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As of the beginning of March, I stepped into a somewhat familiar but exciting phase in my professional career, that of being a totally free agent.

Free Agency is not just a term reserved for professional athletes. According to Daniel Pink’s book “Free Agent Nation”, there were over 25 million free agents in the US. In 2001, that number was over 30 million, so I certainly have company.

Of course, going through the growing pains of being a one person act, sticking to a schedule, learning when to say “no”, establishing boundaries between professional, volunteer and personal obligations and getting in tune with my work style has been one amazing and scary journey, all at once.

For instance, I had always been able to focus on designing after business hours in the evening. I attribute this to my architecture training and numerous design charettes I had to execute.

So think about when you are at your best in order to do what you need to do. This past month has taught me something, that knowing when you work best is the foundation to being a free agent.

Customers who now visit the nextSTEPH website now have direct access to purchase products and services such as domain names, e-commerce solutions, shopping carts and more. The products are now available by going to www.nextsteph.com/domains or by clicking on the “domains and more” link on the services page.

Insight Wellness Center has a brand new look and feel to evolve with their expanding product line and services.

A website migration is the process of moving the files of a website from one web hosting company to another. A migration can happen for many reasons:

1.You have expanded your website and need more web space;
2.You need more features (i.e. a database, shopping cart or multimedia file hosting);
3.You found a better deal on web site hosting;
4.Or a relative/friend/colleague has server space and has offer to host your website for little or nothing.

Regardless of the situation, doing a website migration is inevitable. It is like moving from one home to another. In this article, I am going to give you several tips to make the big move as smooth as possible.

Tip 1: Schedule the Migration.
Its best to schedule the migration when there are not as many web users visiting your website. Check your website traffic (or get your online marketing department) to see when traffic levels are low, which for some cases may be the evening or the weekend, depending on the website. For a corporate website, it may be the weekend, but for a gaming website, it may be midweek.

Tip 2: Notify ALL Stakeholders.
Inform anyone and everyone who has an interest in the site, not only internally (employees, stockholders) but externally as well (supplies, customers and website visitors). A simple link redirecting to the date and time of the migration as well as the anticipated completion date should suffice.

Tip 3: Set a cutoff date for edits.
Set a deadline for all content updates to be submitted. Postpone any major additions to the website (i.e. new sections, new features) until after the migration. A good measure has been 3 business days before the migration. Any changes submitted beyond the deadline date would have to wait until after the move.

Tip 4: BACK-UP the website.
The day after the content deadline date, back-up the website. This means all files, images, scripts, multimedia and other files. One can back-up the website on a CD-RW (CD rewritable disk), Zip Drive, or an external hard drive. It is important to back-up a website not only for a migration, but weekly or biweekly if possible. The bonus is that you have an archive of the website.

Tip 5: Make sure you have the new web hosting information.
This includes:
1.FTP (File Transfer Protocol Information):
a.The Hostname. This can be the Internet Protocol (IP) address. This is a numerical address of the physical server (big computer that is almost always on) where the website will reside.
b.The account username
c.The account password

2.The Control Panel login information.
This is the Operations manual for the web host will be located. This may or may not be the same information as the FTP login. You will need this information to activate features for your website such as web submission forms, databases, shopping carts and other interactive features.

3.Domain Name Servers.
These are the addresses of the servers where the new website will reside. Most web hosts have 2 to 3 domain name server addresses reserved. You will need this information to transfer the domain name (www.yourcompany.com) to the new web host’s server(s) after all the web site files have been transferred.

The Prime Time Speakers Bureau website has been relaunched with a new website design.

It is finally here! “GET MORE BUSINESS - The Women’s eMarketing Guide to Promote Your Products and Services on the Internet” (Published by Heidi Richards written by members of The Women’s ECommerce Association, International). Stephanie M. Cockerl, owner and Principal of nextSTEPH is a contributing author. Click on the book or here to find out how to download your free copy.
Click Here to read the press release.

In keeping with last month’s newsletter theme, “Making your Voice Heard” , we will focus on another way on making your voice heard, by distributing a press release online.

There is always an opportunity to submit a press release. Some examples are the release of a book, the acquistion of a new client, or the launching a new product or service.

Of course, we know of the usual channels to distribute a press release, by faxing it to a local newspaper, radio and TV stations in the hopes that you will receive calls from it. However in this day and age, there is also another way, that of the web.

There are several sites that will help you distribute your press release online. The most relevant one to date is PR Web (http://www.prweb.com). They offer free distribution of your release, however, if you require visibility, i.e. being actively pinged or catalogued by the search engines, and/or the ability to edit your post, PR web accepts donations. Each $10 donation earns your press release a star.

PRNewswire (http://www.prnewswire.com/) is another website that also distributes press releases online. This site is a graduated version of PRWeb. The features are a bit more advanced.

Regardless whether or not if you have the funds or not, a press release distributed on the web will help improve your search engine visibilty.