January 2009 Archives

Our helpdesk is being upgraded tonight, so it will NOT be available for about 2 hours from 7pm to 9pm tonight.

Further details here

We ran a one day promo on IE domains a couple of weeks ago which proved quite popular, but a lot of people seemed to have missed out for one reason or another...

So we decided we'd do it once more today...

Ground rules are very similar to the last time.

The promotion is valid until midnight tonight.

The coupon code is: iefridayjan09

You can register a new IE domain OR transfer an existing one from somewhere else

You can only order 1 domain at this price for a maximum of 2 years ie. one domain per customer for up to 2 years per domain.


If you want to register a personal IE domain please make sure you check the accepted formats here.

The IEDR WILL NOT allow domains that are "close" to that format. They will accept that format and that format ONLY.

The very very very long list of blogs nominated for this year's Irish Blog Awards, organised by Mulley Communications, has been published.

It's interesting to see how many different blogs there are out there this year and it will be interesting to see which ones progress to be shortlisted.

We're nominated in the Business Blog category (sponsored by RedCardinal) and the competition, as in previous years, is going to be tough!

Best of luck to all

(nominated graphic courtesy of Irish KC)

I'll keep this short and to the point

We're hiring again.

Details here

We got mixed feedback from the first Youtube video I posted recently, so today I decided to play around some more.

One of the problems people had with the first video was the audio quality, so this time round I opted to use an external microphone (Shure SM58 hooked up to a small Behringer mixing desk via USB).

The software I'm using for these screencasts is iShowU, which has plenty of options for capturing the screen, mouse movement, audio etc., It also has loads of export / capture presets for Youtube and other video sharing sites.

The problem seems to be with the text - people can't seem to read it.

The "raw" video has legible text, but by the time YouTube has worked its "magic" it's become really hard to make out.

Has anyone had any luck in getting screencasts with text to be legible on YouTube?

Do I need to change the output options?


You can view the videos on our Youtube channel to see what I'm talking about

We've been using Twitter to push out status updates etc., for the last few months.

However it's only very recently that we've actually begun using our Twitter account to really interact with people.

Here's a snapshot of our follower numbers over the last three months via TwitterCounter:
As you can see the numbers started climbing relatively recently.

So the last month's graph is quite revealing:
And our actual activity has definitely increased since the start of the year (generated with Tweetstats) :
Since the start of the year we've been using Twitter as a communications channel.

Now we don't want or expect it to replace any other communications channels that we have in place, but since a large number of our clients are using Twitter it only makes sense that we reach them using a medium that they're already "hooked into".

If someone is "talking" about us, then it's nice to be able to respond directly.

People can also search our "stream" if they're looking for coupon codes or other titbits of information that we're giving out.

We've been having a bit of fun with it as well and have been running silly quizzes to give away domain names, as well as promoting our various special deals.

So if you want to interact with us feel free to "tweet" us anytime (we're not online there all day and all night, but we are there quite a bit!)

EDIT: We have since switched over to using the shorter username of "blacknight"

Back in December we got an email "out of the blue" to let us know that we'd been nominated for the DomainInformer Readers' Choice Awards.

I posted about it at the time and told a few people, but I honestly didn't expect us get anywhere with it. Don't get me wrong. I have plenty of confidence in us as a company and all that, but when you're up against companies that dwarf us, then you have to be realistic.

So I was totally bowled over when I got an email from a friend who'd spotted that we'd actually came 3rd!

Wow!

To say that I was left a bit speechless is an understatement (though it's not the first time that's happened in the last few months!)

The winners list includes giants like Sedo, GoDaddy, Moniker and 1 & 1. Sharing that kind of company on a list is an interesting experience.

So thanks to everyone who voted, whoever you were!

Damien Mulley, who recently launched his own company, Mulley Communications, is pretty well known within the Irish online "scene".

Love him or hate him, you have to admit that he knows a lot about generating interest in a topic.

This recent post on his company blog is definitely worth sharing.

Damien is going to give away some of his tips and secrets to online marketing via his blog IF he gets enough comments.

Pretty cool!

He's also allowing people to reuse the material as long as they retain the attribution to Mulley Communications (think of it as a sort of Creative Commons style license)

Comreg, the Irish Communications Regulator, has published their report on the consultation on the IEDR / IE namespace.

You can download the various documents including the submissions from their site.

