Administrator
Free Directory days seem to be over.
The Day Directories Were Free
It seems most of the directories that were free and now charging a fee.
Some of them are quite high in price as I have seen prices over $100 for a listing.
This is not to be unexpected as there are costs in running a directory.
But the question comes up as to the reliability of the website that is charging this price!
Do they have a backup plan? Will they decide to drop my listing due to price changes?
These are not unreasonable questions as Sites Like Joe Ant has dropped Free listings when they decided to move away from free listings and started charging for them. Other directories have done the same.
I for one will shy away from a directory that has dropped it's free listings because they have changed their listing policy. If they drop the free ones why would they not drop the paid ones should they decide to charge a higher price. As I remember the submission page said lifetime listing. Does this mean the lifetime of their pet turtle or the lifetime of the Website submitted?
Are we now going to have to have watch dogs for these directories to see if they are acting in good faith with those that have submitted to them.
The web is becoming more of what we hoped it wouldn't become each day. Site owners seem to be fighting a loosing battle as Major search engines are more interested in making big bucks then trying to have pure search results and now large and small directories are not living up to their promise.
Vincent G.
Web Hosting to Avoid
I have to say these complaints are not unfounded as the methods used by Godaddy are beyond recommended methods and in my opinion makes them a bad choice for web hosting. Some have said they blocked IP ranges while others have said they have had problems removing the block. I for one have had personal experience with them and from what I see this is no way to run a ball club.
First the unblock screen was not working.
After calling them they fixed it.
They are slow in responding - expect an answer 24 hours later.
Don't be surprised if they tell you that the block was placed 5 months ago.
Don't be surprised if they tell you to check your logs to correct the problem.
Based on what I see they most likely have 20% of all servers blocked or maybe even more. What this means is you will be cut off from doing business with 20% or more companies on the web. How do I come to this number you ask?
If you make it hard to remove the block tech people will not bother to try and remove blocks on their servers. Also if you set the spam checking to levels too low it will mark Paypal payments notices as Spam.
They are guilty of both setting the spam checking too a level that rejects legitimate email and are making it so tech people will just say nothing we can do about it.
20% may well be a very low number and it could be as high as 50%.
First spam blocking is the option of the user as he is best qualified to judge if an email is spam or not. By blocking out IP's without allowing the email to go to the person it was directed to the host has taken it upon it's self to judge the validity of the sender. Thus it is possible an important email such as a bill or late payment notice will never get to the user. Or a lucrative contract may not be ever signed since The host blocked the sender to complete the deal and the company will look at this and think this company has something wrong with it - thus they changed their minds and took the business elsewhere.
There maybe other large Hosting companies that are doing this also and Godaddy may not be the only one.
Is Social Media Right For Promoting My Website?
Is Twitter Going To Make My Website Obsolete?
Little Known Link Strategy – Outgoing Links Matter Too!
Provided by Wspider
4 Practical Reasons To Leave SEO To The Pros
We’ve all been hearing quite a bit about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as of late. As effective as quality white hat SEO has been over the last several years, it seems that the current economic recession has really encouraged organizations to look towards website traffic building measures that are more affordable and have greater lasting power than buying pay per click or impression ads.
Provided by WSpider
Time Left Counter
This script will give you a count down of Years, Months, Days and Hours left to a given date.
Click to see the days left
<script>
function cdtime( targetdate){
var currentTime=new Date()
var tdate=new Date(targetdate)
var timesup=false
var timediff=(tdate - currentTime)/1000
var oneHour=3600 //hour unit in seconds
var oneDay=86400 //day unit in seconds
var oneMonth=2630880 //month unit in seconds
var oneYear=31570560
var yearfield=Math.floor(timediff/oneYear)
timediff = timediff - (yearfield * oneYear)
var monthfield=Math.floor(timediff/oneMonth)
timediff = timediff - (monthfield * oneMonth)
var dayfield=Math.floor(timediff/oneDay)
timediff = timediff - (dayfield * oneDay)
var hourfield=Math.floor(timediff/oneHour)
if (currentTime >= tdate){
var ret = "The time is up!"
