Ballyhoo Limited » Services

Improving Our Hosting Service

Alison — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:03:37 +0000

Hosting is a major service that we provide to our customers and we know that you rely on us to keep your website online and accessible 24 hours a day. For many of you, your website is your main source of income which means it needs to be in capable hands.

So, we are delighted to announce that we have recently signed a contract for a new top-of-the-range server with Rackspace Hosting.

Rackspace are industry leaders in managed hosting solutions and have tailored a server package to not just match but exceed our requirements.

While we can find no fault with our current provider (our existing server is based in Germany and has achieved over 99.99% uptime since January 2007) there are many benefits to be enjoyed by moving to Rackspace.

Features

UK Based

One of the main temptations to move to Rackspace was the fact that they are based in the UK.

The latest Google algorithm (this works out where to place your website in search engine rankings), know as Google Caffeine, is thought to prioritise websites that are hosted in the country they target.

Another reported priority feature in Caffeine is a speedy website response time (the length of time it takes for your browser to fetch the website data), which should be improved by having our server in the UK.

Both of these features mean that every website hosted with us should see an improvement in search engine rankings.

Learn more about how you can improve search engine rankings

100% Uptime

Rackspace boldly guarantee 100% network and infrastructure uptime. This means their systems are never offline and your website is accessible 24/7.

Better Backup

Our current backup procedure is weekly backup with a four week retention policy (daily backup is available at an extra cost).

With Rackspace this has been improved:

The entire server is backed up on a weekly basis, with a two week retention policy.
There is a daily differential backup, this checks for changes to the weekly backup and saves them.
There is also a full daily backup of all the databases on the server.

Fanatical Support

Rackspace really prides itself on it’s customer service – what they call Fanatical Support.

They are available 24 hours a day and aim to give superfast responses to requests for support. Customer service is their passion and in the short time we’ve been clients they’ve surpassed our expectations.

The Future

In short, we are very excited to be with Rackspace and we hope you feel the same. Some of Rackspace’s clients include Orange, Confused.com, Virgin Trains and NHS Direct – so you know you’re in good company.

There will be a small amount of disturbance as we move your website over to the new server but we plan to make the transfer as smooth as possible by migrating your websites during off-peak hours (weekends and evenings).

You can also be assured that this change will not affect your hosting charges.

If you would like more information or if you are concerned about how your website will be affected, please call us on 0121 286 9390 or email us at support@ballyhoo.ltd.uk.

Hosting with Ballyhoo starts at just £3.95 per month, please take a look at our hosting page for more information.

SSL Certificates – Boost Customer Confidence

Alison — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:46:59 +0000

What is an SSL Certificate?

An SSL Certificate is an internet security technique that encrypts sensitive information sent between your customer’s web browser and your website. Only recognised certificate authorities, such as GlobalSign and Thawte, can issue an SSL certificate. This is then unique to your website and will be verified by your customer’s web browser each time your website is accessed. Evidence of an SSL Certificate on a website is characterised by the locked padlock symbol in the address bar or bottom right of a web browser.

How will having one benefit my website?

Consumers are increasingly aware of internet security and fraud and know to look for the padlock symbol when buying online. Having an SSL Certificate installed on your website gives them confidence that their details and payments are being securely transmitted. If you do not have this in place, some customers may choose not to purchase from you.

What are the costs?

At Ballyhoo, we provide a competitively priced SSL Certificate package.

Included:

GlobalSign Certificate
Up to 256-bit encryption enabled
Universal browser compatibility
Dedicated IP Address
Maintenance of certificate (including set-up and renewal)

Annual payments are usually required in advance but we want your website to be affordable and will allow you spread the cost over 12 months for only £10.95 per month.

Newsletter Campaigns

Alison — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:04:01 +0000

Newsletters are a fantastic way to let customers know about your services and products, simply remind them that you are still out there and generate traffic to your website. Emails can be sent to anyone around the world in a matter of seconds and are effortless to open and read, so why not take advantage of this method of communication to get in touch with your customers?

Design

A great way to start your newsletter campaign is to choose a design. This could be an existing template that you wish to use or one that you want to adapt to suit your branding. There are many free templates available on the internet to choose from. However, an option to seriously consider is commissioning a graphic designer to create a bespoke newsletter template consistent with your branding and website. This would be a one-time expense which you will see the benefit of again and again and will really reflect your company image.

Content

What has been happening at your company recently, do you have an amazing new product or service you want to share with the world? In your newsletter your goal is to grab your reader’s attention. Less is more, it’s best to include only a handful of great articles than lots of mediocre ones. Articles should be short and to the point, you don’t want the reader to get bored and delete the email. Include links to the relevant product or article pages so that the reader can learn more if they wish. Also include high-quality images in your articles, these will make an instant impression when the newsletter is opened.

