- Everybody already knows that to properly advertise a business a website is truly necessary. What everybody doesn’t know is that a good Youtube video will not only give perspective customers a visual representation of the products and services that your company can offer. A Youtube video creates a new level of understanding. Think of it as a commercial for your website.

Does a Youtube channel cost money?

- A Youtube Channel is COMPLETELY FREE! When you setup a new google email account the same login carries over to your Youtube Channel.

Can a Youtube video increase my online Visibility?

- ABSOLUTELY!! As everybody knows Google is the leading search engine on the web. What you may not know is Google purchased Youtube back in 2006. Once you upload a video on Youtube it will be indexed separately from your existing website. When perspective clients use key words to search for a business such as yours not only will your website appear in the google search so will your Youtube video. A Youtube video can literally DOUBLE the online exposure your business receives.

Why is it important to have a Youtube video?

- Websites generally contain pictures, text, and sometimes graphics. When adding a Youtube video it will give prospective customers an additional layer of understanding of your products and services that your competitors may not have.   Did you ever ask somebody if they read a particular book and they responded by saying “I saw the movie”.  People like video and with busy time schedules very often people won’t spend the time looking through an entire website.

How can I implement my Youtube video?

- A Youtube video can easily be embedded in your existing website. You can also add the Youtube video link to your emails. Youtube videos can be used to offer special deals and promotions directly into the video.

What are the costs associated with creating a Youtube video?

- SiteProPlus.com has affordable options to video creation. Since business requirements can be extremely different from industry to industry we will create the most cost effective solution along with professional advice to give you what you need. SiteProPlus.com offers an unlimited amount of options when creating a video. Typical prices start around $499.

How do I get started?

- Contact us at support@siteproplus.com or call us at 1-888-256-3096.   One of our video production technicians will be more than happy to have a conference with you and help guide you in creating a new Youtube video for your business.

1. Corporate Presence Sites
2. Restaurants
3. Portfolio sites for Architects, Photographers and Designers
4. Shopping Sites
5. Product Themes

and much much more.  Click here to see the full range of themes available.  For newly established website domains we can setup any of these themes for you for absolutely no charge (for new and existing customers) with any SiteProPlus annual plan!

We will also be introducing new payment methods as Paypal has become prohibitively expensive.

Prior to your next billing date you will be sent an invoice to setup new billing details. If you decide to pay prior to your billing date we will refund the amount corresponding to the early payment on a pro-rata basis. Here are the links to the various subscription terms:

Please note that you may cancel your Paypal (or Alert Pay) subscription anytime by sending us an email or by going to the Profiles page on your Paypal account after you login.  Terms of Service are located here.

NEW:  If you wish to pay by using your credit card on the phone you may do so by calling us at 1-888-256-3096 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-888-256-3096 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Our new servers are world-class website serving powerhouses.  Each server is utilizing Dual 5530 Gainstown, 8 cores, RAID-10 protected hard disk space, with 12 GB of RAM. As you can see, we only use the best in hosting hardware setups.

With server-side technologies and software, we provide users with PHP 4 & 5 (including 5.3!) w/ Zend Optimizer, MySQL 5, Ruby on Rails (Ruby 1.8.7 & Rails 2.3.3), Python 2.3, 2.4, 2.6 & 3.0 and Perl 5.8.

We support GD Graphics Library, cURL Library, ImageMagick 5+, Server Side Include (SSI) support and CGI-BIN and Site-Wide CGI support.  Here are some other key features of our network.

• Fully redundant network architecture with no single points of failure
• Industry-leading network bandwidth capacity: 250+ gigabits/second
• Multiple layers of network security
• Centralized network monitoring in the Network Operations Center (NOC)
• Multiple concurrent, high-capacity Tier 1 bandwidth providers
• Network POPs across 5 cities and 2 continents

Backups

Your website files, email and information is always backed up.  Keeping a recent working backup of your website files is extremely important. We   We also do nightly server backups, so you can be certain your information is safe.

