Website Automation is Important

Are you Automating your content and site upkeep?

While there are so many things that must be taken care of with an online business, Internet based businesses need to analyze their processes and procedures to see what can be taken care of in a more efficient and/or automatic manner.

It really doesn't matter what kind of business you have. Whether you are a blogger or a merchant selling tangible goods or perhaps you're somewhere in between like a blogger, you need to see where you can improve.  An investment of a week or two now could save you much more time in the coming months or years.

Check for repetition

If you're like me you probably don't know where to start and you probably started your web site as a hobby or as a supplement to your regular brick-n-mortar physical store.  That's ok, just start with where you are at now.  Ask yourself what tasks have to be done regularly. It might be a good idea to make a list of activities that you have to do every day, every week, and every month.

See which activities are very repetitive. Those activities are good candidates for automation.

Automation Examples

Consider using a CMS

Are you writing your web pages in plain HTML and copy/pasting product information in?  Parts of your website creation process can be automated. You could save the time spent on adding HTML, page layout, and menus, by installing a CMS such as Wordpress, Drupal, or Joomla or a forum like bbpress, or Simple Machines Forum.  By installing a CMS or Forum on your website, you preset the design and categories, and entries get added to menus. You'd just work on adding the content to entries such as blog posts or forum threads.

Automate your product displays

If you are an affiliate marketer or a merchant, you'll want to look into automating your display of products using a database.  In affiliate marketing, many merchants make datafeeds available which are electronic spreadsheets with a list of available products and other relevant information.  Affiliates can use PHP and MySQL to integrate those datafeeds into dynamic pages that visitors can browse or search.

HTML Make-a-Page creators are a short-term solution

While some affiliate networks offer HTML page creation with code ready to copy/paste into a website or blog entry, that static page information will soon become out-of-date and will require updating.

Don't rely on static HTML pages

I had made the mistake of relying too much on static and other difficult-to-update displays on my sites and found myself caught between spending half my time updating existing pages or creating new content. It was very frustrating because it worked, but I didn't know how to progress. I was so busy updating product information that I didn't have time to write original content!

Learn PHP and MySQL or hire a programmer

In this case you'll most likely want to hire a programmer or learn PHP and MySQL yourself.  I know it sounds complicated, and yes, PHP is a programming language unlike HTML which is just simple coding, but once you finish your first couple scripts, you'll find that it isn't too difficult with a little planning and patience.  If you are an affiliate marketer you'll need at least a couple scripts. You'll need one to import datafeeds into your MySQL database and another for displaying products. You can then expand your ability by allowing user search or by displaying products by keyword, category, or really any other feature you can think of.

Automate your XML Sitemap

Another great option for automation is your XML Sitemap, also called your Google Sitemap.  You can write your Sitemap in PHP and submit your php script to Google Webmasters.  If you have dynamic content this is crucial otherwise you'd have to do it manually!  That could take weeks for a large website.

If you have a small website, you might not think it matters, but what about when your site is larger in a year or two? Your Sitemap was easy to update manually when you had only 30 pages, but it won't be so easy-to-update when it has 200.  If you later delete a page from your site, you'll have to look through 200 pages to find it while a well written sitemap script will include all pages that currently exist.

Standardize your website design

If you have multiple websites, consider what goes into maintaining and updating them.  Are you customizing each site, or are you making different aspects modular?  If you need to update your CMS or your custom scripts, could you copy the files over to the other site and have them just work?   By standardizing things like page width, and locations where your scripts and software are installed, updating could just be a matter of uploading everything to the same place on each site.   There are tricks you can do in PHP that let you get the IP address and website name which you might need in the script, so instead of having to open and configure your configuration file, you could tell your script to look up the domain and IP it is running on and do different things based on that information.   By autoconfiguring your scripts, you'll save plenty of time when you need to upgrade. I only wish CMS designers would do the same thing!

Servers are good workers

Servers once set up and running can save you plenty of time once everything is set up. Servers don't get tired, sick, or bored. They don't limit themselves to business hours either. Any activity that you can give them is going to be much cheaper than paying someone or spending the time to a task by yourself. Even with shared hosting, you just go to your webserver's control panel and add a "Cron job". Cron jobs just tell a server to run a script using the frequency that you set. So if you want it to run a backup, or a datafeed import at 2:00 am, just set it up. If you can write or pay for a script to do a task, you can later set it up as a Cron job, your script will run, and the task will be done, rain or shine, or even when you're on vacation!