For convenience here is their press release:

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has today published its
Response to Consultation on a new framework for the regulation and management of .ie,
Ireland's Top Level Domain (TLD), which is part of the Internet's global Domain Name
System.
Under the Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act 2007, ComReg is responsible
for making regulations to ensure the effective management and administration of .ie in the
best interests of Irish consumers who use this national resource. The .ie domain is
currently managed by IE Domain Registry Ltd. (IEDR).
In June 2008, ComReg consulted on a wide range of issues and simultaneously conducted
a comprehensive independent review and due diligence analysis of IEDR's activities. The
Response to Consultation now describes the outcome of that process and outlines
ComReg's conclusions and decisions on a suitable regulatory framework for the .ie
domain. The main points are:
- ComReg will, by way of regulation, appoint IEDR as the authority authorised to
register .ie domain names in accordance with Section 32(4)(a) of the Act of 2007,
- IEDR will set up and maintain a Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) representative of
all stakeholders with a focus on more transparent policy development,
- IEDR will continue to adopt the "managed approach" to .ie registrations to ensure
continued protection for .ie domain name holders and consumers,
- ComReg will implement a monitoring framework and will participate in the PAC to
keep abreast of activities in the marketplace,
- Further regulatory measures may be considered in the future, as warranted.

If you're moving your domain to us from another provider please read our basic guides on moving hosting provider and transferring domains.

Once the domain has actually been transferred to us you will need to update the DNS servers (nameservers) so that the rest of the internet knows to look to our servers and not those of your previous provider.

I've put together this brief screencast to show you how to make the changes:




If you have any queries please do let us know.
If you're having problems viewing the tutorial please go to our Youtube channel where you can select to view a higher resolution version.

Everyone always complains about the price of IE domains.

So how would you like to get one for less than the price of lunch?

From midnight tonight until midnight on Friday 9th January we are offering IE domains for the ultra-low price of 10 euro!!! (ie. for 24 hours only)

Simply use the coupon code: iefridayjan09

So what are you waiting for? Go here to place your order

Now there are limits... we may be insane, but we're not totally bonkers! (Well that's debatable... )

So you can only order 1 domain at this price for a maximum of 2 years ie. one domain per customer for up to 2 years per domain.

UPDATE:

Just to clarify.

This offer is only valid on new registrations and transfers.

If you wish to register a "personal" IE domain please check out this site for details.

You do not need to send us the documentation today, though the sooner you send it the sooner the domain can be registered

Today we can announce that Qmail (email) users on every subscription will have their own service user.

Wow you say that's brilliant?

Or maybe you might ask "What is a service user?".

Well simply put, you can login to https://cp.blacknight.com with your e-mail address and password and change your password.

This feature has been requested literally 1000s of times and it allows end users to maintain their own passwords and not have to bother their IT person.

As we've said in the past, we really do listen to people's feedback!

The email service we offer on all our new shared hosting plans is really cool - yes we are biased!

All users get access to a really nice webmail system (ATMail) and combined with basic email filtering for both viruses and spam it's a really winning combination. (Signup for an annual hosting account you get free advertising too!)

Remember how we said we weren't going to do a "normal" sale this year?

Well we've been true to our word.

While we have slashed the price on IE domains, we're also running a load of different promotions throughout the month. Some are appearing here, some might pop up on Twitter, others on Facebook and others might magically appear on a high profile blogger's site....

You never can tell....

So what do we have planned?

Well this Friday we're going to be doing something very special. I'm not going to say what it is, but it should keep you interested...

Or maybe not ..

Who knows ?

Fraud sucks.

We sell primarily online, so we're very wary of fraud.

We've been targetted several times in the past by fraudsters from the four corners of the globe. While it's easy to say that country X or country Y is a "hotbed" of fraud, the reality is that fraud is an international problem.

People get phished all the time. It's not nice, but it happens.

Before we launched our new system we had to completely block orders from outside Ireland and the UK, as the old billing system's fraud checking was pretty rudimentary (and that's being polite about it!).

With our new order system we can accept orders, but we put them on hold until they've passed a simple fraud check. (If your order gets flagged you'll get an email from us asking you to prove that your order is legitimate)

Before the order passes the fraud check your credit card is NOT billed, so the order is NOT processed.

Yes, we know it's a pain in the neck and we are sorry that we have to do the fraud checking, but we have no choice in the matter.

Like most online companies we do get hit with credit card chargebacks. It's a reality of doing business online.

A LOT of internet companies run fraud checks on orders from outside their home country, so we are not the only ones doing this.

If you want to blame someone, then please take it out on the fraudsters!

We've dropped the price on IE domains for the month of January.

We've cut the price to €19.95 / year ex-VAT, so you could register a .ie domain now for a mere €199.95 for ten years!

With our new control panel you can manage your domain's DNS easily. If you want to forward your IE domain elsewhere - you can.

But with our hosting plans starting at an incredible €4.95 / month, why would you want to?


Keep an eye on here, twitter and facebook for other promotions

EDIT: Just to clarify. The promotional pricing applies to registrations and transfers of IE domains

Related articles by Zemanta

• Sales Are Boring