Now, what do we have for you in this month’s release?

• LunarNews – April 2009
• One on One with the Lunarpages Trainer
• Graphic Links of the Day
• April Updates for LPQuicksite
• Embedding Google News into Your Layout
• What Does Your Desk Look Like?
• Create Your Own Newsletter with FeedBurner
• Search the Web Hosting Wiki from Your Browser
• Springing into New Templates for LPQuicksite
• The Most Affordable Dedicated Hosting Solution

Hope you find this month’s selection of news, tips and interviews enjoyable.  Please be sure to leave us your feedback and comments on each, and I look forward to seeing you here again for the May newsletter next month!  It is our job to make sure we deliver to you the information you need, so if you ever have ideas on what type of content you would like to see, let us know.

Spring Special has Returned!

The Lunarpages Spring Special has made a fabulous return!  This special offer will give customers the chance to purchase a new Basic 12 or 24 month hosting plan for only $4.95 per month.  The Basic plan is our most popular web hosting plan and comes with priority 24 hour support and service.

Web Site of the Month!

February’s Web Site of the Month was TheWeddingMeister.com.  The perfect place to visit for all of your wedding needs, it fit into the theme of February very well.  From banquet halls to clergy services, that have been helping to plan weddings since 1988.  They like to keep things “elegant, yet economical” which in the times we live in today is a great thing for any soon to be wedded couple to hear.  Want to get your name in the hat for the next Web Site of the Month contest?  Head on over to the Lunarforums and get your URL submitted!

LPQuicksite Get Major Updates

Mentioned in greater detail in it’s own post this month, the LPQuicksite plan has undergone a number of improvements.  If you are looking for a no-fuss hosting plan that will let you get a professionally designed site up in a matter of minutes, go give the demo a second look.  You won’t be disappointed!

Dedicated Server Discounts

Ever wanted to try a dedicated server but couldn’t afford to do so? Well, now you can! Lunarpages is offering a unique discount on all dedicated servers, as well as a Super Saver Dedicated Plan, which starts at just $69/month. These phenomenal deals won’t last long, so be sure to visit LPDedicated.com for more information or to get started.

Lunarpages on the Social Web

Updating a previous news story, it looks like Lunarpages is really loved on the social side of the Web.  On Twitter, we have a total of 271 followers, and our Facebook group has 475  members! Come join us today for all the latest Lunarpages Tweets and news.

The month of April has brought us several new updates and changes to the ever popular plan, LPQuicksite.  Here are some of the most recent additions to this plan.

New Searchable Database for Templates and Designs

If you hover over the Design tab, and then go to “Template Gallery” you will see a new search box in the upper-right hand corner.  From here, you can search for a specific type of template you might have in mind.  For example, typing in “cars” into the search box will bring to me 4 templates that are based around automotive parts.  Each template has been internally tagged to make sure you get the best result for your searches.

E-mail Integrated Into LPQuicksite

Clicking on the new “Email” tab will take you to the new e-mail control center.  From here you can add a new e-mail account, setup your default e-mail address, access your spam filter and get to your options for each e-mail address you have setup.  It gives you an even easier way to manage all of your e-mail accounts without leaving the LPQuicksite design tools.

New Support Pages Dedicated to LPQuicksite Customers

Under the Help category, we have extended the support we can provide you directly from the LPQuicksite interface.  Along with that, be sure to check out our section of the web hosting wiki, dedicated to delivering you the best and most requested tutorials and how-tos on how to get the most out of your LPQuicksite plan.

Syndication Comes to LPQuicksite

RSS feed support is turned on by default whenever you start a blog from inside of LPQuicksite. RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, gives your blog’s readers a way to know when the blog has been updated, even when they are not viewing the web site.  Now you can easily have your visitors subscribe to your blog content.

Customizable Flash Headers

Tired with boring text, and flash that isn’t interactive? If so, you will be greatly surprised by the latest new feature we added to the LPQuicksite plan. LPQuicksite now allows you to edit templates that contain flash headers.  Fast and easy template customizations!

Insert YouTube Videos from the Publishing Tools

One of the most recent features to be released is the ability to add YouTube videos directly into your page using our special importer tools. This makes it easy to share and create even more content for your visitors to enjoy.

I told you that we had a lot of updates to share with you.  Let us know what you think about these new featues, and if there is anything else we can do to make your LPQuicksite publishing life a little easier.  Haven’t tried LPQuicksite yet?  Give our demo a shot, to check out the interface for yourself.

Google is always coming out with some of the coolest web site enhancements around.  One new tool they are providing for free, for any webmaster out there to use is the NewsShow Wizard.  What does it do?  It allows you to embed your own Google News widget into your web site on any topic you might have in mind.

All you need to do is step through the wizard, customizing your news as you want it to be seen on your web site.  You can pick from a 728×90 leader board or a 300×250 medium square to display the news from.  Here is an example:

So if you need something to replace that white space in your web site’s side bar or if you just want a little more interactivity on your web site – pick up this easy to use headline gadget today.