Our nightly backups are stored securely and fully capture each server’s content, file by file. Using the built-in backup functionality that comes with each web hosting account; you can easily backup your own website files. With just a few simple steps, you can download your backup and have instant access to your own archived files should you wish to do so.  Please inquire with us and we can show you how to do this.

As a previous user of SiteProPlus’s previous Content Management System (CMS) for editing your website I need to urgently inform you of the following changes:

1. The CMS is the software system that previously allowed you to edit your website online.  This SiteProPlus CMS which you previously used was developed more than 5 years ago and was the major cause of the recent crash.  It did not allow for functionality that modern websites use such as handling multimedia, tagging, SEO, plug-ins and much more.  FYI, when we acquired SiteProPlus we knew the system was obselete and were evaluating the best course of action to replace it.

2. As a current customer you may edit your website through the Cpanel you now have access to.  However the CPanel is not a CMS.  Rather, it is an administration panel that allows you to edit files online.  However because the system is not a CMS but rather a control panel, you cannot do with it what you did with the previous CMS with the same ease of use.  Ideally changing your website requires the use of a software such as Dreamweaver where you can access the source code of the site via FTP (file transfer protocol).  This requires some technical knowledge which most of our valued clients would not have.  If you know how to use a web editor such Dreamweaver obtain your FTP access is the same as your Cpanel access.  Please contact us to obtain this if you don’t have this information.
   
   Here are possible solutions:
   
   • If you do infrequent text updates to your site, please send those to us and we can do them for you at no charge as part of our support.
   • If you do frequent changes to your site which require adding pages, editing galleries and more there are two recommended choices:
     • Learn how to use a HTML editor such as Dreamweaver.  The FTP to the site where you can access the site directly is above.  This is how most designers create websites.  We believe very few of you will choose to do this unless you have knowledge or access to a designer.
     • Upgrade of your current site to the WordPress CMS, one of the world’s most popular and powerful CMS systems in the market used by 13% of the top 1M sites.  This CMS is very powerful and far easier to use than any CMS on the market.  Although similar to what you used before with SiteProPlus is far more powerful yet easier to use.   By upgrading you will have use of a CMS that is continually updated and allow you to do what you did before to your website and more! As an example of our existing sites that are already on this platform take a look at:
       
       • http://www.graceinteriorsanddesign.com/
       • http://www.arringtonfinancial.com/
       • http://newyorkfalcons.com/
       • http://regionalplanningfoundation.com/

Originally we were planning on converting every customer to WordPress but the cost of conversion makes this unfeasible.  The conversion is not necessary if your site is infrequently modified.  If you decide that you wish to upgrade, we will partially subsidize the actual cost of conversion of your existing site depending upon the complexity of your existing site making it very nominal for most basic sites.  This conversion to a modern CMS that is constantly upgraded will enable you to maintain the ease of use you had before while working with a solution that allows for a multitude of options.  If you wish to discuss this further please let me know and one of our consultants will contact you.

For those who are interested I believe it is important to let you understand fully what happened and how things will improve going forward.

