What does the Pelican Website service include?
We offer three levels of our web hosting and site building service for an annual fee: Business, Family, and Personal. If you'd like to sell products from your site and want an integrated shopping cart and online transaction processing, you'll find that our store packages have everything you need.
We also offer optional services you can purchase in addition to monthly web hosting, such as personalized web addresses (like http://www.yourbusiness.com); online payment methods, so you can collect money from your customers through your web site; an easy way to sell and manage your products in; and the best tools to get your site listed in the Web's top 100 search engines and directories.
What are the system requirements for using Pelican?
- An email account (from any provider you choose, such as AOL, EarthLink, or a free service like Hotmail)
- A PC running Windows 95/98/NT or Macintosh operating system 7.0 or newer (Pelican does not support WebTV)
- Netscape Navigator version 4.0 and up or Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 and up
- A modem or other Internet connection capable of speeds of 28.8 kbps or greater
How long will it take me to build a site?
This is completely up to you and your business. On their own, some of our members have planned their own web design and then built their entire sites in under two hours; others have chosen to build theirs over the course of several months. Some members update their web sites daily; others only seasonally. In other words, although you can get a basic site up and running in a short time, maintaining a business web site is generally an ongoing proposition that takes as much time as you're willing to invest.
Why do you ask for my email address and a password to sign up?
We ask for your email address for two reasons:
- To identify your account information within our service. All Pelican members use an email address as a "key" to sign in to the service to work on their web site pages. Because everyone has a unique email address, we don't have to worry about our members choosing the same key.
- To communicate with you. From time to time we need to tell all Pelican members about important developments that affect the way you use the service. In addition to these rare service updates for all members, you may choose to subscribe to our newsletter, the monthly update from our President and CEO(Lucy Reid), special offers, invitations to participate in member surveys, and special email announcements of scheduled maintenance.
We ask everyone to create a Pelican password to use with their email address as an additional security measure when signing in to our service. This Pelican password helps to keep your web site information safe and your personal information protected. Keep in mind that the password you create to use with Pelican should not be the same password you use to access your personal email account.
Can I get an email account through Pelican?
Yes. Secure, fast, and easy to use, Pelican's fully integrated Web Mail feature lets you choose up to 10 email addresses that match your business web address, such as info@yourbusiness.com, feedback@yourbusiness.com, and sales@yourbusiness.com, giving you a more professional means og communicating with your customers and business associates.
I expect my business to boom. Can Pelican handle that?
Yes. Our goal is to help you succeed online, so we've set up a system that can grow with you. We offer you many site building, marketing, and online payment options so you can choose the right combination for your business.
I live outside the United States. Can I still use your service?
Yes, international members can use our entire service.
Do I need to know HTML to use Pelican?
No. With Pelican you can build pages, create a catalog or portfolio, sell goods or services, send email newsletters, and more — all without knowing a thing about computer programming. We also provide personalized customer support to help you along the way.
If you do know HTML, you can use your knowledge to do more advanced things with your site using our HTML publishing and FTP features; however, our service is designed to let you create a unique business without becoming a technology wizard.
Can I upload images and text to my Pelican web site?
You may upload pictures in .jpg format to your site. The Content Manager allows you to upload text and content to site. Your customers will be able to access each file simply by clicking on a link on your web site.
Can I use the pages I create with Pelican on another web site?
No. While you own the content and pictures you provide for your Pelican site, and are free to save and reuse these with another web site, Pelican web pages themselves are dynamically generated by our service. As a result, Pelican pages can't be removed from Pelican and used on a non-Pelican web site. However, any HTML pages you add to your Pelican site can be saved on your hard drive and hosted elsewhere.
Can I use my own web address (or domain name) with my Pelican site, or do I have to use a web address that includes Pelican.com?
You can use your own web address with your Pelican web site. Initially we ask all new members to choose a Pelican web address. This reserves space for your site on our servers and identifies your business within our system. Later you may choose to transfer your own personalized web address (like http://www.yourbusiness.com) for use with your Pelican site. If you don't already own a personalized web address, you can also register one through us.
Keep in mind that if you'd like to register your own web address, you'll need to pay for it. To make this easy, we use Bulk Register, one of the global registrars for the top-level domains of .com, .net, .org, and .edu. The current cost is $70 for the first two years of service. To transfer your personalized web address for use with your Pelican web site, you'll pay a one-time fee of $99.
Why is Pelican better than the free disk space I get from my Internet service provider?
You can use free disk space to publish a few pages on the Internet, but that's all you'll get: pages on the Internet. That's about as close to having an online business as making a flyer.
Pelican is more than just disk space. We're the best place on the Web for small businesses because of our powerful sales and customer-finding tools. Want to sell goods or services from your web site? Our websites have custom features designed for your industry. This means your clients have tools to make doing business with you easier. In addition, we can help you market your site in your own hometown or all over the world. We know the ins and outs of getting listed on search engines. See for yourself why Pelican is better.
I already have a website, can Pelican help me move it to our new look?
Our team of designers and technical support people can help copy your current site into your new Pelican site. This allows you to get up and running the same day with better functionality and graphics. The service to move your site is a one time $50.00 fee. Let your salesman know you need some help and we'll take care of the rest!
Can I connect my Pelican site with another site?
Yes. To do this, you'll simply need to add links from your Pelican site to your other site and vice versa. When both sites link to each other, visitors can click back and forth between the two web sites, almost as if they were one.
Can I add web tools like searches, counters, and guest books to my Pelican site?
Yes! You can add a variety of web tools to your site, including surveys, 'Contact Us' forms, and newsletter sign-up boxes. You can even insert HTML code into your site to display other interactive features.
