Seasons Greetings to each and every one of our customers from all of us at Acorn Internet Services. This past year has been an incredible one. We’ve met many, many wonderful Innkeepers throughout North America and simply want to say "We appreciate all of you and Thank You for your Business!"

2005 Pricing

Acorn Internet Services pricing has remained the same since January 2003. This year we will be adjusting our pricing structure as follows…

Server Update

Additional server support was added mid Summer 2004 to better support the increased volume of Acorn customers. We are happy to report our Server Up-time is over 99.9% This means your web site Down-time due to server upgrades is kept to an absolute minimum.

Credit Card Processing

We are in the process of adding a Pay Pal payment link to be available on your quarterly Billing Orchard invoice. Pay Pal recently started accepting all Major Credit Cards – and you no longer have to have an account with them to use their Payment System. Target date for making this feature available – April 1, 2005.

Current Invoice Information Available via Billing Orchard

Did you know that you can see your current billing and past invoices online? If you don’t have your access codes to do so - please e-mail marian@acorn-is.com and request your Billing Orchard Access. This is a great feature for pulling together all your invoices in preparation for Tax Time.

Web Site Tracking

Beginning in January 2004 a web site tracking product called Webalizer was included, at no charge, to your Hosting fees of $10 a month. On June 21, 2004 we installed a new product called Urchin that offers more enhanced tracking information than Webalizer was capable of providing. If you haven’t had a chance to review your statistics from 2004, or don’t know your username and password to access your statistics, e-mail marian@acorn-is.com for assistance.

It is a valuable practice to review your Referring Web Sites, at the end of each year, to better understand the value of all your Paid Listings and Directories to assist in Marketing Money Decisions for the next year.

Remember: The main information most customers need in a tracker is …

There are also many other pieces of information available, if you choose to record it. We suggest storing this data every month for ongoing comparisons.

In 1st Q 2005 we will be offering a feature in the New and Improved Toolkit for customers who wish to track their information themselves. We will also offer a monthly service to do this tracking for you and provide a monthly report for those innkeepers who are unable or do not have the time to track their web site on an ongoing basis.
(See details below.)

Organic Placement Through Search Engine Friendly Metas and Link Popularity

If you worked with Acorn Support Staff to choose the best possible meta titles for your web site (by completing and following through the Search Term Starter Kit process), are you tracking your Organic Placement in Google and Yahoo based on those titles? Once a month you should log where your web site appears in the organic listings (not your listing on another site, but your web site itself) based on 2-3 of your top search phrases. If you are working on link popularity, you should see increased placement; if not, simply watch your placement and if it starts to drop beyond an acceptable level, call or e-mail info@acorn-is.com and we’ll review and offer suggestions for making changes at that point.

In 1st Q 2005 we will be offering a feature in the New and Improved Toolkit for customers who wish to track their information themselves. We will also offer a monthly service to do this tracking for you and provide a monthly report for those innkeepers who are unable or do not have the time to track their web site on an ongoing basis.
(See details below.)

Link Popularity Updates

For our customers that watch their link popularity monthly, there has been a change in the commands you type in the search box for various search engines.

They are as follows…

- OR – You can go marketleap.com and they do the typing for you.

http://tools.marketleap.com/publinkpop

Step 1: Put in your URL (Ex: www.youurl.com)
Step 2: Key in your Access Code (provided in the box)
Step 3: When the table displays you can click on the numbers of links for each search engine to see what links that search engine counts.

In 1st Q 2005 we will be offering a feature in the New and Improved Toolkit for customers who wish to track their information themselves. We will also offer a monthly service to do this tracking for you and provide a monthly report for those innkeepers who are unable or do not have the time to track their web site on an ongoing basis.
(See details below.)

How is my Site Doing?

Due to a high volume of customer requests for an ongoing "Marketing Watch” program, we are developing a new offering targeted to be available in 1st Q 2005. This program will utilize our New Improved Tool Kit (See Below) and can either be maintained by you the customer, at no extra charge, or can be maintained by Acorn Support Staff at a monthly fee.

One of the features of the New and Improved Tool Kit will allow you (or Acorn Support Staff) to track the following items regarding your web site on a MONTHLY BASIS.

Finally, reporting on the previous 12 months of referrer tracking will be provided in January to help you understand the value of all your Paid Listings and Directories to assist in Marketing Money Decisions for the next year.

If you are interested in signing up for this program or learning more about maintaining this information yourself give us a call or e-mail info@acorn-is.com

New and Improved Tool Kit

It is our mission and goal for all our customers to be able to gather, store and utilize all of their Internet data in one secure location that is easy to access and maintain.

That is the purpose of the New and Improved Acorn Customer Toolkit. When used correctly, all Internet related data may be stored in one location for easy retrieval and use.

Below you will find a brief description of each section of data that may be gathered, stored and used to better support your Internet presence.

Release Date Targeted 1st Q 2005

BILLING - In this section you will be able to view your invoices online - and pay online if you so choose. As always, payment by check is accepted.

STATISTICS - Customers who host with Acorn may click on the Login Button and be directly forwarded to your URCHIN Statistics without having to remember any additional passwords.

CUSTOMER INFO - All pertinent customer data is stored in one location.

VENDOR INFORMATION - This section is designed to store all a customers important data such as your URL (Universal Resource Locators, also known as Domain Names or Web Addresses) information, your DNR (Domain Network Registry) information, your FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access to your code, your Statistics and Billing passwords. It also includes ISP (Internet Service Provider) and E-Mail ISP contact information, the customers Physical and associated Alias E-mail addresses. Finally, it will store all login and contact info for both Paid and Free Directories and customer chosen PPC and PPI Programs.

PROJECT MGMT - All new customers go through various and multiple steps when moving to Acorn IS. These steps are logged and project managed from start to finish. Records are kept each step of the way as to what is completed or pending and by whom. Progress may be checked online throughout the process and is available as a benchmark and reference into the future.

MARKETING - Ongoing web site marketing is always a challenge. This section will make it easier to keep track of your marketing placement. Customers may either complete the tasks in this section monthly or choose to have Acorn Staff complete for them and provide monthly "Marketing Watch " reports regarding their web site status. Unique visitors, PPC (Pay Per Click), Organic and Paid Directory listings can be tracked per month. This information is particularly important at the end of each year when determining which directories should be renewed and which should be discontinued due to poor performance.

SUBMISSIONS - Once a web site is online, there are advantages of submitting your site to both the Free Major and Minor Search Engines (though once in their system, they tend to re-index your pages on a scheduled basis without re-submitting them over and over). Along with submissions to the various Search Engines, both Free and Paid Directories also can benefit your placement and visitors to your site. This section is where these resources are listed and can be utilized and tracked by date so you know what listings have been submitted and what new ones are pending.

SERVICES - This section lists the various services that are utilized by our Acorn Customer base. It includes tracking of contact and password information for the customer's chosen Reservation, Gift Certificate and Online Availability software, Virtual Tour vendor info and also the Acorn provided database services. Acorn provided features may be coded into your web site so that you may update your Links, Specials, Recipes, Events, Guest Comment and receive and maintain a Newsletter E-mail List without needing a programmer to implement. The only cost to receive these features (one or all) is the cost of development. There is no ongoing monthly cost to support.

NEWSLETTERS - Click on the drop down to view the newsletter archive.

Vacation Chart for Acorn Support Staff (Through January 2005)

If you are working directly with any of the Acorn Support Staff during the holidays, please be aware of their holiday work schedule. If you need immediate assistance, please contact Lisa or Mark at 719-329-0977.

	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	1	2
Lisa
Mark
Ali
Gordon
Bren
Marian
Marcy
Megan
Kelly

Our Office Has Moved

Our office has moved, but our mailing address is remaining the same.

Acorn Internet Services
1339 North Nevada Avenue
Colorado Springs, CO 80903

You will no longer be able to reach us at the Lennox House Bed and Breakfast phone number. For direct access phone numbers, see contact information below.

Contact Information

Please use the following numbers to reach your front line Acorn Support Staff.

Marian Talbert (724) 791-2554
Ali Parker (719) 635-6568
Lisa Kolb (719) 329-0977
Mark Kolb (719) 329-0977