If you use FTP to upload image files (or other files) to your website, you need to know about a change that is necessary, now that OmegaNet has moved its servers to a new data center.
To make your transfers more secure, we are now using SECURE File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). This means a small change to the host name you enter when you use FileZilla (or other FTP client). The old way looked like this:
ftp://images.cameoez.com
The NEW way looks like this:
sftp://username@images.cameoez.com
where “username” is the actual Admin Console username for your site.
It should connect without a port number, but if it doesn’t, try entering “22” in the Port blank.
Note the configuration of the Host with sftp://username@images.cameoez.com
If you have trouble with “Quick Connect” you can create a connection by going to File > Site Manager. Click “New Site” and enter your information as outlined above. It will save your information, but it will require you to enter your password each time you connect.
Google will be turning off the old “UA-” Universal Analytics format analytics properties July 1. OmegaNet has, several months ago, converted all the analytics for the sites we host to the new “G-” Analytics 4 system.
If you have another website managed elsewhere, I wanted to be sure you are aware of this. Contact your webmaster to be sure they have migrated to the new Analytics 4 properties for your site.
Below is a message from Google with some relevant links.
Hello Google Analytics user,
On July 1, 2024, Google Analytics 4 properties will have fully replaced Universal Analytics properties, as previously announced. From that date, Google will begin turning off all Universal Analytics services and Universal Analytics APIs, which means Universal Analytics properties will be inaccessible through the Google Analytics front-end and APIs. If you haven’t completely migrated to Google Analytics 4 properties, follow the migration guide to start making the switch today.
Exporting your data To maintain access to data from your Universal Analytics property, you should download or export your data now. If this isn’t done through one of the methods provided in the Google Analytics Help Center, your data will be permanently deleted by Google and won’t be recoverable. If you intend to use the BigQuery integration to export historical data from your Universal Analytics 360 property, we strongly recommend initiating this immediately.
This message is for OmegaNet website clients. The topic is email deliverability. You are affected if you have an OmegaNet/CAMEO EZ website or you send email marketing to your customers.
This message is long, but is very important for those using branded email (somebody@mydomain.com). If you DO NOT use branded email, but designate somebody@gmail.com or whatever as the email for your email notifications, you may still have problems with deliverability of your email notifications.
A recent change in policy at GMail and Yahoo may adversely affect the deliverability of marketing and transactional emails you send to GMail.com and Yahoo.com email addresses. This change, which took effect February 1, 2024, could be causing ALL transactional and/or marketing email you send to GMail.com and Yahoo.com email address to be marked as spam and/or not delivered.
This article will detail how you can solve the problem caused by this change in policy.
Marketing and Transactional Email
MARKETING EMAIL: Many of you send marketing emails to your customers via MailChimp, Constant Contact or a similar service, but solving the problem is not their responsibility. It must be put in place by you or OmegaNet or whoever manages your domain name.
TRANSACTIONAL EMAIL: Transactional email is the email notification that is sent when a customer registers or places an order on your website, whether on your CAMEO EZ wholesale site or on your retail site, which OmegaNet may or may not host.
Both marketing and transactional email are affected by the change in policy.
As you know, OmegaNet offers email advertising services. We have taken the necessary steps to ensure that the email address from which we send email “blasts” will get through the spam filters. Below is a description of what needs to be done to ensure email deliverability.
Defining Terms
There are three components to ensure email deliverability and they all must be entered as records in your domain’s DNS zone file. First let’s define some terms:
DOMAIN REGISTRAR: Usually this will be where you originally registered your website domain, such as NetworkSolutions.com, Godaddy.com, CheapDomains.com or any of many others out there. It is possible to move to a different registrar, in which case your registrar would NOT be where you initially registered. If you don’t know who your registrar is, go to one of the registrars above and scroll to the bottom of the page and find the link to “WhoIs” and enter your domain name.
DNS (Domain Name Service): This is a text file that tells the web browser where to find your website domain, that is, the server on which your website is located. The DNS zone file also specifies the mail server where email for the domain is hosted. The email server and the web server will often, but not always, be hosted in different places. Servers are designated by IP addresses. You can find the IP address where your site is hosted on a Windows computer by opening the CMD window or the “Windows PowerShell” and typing “ping mydomain.com” where “mydomain” is your actual domain name. The DNS zone file will often be at your domain registrar, but may also be at your official host.
Above is an example of how a DNS Zone File will look in Godaddy.com’s domain editor
NAMESERVERS: The DNS zone file will include information about the nameservers which host your domain. These nameservers (there must be at least two) will be where the DNS zone file is hosted. If your nameservers are ns1.omeganetinc.net and ns2.omeganetinc.net, we have done what needs to be done to ensure email deliverability from your domain.
Three Components of Deliverability
Now here are the three components that need to be present in your DNS zone file.
1. SPF
SPF (Sender Policy Framework): The first of the three email deliverability components that should be present in your DNS zone file is an SPF record. SPF refers to a method of authenticating emails that is designed to spot forged sender addresses during email delivery. SPF allows the server on the receiving end to check whether an email appearing to come from a given domain is actually originating from an authorized IP address of that domain. The list containing all the authorized IP addresses and/ domain hosts for a specific domain can be found on that domain’s DNS records. There may be more than one server authorized to send mail on behalf of your domain.
Your DNS Zone file can only have one SPF record, so all IP addresses will be included in the same SPF record. Here is an example:
Here’s an example of how an SPF record looks in Godaddy.com’s DNS editor
The “@” indicates the domain name of the zone file. The “TXT” indicates the type of record. Other major DNS record types include “A”, “MX” (mail exchange) and “CNAME” (there are many more). The information in quotation marks, beginning with “v=spf1”, is the list of approved sending domains and/or IP addresses (The IP address “ip4:169.53.82.88” is redundant with omeganetinc.net, but is included as an example of an IP address in an SPF record).
In the example above, if your branded email is hosted by Microsoft, your SPF record should include the email address Microsoft supplies for their email sending server (SMTP server), in this case “spf.protection.outlook.com” (the correct server name for your domain must be obtained from your email host). If you have a CAMEO EZ website, your SPF record needs to also have OmegaNet’s server IP (ip4:169.53.82.88) or “omeganetinc.net” as part of your SPF record. If you also have other sites sending transaction email, such as a retail site at Shopify, you may need to include an IP address for that as well. The reference to “spf.mandrillapp.com” is a MailChimp mail server (if you use a mass email service, the server name has to be obtained from the service).
2. DKIM
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail, pronounced “D-Kim”) is the second component of email deliverability which needs to be in your DNS zone file.
Unlike SPF, you can and should have multiple DKIM records in your DNS, one for each sending server for your domain. Here is an example of a DKIM record using the public key for OmegaNet.
default._domainkey IN TXT “v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQC7d5HLLOuFkI8j/WgrxO/psXT5P7SvZQxoZcSBhWMd6EKSI6jtUoylYCd232qoLrxeF6bFN/MZlFTglJ54kmaJuxhJDSJByqms6S4JvPeyMCLioWaTJBhuzFT1rDgFkbBJexq+vZO7tPUvLnuxGpW1h/LeY16MShN+f6Rfi+7AOQIDAQAB”;
Here’s an example of how a DKIM record looks in Godaddy.com’s DNS Editor
Note that if you have a CAMEO EZ wholesale site or a retail site hosted by OmegaNet, your DNS should have the DKIM record exactly as shown above in your DNS zone file.
3. DMARC
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting, pronounced “D-Mark”) is the last component that should be present in your DNS zone file for email deliverability. SPF and DKIM must be in place for DMARC to work. Here is an example of a DMARC record:
_dmarc.mydomain.com. 3600 IN TXT “v=DMARC1; p=none; pct=100; rua=mailto:somebody@mydomain.com”
This is an example of a DMARC record in Godaddy.com’s DNS editor.
“_dmarc” indicates this record is DMARC information.
“.mydomain.com” needs to be your actual domain name.
“3600” is the “time to live” (TTL) in seconds. 3600 seconds is one hour (This parameter is optional).
“TXT” indicates the record type.
“v=DMARC1” indicates the version number.
“p=none” indicates that no action should be taken. This is usually an initial value. Other possible values include “reject”, which means the receiving server should reject emails from domains which fail the DMARC check, and “quarantine” which means emails failing DMARC should be quarantined or flagged as suspicious but still delivered.
If your nameservers are ns1.omeganetinc.net and ns2.omeganetinc.net, that means OmegaNet hosts your domain and we have already taken the steps outlined here, adding the three components to your DNS. If your nameservers are elsewhere, these components (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) need to be added by you or whoever manages your domain.
Need Help?
If you want OmegaNet to make the changes in your DNS and your domain is not already hosted by OmegaNet (has OmegaNet’s nameservers) you will need to provide access to your domain registrar or official host. Contact gary@omeganetinc.net.
One more note: If for your notifications you are using an email address from one of the big email providers, like GMail.com, Yahoo.com, ProtonMail.com, Outlook.com, AOL.com, Zoho.com, etc., rather than your own branded email (you@yourdomain.com), you risk those emails not being received, because we cannot modify the DNS for those domains. Most of the services listed above also offer branded email.
Recently, OmegaNet modified the log-in process for our wholesale sites so that you can specify a page you’d like to link to AFTER log in. Until now, if you linked to, say a specific product, you would be taken to the log in page and after you logged in, you would be taken to the Main Category page. There was no easy way to find the product you had originally linked to.
Now it is possible to provide your customers with a direct link to a product AFTER logging in, so they can find and order it.
Use Cases
How can you use this?
Links in email advertising. Simply link to the product you want to feature (see below for link structure).
Links on landing and sales pages, where you direct customers to a dedicated page for a special offer.
Links in social media, such as Facebook/Meta, Instagram, Twitter/X, Pinterest, etc.
Note: Customers who are already registered on your site will be able to simply log in and will be taken to the desired page, but those not registered (such as those coming from social media) will need to first register before they can log in and go to the page. This may require clicking the link again.
How to format the link
IMPORTANT NOTE: You should not simply copy the URL from your browser when you are logged in. You can start with that, but you must modify it before using the link in the ways described above. Here is an example of a possible link URL and how it should be modified. When you copy the URL from the address bar of your browser it will look like this:
(the URL above may break to two lines on the page, but there should be no line breaks or spaces in the URL) In your case, in the URL above, “userid=0000000&” will be the actual 7-digit customer ID for the user for which you are logged in. You MUST delete the “userid=0000000&” because that will vary with each person who logs in and the system will automatically be added to the URL when they log in. Everything else you can leave, like “item=000000000000,” which will be the actual 12-digit item number of the product which was automatically displayed by the system, “sku=ABC123” which will be your actual SKU and “&cat=000000” which will be the actual category ID of the product. You could delete “&cat=000000” to shorten the URL because it isn’t required.
To recap, you MUST delete “userid=0000000&” and you CAN delete “&cat=000000” to shorten the URL.
It may also be desirable to further shorten the URL using an online service like bitly.com, tinyurl.com and there are others which you can find using a web search. Be sure to test the URL link when you use it to be sure your modifications were correct.
PLEASE NOTE: NEW OMEGANET MAILING ADDRESS Beginning immediately, Please send ALL mail (including invoice payments) and packages to: OmegaNet Inc. P. O. Box 611 Snellville, GA 30078
Phone numbers and email addresses remain the same. Please address all mailed correspondence to this address. Please share this information with others in your organization who may be affected. Thank you.
Video is becoming more and more important, especially on social media. Many of you participated in our “Virtual Spring Trade Show” at www.giftshowspecials.com. If you didn’t participate and haven’t seen it, you should take a look.
Since Gary Ivey used to do video production for a living, he thought he would do a short video (9 min.) about basic Video Production Principles. We hope it can help you to use this tool to promote your products.
The rules concerning email blast ad design have changed drastically. Watch the short (5 min.) video to see how you should approach email blast design today. (You can also see examples of email design here.)
For a website to be HTTPS, a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate must be purchased and installed on the server where the domain is hosted.
How We Do It Now
Currently we use a shared “wildcard” (*.cameoez.com) SSL certificate to make selected pages HTTPS, such as Login, Registration, Update Account, Checkout, etc. where customers input sensitive information. These pages are already SSL secure (displayed as HTTPS and for which Chrome displays “Secure” in the address bar). As a result of this shared certificate, until now you have not needed to purchase your own SSL certificate each year. Ordinary product and information pages are not SSL secure, but are displayed as HTTP.
Until now, Google Chrome has simply displayed HTTP pages without the “Secure” notification in the address bar, but beginning in July, 2018, Chrome will display a “Not Secure” warning in the address bar of all HTTP pages, rather than just omitting “Secure.” The warning in Chrome will likely be alarming to your customers who use that browser.
Our current server software version does not allow SSL certificates on multiple domain names on one IP address, but we have formulated a plan that will satisfy Google Chrome.
What Does This Mean for You?
Whether your site must have its own SSL certificate depends on your “website type.” You can identify your website type in Admin Console > Account Setup > Account Type. Your Website Type will be “Attached Site,” “Redirected Website,” or “Complete Site.” If yours is an “Attached Site” site, number 2 below applies to you. If your site is either “Redirected Website” or “Complete Website”, number 3 below applies to you. We may also contact you with specific information for your situation.
“Redirected Website” or “Complete Website”: If your site’s domain name (yourname.com) goes directly to your wholesale website, then you will be required to pay for an SSL certificate for your domain name. OmegaNet will purchase and install this for you and bill you or charge your credit card on file. We do have to install the certificate. Installation includes:
generating a “Certficate Signing Request” (CSR) which can only be generated on our server.
properly installing the purchased certificate and keys in the proper location on the server.
How Much Will the Certificate Cost?
OmegaNet will charge $140 (including installation) for a certificate, which is good for one year. Our vendor is considered the best protection and the best value according to a “Best Five” list for SSL security.
Is this an annual expense?
Yes. We have been able to save you this expense until now with our shared certificate, but Google has made it impossible to continue this way. You will be billed or charged again one year from the date that we set up your site with your own certificate. The price may be different, depending on what we are able to negotiate with our vendor.
Can I buy my own certificate?
No, we aren’t allowing this, simply because, with hundreds of websites, there is too much for us to keep track of, doing all these sites at one time, plus we are getting a discount because we are buying so many and if you bought your own, we would still have to install it, for which we would charge you, so you wouldn’t save anything.
NOTE: SSL Certificates are not transferrable from one server to another.
Is this Mandatory?
Yes. You don’t want Google Chrome users seeing the scary warning. That will hurt your sales.
More Than One Domain Name?
What if you have more than one domain name associated with your site? Will you need to purchase an SSL certificate for each of them? Technically you would, but if your domain names are just variations of the same name, we can set your site to convert to what you consider your “main” domain name when customers type in one of your secondary domain names so you only have to pay for one certificate.
When is the Deadline?
We have a lot of work to do to be ready, but we will begin purchasing certificates and applying them to domains as soon as we can with a target to have everything complete by mid June.
Questions?
Contact Gary Ivey (gary@omeganetinc.net or 770-482-3012 ext. 104) with questions.
Uploading Images in a Word Press retail site dashboard:
WordPress can accept images in the .jpg, .png and .gif format. In the Word Press Admin Console select Media then click on Add New. Choose the file from your computer and then click on the Upload button.
To add this image to a product in the the database click on Products in the sidebar, Search by Sku number in the top right hand corner and click on the Edit button below the product. You are now looking at the product record on the server. Scroll down to the bottom right of the screen and click on Set Featured Image (you may also change the image by clicking on Remove Product Image), click on the image from the Media Library and then click Set as Featured Image. Click here to more on how to add images.
Adding and Managing Products in the woocommerce retail site dashboard:
Select Products from the left hand sidebar in the dashboard. Click on Add Product and a new screen will appear. Give the product a name in the Product name field. In the large box below the Product Name field type in a product description.
Select the main Category and subcategory (if applicable for the product) by going to Product categories on the right hand side of the screen. Click on the boxes that apply to the product’s category – you can select multiple categories for a product.
