Category Archives: Did You Know

Hover’s Top 5 Blogging Platforms

Many people use their Hover domains to forward to a personal blog. Blogs are great if you want to keep loved ones up to date, share photos of a vacation, display hobbies or really anything else you can think of. Generally speaking, blogs are an inexpensive or free method of expressing yourself or getting your opinion across.

What blogging platform is the best for you? Here are some popular choices and what we like about them:

Tumblr

Tumblr is great for those who want to show off a lot of pictures accompanied by short text posts. Think of it as a Twitter feed but with a more visual content. Perhaps you’re an aspiring photographer or want to document a trip without feeling the need to write long, formal posts. The Tumblr blogging platform is great for people on the go or with little time to spend online.
Price: Free

Squarespace

Squarespace is great for the blogging newbies out there who may not be as familiar with design and coding techniques. The best part is you can use their themes but customize them to your own liking. The modular user interface means creating your own blog is as easy as choosing the pieces you want and putting them together.
Price: $8-$50 per month

WordPress

A WordPress blog isn’t the simplest to set up. In fact, if you’re not familiar with finding and uploading themes, customizing plugins and creating a navigation structure, you may become overwhelmed and want to opt for a simpler platform. However, what it lacks in simplicity it makes up for in customizability. Once you get the hang of it, WordPress has a crazy amount of features, plugins and options that allow the user to fully tailor each aspect of their blog.
Price: Free hosting is available from WordPress.com. WordPress can also be installed and hosted on your own server space (hosting fees vary).

Posterous

Posterous is so easy to use that you don’t even have to create an account to start posting. All you have to do to set up your blog is send your first post to post@posterous.com, and they’ll create YourName.Posterous.com for you! While it isn’t for anyone, Posterous email updating is perfect for those who want to blog on the go, or have little to no coding knowledge.
Price: Free

Twitter

If you don’t have time to write full blog posts, let alone design a blog, Twitter may be for you. You can tweet from anywhere and instantly share content from the web to your followers. The only drawback is you must keep your posts at 140 characters or less.
Price: Free

ccTLD of the Week: .TV

.TV is an interesting ccTLD. Originally, it was the extension for the country of Tuvalu. If you’re thinking: where in the world is Tuvalu? It sounds like its a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or something... you’re pretty much dead-on. Tuvalu is a Polynesian island nation located about midway between Australia and Hawaii and has a population of roughly 10,500.
Unfortunately for the island of Tuvalu, the .TV domain is more widely used these days for sites with video or other rich media like animation, audio or streaming content. This ccTLD is now operated by Verisign and anyone can register one.

Why Register a .TV?

A .TV domain name provides:

1. Instant association with video and rich media content.
2. greater chance of securing the domain name of your choice.
3. A distinct, memorable web address.
4. The perfect complement to a .com or .net web site.

.TV domains are just $40/year with Hover and registration is open to everyone!

Jetpack Plugin for WordPress

The Jetpack plug-in for WordPress is hands down one of the best plug-ins for adding tons of features to your WordPress site. It combines the features of previously separate plug-ins into one crazy awesome plug-in that’s sure to make your WordPress experience a little bit easier.

Cool features of Jetpack:

- simple site stats with no extra load to your server
- social networking enabled comment section
- email subscriptions for your site’s posts and comments AND mobile push notifications for new comments
- ‘After the Deadline’ – a wicked spelling, grammar and style editor
- Your readers can easily share your posts via email, Facebook, Twitter or other social networks (previously provided by the Sharedaddy WordPress plugin.
- A mobile theme that automatically streamlines your site on mobile devices.
- WP.me URL shortener
- Carousel – allows you to transform your standard image galleries into a full-screen experience.
- A CSS editor that lets you customize your site design without modifying your theme.

All featured of the Jetpack are free, except for the VaultPress feature, a monthly subscription service that will backup your site’s content, themes, and plugins in realtime, as well as perform regular security scans for common threats and attacks. Learn more on the VaultPress website.

