Apologies go out to anyone who tried to contact us over the weekend either through email or here at BRASSmedia.ca. It turns out that our domain names had expired on Saturday. No big deal since our registrar is quick to send us email notices well ahead of time. The problem was at my end – the messages were being delivered to an email address I don’t use anymore. It’s still active but I use it mostly as a spam bucket. That’s the email address I give out when I suspect that the requester may be selling their email lists to spammers – knowingly or not. It’s all okay now but here are some tips that I hope will keep something like this from happening to you.

The first signal that I recieved there was a problem was when Danielle Klooster from the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce told me that her email to me was being bounced back. We were recording an interview this morning for a future episode of BRASScast on how they are using social media for the Local First campaign. I guess I could have used Twitter to confirm our call. There’s tip number 1 – Twitter – good back up to email.

Tip number 2 – keep track of all your email accounts and online registration info in at least two locations. I keep mine in an online password protected file, locally in a password protected file (there are some software utilities out there that will help you with this) and on hardcopy which is locked up in a safe. For business purposes the hardcopy can be stored offsite – say a safety deposit box and don’t forget to update it when changes are made to the info. With this info readily available I was able to access these older accounts instantly.

Tip number 3 – go through all your online registrations and update email contact info where needed. You can still leave your spam catchers in place but if there are any sites of value – move them over to your current email address.

Tip number 4 – use a stable and reliable email host. For instance I use Yahoo email for some things and as an alternative and have for years. With any luck, Yahoo will still be offering email services in the future regardless of their current changes from the new Yahoo CEO.

Tip number 5 – check your email occasionally. Send something to your email addresses, particularly your key and important addresses. When I used to work in IT it usually didn’t take long for someone inside or outside of the organization to let us know that something was not right with email. For smaller businesses or even for personal use you might not know it’s broken until it’s too late to take advantage of a great opportunity.

Tip number 6 – use Twitter and encourage others to as well. It may take over as a quick communications tool. Maybe even better than a voice phone call – though that works as well.

Talk with you later . . .

Dean