It Came from the Blog! – This is just one of the fantastic posts you can find via our Lunartics blog.  If you haven’t before, be sure to check it out also, for even more great tips, tricks and web development articles.

So you’ve always been interested in dedicated web hosting, but perhaps couldn’t afford to take the plunge? Well, Lunarpages has found a way around your dilemma, and it’s called the Super Saver Dedicated Plan. It’s new, it’s affordable, it’s…super!

Lunarpages Super Saver Dedicated Hosting Plan starts at just $69/month, making it the most affordable dedicated server solution on the planet. It includes a lot of the bells and whistles you’d expect with a more expensive plan and is stripped of unnecessary additions or upgrades.

The Super Saver Dedicated Plan comes with:

• 80GB Storage Space
• 500 GB Bandwidth/month
• 1 Free Domain
• Intel® 1.6 ghz Processor
• 2 Free IP Addresses
• **FREE SETUP**

And if you want to save on Windows Dedicated Hosting as well, we have a Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 version, both of which include all as above plus RDC.

The Super Saver Dedicated Plan is perfectly priced for:

• small business owners
• startup companies who can’t afford to compromise on service
• web designers and developers
• blogs & CMS
• organizations & schools
• high-traffic websites

Let us provide you with the perfect dedicated hosting solution, today!

Spring is the perfect time to redesign your website! With that in mind, the designers for our LPQuicksite Hosting Plan have added some fantastic new looks to the template gallery. You can view these and all the other designs via the LPQuicksite Demo. Or, better yet, just purchase a new LPQuicksite Plan and you can use these templates for your own website.

#379 - located under Most Recently Added

This is the perfect template for a personal website, organization, charity, or blog. The left-align design is a popular choice for many webmasters, and this template comes in various colors, so you always have full control over the look and feel of your website.

#432 - located in Most Recently Added

This professional look is great for business or information websites, personal hobby sites, blogs, ecommerce shops, and more. The central layout makes this template a chameleon for many different types of website designs.

#441 - located under Most Recently Added

Irish pride! Leprechauns, a pot-o-gold, and four leaf clovers are the perfect additions to this mean green template. I adore this one, as you can use it for a St. Patrick’s Day makeover for your site or just because you love everything Irish. Really great layout for bloggers.

#434 - located under Most Recently Added

This template is one of my personal favorites. It’s clean, sophisticated look is perfect for ecommerce shops, web designers and artists, musicians, teachers, professionals, bloggers, and more. You can almost use this template for just about anything you could think of, which makes it the perfect choice for your first website.

One great new feature to the Lunarpages Web Hosting Wiki is the ability to search from the search box inside of most modern browsers. Here is how you add the Lunarpages Web Hosting Wiki search plugin:

Add it to Internet Explorer 7

Click on the search box, and you should see it as an selectable option:

Click on the name (as shown above) and it will be saved to your search engine selections next time you select a search engine from the drop down choices.

Add it to Firefox 3

In Firefox, click on the icon next to the search box (directly left, where you see the Google favicon) in the top right corner of the browser. This will bring up your drop down choices of search engines you can use. At the very bottom, you should see the Lunarpages Web Hosting Wiki as a choice, click it.

Now you can directly search the Lunarpages Web Hosting Wiki from the Firefox search box, anytime you need to.  Actually, this search should support any browser that supports the OpenSearch standard.  If you have any other favorites you know it works with, drop in a comment and let us know.

Author:  Mitch Keeler

Did you know that you could create yourself an instant newsletter and a new way for people to follow you around the web with just a few simple ingredients?

Now, gather your supplies:

• Lunarpages Hosting Account
• FeedBurner Account
• RSS Feed

I know many of Lunarpages customers are using FeedBurner to burn their blog’s feed, so that they can gain extra information from it such as subscriber and click-through numbers.  However, did you know you can offer your readers a way to subscribe by e-mail?  In turn, you would be creating an instant newsletter for people to follow.  Now here is what you need to do.

First, login to your FeedBurner account, and then click on the RSS feed that you want to create the “subscribe by e-mail” feature for. Now click on the tab labeled Publicize on the FeedBurner web site.  Now, down the left side of the page – you want to look for a link named, “Email Subscriptions” and click it. After you have activated the service at the bottom of the Email Subscriptions page, you can start to customize it some.

On the left-side menu you should have these options available:

• Subscription Management – Go here to grab your code for your subscription box or get a text link that people can click when they want to sign up to get e-mail updates from your RSS feed.
• Communication Preferences – Here you can change the from address, the confirmation e-mail subject and the confirmation e-mail body.
• Email Branding – On the Email Branding page, give your e-mail updates a title, a logo, and decide the font settings you want the updates to be displayed in.
• Delivery Options – Select your time zone here, and set a time for the e-mails to be delivered.

