Since my daughter is home I decided to have her look at myhousehistory.net to see if she could determine why I am unable to sign into the website, and therefore unable to post any updates. She simply had me go to my axspace.com account and log in through it. And it worked! In the past I had always logged in directly from the myhousehistory.net home page. For whatever reason that no longer works, but that is fine with me as long as I can ultimately get where I need to be. Now, I'm sitting here wondering why the brainiacs at axspace and the other consultant I have been working with did not make that suggestion. Man, this stuff frustrates me! I wish I knew a whole lot more about it so I didn't have to rely on anyone else.
I still need to move the domain name and the website hosting to another company, and unfortunately my daughter does not know how to do that. I'm not sure who I will hire to take care of this since I don't really have much faith in the people I have dealt with in the past. It is probably not that they are incapable of doing the job, but their response time is pretty poor. I guess I'll ask around and see if anyone has a company they can recommend.
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Reflections on 2011
Since it is the last day of the year I have been doing some reflecting on 2011. I did manage to get two books written and published this year, which I suppose is not too shabby. I continue to struggle with technology issues, mostly the fact that my house history website is still unavailable to me for posting. Getting a new person to help me with website frustrations is at the top of my list for 2012 resolutions.
I have been thinking a lot about where I see Provenance Publishing going in the new year. I really don't have a new project in mind for myself at this point. I thought about doing a short ebook on researching your Webster Groves home, but do I really want to go to the effort and expense to produce a book that has an even smaller market than my first book? I don't think so. While I contemplate that, I did at least set up a Facebook page that will give Webster Groves residents suggestions on where they might find records to help them with their research.
I have been talking with an author about consulting on his book project. I like the message of the book and think that I can offer valuable advice on how to write and publish this book. That would be a new direction for my publishing company, and that excites me. So I guess we will see what 2012 brings.
I have been thinking a lot about where I see Provenance Publishing going in the new year. I really don't have a new project in mind for myself at this point. I thought about doing a short ebook on researching your Webster Groves home, but do I really want to go to the effort and expense to produce a book that has an even smaller market than my first book? I don't think so. While I contemplate that, I did at least set up a Facebook page that will give Webster Groves residents suggestions on where they might find records to help them with their research.
I have been talking with an author about consulting on his book project. I like the message of the book and think that I can offer valuable advice on how to write and publish this book. That would be a new direction for my publishing company, and that excites me. So I guess we will see what 2012 brings.
Monday, November 28, 2011
The Broken Record
Catch-22...not a good position to be in. My web host now is blaming Yahoo, which is where I purchased the domain name for myhousehistory.net, for the fact that I cannot log onto the site. This would not be a huge deal except that Yahoo does not show a record of my account, despite the fact that I have an April 2011 paid receipt from them for the domain name. Yahoo does not list a phone number for help, instead preferring to deal with issues via their online chat. But they won't chat with you if you do not have an account. Thus the trick bag I now find myself in. I am truly beyond frustrated by all this. My next step at this point is to move the whole account, domain name and web hosting, to a new company. I am hopeful that since my website is all backed up at WordPress this will not be too big of an issue. I just have to find someone to take care of it for me, because I truly do not have a clue. Who ya gonna call? Webusters?
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Still No Login
It is now Thursday and I still cannot login to myhousehistory.net. I have received no response at all from axspace. I suspect the little guy is sitting in a basement somewhere scratching his head over my dilemma. This is beyond frustrating! I guess the silver lining is that none of my spammer followers will be able to post their "comments" about body part enlargements, movies, drugs or various other items they are peddling. That is the good news.
On Saturday afternoon I will be attending a two hour presentation on researching house histories. It is a little embarrassing to admit that the St. Louis Genealogical Society is sponsoring this workshop, and they sell my book in their store. So one might imagine that they would ask the author of the book to do a presentation of this kind. I obviously do not know the right people in the organization. But I figure I will probably learn something, and I plan to have copies of my book along just in case.
On Saturday afternoon I will be attending a two hour presentation on researching house histories. It is a little embarrassing to admit that the St. Louis Genealogical Society is sponsoring this workshop, and they sell my book in their store. So one might imagine that they would ask the author of the book to do a presentation of this kind. I obviously do not know the right people in the organization. But I figure I will probably learn something, and I plan to have copies of my book along just in case.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Website Downdate
I won't dignify it by calling it an update. Early this morning I received an email from axspace advising me that my website had been restored to its previous configuration. Sure enough, when I entered the website address into the search bar, the website did indeed appear. Woo, hoo! But I was cheering too soon. Later today I tried to login to the site so that I could enter a post. When I hit the login button I was directed to a white screen. With nothing on it. So now I have a website that I cannot make changes or additions to, and on which no one can leave any comments. Needless to say I have sent another email to axspace. What do you want to bet that they say this is not their problem?