}else{
if (yearfield > 1){ret = yearfield + " Years " }else{ret = yearfield + " Year "}
if (monthfield > 1){ret = ret + monthfield + " Months "}else{ret = ret + monthfield + " Month "}
if (dayfield > 1){ret = ret + dayfield + " days and " }else{ret = ret + dayfield + " day and " }
if (hourfield > 1){ret = ret + hourfield + " Hours left"}else{ret = ret + hourfield + " Hour left"}
}
return ret
}
</script>
To call it just place this code on your page.
document.write(cdtime("July 1, 2010")) How to design a website
If you have XP Pro or Vista Business or Premium Version then you can develop right on your home PC.
If IIS is not installed go to Control Panel / Add Remove Programs / Windows Programs and Check IIS to install.
IIS is a Windows Web Server and it comes with some versions of Windows.
This is not the full version that Web Servers use as it has limits such as it allows only one web site.
If it's running you can access your web on your PC as http://localhost
You can add a folder to your web folders which under Windows is named Inetpub.
The default public root is Inetpub/wwwroot and this can be changed to your folder under Inetpub.
Go to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Internet Information Services
There click on Web Sites and right click on default Web Site and choose properties.
In the Web Site Properties window click on the home directory tab and change the directory to the one you created. Next be sure parent paths is checked. Click on the configuration button and choose the options tab. Check enable parent paths.
Parent paths allow you to reference items in IIS by using ../../my-image.gif
You can install PHP and Perl by going to the websites and downloading the install apps.
For PHP go to: http://us3.php.net/downloads.php
For Perl go to: http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/
My viewpoint is you try to make something that makes it easier for the programmer but never try to program for the programmer. The Elite seem to think the average Joe can not be capable to write his own code and try to force their way upon them.
Trial and error is how you learn which is my viewpoint and this I believe is what makes one a better programmer.
With either of these products you can quickly create or edit your pages and add your graphics. You can add Flash videos, Sound and anything else you like as they are both quite good inserting the code needed for any Media required.
This allows you to design the site at the comfort of your home / office with no additional cost of a temporary website account or IP address.
Many hosts do not allow using /~account-name which then would require a temporary hosting account with an IP address or a temporary sub domain from your host to access a development hosting account via a web browser.
If your hosting company does allow using the tilde account name ( /`account-name ) you could develop your site that way but you will need to not set the name servers on your domain so it will not allow visitors to see your site in development.
Using your PC is better and will save you money in that is avoids problems with the public root such as when you use the IP/~account-name the root will be the IP address where as on your PC the root will be http://localhost. This can cause slight problems with graphics or scripts when the resource is referenced such as /images/myimage.gif.
The first forward slash tells the server the place to go is the public root of the account. But that can be a problem if you either set your development to a sub folder of your PC's Inetpub folder or are using your hosting account as IP/~account-name.
If you leave off the first forward slash and put - images/myimage.gif - it will work only if the page is in the same directory as the image directory is in. If the page is in say a directory called vacation-homes but the images are above this directory what will happen is no image will display. The reason is the server will look in the current directory for a directory named images and will not find vacation-homes/images.
Also by using your PC you can set the name servers on your domain and create a coming soon page, which is a bit nicer rather than having the domain sending people to the default Domain Registrar page.
If you don't mind spending the extra money then go with a temporary hosting account as this will avoid problems that come up with things behaving different on different web servers. You will either need an account with a dedicated IP or a Sub Domain from the Hosting company. A dedicated IP allows you to access the site using the IP address. The only problems you will run into, which should be very few to none, is if you have to use the absolute url anywhere. A relative URL is best to use in all cases and should work in all cases.
Too often I have seen page errors on Shopping sites because they did not use a relative URL. When you switch to the secure https then a absolute url starting with http will cause an error.
So choosing the best development method can save you time which is also saving you money.
Once done you can either use Dreamweaver / Expression to upload the website to your Web Hosting account to go live or you can FTP the pages / images and such if you wish to manage it your self.
Hope this helps you finding the best way to design your website.
Cron Jobs
Cron Jobs
Linux has a very nice tool for those that want to have a scheduled action of some sort. The cron job allows you to set a script or command to run on a schedule that you set.
The syntax for the command looks like this:
0 9 * * * * /home/mysite/cgi-bin/somescript.cgi
You may want it to delete files every so often in a folder that has cache or other files that build up.
You can run PHP scripts or in some cases even use Curl to help out.
Curl is a software that allows you to access your website or some other website by Curl calls.
So if you use Curl in a cron job it would look like this:
0 9 * * * * curl http://mysite.com/cgi-bin/somescript.cgi
Why use Curl? In some cases you may need to. Maybe due to some dynamic reasons or what ever reason which requires a Php or a Perl script to only work when called from your website URL. Curl in this case maybe the answer and it allows you to pass parameters either as a get or post.
Getting back to Cron Jobs we can set them up very easy and it's quite simple.
There are 6 numbers or wild card symbols separated by a space.
* is a wild card which means every day, hour depending on which place it's in.
The entry places are setup as follows:
minute hour day month day of week
Each is a number or wild card where a asterisk ( * ) is the wild card.
Minutes are from 0 to 59
Hours are from 0 to 23
Day is from 1 to 31
Month is from 1 to 12
Day of Week is from 0 to 6
Hours are in 24 hour format so 13 would be 1 PM
Zero = 12 AM
For day of the week zero equals Sunday.
0 * * * * * This would mean it fires every hour on the hour.
1 5 * * * * The first minute of the 5th hour of every day
0 0 1 1 * The first hour of the first day of the first month or once per year.
We also have the slash, forward slash to be more precise to have it do the same task every 2 minutes, hours, days, months or weeks.
* */3 * * * Here we set it for every third hour.
* */2 * * * Every other hour.
If you have a shared hosting account most Control Panels have a feature to set a cron job. For those that are not you will need to have access by using Shell.
For those that use Shell you will need to run crontab.
To view cron jobs you run crontab -l and to edit or add cron jobs use crontab -e
Hope this helps.
How to choose a Hosting Company
How to choose a Hosting Company
One of the most important moves you will make is choosing your hosting company.
Hosting a website is somewhat complicated in that most people do not know what is the important points to look for.
Hosting falls into a few different OS types. Most common are Windows and Linux servers.
If you are a hands on Guy/Gal then I suggest you pick the OS your most comfortable with.
The most common software for Windows hosting is written in ASP or Dot Net and although ASP can run on a Linux server it will not work as well. For Linux we would find PHP and Perl. Both also can run on Windows servers but most PHP and Perl scripts are written for Linux. Therefore some of these scripts may not work as well under windows and some may not work at all.
These are two different worlds so choose carefully as switching can be a big headache should you become unhappy with the one you picked.
Personally I suggest you should first find a software that does what you want if you are planning to do more than just a plain HTML website.
Basic web pages requires nothing special and will work on either platform with no problems.
But if you want to sell items or do more than just have a basic HTML webpage then first find out what software fits your needs.
Choosing the right software is in my opinion really the correct first step.
Then match a server to the software you pick. Don't assume things - Email the company to see what they suggest.
A basic rule is if you choose a PHP or Perl application then choose Linux as the OS or if ASP or Dot Net then go with Windows.
Next comes the type of hosting plan. Choose one that fits your needs.
Check if the plan allows a dedicated IP if you expect to do sales on your site and will have those sales through your website.
If you are going to use Paypal or a third party merchant then you don't need a dedicated IP.
Most hosting companies will give at least 100 Meg of space available on even their minimum plans, which will be enough for most websites.
If you need more then choose a better plan.
Stay away from those that offer unlimited space and transfer or those that offer very high numbers for either of these.
For instance if a server has a 500 Gig hard drive how can a Host give plans that allow 100 Gig for $5.95 a month???
What they are doing is figuring an average that clients really use.
Most clients will use on average 200 Meg of space.So they put 200 clients or more on a server which they hope that only a small percentage will go higher than the 200 Meg.
In reality this does not work and what happens is over time people will expand the usage and the drive becomes full.
This causes a Linux server to crash and problems for its clients if it's not addressed right away.
So the hosting company has to move clients off the server or add another drive.
Down time is what takes place along with a slower server.
The more files on a server the slower it becomes.
What most people do not understand is Limits are designed to benefit the hosting client.
What companies do is try to sell you on the idea that unlimited is better.
Unlimited or limits like 100 Gig for a low price is not better as you will pay a price in performance and your website will be down more often per year.
How often should a server go down?Servers can run with very minor down time unless a hardware breakdown takes place.
Most hardware problems would be resolved in one day at most while many only take a few hours to take care of.
Software updates only require rebooting the server which only takes minutes and are not done often.
So a server should be up 24 hours every day of the year with at most a one day down time.
You will not find this type of service with a company that offers Unlimited resources.
Another factor is VPS hosting which might be good or bad depending on the circumstances.
For instance if you pick a company and it is giving you a hosting plan on a VPS server then you are in trouble.
If you are looking for standard hosting be sure the hosting company is not putting you on a VPS server.
VPS is really not intended to be used for virtual hosting but many small companies do use it.
On the other hand if you are picking a VPS plan for your website it maybe a good choice if you are able to deal with maintaining it.
VPS plans are virtual servers where a single server is split into many virtual servers.
So if you are a very technical person and can maintain a Linux server then VPS maybe for you if you need a great deal of space and resources.
Ask your hosting company if he is limiting resources such as CPU and transfer.Because they say unlimited it really does not mean unlimited.
Settings on the server can limit the number of hits a site receives and the amount of CPU cycles it requests.
For Linux they will install something called modbandwidth to limit transfer.
Email can be limited by the maximum each domain can send out per hour.
The Control Panel software may say you have unlimited but the Server settings which supercede the Control Panel will limit your service.
How does this work? Well if your website has a lot of traffic then limits on CPU or Transfer will block visitors or slow down the website.
So a visitor will have to wait a number of seconds or get a page error when he hits your website.
A good hosting company will have no governors of any type with only the limits of the server as being the limit to your usage.
This allows no interruption or slow down of service during peak usage!Many website will get a large number of visitors at a certain time.
Lets say your website will get 1,000 visitors between 5PM and 6PM.With server limits turned on a good number of these visitors will get turned away as they will experience very slow page loading or page errors.
Most people will move on and your customer will be lost should you choose a host that has such limits.In my experience I find those that offer Unlimited will have limits turned on such as I outlined.
Also ask your Web Host how many clients does he have at max on a server.
Over loading a server with too many websites will slow it down quite a bit.
I have found a good limit is around 250 websites. This number can vary somewhat depending on type of websites.
I have seen one company place as many as 800 on a server which is really bad.
This is very common with Free Hosting services but for free you really can't complain.
You do not want to be on a server that has more than 300 sites on it!
If you want the best web hosting then look for companies that offer realistic limits per Plan.
Do not settle for a company that has server limits, which is not the same as Control panel account limits, on CPU or Transfer.
If you are serious about your website then what you want is a hosting company that will host your site so that it is up 24/7 all year long and will allow visitors to go there at any time of the day without it slowing down to a crawl or giving errors due to server restrictions.Vincent Gabriele
My suggestion is that the best way to choose a company is by how tech support answers your questions. Contact their support and act as if you have a website with them to see how fast they respond and what their attitude is. You don't want to sign up with a company that has tech support that treats you like your problem is not important.
Also find out what the policy is on number of sites per server, bandwidth limits (both listed and server controlled) and are there any software restrictions.
Why would you signup for a phone service that limits the number of calls you get per hour or limits the number of words that you speak per minute?
Is Hosting any different that you would accept this?
