The 3by400 blog

What Cheap Web Hosting Really Costs You (and What to Look For)

Years ago, a prospective client asked us about a “screaming deal” on hosting. A few dollars a month. Would we still support his site there?

Electronic Marketing Presentation

I spoke at UGA's Small Business Bootcamp on October 2nd, and gave a presentation on electronic marketing. See the online version after the break:

Hosting Issues

We try to host most of our clients' websites. We started doing this because we tried using a service that claimed to offer 'custom Joomla hosting' packages. After two days on that service and horrible website load...

Time to drop the 'www'

Customer Relationship Management

Years ago, customer information was kept on rolodex cards or ledger sheets. Today the web-based equivalent is the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. They're still about as exciting and visually appealing as...

Choosing Good Passwords

Choosing a good password is always a problem. The essential tension is that a good password should be easy to remember, yet hard to guess. Most people err on one side or the other. Most people choose passwords that are...

Blogging and RSS Today: Why Your Blog Belongs on Your Own Site

In 2010 we wrote about “drop-dead simple blogging.” Our tip back then: if you didn’t want to blog inside your main website, use a free service like Blogger, then pull an RSS feed of your posts onto your site.

Do You Need a Separate Mobile Website? (No. Here's Why.)

In 2010, clients asked us if they should build a separate mobile version of their site. Back then, that often meant an “m.” or “.mobi” site, a stripped-down copy made for small feature-phone screens.

Three Waves of Content Management - Third Wave

We've seen the first two waves of Content Management Systems (CMSs) as being the custom CMS that gave rise to the proprietary CMS. The custom CMS market is dead. The proprietary CMS is under a great deal of pressure...

Three Waves of Content Management - Second Wave

The easiest way for most people to get a high-functionality, easily updatable website is to use a Content Management System (CMS). The first wave of these in the web 1.0 days of the 1990s was custom-build CMSs. Early in...

Three Waves of Content Management - First Wave

Web design tools like Dreamweaver aren't for the faint of heart. They're expensive, cumbersome and have a long learning curve. They're overkill for someone who just wants to change text on a website or add a new...

PCI Compliance for Everyone

If your business handles credit card payments, you need to be concerned about the rules and regulations of safeguarding the sensitive cardholder data. I was reminded of this the other day when a charge for $9.95 showed...

Oooooh, Shiny!

We've all done it: bought something that's of absolutely no use just because it caught our eye. The problem is when we make business purchasing decisions based on glitter or glitz. Is it just me or are more people...