Today on episode 22 of Web Hosting Podcast. iDNS misdirection, this is a public service announcement for the alleged service provided by iDNS. This company may send out actual mail to you in an attempt to trick you into renewing your domain name with them. IGTV (Instagram TV) is now live, did you even notice? cPanel now supports git.

IDNS

IDNS is a company that sends out actual mail when your domain is close to renewal. IDNS, or Internet Domain Name Service, sounds pretty official and the letter looks even more official. However this is not a bill and is an attempt to trick you into moving your domain to their registry. This letter looks so official that it has tricked many people into sending them money. IDNS, sends out these letters in an attempt to trick you into paying their exorbitant fees for domain renewals. A standard domain renewal from a legitimate company is averaging $10 for a .com, however IDNS tries to get you to pay $45 for each domain. This is then compounded by a fee if you want to move away from IDNS. I think we will start to see fewer of these letters since the GDPR is in place and effectively hides some of the required information IDNS needs for these mailings. If you get one of these letters be sure to send it to the shredder. Here is what these letters look like.

IDNS-Deception

Git on cPanel

cPanel 72 now allows you to host git repositories as part of your cPanel account. This is great news for those of us that need to use git to share and track files.
From cPanels documentation page.
The Git™ Version Control feature allows you to easily host Git repositories on your cPanel account. You can use Git to maintain any set of files (for example, a website’s files and assets, a software development project, or simple text files). Here is a link to cPanel documentation. We will likely discuss Git in a future podcast episode in more detail.

IGTV

IGTV is part of Instagram or Facebooks attempt to bring video to the social media giants platforms. This is very different than the current use of Instagram stories which are only limited to 15 seconds and expires after 24 hours. IGTV allows users to upload videos up to 10 minutes or 1 hour for verified users and these do not expire after 24 hours. This medium, in my opinion, is very different than having a youtube channel. IGTV is really trying to go after the “In Real Life (IRL)” moments, where youtube is more of a “produced” format. That is not to say you can’t do produced video on IGTV, it is just not as easy of a workflow. IGTV and Instagram in general is for a cell phone viewing audiences where the viewing device is vertical. Being mobile first is Instagrams strong suit. As it is mobile views account for over half of the current watched content online and is expected to grow to 78% by 2021.

Why is IGTV important for you or your business?

I was very doubtful about IGTV at first. I watched some videos from people I follow and watched some information on IGTV on youtube. It took me a while to see the potential and understand what all the excitement was for this platform. The vertical format is very hard for me to get use to, I do prefer the tabloid viewing option of youtube. However, putting all of the issues I have aside I think this is a great platform for businesses or personal. Almost everyone is going to have a cell phone and that is all you need to get started. This makes the starting cost nothing, granted you can do the same thing with youtube but I think most people expect a higher quality video on youtube. Starting up a IGTV channel is super simple. Just go to instagram.com, login and click on the IGTV button, then click on the “get started” button. From here you have to create and setup your channel. This is just like setting up a youtube channel. Once this is done you can start uploading your content. Make sure your video is in the vertical format. You can also make a custom thumbnail for your video, along with a title and description when you upload.

Currently Instagram has reached the 1 billion monthly active user total. That is billion with a b, per month. Put that in perspective. If you are able to reach 1% of 1% of those users, that is 100,000 new customers for your business. Since this platform is very new, you can get ahead of your competition by putting out great content. Here are some ideas you could try.

Video about you and your business. Make sure to include any social media links, website links, etc..
Micro vlog. Instagram is perfect for doing a small micro sized vlog series. You could show behind the scenes elements of your business.
Public Service announcements. These could be short snippets about product awareness or new items you are offering on your storefron.
Flash sales. Test your Instagram reach by having a flash sale only through Instagram.

These are just samples of ideas, but I think you get the idea. I am planning on using IGTV for podcast promotion and public service announcements for security and product updates. So follow me on Instagram so you can get notifications of new videos.

IGTV Specs and info:

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