How To Send Your Newsletter

By no means should you send a newsletter by yourself through your own email address. With potentially hundreds of recipients you are at risk of overloading the server your mail is sent through and could blacklist the server and your email address as a sender of unsolicited bulk emails (i.e. spam). Newsletter campaign software is available to do all the hard work for you. You simply have to create your newsletter, upload a list of the email addresses you wish to send it to and sit back and wait while your emails are sent through a recognised and approved server.

Statistics

With the aforementioned software you also have access to detailed and invaluable statistics about your newsletter campaign. How many people have opened the email? What links did they click on? Did they forward it to any friends? You can even see what time your email was opened and by whom. All of this information and more is available to you in detailed reports generated by the newsletter campaign software. You can use these to your advantage in a variety of ways, for example to promote a product that has been shown to be popular in the newsletter.

Frequency

We recommend that you send a monthly newsletter to keep the public conscious of your presence but there is no set timescale and you can send newsletters as frequently as you wish.

Expense

At Ballyhoo we have a newsletter package for £395. This is a one-off payment that will provide you with the tools and know-how to send unlimited newsletter campaigns to your customers.

We will design and build a bespoke newsletter template based on your company branding and style. The template will be thoroughly tested in a range of web-based, desktop and mobile email clients to ensure your email campaign looks great for the largest audience possible.
You will be able to update the newsletter contents using an intuitive control panel. We will be happy to talk you through sending your first campaign.
In future you’ll be able to send as many newsletters as you wish using your customisable newsletter template: sending an email newsletter will cost only £3 per campaign plus one pence for each recipient.

If you lack the time or confidence to send your own email campaign we can provide a content population service at an additional charge. For £40 per campaign we will ensure:

Images are formatted correctly to ensure speedy download times.
Text is formatted correctly and proofread to be readable and captivating.
Links work correctly.
The newsletter is tested in various email clients at our disposal.

Subscribers

Obviously, you need subscribers to send your newsletter campaign to! There are a number of ways to collect email addresses for your email campaigns but it is important to remember that each recipient must have willingly provided their email address or have opted-in to receive emails from you.

On your website we can integrate a newsletter subscription widget which allows customers to quickly and easily sign up to receive your emails, this would simply be a case of the customer typing their email address into a box and clicking Submit. Their address would then be automatically stored in your subscriber list in our newsletter campaign software.

If you are using our e-commerce system Ballyhoo Commerce you may have noticed the built-in newsletter subscription feature which allows you to download a mailing list at any time from the administration area of your website. This list would comprise anyone who used the subscription widget on your website or opted-in to receive emails during the customer registration process. You can import a new list of addresses to our newsletter campaign software at any time.

For more information please contact us.

New Search Engine Optimisation Package

Alison — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:08:30 +0000

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of ensuring a website ranks well in internet searches under keywords (words and phrases) relevant to the website. With so much competition on the internet today SEO has become a vital tool for making sure your website is found by potential customers.

To provide the best service we can for our customers, we have created a new SEO Package designed to boost your rankings and help make your website a success.

The internet is becoming an extremely crowded market so if you want to outperform your competitors and ensure the longevity of your business you simply cannot afford not to maximise your search engine results.

The basic package is very competitively priced at £150 per month and we are offering this with no start-up fee.

See our search engine optimisation package for full details.

Alternatively you can call 0121 286 9390 or email info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk for more information.

New Hosting Charges

Alison — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 10:48:33 +0000

This year we have reviewed our hosting charges and the result is a fairer, more economic package for our clients. You only pay for what you use!

Improved Hosting Service

We have separated our Hosting Packages into three bands – Basic, Standard and Professional – providing a cost-effective alternative for single-page sites and ensuring our biggest sites receive the best hosting available. Furthermore, we have created new E-mail and Database bolt-ons (£2.95 each per month) so you can customise your hosting package.

See a full list of our hosting services.

New Features

.uk.com Domains

New to Ballyhoo’s hosting service this year are .uk.com domain names.

With an ever-expanding array of domain names online it can be hard to get the right one for your site, in our experience it is often easier to get the name you want with a .uk.com domain.

Get yours now for only £3.95 a month!

SSL Certificates

Online security is important for everyone using the Internet and now you can ensure that everyone using your site is safe with our new SSL Certificates.

Secure and encrypt all sensitive data between your customers and your website and give your customers confidence in your site for £10.95 a month.

If you would like more information please email info@ballyhoo.ltd.uk or call 0121 286 9390.