start transforming your its branding with the click of a few buttons.  Those of you using one of Mr Site's Takeaway Website packages can easily set a global colour scheme for your entire website by using the 'Global fonts' tool, found in 'Extras' and then 'Personalise'.  Of course, if you've applied any colour styles to text directly in 'Change content', then those direct (or in-line) styles will override your global settings, so you might need to do a little cleaning here and there.

So for those of you trapped in-doors this Winter (if you're in the UK, of course!) perhaps a spot of palette creation and website re-jigging is the perfect way to see in the new year & reel in some more potential website visitors.  A word of caution though, colour finding is highly addictive, so find your palette and stick to it, and most of all - have fun.

There are loads of blogging platforms to use some of the most popular being; Blogger, Wordpress, livejournal and my favourite, Tumblr. Most of these blogs enable you to change the layout, colours and fonts of your blog so it matches the style of your website. Also if you happen to know a little bit of HTML or CSS you can code your own template for the blog.

Blogging takes a little time to get used to if you've never done it before, but once you get used to updating your blog it can provide many benefits.

The personal touch
With a blog you begin to make your company more approachable and friendly, you can also reach out to more people who could then become clients.

Search engines
Google, Bing, Yahoo and all the rest of the search engines love a blog provided you keep it updated regually. Once or twice every 2 weeks is enough, but once a day is always fun too! Make sure you link back to your website on your blog and link back to the blog on your website!

Support your customers
If you have some important news, support articles or updates then create a post to let your customers know. If you run a shop deal them about special deals or offers.

Please remember!

• Keep your posts to a good length, a few paragraphs are all you need, your not writing an essay! If you have a really long piece you wish to blog then break it up into parts, this will get people interested and keep them coming back to read the next part.
• Try to not write in a formal manner, keep your writing style more personal. This is a blog not a CV!
• Take your time, it took me a year to get 140 followers of my blog and a few months before Google really took any notice of my blog. Linking to my website and my twitter helped bump it up in the rankings though.

For any customers based in the UK, why not come along to this free event and we’ll be happy to give you any website hints and tips – and we’ll also be sharing our words of wisedom in two search engine optimisation themed seminars in Hall 2 on 30th November at 14.45 and Hall 1 on 1st December May at 15.30.

To register for your free tickets click here

We also have another Website Creation Academy running on both days! You can book a 45-minute session with our experts to help you get the best out of your Takeaway Website – just click here for more details

Solid state drives have several advantages over the magnetic hard drives. The majority of this comes from the fact that the drive does not have any moving parts. While a traditional drive has drive motors to spin up the magnetic platters and the drive heads, all the storage on a solid state drive is handled by flash memory chips. This provides three distinct advantages:

    * Less Power Usage
    * Faster Data Access
    * Higher Reliability

At Mr Site we are continiously seeking ways to improve our service and as a part of this we are currently upgrading our email storage drives from traditional HDD to SSD. A big number of our customers have noticed the difference already from improved access and response of Webmail to faster downloading of emails in Outlook on their computer. We expect the completion of this project by our network team to be at some point within the weekend. So by the time you are reading the Sunday paper you will be enjoying ultra-speedy access to your emails. Why not try it on your mobile too ?

SSL encrypts data, like credit cards numbers (as well other personally identifiable information), which prevents the "bad guys" from stealing information for malicious intent. You know that you're on an SSL protected page when the address begins with "https":

Look for the "s" after "http" in the address

and there is a padlock icon at the bottom of the page :

The padlock symbol lets you know that you are using encryption

At Mr Site website we do not compromise on security. This is why we have implementated PayPal, the best online payment provider for your online transactions. Paypal's SSL systems will initiate a secure connection the moment your customer presses the checkout button on your website shop. Therefore only the web server (Paypal) and your customer's browser can decode these information to actual usable data. And even if someone manages to steal even a few only of these encoded information, the encryption applied on the data is 128bit high which in simple words means that it needs a very powerful machine and months or years to decode them. Do you still worry about safety of online payments over SSL?

The best way to pitch your clients is to understand each client and what they need - this way you will be able to position your productservice much better. For more useful advice click here

Windows users:

Ccleaner

CCleaner (which is generally understood to stand for 'Cr*p Cleaner'!) removes all sorts of data that might block up your system. The program is developed to clear your browser cache, empties your recycling bin and clipboard, deletes temporary files and straightens the disaster that is the Windows registry. Click here to download Ccleaner.

