Pre-Update Check for Joomla 5 - An error has occurred while fetching the JSON data: HTTP 500 status code.
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If you are running Joomla 4, and doing the Joomla 5 Pre-Update check and receive this error "An error has occurred while fetching the JSON data: HTTP 500 status code."
Contact Form 7 not responding after submit, spinning wheel
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If you are using a Wordpress site, and are using Contact Form 7 (CF7) plugin, and you have an issue where nothing appears to happen when you click on the submit / send button, then check your page optimisation settings.
Safety and Security While Video Conferencing with Zoom
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Now I confess, I'm no IT security expert, but I had to attend an online classroom environment on Zoom last Friday, so when an enewsletter appeared in my inbox with "Safety and Security While Video Conferencing with Zoom" as the title I thought I'd read it. It offered some really good tips, and some basic 'how to use' which was quite fortunate considering it was my first time using it. The article covers
- Video Conference Options
- If You’re Required to use Zoom as a Meeting Host
- Using Video Conferencing as an Attendee
- Helping Kids Use Zoom
- Can We Stay Safe on Video Calls?
Here the lead in to the article, and the link if you're interested in reading further...
Keyboard issue: Single quote being replaced by Accent character
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How annoying. Every time I wanted to type a single quote character ' it was turning it into an accent. Double quotes weren't showing up unless I then entered a space. Turns out I had pressed the Windows key and the space bar at the same time, inadvertently changing language mode. Windows 10: If you look in your taskbar, just left of the Time and Date, you will see the current language setting, eg ENG. Click it to get other options. Mine was ENG - US International, so I changed it to ENG - US keyboard. All fixed.
Email – latest technology & more space!
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Just like everything else related to technology, email technology and the way we use it has changed in the last ten years. Once upon a time there was only an email protocol called “POP”, which downloaded all your emails onto your computer or device, which was great, server space was limited and this kept your mailbox relatively clear. Emails were only a few kb, so even a mailbox size of 25meg would last you ages.
Outlook 2018, where have the Advanced Settings gone?
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Outlook has changed it's interface, so if you're looking for the old control panel.... go to File->Account Settings ->Manage Profiles. Select Email Accounts (top of the list). Once there, the 'old' control panel is shown (the one that we are used to). It's such a nuisance when they change things!
Tools to resize and optimise images for your website
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Having images on your website pages makes them more interesting and is a great way to showcase your services, your work, or your products. However if you're not careful you could cause your website more damage than benefit. How? If you don't resize and optimise your images, and assuming that they have come straight from your camera or mobile phone camera, then they will be in their raw format and quite large. By large I mean both in their physical dimensions eg 3500pixels wide x 2000 pixels high, and 4meg in filesize. Let's say that you were uploading an image for a gallery which also had a 'click to view in lightbox' type of functionality. You would probably only need the image at it's lightbox dimensions of around 1000pixels wide x 800pixels high, and not as such high resolution as what your camera took it at. Web graphics are usually at 72dpi (dots per inch), or for high resolution screens 96dpi.
Latest round of QLD Digital Grants opens soon
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Business Queensland will be accepting applications for its Small Business Digital Grants Program again with round 3 of applications set to open mid-2017. The program offers matched funding of up to $10,000 for the purchase of hardware, software and digital services.
If you've been thinking about investing in digital technologies for your business, now is the perfect time to prepare for your application. With the $10,000 grant you could invest in:
- Website and content development (copy on your website's product pages, homepage, blog content…etc),
- specialised digital technology or software,
- training, marketing strategy, digital planning.
The Importance of Keeping Software Up To Date
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Source: Google Webmasters Blog https://webmasters.googleblog.com/
State of Website Security in 2016
First off, some unfortunate news. Google has seen an increase in the number of hacked sites by approximately 32% in 2016 compared to 2015. They don’t expect this trend to slow down. As hackers get more aggressive and more sites become outdated, hackers will continue to capitalize by infecting more sites.
Types of Hacks
Gibberish Hack: The gibberish hack automatically creates many pages with non-sensical sentences filled with keywords on the target site. Hackers do this so the hacked pages show up in Google Search. Then, when people try to visit these pages, they’ll be redirected to an unrelated page, like a porn site. Learn more on how to fix this type of hack.
Japanese Keywords Hack: The Japanese keywords hack typically creates new pages with Japanese text on the target site in randomly generated directory names. These pages are monetized using affiliate links to stores selling fake brand merchandise and then shown in Google search. Sometimes the accounts of the hackers get added in Search Console as site owners. Learn more on how to fix this type of hack.
