Dr. Webby

07/24/2016

I was once dubbed the Domain Name Queen. As Dr. Webby, in the 1990s I was helping folks understand what a domain name was and why they need to buy .COM names for their products and services. As more and more domain names were bought by individuals, corporations and brokers, it became harder to find a good one unless you went to the secondary marketplace.

All of the other extensions including .CO, .BIZ, and a slew of others that have since become available are never going to have the power of the .COM for a U.S. based business. But even in the current saturated market, I still find useful names with good branding and SEO potential for small businesses. I offer this consulting service for FREE to my website design customers. I also create their logos and help them come up with good slogans to go with their domain names. These things all matter, especially for the start-up entrepreneur who has little Internet marketing expertise.

I have owned hundreds of domain names. I have sold a lot of them off here and there. I have a story to tell about one name I owned as the original registrant on 1997-04-12. The domain name is iMeeting.com which I bought when the concept of an online meeting was in its infancy.

I intended to setup a new online meeting service. But some of my other ventures took off, so I had not yet developed it. Around 1999 I received a call from an attorney for a client I am not allowed to divulge. They offered me $30,000 for it. I replied I thought $50K was more in line with current value. They agreed and I booked the sale as a long-term capital gain and paid a lot of taxes on it. I used the rest for some advertising and paid cash for a new car.

The new owners had a nice product online, but along the way I guess they went out of business or sold off that product line. In 2012 the name was sold for $15K and then in 2014 it sold on Sedo for $47,750. The Sedo fees are high so the net amount was far less than that. I never paid any broker fees and I am still the recipient of the highest amount paid for this name.

The sad thing is that this name is now parked again on Sedo. Perhaps the Chinese buyers never funded the escrow for $47,750. There is rumor that at some point this name was not renewed and someone grabbed it from the open marketplace.

I just happened to check on the name today. I was writing a piece on brands I once owned. Here are a few others I sold for $25-150K over the years. They have changed hands a few times since then:

http://iPlan.com
http://iWorkplace.com
http://iPromote.com
http://iHelpdesk.com

Yes, I liked the "i" names and so did the late Steve Jobs at Apple, Inc. They seem to do well. ;)

http://www.thedomains.com/2014/03/07/imeeting-com-purchased-for-less-than-2-years-ago-for-15k-sells-for-47750/

The domain name imeeting.com just sold for $47,750 on Sedo. The domain was owned by Rodger Lew in China and is currently under Sedo Escrow. The domain name was owned by a company Meeting Maker, of ...

07/09/2016

For a VERY SHORT TIME the $95 Website Design Package Special is here! Visit the Special page on our Website for details and purchase using the PayPal button on the bottom of that page. Don't miss out! Websites are setup and customized on a first come first serve basis.

Affordable highly functional custom small business websites and secure intranets designed and supported by an Internet consultant with 25 years experience.

05/31/2016

The 1-Channel Website Design Package home page with slider images is now available for only $175 which includes the custom setup of this website package and 3 months of secure business web hosting on the Dr. Webby network. As part of a special offer, you will also get your Facebook business page setup including graphics to match your website. I will create your logo if you need one at no extra charge. The admin. toolset allows you to add all of the pages you want including PayPal buttons, using the custom template I design for you. Please call 713.998.4366 to get started today!

To get your free Facebook business page setup, purchase this special offer online here:

https://www.drwebby.com/specials.asp

Affordable highly functional custom small business websites and secure intranets designed and supported by an Internet consultant with 25 years experience.

05/05/2016

EVERYONE needs to change email account passwords NOW.

Gmail, Yahoo! and Hotmail have been confirmed as part of this latest data hacking. Also if you have paid services with any of these, deal with your credit/debit card on the account by either closing it and getting a new one issued with your bank or changing the PIN.

ALWAYS use strong passwords and different passwords for different accounts. A good rule to follow:

-- at least 8 characters
-- at least one special character (!, #, $, etc.)
-- some numbers
-- some letters
-- at least one CAPITAL letter

That will generate a strong password that is very hard for an automated script or human to figure out.

It may be a good time to update your email password. A report from Reuters suggests that over 270 million hacked email credentials—including those from Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo—are circulating among Russian digital crime rings.

04/16/2016

When your website is with Dr. Webby, you are not using cheap web hosting. The network is behind a hardware firewall, the system is configured to minimize vulnerabilities, and the application is not using open source code and is tested for strict compliance to security standards that are used by banks and other financial institutions. This Forbes article explains why these three levels of security are important to all websites. If you are using WIX, Wordpress, cheap hosting on GoDaddy, Hostgator, etc. you are very likely vulnerable at all three levels.

