Posted on May 19th, 2008 — in Web Center
More and more, people don’t have traditional websites: static
things where pages can be added, updated or taken away. Instead,
they write new material for their website when they feel like
it, and then put it up on one page, with the most recent writing
first. These people are running weblogs.
How Did Weblogs Start?
Many people say that there have been weblogs (or blogs, as
they’re sometimes called) for as long as there has been a web.
Back when there were only a few thousand websites, the ‘What’s
New’ page that announced each new one (yes, there really was
such a thing!) worked in just the same way as blogs do today.
Early weblogs included Scripting News, Robot Wisdom and
Camworld, which all started in 1997. To begin with, blogs mostly
consisted of often-updated lists of useful and amusing links to
other websites, but it gradually became clear that the format
was just as good for distributing longer articles. Blog software
started to be developed, and their popularity quickly exploded.
By 1999, everyone was talking about blogs.
Why are Blogs So Popular?
In recent years, the blog format has very much taken over from
the ‘personal home page’. People seem to find it much easier to
just put a kind of public diary online, instead of putting up a
little biography of themselves and a collection of articles.
It’s more personal, more fun, and more interactive day-to-day.
Businesses have started to open blogs too - in many ways,
they’re like a replacement for newsletters. A regularly-updated
blog gives customers a great sense of what a business is like,
while giving the business a great way to keep communicating with
its customers and being useful to them, even when they’re not
buying anything right this minute.
In my opinion, the biggest reason for blogs’ popularity is that
they make publishing to the web very easy. You don’t really have
to know anything about what’s happening behind the scenes: blogs
finally make publishing your thoughts for everyone to see as
easy as posting to a forum or sending an email. In a way, blogs
fulfil the original promise of the web.
Weblog Software.
Today, there’s a lot of blog software out there - if you want a
blog, you’re spoiled for choice. What you get will depend on how
comfortable you are with technical stuff, and whether you want
it to be part of your main website or not.
Movable Type. This is software that you install on your web
server. You simply log in and type your post, and it creates
your pages for you. Movable Type can be a little complex to set
up, but you can use a version called Typepad that is hosted by
its creators instead of using your server.
Blogger. You don’t install Blogger on your server - instead, you
give it your FTP password and let it upload files to your web
server for you. If you don’t have any hosting, you can also host
blogs for free at Blogger’s Blogspot. Blogger is owned by Google.
WordPress. WordPress is a free alternative to blogging software.
It works in basically the same way as Movable Type, but without
the restrictive licensing and with nicer-looking default
templates. Many people have switched to WordPress out of
frustration with Movable Type and not looked back. You have to
host it on your own server, but it’s very simple to set up -
don’t be scared!
LiveJournal. LiveJournal is a completely online service, meaning
that it has nothing to do with your website, except that you can
link to your LiveJournal if you want. LiveJournal is more social
than most blogging, allowing you to join communities relating to
your interest.
There are plenty of other online services, but they’re all
pretty much the same: MSN Spaces, AOL Journals, and so on.
You’re unlikely to get taken very seriously if you have a blog
at any of these places, although it’d be easy. In the end, it’s
all about power versus convenience: the more work you put in to
get your blog working, the more likely that it’s going to be
what you really wanted it to be. If you’re creating a website
anyway, you’d be silly not to put a blog on it.
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Posted on May 15th, 2008 — in Information Parlor, Marketers Den, Marketing, Web Center
Salehoo: Wholesale As Seen On Tv Toys
With Salehoo you can find anything you looking for a bargain price - mp3 players, mobile phones, clothes, trainer, and much much more. You might find some items in Salehoo that are almost nearly the same price as on eBay, but of the products are much cheaper than on eBay. Salehoo doesn’t have a list like WorldwideBrands however it’s one of the largest and affordable directories on the Net.
Then check completed listings searches on eBay to see what the item generally sells for and the sell-through rate for each one which is the real benefit of Salehoo dropshippers. Just because a wholesale publication or site attracts wholesale buyers does not mean that it will work for you and also the Salehoo Suppliers. Founded in 2003 by New Zealand born entrepreneurs Simon Slade and Mark Ling Salehoo is currently a trusted choice of over 50000 retailers and eBay sellers from all walks of life
Salehoo Wholesale Bulk Perfume Body Oils:
Wholesale Distributors can be Salehoo manufacturers or importers too. Wholesale Distributors tend to sell to several customers including wholesalers and retailers. They are the most popular type of wholesaler and usually sell everything including food, beverage, consumer goods, cars, chemicals, and most products out there. They can have warehouses and trucks or drop ship products. They can sell to restaurants, manufacturing plants, retail stores, governments or to other wholesalers. Ebay powersellers trust Salehoo dropshippers and Salehoo prices.
You also get a list of top secret drop shippers, so try to join the Salehoo forums. While this isn’t a bad thing this sounds pretty easy, which will be the Salehoo customers. See Salehoo Review.
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Posted on April 4th, 2008 — in Web Center
When you’re developing a website, you need to see it in action
on a real server, to see how it will work. While you could
upload your pages to your web host every time you make a change,
this quickly gets time-consuming and tiresome. Wouldn’t it be
great if you could have a little test server of your own? Well,
the server is nothing but a piece of software - so you can!
Please note that, for the purposes of this article, I will
assume you’re using Windows as your operating system.
Installing an IIS Test Server
While using IIS isn’t recommended, a test server is very easy to
install. All you need to do is open ‘Add or Remove Programs’ in
Windows’ control panel. All you need to do is click Internet
Information Services (IIS), click OK, and you’re done.
Of course, there are downsides to this. Many versions of Windows
don’t come with IIS, and there’s no way to install it on them -
Windows XP Professional, for example, comes with IIS, but
Windows XP Home does not. You might also want to consider that
installing IIS on your computer will often make it less secure.
Installing an Apache Test Server
Compared to installing IIS, installing Apache is hard - Linux
distributions all have relatively easy ways of doing it, but
Windows wasn’t designed for it. To get Apache installed, then,
you’re going to need to have a little fight with the system.
Note: If you want to skip all the following steps, you might
consider using an ‘easy installer’ version of Apache, such as
XAMPP (for Windows), which you can get at
www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html. The downside to
this approach is that you will be relying on them to provide new
releases, instead of being able to update things yourself.
First of all, download Apache from
http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi. Make sure you download the
Windows Installer (MSI) version. You’ll find it easiest to make
the server run as a service, as this will make it run
automatically - Apache will appear in your system tray (in the
bottom-right corner of your screen).
Now, you need to find your Apache configuration file. In the
folder where you installed Apache, look for another folder named
‘conf’, and then a file named ‘httpd.conf’. Open this file and
look for a setting called DocumentRoot. You should change this
to point to a folder on your hard drive, such as ‘c:/html’.
Now, you’ve got Apache, but that’s not usually much good on its
own. The chances are that you’ll want to install PHP and MySQL
as well, so here’s how:
Download PHP from http://www.php.net/downloads.php. Again, go
for the installer. Once you’ve installed PHP, find its folder,
and rename the php.ini-dist file there to php.ini. Find the
‘doc_root’ setting there, and set it to the same thing you set
Apache’s to.
Back in Apache’s httpd.conf, you should add these lines:
LoadModule php5_module “c:/php/php5apache2.dll” AddType
application/x-httpd-php .php PHPIniDir “c:/php”
If you didn’t install PHP in c:\php, change the lines above to
reflect where you put it.
Now, installing MySQL isn’t as difficult, because it runs
independently of your Apache configuration. Download MySQL from
dev.mysql.com/downloads. Again, get the Windows installer
version. This installer has a lot of settings, but you’ll be
fine if you just click Next through them to accept all the
defaults.
The only remaining step is to enable MySQL support in PHP. Copy
libmysql.dll file from c:\php to your Windows\System32 folder,
and then open the php.ini file you created before. Remove the
semicolon from the start of the line that says
‘;extension=php_mysql.dll’, and save the file.
Shut down Apache and restart it, and you’re done!
Visiting Your Server
When they’ve installed a server on their computer, many people
wonder how they can access the server they just installed as if
they were visiting it over the web. The answer is simple: just
open your web browser, and go to this URL: http://localhost (you
can also use http://127.0.0.1). This special address means ‘the
server on this computer’.
You’ll know if you installed Apache successfully because you’ll
see a page congratulating you. When you change your web pages,
just use your browser’s Refresh button to see the effect.
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