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Ebook Publishing Part 2
We had about 35 people attend the St. Louis Publishers Association meeting last night, where Bob Baker and I presented the topic of getting your ebook published. The presentation went well, and the feedback on the SLPA facebook page has been quite positive. As a followup to my last post, there still is little information on the internet about the KF8 format that will be required for any ebooks sold for the new Kindle Fire. My best advice is that if you have an ebook ready to go, begin with all the other e-reading devices and have your book formatted for them. After all, that is still a huge market and not everyone is going to rush right out and get the new Fire.
Especially since the new Nook Color is also due to be released this month. Designed to directly compete with the Fire, the new Nook will be slightly higher priced than the Fire but will offer more amenities, including a longer battery life and larger storage capacity. The Christmas sales season should prove interesting!
My house history website is still down! I had emailed axspace and requested that they put everything back the way it was just to get the site back up. That was over a week ago. Tuesday I opened a new ticket with them, again asking that they change the website to its original format. This is the response I got at 4:18 this morning:
Hi,
Please accept our apology in this regard,
Would you please let us know if you tend to change back your domain to "myhousehistory.axspace.com" ?
Thanks,
AXSpace support.
You see what I am dealing with here? Wasn't that what I said - to change it back? Ugh! I can't wait to get this all straightened out and then yank my website away from them. Stay tuned...
Especially since the new Nook Color is also due to be released this month. Designed to directly compete with the Fire, the new Nook will be slightly higher priced than the Fire but will offer more amenities, including a longer battery life and larger storage capacity. The Christmas sales season should prove interesting!
My house history website is still down! I had emailed axspace and requested that they put everything back the way it was just to get the site back up. That was over a week ago. Tuesday I opened a new ticket with them, again asking that they change the website to its original format. This is the response I got at 4:18 this morning:
Hi,
Please accept our apology in this regard,
Would you please let us know if you tend to change back your domain to "myhousehistory.axspace.com" ?
Thanks,
AXSpace support.
You see what I am dealing with here? Wasn't that what I said - to change it back? Ugh! I can't wait to get this all straightened out and then yank my website away from them. Stay tuned...
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Website Woes
After a website designer told me that all my Google "juice" was going to my website host due to the way they had my site routed, I emailed the host (no phone numbers provided - probably just as well since I don't have my daughter here to translate the Chinese for me!) to ask them to fix the issue. After a few days they finally replied that they had made the necessary change for the website to go to www.myhousehistory.net instead of www.myhousehistory.axspace.com. Great! The only problem is, now when you enter my website into the browser, it says that it cannot find myhousehistory.axspace.com. So my website is totally down, yet again.
When I did a follow-up with axspace, they now say that it is a problem with how my domain name is set up. The domain name is not with them of course, because that would be too easy. I tried to contact Yahoo Small Business, which is where the domain has been held since I came up with it in 2008. They say I don't have anything with them and they cannot respond to email support questions if you don't have anything with them. Talk about a Catch-22! I am very frustrated by all of this, and my site has now been down for about 2 weeks. I have emailed axspace again and asked them to restore the site to what it was before, because at least it was functional then. Once this is all resolved I think I will give them and Yahoo the boot!
When I did a follow-up with axspace, they now say that it is a problem with how my domain name is set up. The domain name is not with them of course, because that would be too easy. I tried to contact Yahoo Small Business, which is where the domain has been held since I came up with it in 2008. They say I don't have anything with them and they cannot respond to email support questions if you don't have anything with them. Talk about a Catch-22! I am very frustrated by all of this, and my site has now been down for about 2 weeks. I have emailed axspace again and asked them to restore the site to what it was before, because at least it was functional then. Once this is all resolved I think I will give them and Yahoo the boot!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
It's Always Something
As I have been happily going about my research on e-books, cyberspace has been plotting against me. When I went to add a post on the myhousehistory.net website April 27th, I got the dreaded "This account has been suspended" message. Seriously? This is what visitors to my site are going to see? As I checked records, I believe the web hosting came up for renewal in April. Long story short, I thought that we had moved my website to a different host after this host became hostile last year. Apparently that was not the case, and since I didn't pay my renewal fee, Axspace gave me the axe.