Jetpack version 1.8.2 can be installed at Jetpack.me or, the easiest way, through WordPress itself. Head over to your dashboard, click on Plugins and click Add New then search for ‘Jetpack’. You’ll need the latest version of WordPress in order to download.

TLD of the Week: .ASIA

You may not know this (or you may already know, but humor us here) but Asia has over 60% of the world’s population. That equals approximately 4,243,200,000 people and counting! If you’re wondering if theres a domain extension that encompasses this very large and ever-expanding population, the answer to that question is yes.

The .ASIA domains are targeted towards companies, organizations, and individuals in the Pan-Asia and Asia-Pacific region. .ASIA is specifically focused on the Asia identity, but is versatile enough that it can be used by businesses, organizations, or individuals across the region. In addition to being popular for regional companies.it can also be adopted by international NGOs operating in Asia or global companies expanding into Asian markets.

“Legal entities” in the Pan-Asia and Asia-Pacific region can register for a .ASIA domain. A legal entity is considered an association, corporation, partnership, proprietorship, trust, or individual that has legal standing in the eyes of law.

.ASIA domains with Hover are just $20. Head on over to www.Hover.com. If you have any questions on the requirements to register a .ASIA domain, give us a call at 1-866-731-6556 or send us an email at help@hover.com

ccTLD of the week: .UK

.UK is the country-code TLD for the United Kingdom, introduced in 1985 and administered by Nominet UK. It is the fourth most popular TLD after .COM, .DE, and .NET. This TLD is only publicly available as a second-level registration, the most popular of which is .co.uk. With over 8.6 million registrations in total, of which over 91% are .co.uk domains, .UK presents lots of opportunity, especially for small business!

Who can register a .UK?

.UK domains are only available to .UK entities. Meaning, you can only register a .UK if you reside in the UK or your business is out of the UK.

How to choose a second-level domain

.UK domains are only available as a second level registration. This means you’ve got to choose a second level domain. We recommend the domain reflects your type of business or the type of website you plan to use your domain name with. For example, .org.uk domains are most suitable for non / not for profits.

Did you know? In the UK, 72% of adults visit a .uk website first when browsing or shopping online. Hover .uk domains are $10/year! Head over to www.hover.com to get started

Domain Name Terminology Explained

Mail servers, root servers… what’s the difference? With all the domain name jargon to keep up with, sometimes it can be difficult to separate Glue records from A records. Impress your friends with your breadth of internet knowledge with our handy domain name terminology guide:

A Record: Maps hostnames to the IP address of the host. For example, the A record for hover.com points the domain hover.com at 64.99.80.27.

ccTLD: Country code Top-Level Domains. These domains are used or reserved for a country, sovereign state or dependent territory.

DNS: DNS is an acronym for Domain Name System or Domain Name Server. The Domain Name System assigns domain names to IP addresses. It allows humans to use simple domain names to load websites instead of having to remember cryptic IP addresses.

Domain hacks: A domain hack is an unconventional domain name which creatively uses domain extensions to spell out names that would otherwise be already registered if by .COM and other popular TLDs. Examples include del.icio.us and bit.ly.

Domain hijacking: The act of acquiring a second-level Internet domain name identical to a famous name or trademark for the purpose of obtaining a financial settlement from the owner for the name

Email client: Through interaction with mail servers, email clients are used to send/receive/read and create email messages. An example is Outlook.

Glue Record: A glue record is an A record created when you specify name servers for your domain.

IP Address: stands for Internet Protocol address. This is a numeric address assigned to computers and servers on the Internet. It’s like a civic address for a computer. Computers need to have an IP address in order to find and communicate with each other over the Internet.

Mail servers: a server that handles email traffic being sent and received across a network run by ISPs (internet service providers) and Webmail providers such as Hover :).

MX Record: A MX record specifies where email should be delivered. Hover’s MX record is mx.hover.com.cust.hostedemail.com. An MX record also contains a numeric priority. The lower the priority number, the higher the priority (yes, it sounds a little backwards). Some mail systems have different MX records for different inbound servers. If the first server is busy, the email gets routed to the next available server.

Name Servers: provide mapping of domain names to IP addresses.

