Starting immediately, my typical work week will run as follows:

Available:

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday
  8am – 4pm

Unavailable:

• Weekends & Holidays
• Wednesdays *

* Note:
I may still end up working occasional Wednesdays, but my youngest is slotted to be home with me that day – so I’d like to leave it open for now.

Membership System

• Site-Wide Protection
  The membership system now includes an option that allows you to protect the entire website as opposed to just individual pages.  Enabling this option creates a basic login page that users must passs through before seeing any part of your site.
• Enable/Disable Memberships
  You now have the ability to temporarily disable individual memberships without deleting them entirely from the system.

Mailing List

• Message History
  The Mailing List tool now saves a copy of any messages you sent out, which can be viewed or re-sent later.

Calendar

• Private Notes
  When adding an entry to your Calendar, you now have the ability to enter a private note that can only be seen by you.

Photo Gallery

• New Photo Viewer with Slideshow
  A completely new photo viewer has been implemented that includes an automatic slideshow feature (which can be customized or disabled within the settings area).  This viewer completely replaces previous versions, so you should not request a VedaCMS upgrade if you don’t want your photo viewer to change.

Page Editing

• Undo Last Save
  You now have the ability to undo your last page save, which allows you to revert to the previous version of your page in the event of an editing mistake.
• Create New Pages
  You now have the ability to create new pages for your site. This is an experimental option that is limited in terms of design customization.  In order for this to work, I have to create a template file for your site that is based on your main design shell.  The photo for any of your add-on pages would be a static image that set for the template, so if you wanted a unique photo on a new add-on page, I’d have to make some customizations for you.

I’ve avoided offering something like this previously because my regular development schedule is already booked to the maximum of what I’m comfortable taking on with regards to maintaining a healthy amount of time with my family. However, because I’m now regularly booked out at least at least six or more weeks in advance and am reluctant to increase my standard fee yet (to even out demand), I’ve decided to try this as an option instead for those companions who have requested it in the past.

Because I will be working during what would normally be my off-time hours to meet the conditions of a priority booking, I will only be offering this option once a month.  My contact page will have a note under the ‘Current Availability’ section that displays the next available date for a Priority Booking spot.

Q&A

Does ‘rush job’ mean my website will be done in 1 week?
No. Because the full timeline of your project depends on how many revisions are requested after the initial demo is presented to you, there is no way for me to give an exact end date on any project. However, what a ‘Rush Job’ does guarentee is that you will be presented with the initial demo in one week instead of my usual two.

Will Priority Booking & Rush Jobs interfere with your regular development schedule?
No. My regularly scheduled projects will not be affected in any way, as the bulk of work for Priority Jobs will be done during my usual off-time hours.

How often will you book a Priority Spot?
Because Priority Jobs will cut into time I usually spend with my family – I’ll only be offering this option once every four to six weeks. There will be a note displayed under the ‘Current Availability’ section of my contact page which indicates whether or not a priority booking spot is available.

What exactly is included with the Priority Scheduling and Rush Job package?

• The ability to jump ahead in my development schedule
• The initial design demo presented to you in one week instead of two

Everything else would be the same as my regular design package

Can I pay a lower fee to only jump up in your schedule but not have a rush job on the demo (or vice versa)?
Not at this time. Right now this Priority Booking option is very experimental. Because it cuts into time I normally have planned for my family, I wanted to set a high enough fee that justified the additional work time – but with enough features (priority booking AND expedited development) to make it beneficial for the companion as well.

Also, although this is not covered explicitly in my Terms of Service, please understand that I prefer not to work solely through an assistant during the initial development of a new project, as I’m simply not comfortable with any arrangement where I am not in direct contact with the companion I’m designing for. I don’t mind an assistant sending updates or being partially involved throughout the development process, but it needs to be clear to me that the primary source of information is coming from the copyright holder as defined in my Terms of Service agreement. I am absolutely fine working through an assistant for support or update requests once a website has been officially launched, but not before that point. Also, if an assistant is contacting me on your behalf – it needs to be clear that she is the person emailing me and should not be signing your name on anything coming directly from her.