Mac users:

Onyx

OnyX is a free system-maintenance and customisation app for Mac OS X. Just like Windows machines, Macs are susceptible to computer blockages (e.g. files from unused programs, caches, etc.) that take up space and slow down your computer. Click here to download Onyx.

The study was commissioned as part of a drive to help consumers protect themselves online in the face of increasingly sophisticated techniques used by scammers who target both individuals and businesses.

A new online advice site, knowthenet.org.uk is seeking to better understand the profile of online scam victims in order to build up a picture of a typical victim. Its security experts conducted an experiment involving more than 2,000 online consumers, which measured their ability to spot and respond appropriately to seven online scam scenarios. The tests ranged from identifying fake Facebook pages to testing how people respond to competition scams or the sale of counterfeit goods online.

To read the full article from the Guardian website, click here.

One of the many online trends-type blogs that I follow posted this simple guide to adding value to your Facebook presence. All 5 of the ideas listed are easy to follow and will without a doubt help you market your business and help you reach more sales.

As long as you can keep it fresh, up to date and remember these hints; add value, listen more, ask questions, be inspiring and competitions - and don't forget the Mr Site Social Bookmarks widget to add to your own Mr Site website, so that your new fans can post direct links from your website to share with their Facebook friends!

You can read the full article here

And if you don't have one already, get started on making your own Facebook business page here

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an email validation system that is designed to prevent spam emails by targeting the source of the address. An SPF tag will allow administrators to specify which host is allowed to send email from a given domain name this is done by creating a specific SPF record.

What does SPF actually DO?

Spam mail is created when people forge email addresses – so let’s say someone forges a hotmail.co.uk address and tries to spam you.

When the message is sent, you see MAIL FROM: <forged_address@hotmail.com> before you open the email you can ask Hotmail if the IP address comes from their network. They will then send you an email which tells you and your computer how to find out if the sending machine is authorised to send mail from Hotmail.

If Hotmail says they recognise the sending machine, it passes, and you can assume the sender is who they say they are. If the message fails SPF tests, it's a forgery. That's how you can tell it's probably a spammer.

Mr Site does it for you already!

At Mr Site, as always we cut the jargon out so you don't need to go through the hassle of adding any codes or an SPF record, we do it for you. All you have to do is to click here which will take you to a page set up for customers to insert the necessary details required for us to add an SPF record.

Bottle Rocket is another simple one page website, which is very in trend at the moment for website designers.  The design is sticking to a simple rule of ‘clean and simple’ with perfect bold typography contrasting with the narrow text of the content. This helps to maintain that professional feel to the website.

In the ‘Recent Work’ section they have used a handy little script called Light box which is a great way to display your images. We also have a similar image displayer within our gallery settings here at Mr Site, so you could achieve a very similar look yourself.

And if it's an iPad you're interested in, Mr Site will be at the Business Startup show in London Earl's Court on Nov 30 and Dec 1 with our good friends from design company, Longtail Services...and they'll be giving away an iPad! If you fancy your chance to win an early xmas present or just want some advice on how to expand your Takeaway Website, come and see us on stand 360. Tickets are completely free and you'll be able to get lots of fantastic advice for your business. To register, just click here - hope to see you there!

This will give you an insight into the e-commerce industry in the UK - find out more about the vast number of benefits and advantages for both the consumer as well as the retailer...and remember with Mr Site's Takeaway Website you can have a secure online shop up and running in a matter of hours! Why not visit our Learning Academy at www.mrsite.co.uk/support to find out how you can get trading!

OCZ's RevoDrive X2 PCI-Express SSD is the successor to the company's first PCIe SSD, the RevoDrive, which had a 540MB/sec top throughput speed or about 75,000 IOPS. That drive came in capacities ranging from 50GB to 480GB.

OCZ's RevoDrive X2 PCIe-based SSD

The RevoDrive X2 comes in capacities ranging from 100GB to 960GB. The drive line gets its increased capacity through the use of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash chips, which, while natively slower and less robust than single-level cell NAND, are less costly. The drive has a starting price of $464. A 240GB version sells for $669 and the 480GB model goes for $1,397, according to OCZ. Pricing for the 960GB model was not available.

The RevoDrive X2 offers about three times the throughput of even high-end SSDs using the serial ATA (SATA) interface and single-level cell NAND flash. That's because SATA provides up to 300Mbit/sec throughput compared to the PCIe interface, which has 500 MB/sec throughput per I/O lane. The RevoDrive X2 has four PCIe lanes.

