1. Tell me a little about yourself and your company.
I am a 1980’s nerd, through and through. I was part of the generation that popularized the early adoption of home computers, AOL, and five 1/4-inch floppy discs. My parents grew up in West Virginia where firearms and hunting were not just allowed but encouraged. I was raised to believe in individual responsibility, hard work, honesty, and the right to bear arms.
In January 2000 I opened Diversified Computer Solutions, an Information Technology (I.T.) and website building business. The business has since expanded to also include Diversified Marketing Solutions (of which 2A Friendly Marketing is our newest initiative). We are unique because we successfully blend I.T. and marketing to create effective solutions for our customers, including Second Amendment friendly website development and hosting, email marketing, copywriting, and more.
2. What makes your company different from other marketing vendors?
Besides being supportive of the 2nd Amendment, there are a few things that separate us from other marketing companies. First, unlike many traditional marketing agencies, we have over two decades of inhouse I.T. experience. Some marketing companies lack a strong I.T. background. Unfortunately, their inexperience can lead to making inappropriate technology
decisions for their clients.
For example, we’ve seen a shift in the marketing world to embrace WordPress to build websites. I believe this is, in large part, because WordPress does not require in-depth technical knowledge to BUILD a website. However, and this is a HUGE HOWEVER, many of these non-technical webmasters lack the proper back-end, technical qualifications to properly MAINTAIN the
WordPress site once built. Some of these webmasters may not even understand that they SHOULD maintenance a WordPress website on a regular basis. Knowledgeable and ethical webmasters will tell you that every WordPress website should be upgraded, patched, and backed up on a recurring schedule. If your webmaster is not regularly maintaining your website, you greatly increase the risk of being hacked or experiencing data loss. In addition, a proper testing environment is also recommended for testing major WordPress upgrades prior to actually upgrading your website otherwise you risk breaking your live WordPress website.
Second, we’ve worked with firearm and shooting sports companies for over 15 years. We understand that there is certain “language” to the industry that we need to be sensitive to and use properly. We know that contrary to what the liberal media says, “AR” means “ArmaLite Rifle,” not “assault rifle.” And unless we know for certain the intent of the person using a firearm, we don’t call a “firearm” a “weapon.” Thirdly, we spend a good deal of time getting to know our customers and what they want to achieve before we begin a project. Then we craft a plan that does what’s
right for our customer, not what makes us the most money.
For example, some web vendors use proprietary website-building tools. This locks the customer into using that vendor. They often charge large monthly fees making that vendor a lot of money. However, it can be very difficult or even impossible to move that proprietary website to a new hosting company after it is built. Imagine being forced to rebuild your website from scratch simply because you want to work with a different vendor. At Diversified, we use industry-standard techniques to build web solutions that can be hosted almost anywhere.
The bottom line is, we want people to continue work with us over the long term because we’ve earned their trust, not because they’re locked into a relationship with us. In fact, many of our clients are the original ones we started with twenty-two years ago!
3. So, what is 2A Friendly Marketing?
2A Friendly Marketing is our initiative to directly provide or find Second Amendment friendly online marketing and Internet related services for an industry that has been increasingly (and unjustly) demonized by the media and government. Some marketing and technology companies, such as website hosting vendors, now refuse to support firearm-related companies. We are also looking for like-minded companies to build a network of Second Amendment friendly vendors.
4. Why should a person or a business consider outsourcing their website or other marketing projects to a company like yours?
Speaking in general terms, unless a company can afford to hire a fulltime marketing team and a fulltime webmaster, it is typically more economical to outsource. If you run a business, you should be focusing on building your business, not updating or patching your website or building your next e-marketing campaign. If you have a personal firearms-related website, your time is probably stretched thin between work, family, and creating new content for your website. You probably don’t have time to learn all the details regarding Linux web servers, website security, and
how WordPress themes can sometimes break when upgrading between major releases of WordPress.
5. How do I know if my website hosting company is 2A friendly?
If you are hosting your website with a big, national branded hosting company, read their terms of service thoroughly. Be sure to save a copy in your records but keep in mind that a hosting company often includes a clause allowing them to update their terms at any time. You can also call or send an email to the sales department and/or the technical support team. I recommend you contact BOTH sales and support to see if they give the same answer. An unscrupulous salesperson may simply want to make the sale rather than research the true answer to your question. I also recommend inquiring via email or chat so that you have something in writing that can be saved in your files.
In addition to asking if they allow firearms-related websites to be hosted on their servers, I also recommend asking if they have anything in writing (or that can be put into writing) regarding how much warning you will receive if the hosting company ever decides to change their policies. Having a week’s notice is MUCH better than waking up one morning to find that your website is down.
Smaller hosting companies typically do not have long or complex terms of service. Their terms may be a simple statement such as, “as long as it is not illegal or of an adult nature”. With smaller hosting companies, you may even have direct access to owner. Ask them to write you an email message explaining their policy regarding a firearms website and how much warning they agree to give you if their policy ever changes.
6. What can someone do to protect their firearm website?
Moderate Your Site. Moderate any content that can be added by someone else, particularly the public (for example, allowing the public to comment on articles, blog posts, etc). Trolls may attempt to post content for the express purpose of making your website violate a vendor’s terms of service. Promptly remove anything that could be considered illegal or in violation of the hosting company’s terms. Backup Your Site. Do not rely solely on the hosting company! Regularly make your own backups of your website, both the files and the content. Note that some or
all of your content may be stored in a back-end database which may have its own backup method. Backups are also what you will probably use if you are forced to
move to another hosting company.
Upgrade and Patch Your Site. If you are using a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, make sure to regularly maintenance your CMS with the latest upgrades and security patches to your CMS, plugins, and themes.
IMPORTANT: Always backup your website BEFORE applying updates or patches. Some updates can actually break your website design. Use CAPTCHA. If your website allows the public to submit information to you via a web-enabled form, be sure to enable CAPTCHA. CAPTCHA is an acronym for trying to prove that a human, not a computer bot, is attempting to fill in and submit
your form.
Use Third-Party Security. There are a number of fee-based 3rd party security solutions and plugins that help to improve website security. Some scan for hack attempts, others automatically block incorrect login hack attempts. Others provide various levels of additional security and/or notification that you can tailor to the needs of your website. It really comes down to what you can afford to spend. On average, the more you spend, the more security options you will have.
Hire a WebMaster. Even if you manage the website yourself, you should always know a webmaster that you can turn to when needed. You may also find a webmaster useful if you have trouble remembering to maintenance your website on a regular schedule. If you are a business, we strongly recommend outsourcing your website and paying for ongoing website maintenance so that you can focus on managing and growing your business rather than trying to fight technical problems.
Keep in mind, even if you (or your webmaster) do everything right, your website can still be hacked. It is impossible to completely lock down your website. However, the steps listed above can certainly help reduce your risk and are highly recommended.
Find a Second Data Center. Consider pre-screening a second firearms-friendly data center where your website can be hosted if needed. We have several data centers we use in the event that one suddenly decides to become unfriendly to firearm websites. Keep in mind however that the second company could have changed their terms of service since you last contacted them.
7. What can I do if my website hosting company takes down my website?
If you have already completed my recommendations from #6 above, you should have the backups and alternative data center necessary to quickly implement your recovery plan. If you have not addressed any of my recommendations, you are going to find yourself scrambling. However, first, call your existing hosting company to investigate why your site is down. It may just be that their server or data center is simply experiencing a glitch. If you find that your site was indeed taken down due to its content, ask what you can
do to remedy the situation (if anything).
Worst case, see if the hosting company will agree to keep your website live for one week. Explain to them that you understand and respect their decision and that you would greatly appreciate them giving you a reasonable amount of time to find another hosting company. If they refuse, ask them to allow you to backup and download your most recent website files and database content through their administrator control panel.
Once you have a full backup of your website files and content your next step is to find an alternate hosting company quickly that supports how your website was built.
Some hosting companies may even help you restore your files to their servers. However, hiring an experienced webmaster may help ease your stress through this
process.
8. Is there a firearm related website that you’ve built that you are particularly
proud of?
I am particularly proud of the First Time Gun Buyer website. A few years ago, we noticed that the firearm industry was not focusing specifically on first-time gun buyers. We discussed this with one of our clients and both agreed that the industry would be better served by giving first-time gun buyers an unbiased starting point, a place to learn the very basics.
The site is intentionally built to be easy to read and easy to navigate. The site is not meant to be a comprehensive source for all things firearms; instead, it is meant to be a starting point that a first-time gun buyer can visit to learn the very basics, find answers to some common questions, and hopefully begin their own research.
We recently adjusted the site to make room for sponsors so that our customer can offset costs related to the website. We hope to further expand the site with additional topics, new FAQs, articles, and additional resources.
You can visit the First Time Gun Buyer (FTGB) website at:
https://firsttimegunbuyer.com
9. How can people learn more about 2A Friendly Marketing?
Visit our website at 2afriendlymarketing.com. There you can find our contact information and read about some of our firearm-related projects. If you are looking for a webmaster, please submit your information in our webenabled form on our contact page.
If you are a 2A Friendly hosting company, e-commerce platform, or payment gateway, contact us via our website’s web-enabled contact form and let us know.
We’re always on the lookout for additional 2A Friendly resources to add to our list of potential vendors.