Although you don’t necessarily need to know HTML to maintain a successful site (with FatCow you can use the Drag and Drop Site Builder for free!), a basic understanding is definitely useful when you have your own website. This blog post will touch upon the most commonly used HTML codes:

WHAT IS HTML? HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, provides a means of formatting content in ways that browsers, such as Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer can understand.

An HTML “tag” is an element enclosed in angle brackets. Each element requires a “starting tag” and “closing tag,” which act as bookends for the content you want to display. A forward slash indicates the closing tag.

Example:

Alternatively, tags that do not wrap around content can be open and closed in the same tag.

Example:

FORMATTING TEXT Use the following tags for changing the basic format of your text. For boldfacing text: For italicizing text: For underlining text:

PARAGRAPHS & BULLETS
Use the following tags when implementing page format changes.

We hope you’ve found this information useful! For more in depth HTML tutorials, we recommend checking out HTML Dog.

If you’ve ever lost or accidentally overwritten your website’s files, you know the importance of backing up your site on a regular basis. Website back up is essential … and is usually only thought about after the fact. With FatCow it’s easy to archive your site’s files using FileManager, available for free through your control panel. To archive your files with FileManager:

1. Log into your FatCow control panel and access the FileManager tool.

2. Select the files you’d like to archive, by clicking the check-box next to the folder, in the right pane of the interface.

3. Click the “Archive” icon, which is located above the search box at the top of the FileManager interface; this will prompt a pop up box asking you to create a name for the archive.

4. After entering a name and clicking “Archive” on the pop up, you’ll notice the archive will appear in the list of files, as a .zip file.

It’s as easy as that! Your files are backed up and are now available for download whenever you need them.

The Moo Crew loves to celebrate the holidays because it means fun and philanthropy! This year we kicked off the season the week before Thanksgiving when the whole herd got together for a company hosted casino night. Members of the Moo Crew nominated a handful of charities and each attendee was given some funny money to gamble. At the end of the night, FatCow divided $10,000 amongst the top four winners who were then given the opportunity to use that money to make a donation to one of the 11 nominated charities:

Wounded Warrior Project
CURE-Citizens United for Reasearch in Epilepsy
Free Surgical Camp
Diabetes Foundation
Jimmy Fund
Dana Farber
VOICES
Donors Choose
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)
Northeast Animal Shelter
MSPCA

We’re proud to announce that we have been awarded membership to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 Green Power Leadership Club, which the EPA describes as “an elite group of Green Power Partners who are demonstrating exemplary environmental leadership.”

To celebrate, we’ve created six new “green badge” designs that customers can add to their websites, bringing the total up to nine:

If you host your site with FatCow, let your visitors know that your website is eco-friendly! Log into your account to access one of these green badges >>

(Please note that FatCow’s Green Badges and Certificates are the sole property of FatCow and may only be used by FatCow’s hosting Customers.)

Did you know that all websites hosted at FatCow are powered by 100% wind energy? In fact, we’ve created some badges customers can put on their sites that certify their websites are eco-friendly in accordance with a partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

FatCow’s Gone Green?
You bet. Granted, we’re a web hosting company; everything’s online. There are no earthly resources to expend … except all that electricity. And so, for the last two years, we’ve been offsetting all of our electricity use with wind-generated Renewal Energy Certificates, becoming a “Green Power Partner” of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

These Renewable Energy Certificates prevent the release of 2,660 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year. The estimated yearly benefit to the environment is equivalent to planting ~2,390 acres of trees or not driving 6.1 million miles.

Customer Websites Are Green, Too
You have a choice in where you host your website, and with FatCow, you’re electing to host your site in an eco-friendly data center. If you’re a FatCow customer and you’d like to spread the word, add one of three “green” badges to your site.

Is Green Marketing Effective?
Promoting environmentally friendly products or services can be a double-edged sword; it can be highly effective if done correctly, but it can potentially backfire if done disingenuously.

Until recently, green marketing targeted a niche audience. It slowly gained momentum in the 80s and 90s, but didn’t find a mainstream following until the middle part of last decade. According to a June 2007 article (AdAge), media veteran C.J. Kettler noted that “nine magazine covers came out for the month of April in celebration of Earth Day,” causing her to declare that “the tipping point [for mainstream attention to the green movement] feels like it’s tipped.”

For some, however, the green movement quickly became overexposed, and marketers wishing to capitalize on it seemed disingenuous. In December 2008, Kelly Hlavinka (COLLOQUY) wrote that, “While … environmentally friendly … marketing initiatives [are] admirable, our collective rush to jump on the green-painted bandwagon has a high potential for consumer backlash.”

Ms. Hlavinka even used the same expression as Ms. Kettler, writing that “we’re quickly approaching the green marketing tipping point” — except she meant to say that, just 18 months later, it had begun tipping the other way. In fact, in a newsletter last year, we discussed some of our own recent green initiatives, and while many of you commended our efforts, some of you called it “phony pandering,” and urged us to “leave politics out if it.”

Does this backlash mean that green marketing isn’t effective? Not at all. It simply means that it needs to be done right. As Ms. Hlavinka puts it, the key is finding ways to “build loyalty with your green-minded constituents without appearing desperate or opportunistic.”

Green Marketing Resources
So how can you employ effective green marketing techniques? By learning from others: emulate the success stories, avoid the pitfalls. We’ve put together an eclectic group of green marketing resources, from case studies and expert advice to green WordPress themes:

• Promote Your Green Website: We’ve experienced a tremendous amount of success with our own green marketing efforts, and we’ve heard from many of our customers who’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback after adding one of our eco-friendly badges to their websites.
• Install Green WordPress Themes: Give your WordPress site or blog a green makeover; these ten WordPress themes are perfect for green businesses and environmental non-profits.
• Study History: Just last week, CBC’s radio program, “The Age of Persuasion,” explored the history of green marketing, examining what has worked in the past, as well as what hasn’t. The program is 26 minutes long.
• Follow Five Simple Rules: Green marketing expert Jacquie Ottman, outlines her five simple rules of green marketing and highlights several case studies that put the “rules” in action, in this five-page .pdf article.
• Tell a Story: In this September 2010 article, Shannon Arvizu points out that “Most clean tech marketing strategies lack a potent emotional or narrative component. Conventional green marketing [is limited to] facts or statistics … [which] is not necessarily the most effective way of communicating the value of a green product to consumers.”
• Don’t Forget “Regular” Marketing: In this June 2010 article, Beth Zonis reminds us that “it’s important not to get too carried away with the green-ness … of your offering, at the expense of explaining how well it solves your customer’s needs.”

Tell Us What You Think
Share your stories with us. Is green marketing something that can help your business? Have you had success with it in the past?

Thanksgiving is a special time for many families in lots of different ways. FatCow’s “family” is not an exception. We have our own tradition that makes Thanksgiving truly unique, memorable and… a bit stressful for some at FatCow. But there’s no need to sweat – we simply are trying to find the best bowler among our crew members. And we do it in our own unique FatCow way by converting our cafeteria into a bowladrome…

But the main point of it goes beyond simply having fun, even though the fun part is very important around here! This year we decided that we would donate $10 to the Greater Boston Food Bank for each strike that we had during the competition. And we have to admit – we’ve got some pretty good bowlers on the Moo Crew! After 81 strikes and a bit of rounding up, $1,000 has been donated to our local Food Bank.

Don’t forget to visit FatCow on Facebook to see more pictures. I hope you will like it .

Throughout the years, FatCow has sponsored some fun and cool giveaways– And this year was no different!  This years winners won a smart fortwo coupe, a Vespa scooter and 4 people won a Schwinn bike.

This year’s “Host Smart, Drive Smart” giveaway was an extension of FatCow’s ongoing commitment to the environment and our Green Initiatives. We love being a fun and quirky web host, but we’re also very conscious of the decisions we make, and how they affect our customers and our environment. What better way to prove that than to give stuff away to our loyal customers – stuff that is not only fun, but also eco-friendly?

Our grand prize winner was David Campbell of inthecorners.org, a non-profit organization providing free labor for home repair and maintenance, primarily for widows and the elderly. David won a smart fortwo, but opted for the cash stating, “Can you picture us trying to haul a sheet of plywood and some lumber in a smart car?  We choose to take the cash and plan on using the money to further the cause of inthecorners.org.”  Congratulations, David!

Laura Negrete, our first place winner of the Vespa, has been a FatCow customer since 2003.  Her website inkstains.org is a literary magazine, publishing poetry, art work and fiction.

For Laura, “the most helpful aspect of FatCow was how user friendly the company is.  For a newbie like me it was really great that the FatCow website was not intimidating.  It helped the process of getting my website up and running that much easier.”

Winners of a Schwinn Bike

Russell Johnson of i35marketing.com, an online Marketing company.

Joshua Ziegler of jczdesigns.com, used as on online portfolio.

Claudia Sims, of radiatedjupiter.com, a personal blog.

Shannon Hill, of http://shannonlhill.com, a writer, speaker and blogger who specializes in animal welfare.

To Celebrate…

Each time you refer a friend to FatCow from now through December 31, 2010, you’ll earn a $20.00 credit.

It’s simple. Be sure your referral enters your domain or username in the “Friend or website who referred you” field during the account setup process, and after they’ve been with FatCow for 30 days, you’ll receive a $20.00 credit.   For full Referral Terms visit our TOS page.

The Moo Crew is MOOved and excited to learn that we earned new web hosting award! Over the years we have received numerous awards, but still each one of them is very special to us. We work around the clock to provide the best service to our customers and an award like this from an independent, respected web-hosting-review site is a real encouragement and honor.

John K, a spokesperson for MyBestRatedWebHosting.com, explains in their press release why they think FatCow is a worthy winner:

“The MBRW Second Semi-Annual 2010 Hosting Award was awarded after careful consideration of the web hosting market. Considering an extensive field of strong competitors was a difficult process, but we felt on balance that the customer service and reliability of FatCow was enough to make it our clear winner. The low price points belie the true value of FatCow’s customer support functions, available by email and telephone around the clock.  In a highly technical industry, there’s a trend away from quality customer support, but we’re happy to see FatCow blazing the return of a high-quality user experience.  For overall value, FatCow represent worthy winners of our Second Semi-Annual Award.”

I would like to use this opportunity to thank our team for staying true to FatCow’s original goal – delivering the best value and customer service experience in Web hosting. And we are happy that FatCow gets recognized for it! Also we thank YOU, our customers, for your trust and look forward serving you for the years to come.

Paul Bukhovko
Brand Marketing Manager

The Internet not only needs to be able to bridge the gap between different languages, but also different alphabets and characters. Now, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has announced they will now take non-Latin character Web addresses. This would essentially change the way Web wanders see the Internet.

Jordan’s Proposed ccTLD

The ccTLD that Jordan has proposed is ‘Al-Ordon’, the Arabic name for Jordon and الاردن in Arabic. The reason for the non-Latin characters is that it’s the country’s official languages and met the requirements set out by the DNS Stability Panel. The IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process for Jordan’s TLD was approved in October of 2009 and the first requests began appearing one month later.

How They Do It

To begin these IDNs, countries need to complete three phases. First, the country in question must prepare for this process before they undergo the second step, which is the string evaluation phase. During this step, the linguistics and technical aspects of the country’s IDNs are tested and defined. Then, they can apply for the string delegation. So far, four countries have passed the evaluation phase. These include Russia, the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

So far, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers have received 21 requests for IDN ccTLDs in 11 languages, according to TheWhir.com, 13 of which are ready for string delegation.

The ongoing evolution of the Web 2.0 framework continues to change the way marketing and publicity work in the new digital world. Everyone knows that the groundswell of awareness that services like Facebook, Twitter and other peer to peer networks can marshal has to be worth something, but the question is, what, exactly? The quest to figure this out has lead to a number of social networking analysis services. One of these services, Virtue, has just come up with an answer: $3.60 each.

How they arrived at that number is the subject of the link at the bottom of the page, but a quick review of what they mean seems warranted. Virtue tracked the number of wall posts for brands whose Facebook fan pages they manage. These brands had a grand total of over 45 million individuals as fans. By averaging revenues from their client’s fans, Virtue found that, on average, over the 45 million users, each fan was worth around $3.60 in advertising revenue.