How to backup your WordPress website

Feb

Your WordPress website consists of files, images, and a database. Your database contains all of the content within your website. This includes every post, every link, and every comment. If your database gets corrupted, you could lose everything without a backup. Backing up your WordPress website regularly will ensure peace of mind.

Automated WordPress Backup Plugins

To automatically backup your WordPress website, you will need to install a plugin. One highly rated plugin is the UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin. In your WordPress admin, click on Plugins -> Add New. Under search keyword, type in Updraft.

Click Install Now, then Activate. Once activated, you can find UpdraftPlus under Settings -> UpdraftPlus Backups.

The first thing you will want to do is to click on the Settings tab and set up your backup schedules. Weekly backups should suffice for most websites. However, if you make frequent daily updates, you may opt for daily backups.

UpdraftPlus WordPress backup selection screen

By default, backups are saved locally for your website. You should choose a remote storage option so your backups are safe from drive crashes. Plus saving backups locally could fill up your disk quota for your website, giving you less space to work with. UpdraftPlus Backups let you choose from a wide selection of remote storage options. Select the option that works for you.

Manual Backups

We recommend that you make a manual backup prior to making a large update to your WordPress website. This way if you make a mistake, or installed a plugin/theme that breaks your website, you can easily revert your changes.

Click on Backup Now on the main UpdraftPlus page. If something happens after a large update, and you wish to revert your site to a prior state, select the backup you wish to restore to and click on Restore.

Tip: Upgrading your WordPress version and plugins is critical to maintaining security, but it does come with risks to what it does to your website’s look and functionality. Contact PSPinc if you want help updating your WordPress installation. We will test the upgrade in advance and take a backup of your website before we perform the upgrade.

Keep Your WordPress Install Secure

For complete peace of mind, you should look to securing your WordPress website in addition to making backups. Read our comprehensive article on how to secure your WordPress website for assistance.

Are you looking for a reliable WordPress hosting provider? Check out Dreamersi Web Hosting. Let our technical experts help you transfer your website today, call us at 800-232-3989.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#Backups #Dreamersi #PSPinc #Security #WebBackups #WordPress #WordPressBackups

PSPinc What’s New Newsletter Vol. 52 "Mail V5"

Feb

Vol. 52

Dreamersi, the email hosting service of Pacific Software Publishing, Inc., is getting a new mail server. The mail server currently used for dreamersi.com hosting was originally developed as mail hosting software for Windows Server under the code name ST Mail. Since its initial release, it has been upgraded over time.

The next release of our mail software will be a POP/IMAP server developed from scratch by PSPinc on Linux OS. This version has been in development for more than two years. It has been tested and has operated as the mail server for PSPinc for the past year, and bugs have been fixed to make it more complete. We are now ready to release it as dreamersi.com's mail service.

As a multi-domain mail server running on Windows Server, ST Mail (which we have been using until now) is still several times more powerful than what other companies offer. Our new mail server has proven to have processing power and stability that surpasses it. We will continue to provide more stable services on Dreamersi - we hope you enjoy it!

Email V5 is the current code name, and we are still looking for a product name. If you have a good name, please let us know.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#MailV5 #email #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter

A quick guide to typography for the web

Feb

Typography is one of the most important aspects of web design, yet also perhaps one of the most overlooked. Anybody can choose a typeface, but choosing the right typeface and then displaying it correctly can be a crucial step to reaching your users. Here are some tips for enhancing your website’s typography:

Choosing the right typeface.

First of all, yes it’s called a typeface, not a font. Without getting into too many details, Helvetica is a typeface, 18pt Helvetica Light is a font. Moving on. Generally, when choosing a typeface for your website, the choice often comes down to serif vs sans-serif. There’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer here, but some people feel very strongly one way or the other. Recent studies have found that sans-serif may be slightly more readable than serif, but the margin is very slim and ultimately comes down to preference, and what you’re used to reading. Display fonts are fine for headers, but avoid using anything other than a basic serif or sans-serif for your body copy.

Font size and line-height.

The next step is deciding the right size and spacing for your chosen type. These values will need to change based on device type and screen size (see image below), but in regards to font sizing for a desktop the common rule is to choose something in the 16-21px range. Your line spacing (line-height) should be in the range of 130%-170% of your font size. For instance, if you have a font size of 16px, a line-height of 150% would equal 24px.

