It’s New Year’s! A happy time?

A time for reflecting. A time to party. A happy time!

For most of us, it’s a time of making promises to ourselves that get seem to get harder to keep as the year goes by… so instead of that, I resolve to focus on what makes happy times even happier. (Hint: it’s not alcohol.)

It’s gratitude.

I’m not recycling an old “Thanksgiving” email about being thankful here. I will make this new year the happiest it can possibly be and I’m taking you with me.

This new year comes with a bunch of awesome new stuff; new products we’ve worked really hard on like our Domain Club that will save you money, great projects that will continue to improve our hosting services (I even hear whispers of a new hosting control panel, “zzzz…. cPaaahhnellll…. zzzz” in the ice-cold winter breeze), and our new account control panel, which you may have already seen.

So, my ambition for 2013 is to be happier. Happy people make better partners, parents, business owners, thinkers, and well, people. The way to get there is to be grateful for everything you’ve got and to constantly search for things to be happy about. If you can spend your time focusing on the positive around you, you will influence your world to be more positive toward you.

I hope you start searching for all the good in your life until it just becomes obvious on its own and all your struggles appear smaller by comparison. There is a lot to be grateful for, in anyone’s life, and it is all too easy to forget.

We’re incredibly grateful to have you as our customer and partner in doing better things with the Internet.

I hope this year will be a happy one for you.

What’s your New Year’s Resolution? Any specific ones in regards to your business or website?

–
Fathi
Happy IX Leader

PS: I’m really interested to hear what you guys think. Put your answers in the comments and we’ll try and answer each one – especially if you have any confusion about what you can do to reach those goals with your site.

PPS: So, check this out. I got myself this really cool Christmas gift called “prism glasses.” They’re awesome and totally weird, but I love them. Who knows, you might like them too!

Also, if you want to read more about gratitude and happiness – I recommend you check out “The Happiness Advantage” book. I will be using my new prism glasses to read it in bed, but don’t judge the book by that. It’s actually good and has inspired me in many ways!

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Hey everyone!  This year we wanted to do something special for the holidays, so, we’re having a huge Holiday Sale!  These great deals are just around the corner:

• 25% off ANY shared hosting plan when you use the coupon: HOLIDAY2012!
• 50% off the first month of our introductory Cloud or VPS plans! Coupons: HOLIDAYCLOUD12 & HOLIDAYVPS12
• For IX Customers Only: SSL certificates are only $4.95! Check your email for coupon codes!
• UPDATE – The $1.99 new .com domain promotion has reached the limit.  Promo Code HAPPYHOLIDAYS is no longer effective.  The $1 .com, .net, and .org domain promotion when WHOIS Privacy is purchased is still active, however.  No promo code necessary.  Thanks!

It all starts this month, December 17th-25th!  Don’t miss out!

We love giving back to our customers for the holidays, but we also remember that there are less fortunate people people in the world.  There are families out there struggling to make ends meet. That’s why, for the third year in a row, IX Web Hosting joined the Franklin County Children Service’s Holiday Wish event!  This year, we all came together and raised enough money to give toys to 85 children. Check out the full story!

Happy Holidays! We hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday season.

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The same team that’s been helping you with your sites is also helping children to have a happier holiday season!

For the third year in a row, IX Web Hosting participated in Franklin County Children Service’s annual Holiday Wish event. This charity doesn’t just donate to children in foster homes, but also to underprivileged families and orphans. What’s more, the kids actually get to choose the gifts they want, so rather than just picking from an assortment of random toys, they get exactly what they asked for.

For the second year in a row, Customer Relations (CR) Supervisor Robyn Mckee took lead as event coordinator and pseudo-santa. Much like last year, she planned a series of awesome fundraising events held throughout October and November.

We held a bunch of different fundraising events, like the Halloween Cook-Off (won by Cloud Sales rep Ken Long with his delicious cheeseburger soup), a Bake Sale, Movie Day, the annual Raffle, a Pancake Breakfast and even a Magic the Gathering Tournament.