The drive also uses four SandForce-1200 high-end controllers; its predecessor used two. Like the original RevoDrive, the new model uses an onboard RAID 0 design, which also beefs up performance.

OCZ's latest SSD has a maximum read rate of up to 740MB/sec, a maximum write rate of 720MB/sec and a sustained write rate of up to 600MB/sec using 4k data blocks.

The RevoDrive X2 can also be used as a boot drive alongside a traditional hard drive to vastly improve OS start-up and application load times for workstation PCs, according to the company.

Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology, said the RevoDrive X2 is aimed at a variety of applications, including relational databases, graphic design applications, multimedia rendering jobs and workstations.

The OCZ RevoDrive X2 also has enough capacity for data warehousing applications, the company said. It comes with a three-year warranty and is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

• Log in to your Mr Site email account via mail.yourdomain.com (replace you’re yourdomain.com with your chosen website address) then click on the ‘Options’ button, then on ‘Spam rules’. Here you can set your spam filter options.
• Using the ‘Whitelist’ option you can also specify complete email addresses and domain names that will bypass the Mr Site’s spam filtering - which means they will ALWAYS reach your inbox.

You could also try using Mr Site’s contact form on your website, rather than putting your email address on any pages. People will then be able to send you an email message - without them (or any pesky spammers) knowing what your email address is.

Small business minister Mark Prisk hosted a Summit for Small Business, which set out policies to improve access to finance for small firms, to make it easier for them to do business with the public sector and allow social tenants to start up their own business from home.

Speaking at the summit, business secretary Vince Cable revealed plans to continue with the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme for the next four years, making around £2bn available to viable small companies, which he said would provide support to 6,000 small and medium enterprises a year.

To see the full article from startups.co.uk, please click here.

Click here to see the article

Check out this link for full details...interesting reading...http://.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=8

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11635320

For the full article from The Guardian, please click here.

The internet is a financially friendly option in terms of cutting out the costs incurred from shopping for example. Despite the many benefits of online shopping I would like to emphasis the fact that nowadays it can all be done on the go, on your mobile or mobile internet capable device.

Well, yes you can do alot but there are still limitations. Whilst you cannot at the moment update your Mr Site website from a mobile device, it does not meanwill not be an option in the near future. We can already visit and purchase from most websites via our mobiles so this is a problem we don't have to worry about, take a look at this article. 

Being able to update your shopping cart items immediately for example and making them available to your customers is something more valuable to any small business currently running on Mr Site.

Unfortunately this is not an option but we all entertain thoughts of this nature, hoping for yet another form of simplicty and a bid to  take advantage of technology advances.

Just because we can't right now, does not mean it's not in the minds those who are helping the rest of the world keep up in the world of the Web.

Watch this  S    P   A     C    E.....

Welcome to the first post of Inspirational website of the week. Each week I'm going to be picking a website I feel has real creative flare and elements that could help improve your Mr Site website.

When I first look at this website I am instantly drawn into the typography complied of elegant handwritten script and bold, large text. The consistency of the text throughout each detailed section creates a professional but artistic feel.

Also by having a single paged website divided up into different sections the usability of the website is very easy with creative but simple layouts used. The designer also added in lots of icons to add more detail to the content, which is a simple but effective way to make your website look more professional.

• From the Main Options log in and click 'Change Content'
• Then click and select the page you would like the video to go on
• Change the level to creative mode and scroll down to the third text field which says ' Type the main text of your web page in this box'

Simply copy the embed code from YouTube then login to your Mr Site account
Click on the YouTube icon and paste the embed code; a preview of your video will appear below that.

Finally, you can also do the similar process as above for Vimeo www.vimeo.com . Just Simply copy and paste the embed code in the YouTube icon and it will work for Vimeo as will.

Click here to view an article in our learning academy on this subject

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11627507

50% of the UK to get super fast broadband by 2012 - HURRAY!

Sharing your music from SoundCloud is quick and painless, with the added benefit of giving you some basic statistics of how many people have listened to your creations.  Simply copy and paste the embed code into one of your pages in the Mr Site 'Change content' editor and you'll sharing your music in no time.

So what are you waiting for?  Visit SoundCloud now and start sharing your music on your Takeaway Website.

