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Domain Renewal Scams

10/1/2021 12:00:00 AM

Every year, we are contacted by customers to verify their domain renewal is with Factor 360, and not with other service providers such as Internet Domain Name Services.

The bills received will look legit. They will list your domain and correct renewal date. Usually they will state that it's "URGENT". Most will have small print stating that it is a solicitation, but some do not. Some will even pose as Factor 360.

But beware, they are trying to trick you into paying their fee which is usually around $150 to $250 (10 times the going rate) and they will try to initiate a transfer of your domain over to them.

If you fall for this scam, you will have unknowingly agreed to transfer your domain to an unscrupulous provider and your website and email could go offline. registrar should report it to the Consumer Safety Division at DCI and contact your bank to try to cancel the payment.

If you receive a letter like this, you can clearly just throw the letter away. Or if you want to make sure, please contact us directly to confirm if it is a fake solicitation. We will look up your account and verify if we are managing your domain renewals for you.

Website Launched for South Dakota Governor's Giant Vision Competition

9/3/2021 12:00:00 AM

If you are interested in creating a site that is user-friendly and provides that custom touch, please contact us.

Website Launched for Baumann Lumber

9/3/2021 12:00:00 AM

If you are interested in creating a site that is user-friendly and provides that custom touch, please contact us.

Website Launched for Noah's Lantern

9/3/2021 12:00:00 AM

If you are interested in creating a site that is user-friendly and provides that custom touch, please contact us.

Website Launched for River View RV Park

6/19/2018 12:00:00 AM

If you're planning on staying in Fort Pierre, SD, you and your family need to stay at the best campground in the area. River View RV Park is a modern campground with all the amenities at a great, affordable price.

The Briggs came to us looking for a dependable website that would provide information about their RV park and provide a software to allow site visitors to make an online reservation. We put our talents together and created a modern, streamlined and responsive website that provides information about the amenities and the surrounding area. We integrated the reservation software that will allow visitors to make reservations with ease. The owners are promptly notified of their upcoming guests to make proper arrangements. You can tour their site at www.briggsrvpark.com/.

If you are interested in creating a site that is user-friendly and provides that custom touch, please contact us.

Website Launched for Prairie Outfitters

5/18/2018 12:00:00 AM

Prairie Outfitters came to us the way many do. It was time to freshen up their imagery and update to a responsive website than can be viewed on all devices. Ryan Thompson is the owner and operator and was fun to work with. I can imagine his hunts would be a joyful experience. Contact him if you or anyone you know wants a wonderful hunting experience.

He didn’t have a firm logo so we created a graphic that he can use in a variety of ways. This was not an easy task as it seems it’s all been done in this industry for logos. But what stands out? His dogs. They are a sight to experience: strong, agile and beautiful animals. We took that info and ran with it on the logo by highlighting the importance of their stellar German Shorthair Pointers. Another goal was to slightly stray away from the standard "hunter orange" and went with something that represented the tradition and added some warm tones.

The website now has a modern and clean layout, the content is easy to find, straightforward, and informative. Take a look at www.prairieoutfittersllc.com and contact us if you're ready for the next generation of websites.

Do It Yourself Accessibility Changes

5/17/2018 12:00:00 AM

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day in the web community. Gaining awareness of accessibility and the people that are affected helps to bring about changes in how we communicate better and understand disabilities. Today is a good day to cover how to improve your website, it's content, and how users with disabilities interact with it. If you're using a CMS of some kind you should be able to make some changes yourself.

Alt Text

The most common area that is overlooked is alternative (alt) text attributes on images. Alt text provides context for the subject matter of the image. Best practice with filling in alt text is to describe the primary subject of the photo. If the image is an illustration you will want to note that in the alt text. Entering anything that is relevant to the photo and is not just a blank area is a step in the right direction. Try to avoid adding the words "image", "photo", or "picture".

Reworking vague link text

A lot of times it seems like it is easier to just create a hyperlink for the words "click here", but it doesn't provide a lot of information for someone clicking the link. The hyperlink text should describe the destination where the visitor will arrive. If you have a sentence that reads, "We have a lot of strawberries for sale. Click here!" and you wanted to create a hyperlink to a sales page for strawberries you would want to create your hyperlink with the "strawberries for sale" text and then remove the "click here" text.

Adding titles to off-site hyperlinks

It's never fun to expect something to happen, but you're not sure what is going to happen. Clicking on links can feel this way at times if there's not a lot of context to your hyperlink. One method of providing that extra information is by rewording the hyperlinked text, but you should also provide a hyperlink title especially if your hyperlink takes your visitor away from your website. The title is an attribute that can be added when creating a hyperlink in most CMSs. If your hyperlink goes to Google you would add "Opens Google in a new window" to the title. Or if the hyperlink references a resource such as a PDF you could add "Downloads PDF document" to the title attribute.

Use effective heading hierarchy

Assistive technologies, such as screen readers, can browse your page by moving from heading to heading. If a heading is skipped such as skipping from a heading level 2 section to a heading level 4 section your visitor may have a hard time navigating your web page content. It's best to go in a logical order with your headings similarly to a table of contents in a book.

The above isn't a complete list of accessibility fixes, but it should make your website content more accessible. Are these changes important? Yes.You always want to give your website visitors the best possible user experience to build trust in your company and to encourage return visits.

Website Launch for Fischer Rounds Real Estate

4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM

It was an amazing experience working with the team at Fischer Rounds Real Estate. There is so much more going on behind a site like this than you’d ever expect. The custom programming on this project was the key to a proper functionality real estate website. And the dev team hit it out of the park. From pulling information to display in way visitors can interact with each listing to how the FRA team revolves per visit.

We took their current branding and created a site that is modern and speaks to the professionalism that their team represents. The homepage allows visitors to find featured listings, open houses and specific to our area. – auction and ag. If also features a section with their mascot that is ready to help you with all your real estate needs.

This is the type of project where user experience is the number one priority and we made sure to keep you in mind as you explored a listing. Click “contact” on a specific listing and the address is automatically entering to the body of the email. Want to calculate payments based on the listing price, click the “calculator” by the price, enter your specifics and the estimate is shown. Want to keep tabs on a specific realtor listing, click “view my listings” and they are separate from all the other. The map is custom to the Fischer Rounds listings and branding. We could go on and on, but you really should check it out and keep them in mind for your real estate needs. It was a pleasure working with their team.

Website Launched for Vermillion Federal Credit Union

3/9/2018 12:00:00 AM

The Vermillion Federal Credit Union is a member owned credit union providing financial services in a professional and responsive manner, reflecting the credit union philosophy of "People Helping People."

With the recent news of the importance to transition to a website that is ADA Compliant, the team at Vermillion Federal Credit Union came to us looking for assistance. Our team has worked with other credit unions and we have the expertise for the next generation of web design with accessibility and security in mind. Their website is now accessible to those with screen readers and other assistive devices. It has a clean, modern, look and feel with a responsive layout. The website is easier to manage with our 360WebCMS.

Client Testimonial
“Very professional staff that put together a very sleek and easy to navigate website for us. Whenever we had questions someone was always right there to help us out.” – Andy Kronaizl

Our team creates customer compatible sites which increases the user experience and allows companies like Fort Randall Federal Credit Union to display their services with a streamlined site architecture. The Factor 360 mission is to become a partner with our clients; we listen, we offer best practices, and our sites are equally important to us as they are to our clients. Take a tour and let us know how we can help create a site to launch your company to the next level.

Website Launched for Short Grass Arts Council

2/15/2018 12:00:00 AM

The Short Grass Arts Council board of directors has been active since 1974. They are very passionate about promoting awareness, access and appreciation for the arts. Our Marketing Director, Aftin Eich recently joined the board and is helping steer the publicity team for Arts Midwest’s World Fest. We all dove in and put all our skills to work, gave them a fresh new logo to kickstart a new beginning for the SGAC. The new branding reflects this fresh new look on the arts in our community. Step two was to create a companion website where users could easily interact with upcoming events, resources and submit their own events.

On the new version of the website we focused on providing appropriate content where it made the most sense for visitors. On the homepage we added a "hero" slideshow to showcase performing groups that will be in the Pierre area. Council news and other events are also displayed directly on the homepage in addition to links to pages with artist resources.

If you would like a new user experience for your website visitors contact us today!