All in all, our plan was to provide toys to 75 kids this year. However, we actually exceeded our fundraising goals enough to give gifts to 85 kids instead!

Robyn, Wil Jones, Dana Carey, and Chris Bates (all CR) then combed through the list of gifts the children had picked out. Kevin Mager (Oracle) helped make a spreadsheets to track bookkeeping for the various events as well as help divide up what gifts had been purchased and what gifts were still needed. After everything had been purchased, the grand total came to 160 toys!

Robyn, Dana, Kelly Walkauskas, Kevin Rucker (CR), and James Holt (Oracle) all played the role of Santa’s elves by wrapping the gifts, while Wil designed all the posters and signs like a pro.

Then, the big day. On Thursday, December 6th, we loaded up our donated fleet of SUV’s (Thanks to Tibi Ungureanu (Network Engineering), Dir. of CR Lisa Grice and VP of Operations Rick Gideon) and hit the road with Sr. Manager of CR Chris Testerman driving the pace car. When we arrived at the donation center, we were amazed at how many gifts they had. It was literally a warehouse stacked wall-to-wall with presents. It was beautiful to see just how much had been donated.

We look forward to Holiday Wish every year.. It doesn’t just benefit the children; it brings us closer together as a company, and brings us closer to our community.

We hope you have similar opportunities to help where you are. We’d love to hear about what you’re doing for the holidays in the comments.

Thanks for sharing the experience with us by reading. Happy Holidays!

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You may have heard by now, but some highly sensitive, highly interesting material leaked from our corporate offices recently. We were advised not to comment, but it seems we’re past the point of staying quiet. Before you base your opinion on some bad reporting you saw elsewhere, check out these redacted materials for yourself. Is something big coming at IX?

Check out these suspiciously obscured photos and this redacted letter to our CEO:

Q:  Hello, this is Web Hosting Expose Weekly, talking to Mack Jensen, public relations manager at IX Web Hosting.  How’s it going Mack?
A:  It’s going well, how are you?

Q:  Just fine.  Well, I suppose you know why I’m here.
A:  Yes, yes I do.

Q:  Earlier this, week, a top secret document was leaked on your own blog, detailing a classified project your company is working on.  Can you give us any details on what this might be?
A:  Nope.  Not even a little bit.

Q:  You can’t comment on this project at all?
A:  Truthfully, I cannot confirm or deny that this so called ‘project’ even exists.

Q:  So, are you saying the leaked documents aren’t authentic?
A:  I can’t even confirm or deny these alleged ‘documents’ exist.

Q:  Well… we know they exist, they’re posted on your blog.
A:  Blog?  Is that even a word?

Q:  Please Mr. Jensen.  You can’t just deny everything and expect us to believe th-
A:  I’m sorry, who’s this Mr. Jensen you’re referring to?

Q:  Come on.  That’s your name.
A:  Is it?

Q:  ….Yes.
A:  Okay, you got me.  I guess you’ve got your big story now.

Q:  No!  That’s not the story!  Look, a top secret doc was leaked on your blog, which is silly anyway, because it’s YOUR blog and it hasn’t been taken down yet. Regardless, the public wants to know what you’re working on.
A:  Look, a document may or may not have been leaked and posted online. It may or may not be about IX’s brand new control panel, which may or may not feature an entirely new interface, customization options, and helpful new tools.   Tools that may not even be there.  And my name may or may not be Mack Jensen.  However, I simply can’t comment on these things at this time.  Plus, you can’t believe everything you hear on the internet, that’s how the Civil War got started.

Q:  I, uhh… wait, what?
A:  Yes?

Q:  Did you just confirm a new control panel for IX?
A:  No, I did the opposite of that. I vaguely mentioned it and then indicated I couldn’t confirm or deny its existence.  That way you won’t know it’s our big secret.