Thanks to everyone who submitted their website this month and congratulations to our winner, Kim Scott of www.hatsmybaby.co.uk 

“Hats my Baby was launched in January 2010 – the inspiration came whilst I was on maternity leave after the birth of our first, beautiful child Lily. We found ourselves with a number of invitations to summer weddings; finding gorgeous dresses for Lily wasn’t a problem, but when it came to buying baby hats we were really surprised by the lack of variety on the high street. My early vision for the business was to provide customers with a fantastic range of baby hats in all shapes, styles and colours and for all occasions and seasons, and I’m continuing to work towards that. 

Prior to launching the website, I carried out a lot of research regarding website designers and decided to use Mr Site as for a brand new business it was extremely affordable. I have launched the business on a shoe string, which has been a challenge in itself and I have been on a very steep learning curve in terms of designing the website but using the Mr Site package has allowed me to create my vision for the company and I'm so pleased with the end result. The website is also very search engine friendly, meaning that with some help and advice and a bit of hard work we've managed to get to the first page of Google for our keywords.”

If you'd like to be the next Website of Month all you need to do is submit your story by emailing us at stories@mrsite.co.uk and tell us why you deserve the award!

Our expert this month is serial entrepreneur Darren Fell, managing director and founder of Crunch.co.uk

Crunch.co.uk is an accounting system for freelancers, contractors and small businesses, which combines easy-to-use online financial software with a team of accountants at the end of the phone.

“Working for yourself is a great way of life,” says Darren, “If you can drum up enough business to live your entrepreneurial dream. It’s not easy and it’s the sticky bit where most freelancers get the fear but it needn’t turn your dream into a living nightmare. Anybody can do it and, with practice, be great at it.”

Here are Darren’s five golden rules to a happy business life.

Rule 1. Motivation = Success

In order to sell yourself well, you’ll need to pick a motivation that works for you. For example, the horror of returning to your previous workplace, being able to take three months off a year or earn three times more than you used to. Find that energy and always keep it in mind.

Rule 2. Always be closing the sale

Don’t be scared. Follow this rule and you’ll be staggered at how successful you become. Always keep asking potential clients for the business. Careful though, don’t take on too much work as you’re the salesperson, the accounts department, the project manager and the implementer of the project.

Rule 3. Tell everyone you know

Tell literally everyone, including family and friends, what you’re doing and the skill sets you’re offering. You’ll be so surprised, you may be given a recommendation through someone you never would have expected.

Rule 4. Network. It can be fun

Network among all the people you have already spoken to and ask them if they know of anyone who might employ your services. This enables you to get ‘warm’ leads, which I can promise you are so much nicer than making cold calls. Get out there and find events where you can network with other people and pass out your business card.

Rule 5. Don’t stare gift horses in the mouth

Take almost any opportunity at the beginning. You can be fussy later when you’ve built up a portfolio of customers and have regular business coming in. If you haven’t yet got a strong portfolio or a stack of case studies you may need to sell your services more cheaply. This will help you win the more price-conscious customer, allow you to prove your skill set and charge the full price next time. Always trade something for a price reduction. Ask for permission to undertake a case study with a customer and advertise it if the customer feels it has gone well. A testimonial from a customer that has loved your work is a perfect addition to your website.

Over the next few months we will be introducing lots of new features to ensure your Mr Site customer experience is the best it can possibly be.

The first is our new style newsletter and blog...a very exciting launch for all of the Mr Site team. Click on any article in this newsletter and it will take your straight to our blog – and not only that but we’ll be posting on the blog regularly with interesting news and Mr Site updates!

Over the next few weeks, when you log into your Takeaway Website account, you’ll also be welcomed by the new Mr Site Bulletin Board. To ensure that you never miss any important information about your account we’ll be displaying a welcome screen that will tell you all about:

• Brand new Mr Site products
• Updated Takeaway Website features
• Planned maintenance work
• Useful articles to improve your  website and online business
• Information about your account status, such as renewals
• Plus much, much more

We hope you like these new additions as much as we do – and keep your eyes peeled for lots more to come!

Mr Site HQ will be blogging about all sorts of things - here's just some of what you can expect to see:

• Industry news – any interesting news reports, opinion pieces or research statistics related to the internet, web design, changes in legislation or small businesses
• Links to new Learning Academy articles (go to www.mrsite.co.uk/support to find out more)
• Updates to the Takeaway Website system, new features or templates
• Any special offers or events that might be of interest
• Your feedback! We'll be discussing anything you've told us about features you'd like to see or comments about our service

We hope you enjoy reading and will keep coming back to see us. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts...