Northernhorse.com Blog

We realize that lots of horse operations wouldn’t call 2009 a stellar year but we did get this very positive message from one of our clients.

Hi Lynn, Merry Xmas to Northernhorse! Really enjoying this new collaboration. Business has been booming in 2009!! Thankyou, Dale Dodd

We are so pleased that we can be of help especially during these tougher times. The number of people visiting Northernhorse.com has actually increased in the past year so we are getting you seen by even more prospective clients. We have added a Twitter feed and are posting interesting tidbits from or about our Northernhorse.com clients on the Northernhorse.com Facebook page too.We have noticed that this has increased not only our local traffic but also the international traffic. It also helps us get news that is relevant to our clients out to the world.

If you are one of the Ranches or Businesses on Northernhorse.com be sure to send us any interesting news and views and we will get you even more coverage. If you hear some news from the horse world that would be interesting to our readers or if you have some news that you would like to share from your own operation, be sure to let us know. We will give you credit for reporting the news and we will even include a link to your website to give you even better traffic flow from Northernhorse.com.

Merry Christmas to all our clients and visitors. Working with you brings us joy! Even we are amazed at how well this website continues to work to promote Canadian horse people and their horses.

We get calls from folks having trouble putting their photos on their classified ads because the images that come from their cameras are too big and get “timed out” by their email programs. Mark has tracked down a really good solution to this problem and we are posting it here to help you out. This will work not only if you want to upload to our classifeds (or your own website that has our “Easy Forms”) but also if you just want to email a photo to a friend. It makes them much more user friendly.

If you are using Microsoft Vista

• http://blogs.vertigo.com/personal/jatwood/Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=20

If you are using Microsoft XP

• Microsoft has made a really simple and free utility for resizing images in XP. Here is a direct download link:

• http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe

• Run the program when you are done downloading it. When setup is complete, you will be able to right-click on any picture file on your computer and select ‘Resize Pictures’ from the pop-up menu.

Be sure to let us know if this is helpful by commenting below.

We get calls from folks having trouble putting their photos on their classified ads because the images that come from their cameras are too big and get “timed out” by their email programs. Mark has tracked down a really good solution to this problem and we are posting it here to help you out. This will work not only if you want to upload to our classifeds (or your own website that has our “Easy Forms”) but also if you just want to email a photo to a friend. It makes them much more user friendly. Continue Reading »

In our constant search of ways to give our clients an edge on the competition, Twitter has come to our attention. On a previous blog I offered to do a tutorial about Twitter. Well, it seems that I don’t need to as I have found an excellent tutorial is already available. Just check out http://business.twitter.com/twitter101 if you think you might want to try something new that doesn’t have a big, long learning curve. I know lots of horsepeople don’t want to spend time on computers but if you are running a business and you are finding times tougher than usual, maybe being one of the first users in your field (an “early adopter”) to a new technology may give you a little edge in your marketing. And, quite often these kind of things work best for the early adopters.

This is probably a great thing to plan for fall/winter. I certainly wouldn’t give up these warm days when you can be outside doing something with your horse. I’m just getting you used to the idea.

Have you noticed the “Follow us on Twitter” link on the right side of Northernhorse.com? Are you thinking that you just don’t have time for that “social networking” stuff?

I wouldn’t want to say that I think Twitter is an essential tool for marketing your business or horse but it is free, it is being used by a lot of people and when you consider that you are limited to sending or having to read 140 characters it can be a fairly time effective way to get information and to send it. Continue Reading »

Back in the “old days” of websites we used to set up Guest Books for folks who wanted them. Guest Books can be the source of many problems so they pretty much went the way of the dodo bird.

We were moving some files on one of the servers last week when we came upon a monster file (nearly 500 mb). Further investigation showed that the file was where the entries for the sites guest book were stored until they were approved. This site had been abandoned but not removed from the server. No one was approving the entries (nor deleting them).  In the year that the site had been shut down there were an average of 4000 spams per day going to the guest book. That’s right, 4000 spams per day. Continue Reading »

This one is for the folks that use the Northernhorse.com Classifieds to sell their horses, tack, trailers, etc…

When placing an ad with us, be sure that you never list your email address within the writeup area. Doing so allows users to send you email directly, or even worse, it allows them to harvest your email address and pass it along to other individuals and organizations.

Remember that users can always send you a message with the contact form found below your ad.

The contact form will automatically block the majority of fraudulent and unsolicited messages that would otherwise have no trouble reaching you. We block individuals based on location, message content, and their relationship to our own personal black list.

If you are one of the few unlucky enough to receive a fraudulent or unsolicited message, please forward it to classifieds@northernhorse.com, and we will take care of it immediately. But please keep in mind that if you are placing your email address within the writeup area of your ad, we cannot block the offending user from sending you messages.

Microsoft has announced that a critical security vulnerability has been found in its popular Internet browser, Internet Explorer. Security experts advise that users of Microsoft Internet Explorer switch to a rival software until a fix is developed.

The flaw could allow criminals to gain control of your computer and steal your passwords. Microsoft does not yet know how long it will be until a fix is found.

All recent versions of the program are affected by this security bulletin. Continue Reading »

Just wanted to share this comment from one of our real estate classified clients.

I get more inquiries from your site than “For Sale By Owner” or “Com Free”. Thanks!

I found this interesting article that not only has some information about Stacy Westfall but also has some great website and business tips. Check it out here.