I’ve pasted in the text of the section of my Terms of Service Agreement below. If anyone has questions or concerns about this change to my TOS, please feel free to email me privately.

c) Definition of Copyright Holder
Upon delivery and payment of project, it is assumed that ownership and design copyrights transfer to the person or business for whom the website was designed. Veda Designs cannot honor any 3rd party involvement or ownership claims made by anyone other than the person whose business is being advertised or whose name or stage name was used in the original service request. Veda Designs does not allow or provide resale of her development services in any form. All contracted services and collaboration of to work to be done must be made through the person for whom the website or project is being developed. Collaboration or involvement through a third party is prohibited unless expressly permitted and discussed prior to development.

As of v7.4, VedaCMS now finally allows you to change the display order of albums.  This does not apply to the member album, which will always display last. To change the album order, simply click the up or down arrow displayed to the left of the album thumbnail within the main album list page of the CMS.

Also included in this version are a handful of bugfixes:

• [bugfix] Changed mailing list scripts to reduce chance of admin messages being generated as spam
• [bugfix] Fixed another issue with trucating posts on blog home page
• [bugfix] Fixed issue with member request link showing on protected blog posts when membership requests are turned off.
• [bugfix] Fixed issue with black slash showing on blog titles with an apostrophe
• [bugfix] Fixed issue with custom member thumbnail getting overwritten on future saves to member settings

This new version is essentially an entirely new system that is based on a modified version of MachForm by Appnitro Software.  In addition to secure form processing over SSL, it now  allows companions to build, edit or delete their own booking/contact forms. It also encryptes individual form data and stores it in your own client account database. This feature allows companions to selectively choose which parts of a submission are forwarded to an off-server (and potentially insecure) email address. Full details on how this works can be found at SecureCompanion.com.

Feature Highlights:

• SSL Secured Connection
  Form data is transmitted from your visitor’s browser to the server over an encrypted, SSL secured connection.
• Data Encryption
  All text field data is stored in encrypted format using an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Data is only shown in decrypted format when you login to your client portal.  Raw, unencrypted data is never stored on the server.
• Customizable Email Delivery
  Full control over where submission notices are sent for each form and which form fields are included with that email.
• Multiple Forms
  Companions are now able to create as many forms as they need for their business. The system provides the html coded needed to link to or embed that form into your web page.
• Easy Form Editing
  Visual editor that allows you to add, edit or remove fields within your form using a simple drag-n-drop logic. No html knowledge is needed
• Mobile Friendly Version
  When accessed by a mobile device, your visitors will automatically be switched to the mobile-friendly version of your form.

Availability

This service is available and included at no additional cost to my design clients. However, once the system is out of beta, I will be making it available on a fee-based schedule to outside companions who are interested in secure contact form processing for their website. For security and quality control, I will limiting account eligibility to companions who meet the following requirements:

• Independent Companions Only
  You must be an Independent companion or sensual touch provider. SecureForm is currently not available to Agencies.
• Professional Website and Domain
  You must have your own professional website and domain name. Directory listing pages or free websites with a generic domain are ineligible.
• Safe Screening Practices
  You must employ at least one type of screening method when booking new appointments.

If you meet the above eligibility requirements and would like to apply for an account, you can do so by filling out the SSL SecureForm Application.

Costs For Non-Design Clients

This fee schedule only applies to companions whose website I did not design.

There is no cost for the initial two weeks of service.  This provides companions with the option of canceling their SecureForm service before the first billing.

My annual fee for domain name renewals  is increasing from $10/year to $15/year.  The reason for this price increase is that the actual renewal fee I pay to the registrar is usually above the flat $10 I charge to clients.  Also, by acting as a proxy and using my business name for the registration – I end up spending extra time dealing with spam or harassment emails from people who target the administrative contact of a given domain.  This $5 increase covers the full renewal I pay to the registrar and also the extra time I spend on domain management.  Keep in mind that my fee is still less than what you would pay for a domain with privacy service added.

Companions are still welcome to register and maintain their own domain names – but for those who wish me to register a domain on their behalf, this renewal fee increase will be taking place immediately.  This fee increase only applies to renewals after the first year of service.  The initial domain name registration (and first year of service) is still free with my standard design service.

Hosting Renewal: $15/year increase

Due to the additional monthly expenses of the upgraded server hardware, I have decided to increase my annual hosting renewal from $120/year to $135/year.  As it is for the domain name renewal above, this increase only applies to renewal fees after the first free year included with my design fee.

I am also fairly sure that I will be switching to the ticketing system bundled with the new help desk software.  It has many more customization options than the one in my billing system and I like the fact that ladies don’t need to login before opening a ticket.  Between your hosting cPanel, VedaCMS and the client billing area…I know it can be confusing to keep track of so many separate logins.

The new ticketing system would simply email you a ticket ID that you can input to view or update your ticket.  The email also contains a direct link to your ticket so you don’t have to manually type in the ticket ID from the help desk.  If you forget your ticket ID or delete the email…you can simply enter your email address and the system will send you the IDs (and diret links) of any tickets you have open.

I’m going to work on the design over the weekend (I’m customizing so it looks similar to my billing system) and will  probably send out notice of the official switch Monday.   I will also transfer any tickets still open in the billing system to the new ticketing system.  To avoid confusion on where to submit tickets…I’ll be removing the ‘Support’ tab within the client billing area.

All of your accounts will be transferred to a completely new server that has significantly better hardware than what we’re on now.  There is no more than a few minutes of downtime throughout the entire process, as the actual switch is not made until all of your accounts have been copied over to the new server.  Until they actually activate the new server, all of your websites remain online from the old server.

The only real inconvenience with this upgrade is that you can’t make any edits to your website once the migration process begins, as any changes made after your account was already copied over would not be present on the new server once it goes live.

The upgrades were to have taken place yesterday, but were delayed after discovering several accounts with insecure scripts installed.  A couple of these scripts were exploited and allowed a malicious user to upload a folder with dozens of interior junk pages to many accounts on the server.

So I spent from yesterday afternoon until 3AM this morning manually going through each account to clean them up and take an inventory of what scripts were present.  I found several accounts that had uploaded 3rd party scripts that did NOT come through me first.

Please understand that to keep the server secure and stable for everyone, I DO NOT allow 3rd party script uploads unless I have had a chance to review them first.  Although I try provide most features a traditional web host would include, my server is still a private, fully-managed hosting environment.  As posted on my web hosting page, this means that I restrict what type of scripts or 3rd party applications can be installed or uploaded.  I do not have this policy to annoy anyone, but rather, to keep your accounts secure and stable.

If you need to regularly add new scripts or plan to have another developer work extensively on your site, it would be better for you to move to a traditional web host, as they have the manpower to monitor more effectively for script exploits.

Also, if you give someone ftp access to your hosting account, please be sure to reset your cPanel password to something temporary before giving them access.  It’s also a good idea to change your password at least once a month.

As mentioned on my hosting page, I provide web hosting as a convenience and extra layer of security.  My server is intended for more low-key companions who do not want to divulge their real name to a traditional web host.  90% of my hosted clients never use ftp and only access cPanel for webmail or visitor statistics.  These are the types of accounts I would like to host on the server, as they involve far less risk to system stability.

I am still open to allowing occassional 3rd party scripts, but it really is essential that you first send it to me for  review.  If you need a hosting solution with more flexibility than this, I am happy recommend an alternate hosting provider.

Now that all of your accounts have been inventoried and cleaned up, the hardware upgrade will take place some time tonight.  I’m waiting to hear back from the datacenter on the specific timeline – so l post an update to my twitter feed when I know more.  Also, the server has been configured with more strict security measures – which may interfere with some of my editing scripts.  I haven’t had a chance to fully test all versions of the CMS that are still being used – so if you run into quirky behavior while trying to update your website, please open a support ticket and describe the problem.

And finally, with the time spent on unexpected server maintenance yesterday – I’m running a full day behind schedule.  Instead of Friday being my last day before vacation, I’ve decided to work through the weekend so I can catch back up.

Thanks!

Tara