How to Upgrade WordPress

How to upgrade WordPress introduction

Sometimes it seems that by the time I get my websites upgraded there is a new version or minor update to WordPress. After a while, upgrading WordPress seems as easy as brushing my teeth or tying my shoes. I do understand that for a beginner, this process can be frightening. In reality, WordPress is probably the easiest and simplest CMS or Blog software available. I have personally tried Joomla (which I like) and Drupal (which I don't like). I also tried Google's Blogger which has obviously been dumbed down to the least common denominator so that you can't customize it.

I do not accept liability for your ability to follow these steps, nor to I accept liability for any changes that may occur to Wordpress or its upgrade methods. Essentially, I'm saying that these steps have worked for me for upgrading the last few versions of Wordpress and they probably won't change in the near future. This article/post assumes that you know how to use FTP and how to download a file from Wordpress.org.

Short version - Steps for upgrading WordPress blog/CMS software

1. To be safe, backup your database via your webhost's control panel via PHPMyAdmin (ask your webhosting company how)


2. Disable all plugins


3. Download the newest version of Wordpress from wordpress.org.


4. Extract all of the files to your copy of Wordpress on your computer (your backup, you do have one right?) overwriting the older files with the same name.


5. Upload your Wordpress directory or your website via FTP to your server overwriting files with the same name.


6. go to http://yourdomain.com/wordpressdirectory/wp-admin/upgrade.php or http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php and follow the steps until it says it is finished.


7. Re-enable your plugins

If you never installed any plugins, then you can skip steps 2 and 7. The options in step 6 depend on whether you have Wordpress installed in your main directory or subdirectory. When uploading your updated files you could omit the wp-content/plugins and wp-content/themes directories. The default theme might have been updated, but your custom themes and plugins are not updated with Wordpress. Plugins and custom themes are maintained by their authors.

Don't forget to update your plugins!

Sometimes a plugin stops working due to a change in Wordpress's API. After you upgrade, be sure to check for new plugin versions. The most recent versions of Wordpress will warn you when your Plugins are out-of-date. You'll need to replace the plugin with the same name in your wp-content/plugins directory and upload the plugin via FTP. It is recommended to disable a plugin before uploading a new version and reenable it afterwards. A plugin will sometimes break otherwise. If you don't and you find errors just disable and reenable the plugin and that will take care of most issues.

How to get started with affiliate marketing?

I'm sure that many of you are interested in affiliate marketing due to the flexibility it gives. Perhaps you just want to make a few extra dollars or pounds for your next vacation or to save for retirement. That is ok too! You can put as much time and effort into affiliate marketing as you want because you are your own boss.

The problem for many is how to get started and people make some bad decisions, waste thousands of dollars on gimmicks, and then give up. You won't be making thousands of dollars per day unless you spend hundreds on advertising your sites, but you don't have to! I have been doing affiliate marketing since September 2007 and I haven't spend on advertising at all except for a coupon I got for Google Adwords for $25 I got from my web host. Without spending a dollar on advertising, I made almost $400 in December even though I've only been doing this for a couple hours a day for a few months. If I had put in 40 hour weeks I would have made much more.

Here are the basic steps involved:

1. Plan! What kinds of products and services do you want to promote? Pick something that interests you and that you have at least a little knowledge about. If you love to cook, you might want to have a website about gourmet foods and kitchen products. If you like sports, perhaps you'll go for exercise equipment, supplements, and sportswear. In any case pick a topic you enjoy! It will be difficult to motivate yourself to work if it isn't something you like.

2. Brainstorm! Make a mind-map of the topic that you chose and then make an outline and think about how you might organize your website. Also think about the visual aspects of your website so that it will also be attractive. Decide what kind of interactive or social features will benefit visitors. What kind of content will you use?

3. Pick a name! You need to give your website a name so make a list of possible names based on your topic and mind-map and put them in order.

4. Sign up for web hosting! You need a home for your website, so sign up for a cheap shared web hosting account. I recommend signing up with BlueHost or HostGator. In fact, I am currently using Bluehost for all of my current websites.

5. Register your website when you sign up for hosting.

6. Start your site using either HTML pages or a CMS program such as Joomla, WordPress, or Drupal. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. Many web hosts have a quick install option for CMS or blogging software. Both BlueHost and HostGator have special quick installs for WordPress and Joomla! called Fantastico.

7. Sign up for affiliate marketing programs for your topic. I recommend starting out with .

8, Start adding content and mix relevant and useful affiliate links in with your content. Don't hard sell! You are providing a benefit for the visitor.

9. Integrate a website statistics service into your website, so you can see what works and what doesn't. I suggest using Google Analytics which is free. Also check your statistics in the affiliate network to see where your sales are coming from and which programs are converting to sales.

10. If a program doesn't convert and you know that your content is good, replace the program with one of another merchant and see if you get better results. When I first started I had used some programs that just wouldn't convert. I tried some others and they did. What do I mean by convert? Your statistics will tell you when a visitor clicks on an affiliate link on your website, If the visitor makes a purchase on the merchants site and the sale registers, it "converted". In other words, the click through converted into a sale.

Consider adding content description meta tags to each of your webpages for better search traffic (SEO)

Would you like more traffic to your website?

Whether it is a blog or a shopping site you need traffic for your website to be a success. One way to do so is to work on your SEO, otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization. Typically people optimize for Google, but it is also good to consider traffic from Yahoo and ask.com as secondary targets.

Content First, SEO Second

Once you have good original content on your website, it is time to consider SEO. There are many different tasks involved in SEO, and I admit that I still need to do many tasks on my websites as well, so I've added the webmaster and SEO category and a SEO series for these articles that any website can use to improve its results.

The main problem is that it is a lot of work! SEO is not yet automated. If you use a CMS like Wordpress or Joomla, you might find special plugins and modules to help you, but you still have to type in the information that the system needs.

The focus in this post is in adding a Meta content description tag to each page of your website. Meta tags are nothing new. Meta tags are informative HTML tags placed in the header of a web page's code. There are many meta tags used for many different reasons.

Adding meta page descriptions to static HTML is simple

Add the following to each of your page headers describing that page:

<meta name="description" content="Brief description of the contents of your page.">

Add a description of that specific page instead of the 'informative description here'. If you use static HTML pages on your website then simply go into your code with your favorite editor and add the code in between the head tags. You should be concise and descriptive. You should not repeat the title since that is going to be seen in the search result above the description.

Dynamic pages often require coding or SEO plugins

If you use a dynamic header through a CMS or website template using PHP then it is trickier, since one header is used for all of your pages. In this case you could perhaps make your own PHP modification if you are a programmer, or you could search for a plugin or module to add that information for you. Even with a plugin, you will still have to add that data in your CMS software. In a wordpress blog, you'll probably see it as an extra field in your writing admin. page after the plug in is activated. Once you activate a plugin with this functionality you'll have to go and add meta data to each page, post, and article you have.

Meta page descriptions improve search click through rates

You won't see results until Google's webcrawler rechecks your site. It doesn't matter if your pages are static or dynamic. This could take between hours and weeks. After Google's search engine updates your information and a page on your site appears as a search result, your description will appear after your page's title. By giving a more detailed description of your page, your page will be more interesting to the person searching and you should get more clicks. It should also lower your bounce rate, since people know what your page really contains.

What meta descriptions won't do for you

Adding meta descriptions will not improve your page ranking. Your web pages will appear at the same rank. This optimization is for increasing clicks on your pages when seen in the listing. You will need to do other optimizations to improve page ranking.

Joomla 1.5 RC2 and Kontera ads

Kontera ads and Joomla 1.5 RC2

Some of you have been searching for Joomla 1.5 and Kontera.  Kontera runs hover-pop-up advertising which links to keywords. They offer a wordpress plugin, but they don't have a plug in for Joomla 1.5.

I recently tested the old Kontera plugin for Joomla 1.1x on my Joomla 1.5 RC2 installation using legacy mode.  I had no trouble at all setting it up.  The old Kontera plugin for Joomla 1.1x works on Joomla 1.5 when legacy mode is enabled.

You can get the old kontera plugin from http://extensions.joomla.org/

http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,1675/Itemid,35/

Let's hope that there will be a native 1.5 version soon, but if the lack of a Kontera plugin is keeping you from an upgrade, don't worry Just enable legacy mode.

Adding a Shopping cart to your business website: Introduction

Start selling online by setting up a shopping cart on your website or externally.

Depending on the business model you choose, you might want to consider adding a shopping cart to your website. The process of adding a shopping cart to your website can be very easy or very hard depending on the level of integration that you require and what kinds of products you are going to sell.

First you must determine:

1. Will you host the store externally on a third party website, or internally on your own server or hosted server.

There are several companies that let you create a store on their websites that you can link to. When someone buys a product you earn a commission.