Line Length for maximum readability.

Another important aspect to typography for the web is setting a reasonable line length. There have been many studies on this, which all find that the ideal line length for maximum readability is somewhere in the range of 45-80 characters. This is probably one of the most easily overlooked topics of typography, but critical to retaining user attention. See the image below for examples of various character lengths.

A couple more things.

Anyone who has ever tried to read yellow text on a white background has experienced the importance of a proper contrast between your type and background color. A general rule is to shoot for a contrast of at least 4.5:1 between type and background, but this varies depending on the weight of your font. Finally, make sure to establish an appropriate visual hierarchy between headers and body copy. This will allow users to scan your content as needed to find what they’re looking for.

If you’d like some help figuring out the perfect way to reach your users by creating a beautiful, easily readable and scannable website, don’t hesitate to reach out. Let our design team help you out with that.

Check Out PSPinc Design Solutions

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru #PSPINC #PacificSoftwarePublishing #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #Typography #WebDevelopment #WebandEmailHosting

Announcement: Mail Server Update

Feb

Dear valued customer,

Thank you for choosing Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

We are always looking to improve the services we offer you.
As such, we will be conducting mail server update.

You may experience delay in incoming emails for a few seconds during the maintenance time below.

The schedule is as follows:

* USA Pacific Standard Time
- Feb 19th (Fri) 8:00am - 8:30am

* Japan Time
- Feb 20th (Sat) 1:00am - 1:30am

PSPinc provides services with uptimes of 99.9%

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com .

We would like to answer your questions by phone call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#email #pspinc #update

Questions from Customers

Feb

Today we are going to answer some questions we have received from customers over time. We hope you find it informative! If you don't find an answer to a question you have please contact us - we may feature you in a future entry to the Questions from Customers series!

Who is PSPinc?

PSPinc is a full-service web hosting, design, and software development company headquartered in Bellevue, WA. We house close to 50 employees and provide service to thousands of clients worldwide. PSPinc has rapidly grown with the age of the internet over the past three decades. Our groundbreaking technology has aided in globalizing software solutions and driving innovation in the webspace. As an independent software design and development company, we use our technology to create software to help companies save and make money.

What is the meaning of “Web Hosting”?

A web hosting service (often shortened to web host) is a type of Internet hosting service that allows you to make your website accessible through the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies, like PSPinc, that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

PSPinc Hosting Services

We offer a number of options at various price points and technical specifications each with its own advantages.

Our flagship hosting platform, Dreamersi provides reliable hosting services, and live customer support to give you peace of mind and allows you to focus on growing your company.

Lean and powerful web and email hosting. Our fast and secure YourHost platform allows you to manage all aspects of your hosting account through cPanel.

Robust web and email hosting designed to fit your needs. Parcom is perfect as a development platform for no-frills hosting.

VPS

If you have specific technical needs for your hosting environment, we have the technology and professional experts to build a VPS (virtual private server) environment for you. We can precisely match your technical requirements.

Does PSPinc have services other than hosting?

Yes, PSPinc offers not only hosting but a number of other services built to help businesses succeed online. For more information on our software as a service offering, visit our cloud services web page. You can click on any product name or logo to learn more about that service.

I want to create my own website, what should I do?

We recommend WebdeXpress for customers who are new to creating their own website. You can either choose to build a stunning website yourself or you can ask us to build it for you quickly and inexpensively.

I am starting my own business, should I create a website for it?

Yes! Your website is a very powerful and useful tool to communicate and share information with your customers. Whether you are starting a new business, want to stand out from your competitors, or have something to express - there is no better place to do it than on your website.

Can I sell my products on my website?

You sure can when you build your website with ShopSite. We can help set up and even develop a custom online eCommerce website using ShopSite on our YourHost web hosting platform. Did we mention we are a nationally recognized ShopSite hosting partner?

Contact Us

For inquiries about PSPinc services, please contact our Sales team who will provide the best plan for you with a polite and prompt response.
Call: 1-800-232-3989 / Email: psp_service@pspinc.com

For technical support, please contact our Support team. Not only will get help solving your problems but you can pick up technical tips and advice from our knowledgeable staff.
Call: 1-800-232-3989 / Email: support@pspinc.com

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#Customers #Hosting #PSPinc #Questions #SoftwareDevelopment #WebHosting

PSPinc What’s New Newsletter Vol. 51 "Restaurants Are Back"

Feb

Vol. 51

The industries that have been hit the hardest by the spread of the coronavirus are travel and restaurants. Now that the vaccine is being administered, the number of newly infected people seems to be decreasing a bit. Under such circumstances, travel and restaurant industries are showing some signs of recovery. To support these industries, Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is launching the Restaurants are Back campaign.