And it is not just your website that could be infected...anyone who visits your website can be compromised as well. Every week I get calls from someone who is living the nightmare of being hacked. Perhaps their email account has been compromised, or they are under the control of ransomware, or their website is marked on Google as UNSAFE. Nothing is 100% foolproof, but the most vulnerable are the greatest targets because they are easy.

Just like a spare tire, you’ll never understand how bad you need website security until it’s too late. But likely for you, it’s not too late.

04/08/2016

Disable Flash in your web browser and never use Flash on your website. I have been saying this for several years, there is no need for it and it has been a vulnerable application often, most recently a way to distribute ransom ware.

The latest zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Systems' Flash player has been used over the past few days to distribute ransomware called Cerber, email security vendor Proofpoint said.

04/08/2016

THIS SPECIAL OFFER HAS EXPIRED. To access the current Special Offer, visit the Specials page here:

https://www.drwebby.com/specials.asp

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The new 3-Channel Website Design Package home page with 3 channel buttons and a slider image is now available for only $295 which includes the custom setup of this website package and 3 months of secure business web hosting on the Dr. Webby network. As part of a special offer, you will also get your Facebook business page setup including graphics to match your website. I will create your logo if you need one at no extra charge. The admin. toolset allows you to add all of the pages you want, too, using the custom template I design for you. Please call 713.998.4366 to get started today!

You can purchase this special offer online here:
https://www.drwebby.com/specials.asp

Visit the Dr. Webby website to review the website design package product description and information about the secure business hosting environment by using the left menu links on this page:

https://www.drwebby.com/facilities.asp

04/06/2016

The new 3-Channel Website Design Package home page with 3 channel buttons and a slider image is now available for only $295 which includes the custom setup of this website package and 3 months of secure business web hosting on the Dr. Webby network. I will create your logo if you need one at no extra charge. The admin. toolset allows you to add all of the pages you want, too, using the custom template I design for you. Please call 713.998.4366 to get started today!

This is one customer website with this new home page design. There is no content up there yet, coming soon!

04/01/2016

This is an example of why I tell my website design customers to never allow any audio automatically load on their pages. A lot of people browse in places that audio can be a disaster. ;)

http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/01/technology/google-april-fool-prank-backfires/index.html

Google's April Fool prank has backfired, making a lot of users very angry and forcing the company to take it down early.

03/14/2016

There are many Windows 7 users out there and there are reasons you may not want to have Windows 10 forced on you. So be aware. PC World has a pretty good write-up about this so I provided the link here. I for one never have my updates set to automatic. I get notified and accept most of the critical updates but I carefully pick through the recommended updates and only select what I know I want from that list.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3043464/windows/windows-7-users-complain-of-unprovoked-windows-10-auto-upgrades.html

Microsoft’s Windows 10 upgrade push is in full swing, though users say they never got the memo.

02/18/2016

Ransomware took over a hospital's patient and financial records for several weeks, as reported in the news this week. This article includes good advice for every business and computer user who can become a victim of this virus. There are five things everyone should know:

1. Don't click on links in emails. This is one way a virus ends up on your computer or phone. If the email is from a business you know, like your bank, just go to the bank website and login.

2. Don't visit websites that are unfamiliar to you or not reputable known businesses. This is another way a virus ends up on your computer or phone.

3. Avoid installing apps on your phone. Android phones have been infected with ransomware this way.

4. Install and run updated anti-malware software on your computer. Not all anti-virus software will identify ransomware.

5. Backup your files to a server or other drive not connected to your computer. Incremental backups give you more than one set to restore from should the need arise.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3023543/malware-vulnerabilities/ransomware-7-tips-for-recovery-and-prevention.html

Ransomware is a rather insidious form of malware that attempts to render all of your important files unreadable, until you pay the perpetrator a ransom to restore them. Once paid, you may or may not be given the key needed to restore your files. The best approach to ransomware, by far, is prevention…

02/15/2016

Have you registered a Cuban domain name for your business yet? Doing business in Cuba is still complicated and there are many obstacles to over come, but hopefully things will get better. In the meantime, here is the link to the registrar for the .cu names.

http://www.cubanic.cu/

Este es el sitio del Centro Cubano de Información de Red, CUBANIC, servicio de registro de nombres de dominio bajo .cu.