Cloaked Keywords Hack: The cloaked keywords and link hack automatically creates many pages with non-sensical sentence, links, and images. These pages sometimes contain basic template elements from the original site, so at first glance, the pages might look like normal parts of the target site until you read the content. In this type of attack, hackers usually use cloaking techniques to hide the malicious content and make the injected page appear as part of the original site or a 404 error page. Learn more on how to fix this type of hack.
Scammers - they are still at it!!
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Thanks to our accountants Bentleys for this article which we took from their excellent newsletter .....
Unfortunately, scammers pretending to be from the ATO and demanding money or threatening that they have a warrant for your arrest and are going to send you to jail are still very active. According to a recent report, 40,500 of these ATO scams occurred between January to May in this year alone – netting the scammers $1.2M! Peta Grenfell even had a threatening message from the ‘ATO’ on her answering machine at home the other day. So what should you do if you receive one of these calls or emails?
If you have a tax debt with the ATO, chances are you’d know about it. In most cases, the ATO will call our office to advise us and give the opportunity to set up a payment arrangement on your behalf. While the ATO is increasingly contacting taxpayers directly, if they did happen to contact you about an outstanding debt then they certainly wouldn’t be aggressive, threatening or rude.
Marketing your website content across the digital market
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Have you just created a new page on your website which gives some great information about a new product or service that you are offering? Or have you just updated an existing page to include extra information? That's great, but wouldn't it be even better if more people knew about it? So how do you achieve that? Aside from posting on your facebook page, which, these days has a limited reach unless you pay to boost your post, what else can you do? Send an enewsletter to your existing customers? Yes, but what about the people who AREN'T your existing customers? How do you go about capturing them?
Here's a link to a very good article about digital marketing. It may seem a bit overwhelming, as there are so many good ideas. So why not tackle a few that sound familiar. If you already have a Google+ page, then try the posting to Google communities first, then work your way through the rest of the list.
Good luck, and remember, we love to hear your success stories!
http://www.robbierichards.com/seo/16-explosive-content-promotion-strategies/
What format of logo should you use in Word?
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We have found that the best clarity of images and logos is obtained when you use a .png image. Jpegs and Gifs tend to become blurry when inserted into word documents.
Internet keyword scam
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We have received several queries from our clients regarding a scam which is doing the rounds again. This one is relating to internet keywords, and the company that is sending you the email is trying to protect your internet branding/trademark by contacting you first to see if you want the china/asia based domains. The email goes something like this:
Latest News / Blog
- Pre-Update Check for Joomla 5 - An error has occurred while fetching the JSON data: HTTP 500 status code.
- Using Instagram to Promote Your Business
- Social Media - What to post about?
- Google Analytics 4
- Protecting Kids Devices
- UPDATE: New .au domains available from March 24th, 2022
- New .au domains available in 2022
- Contact Form 7 not responding after submit, spinning wheel
- Things to consider before updating your site to Joomla 4
- Why do hackers bother hacking websites?
- How to grow your social media engagement
- Wordpress 5.5 - auto updates
- My Watchful Podcast
- Safety and Security While Video Conferencing with Zoom
- Increasing the exposure of your business
- Keyboard issue: Single quote being replaced by Accent character
- Telemarketers trying to sell you a keyword-rich domain name
- Email – latest technology & more space!
- Outlook 2018, where have the Advanced Settings gone?
- Tools to resize and optimise images for your website
- Stolen Domain Names
- How to 'Like' a Facebook page as your business
- Create a link for customers to write reviews
- Latest round of QLD Digital Grants opens soon
- Proximity to Searcher is the New #1 Local Search Ranking Factor
- The Importance of Keeping Software Up To Date
- Mobile-first Indexing
- Run out of ideas for social media posts?
- Scammers - they are still at it!!
- Are you struggling to create interesting content for your website?
- How to Write Viral Headlines: New BuzzSumo Research
- Google to Boost mobile-friendly algorithim this May
- Get on Google 'My Business'
- Google Analytics Report - What is "beat with a shovel the weak google spots" keyword?
- What is NAP Consistency? And why is it good for SEO?
- More .au options for all Australians or not – the pointy end of the naming panel process
- Why are there spikes visits on my Google Analytics report?
- Generate more traffic with good quality blog content
- Content Quality Score: Google’s Best Kept Secret For Rankings
- Marketing your website content across the digital market
- How Google Search Works
- Facebook site ownership when buying a business
- Using Pinterest for your Business
- Can I rely on my Registered Business Name alone to register a com.au or net.au domain name?
- How to create a business listing on Google Maps
- What format of logo should you use in Word?
- What is Google Pagerank?
- Google Analytics keywords report says "not provided"
- 5 Tricks to Improve Your Google Maps Listing & Ranking
- SEO backlinks for your website
- Internet keyword scam
- Google Maps
- SEO basics for your website