Trying to rectify the situation has become an exercise in international diplomacy, as I am convinced I'm dealing with someone over in Asia somewhere. The first email from them told me that a ticket had been created regarding my inquiry. The second email reply told me to log in to my account and pay the bill. Should have been easy, but the Axspace website wouldn't let me in. Third email asks me what my domain name is. Fourth email tells me that they can't find my account, myhousehistory.net and that they need my name to look it up a different way. Huh? What have they been looking at all this time? I guess my name at the bottom of each email wasn't clear enough. Fifth email tells me to reset my password. You supposedly accomplish this by entering your email and asking them to send you an email with the followup. Well, the followup never came. A new email to Axspace results in answer number six telling me that if I have forgotten my email address, they can accept a new email from me provided I give them my date of birth and my school mascot. So this is where we stand after four days of "communication". I am still suspended.
Sometimes I hate the "virtual" world!
Trying to rectify the situation has become an exercise in international diplomacy, as I am convinced I'm dealing with someone over in Asia somewhere. The first email from them told me that a ticket had been created regarding my inquiry. The second email reply told me to log in to my account and pay the bill. Should have been easy, but the Axspace website wouldn't let me in. Third email asks me what my domain name is. Fourth email tells me that they can't find my account, myhousehistory.net and that they need my name to look it up a different way. Huh? What have they been looking at all this time? I guess my name at the bottom of each email wasn't clear enough. Fifth email tells me to reset my password. You supposedly accomplish this by entering your email and asking them to send you an email with the followup. Well, the followup never came. A new email to Axspace results in answer number six telling me that if I have forgotten my email address, they can accept a new email from me provided I give them my date of birth and my school mascot. So this is where we stand after four days of "communication". I am still suspended.
Sometimes I hate the "virtual" world!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Website Update
As I had previously mentioned, I was having problems with the myhousehistory.net blog, which is on the Wordpress platform. My daughter has been integral in helping me figure out what the problem is, and we decided to move the Wordpress blog to a new web host first of all. Then she has been working to try to clear up the virus. I can now log in and post new entries, but I think we are still having issues in the comments section. Katie will eventually figure it out, I have no doubts about that. In the meantime she has made it harder for spammers to post comments, which is great. I moderate all comments anyway, but now you have to enter a code after you post a comment. That feature alone weeds out a lot of spammers.
Katie also set up a new website for my publishing company at www.provenancepublishing.com. I had already registered the domain www.provenancepublishing.net, but it is directed right to myhousehistory.net. Now that I will soon have two books under the publishing company, and one of those has nothing to do with house history, it seemed to make sense for the publishing company to stand on its own. The website is still a work in progress, but at least it is up.
Speaking of my second book, I have been busy checking some sources for data I used in the book, because my Hump Pilot suggested that a few things were incorrect. Once I get that done, I'll be ready to send it off to an editor. I have got to get this thing off dead center. At the last St. Louis Publishers Association meeting we gathered into small groups and we each had to list one thing that we wanted to finish in the next 30 days. We then wrote down how we were going to make that happen. I put down that I want this book to go to the book designer in 30 days. That may be ambitious depending on how much time the editor needs, but at the very least I want the book in the editor's hands before I leave on vacation February 26th. There...I put it in writing. That felt great!
Katie also set up a new website for my publishing company at www.provenancepublishing.com. I had already registered the domain www.provenancepublishing.net, but it is directed right to myhousehistory.net. Now that I will soon have two books under the publishing company, and one of those has nothing to do with house history, it seemed to make sense for the publishing company to stand on its own. The website is still a work in progress, but at least it is up.
Speaking of my second book, I have been busy checking some sources for data I used in the book, because my Hump Pilot suggested that a few things were incorrect. Once I get that done, I'll be ready to send it off to an editor. I have got to get this thing off dead center. At the last St. Louis Publishers Association meeting we gathered into small groups and we each had to list one thing that we wanted to finish in the next 30 days. We then wrote down how we were going to make that happen. I put down that I want this book to go to the book designer in 30 days. That may be ambitious depending on how much time the editor needs, but at the very least I want the book in the editor's hands before I leave on vacation February 26th. There...I put it in writing. That felt great!
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