Restaurants are Back is an effort to provide PSPinc developed products to restaurant operators free of charge. PSPinc has been purchasing take-out lunches from local restaurants every day since March of last year for staff coming to the office. We hope to be able to help many more restaurants with this campaign.

If you have a service that you would like to offer, we would be happy to introduce it on our campaign website. For more information, please visit Restaurants Are Back.

https://restaurantsareback.com

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#RestaurantsAreBack #imamenu #marketing #newsmail #pspinc #webdexpress

Impact of Website SEO with Search Engines: Page Speed

Feb

Last time we spoke about the impact of keywords on your website SEO. If you didn’t get a chance to read that article, we encourage you to go back and check it out.

Today we are going to discuss the role page speed plays in SEO. Often, people put less value on the page speed of their website compared with the content, keywords, and design. However, if your page loads really slow, it will affect your search ranking.

What’s going to happen if my page speed is slow?

Users are looking to get information immediately when they click a link. If the page takes too long to load, they will most likely leave your website. This will increase your “Bounce Rate”, Google may also grade your reputation as bad for lack of usability. Google research in 2018 showed that if your page takes more than 2 seconds to load, the “Bounce Rate” would increase by up to 32%.

How can I improve my page speed?

Image file compression

Large file sizes of images make websites load slowly and will cause a negative user experience. Image compression is the process of using compression algorithms to reduce the file size of an image file. There are a number of tools online for compressing images that you can find by searching for ‘online image compressing tools’. Professional programs like Adobe Photoshop are also more than capable of handling advanced image compression.

Browser caching

A web browser’s cache is what web browsers use to save data such as images that are needed to view your website. Saving this data allows the browser to load your website faster and more efficiently. When building a website if you define a longer cache for your assets that don’t change frequently, your web browser will store the information longer and further enhance your browser’s loading speed.

Lazy load images

Another solution is to delay loading images using JavaScript. Lazy loading images means you load images on your website asynchronously. After the above-the-fold content is fully loaded, the remaining images will only be loaded when they come into your browser’s viewport. This means that if users don’t scroll all of the ways down, images placed at the bottom of the page won’t be loaded. This lowers the time it takes for your page to initially load

Use fewer images and resource-heavy assets

The more images, videos, and 3rd party scripts/plugins you use, the longer it will take for your page to load. Try to have your website operate as leanly as possible. Using CSS to style text-based buttons instead of relying on images is an example of things you can do to make your site not only more accessible but run faster!

These are just a few tips for making your page load faster. A lot of these are best handled by professional Web Designers & Developers, so don’t be discouraged if these terms seem overly technical. At PSPinc, we have professional Designers and Developers who are knowledgeable of SEO and sophisticated web design! If you need help building a new website or updating an existing one, please let us know. We would love to talk to you about it further!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#PSPinc #PageSpeed #SEO #Website

Announcement: Mail Server Update

Feb

Dear valued customer,

Thank you for choosing Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

We are always looking to improve the services we offer you.
As such, we will be conducting mail server update.

You may experience delay in incoming/outgoing emails for a few seconds during the maintenance time below.

The schedule is as follows:

* USA Pacific Standard Time
- Feb 16th (Tue) 8:00am - 8:30am

* Japan Time
- Feb 17th (Wed) 1:00am - 1:30am

PSPinc provides services with uptimes of 99.9%

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-232-3989 or email us at support@pspinc.com .

We would like to answer your questions by phone call.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#email #pspinc #update

How to avoid phishing spam

Feb

Phishing is a form of cyber attack in which scammers pretend to be a legitimate business entity in order to steal your personal information. These scams often come in the form of emails, although they could also come from phone calls or text messages. The goal of these scams is to trick unsuspecting users into providing their private login credentials or banking details. In this blog article, we will show you how to identify and avoid phishing scams.

What do phishing scams look like?

Phishing emails usually come as alert notices. These alerts tell you something is wrong with your email or banking account, such as your email box is full and must be cleared, or your credit card is frozen and must be unlocked. They will format the emails to look convincing in order to trick you into clicking on the login link and inputting your real login credentials. But what really happens in the background is they are simply stealing your login and payment details.

Here is an example of a real phishing scam we’ve received. It uses our company logo and name in the email, this email may look legitimate to average users:

This may seem like a legitimate email notifying you of your email storage being full. The URL link even looks real. But if you mouse over the URL without clicking on it, you will see the actual embedded URL goes to a completely different website run by the scammers. They will ask you to login, and if you logged in, you would’ve given them your private login information to your email account.

Once your email account is compromised, scammers will use your email account to send out mass spam so they can scam others. It’s a cycle that never ends. They will also steal any personal data you may have stored in your email account.

Here is another example, this one is harder to recognize:

The scammer copied every little details of a legitimate business email, including the footer and copyright notices. To unsuspecting eyes, this looks like a professional email from a legitimate company. But upon mousing over the Update Access link, it shows the link goes to a malicious foreign website that ends with .mx domain extension. If you were to login to this malicious website, you would’ve given scammers access to your financial investment account.

Let’s take a look at one more example:

This scammer copied the cPanel logo, they know cPanel is a popular control panel platform. By using cPanel’s logo, they hope you would be tricked into giving them your cPanel login information. With cPanel access, scammers would gain full control of your website and email accounts.

How to protect yourself from phishing attacks

Be vigilant. Always ask yourself this question, “do I have an account with this company?” If the answer is no, then the email is likely a phishing scam, and you should delete it. If the answer is yesstrong>, instead of clicking on the link in the email, you should contact the company directly. Go to the company’s website and login through the proper channels, or call in if you are unsure. It never hurts to ask questions.

If you happen to have clicked on a link and entered your login information, and you notice something is off or suspicious, you should immediately change your passwords. We have a great article explaining how to create a strong password in 2021. Even if you are unsure, changing your password first and asking questions later is always a good option.

Be aware of random billing invoices you receive, as opening them could expose you to malware/virus. Be very careful when you receive domain renewal notices from companies you do not recognize. Scammers can steal your domain name, then put your domain up for ransom. Your domain name is your identity on the web, it is everything for your business. Never respond to or renew your domain through a 3rd party you do not recognize.

In conclusion

Generally financial institutions will not ask you for any personal information through emails, or lock your account if you do not update personal details within a short amount of time. If you want to verify your email account quota status, you can simply login to your WebMail directly from the company website. Before clicking on a link in an email, it is always a good idea to mouse over a link and look at where the link goes to. If the link address looks unfamiliar, discard the email immediately.

Looking for secure Email Hosting? Dreamersi can host your emails for as little as $8.25 a month. Contact us to setup your own secure email accounts today. 800-232-3989

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#Email #PSPinc #Phishing

PSPinc What’s New Newsletter Vol. 50 "Digital Transformation (DX)"

Feb

Vol. 50

We hear the term "digital transformation" a lot these days. What exactly is it? The phrase "digital transformation" is becoming more prevalent without knowing how to incorporate or tackle it within a company. Today, I would like to talk about digital transformation.

IT is used to change people's lives for the better in every way. Companies will use IT to create better work environments, which will lead to advanced products and increase their competitiveness.

For example, businesses that used to have physical stores in many areas to support the act of going shopping can use digital transformation to their benefit. They can eliminate these stores by replacing them with online shopping experiences. This will reduce costs and increase the company's profit margin.

The next step is to use videos to explain the products that salespeople have been selling. Doing so will allow the sophisticated techniques of professional salespeople to be digitized and used again and again. Digital transformation is a service that can scratch the itch even online.

This is the era of digital transformation in education. What used to be the norm, going to school and taking classes, will be replaced by online classes. At that time, regional and national borders will no longer exist. The ability to earn a Japanese degree while abroad is another example of digital transformation.

Remote work, which has advanced due to the coronavirus, is also a form of digital transformation. In fact, if you work remotely, it doesn't matter where the company is located. It doesn't matter if you choose to live and work in an area where prices are lower and salaries are lower.

Digital transformation requires us to think about the benefits of what we are doing before we think about what we are doing. That is the basis of digital transformation. In your company, are you able to think beyond the boundaries of intellectual training, common sense, and customs? I believe that digital transformation is not a tool, but a way of thinking and a new way of doing business.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808