Next scroll down, click on the Inventory button and add a SKU number. Add the product’s Price by clicking the General button. Click on Shipping (just to the left) and add the weight and dimensions of the product if you are using FEDEX or UPS. If you set a flat rate for shipping there is no need to add the weight or dimensions. In the Shipping Class you can leave No Shipping Class as the default.
To add an image for this product scroll down and click on Set Featured Image (right hand bottom of the screen). Click on the image for this product from the Media Library (see instructions above for uploading an image) then click on Set Product Image. Multiple images of a product can appear on the website by clicking on the Add product gallery images button. Click on the additional images for the product in the Media Library. To add several images at a time click the shift key and click on each additional image. Click on the Add to gallery button.
The last step is to click on the Publish button (top right hand side of the screen) to make the product visible on the web site. Click here to view how to manage products
Editing a Product in the Word Press retail site dashboard:
Select Products from the sidebar, search for the product, put your cursor on the product name and click on the Edit button. Change the information on the screen for this product. Click on the Quick Edit button to make minor changes such as the price, sku number and category choice. Click on Update on the top right hand side of the screen and the new information will appear on the web site.
Grouping Products in the Word Press retail site dashboard:
Often a product will have options such as different sizes or colors. The first step is to add the product to the database (see above). In the record in the Product data field click on the black down arrow and choosed Grouped product. Click Update.
Go back to the products screen and search for that product record. Click on Duplicate below the product’s image on the products screen. Be sure to remove the word (Copy) from the product name. All of the information is duplicated except you must change the SKU Number. Click on Linked Products to the left of the products price (change the price if it is different for this option) and click on the dropdown menu in Grouping. Enter three or more characters in the product name and click on the selected group name. You do not have to enter a category or subcategory for products you are grouping under a main Group title. Next click edit next to the Category visibility (top righthand side of the screen and select Hidden. Now click on Publish. In this way products with the same image and product information can appear together on the web page. Customer will see View Products under the product image and can select which option in that product they would like to order.
Adding Attributes in the Word Press retail site dashboard:
A product may have options such as color choice or pattern and this is called a product attribute. You can create a product with attributes after a product is added to the database. The first step is to set up product attributes by clicking on the Attributes link in the sidebar. A screen will ask you give a name, for example Color, to attributes that will be used for certain products. Next enter the values of the attributes such as gray, green, blue or the sizes.
When a product has Attributes it must be selected as a Variable Product in the Product data field. After the product attributes are added click on Variations. Next click on Add Variation from the dropdown menu and click Go. Variations can be color, size, style and so forth. Once the variation(s) are created click on the word expand to add the sku number, price and indicate that the product is in stock. Note: if the price is not added here the product will show up as out of stock on your retail website. Click here for more information on Variables. Click on this link for more information: https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/variable-product
Adding a Coupon Code
Online shoppers are looking for the best prices on products. To offer a special discount coupon to these buyers click on WooCommerce on the left side of screen and then click on Add coupon. Give the coupon code a name which the customers will use at checkout and add a description. Next click on the black down arrow across from coupon data and select the type of coupon you wish to add.
The choices are percentage discount, fixed cart discount and fixed product discount. The general tab provides you with the opportunity to select one of these options. The percentage discount give the buyer a percentage discount on their entire order. A fixed cart discount coupon code used at checkout gives the buyer a percentage off their entire order. A fixed product discount is for certain products and the coupon code gives this discount at checkout. In the Coupon amount field enter the percentage discount such as 10 for 10%. If the coupon code is for free shipping then be sure there is a free shipping method added to your shipping methods. Next add the expiration date for the coupon.
Click on the Useage restriction button and add a mimimum amount the buyer has to purchase and it choose Individual use only if the coupon can not be used in conjunction with other advertised coupons. If fixed product discount is the type of coupon then add the products it pertains to in the Products field. Type in the first 3 letters of the product name and it will appear. Select several products where the discount code applies. Select Product categories if the coupon applies to an entire category and not selected products. Click on the Useage limits if a buyer is limited to the number of times the coupon can be used. Click the Update button on the right hand side of the screen and the coupon is ready to be advertised to the buyers. Click on this link for more information about coupons https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/coupon-management
Managing Orders in a Word Press retail site dashboard:
