Many of you are using Gmail for your email provider – great choice! OurWebmaster wants to share a couple of tips to make this experience an even better one..!
Hint #1: Looking for an incoming email message that seems to be taking too long?
Many of us use the free version of Gmail for our professional email addresses: @mycompanyname.com. Unfortunately, Gmail is driving customers of their free Google services toward their paid service. One of the things they are doing in this effort is sweeping your company server for new emails less often. When you are awaiting a specific email (confirmation codes), this can be especially frustrating. In order to force Gmail to sweep your company server for new messages, you may follow these steps. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS IS ONLY AVAILABLE ON THE DESKTOP VERSION OF GMAIL – NOT THE PHONES OR GMAIL APP.
- Click on the gear icon at the top right of your Gmail screen. Then click ‘See All Settings.’
- Click on the ‘Accounts and Imports’ tab under the word ‘Settings’. You’ll see, General, Labels, Inbox, Accounts and Imports, etc.
- Scroll down to the ‘Check mail from other accounts’ section.
- Click the “Check mail now” link that appears below/near your @mycompanyname.com email address.
This should sweep the server immediately, you can go back to your Inbox to see new messages.
This process only works on your desktop version of Gmail. Once your desktop Gmail retrieves the message, it will appear on your mobile device.
Hint #2: Archiving your messages vs Trashing your messages
One of the things that makes Gmail great is that they provide plenty of online storage as part of their free service – 15GB. More good news? Items in your Spam and Trash are not counted toward your 15GB storage limit. This tremendous amount of online space allows you to Archive your messages instead of Trashing them. If you didn’t know, whenever your archive a Gmail message, it removes it from the Inbox but leaves it in All Mail. This makes messages very easy to find. And when you perform a search, it will automatically search through ‘All Mail‘. It will NOT automatically search the Spam or Trash.
Another helpful tip also involves Trashed messages. Did you know that if you TRASH an email message, it will TRASH the entire conversation? The result? It’s harder to find any portion of that long email conversation that you’ve been having with your vendor about the best deal on widgets…
Try the ARCHIVE instead of the TRASH option…you’ll be glad you did!
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH COOKIE NOTICES ON WEBSITES?
Have you ever wondered why some sites display a cookie consent notice? Do you know whether or not your site should be displaying such a notice? In order to be covered by The Cookie Law, your website has to use cookies. Does your site use cookies? The short answer is “yes”. OurWebmaster uses Google Analytics to collect statistics about your site’s traffic. This is essential information to measure how well your website is meeting your online goals. So – what does this mean for me? If your website is POTENTIALLY serving visitors in Europe OR California, we need to add cookie notices. This will entail adding code to your website, including providing privacy information and, in some cases, allowing visitors to consent to gather information. Contact OurWebmaster to find out more about how to best meet the needs of your website visitors.
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH ACCESSIBILITY ON WEBSITES?
You may notice websites with small icons or buttons that help persons with disabilities use a website. OurWebmaster has always taken care of the basic accessibility needs for websites that we build (making sure that photos are tagged with information about the photos etc.) but as you might expect, this is getting more complicated too… Website accessibility is becoming more regulated and more feature-rich. Are you interested in learning more about this? Contact OurWebmaster today to discuss your website’s accessibility needs.
Some Interesting accessibility facts:
- Nationwide ADA Federal lawsuit in 2019 passed the 11,000 marks for the first time.
Average settlement fee $30,000 - 15% of the U.S population have difficulties accessing and engaging websites.
- Worldwide, People with disabilities(PWD) hold over $8 Trillion in annual disposable income
(2016 study – “Return on disability”). - 30% of veterans have disabilities.
OURWEBMASTER – MEETING YOUR ONLINE NEEDS
OurWebmaster is pleased to offer a bulk purchase option for your monthly online marketing tasks. With new rates coming in August 2024 (see below), we are pleased to offer a prepaid option for our busiest clients (six-month commitment).
Purchase seven hours of prepaid services for a monthly cost of $340 charged to your credit card automatically on the 1st of each month. The monthly fee (normally valued at $420-$490) gives you a savings of at least two hours each month PLUS you know you’ll be able to get those tasks completed that you’ve been putting off for too long.
Beginning in August 2024, OurWebmaster is raising your hourly rate by $10/hour. Pricing changes are never easy, but they allow us to keep innovating and improving our services so that we can meet the ever-changing needs of businesses like yours.
OURWEBMASTER – THE FINE PRINT
Recurring billing/payments available: For those of you who are subscribed to the CMS Update Service, we are pleased to offer a recurring billing/payment service. Reach out if you’d like us to charge your credit card automatically for your subscription each month.
New Remittance Address: OurWebmaster is pleased to accept credit card payments. For those who prefer to mail a check, please note our new remittance address: OurWebmaster, 818 SW 3rd Ave #221-18940, Portland OR 97204-2405
Payment Processing: Check payments are gladly accepted at our new remittance address and are processed electronically via ACH. You will see OURWEBMASTER SALE appearing on your bank statement.
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