Do you believe this?

First I read this article in the Washington Post about DNS Error Redirection and the insecurity of it since the ads are served by a third party, resulting in all kinds of security issues. They say the security issues are fixed. There are, however, other ramifications to this.

In reading the article further down, it mentioned that SUBDOMAIN errors are also redirected by some ISPs. Earthlink was mentioned, as were Verizon and QWest, though I’m sure there are others doing this as well. So I tried typing in blah.kickasswebdesign.com and sure enough, MY OWN ISP WAS STEALING MY TRAFFIC.

I did get it fixed, but because I’m on two different shared servers with multiple domains, I had to have the hosting guys at both hosting companies fix it for each domain. It apparently has to be fixed by a DNS entry and a change in httpd.config, which, if you’re on shared hosting, is usually not within your control, or at least it isn’t within the scope of my current skills. If you’re on shared hosting, ask your support person to redirect wildcard subdomains to your domain. If you have active subdomains, I would mention that as well.

This is an issue from a lot of perspectives. Someone who, for instance, mistypes www. as ww. will get sent to an ad laden dns error page, which may lead them to think you’re out of business. Also, if they pick up a virus or fall prey to a phishing scam while trying to access your domain it could leave a really bad taste in their mouth. And that’s YOUR traffic that is fattening the wallet of your ISP, the one you pay (way too much) money to every month.

And I’ve gotta say I’m really PISSED OFF at Earthlink for this. I know they’re a public company who has to garner as many income streams as possible to placate shareholders, but this is not the way to do it. This will piss off any customer who has a website and who works hard to generate traffic. And pissed off people generate bad press in the blogosphere. HEAR ME, EARTHLINK????

So the bottom line is that from now on, every domain I activate has this wildcard subdomain redirect put in place at the beginning as part of my checklist of things that need doing to ensure the success of my new website. I suggest you do the same.

Technorati Tags: Earthlink, Verizon, QWest, Subdomain DNS Error Redirection

WebProNews is reporting that some A$$hat is trying to trademark “SEO”, ostensibly for the purpose of standardizing the “process”. Yeah, right. And if it’s granted, how much you wanna bet he takes down all his competition’s domain names???

There is a process to object to his application, and if there is enough of a flood of objections, to the point where he misses answering one, then his trademark will be denied. The catch is it costs $300 to file an objection, but I would bet all SEO folks who make a living from this will be coming out of the woodwork to defend their right to use the term. Watch the video for the details.

I don’t know how he can say the term was first used in 2007. It’s been in use for YEARS by others. This is not what trademarks are for. They’re so you can brand an unusual term and have it be yours, they’re not to give someone the exclusive right to use a COMMON term.

Technorati Tags: SEO, SEO Trademark

Fancy of Cactus Creek already had a design in mind when she came to me. She just needed her web design idea coded into a Custom WordPress Theme. And what a fabulous design it is! This site is as much fun as a Rodeo, done in Western Style with a capital W. Cactus Creek features home decor for the Western or Rustic style home, and the design suits its subject to a T.

Because this is a news site, we went with a straight blog presentation for the front page of the site, but there is heavy use of Pages and SubPages, which are accessible from the top horizontal links. SubPage navigation is coded to only show up on Pages, so that more photos can be shown on the blog and on the front page of the site in the lefthand column. The theme is fully widgetized so that Fancy can add/change/rearrange to her heart’s content.

As you can see, this site is already chock full of fun photos and ideas for decorating. Fancy is making full use of the ImageManager Plugin for sure!

Do you have an idea for a great WordPress website but don’t know how to do the code bits? Kickass can help! Just tell me what you need.

Technorati Tags: Custom WordPress Theme, WordPress Web Design, Western Web Design

Though I know the theory is that everyone loves new shiny things, this insane upgrade schedule that WordPress has set is nuts. Plugins are breaking all over the place (despite the assurances on the 2.5 announcement post that that wouldn’t happen) and people need to know their site is going to WORK. Especially now that WordPress has hit the mainstream and is used for BUSINESS sites.

Some of the plugins my clients depend on haven’t yet caught up to two versions ago. And it isn’t the plugin people’s fault. There have been twelve versions of WordPress released in the last twelve months. We all have other stuff we DO. I’m sure, if the plugin people do this stuff in their spare time, that they are not happy with this situation any more than my clients are. And clients who are luddites and have trouble uploading a file via ftp cannot do these upgrades, and resent that it’s upgrade time again (”Didn’t we just DO this???” they say to me, complaining about that notice in their admin area.) And I’d rather be designing. I hate doing upgrades. Everyone does.

The 2.5 release looks like it’s addressed issues we’ve been yelling about for a long time, and I’m not complaining about what’s been done, it actually looks pretty cool. I hope that once the shakeout happens (WP never seems to be released in TRUE final form, always in what they refuse to call beta even if it is, another gripe I have) that they sit back and work on other stuff for awhile. Like BBPress or something. Or maybe WikiPress. Or AdPress. Or something. Anything other than yet another new version of WordPress which leads to another round of broken plugins and stripped down functionality just to get a site working after the supposedly necessary upgrade.

And someday I might actually get around to upgrading my own installations . . . after I finish a couple hundred client upgrades. Hopefully I’ll be done with this round before the next damn release.

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Oh, and by the way, Happy April Fool’s Day!

Technorati Tags: April Fool’s Day, Crazy Kickass