1. The software system and business infrastructure was purchased in late October 2010 by the previous owners.  The software system they built SPP on was a closed proprietary content management software system (CMS) that was built 5 years earlier.  Because of its proprietary nature (i.e. not open source) there were no improvements made to the software.  During the 5 years new more powerful and reliable systems became popular and that were also open source (meaning that it is continually updated which is ).
2. When we bought the system we knew that the software needed to be replaced and the best course of action was to migrate to a new software platform once we figured out the clients requirements.
3. On January 20th around 1 am EST, we were notified by the data center DataPipe, a top  that their software indicated that our hard drive would need replacing in the future.  They strongly advised and reassured us that they could do that in the middle of the nite seamlessly as it was hot swappable.  Hot swappable means that they could replace it as the computer was still running as there are multiple drives setup (in a configuration called RAID) that allows for one of the drives to fail but still be operable.  Having plenty of experience in datacenters, I know this is a riskless situation because when they take the one drive out, the other drives will take over and when the new drive is inserted it will rebuild on it’s own in a few hours.  This is called redundancy particular to RAID hard drive arrays.  Later to my chagrin I found out that the redundancy totally failed as they were using RAID 1 (2 drives) when they told me it was RAID 5 (3 drives).
4. They phoned me later at 5 am and told me that the new drive they replaced in the RAID array was not reading and that the drive controller was not recognizing it so it could not rebuild.  They also said the corruption was also on the remaining drive and that they were trying to recover it and needed to shut the server down.
5. They further informed me within the hour that they weren’t having any success.  At that time I made the professional decision to move all the websites to a new platform during the same day causing the outage.  I originally had planned on doing one site at a time but this outage required us to move hundreds of site at the same time causing massive confusion.
6. The data center had led me to believe on January 21st that the data could be recovered and the old system put online.  Later on in the day they informed us they couldn’t recover the drives themselves and that it would be sent to a data recover specialist firm.  They apologized profusely for this.  I then asked them for the backup files that I had asked them to do daily and the informed me that there were no backups.  Despite my requesting in October to setup a backup system they had failed to do so.
7. Currently we have restored all the websites and restored them based on the backup we performed manually in October.  At this time we have website data only.

What about Data – Email and Web?

1. We have restored most of the websites and are fixing the last parts such as picture galleries, forms and some coding issues.  This will take a week to 10 days to complete though most customers are already completely back up.
2. The hard drive has been sent out to a data recovery firm that will do their best to recover the data up to the time it came down on January 20th – 2 am.  We will do our best to recover your emails and files.  We will inform you once this is done and what data can be recovered including emails and files.

What about the future of SiteProPlus?

Although there was business interruption which we wish never happened, we can assure you with 100% certainty that you are moving ahead with a far better setup than in the past.  Here are the reasons:

1. We are able to dedicate dedicated manpower to providing the best and most reliable technology solutions around.  As we are focused on our content management solutions business, weo stay away from proprietary software for general purpose websites as it is not necessary. This will be beneficial and a huge improvement over what you had previously experienced.
2. The system has now been migrated to a new datacenter with multiple forms of redundancy including near real-time backup solutions.   I’ve been using their technology for 10 years without substantial downtime (greater than 1 day).  They have offsite backups in case of fire and multiple forms of redundancy.
3. We are moving websites over to the most reliable system around that will allow customers to do the following (unlike the previous system):
   • Perform their own backups anytime they wish through their Cpanel.
   • Configure and have their choice of 3 different webmail options.
   • MUCH more reliable email system that never goes down unlike the Qmail used before.
   • Provide for multiple  options of website editing including direct FTP access, WYSIWYG editing and html editing.
   • Fully available to configure using CPanel technology.

Again we apologize for the business interruption and we will be in contact to make sure everything is back and improved.

Thank you very much for your patience.  All websites are back online.

Please note the following:

1. If you are having issues with picture galleries or funny text please send us an email with the exact URL (page name) so we can fix it for you.

Regarding Email:

1. If you require a new email to be setup send us the email alias you want and the password.  We’ll configure it and send you instructions on how to setup on your outlook or use webmail.
2. If you want to setup your own email contact us for your CPanel username and password and we’ll send you simple instructions.  You may also download it here.

If you are having problems with email still note the following from our tech team:

Please note that your computer may still have old data stored in its memory. This data typically clears after a few days. Please DELETE any bookmarks/favorites you stored in your browser for access to the old system. An alternate way to login, is to type: yourdomain.com/webmail in your address bar. You should get a pop-up window asking for your username and password. Be sure to enter your entire email address as username, and the password provided in the password field.

Setting up and Editing your own Website.

