Daily Blog » … it’s about time.

2008

Sep

NEW: Internet Marketing Tools to help you get the best from your website

We’re pleased to announce the first phase of a collaboration with Clickstream Technologies which means we can now offer Daily.co.uk customers cutting edge services website services which give the power to detect pay per click ad fraud, generate sales leads and analyse visitor behaviour so websites can be optimised to increase both sales and visitor satisfaction.

We think these tools are great for learning exactly how visitors use your website and therefore giving you the knowledge to amend your site so that it really suits your visitors. With Heat Maps and Click Maps, you can see an overlay of your website showing where the hotspots are for clicks and which areas seem to be being ignored - do you have a promotion that isn’t clicked on much because people with lower screen resolutions can’t see it so easily? Or are people mistaking a simple image for something which is clickable? Click Movies takes this idea one step further - you’ll be able to see video playback of customers’ navigation around your site, so you can see the order in which things catch your customers’ eyes. To talk directly to your customers, we’ve added an unobtrusive customer satisfaction survey. We’ll even automatically enable Google Analytics for you, so you can get the benefit of Google’s powerful web analytics without having to manually insert their code into each page of your website.

Plus there are direct revenue benefits, too. With click fraud detection you can be alerted to suspicious clicks on your pay-per-click ads, and even producing reports that you can use to put your case to the search engines for reimbursement. With Lead Generation, you can get relevant information on all business visitors to your site without requiring them to fill in a form, extracting sales leads from your website.

The Google Analytics automation service, a free ‘sales lead of the day’, and the online survey tool are all free with selected Daily.co.uk web hosting and eShop packages. If you already have a qualifying package you should find you’ve been automatically upgraded so that you have access to these new services - just log into your My Daily control panel and visit the new ‘Internet Marketing’ section. You can also opt for free trials of heat map, movie recording and click fraud detection services.

We’re already talking about some of the other great services our customers could take advantage of, so if you have any suggestions for new services and website widgets you’d like to see us offer, just drop us a line.

Further Information:

Internet Marketing Tools from Daily.co.uk

Web Hosting from Daily.co.uk

Online Shopping with eShops from Daily.co.uk

By Cat | Posted in Domain and Web Hosting Offers, Internet Marketing, Online Shopping | Comments (0)

2008

Aug

Business Website Profile: Sussex Travel Clinic

We spoke to Daily.co.uk web hosting customer Jane Bell of Sussex Travel Clinic, an independent clinic that specialises in providing health advice and vaccinations for UK travellers venturing abroad. Established in 2007 by Jane and fellow travel health advisor Helen Thorpe, Sussex Travel Clinic is a great example of trained professionals taking their extensive experience and building an independent business with the help of the internet.

Yours is an existing company which was taken online - what have been the benefits in having an internet presence?
Every business needs a website these days - it’s an essential route to market. We have found our trade via the internet is increasing month on month.

Can you talk us through the evolution of your website?
We intially purchased an Instant Website from Daily, which proved a really cheap and easy way to get us out there. After a while, we felt we wanted a more flexible professional look, so we upgraded to a web hosting account and our new website was designed this year by a professional web design company.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in getting www.sussextravelclinic.com to where it is now?
Getting listed in Google. Lots of hard work adding ourselves to local directories and ensuring the right keywords were in place. It doesn’t stop there, though - we aim to continue to promote our site and maintain our strong listings in order to continue to increase the amount of business driven by our website.

What attracted you to Daily.co.uk?
The price and ease of use with all the products on offer. We have found all the staff very helpful at Daily. The products on offer are very reasonable and are great for people like us who had no experience in this area.

More information:

Travel vaccination advice from Sussex Travel Clinic

Instant Websites from Daily.co.uk

Web Hosting from Daily.co.uk

By Cat | Posted in Customer Profiles, Customers | Comments (0)

2008

Aug

Email spam - one coping strategy

We don’t tend to be too badly afflicted with email spam here at Daily.co.uk, but let’s face it, we’ve all had emails from those charming chaps who’d just like to borrow your bank account for a transaction or cause appendages you may or may not possess to reach improbable proportions.