What do your ecommerce services include?
If you're planning to sell products from your web site, we recommend that you build your business with our store. We've combined everything you need to sell successfully on the Web into this customized package. The Ecommerce store has a licensing fee of $750. Contact us at sales@i2net.com for an online demonstration.
How secure is the Pelican shopping cart?
We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software to protect your transactions, your data, and your customers' data from unauthorized third parties. Currently Pelican uses SSL to encrypt all of your and your customers' personal information, including credit card numbers, names, and addresses, as they're transmitted over the Internet.
How will customers find my web site?
Using the tools in Pelican's Marketing section, you can submit your site to search engines (such as Google, Metacrawler, Excite, Lycos, and AltaVista) and directories (like Yahoo!, About.com, and the Open Directory Project) to help new and existing customers find your site. Another option is to list your site on Overture (formerly GoTo), a popular pay-per-click search engine. You can also help local customers find you by including your website on your business cards, letterhead, yellow page ads, vehicle signage and other traditional locations. Marketing your online business through these and other tools in the Pelican service will help you reach new customers and increase your business.
How do I contact the people who visit my site?
We offer several ways for you to keep in touch with people who visit your site. When customers purchase goods or services from your web site, they are asked to register for your mailing list and be added to your customer database automatically. You can put a newsletter sign-up box on your homepage or other pages of your website, allowing visitors to add their email addresses to your customer database. Similarly, you can create an online survey, which also asks participants for their email address. Once your visitors have willingly joined your mailing list, you may communicate with them via email newsletters that you create and send.
Keep in mind that sending mass emails without the recipients' permission is illegal and prohibited by Pelican's member agreement.
How do I get my web site into search engines and directories?
Search engines and directories are certainly an important part of doing business on the Web, but getting a good listing can be difficult. In fact, websites that appear in the top 10 search results generally pay for their premium spots.
After you sign up for a Pelican account, you'll also have access to our Help Center.
How will Pelican help me if I have a problem?
Our Technical staff has the ability to solve your problems by email, fax or phone. Our staff is available Monday through Friday 9-5pm Pacific Standard Time. Email us at support@i2net.com.
How safe is my information within Pelican?
We take your privacy very seriously. We don't share any personally identifiable information with third parties without your permission, and we extend the same policy to your web site visitors and customers.
Pelican does combine information about the total number of sites built with Pelican and the number of visits our members' sites receive, and we may share some of these group statistics with our partners. However, as stated above, we do not provide any third party with information that personally identifies you (like your name or address) or your web site visitors without first obtaining your permission.
For the complete legal details about how we keep your information private, read our Privacy Policy.
How fast is Pelican?
Our equipment is set up in a high-security facility, with high-speed, redundant links to the Internet. We currently have ten times the capacity we need to serve our member base. As more members subscribe to our service, we add hardware and bandwidth to ensure that all of our customers get the performance they want, without having to pay more for it.
We continually monitor the performance of our service.
How reliable is your service? Will my web site always be available to my customers?
Our site and our customers' sites are consistently available 99.7 percent of the time. Why not 100 percent? We're constantly improving our service, which requires us to periodically make our service temporarily unavailable while we add the latest upgrade or perform routine maintenance. We always plan maintenance during off-peak hours, and whenever we can, we leave our members' sites operational when we need to perform maintenance on our own site.
I use America Online (AOL) and can’t see my website, what do I do?
WEB GRAPHICS COMPRESSION IN AOL
America Online compresses images before they reach your computer to save on download time. This means of reducing the load on their network degrades images found on most Web pages. The compression feature is "on" by default, but here are instructions on how you can turn image compression off.
There may be minor differences in how to correct this problem in various versions of AOL's software. The basic procedure is:
1) Choose "My AOL" on the icon bar across the top of the window.
2) Select "Preferences".
3) Click the "WWW" icon.
4) Click the "Web Graphics" tab.
5) Uncheck "Use Compressed Graphics".
6) Click "OK".
You should also delete your browser's cache (previously viewed pages/images):
1) Choose "My AOL" on the icon bar across the top of the window.
2) Select "Preferences".
3) Click the "WWW" icon.
4) Click the "Empty Cache Now" button on the bottom right of the window.
If there is no "Empty Cache Now" button:
1) Select the "Advanced" tab.
2) In the section labeled "Temporary Internet files," click "Settings..."
3) Click the "Empty Folder..." or "Purge Cache" button once.
4) Click "Yes" once to empty the folder and remove previously viewed files.
5) Click "OK" to close the two windows.
6) Close the "Preferences" window.
You may have to quit and restart AOL for the above changes to take effect.
AOL and Page Refresh Issues: America Online uses a proxy cache* to deliver Web pages through the AOL browser. This may cause problems when you are trying to update your Web site with our Web Site Manager tool. When connecting to the Internet with AOL, we recommend you use a separate Web browser for interaction with the Web Site Manager.
When using our Web Site Manager tool to create and maintain your Web site, you can easily edit copies of your Web pages that are stored on our server. When you click the "View" or "Submit" buttons to see your changes, our server sends you a new copy of your page. When using a browser integrated with the AOL client software, AOL members make Web requests through a set of caching proxy servers. If the servers have a copy of a requested Web object, it will be served to the member directly from the cache server instead of the request going over the Internet to the origin Web server.
*Definitions Proxy Cache
When a Web page is requested by someone using the AOL browser, a copy of the page is saved to the AOL server. If it is requested again within 24 hours, the saved server copy is used instead of connecting again to the page's source. While this often leads to much faster Web surfing, it interferes with the use of our Web Site Manager tool.
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