We've updated some of the banners we use for our online marketing and since I think they are so nice I thought I'd share them here:














What do you think?

Posted by Michele Neylon at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We have just migrated our speed test site to our new network which peers at INEX, the Irish Internet Neutral Exchange.

The site allows Irish internet users check their download, upload and roundtrip speeds for free, while also allowing them to track up to ten previous tests.

The new connectivity means that the site is now "closer" to users of most of the major Irish ISPs:

• Esat


• Eircom


• IBB


• Digiweb


• Netsource


• Smart


• Microsoft


• Clearwire


• Magnet


• Heanet


• Hosting365

Posted by Michele Neylon at 11:19 PM | Permalink

We have received a number of calls this week related to a new domain scam.

While most domain scams are related to .com domains, this recent one is targetting owners of IE domains only.

The caller, who identifies himself as "Steve" and gave a Dublin number, claims to be from the IEDR or possibly "the domain registry".

If you are contacted by anyone claiming from to be from the "registry" DO NOT give them your credit card details.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 8:19 PM | Permalink

Throughout the year the Irish Internet Association is organising a series of events covering a range of topics related to the internet industry.

On 12 April they are organising a half-day event covering blogging and podcasting. Brian Greene from Doop will be giving a talk on podcasting, while I will be giving one on blogging.

Where?
Engineers Ireland Headquarters, 22 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge
When?
12 April 2006 9:30
Cost?
Fee is €50 for IEI/IIA members and €65 for non-members

Posted by Michele Neylon at 9:00 AM | Permalink

Today is a national holiday in Ireland and we would like to wish all our clients and suppliers a very happy and peaceful day.

Needless to say our support desk will still be manned throughout the festivities, although our office will be closed

Posted by Michele Neylon at 9:09 AM | Permalink

The Irish Internet Association, of which we are members, is organising a series of debates this year.

The first debate is on the motion:The Internet is Crap and will not survive !

Needless to say I'll be opposing the motion as will my team mates.

Full details of the event are on the IIA site here, while the event also received some coverage in Silicon Republic today

Posted by Michele Neylon at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the questions we get asked regularly by clients and potential clients is about which platform they should use.

So what's the difference between windows and linux?

I could get into a lengthy discussion of open source vs. closed source software, but that wouldn't help anyone make up their mind.

For a simple website with basic contact details and a few pages of content there is very little difference between the two.

It doesn't matter whether you are using windows on your desktop PC or not, as the web server will be "serving" your content will not care.

What makes all the difference is when you go to do something more advanced with your website.

If, for example, you want to setup a blog (like this one) on your domain you will need special software and possibly a database to hold all the content.
While it is possible to use Perl, PHP and MySQL on windows server 2003 it is not possible to run ASP or ASP.net on linux. So if you want to try out applications written in asp or asp.net you should get a windows 2003 hosting account, which will give you access to a range of technologies such as:

• asp
• asp.net
• Frontpage extensions
• IIS
• Access database support
• Microsoft SQL server

We support both windows and linux for our hosting clients, so it's simply a matter of letting us know which technologies you want to make use of.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 9:15 AM | Permalink

The aftermarket in domain names is a fascinating business where thousands of euro change hands on a daily basis.

With IE domains dealing is practically forbidden, but there's nothing to stop you from registering a "previously owned" domain name.

We wanted to make it easy for our clients to find expired IE domains, so we use an RSS feed to make it all happen.

You can see a full list of deleted IE domains here

Needless to say normal restrictions and rules apply.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Last night I had the pleasure of being at the inaugaral Irish Blog Awards in the Alexander hotel.

As I mentioned previously we were sponsoring the awards, so I had the honour of handing over the iPod Nano to Damien Mulley, the event organiser.

So who got to walk away with the awards?

Damien has published a full list on the official site, while there are plenty of photos from the event available on Flickr

Big thanks to Damien for all his hard work and let's hope we get to do it all again next year

Posted by Michele Neylon at 11:19 PM | Permalink

Choosing your domain name can be a daunting task.

