Web Design Blog

One obvious solution is to approach a software development company and obtain a custom built product. However to take this approach one needs to first know what features and functionality is desired. Then on the other hand in some instances the need does not warrant the cost of commissioning a custom application.

A plethora of free open source web applications exist today. Regardless of the specific circumstances of the need these applications can quite often prove to be a valuable resource.

http://freshmeat.net is one of the best online directories of open source applications. A quick search on freshmeat.net for say “intranet”, “cms” or “groupware” will yield pages of results. Browsing these results any application marked beta, stable or mature is a possible solution. A large majority of the available web applications would also state PHP + MySQL as the platform.

Oh well I need to have some Linux Server and it’s way too hard is a common reaction. Fortunately this is not entirely true. If you wanted to host a large scale production site then the chances are that a custom Linux server may well be a requirement. However just evaluating on your own PC, or setting up a solution on your LAN for anywhere between 1 to 100 users can be easily realized without custom Linux servers.

The solution is in another open source free product known as WAMP server. The acronym stands for Windows Apache MySQL PHP server. WAMP is extremely simple to install and a good platform for either evaluating PHP + MYSQL applications or operating the same for up to a few hundred users.

Visit http://www.wampserver.com
Or http://www.wampserver.com/en/ for the English version
First it is important to note that most open source PHP + MySQL applications will not run correctly on the latest versions of PHP and MySQL. For this reason instead of the downloading the latest version of WAMP server click on “downloads” from the left menu and then click on “older versions at sourceforge” This will take you to
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=116092
scroll down and select “WAMP5 1.4.3″. Download the WAMP5_1.4.3.exe file and install it on your computer with default options.

Once installed and started a new icon will appear in the icon tray near the date/time on your task bar. Left click on this icon to activate it’s menu which allows you to restart or edit the configuration files.

Changing the web server port if necessary.

One common reason for wanting to edit configuration file is in case you already have a web server running on the same computer. In this case you would need to change the port address used by apache to something other than 80. In this case 8080 would probably be a good alternative choice.

——-Changing the web server port address Begin———–
Click on the WAMP server icon and from the menu under “config files” select “httpd.conf”. A long text file will open up in notepad. In this file scroll down to the line that reads “Port 80″ and change this to read “Port 8080″, Save the file and close notepad. Once again click on the wamp server icon and select restart all services. One more change needs to be made before we are done. In Windows Explorer find the location where WAMP server was installed which is by Default “C:\Wamp”. Next goto the subfolder named “www”. Inside here you will see another subfolder named “phpmyadmin”. We are looking for a file named “config.inc.php”. In a default installation this file will be at “C:\Wamp\www\phpmyadmin\config.inc.php”. Open this file in wordpad and find the line that reads
$cfg[’PmaAbsoluteUri’] = ‘localhost/phpmyadmin/’;
Change this line to read:
$cfg[’PmaAbsoluteUri’] = ‘localhost:8080/phpmyadmin/’;
——-Changing the web server port address End———–

Now open a web browser and access http://localhost . Or if you changed the port address to 8080 then goto http://localhost:8080/ You should be greeted by the WAMP welcome page. For each application that you wish to install create a new folder inside the “www” subfolder of where WAMP was installed. Lets assume that WAMP was installed at “C:\Wamp”.

Let say for example you wanted to install Mambo (www.mamboserver.com)
1) You would download the .zip or .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 file and uncompress it using winzip or winrar into “c:\Wamp\www\mambo”.
2) You would access the wamp welcome page http://localhost/ or http://localhost:8080/ and access phpmyadmin. In here you would create a new database for mambo.
3) You would then access the wamp welcome page http://localhost/ or http://localhost:8080/ and from the list at the bottom of the page you would click on Mambo
4) You would then be greeted by the mambo installer which is a simple 5 step process. (the default username for MySQL is root and the password is blank as in an empty string)

Let say for example you wanted to install oscommerce
You would download the .zip or .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 file and uncompress it using winzip or winrar into “c:\Wamp\www\oscommerce”.
5) You would access the wamp welcome page http://localhost/ or http://localhost:8080/ and access phpmyadmin. In here you would create a new database for oscommerce.
6) You would then access the wamp welcome page http://localhost/ or http://localhost:8080/ and from the list at the bottom of the page you would click on Mambo
7) You would then be greeted by the oscommerce installer which is a simple process. (the default username for MySQL is root and the password is blank as in an empty string)

And so on and so forth.

Any PHP + MySQL web application which does not provide an automated installer is most likely not a very mature application.

Good luck
http://www.zapstrategy.com/

In the world of web development, the choice of which development language to use commonly comes down to two popular choices. Web applications, specifically those relying on back end databases, are typically being created using either Microsoft’s ASP.Net language, or the Open Source alternative language of PHP. Reasons why one might choose one over the other can include: The cost of development tools, or availability of such tools, or even ones comfort level with the Open Source initiative. The goal of this article is to provide some perspective on reasons why one might choose one over the other.

Active Server Pages or ASP has long been an option for creating dynamic web content. Active Server Pages facilitates the ability to use databases such as Access or SQL just to name a few, to create dynamic, feature rich websites. The work going on behind the scenes in serving up the dynamic content is being done at the server level by the Active Server Pages source code. Microsoft has spent a great deal of time and resources promoting their .Net family of programming languages of which ASP.Net is a member. In order to develop with ASP.Net one must obtain the extremely expensive Microsoft Visual Studio Programming Suite. While expensive, Visual Studio is an asset to any programmer due to its vast amount of features. As with all of Microsoft’s products, support and updates are constantly made available for ASP.Net. The shear amount of features that Microsoft packs into Visual Studio, coupled with Microsoft’s extensive support make certainly make ASP.Net an attractive solution for any corporation’s web development needs, but the cost can be prohibitive, if not impossible to afford for the individual web developer.

PHP which is in its 5th revision now, is an Open Source web development language that also facilitates the creation of feature rich, dynamic websites that can use databases. Being Open Source means simply that PHP isn’t owned by anyone. Just as with Active Server Pages, the work going on behind the scenes of serving up the dynamic web content is being done by PHP at the server level. As with most Open Source products, the resources available to a PHP developer are free of charge. This makes PHP extremely attractive to the independent web developer. There are some commercial quality development suites available from companies like Zend, but there is also wealth of free resources just a Google Search away. Because there is really no corporate entity behind PHP, support and development on PHP is done by the community of its users and developers themselves. Surprisingly this does not seem to adversely affect the ability to find support for PHP.

All in all, ASP.Net and PHP are both excellent options, offering basically the same functionality. Whether the decision comes down to the cost of initial investment, or the comfort level one has regarding Open Source, or something else entirely, the end result depends upon the mastery of whichever language is chosen.

Ian Wilson Lockwood is a support analyst for Apollo Hosting. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers.  http://www.apollohosting.com/

XSitePro is a new website design package that we have reviewed to create entire web sites, not just individual pages, and optimize them
I think that some web design packages have too steep a learning curve. That’s why I want to tell you about a product that I’ve just reviewed called XSitePro. Here is a brief summary, and you can see the full review by using the link indicated at the end of this article.

I was looking for something more versatile than a lot of the lower end website building software such as Web Easy Pro, and Web Plus, yet with a good deal of the functionality of the higher end products such as Dreamweaver and Frontpage. As I needed to start quickly I didn’t want the steep learning curve that these higher end products demanded.

Quite by accident I came across XSitePro. At first I was nearly dissuaded from taking it further, because I was presented with a one-page sales website which the software authors put out.

Personally, having spent a great deal of time, recently, researching web products, the one page sales letters deter me from going any further, as I have subscribed to several, and always been disappointed. I also dislike parting with money before I ‘touch and feel’ a product, and particularly like to download a fifteen or thirty day demo, which was just not available.

Erring on the side of caution I posted a request on the Warrior forum, and asked for advice as to which website development software I should opt for. More replies were positive about XSitePro than any other, so I subscribed and downloaded the software, putting faith in the promise of a 365 day refund.

I was certainly not disappointed and initially completed the tutorial, where I constructed a ten page website in around 11/2 hours. You can view the website completed in the tutorial by going to the web page indicated at the end of this article.

XSitePro is feature rich and I have picked out my 12 favorits.

XSitePro optimizes each page to rank well with the search engines and gives suggestions as to what tasks you need to carry out, to bring this about.

The ‘Help’ functionality is very good with on-screen pages supported by ‘Index’ and ‘Search’ facilities. There is ‘Context Sensitive Help’ throughout providing immediate help relating to the function you are currently performing. ‘Online Help’ accesses a ‘Knowledgebase’ of frequently asked questions with the ability to ‘Submit a Ticket’ if the answer is not found.

Using a ‘Template’ principle it is possible to make amendment to all pages by making alterations to the template. Therefore if you want to change text, site colours, logos etc. on all pages, this is easily achieved.

The Multi-Page Creation Wizard provides a quick and easy way of creating the infrastructure of a new site, or adding whole new branches to the infrastructure of an existing site.

You can simplify your web creation tasks using the valuable To Do Report automatically produced by XSitePro. The software produces a checklist of suggested actions still needed for each page so you never forget to carry out essential tasks.

Two mouse clicks will introduce Google Adsense ads to your web pages bringing about another income stream.

Powerful functionality immediately available which includes pop-ups, pop-ins, link pages, automatic sitemap, page import, scripts, redirect pages and much more.

The software comes with 163 website templates included, making website creation even faster and easier.

Built-in Article and Product pages which are of considerable benefit to internet marketers.

No knowledge of HTML needed, making it also a beginners tool. If you can use Microsoft Word, or similar then XSitePro is for you.

Print out an incredibly detailed report that tells you exactly what you need to do to each of your pages, which means you can make sure that all your pages are exactly right before you publish them to the Internet.

Easily add a links page to your site that looks great and is easy to update, which means you can benefit from a reciprocal linking campaign (i.e. exchanging links with other sites).

In summary we found it to be easy to learn, intuitive and we were able to produce results fast.

© Paul Lewis 2006. All rights reserved. Reprints welcomed with article and resource box unedited. See the completed web pages created in the XSitePro web page tutorial. You can see detailed functionality, screen movies, tutorial samples, free e-books and much more by visiting the XSitePro full review. Paul is also CEO of Demovision, a company specializing in talking heads. You can see examples if you go to the “Contact Us” page at the above site. You will need Internet Explorer to view.

Keyword marketing-the importance..

In the Field of SEO-Search engine optimization choosing keywords is one of the most important tasks. You should choose keyword wisely. Choosing keyword is not a guessing Game but it is an art.

Why to choose keywords?

As you probably aware of search engine traffic. Search engine traffic is very very important for success of any website. It is estimated that approximately 65 to 85% of traffic (average) coming from search engine (however is depends on how you promote your website).search engine is only way to create highly targeted traffic. You can improve visitor to sales ratio of your website if you successfully receive traffic from search engine. Or improve your revenue by attracting more visitors.

If you are selling Music CDs online. If your website is on top for key Phrase like “Music CD” on all Major search engines then just think how many people will search for Music CD in a day?? I think lots of. Now. This is the way you are getting visitor searching for Music CDs. However there will be lots of search in a day for term CD like

[1] Software CDs
[2] E-Book CDs
[3] Video CDs
[4] Game CDs etc…

But traffic coming form these terms is Meaningless for you to create sales. So your page should be relevant only for Key phrases like music CDs, audio CDs etc … so it will be better to choose Keywords related to your business rather than selecting randomly or blindly. I hope you will now able to understand importance of choosing better keywords

How to choose keywords?

There are lots of tools for choosing better Keywords like Nichebot, overture keyword suggestion tool, Wordtracker etc…First decide “what is your target market?” and then use these tools. Example you are selling E-books related to website design. Than you should first research how many people every day search for ‘Web Design E-books” go to Nichebot.com for that and simply search Web Design E-books. Nichebot will provide you count of last 60 days for this Key Phrase. We can see that Count for this key phrase is………..Or Go to Wordtracker.com site and search for this keyword Phrase and you will see related information on specific key phrase and you will be able to get information related to this keyword. Phrase.

They will provide you all related keywords

Example: For “Directory submission” you will see following related or nearly related Keywords. (This can also help to receive ONLY targeted traffic…)

Related term-count(average search in two month)
Directory submission-3978
Search engine directory submission-679
Search engine submission software directory-266
directory internet submission-163
directory website submission-159
directory engine search submission-133
directory submission services-129

Follow this Url to know more>> http://www.nichebot.com/kd/?term=directory+submission

you can follow one of the following tool for keyword research.

[1] wordtracker.com
[2] Nichebot.com
[3] inventory.overture.com/

Here is a list of top free Keyword research tools. visit it.>> http://www.seo-resources.inetzeal.com/top-free-seo-tools.htm the list include keyword suggestion tools,keyword analyzer tools,keyword density checker tools and lot more..

Now you have to decide which Keyword is less competitive for your website and you can easily reach on top. Based on that you should place these Keywords on your site..

Where and How to place these Keywords?

You are now familiar with keyword/key phrases. Now Question is ‘where to Put these keywords?” here are some places where you can place these keywords

[1] Meta tags
[2] Title Tags
[3] Through out the Description on the page

Meta tags:-

Meta tags are invisible for Visitor and as you might know search engines like Yahoo, Google, MSN are Not providing weight to them to rank your page. But still you can place your keywords in Meta title, keywords and description section.

Title Tags:-

This is very important place where you should place your keyword for better ranking in search engine. The main Keywords must be here for which you are optimizing your site. Try to include its synonyms Key phrases / keywords also to receive traffic of related keywords. Example you can create your title like this way
Buy Music CDs online: The shop for buying audio CDs online
You are including your two targeted keywords here.

Description:

After title tags this is also one of the most important section where you can place your keywords. But don’t go over bound .density of keywords/ phrases should be 7-10%. Otherwise search engines will consider it as keyword stuffing and your rank will go down rather than improving

Other places where you can place these keywords:

Images: -

you can choose name of images like music_cds.gif audio_cds.jpg etc rather than 0545.gif and image.jpg! This will improve relevancy of your page for related keyword

Name of domain, Sub directory and sub domain:-

Before you choose any domain name, directory or sub directory you should consider your keywords/ key phrases and also choose them according to your target market.

Example:

Just look at my site. I selected sub domain for my site like http://directory-submission.inetzeal.com/ and http://link-building.inetzeal.com/ for targeting my keywords. Now see source code of Page http://directory-submission.inetzeal.com/ you will find that to improve relevancy of my page related to keywords I also kept name of my logo like this directory_submission_and_link_building.png .then I placed title like Directory submission service. And placed this keyword phrase in whole description.now my page is relevant for keyword phrase “directory submission”, “directory submission service”. Or ‘web directory submission” etc…

I have chosen every sub domain according to this to improve relevancy for specific keywords

I strongly recommend you to choose your sub domain or sub directory wisely. if you are creating just a page then you can select like this …./directory-submission.html because search engines text matching will match this keyword and will rank your site on top with your competitor

So, like this article? It took two days to write. Any feed back good or bad are always appreciated. You can contact me at http://inetzeal.com/contact_us.htm

Manish Mathukiya Is webmaster Of Inetzeal SEO Services( inetzeal.com/ ).he offers various services like Directory submission ( directory-submission.inetzeal.com/ ).link Building and other SEO services
View their website at: inetzeal.com/

Since I am, what professional marketers on the internet generally call a “Newbie”, I have tried to come up with all sorts of ways of finding information and my future prospects.

One of these ways, and perhaps a tips that I can give, is - and this without any strategy what so ever - just to browse around on the different sites; open a few of all the emails that you get from other marketers in return, and maybe just click on a link or two, to see what they’re actually marketing. In addition, go from one page to another, not being afraid of signing up for a subscription or another, I mean, if it is free you will not loose anything anyway.

Not long ago I found myself doing just that and this happened to be a forum on SeoNews. Ok, I looked around, read a few, and stopped particularly at one, which talked about difficulties in getting to the top of the search engines, and what to do? Some of the answers talked about a nice way of writing that matters, style, form and so on.

- Ok, I thought, since I had learned a thing or two at the trainings at work. It is not only a question of a nicely put content - but also a question of linking, meta tags, titles, “daisy chaining” (a specific linking technique) and such things, to put with your site when you post it. This stuff feed the search engines to push your site forward from within and from underneath. Well, I answered the forum request to the best of my knowledge, and then forgot about the whole thing. A week or so later I received two emails, asking if I could help, since they had problems with their sites - no matter what they did they could not get their sites to a good position. Following is my letter to them - and perhaps it can be useful to another Newbie, like me:

‘Hi there! Thanks for your reply. I will try to help you. I am in a marketing company called Veretekk and we are currently (around 35 of us) participating in a Company contest for top ranking on Google. Go to this address: eBiz-IQ.com”, and get loads and loads of highest expertise info on how to reach ranking # 1 on the world’s largest search engine (Google). There you will find recorded training sessions, lots, and lots of professional practical information for marketing and for pushing your site to a top position, among other a technique called “Daisy Chaining”, about linking your ads for a number 1 position. Listen especially to the recorded trainings of Veretekk CEO Thomas Prendergast.

If you want to have even more info, go to: inilsson.veretekk.com, at “Veretraining” (also free), to the “Conference”. It is live online training sessions on high quality marketing strategies. For example the “Guerilla Marketing”, also free. Trainings are at any time of your choice (24/7 for your convenience), at different levels, from beginner’s to very advanced, depending on where you are in your marketing business. I guarantee that it is super high quality and with the absolute best teacher’s of the Internet (Company is part of Inetekk Inc. based in San Diego, California US) - and it is all free.

Here you will also find a completely automated engineered marketing system (by the founders: the CEO and the President, Thomas Prendergast and Michael Darling), also free. For all of this you go to: inlsson.veretekk.com. You sign up absolutely free with no strings attached.

Another very high quality website is: barefootmentor.tblog.com, also absolutely free, with lots and lots of free training right there on the site. I somewhat know the teacher - she is quite amazing.

Then get back to me, and I will give you more information and other free sites for how to push your website to the top. If you would choose to go to the Veretekk site I mentioned above, I could even call or Skype (free internet phone) you, and guide you through some of the Veretekk marketing system, right there and then, simultaneously, if you have your computer on and nearby the phone.

On the other hand, I can send you more info via mail, whatever you prefer - it is all free. I am just another marketer on the internet (Newbie), but believe in empowering each other and help each other; it will be good for everyone. Kind regards Inger Nilsson

If you have any other questions, or if you do not feel this info suits you and you want additional information, feel free to email me back.’

Inger (Ike) Nilsson
Worked freelance in Publishing and Media since 1988. She has a M.A in Film, Literature and Art History from the University of Lund, Sweden. She is a degree Project Manager and was a student of Malmö University K3 in Film Production and Editing. She attended Art Schools and worked as an independent artist before embarking in publishing.