General         No comments

I think every blogger goes through a point where they think, “What should I blog about?” Obviously, for me anyway, random topics don’t work very well.  I need something consistent.  I need a theme.  Well, today I think I’ve come up that theme.
I started “surfing the net” regularly about nine years ago.  Right from the beginning I mainly visited chat rooms and discussion forums.  Having conversations with people from other states, or even other countries, about the same topic amazed me.  There was one forum, SoundDomain, that I continue to visit even today.
Over the next few years I joined other communities (forums) before starting a few of my own in 2005.  Only one of those remains active today, Skywarn Online.  This community has over 2,700 members and 42,000 posts.  Not too bad considering it has a very specific audience, storm spotters.
A couple years ago I started using Facebook and Twitter. …

 General         3 comments

“Chimpie, where have you been?”
I’m such a bad chimp. I win HostGator’s Site of the Month award, create a blog entry about it, then abandon the site for the next 40 days. tsk, tsk tsk
I apologize to all of my followers. I’ve been extremely busy with my current job (Sales Floor Team Leader at Super Target) and my new job, Sales Manager for The Hacienda Collection (www.thehaciendacollection.com).
To all of my Target friends, no, I will not be leaving Target just yet. But I have to say that I’ve very excited to be working with doors and cabinetry again.
I’ll post more soon (yeah right, Chimpie). But for right now check out our website at www.thehaciendacollection.com!
Chimpie

 General,Webhosting         5 comments

I’m happy to announce that Chimpie.com has been awarded HostGator.com’s Site of the Month!!
HostGator.com currently hosts over 3.6 million websites.  There are some fantastic sites being hosted by HG and it’s truly an honor to be ranked amongst them.
In their June 2010 newsletter, HostGator writes:
Site of the Month:
Chimpie.com is a personal blog that talks about the products and services that Chimpie uses and the experiences that he has. His goal is for businesses to improve and excel.
Chimpie.com recently launched a new feature called Chat with Chimpie, where he interviews key players in the tech industry and talks about recent events and developments. Whether it be webhosting or the latest cell phone apps, Chimpie.com is becoming a go-to place for honest reviews.
Chimpie is a very active member of our Forums and we are very proud of his blog’s progress.
I would like to thank Josh Loe and HostGator for this recognition.  Chimpie.com …

 Chat with Chimpie,General,Webhosting         2 comments

Hey everybody. It’s time for another Chat with Chimpie entry.
Earlier this month I created a blog entry, Tips on Creating a Great Support Ticket.  I received some great feedback and wanted to take the topic one step further.
I recently chatted with Tom Sepper, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Site5 Web Hosting about support tickets.
What are some common mistakes customers make when submitting tickets?
The biggest mistake is not including their domain name! We see countless times that customers forget that vital piece of information. Often times we are able to locate their account based on their email address, but when the email address is on file, we have to request additional information from them which may lead to further delays for a quick resolution.
What are some common requests you receive that customers can do themselves?
The most common requests we receive that customers can do themselves are password changes, adding parked/addon …

 General,Webhosting         1 comment

When I read forums of different webhosting companies I often read posts from customers who are upset because they haven’t received a solution to their support tickets quick enough.  Quite often they blame the support techs or the webhosting company as whole.  After diving into the issue I find that most of the time the customer hasn’t provided the correct information up front.  Both the customer and the support techs would love to solve the issue during the first interaction. Meaning, customer submits a ticket, tech responds, issue solved.  The result: the customer is thrilled and the support tech can move onto the next issue.
So let’s figure out what makes a great support ticket so we can get an issue solved as soon as possible.
When you first submit a ticket, give any pertinent information up front.  There are two pieces of information that should be included with every support ticket:

What …