POP3 Mailbox: Meaning ‘Post Office Protocol 3’, this is the method by which emails are sent and received. POP3 allows you to send/receive emails via Webmail or an email client such as Outlook.

Root Servers: One of several domain name system (DNS) servers on the Internet that contain the IP addresses of the top level domain (TLD) registry organizations that maintain gTLDs (.com, .net, .gov, etc.) and ccTLDs (.uk, .ca, .fr, etc.).

Webmail: email that is accessed in a web browser. Hover customers can use Hover Webmail or download their email to the email client of their choice.

Zone File: The zone file is a text file that contains a set of DNS records for the domain name. Each domain name that is registered in Hover is pointed at ns1.hover.com and ns2.hover.com. These are the Hover name servers. These name servers contain a zone file for every domain name registered in Hover. You can edit your zone file using the Manage DNS section under the Account tab when logged into your Hover account.

TLD of the Week: .INFO

Launched in 2001, .INFO (for ‘information’) was the first unrestricted TLD since .COM. It was one of seven new TLDs introduced, and is operated by Afilias. Like .COM and .NET, .INFO domains are unrestricted,meaning that there are no restrictions to registration – anyone can own one!

Of the seven new TLDs introduced in 2000, .INFO has become the most successful, with over 6.5 million registered. Since “info” is a recognized term in over 30 languages, this TLD is a truly global domain. Many organizations consider .INFO as the best way to provide information about their services to their customers.

A great .INFO domain from Hover is only $15/year! Head over to www.hover.com to get yours.

If you have any questions about .INFO or any other TLD, give us a call at 1-866-731-6556 Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm EST.

The Importance of Renewing Your Business’ Domain

As a business owner you know that your domain name is vital to your business’ online presence. That’s why it’s incredibly important to renew your domain name. Renewing your domain yearly (and with plenty of time to spare) is great for protecting your online investment. However, choosing to renew your domain for five or more years is ideal.

So why choose to renew your domain for five or 10 years?

1. No worries
Renewing your domain for an extended period saves you valuable time – mainly because you won’t have to manually renew every year. With Hover, we’ll remind you when your domain is set to expire, so you won’t have to remember, even with a five or 10 year registration..

2. No down time
If your domain expires your clients will not be able to access crucial information on your website, making your business lose out on traffic and potential customers (it also looks pretty bad!). Any email addresses associated with your domain will no longer work either. Renewing your domain for a longer period of time makes it less likely you’ll forget to renew.

3. You own your own domain
If your domain expires and for any reason you forget to renew it, you no longer own this domain. This means anyone else can register it. For a business, this could mean life or death, especially when things get busy and renewing your domain is the last thing on your mind.

So whether you use your domain as an information resource, e-commerce site, etc, renewing your domain for a longer period of time will not only allow you to focus on other things, but will secure your business’ online presence for years to come.

Stay with us a while

By default, Hover will renew your domain for you every year on the anniversary of its registration date so long as your billing information is current and accurate. You can cancel at any time, and if you’d prefer to renew early, you can manually renew whenever you want. We will always let you know before we process any charges and you are always in full control. The Hover Help Center has a great article on how to renew your domain.

If you need any help, feel free to call us at 1-866-731-6556 or at help@hover.com. We’re open Monday-Friday from 8am-8pm EST.

TLD of the Week: .COM

Each week we’ll be featuring overviews, interesting facts, pricing, etc. of gTLDs and ccTLDs that are all  available to register at Hover.com.

What better way to start off the series than featuring the .COM domain extension – the most registered TLD of all time.

Originally derived from ‘commercial’, .COM was one of the first top-level domains in the Internet used when the Domain Name System was created back in 1985. Since then, it has grown to become the largest TLD, with over 88 million .COM domains registered.

The .COM registry is operated by our friends at VeriSign and are registered in more than 350 languages worldwide!

With Hover, .COM domains are just $15/year. This not only includes a one-year registration, but we’ll also throw in WHOIS privacy for free, unlimited domain forwarding, and advanced DNS management. If you’re transferring from another registrar, consider our Valet service and let us do all the work! You can request the Hover Valet service by calling 1-866-731-6556 or emailing your request to help@hover.com.

