Delayed

     Sorry for the delay in adding content to this site.  I have had some internet service provider issues for the last 3 months.  That's life here in the sticks.  Anyway, I just wanted to lay out a few things.  Obviously since the change has already happened, there is little reason to have a site up for transitioning from OL.  However, I do intend to keep this site up so that I can continue adding content as I play around with my different blogs and other websites.  Hopefully the information and content will be able to help other users.  Besides, if I don't remind myself how I did it, then I may not be able to do it again.  Have a good one!

It Has Begun

     Greetings Office Live users.  I wish that we were able to come together under better circumstances, but we are where we are.  While some users have known about this impending doom well over a year now, a lot of you are just now finding out.  I personally have suggested many times in Microsoft's forums that they send out e-mails informing their customers of this coming change, but I was ignored just like all of the other comments of disapproval.  There are ways of getting out the word about what is happening to you.  You can post comments on their Facebook page at   http://www.facebook.com/office365.  You can also come together as a group and organize your thoughts into something that may be able to attract some sort of national attention.  Nobody who doesn't use these services will ever know anything about what is happening to you.  Please, feel free to leave a comment (no rants please) about how this transition is affecting your business.  You can also become a follower (by clicking the "join this site" button to the left) of this blog, and I will do my best to both keep you informed as to what will be happening next, and to get the word out on any possible medium so that the world will understand what kind of company that Microsoft has become.

Thank you.

Getting Started

     For as many times as I helped others build websites, and have redesigned my own, I have found that the best place to start is with the visual design.  While consideration needs to be given as to what will be in the content of your site, the overall look and feel should be the first consideration.  If there are gadgets or externally hosted scripts that you are currently using on your OL site, you should determine if they are something you would like to have on a page or in your sidebar (or sidebars).  No matter what the default page is your blog.  This can easily be altered to look like a normal home page by editing the content, but if at all possible it would be good to keep the blog as a normal functioning Search engine ranking tool.  SE's love blogs and changing content so at least consider it.  After any widgets, gadgets, scripts and whatever have been located in the sidebar, the layout will not need to change.  The designer breaks down into two basic parts.  The template designer is basically the editor for the aesthetics of your site, and the rest is for adding or editing the content.  I intend to cover more about each of these elements in the future, but for now I am having quite a bit of fun just finding it all out for myself. 

Introduction

     This blog was created with the intention of helping users of Office Live Small business in the transition from OLSB to another free service provider.  Through this blog I will record the different steps as I am taking them so as to act as a guide for others.  As time goes on and Office Live nears it's end I will be moving my domain registration from Melbourne IT to another provider such as GoDaddy.  I will also be recreating my domain based e-mails through Google.  Until that time I am going to be working on design options and other things such as Google apps.  I hope this blog serves as a helpful resource for those like myself who are unwilling to suck it up and take whatever Microsoft thinks we need.