Q:  See!  Right there!  You did it again!
A: No I didn’t.  Look, if you read into everything I say, you can concoct all sorts of nonsense.  The bottom line is, I just can’t talk about the new control panel, because it’s top secret, and if I let the cat out of the bag, I’ll get in big trouble.  Assuming it even exists, which it doesn’t.

Q: …Okay.
A: Thanks, I’m glad we understand each other.  Now, you’re not going to report any of this, are you?

Q: What?  I’m a reporter,  that’s what I do!
A: THAT’s what reporters do?  Oh no, I thought you did that thing with… ahh, what’s the thing where you roll a ball at some weird sticks and wear funny shoes?

Q:  What, bowling?
A:  Yeah, that!  Oh no, oh God, oh no, I’m in so much trouble…  oh God…  this interview is over!!

link to mp3: http://assets.ixwebhosting.com/media/hosting_expose_weekly.mp3

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Congrats to Mike Harris who made another appearance in Web Hosting Industry Review magazine!

Earlier this year, you’ll recall Mike having done a talk on his Innovation Initiative for HostingCon 2012. Apparently, WHIR enjoyed his talk so much, they decided to do a feature-length article on his ideas.

Every company faces the challenge of developing new ways to sell their products, solve a problem, or improve efficiency. Mike’s concept is for companies to use their entire workforce to drive innovation and develop creative ideas, rather than only relying on members of management or hiring outside consultants. Mike explained this in the article, but also gave us some ideas on how even smaller teams can take advantage of his ideas. So, keep reading to find out how you might be able to use Mike’s concepts for yourself!

When describing why his approach is so effective in the WHIR piece, Mike said, “What’s so interesting about the approach is you get a really good variety of ideas and backgrounds because you’re grabbing from different areas of expertise and you’re bringing them together,” He continues. “They come in as if they were all co-founders in a startup company to solve whatever problem it is they want to solve.”

Mike also explained how his method can be very beneficial to companies that have a limited amount of staff and financial resources.

Some of you might be wondering how to use these concepts for your own purposes. Well, we asked Mike for some insight on how some of our customers can take advantage of his ideas.

“The approach to innovation that I am sharing will work for small and large companies alike. The concepts do not depend on company size at all, but rather the ability to create small, diverse teams with the freedom to focus and the autonomy to create change. The challenge for very small companies will be to create team diversity when it comes to member’s backgrounds, skill sets, and experience. To achieve this diversity you could ask a customer, vendor, friend, or family member to participate. Once you have a few diverse thinkers on the team, the concepts and practices will apply just as they do for larger companies.”

After overcoming the challenge of creating team diversity, it’s up to those smaller organizations to then carry out the innovation concepts that Mike outlines so they too can propel forward.

To read the WHIR article in its entirety, check out “The Innovation Initiative with Michael Harris of Ecommerce, Inc.”!

Thanks, and once again, congratulations to Mike!

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Mike’s speech was covered by Web Hosting Industry Review and was a featured topic on several hosting-related websites.

“Real innovation is methodical. You can repeat it,” Harris said.

While many companies will pay for outside ‘consultants’ to brainstorm ideas, Harris believes innovation can come from within the company, provided the innovation team is given the right environment. For instance, the team should be given the space, time, and resources to work on the project, rather than being expected to work on it in addition to their normal duties. Scheduled time away from the typical ‘day to day’ aspects of their jobs also helps the team focus and make measurable progress.

Harris goes on to describe how the innovation team communicates with senior leadership, and how leadership should challenge and support the team, and avoid simply shooting things down.

Check out Mike’s slideshow for the Innovation Initiative.

Attention all Apple users!

If you haven’t heard, come June 30th, Apple will no longer be supporting MobileMe accounts. Because of this, any iWeb site you have uploaded to MobileMe will no longer be up and running.

But don’t worry!

