9/14/12: Site Builder (CoolTools) update 4.40 is fully deployed now. It includes the following updates and system enhancements. 

Feature Overview

• Button component (also available for page group links)
• Updated links list component
• New layouts
• New Google fonts
• IPAD text editor (be sure to enable pop-ups in Safari)
• ReCaptchaTM setting - enhanced form spam protection
• Ecommerce updates
• Popup overlay window support (click here for instructions)
• Mobile site enhancements
• PREVIEW: optimized checkout (single page)
• Miscellaneous corrections

To find out your current Site Builder version number, log into your web hosting account and look at the right-hand side of the page for the "System Update" graphic, which shows the update number and installation date, along with a summary of the most recent features (the sample at right illustrates System Update version 4.40).

For more details on all the features, please visit http://updates.bizsiteservice.com/sysblog.

Unwanted bulk email — also known as "spam" — is a serious problem throughout the Internet. But what if you want to send a message to a large group of recipients? How do you avoid spamming them? Here are some tips:

1. Do not send bulk emails if you have purchased the addresses rather than collected them with recipients' permission. This would violate the CAN-SPAM act, which sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.
2. Carefully follow guidelines given in the following publications from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about the CAN-SPAM Act:
   • http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business/ for specifications of this act
   • http://business.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business.pdf for a very readable PDF version of this information.
3. Send only to a list of users who have specifically requested to receive emails from your company.
4. Use our SiteBuilder web hosting system's mailing list manager or a similar system such as Constant Contact that:
   • Enables recipients to opt-out, as per the CAN-SPAM act.
   • Enables you to create both HTML and Text email (which is required by some email systems), and to send yourself a test message.
   • Provides templates that you can use for the HTML email message, and/or enables you to create your own templates.
5. Do not use a standard email client to send out bulk emails (again, because it typically does not enable recipients to opt-out).

Failure to adhere to the above will irritate email recipients and, much worse, may get you kicked off your email or web hosting system as a spammer.

Upgrading SiteBuilder Mailing Lists
All of our SiteBuilder (Cool Tools) plans offer a mailing list manager. If you are using our SiteBuilder system, you may upgrade your mailing list capacity. Simply log in to your site editor, click the purple Mailing List button, click the Upgrade Mailing List button (right-hand side), scroll down to Add-Ons & Upgrades, and select the Mailing List upgrade that you want. You may select 1000 - 5000, in increments of 1000. Click Apply Changes. 

If you need more than the 5000 maximum, the upgrade charge is $2.50 per 1000 emails per month. Please contact us if you require an extended upgrade and tell us how many thousands of emails you need per month; we will contact our web hosts to upgrade for you.

System Update: 4.19 - [8/20/2011]
System Update 4.19 is available to all Precision Computing Arts/Fastwebdev web hosting clients, and it's chock full of useful and fun features, which are summarized below. If you have any questions or would like us to help you implement these features, please don't hesitate to contact us!

User accounts
The user accounts pages have been updated to make accounts easier to navigate and manage.

Tabs have been added at the top of the user accounts page that let you easily switch between the user groups and user accounts view. Navigation has been enhanced to make it easier to switch between user groups.

The user accounts details page now opens in a popup window for quick access. The selected user group checkboxes have been updated to make them easier to work with. A new link has been added to the user account detail page that lets you send a quick email to the user.

Mailing list
The site mailing list pages have been reworked to make the mailing list easier to use.

• Updated mailing list user interface.
• New email templates added (30+ new templates).
• New email templates automatically include social networking links in the template.
• Updated mailing list template user interface. You can now preview a template before selecting it.

New option to set the email "from" display name as well as a tracking code for the email. The tracking code is automatically added to links in your email. This allows you to track the effectiveness of your newsletters.

Form builder
New options at the top of the form builder make it easier to enable the contact DB and mailing list features on the form. The form builder user interface has been updated. There were a lot of options on the page which can make the form builder a bit confusing to configure. Some options have been moved into settings tabs.

Social networking
The social networking sharing icons now include the Google +1 button and LinkedIn buttons. You also now have the option to hide/display both the social widget buttons or the social icons. A new option to send a Tweet from with in the admin has been added to the marketing area. The blog manager has a direct link to send a tweet about a blog post.

Edit tabs [preview/experimental]
This update includes an experimental new site builder header. We have added an option to try out a new set of tabs at the top of the site builder to get feedback. The new set of tabs provides quick access to the new marketing/reports area as well as direct access to core ecommerce functions for store accounts. It will be easy for customers to switch between the existing tabs and the new tabs. To try this feature, select Admin > Editor Settings > Edit Tabs Style [Optmized]

Website edit header tabs

• admin
• view site
• edit site
• design
• marketing/reports
• help

Ecommerce edit header tabs

• admin
• website
• store setup
• products
• orders
• customers
• marketing/reports
• help

Marketing/Reports
The new marketing/reports sections provides easy access to the most important markting features that are integrated with the site builder as well as quick access to statistics, search engine submission and site guides. The core marketing features, blog, mailing list, social networking settings and twitter are all included.

Misc updates

• The view/edit tab drop down menu now includes links to the settings pages.
• Message board no longer requires capcha when you are logged in.
• Displayable user name for message board when user accounts/login required to post messages.
• Updated mobile/browser detection for stats and mobile pages.
• The drop down tab menu for edit site now includes direct links to all of the settings pages.
• Calendar uses timezone offset.
• Site page search now includes blog posts and HTML pages.

Media library page
Use the new media library page to create a sortable media list with embedded media player. Upload your audio/video files. The media library automatically creates a RSS feed/pod cast for the uploaded media.

Text editor
The text editor 2.0 now allows you to easily setup H1, H2, H3 tags via the style drop down. Simply select your text and click the style drop down to apply one of the header styles.

Blog

• The blog user interface has been updated.
• New option to save a blog post as a draft.
• Added support for integrating Facebook comment system (enable from blog settings page).
• Blog manager now has direct links to easily send a tweet with link for new blog posts.

Basic traffic stats

• Basic traffic stats are now maintained for up to 3 years (this will only include stats collected after the update is installed)
• New option to reset all your traffic stats
• New option to reset your traffic stats referrers/search engines/keywords
• Stats have been updated to be tracked in the site owner's local time based on their time zone setting
• NOTE: Stats before this update will not reflect the correct timezone

Ecommerce

• Ecommerce reports are now displayed in the user's time zone (only applies to new orders completed after this update)
• For products that ship in their own box, you can now set the package dimensions
• New gateway (Moneris for US merchants)

Tell us what you think!
We are always looking to improve the quality of our services and your feedback is appreciated. If you have any ideas or suggestions, let us know.