Dear Mr. Samson (Anonymous),

I am surprised that you took the time to check out my new website. As I recall, your last words to me were " Do not e-mail me back, our business is finished."

I was not familiar with websitegrader.com so I had a look. Thank you for pointing out the one typo in the Meta Description. I will have it corrected with the one typo on the website. I took the opportunity to include our only competitor in the Competitive Intelligence section. They scored a "7" and they have been in business for 47 years! My site is at 37 and it has been live a mere six weeks.

I don't really understand your reference to substandard meta info. According to websitegrader.com, the only thing they suggest is 10 key words or less. My web page has 11 keywords in its meta data. Hardly a serious problem if you ask me.

I would venture to say that if you had any real skill you would know that my website is not hosted by Blogspot. It is hosted by GoDaddy.com, one of the TOP hosting companies according to the BBB, TRUSTe, ICANN, and TrustWave. You left your childish comment on my blog, hosted by Blogspot, which has a link to my website.

I am extremely happy with the website Tony built for me. It is beautifully designed with excellent functionality. He included the things I asked for and so much more. Mr. Shams, President of Zyguyz, Inc. is a consummate professional. His skills are verifiable and irrefutable. I would be very interested to see how your education, experience, and resume would fair against his. Mr. Shams also possesses two attributes you are obviously unfamiliar with, honest and integrity. He would never use a public blog to slam another professional and sign it as "Anonymous."

Your little dig, "Guess you get what you pay for!" was what gave you away. I suggest you follow your own suggestion. "Do not contact me again." Our business was finished months ago. Grow up and get over it!

For those of you that read my blog and are confused by this post:

Mr. Samson is a partner with Icon Web Media. I initially dealt with a woman named Lucy about bartering for a website. I sent her the web address of a cake site that I liked. She assured me that they could build something similar for me. I paid the contracted price through PayPal and they built a website for me in Feb 2009. I also paid them a monthly fee to host the site. It was functional, but lacked many of the features that I desired.

Zyguyz was the company that built the site that I liked so much. I contacted them and after several emails, Tony offered to add the items in question free of charge! He told me what he needed from Icon Web Media to make the changes. I contacted them and explained the situation. I assured IWM that I was not changing hosting companies. I was simply trying to take advantage of Mr. Shams' generous offer.

Icon Web Media, specifically Mr. Samson, took my request as a personal insult. I received multiple unprofessional emails, which I still have, from him. He refused to provide a phone number or even his name to discuss the problem! I found his name when I did a bit of sleuthing on the service he set up my hosting with. He refused to release the information, or my website, stating that he owned it and all of the content, including my cake photographs. After two months of email requests, and a consultation with our attorney, he sent a few unusable files to me, took my website down, and sent me the email not to contact him again. He billed my account for hosting after he pulled the website until I filed a complaint and stopped the direct drafts through PayPal.

All in all, it was a very nasty lesson learned. Always, always, always, check out the companies you deal with.

Life is Good...at least last week!

It’s Sunday night and I’m sitting at our kitchen table writing and thinking about my life. My daughter just left after giving us all haircuts. It’s so nice to have a really good stylist in the family. Who else would make house calls? Hubby is out in his shop working on his latest project, a vintage 1981 Goldwing motorcycle; he lovingly named “The Black Pearl.” It cracks me up when he says “I’m going to go out and rub on Pearl for a while.” Boy with their toys. My youngest son is in his room next to me singing, playing guitar, and recording some of his songs. Several of them are really good and I find my self expecting to hear them on the radio. Maybe some day…

I love the internet and use it every day. I can hardly remember life without it. Surfing brought the kindest man into my life. Tony lives in Louisiana and is president of Zuguyz, Inc, a web design company. I contacted him about a website for my fledging wedding cake business about a year ago after viewing the one he built for Sweet Southern Ladies. We emailed back and forth for months while he tried to help me deal with the crazy person that made my first site, and later as I tried to use a template-based service to build my own. Tony patiently responded to my random requests while I dealt with caring for my husband after major surgery, housing my brother and his fiancée after a motor vehicle accident, and most recently caring for my youngest son who was broadsided by an 18 wheeler while at work. I guess it’s lucky I’m a nurse!

In the past two months Tony selflessly donated his personal time to building a fantastic website for my new business, Memory Makers Cakes. I was very happy to have a working site. My sister-in-law built me this blog site to match. When Tony saw it, he surprised me by spending hours coordinating the two to match and work seamlessly together. He has definitely renewed my faith in the kindness of strangers.

If you find yourself in need of IT services, please consider Zyguys. I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed in the first class, personal service they provide.

Sweet Rewards

I got my son Clint’s Elvis costume done yesterday with hours to spare. His sister did his hair…Elvis on steroids…very big and cartoon like. Picture Elvis meets rock-a-billy meets punk. It suited him perfectly. I didn’t need to make a costume for my youngest son Philip (age 20) because he went as a cowboy. Mind you, he always dresses like a cowboy and I did mention that fact to him. He explained that he looked normal to us “country folks” but in the “big city” he would looked costumed up. Ok…made sense to me. We did the photo op thing and I promised to send copies to their cell phones and emails for later inclusion on facebook, MySpace, and others. I sent them on their way with the usual warnings that drinking, drugs, driving, unsafe sex or any combination of the four being a bad thing. Childless, my hubby, Leon suggested a date night. I suggested dinner and a movie. Twenty miles later (closest town with a theater) we enjoyed great Mexican food and margaritas. Yum! I love frozen strawberry ritas with a salted rim. My honey suggested that I have a second one since I had a designated driver. How could I refuse? An hour later, I was half asleep and headed home, the movie forgotten. Its hell to be old and a light weight drinker. The good news is I got a good night sleep. Not counting the 12 times Leon’s very spoiled rat terrier work me up trying to steal my pillow or cover.

I got up, made the coffee, and spent the entire day (including the extra hour for day light savings) playing with my new iPhone. Finally, electronics easy enough for technologically challenged baby boomers to enjoy! I have everything at my finger tips, phone, email, messaging, great camera, games, internet, and music. Did I mention internet? Imagine, Craig’s List, and eBay programs with their own little icon buttons. One touch and I’m shopping! Now if I can just stop buying applications…