To edit your own website you will need you username and password to Cpanel.  You can then download simple instructions here

If you have any problems still please contact us by email at support@siteproplus.com

Download Manual HERE

1. If you use the email with the domain, please make sure you have notified us of the email you wish to setup.  We’ll send you further instructions on how to change passwords, access webmail etc.
2. We are restoring each site manually from backup, this process takes time, as it is not automated. If there is anything wrong with your website after its restored please send us an email as it will be much faster than phoning us.  If you call me (1 888 256 3096) I will do my best to answer.
3. Once we get the sites backup we’ll get in contact with you regarding instructions on accessing and editing the websites.

We will do our best to handle your inquiries in a timely manner.  If possible please email us first at support@siteproplus.com, I will respond to your inquiries as soon as possible.  Please don’t hesitate to keep emailing me as we are a bit disorganized with so much information to restore.

Click here to download the information we require

We have had an emergency issue with our server.  The data center that we use, DataPipe, had some hard drive issues which they tried to rectify on the morning of January 19^th.   Unfortunately they unintentionally caused a permanent corruption of the hard drive.  As a result we are moving our business away from them for obvious reasons.  They also corrupted the software system that SiteProPlus was operating under.  Although we have backups of all your files, the old SiteProPlus software system is not worth salvaging as it was dated and needed to be replaced.  If you already have a custom site with us you are not affected as you are already on a new system.  If you are curious on the technical issues causing this, please refer to http://blog.siteproplus.com/?p=71

As a result our priority is:

• we will need to get your email up
• rebuild your site from our backups on a new content management system.

New WordPress Content Management System (CMS)

As the old SiteProplus.com software system was built 5 years ago we have decided to upgrade to a new software, WordPress, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordpress, that is superior in every way particularly in terms of usability and for search optimization.  This platform is always updated by its developers as it is one of the most popular software systems in the world for managing websites.

To transition the process, here is what we’ll do:

1. 1. First issue is restoring your email:

• If you are using our email please send me a reply to Wilson@mindbay.com to let us know the following:
  • Your email address aliases and passwords.  If you don’t know your passwords that’s fine we’ll set a default to you.  For example, name@website.com, name2@website.com
  • Once we receive this we will reconfigure your email and send you instructions on how to access the webmail and setup your pop email account.

1. 2. New Website rebuild

• We will be recreating your website from scratch based on our backups on WordPress.
• This will start immediately but will take some time as we work our way through the queue.
• We will build it up to the same or nearly the same as it was previously based on the files we have.   This situation is similar to transcribing a written document into a digital document by hand.
• Unfortunately at this time we cannot process custom design requests or modifications due to the volume.  We can get to this later.
• While your site is being built we will put together a landing page with your email, phone number on it and say that the site is being rebuilt and will be brought back up.
• Our designer may contact you by email or phone to fill in the missing details on your website if any during the recreation process.  Her email is bukie@mindbay.com
• Your new website will be better, easier to manage than ever before.  We will be training you on how to use this system as it’s far easier to use.

1. 3. How long will this take?

• Email – The first step is to repoint your domain name to our new servers.  This will take at most 1 day as the changes will need to be propagated.
• Website -  This will be queued up and we will get to your site up as soon as possible.  During the downtime, you will be compensated.

1. 4. Compensation

We sincerely apologize for this situation.  We don’t want to lay blame here but this is a situation that happens once in a blue moon, that was totally unexpected.  Due to the inconvenience we have caused we will be doing one the following:

• Adding an extension to your account of at least 1 month or refunding you at minimum 1 month’s fees.
• Providing you with a $200 credit on any of our internet marketing services.

You will see that the new system is much improved.  We apologize that this had to happen but this was simply beyond our control.  We accept full responsibility and please be patient with us as we rebuild your website.

As you know we bought the business 3 months ago and have been trying to update the old software system. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this.

1. 5. Contact

As we have limited manpower please be patient as we can handle only a certain number of inquiries at a time.  My interim contact is:

• Email:  Wilson@mindbay.com
• Design:   bukie@mindbay.com
• Phone:  1-866-256-3096
• Blog: http://blog.siteproplus.com/?p=67 // please feel free to comment on this.