So, here’s a tip that we use that should help keep things to manageable levels if you own your own domain name:

Reduce spam by removing catch-all forwarding

Daily Internet offers the facility for various permutations of email forwarding. You can forward individual addresses to one or more destinations, i.e. deliver mails sent to ’sales@whateveryourdomainis.co.uk’ to all four members of your sales team and ‘bert@whateveryourdomainis.co.uk’ just to Bert.

It’s also possible to set up “catch all” forwarding for a domain name so that all emails sent to addresses which don’t have their own specific forwarding rules go to just one destination, for example anything sent to any combination of letters and numbers @whateveryourdomainis.co.uk could be set to deliver to a particular mailbox.

This can be an attractive option if you find people tend to guess at the correct address to use to reach you at your domain name. However, it also makes it easier for people sending spam email to reach you, as they will often send to addresses they think are likely to exist such as sales@, info@, admin@ and so on.

If you’re receiving lots of spam to different email addresses at your domain name, removing catch-all forwarding may help by preventing you receiving mail sent to be37xxxy@whateveryourdomainis.co.uk and the like. The trade-off is that you’ll need to make sure that all of the ‘real’ addresses you quote to people have mailboxes or forwarding set up so that you can continue to receive legitimate email as normal. This won’t make a difference if spam is sent to a genuine email address, but it does reduce the opportunities for spammers to find an address that will reach you so in many cases people see a drastic reduction in the amount of spam they receive.

Manage email on a domain with Daily.co.uk.

And finally… not all bulk email is spam!

Don’t forget that if you’ve done business with a company they might be sending you something it’s genuinely worth your while to read, such as a reminder to renew services which are due to expire. If you’re not interested in receiving news and offers from them you should be able to unsubscribe from future newsletter-style emails (if you’re a Daily Internet customer, you can opt whether or not to receive the Daily newsletter in the ‘Personal Details’ area of your My Daily control panel), but it’s best not to click your ‘Report spam’ or ‘Junk’ button.

By doing so, you risk getting the sender blacklisted so that yourself and others cannot receive important mails such as service renewal reminders. If it’s a legitimate company with whom you’ve ever done business (for example, you’ve purchased something from them, participated in a competition, registered on their website, or something along those lines), contact them directly if you’re not sure what to do about an email from them - legitimate companies, unlike spammers, don’t want to send you mail if you’re really not interested in what they have to offer so they should help you to unsubscribe.

By Cat | Posted in Customers, Hints & Tips | Comments (0)

2008

Aug

Domain Names: cheaper renewals & transfers with Domain Credits

Our Domain Credits product has proved so popular with customers that as a result of feedback we’ve extended it so that credits can be redeemed on transfers and renewals as well!

So, now you can access bulk discounts one domain at a time on .uk and .com renewals and on .com transfers (don’t forget, it’s already free to transfer .uk domains to Daily.co.uk!) as well as on newly-registered domains.

Any existing Domain Credits will work with transfers and renewals too, so Daily Internet customers can now get .com transfers and renewals from just £3.89 p.a. and .uk renewals from only £2.53 p.a. - the cheapest prices in the UK*!

Buy new Domain Credits
Renew or transfer Domains using existing Credits
Send us more feedback about the features, products and services you’d like to see at Daily.co.uk

*Prices exclude VAT. Price comparisons correct as of 04/06/08.

By Cat | Posted in Domain Names, Web Hosting and Domain News | Comments (0)

2008

Aug

New Feature: Account Overview

If you’re a Daily Internet customer you may have noticed a new control panel feature that should make keeping track of your account activity much easier. If you log into your My Daily control panel and choose ‘My Account’ you’ll see there’s now an account overview option, which acts as a quick reference for your account.

You can view at a glance all your active domain names and services, plus the email addresses you have set up, the credit cards you have stored, and the orders you’ve placed and closed. You’ll also be able to keep track of Support tickets you’ve raised and the automated emails we’ve sent you for things like renewal reminders.