IX Web Hosting provides web and mail services which will allow your site to remain active, and moving your site over to us is a snap. I’ve put together this quick walkthrough to show you how easy it is to switch your iWeb site from MobileMe over to IX Web Hosting in just 5 simple steps:

1. When you create a hosting account with us (if you don’t have one already click HERE to sign up) you will receive a ‘Welcome’ email detailing all login and server information you’ll need. If you signed up previously and lost your ‘Welcome’ email, contact us and we’ll help you find this info.

2. Log into your IX Web Hosting account. Click the ‘Manage’ button for your hosting product and add your domain name under ‘Domains’. Ignore the message about ‘top level domain’ and be sure ‘Web Service’ is turned on. Also, once finished, write down the IP address. (Take note if the word ‘shared’ appears next to it).

3. Open iWeb. Click the domain name on the left to bring up the publishing settings. You will see “Publish to: ‘MobileMe’“. Instead, select “FTP Server” from the drop down menu and enter your IP address or web server name indicated in your welcome email.

4. From the welcome email, you’ll need your Server Address, Username, and Password to fill out the rest of the “FTP Server Settings”. Leave the “directory/path:” field blank.

5. Once finished, click ‘publish’ and thats it! You’ve migrated your website over to our service just with a few simple clicks inside your iWeb program.

To make sure your site is up and working the way you want it, open up a browser window and type in the IP address you wrote down earlier unless it had ‘shared’ next to it.  If you have a ‘shared’ IP address, you click ‘Web Options’ in the ‘Manage’ section of your hosting account, click the domain name, and scroll to the bottom to click ‘Instant Access Domain Alias,’ as seen below.

Once you’re sure it’s working, update your name servers with your current registrar using the information provided to you in the ‘Welcome’ email. If you’re not sure how to change your name servers, consult this:

http://www.ixwebhosting.com/hosting-manual/domain-name-system

If you have any issues with this process, feel free to reach me Sunday – Thursday, 8AM – 5PM EDT.  I’m considered the ‘mac guy’ in the office and would be happy to ensure this transition goes smoothly for you. My number is 800-385-0450, extension 014.

If I’m not available, any one of our helpful staff members can assist you. Just visit http://www.ixwebhosting.com/support if you have any questions.

Good luck!

Robert Graham
Customer Relations

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This is not a typo. Act fast before we regain our senses!

Right now, we’re offering domain registrations* for a single U.S. dollar. One buck. Which is a very small price to pay. In fact, it’s the lowest price we’ve ever offered for .com, .net, and .org domain registrations.

Have we gone completely bonkers?

Well, yes and no.

So… why so LOW? We want all of our customers to understand and utilize Whois Privacy, a feature that protects your prized contact information from spammers, scammers and phishers. To help you get started, we’re offering .com, .net, and .org domain registrations for the unheard-of low price of one dollar each, when you enable Whois Privacy at the regular price of only $9.95 a year.

One Dollar Domains!

It’s such a great deal, we still can’t believe it!

When you enable Whois Privacy on your new domains, you’ll get your first year’s registration for a single dollar. Whois Privacy is an excellent way to prevent evildoers and other bad guys from getting your contact information from the Whois Directory and causing all kinds of fresh mayhem. In fact, one of our people nearly had a domain stolen by a hacker. How? They used her Whois information to hack an email account and request a domain transfer. Pretty nasty stuff. We even get thinly-veiled attempts to hijack our corporate domains.

So Get Your Feet Wet. Go Overboard.

With one-dollar domains you can beef up your domain portfolio. Protect your dot com branded websites with dot nets and dot orgs. Or, maybe now is the time to find that domain you been dying to get but haven’t gotten around to registering. Maybe you want to buy up some domains for the future. Or find a domain to cash in on current events or trends. The sky’s the limit. It’s easy to do – search and register your new domain names right here.

Start Building Your Domain Empire Today!

$1 .com, .net, and .org domain registrations when you enable Whois Privacy. It’s like having your cake and eating it too! This is a limited time offer! As you can imagine, offering domains for $1 is below our cost, so we’re actually losing money on it. We’re definitely not going to keep this offer up forever; we just want to make a limited offer to people who know a great deal when they see it.

Good Luck and Continued Success,

Fathi Said, Founder
IX Web Hosting

*Offer includes all .com, .net, and .org domain registrations for one dollar each for the first year when you enable Privacy for that domain, for a limited time only.

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Here’s the details on the five-featured knock-out punch for your domains.  All five fall into the “you’ve been asking for it forever” category.

You would not believe the amount of emails I get from my customers asking about these features.  They’re finally here.  Let’s get right to it:  (Drum roll please…)

Number 1: Domain WHOIS Privacy

When you register a domain, you fill out your name, address, phone, email, etc., right?

I’m not sure if you know, but this information is PUBLIC.  It’s stored in the so called “WHOIS” database, and anyone, including bad guys (like spammers, identify thiefs (or phishers), and other online fraudsters go there to get the goods on domain owners like you and me.)

There’s actually a close-to-home story that I have of how one my colleagues almost got shafted because she didn’t have her domains protected.  I’ll tell you about it later this week.

The only way to solve it:  Domain WHOIS Privacy – it hides your information and tells the trolls that it’s off limits!

 Click here to protect the domains you already have registered.

To honor the release of this feature – for a very, very short time, we’ll offer new .com domain registrations for the crazy low price of $4, when you register them with Domain WHOIS Privacy.

Number 2: .ME and .NAME Domains

Have you ever wanted to grab a personal piece of web real estate for yourself, your children, or grandchildren?

We’re talking .name and .me domain names. Very cool. They’re the perfect way to put your unique, personal stamp on the internet, and get a really sweet email address. Over 14,000 domain names are registered every hour, so act fast if you want to secure your name.

See if yours are available here.

Number 3: Internationalized Domain Names.

Did you know that domain names can be registered in non-English language characters?

If you get traffic from other countries, your should snap up your domain in those languages and redirect the traffic to your site. Right away. Why? Because it will help your site rank higher in Google, and it’s likely that you’ll start getting more traffic.

It’s fast and easy, and now you can do it right in your control panel.

If you don’t know how to spell your domain in the language you’re looking for, simply visit http://translate.google.com. Plus, it’s easier to copy/paste than try to figure out how to make a ¨, Б, or 买 using your keyboard.

Number 4: Premium Domains

I’m sure you’ve run into this problem before.  You think of your perfect domain name.  Alas, it’s not available anymore.  Just like all of the other good domain names – all taken.  But really, a lot of them are for sale!  And with any luck, the name you really want is too.

They’re called “Premium” (or pre-registered) domain names, and they’re a great way to get the exact domain name you want.

But, like all good things, they’re not cheap.  They can get pretty pricey – but you get what you pay for. Premium domains are often a big source of immediate direct traffic, built-in SEO rankings, and a reservoir of pre-existing backlinks (and all that stuff is really good for ranking your site higher on search engines.)

Take a look here to see if there is one you like, or if your perfect name is actually available!

Number 5: Easy Domain Transfer

For years, both my customers and my customer service specialists have been beating me over the head with this little tidbit: It’s a pain in the neck to transfer domains into our system.

So finally, we created something new: An automated tool for domain transfers that lets you extricate your domains from the grip of your former registrar, and transfer them quickly and easily to your account, directly in your control panel.

You can do it fully automated, and it doesn’t require any phone calls to our team.  So transfer away!

That’s it for now. We’re all very excited about these enhancements. I hope you will be too.

Talk soon,

Fathi Said, CEO
IX Web Hosting

PS:  Pesky Disclaimers:  $4 .com domain registrations good for initial registration period only. WHOIS Domain Privacy Protection is available on .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .mobi top-level domains only.

PPS:  To get handy screenshots and instructions for all of our new features – check out the online hosting manual.

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