OPTIMISE, the IE Domain Registry (IEDR) e-Commerce Website Development Fund 2013 has been set up to provide Irish Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) or Micro Enterprises with a range of e-commerce supports (including Technical, Marketing, Consultancy & Training), to encourage and enable Irish SMEs or Micro Enterprises to make greater use of existing web technologies and upgrade to an e-commerce enabled website. This initiative is designed to help drive Irish businesses’ efforts online. These businesses were provided with one-on-one consultations and trainers to plan, develop and implement significant e-commerce capability to their current website.

The release of the IEDR’s Domain Name Industry Report in November 2010 highlighted that only 66% of Irish businesses had any kind of website and of this 66% only 21% had any e-commerce capabilities. Following this finding the IEDR announced that it would provide services and training to companies as part of the OPTIMISE Fund. The Fund has grown from 10 winners in 2011 to 15 in 2012.

Are you an Irish SME or micro-enterprise? Do you currently have a .ie web address? Are you looking for professional assistance to develop your online presence? IEDR’s OPTIMISE e-Commerce Fund for 2013 can help you, and is now open for entries!

Click here to apply for Optimise 2013

We at Hosting Ireland are fully committed to delivering the very best in hosting to our customers. This takes lots of research into the latest technologies, speaking with lots of potential partners and benchmarking us against our competitors. No better place to do this than at the World Hosting Days event in Rust Germany….

Everyone who in anyone in the industry is here and over the last three days our CTO has been meeting existing and potentially new partners, speaking with competitors and listening to hours of seminars getting the very latest on technology trends and ideas.

Hosting Ireland will go to any length to ensure it’s customers benefit from the latest technologies…

Yes that right, our half price .org offer has been extended until the end of March and also the .biz domain is included. So now you can buy either domain name for only €4.95….

The .org domain is one of the original TLDs or Top Level Domains and has been around since 1985. Generally it’s used for non-profit organisations and there is no restrictions for registration, which makes it quick and simple to register.

Sometimes the .org domain is adopted where an entity does not fit into any other category which often includes non-commercial organisations.

Some examples of where a .org domain is used include:

Schools/Colleges
Charities
Open Source Projects
Personal Sites
Communities
Associations
Clubs

You may also consider registering a .org domain as part of your brand protection strategy along with other TLDs.

Hosting Ireland offers registration for all domain types, but to mark the 28 years of the .org we are offering a 50% discount on all .org registrations. So now you can register a .org for only €4.95!

In addition if you register along with purchasing hosting you can get further discounts of 25% with Cloud Lite hosting, 50% with Cloud Business hosting and with our Cloud Ultima hosting your .org will be FREE.

Remember ID protection is included only when domain registration is through Hosting Ireland.

Don’t hang around, this deal is only available until 28th February 2013..

The Data Protection Commissioner has started to take action by sending out letters to companies who’s websites are not compliant to the Cookie law that came into effect from 1st July 2011 as part of the ePrivacy Directive.

In principle, there has been a legal requirement since the above date that all websites must provide information and capture consent for dropping or accessing cookies or other information on a user’s computer equipment when a user visits their site.

If your website is not compliant we would strongly advice that you make this a matter of priority, seek advice if need be and take the necessary steps to get compliant.

For more information visit www.dataprotection.ie

Well it’s the start of another year and Hosting Ireland is continuing in it’s quest to deliver the best hosting services and solutions in Ireland. There are three main reasons why you should consider using Hosting Ireland if you’re not already doing so..

1. Products and Services
Hosting Ireland always endeavours to deliver the very best web hosting backed up with industry leading service standards. We’re always investing in new products and technology, such as the Cloud, making sure that we can continue to offer reliable, robust and secure hosting into the future.

2. Value for Money
We don’t claim to be the cheapest, as we believe customers want value for money. Our pricing is simple and we reward our customers where we can with discounts. For example if you buy a domain and hosting package at the same time we will give a discount on the domain price, with some hosting packages the domain even comes free.
We also give our customers the options on how and when to pay. Pay annually or pay monthly and spread the cost through the year. Choose to pay by debit card, credit card or direct debit, whichever is easier for you.

3. Customer Support
Our customers tell us time and time again that we have the best customer support and backup in the industry. We’re not the biggest, which we feel is an advantage, as we endeavour to be the best. All our customers can get in touch by phone or email. In fact, although some of our competitors would prefer their customers to submit an email, we love to speak with our customers.

Go on why not try Hosting Ireland in 2013…..

We had the pleasure in attending the IEDR Optimise event at the Conrad Hotel in Dublin on Monday 10th December…. Here are a few pictures..