If there are other features, services or products that you’d like to see us offer you can drop us a line at blog@daily.co.uk

By Cat | Posted in Customers, Hints & Tips, Web Hosting and Domain News | Comments (0)

2008

Aug

Instant Website Profile: Red Cloud MC

We talked to Mark, of Bedfordshire marketing communications company Red Cloud MC, about his experiences of setting up his website with Daily.co.uk. Mark currently has Instant Website and an email account but has big plans to expand into online trading.

Firstly, what made you start the business?
I had been thinking of going self employed for many years. However I was waiting to gain enough experience in all aspects of national and international marketing & PR so that I could truly offer my clients the ‘real deal’. In September last year, the time was right.

What was the thinking behind your online presence?
The web is such an important factor for any business these days. The first thing I turned my attention to when starting Red Cloud was my web presence. As a marketer I appreciate the need to give people a reason to believe in a product or service provider. A website allows you to do this by showcasing your key skills and abilities, encouraging contact and feedback in an easily promotable way. Within two weeks of the site being up I received two client briefings directly through the website – it has continued to do well ever since.

Can you talk us through the evolution of your website?
As a ‘non-techy’, my biggest fear was producing a website. I approached a few web designers I know and even at ‘friends rates’ it was a significant investment at business start-up phase. I decided to have a go myself and if the result was awful I would admit defeat and pay a web designer. After some lengthy research on the various so-called templates available – I returned to one of my first discoveries, Daily Internet.

It struck me that the product offering was far more professional and user friendly than the competition and I purchased the Instant Website package and HyperSubmit (which I have subsequently advised numerous clients to adopt). The choice of design template was actually the toughest job as there were so many to choose from and I had a strong brand image in my head to start with. After that, the writing and design of the site was unbelievably easy with only one call to the helpline needed…and this from a non-techy, ITphobic! Updating the site with new sector experiences etc has been exceptionally easy and, with a new site in the offing as well as revamp of the existing Red Cloud MC site… Daily.co.uk will again be my choice.

How have you found the extra services you have with Daily.co.uk?
HyperSubmit is legendary! It has worked so well for me it is hard to put it into words. I have recommended this to my clients and I know of some who have already adopted the product with great results. My email has never let me down either. I often hear clients bemoaning their email and internet being down - ISP allowing, this has yet to happen to me once. It’s available as and when and wherever I need it. Often the best products are those you never have to think about… the ones that never let you down, just do their job well with no fuss. In my experience Daily.co.uk has done just this with all the products they provide.

And what’s next?
A revamped Red Cloud MC site and an eShop, plus a whole new Instant Website. This will represent a huge investment in time and money on my part as well as a step in a new and exciting direction. Such steps are full of uncertainty but my choice of web host is a given! I’ve done my research, don’t get me wrong. You should always shop around and see what the market offers. In doing this research, Daily.co.uk have yet again come up trumps – the right product at the right price. I know them and trust them so I will only use Daily.co.uk to develop my existing and new businesses in the future.

What attracted you to Daily.co.uk?
The product and service range, competitive pricing and helpful staff. Everything you seek in a business partner. My business has grown quite nicely in the last year and Daily has certainly played its part in this initial success.

For example, the helpline do just that… help! All too often you contact company helplines only to be on hold for an hour and then to be spoken to as if you are an IT professional…words that I for one do not comprehend! Daily are quick, efficient and explain in everyday parlance exactly what you need to do. The email helpdesk service is equally efficient and helpful.

Further information:

Marketing Communications from Red Cloud MC

Cost-effective email from Daily.co.uk

Great sites with Instant Website

Search Engine Optimisation with HyperSubmit

By Cat | Posted in Customer Profiles, Customers, Web Hosting and Domain News | Comments (0)

2008

Aug

Customer Service - The Daily.co.uk way

To introduce myself, my name is Ray Supple and I’m the Support and Customer Service Manager here at Daily Internet. It’s high time I wrote a blog article, and I thought my first one should be a subject that is close to everyone’s heart and that is ‘Customer Service’. It’s a term you will no doubt hear very frequently, but what exactly is it all about?

