Recently, we came across a great service from Sucuri.net – Monitoring of websites security together with Malware Removal if such is detected. In fact Sucuri.net have a great WordPress plugin that allows for manual checks to be done on your WP website, as well as some extra 1-click hardening of the WP code.

We immediately checked up on Sucuri.net reputation, and having tested their plugin, we can say that we are thoroughly impressed on both counts. So we decided to implement the plugin across all of our websites, and also offer the Sucuri.net service to all of our clients.

The service will cost $89 (incl.GST) per year per website, and includes monitoring (and alerting if anything is detected) on regular intervals, as well as malware cleanup if detected. Just let us know, and we will set it up for you.

Great service for peace of mind!

This is an extract of what wikipedia.org has on WordPress:

“WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and content management system (CMS) powered by PHP and MySQL. It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet’s “top 1 million” websites and as of August 2011 powers 22% of all new websites. WordPress is currently the most popular CMS in use on the Internet.”

I guess it says it all!

Here’s a list of seven great things about us!

1. We produce modern slick and functional websites that are great to look at, and easy to navigate.
2. We teach our clients how to manage and update the website themselves, even if they know nothing about code.
3. We charge half as much as our competition (or sometimes even less).
4. We make sure that at the end of it, you hold the copyright to the website, and we register the domain names in your name.
5. We are small enough to treat all our clients as VIPs.
6. We have a great track record.
7. We are fully registered Australian co.

The Web is filled with offers that seem too good to be true.

Buyer Beware is a motto most of us should remember especially when starting a new business relationship. But sometimes the ‘nasties’ are hidden from the view, and are really hard to detect. And yes, when we are tired… who wants to read the fine print. Well… you will hear me say, “Told you so…”.

Anyway, here’s 5 things we think are especially nasty, and yet are an everyday occurrance in web design industry:

1. Who holds the copyright?! - Some outfits will charge you couple of hundred bucks for a website, but will retain the copyright. Then if you want to move somewhere else, they will demand thousands more… At 8WEB, if you are our client, you will always hold copyright to your website!
2. Who owns the domain name?! – Some will offer the domain name for FREE if you go with them, and then register it in their (web design co) name. Want your domain name back after that… Good luck! To complain in Australia will cost you a minimum of $1,700, and that only gets you a mediation service from AuDA. Best pay that $5,000 they are asking you now, and chalk it up to experience. At 8WEB, if you are our client, you will always own your domain name! This will cost you on average $27.50 per year.
3. What are all these EXTRAS?! – Would you believe some charge $22 or more for each email account and email forwarding set-up, even if it takes seconds to do?! Well it pays to read the fine print, and work out the total cost you are likely to be hit with. Ask the questions first or pay the price later. At 8WEB, if you are our client, email account set-ups are FREE! Most other help is charged out at $45 (+GST) per hour.
4. But I thought the Hosting was in Australia?! – There’s 3 kinds of Hosting: Shared (your website shares a server with many hundreds of other websites), Semi-dedicated (your website shares a server with ONLY a FEW other websites – usually between 10 to 50), and Dedicated (you have a whole server to yourself). Also, the response times from your website will depend if it is hosted overseas or in Australia. Every business should check what are they paying for; sometimes you will find that you are paying through the nose for shared hosting overseas. Again, ask the questions first, or pay the price later! At 8WEB, we offer ONLY managed VPS Australian Hosting! You will pay only $39 (+GST) for 5 Gig of space and 5 Gig of web traffic!
5. I am covered by Fair Trading, right?! – Not exactly. You are if you are dealing with a fully registered Australian company, like we are. But… let’s face it, 9 out of 10 web design businesses are based in Moldova, India or Philippines. Even if they are Australian, a lot of them don’t even have a registered business name, let alone a registered company. Now that you paid them upfront, you better hope they deliver! At 8WEB, we have all the right numbers! We are a private Australian company trading under a business name of 8WEB WORDPRESS BUSINESS WEBSITES (BN98546769), registered in NSW. If you want to see our company certificates, all you have to do is ask nicely.

If you feel that your web designer is holding something back from you, you’re probably right. Want us to give you our opinion; let us know, and we will tell you what we think.

8WEB will have a dedicated server in Australia this month!

We are in the process of migrating our clients from semi-dedicated server offshore to a Virtual Private servers in Australia. The result will be that our clients’ websites will load faster and will work better. 8WEB will manage the servers to make sure for optimum performance. We promise not to overcrowd each server with too many websites, as some providers do.

Due to high costs of maintaining a server in Australia, our hosting charges unfortunatelly have to go up. Good news is that they are still extremely competitive when compared to available managed VPS offers in Australia.

You will have 5gig of space and 5gig of web traffic every month, enough for most (bar most demanding) websites. In our experience, an average website rarely exceeds 1gig a month. You will find more info and the link on our SUPPORT page.