Now all you have to do is go to the Subscription Management page, grab the code you want to use (either a form or a text link), put it into your web page somewhere and then watch the followers come rolling in.

Here’s an extra secret.  If you scroll down to the bottom of the Subscription Management page, you can also find out how many of your subscribers are coming in via e-mail.

Hope this comes in handy for those of you who have RSS feeds to follow, and use FeedBurner to give them a few extra perks.

Call me nosy if you like, but I enjoy looking at how other people have organized their personal surroundings.  I spend a lot of my daily life at my PC, and I know others do as well, so what does your setup look like?  After starting this fun idea via the Lunarforums, I thought I would post a few examples here on the newsletter too.

Here is my own little work area, where I do my day to day business.  (Yes, I do like to keep things nice and clean.

Here we have the desk of Daniel, featured in this month’s staff interview and one heck of a good trainer.

This is the desktop of our forum user, Meltdown.  he really knows how to live!  Wish I had a Xbox next to my PC.  Then again, If I did – might not get any work done.

Here we have another forum user, mrako, in his make shift office/children’s room.

Another Lunarpages support crew member Troy has a.. well, unique setup.

One of the best billing techs around, Deb has a simple setup as she moves into her new abode.

Last but not least, we have Matthew’s desktop – who is one of our remote supervisors.  Psychedelic and functional, all at the same time!

But that’s not all!  There were plenty more submissions to dig through.  To check out some of the other desk setups, be sure to check out and take part in our Where Do You Work? Share your Desk! thread via Lunarforums.com.

As the official trainer for Lunarpages, there is no doubt that Daniel Torney knows his stuff when it comes to web hosting.  I like to think of him as the Mister Miyagi of Lunarpages.  So when we were discussing amongst ourselves who would be the next great Lunarpages worker to interview, of course Daniel was one of my top choices.

Other than being the encyclopedia of hosting knowledge, what is your official position with Lunarpages?

CSR Trainer and Jack of All Trades. 

What all are you responsible for?

Training CSRs, Auditing tickets for quality and training, answering questions from CSRs, anything else put on my plate.

What brought you to Lunarpages?

I was looking for a job where I could use my existing knowledge and increase my knowledge as well. Working from home is nice too! 

Who would win in a fight, Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees?

Freddy Krueger, of course. He has a wicked sense of humor and is witty. Also  he doesn’t hide behind a mask. Being a wisecracking badass with slicing and  dicing abilities trumps Jason’s hack and slash brute force tactics. Freddy  knows how to really get into your head. Most of all (for those Redhat fans out there) – How can you compete with someone who wears a cool fedora?

Do you have any web site projects outside of the work you do for Lunarpages?

Here and there. But nothing fully public at this time. 

If you weren’t in the web hosting business, what do you think you would be doing?

It’s all about information. Anything managing information is good.

You work remotely for Lunarpages.  How does remote work compare with getting up and going to an actual office?

Going to the office, you have to deal with traffic jams, whereas working from home, the only thing you have to worry about is the occasional overturned dog  and 3 cat pileup. Seriously, being able to sleep in and still get to work on  time is nice, but who has time to sleep?  Sleep is overrated.

What are some of your favorite web sites to visit online?

Google.com, of course!
Can’t forget Facebook.com.
Newegg.com to see all the latest deals on hardware.
Distrowatch.org to see all the nice, shiny, new Linux distros.

Give me your top five favorite geeky movies of all time.

• Sneakers
• Wargames
• Hackers
• Spaceballs
• and of course you can’t forget Weird Science

Being a guy who gets asked questions all the time, what question do  people ask you most?

Can I ask you a question? (Seriously, if I had to get the most common one, its always asking if I can answer something.)

What makes Lunarpages special, in your opinion?

Great bunch of co-workers and the community of customers 

No, there is no “discretion advised” for these links, you are thinking of the wrong kind of graphic.  Here we have a list of some of the greatest and most spectacular graphic or photo related links collected from the Link of the Day project on the Lunarforums.

Here is the link of the day graphics inspired web sites I collected over the month of February.

• Web 2.0 Logo Creatr
• Free Vector Art at Vecteezy.com
• DesignFloat.com
• Ultimate Grunge Pack: 40 High-Res Textures
• GFXWorld.ws
• PhotoGen.com
• 20 Awesome Paint.Net Tutorials
• CoolText.com
• 50 Free High-Quality Icon Sets
• Photoshop.com
• QuickRibbon.com
• Lightbox 2
• YourFonts.com
• PSDTuts.com
• StripeGenerator.com
• VectorMagic.com
• Pixlr.com
• MapChannels.com
• Mypictr.com

What graphic or photo web sites do you like to use?  We would love to hear your feedback or suggestions if you favorite didn’t make it on the list or you found a new favorite to get to proverbial job done.