Customer Service with a Smile

They’ve been described as ‘better than a snow cone on a hot summer day’ and ‘absolutely stellar’… and not just by their moms. We get tons of customer Facebook, Twitter, phone and email comments about how they’ve made someone’s day a little bit easier. They’ve even been known to help a lost Hoover customer pick out their next vacuum.

Yes, we’re talking about the Hover Customer Support team!

Every now and then we like to give some kudos to our wonderful Hover team who work hard to provide honest and reliable customer service. We couldn’t be more proud of them!

Here are a few kind words our customers had to say about the team:

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Rob,

You approached me assuming I knew what I was doing, you were open to questions and feedback, and on top of that I feel like I got the better end of the deal. If I could give you a Tip I would! Hover has ranked as by far one of the best customer service experiences I’ve ever had, and it was completely unexpected, and welcome.

Best regards, and thank you

Kyle O.

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The actual process to switch domains, transfer them and have my site back up-and-running took 30 minutes. That included creating my account, setting up the transfer, adding the necessary configurations all within a simple UI. I couldn’t believe it when I received the email that the transfer was complete.
First time user or hard core nerd, everyone loves when things are simple and easy. Hover is just that.

Joe C.

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I just wanted to express my gratitude to Nathan Budd. He went over and above
his call of duty and held my hand through my technical setup issues. In fact,
this is my 3rd call into your company. My first call was to purchase a domain,
the second to add email and 3rd – last time was to re-direct my email. Every
single experience was an example of excellent customer service……

Monica S.

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I wondered how long my explaining was going to take in conveying the problem I had. Since I don’t know much about computers, nor the terminology, it was difficult to know just where to start. But Roger (and Kevin) knew their jobs well, knew the speak, and just happen to know how to help someone who didn’t know the terms and formats. Everything got sorted out. Each of them tried a way for it to be the easiest of transactions for me and it was all sorted as to what the problem was and how to fix it. I appreciated very much the help I received. Their follow-up emails were respectful and friendly as well.

Barb

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Everyone has experienced the frustration of being told your call is important to us while you are asked to choose from menus, provide information repeatedly and wait for service. That’s what made my recent experience with the Hover help line so different. I called and immediately got a live body who then was able to understand and walk me through my problem- a most satisfying experience.

Ed

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Rodger was great. Very friendly and knowledgeable. I was dreading making a call to tech support because of negative experiences with other companies support. Not hover. Rodger’s personal touch make the call go smooth. We had a crazy weird account problem that Rodger was able to resolve quickly and completely.
Other companies should model their technical support after yours!

Lenny S.

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You folks are totally awesome! Always knowledgeable, calm and (this is really important) don’t make me feel like a total idiot because of my lack of technical expertise!

Thanks mucho!

Annie’s Hardware

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I am very impressed with your customer service. It comes at a time when so many companies think “Customer Service” isn’t important. I can tell you it means everything!!! I definitely would pay more for a product and/or service who provides amazing customer service… A company that cares is rare – Thank you for being rare!!

Brenda M.

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My only complaint against Hover is how good the service is. I tell prospective users that they’ll although everything will be resolved quickly and efficiently they’ll need to put aside an extra five minutes to write an email of thanks!

Simon C.

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I appreciate that the phone is answered by a person who is ready and able to help, and they understand that we are not necessarily technically inclined. Kevin provided help in an efficient and friendly way, as have the other techs that I have talked to in the past.

Ted P.

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It is rare to enjoy the superb level of support that I received on this problem. How many organisations give out a phone number and when you ring it, it be instantly answered by a real human expert? Answer virtually none. OK it may not have been a particularly difficult problem, but the ease of access to a person with whom I could discuss the issues, and the friendly and expert advice I received is hard to beat.

Tom

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To learn more about our services, account information, or perhaps the latest Hoover vacuum models, give Hover customer support a call at 1-866-731-6556 or send us an email at help@hover.com – we’re here to help!