Having been in the industry for quite a few years, I have seen lots of different approaches to ‘Customer Service’. Often these end up involving lots of spreadsheets, pre-written call scripts, complicated scoring systems, confusing telephone menus and other horrors.

From experience, many companies overcomplicate matters and lose their way totally. They end up dictating what they think you, the customer, should be happy with, rather than simply listening to you in the first place. There’s also the trap that so many fall into in that by trying to make scoring systems fit neatly into various graphs and charts, the focus often changes from delivering good customer service to chasing statistics instead (I’ve heard of people calling their own company on their mobiles to ‘bump-up’ their call statistics).

It is no wonder that so many people report bad experiences when dealing with various companies these days, but it really doesn’t have to be like this.

At Daily.co.uk, we have geared our approach up entirely from listening to what you, the customer, wants. That’s why amongst other features, you’ll find:

No Telephone Menus
We won’t make you jump through hoops before you can speak to someone. Just dial our number and get straight through to us.

No Lengthy Call Queues
Our average response time on the telephone is under ten seconds (that’s about two or three rings). You won’t be sitting in a queue for twenty minutes listening to a tinny rendition of Vivaldi and pre-recorded messages saying “your call is important to us”.

No Call Scripts
You will speak to human beings at Daily.co.uk who will talk to you as an individual. You will not find us reading off a robotic call-script that is expected to be applied to all customers, that includes everything from irrelevant and repetitive questions or hollow attempts asking what the weather is like!

One Specialised Team
Ever found that you can get through to a Sales team straight away where a helpful person promises the world, but once you have paid and signed up you then have a different number for other queries that will take a lot longer to get through? This says a lot about where a company’s priority is in terms of drumming up new customers or looking after existing ones. Or have you just ever been ping-ponged between different teams and found yourself having to explain yourself from the beginning each time, only to be told you need to speak to another department?

At Daily.co.uk you will deal with the same specialised team for all your queries, be they product advisory, technical support or just general queries.

Email Responses
Email and Ticket systems are often given very little resource by many companies, where the resources for responding to email queries are pushed down the pecking order or often sacrificed altogether to put them on their telephones instead. This is why many companies honestly believe a two or three day response time is acceptable. And have you ever waited over a day for a response only to get a very poor standardised response back, where they have not read your original email properly and seem to be more focused on hitting a target for how many emails they reply to or to just remove it from their queue?

We take the time to read and respond to your emails properly and make sure your reply is never more than a few hours at the most (with the majority of tickets responded to within minutes!)

Giving control of your service back to you
We provide our on-line control panel that allows you to manage your domain names and other services yourself 24/7/365, be it upgrading, changing your nameservers, resetting passwords, updating your emails etc. Whilst we are here for you, we won’t force you to contact us for some tasks that you would rather just do yourself there and then in a few clicks of a mouse!

I could go on all day about the way we do things at Daily.co.uk, but hopefully this gives you an insight into some of our approaches. If you wanted any more details or have any questions, ideas or feedback then feel free to drop me a line directly on ray.supple@daily.co.uk

By Ray | Posted in About Daily | Comments (0)

2008

Jul

NEW: .me domains, plus we’ve made finding the perfect domain even easier

The latest domain to be released is now at Daily Internet! .me domain names are now available for just £12.89 (excl. VAT) per year at http://www.daily.co.uk/products/domain-names. Why not register yours now?

Plus, our Domain Search facility has had a bit of a makeover, so as well as seeing whether your domain of choice is available as a .co.uk or .com it will suggest a few other options you might not have considered.

Just search for a new domain name as normal and you’ll see two brand new options when you get to the results page:

‘More Suggestions’ will give some different ideas of available domains based on your search, so it’s great if you’re struggling to find an available domain that’s just right.

