Your Professional e-mail Account

Are you still using your personal AOL or Yahoo! account for sending and receiving e-mail messages, yet you own a business?

If so, stop and think about it. How professional do you think it appears?

Sending emails to your clients with your "oh-so-cool" vanity e-mail, tiger_eyes1969@hotmail.com does not convey a professional vibe.  Most likely, the only reason that became your e-mail address was because someone else has the same name as you.  That’s right, they snagged bobsmith@yahoo.com before you even registered at Yahoo! for the first time back in the late 1990's.  After typing in a countless amount of address combinations, you finally arrived at one that no one else in the world has.  Gee... I wonder why?

Think about how you used that ridiculous e-mail address for the past 10 years - sending out resumes,  corresponding with potential clients, and writing to existing customers. It's time to get more professional!

Let’s say you own a domain name or two. It may be for your small business, jazz band, or start-up. Maybe you purchased your "own name".com.  (I think a lot of people are guilty of doing that, including me.)  

Now is the time to utilize the domain name you own and use it for your new e-mail address.

Pretend  that your domain name is widget-central.com and your name is Fred.  Your new e-mail address can be fred@widget-central.com.  Now, when you send out an e-mail, it will come from fred@widget-central.com instead of tiger_eyes1969@yahoo.com!

In order to set-up an e-mail account through your domain, there are several approaches to take.  Simply ask your hosting service or Webmaster to help.  You may pay a fee to get an e-mail address from most Registrars (the place you registered your domain), but I don’t recommend it.  

Where will you be checking your e-mail most often?  At the office, home, school, library- or on the road via your laptop or phone?  

Basically, your e-mail will either be "online" or "local".  Online e-mail is an internet program included with your hosting account or a service such as Gmail.  A local, or offline e-mail program is one that resides on your Mac or PC like Outlook Express or Apple Mail.

Let's begin with online e-mail.  I prefer to use Gmail since it allows the user to login anywhere in the world and still have control of your local e-mail program.

Create a Gmail account if you don't already have one.  In my opinion, it's the best thing since cable television! The spam filters of Gmail are far superior to other e-mail programs (online or local) and it includes several great features.  Best yet, it's free!  Ensure that your new Gmail account is as professional as possible.  Choosing an address like widget-central.fred@gmail.com will suffice.

Once you have your Gmail account, you will need to set up your new domain name e-mail account through your hosting account.  If you hired a Web Master or website company to take care of your hosting, they can take it from there.  Essentially, you would need to access your fred@widget-central.com through your hosting control panel and then have it forward to your new Gmail account.  Then, all e-mails to fred@widget-central.com will be routed to your Gmail account.

You will be able to make all of your outgoing e-mail default to showing recipients your address as fred@widget-central.com instead of your Gmail address.  You can also update your settings to always reply from the default address.  If you have multiple domains and/or e-mail address aliases, you can interchange them,

For setting up your local e-mail program, you must go into your program's settings to configure for POP3 access.  This will vary from program to program and depends on where your e-mail account is hosted. I think it is beneficial to forward all e-mail from the host to Gmail and then to the local program.  This method allows Gmail to filter out any spam before it reaches the local e-mail program.  By using Gmail first, you can actually filter spam twice before it reaches your inbox!

So yes, it is more professional to use an e-mail address showing your domain name rather than a Yahoo!, AOL, local ISP, or even Gmail suffix.  It can help you, and your business, stand out in your customer’s inbox.

New Video Tutorials Added for Web Hosting Clients

Do you have a question about your Web Hosting Account or just can't figure something out in cPanel?  With our new video tutorial section, it will make something that may seem so complicated a breeze.

Of course we're always here to help you, but now you can visit our tutorial section to find the answers you need that much faster.

Plus, with the organized menu, you can discover answers to questions you didn't even know you had.  Or simply learn something new to incorporate into your existing website!

It's easy, fast and fun (well, most of the time)!

New tutorial videos will be added on a regular basis, so be sure to check back often.

To locate the tutorials, please point your browser to http://tutorials.gingalley.com/ or navigate from the "resources" tab on our website.

Great Logos Stand Out!

The most important design aspect for your company is your Logo.

The best logo design communicates your message and sets you apart from the rest. It sets the tone for all of the other designs and graphics used on your website and marketing materials.

There are several important details to consider during the logo creation process:

• Unique and Distinctive – Make your business stand out from the rest. Clean, crisp, and bold logos are easily recognizable.



• Size and Aspect Ratio – This determines the overall size and layout – horizontal, vertical, or rounded. A logo that is too long may not fit well on all of your marketing materials or letterhead in a pleasing way.



• Icons – Avoiding the use of "clip art", you may be able to capitalize on an icon that is relevant to your business.



• Target Audience Appeal – Think about what would appeal to your client and what colors would enhance their feeling towards your brand.