If you get it wrong you may spend a lot of your time wondering why people can't find your site, send you email or buy your products.

A lot of businesses seem to think that they have to use their company name, regardless of how long or difficult to type that may be.

A couple of simple rules of thumb can help make it all that easier for you in the long run:

• Keep it as short as possible
• Keep it simple
• Avoid using hyphens
• Choose a meaningful word or phrase

The longer and more complex your domain name is the more likely people are going to write it down incorrectly or mistype it when sending you emails.

For example, your company name might be made up of several partners' surnames, so you could end up with a name such as Alpha, Bravo and Charlie Ltd. If you were to convert that into a domain name directly you'd end up with over 17 characters!
Wouldn't it be a lot easier to use an acronym?

If you sell a particular type of product or service then maybe you should try for a domain name that directly reflects what you do.
Alpha Widgets Ltd maybe legally correct on your headed paper, but widgets.ie is going to be easier to remember.

Posted by Michele Neylon at 1:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

There's not much point in having a website if nobody can find it.

So what can you do to improve your chances of being "indexed" by the search engines?
How can you get your site to appear in the search engines when someone does a search for a particular phrase?

There are no magical solutions, but if you take into account how search engines "view" your site you can certainly make improvements.

Seo tools

All sites hosted on our linux servers now have access to some free SEO (search engine marketing) tools directly from within your control panel.

Text is your friend

Although Google et al may be able to index most content these days plain text is always easier.

If you can include the keywords and phrases you are interested in promoting in your site's text in a natural and readable manner it will help.

Page titles

Make sure that every page has a unique and descriptive title.

Avoid Frames

Using frames in your website is a bad idea. It makes it very hard for a search engine to index your content.
If you want to preserve the effect of frames you can use other methods

Include a sitemap

If you have a page on your site with links to every other page on your site it can help indexing.

Use descriptive filenames

Instead of calling your files 123.php or page12.html (or something similar) use a descriptive name which reflects their content. For example if you sell bicycle parts then a product page might be better called bicycle-spare-parts.html instead of products.html

Keep your site content fresh

Fresh content is always a good thing and search engine spiders love it, so keeping your site up to date will help.

Get your site listed

Get your site listed in relevant directories and resource sites.

If you are targetting the Irish market, for example, you could submit your site to search.ie or browse.ie (or both)

Swapping Links

Swapping links with other webmasters can help build up both traffic and inbound links, however do not use automated software to request links, as this may be considered as spam.

Useful Resources

Seo Cookbook - blog about search engines and search engine marketing
SelfPromotion - DIY search engine promotion resource offering submission service
Irish webmaster forum - forum

Posted by Michele Neylon at 12:08 PM | Permalink

As some of you may know, this Saturday sees the inaugaral Irish Blog Awards taking place in the Alexander Hotel in Dublin.

Here at Blacknight we love blogs, or maybe it's just my own personal bias :)

In any case we are delighted to be one of the sponsor's of the event and will be giving away a black iPod Nano to a lucky blogger (we're also giving free hosting and other goodies to nominees).

Damien Mulley, who is the driving force behind this year's event, was interviewed with Rick O'Shea, MC for the night, on the Dave Fanning show this evening and gave us a lovely plug.

Thanks Damien!

Posted by Michele Neylon at 7:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

As I am giving a talk tomorrow on blogging for the IIA I thought it was time to "take the plunge" and put the "official" Blacknight blog online.

Our overworked webmaster will be "skinning" it to fit in with the rest of the company websites, so if you are still viewing a basic install of Movable Type then come back again in a few days.

So what will this blog be about?

As the official voice of the company you can expect to see:

• Company News
• Special Offers
• Articles on relevant technology
• Tips and tricks

Of course as this is a blog you will be able to comment on our entries and make suggestions etc.,

Posted by Michele Neylon at 7:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)