‘Premium Domain Names’ gives you access to domains that are already registered but are for sale. They’re a little pricier than our usual domains, but in the business world a strong, memorable domain name is absolutely essential to make sure potential customers find you easily. Premium domains can be renewed at standard Daily.co.uk prices and you won’t find them available in standard domain searches, so they are well worth the initial investment.

Domain search: http://www.daily.co.uk/products/domain-names

By Cat | Posted in Web Hosting and Domain News | Comments (1)

2008

Jul

iPhone email, the Daily.co.uk way

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past few weeks you can’t fail to have noticed that the 3G version of the iPhone has been released.

Here at Daily we have several iPhone addicts and the one thing about the phone they all enthuse about is email.

Lori, who has loads of different email accounts, loves the push email from MobileMe and Yahoo, and Alison just loves the sheer simplicity of being able to get her emails from her Daily.co.uk email account wherever she may be. In fact she says “It’s the best phone I’ve ever used to read and send emails”

So, if you have the iPhone already, or are thinking about it, why not get an email package from Daily.co.uk to go with it?

Further information:

Email Packages from Daily.co.uk

iPhones from Apple

By Cat | Posted in Hints & Tips, Internet News | Comments (0)

2008

Jul

Online Shop Profile: Be Charmed Jewellery

We talked to Jane, of Kent-based family business Be Charmed Jewellery, about her experiences of building an online business with Daily.co.uk. Be Charmed sells over 700 products with an eShop Business package using Google Checkout and PayPal Express.

What made you start the business?
I am a web designer and my mother is a retailer and between us we were itching to start a retail business online, because hopefully with my web skills and her retail experience we could really do well.

We spent 4 years searching for the right product! From the web perspective, we needed a product for which we could already identify keywords - a brand name or product that was already being searched. From the retail point of view, we wanted a small product that was easy to store and to ship.

When the popularity for charm bead bracelets started there were a couple of brand names already being searched online, so we bought into another brand name and used keywords for all three to enhance our own product searches.

How did your business evolve?
We initially started in November 2007 with an eBay shop, where there were around 350 similar items listed at any one time. By February 2008, this had increased to over 3000!

We saw the popularity was increasing and knew that it was imperative to get our products into our own store.

We built our shop with the Daily.co.uk eShop Business package. Business has been wonderful, and has far surpassed our expectations since we launched the site in March 2008.

We’ve also just tried out the integrated newsletter tool, sending out to 500 people and generating 3 big orders within a few hours. We are far happier selling through our Daily.co.uk shop than eBay, as in our Daily shop customers “fill” their baskets, sometimes with up to 10 items, whereas eBay buyers seem to just buy one or two items at a time.

What attracted you to Daily.co.uk?
I came to Daily after testing a similar product with another company. I was very disappointed with their service - they didn’t answer support emails for days on end. I did a Google search, read about Daily.co.uk and made a quick technical call. I got an answer within a few rings and my question clarified within minutes, so I set up shop with Daily.co.uk. Everyone has been very helpful and quick to answer our questions. I am so impressed with the Daily service that I am also contemplating taking out a Reseller account for my web design business, where I am currently hosting 40 domains for clients!

What was the biggest challenge you faced in getting Be Charmed to where it is now?
Our biggest challenge to date has been marketing. In my role as a web designer, I am constantly learning about new search engine optimisation techniques and ways to expose the website to more visitors (hence taking up the opportunity to feature on the Daily Blog!). I never miss an opportunity to promote.

Our other challenge has been understanding how to “read our customers’ minds”. It seems that some members of the British public are sceptical about online shopping, thinking that they are about to get stitched up! For us, reassurance is paramount and we always answer the simplest of questions in the most friendly and expedient manner. We try to reassure them on the site with as much detail as possible.

What’s next for Be Charmed Jewellery?
Our next step is to grow the business by gradually adding more ranges. We will take this slowly and surely, testing the market at every step of the way. We will be especially interested to see how the Christmas period pans out. In our first year we did well, but we expect to do much more during Christmas 2008.

Further information: