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How to set up email on your iPhone or iPad devices

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I’ve had a few requests for guidance with setting up an email address on an iPad or iPhone so here are the instructions for iOS devices.

Please note: the details below include server adddresses specific to TJ Design email hosting but the rest of the settings remain the same for other hosting accounts.

  • Go to Settings > Accounts & Passwords and tap Add Account. If you’re using iOS 10.3.3 or earlier, go to Settings > Mail > Accounts and tap Add Account.
  • Tap Other, then tap Add Mail Account.
  • Enter your name, email address, password, and a description for your account.
  • Tap Next. Mail will try to find the email settings and finish your account setup. If Mail finds your email settings, tap Done to complete your account setup.

If Mail can’t find your email settings, then you need to enter them manually. Tap Next, then follow these steps:

  • Choose IMAP or POP for your new account. If you aren’t sure which one to choose, contact your email provider. POP is the recommended protocol.
  • Enter the information for Incoming Mail Server and Outgoing Mail Server. Then tap Next. If you don’t have this information, try and contact your email provider. For TJ Design hosting accounts, this is usually lightning.xssl.net.
  • If your email settings are correct, tap Save to finish. If the email settings are incorrect, you’ll be asked to edit them. It is usually worth enabling authentication  for IMAP, POP3, and SMTP and setting your ports to the following…
    • IMAP Port: 993
    • POP3 Port: 995
    • SMTP Port: 465

If you still having issues with your email account and you are using TJ Design hosting, please contact me for assistance.

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk

Watch out for these type of domain expiry emails

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Have you received an email or letter regarding an expiring domain name?

Read on to find out how you can find if this is from a genuine source.

The communication i’m referring to mentions a domain name currently owned by yourself which may or may not, be due to expire. They normally look like this and can be quite difficult to distinguish from the real thing.

The aim is to scare you in to thinking your domain is expiring very soon and prompt you to renew with an existing service when in fact, you are signing up to a new domain registrar at a higher cost! The emails are cleverly worded to look like they have come from your current provider.

Here are some tips to help determine if what you have received is legitimate or not…

  • Always remember the name of your domain registar (Fasthosts, 123 Reg etc) – if this is not mentioned on the letter or email, you can be highly certain, it has been sent from a different source.
  • Check out the ‘from’ email address to find out if you recognise the address. Warning signs include free email addresses such as hotmail or yahoo accounts.
  • Look out for sentences such as ‘Failure to complete your seo domain name registration  may make it difficult for customers to find you on the web.’ They are worded as such to prompt action.
  • Keep an eye on the price, if it seems unusually high or much higher than last year then be suspicious. The price does vary but normally you would pay around £15 & VAT for a .co.uk and £25 for a .com domain name.

These types of communication prey on the misinformed so you will be unlikely to fall for this scam if you keep the information you have on your third party domain and hosting providers.

Finally, I just want to mention that if you do receive one of these types of communication from an organisation you are unfamiliar with, do not reply to them. Instead you should look at the guidance provided on website of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website, contact your internet service provider or please contact me if you would like me to check something you have received.

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk

How to read AWStats to improve your website position

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AWStats is a powerful reporting tool used to track visitors to your website. Any hosting package from myself includes this feature already built in.

This article attempts to explain the main terms used in AWStats so you can make sense of where people are coming from, why they are coming to your site and how you can use this to improve your position in the search engines.

  • Number of visits and number of unique visitors
    A unique visitor is a person / computer that has made a visit to your page, this is counted once. The number of visits are counted multiple times so if two people visit your page twice in a month, there would be two unique visitors and four visits.
  • Visits duration
    The visits duration section shows how much time visitors are spending on the website before leaving.
  • Usage by months, days of the week and hours of the day
    These sections shows the individual statistics for each day of the month / week and hours of the day.
  • Domains/countries
    This is pretty self-explanatory. It shows which countries your visitors are coming from.
  • Most viewed, entry and exit pages
    The most viewed are the most popular pages from your website. The entry page is the first page viewed by your visitor whilst the exit page is the last page viewed during their visit.
  • Visits of robots
    This displays the top 25 robots that have visited the website. (A robot is an automated process which visits your site frequently and saves a copy to be listed in the search engines).
  • Search engines, keyphrases and keywords used to find your site
    115 of the most famous search engines are detected like yahoo, google, altavista, etc. The search keyphrases and search keywords section display the words and phrases most commonly used by people to find the website. You can also use the section called connect to website from to find incoming traffic from external websites.


…so how do we use this to improve your website position?

You can use the unique visits and number of visits to gauge how active your visitors are and how well you acquire new visitors and returning visits.

A high percentage of visitors who leave before half a minute is common as many of these will be robots as mentioned previously, but if you have a large percentage in the next bracket, it could be a sign that you need to work on more engaging content.

The hourly / weekly / monthly breakdown can be used to show trends in your customer habits and the effect of any online marketing campaigns.

If one particular exit page is appearing more than others, it may mean that your visitor has not found what they are looking for.

You can view the list of search engines and make sure that you are included in as many as possible.

The keywords and keyphrases should be similar to the ones you are targeting. If not, you may need to do some keyword research.

Check the connect to website from to find out if external links to your website are relevant and reputable. You can also exchange links with suitable websites and run social media campaigns to increase this traffic.

To summarize, the idea is that you see an incremental curve in the bar graph for your monthly history for unique visits and number of visits. Most companies have a quieter period but generally you should be expecting these stats to increase vs prior month and definitely prior year.

If you would like to know more about AWStats, contact me here.

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk

The pros and cons of working for yourself

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On numerous occasions, I have had to say no to a major social event due to a website launch and I have lost count of the amount of times my best friend has visited only to find me grunting at my laptop and being very unsociable!

It’s not all bad though – I find juggling a full-time job as well as working for yourself hugely satisfying, I can be more selective regarding the jobs I undertake and the extra money comes in handy.

Here is my view on the pros and cons of working for yourself…

The pros

  • The biggest benefit for me is creative freedom. You can express yourself, experiment more and whilst expectations from your clients may limit, you can still work more creatively.
  • Being your own boss means more responsibility, you make your own decisions and report to no-one.
  • You can have a flexible schedule and work when you want, where you want. I tend to work late in to the evening as this is when I am more productive and it fits in well with my full-time job.

The cons

  • You have to deal with the consequences if you make a bad decision. There’s really no one else to blame but yourself if things go wrong.
  • A strong work ethic and motivation is required to get up and get your work done. Fortunately, I never have trouble with this. I did used to sit at the computer in my dressing gown and slippers but now I make a conscious effort to get ready as if I was going to work.
  • I do sometimes find it hard to balance my social life with two jobs and the domestic chores definitely take a backseat when i’m busy. You need to make sure you look after yourself too, know when to stop working and give yourself a break. I find this very difficult – there are a few times when I find that I am still on the computer past midnight and I haven’t had dinner yet!

Even with the cons I mentioned above, if you are motivated I would definitely recommend working for yourself. I feel very privileged to be able to do something that I really enjoy (most of the time!)

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk

Five steps to creating successful web sites

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1) Planning and preparation

a) Ascertain the main purpose of the web site and your key demographic.

b) Analyse your main competitors, do they employ similar tactics? Are they making any critical mistakes? How can you improve on their web presence?

c) Carefully plan the structure and navigation of your web site, remembering that ideally, no page will be more than 3 clicks away at any point, with your key content web pages easily indexable by major search engines and spiders.

d) Think about the appearance and style of your web site. Pick 3 appropriate web sites you like, and 3 you dislike, focusing on the web site design. List exactly which aspects you would like to incorporate onto your own web site. Think about which colours suit your business, if you have branding in place, think about colours that do not contrast with this.

2) Design

Following the preparation stage, you should be in a position to give your web site designer their first brief. In this, you’ll have laid out clear instructions as to which demographic they’re designing for, how you would like your web site design to look, and which functionality it should contain (e.g. if you’re having an ecommerce system built, you may wish to have account handling and shopping cart functions).

The web designer will usually then create a series of mock-up web designs, in which you’ll be asked to carefully consider each one and comment. You may fall in love with the first one you see, you may dislike all of them, or you find a separate piece of each web design you like, don’t be afraid to give an opinion!

3) Development

Once the web design is signed off, a process usually required to be confirmed in writing or via a contract, the actual creation of the web site begins. Dynamic content, such as animation, ecommerce, a message board or general web pages controlled by a content management system will be created.

4) Test, test and test again

Upon completion of your web site, and after your designer has placed your web site on a suitable testing server, it is crucial that at the very least you and your designer test the web site thoroughly, placing particular attention to the critical functions of your web site. If you’re running an ecommerce system, does the shopping cart work? If your website is a message board, can visitors of all security levels post to it?

Asking family, friends or work colleagues to have a look is often advisable, this will allow you to see how the website is used by a vast array of personalities and competencies.

Once you’re happy with the site’s functionality, it is ready to place it live!

5) Final Analysis

Give yourself 2 to 4 weeks after the web site’s live date, to analyse it’s performance. Are there any sections over or under performing? Would your business benefit by some minor adjustments to the structure?

Remember, your web site will ideally last you a long period of time, and it’s critical that it not only does it’s job, but it performs to the best of it’s ability.

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk

Does my website need to be responsive?

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With the long awaited changes from Google coming in to effect from May onwards earlier this year, I thought a post on mobile friendly websites was definitely overdue. The new change meant that non-responsive websites (websites which are not optimised for phones, tablets and other smaller devices) could see an impact in search listings.

If you are not yet using a responsive design for your website, there is no need to panic but you do need to think about this especially if your site receives many mobile visitors and looks poor on a smart phone.

Use this mobile friendly test tool from Google to find out how your current website performs and search for your website using a phone to find out how you currently rank on mobiles.

If you don’t receive many mobile visitors at the moment, this is very likely to change in the near future so it is wise to start thinking about a design for your website which adapts to the viewing environment resulting in higher conversion rates and with no impact on your search listings.

Got a project in mind?

01536 391 745 hello@tjdesign.uk