author: Kathy

We have added several features to the Doteasy Hosted Gallery in the past couple months. In case you are not aware of the new features:

1. Share Album

When you enable the “Share this Album” function, an email form will be displayed on your gallery page.

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The email form allows your visitors to share your album with their friends and family by sending an email to them with a permalink to your album.

Note, if you enable this feature for a PRIVATE album, the recipient of the email may not have the permissions to view the album.

2. Sort Album

Just like the Photo Sorting function, you can now rearrange the albums in your gallery. The Album Sorting function also uses the same drag and drop logic.

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3. Photo Commenting

Your visitors can now comment on your photos.

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The Photo Comment function is flexible, allowing you to enable comments from all visitors or just friends in your Address Book. By enabling comments, you can also choose whether you want to be notified via email whenever a comment has been posted.

You will find all these settings in your Photo Gallery admin area. The Photo Commenting and "Share this Album" functions are under the "Customize Album Setting" tab and the Album Sorting function is on the "Manage Albums" page.

author: Kathy

I came across an article in a recent issue of the Website Magazine that I thought many of you would be interested in. It talks about alternatives to Google Adsense. For those unfamiliar with it, Google Adsense is an advertisement application run by Google. As a website owner, you can signup for this program to allow Google to administrater ads on your website according to your site's content and audience. When your site visitors click on these ads, you receive a percentage of the revenue.

While it is free to signup, easy to use and provides a supplemental income, there are also negatives associated with using Adsense, including lack of control over the ads and small earnings, and not to mention the somewhat ambigious rules and not-that-transparent proprietary click-fraud monitoring system.

Need alternatives?

1. PayPal

PayPal is not just for buying and selling online. You can also create PayPal buttons for your website to accept subscription/membership fees and donations via credit card, debit cards and/or PayPal. Note, you will need a PayPal Premier or Business account.

2. Affiliate Programs

Place links and banners on your website and get a percentage of their spending. You can sign up with services like Commission Junction, LinkConnector and/or ShareASale to access thousands of available affiliate programs.

With affiliate marketing, you decide which merchants to promote and how to promote them. For example, if your website is a blog and gallery of your travel stories, you can display banners or links from major online merchants such as Expedia, Travelocity, Budget Rent A Car or others in your blog sidebar or you can use text links within your site body content.

Another way is to visit your favorite merchants and see if they offer any affiliate programs. For example, you can place a Doteasy Affiliate Program banner on your website and earn up to US$70 per referral.

3. Ad Spots

For websites, blogs or forums that are established and big enough, you can consider selling ad spots on your website. Here is an article you can read for more information on selling ad spots on your website and blog.

author: Kathy

Remembrance Day is a day of remembrance and celebration. It is a time to celebrate sacrifice, courage, memories, freedom, pride and honour.

This November, in honour of Remembrance Day and all the things that we have taken for granted, Doteasy is proud to introduce the “Celebrate and Honour” Domain Special.

.com/.net/.org/.biz/.info or .us domain name only US$5.95/1st year

All new domain registrations come with free Doteasy $0 Hosting account as well as Doteasy Website Creator, blog, photo gallery, forum, form builder, guestbook and much more…

This is a limited time offer – special ends November 12, 2008. So, hurry and register your new domain name today!

Lest we forget, because there is much to be grateful for.

author: Kathy

What would you do if you received the following email?

Dear user,
We received a third party complaint of invalid domain contact information in the Whois database for this domain…We sent a notice to you at the admin/tech contact email address and the account email address informing you of invalid data in breach of the domain registration agreement and advising you to update the information or risk cancellation of the domain. The contact information was not updated within the specified period of time and we canceled the domain. The domain has subsequently been purchased by another party. You will need to contact them for any further inquiries regarding the domain. PLEASE VERIFY YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION - http://www.enom.com.com92.biz

Recently, domain owners who have registered their domain names through Enom and Network Solutions were targeted in a phishing scam. Emails were sent to domain owners, asking them to login to renew or update their domain registration. The emails contain a link to a login page that is designed to look like that of Enom.com and NetworkSolutions.com. Unaware of the ill-intentions o the fraudster, many customers have fallen for the scam.

By the way, the above message is one of the phishing emails sent. You can read more about these phishing emails here:

• Enom Phishing Scam
• Network Solutions Phishing Scam

So, what can you do to protect yourself from these phishing scams?

1. Keep Information to Yourself

Fraudsters often mine the domain registry WHOIS database for your domain registration information, including your domain expiry date and contact information. This is how they know when to send you fraudulent domain renewal “reminders”. While you cannot hide your domain expiry date on your Whois records, you do have the option to hide you contact information – Private Domain Registration.

With Doteasy Private Domain Registration service, your contact information will be masked with our information. Doteasy Private Domain Registration is currently offered as a bundled package with the Domain Locking service (a invaluable services that protects your domain from unauthorized transfers or thefts). You can order this Domain Protection Package in your Member Zone.

2. Know Your Registrar

We have already received several inquiries from Doteasy domain owners. It appears that the fraudsters are not just targeting Enom or Network Solutions customers. If your domain is registered with Doteasy and you have received a Enom-titled warning email, that should set off alarm bells.

You can easily find out who your domain registrar is by using the Whois tool in your Member Zone.

3. Start Typing

The scam emails contain a link to a login page that is designed to look like that of another legitimate company (ie. Enom.com and NetworkSolutions.com). The safest way to login to your domain account to renew or edit your registration is by typing in the address directly in your web browser.

4. Notify Us

If you believe you have been a target or a victim of a phishing scam, contact us immediately so that we can further assist you.