Happy Spring!

Hope everybody enjoyed the cold winter months. Here at SkilTech we've been busy with a variety of things. Here's a quick overview of what's transpired lately.

1 - We did the online ticketing system for the new All-American Football League (tickets.aafl.com) which was scheduled to begin play this spring. Unfortunately the recent economic downturn, coupled with some other factors, forced the league to postpone their debut until 2009.

2 - We recently signed a deal to provide web services for the new Major League Softball Association (MLSA) which will begin play in 30 venues next spring. We'll start with construction of the new league site soon and then build out the team sites.

3 - John Skilton becomes Chairperson of the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce's Lunchtime Networking Group as of April 2008. The group provides the opportunity for members to pass qualified referrals among themselves and has been a terrific way to increase visibility in the business community.

4 - John has also begun networking with a new group in Elkton - Tri-State Networking Partners. This is a smaller networking group, but with the same principal focus. TSNP meets at the Patriots Glen Golf Course Clubhouse each Thursday from 11:30 - 1:00 and welcomes new members.

Along with all those things, we've launched quite a few new sites over the winter months, including redesigns for several of our existing clients (Salem Avalanche, Akron Aeros, Wilmington Blue Rocks, Pittsburgh Riverhounds) as well as those for some new customers:

• James P. Hall, Esq. (2007)
Wilmington, DE • www.jamesphallesq.com
• Maureen Zito Real Estate and Tom Reynolds Appraisals (2007)
Wilmington, DE • www.maureenzito.com
• Cecil County Arts Council (2007)
Elkton, MD • www.cecilcountyartscouncil.org
• Robert G. Burke Painting Co. (2007)
Wilmington, DE • www.burkepaintingco.com
• Pensacola Pelicans (2008)
Pensacola, FL • www.pensacolapelicans.com

We also have a ton of sites in development currently. Check back here for the announcement when they're launched.

Finally... We have a part-time job opening for a Customer Service Representative to work with new and existing clients, help manage projects, and perform some administrative office tasks. Ideally this person will be able to learn some web maintenance functions as well. Does this sound like the perfect situation for you or someone you know? Drop us a line at jobs[at]skiltech.com

Until next time....

Busy, Busy, Busy!

The baseball seasons are winding down (good luck to our customers in their league playoffs!) and we're busy with a variety of non-sports projects. Since diversifying a couple of years ago to expand beyond the pro sports business, we've taken on a variety of sites and custom programming projects.

A few newly launched sites are:

• www.mckeanhs.com (McKean High School, Wilmington, DE)

• www.youchoosesavannah.com (youchoose Communities, Savannah, GA)

• www.nikkisballoons.com (Nikki's Balloons, Elkton, MD)

BEFORE STARTING A BUSINESS

Thinking of starting a new business, and have a really clever name in mind? Chances are that you're not the first person to have thought of it! Before doing all the paperwork to set up that business, you should definitely find out if a matching domain name is available in the .com registry. Sure, there are other variations available (.net, .org, .us, .info, etc.) - and we recommend that you do reserve all those other top level domains (TLDs) - but .COM is the first thing most people think of when they look for a website.

Let's say you've decided to call your new business "Linda's Coffee Shop". Your best bet for a domain name is definitely lindascoffeeshop.com. If it's available (and it is!) you're all set. But what if it's already taken? Try some different variations on the same name - lindascoffee.com or lindascoffeeboston.com (or wherever you're located) or lindascoffeeshopboston.com.

If those options are already reserved though, you might want to re-think your business name so that you can register the corresponding domain name. Maybe you should opt for "Linda's Coffee Cafe" or "Linda's Coffee Bistro". How about "Linda's Gourmet Coffee" or "Coffee by Linda"?

One more thing most people aren't aware of - just because a web site doesn't come up when you enter a domain name in your browser doesn't mean that it hasn't been registered. To be sure, you need to query the master domain registration database using what's known as a "WHOIS" search. While there are tools that allow you to do that from the server level, there are also several websites that provide access as well. Here are a couple (they all contain the same information):

http://www.betterwhois.com/
http://www.whois.net/
http://whois.domaintools.com/

Or you can check the availability of a domain through our registration portal at http://www.skiltechdomains.com/ and click on the "Whois" link at the bottom of the page. If the domain name you've searched for is unregistered, you'll see a link labelled "Click here to register this domain now!" which you can use to make it yours at our discounted registration rates.

Another Newly Launched Site

SkilTech is pleased to announce the return of the Northern League, the first of the independent baseball leagues, and a SkilTech customer in the early 2000's. The new site has launched at www.northernleague.com.

LAUNCHED TODAY!

Here are two site redesigns which went live early this morning:

Frontier League - www.frontierleague.com
Washington Wild Things - www.washingtonwildthings.com

BLOGGING AWAY

Since blogging has become rather "en vogue" recently, I thought this might be the best and easiest way to communicate with our customers going forward. Don't worry - we'll still be sending newsletters or other e-mail announcements with time-critical information. But this blog will also be an area where announcements can be posted more regularly and without the need for mailing.

If you use "newsreader" software you can subscribe to this blog and always receive copies of new postings in your downloads. There are probably hundreds of such programs currently available, but here are a few free ones to try:

• FeedReader
• NewsGator
• GreatNews

Or you may prefer to use one of the online RSS readers like Google Reader or Bloglines.

And if you post news releases to your website using our backend software, you too can syndicate your posts so that others can receive them in the RSS reader of their choice. Contact us for more information about it.