• Impact – A logo can make an effect on the viewer’s mood or appeal to a perceived want or need, much like the smell of bacon makes one hungry.



• Repetition and Consistency – Show off your logo as much as possible on business cards, website ads, signage, and other advertising. The more it is seen by the public the better.

• Tag Line Relevance – A catchy tag line can enhance the value of your business name if it adds to the impact.



• 3 Types of Logos: Text, Symbol, and Combined – Some logos can be just a single word, while others may add an icon and a tag line.



• File Format and Vectors – You will want to have your logo created as a hi-res file of 300dpi or more, and a black & white version as well. It is important for your logo to be able to appear crisp and clean on your website and printed materials as RGB (web) and CMYK (print).

• Avoid Photographs – Photographs are often too detailed to be incorporated into a sharp logo. A vector graphic is best to portray an intended image as this format enables it to be scaled up or down and not lose resolution.

• Trust in a designer who has experience in Printing – Avoid future headaches with a logo that is print ready. This will lessen added costs when it comes time to use your logo on a letterhead or web banner ad. An experienced designer will be able to supply you with the best file formats to fit your needs.



Find your experienced designer at www.GINGALLEY.com.
  GINGALLEY offers the 3 most important marketing aspects for your business or project: Web. Design. Print.



Best Wishes for Much Success!

-Jerri Alley

GING|ALLEY Web Design & Promotions

Our brand new website is up and running!

Yeah!  After several months (or should I say years?) our brand-spanking-new website is up and running!  Whooooo-hoooo!!!  In between taking care of all our wonderful customers, we managed to find the time to work on our own website for once.  Well, at least for the first time in a few years.  We never actually made a "real" website for ourselves until now.  We've always concentrated on our client projects first.

There are a few new things that we included such as our price-list and an expanded portfolio section.  We've also added a "resources" section that includes some helpful tips and this here Blog so we can share terms, tips, downloads and other ideas to all of our current and future clients!

So, please check it out and let us know what you think – good or eh, bad!

Thanks!

-Chris & Jerri
GING|ALLEY Web Design & Promotions

GINGALLEY became Members of The Global Awareness Project last night!

Last night, we became members of The Global Awareness Project!  Yeah!

We've heard about the organization for some time now, but decided to check out the event that they had last night at Drink! in Myrtle Beach. The club was packed with lots of cool people, art and some great food.

Shortly after arriving at the club, we met a bunch a super cool folks that shared our passion for art, photography and respect for the earth.  We felt very welcomed and enjoyed some good conversation and laughs with several of G.A.P.'s members.  Drink! is always fun regardless, but last night was extra special and was a fund raising event for a good cause.

We look forward to helping the project through art and promoting its activities.  We certainly can't wait to start painting again and spending more time taking pictures.  Being around like minds will be a huge help and will inspire us to create more art!

The Global Awareness Project is an innovative nonprofit agency designed to showcase humanitarian, environmental and cultural activities in local communities and worldwide.

New Collateral for Coastal Music Fest 2010

We just finished up on a series of designs for print, promotion and advertising collateral for the first annual Coastal Music Fest to be held in beautiful Half Moon Bay, CA in which GINGALLEY is a proud sponsor.

The event will take place on Memorial Day weekend (Saturday May, 29th) at "Princeton-by-the-Sea" Pillar Point Harbor and is FREE to the public.

Musical acts (and clients as well) will take the stage rain or shine at 11am and will rock the Marina until 7pm.  There will be vendors, arts & crafts, a petting zoo, pony riders and other activities to be announced as well as plenty of good food & drink.

We truly wish that we could attend, but have a lot of things going on right now.  There have already been talks about flying out next year!

The Coast Music Fest will be one great show with the ultimate backdrop – The Pacific Ocean which cannot be denied!

Check out the "one page" website with links to all the great entertainment with more info as it becomes available.

We hope the event has great success so that there are many more to follow!

Coastal Music Fest

Post 474 - Half Moon Bay, CA

Bands:

Gator Alley Band

HOT FOR TEACHER

Caravanserai

Rockin' Randy's Flying Circus

Charles Sedlak

Saboteur

Terry Lauderdale Band

Sponsored by:

Spider Ranch Productions

GINGALLEY

We Need Merch

Sfarzo

GINGALLEY now proud members of the Surfrider Foundation

GINGALLEY is now proud members of the Surfrider Foundation.  We look forward to working with our local chapter on clean-up projects and starting our own awareness programs with local businesses.

We love the beach and ocean and would like to keep it around for awhile!

As much as we miss living in California, one of the main reasons we relocated to Myrtle Beach was to be even closer to the ocean and its beautiful beaches.  Now that we've settled in and learned our way around these parts, we want to start helping in a cause we strongly believe in.

We look forward to doing our part and hope to make a difference.

-Chris & Jerri

Surfrider Foundation

Surfrider Foundation (Grand Strand Chapter)