Other stores and shopping carts online will let you store your downloads on their site for a fee. If you don't have your own domain then this could be a good short term option for getting started. It would also be good for people who are not interested in maintaining a server and shopping cart installations.

You could also have your own website and install commercial shopping cart and store software. This would give you the advantage of having technical support in most cases, but costs could get quite high once you include web hosting.

The other option which would be best for the long term with your own products, would be to have your own website and install free shopping cart and store software. This would be best because A. you'd be able to customize the look of the site B. Your only monthly fees would be hosting costs. As you sell more products, your cost/product will be cheaper.

2. Will you be selling your own products, affiliate products, or both?

Some shopping and store systems will be designed as a full store and others have the option of being used in 'catalog' mode. Typically affiliate product sales are completed on the manufacturer's site, so there is no need to actually go beyond having a 'clickable catalog' which sends the customer to the merchant site to complete the purchase. If you are selling your own products, you'll need to have a complete system for shipping, taxes, etc.

3. Will you be selling digital downloads, tangible goods, or a combination of the two?

Not all shopping cart and store software is designed to allow digital products. Most seem to have been designed for tangible, physical goods. Digital stores don't need to have 'items in stock' or shipping information. Recently there has been more interest in digital product stores however they seem to be only beta versions and have very limited cataloging functions. Most online stores that include a digital download option limit you to only one download per product listing or have multiple downloads with all of them available to the purchaser. I hope that we will see more flexible programs in the future.

4. Are you willing to pay for this service or software, or does your lack of budget require a free version?

You can pay between hundreds of dollars and a few dollars to set up your e-store. If you already have web hosting set up then you could use free shopping cart and store software then set it up yourself. If you do it yourself, expect to spend many hours. Try to avoid editing the basic code since you'll lose your changes when you upgrade to the next version. If possible, choose premade templates with your own logo then change the template colors to match or go well with your logo. Experiment with the system for at least a few days to make sure everything works properly before linking it to your main site. Make sample purchases and try different options.

5. Do you require 100% integration into a CMS, Content Management System, or are links or IFRAME pages adequate?

There are modules for integrating certain shopping cart and store programs into a website so that it will share the look and feel and registered users. This makes the whole process simpler. Even if you cannot integrate your shopping cart, you can at least try to use the same page layout and colors across your website.

6. Will you require technical support, or are you willing to do a little coding and forum/tutorial research?

If you need hand-holding support then go with commercial software. You have to spend much more, but in the end you'll have your store set up and ready instead of wasting days or weeks trying to figure out how to install and configure it all.

An alternative is to find someone who is already familiar with setting up stores and shopping cart software and negotiating payment for him or her to do the installation and configuration of a free program for you.

7. Do you require more than one download per product listing (for digital products)?

I have so far tried Wp-ecommerce (for Wordpress), VirtueMart 1.1beta (for Joomla), and Zen Cart. The only one that has allowed me to set downloads linked to attributes was Zen Cart. Wp-ecommerce only allows one download per product listing. I even offered to pay for the modification, but the owner is not interested. VirtueMart 1.1 allows multiple downloads however you can't let the visitor select a file. Instead the buyer has access to all of the downloads listed for that product, so if you were hoping to sell digital photographs at different resolutions and prices, these two applications won't work unless you want each size for each product show up as separate products which looks very bad and will cause you extra work because if you decide to add another version you have to add more products! I bet you could waste many hours doing that.

After several hours of looking reading and guessing I finally tried Zen Cart. Zen Cart is related to OsCommerce so it is possible that OsCommerce also has this feature. Zen Cart is an independent free shopping cart store that you can install on your own server, but it doesn't have Wordpress or Joomla integration. I was able to set up a shopping cart with one product and multiple download options. It worked. I, as a shopper, was able to specify the product download I wanted and the correct price appeared and the download link worked. It also sent my business e-mail address a message to let me know of the 'sale'.

8. Do you require special payment option modules, or is PayPal good enough?

You'll have to check each program to see which methods of payments may be processed.

In this category of CrucialBusiness, Shopping cart and stores, I/we will be adding information from our and my own experience, books and e-books that you can read to learn more, and information about opensource as well as paid shopping cart and store products and services to get started. You could also read the more general category, sales, which most shopping cart and stores articles will be cross-posted. If you have experience with Shopping cart and store creation for online business, please contact us via the contact form on this site and you can be a guest writer/blogger (including an about the author with a link to your own site).

As you read more about this topic, keep in mind your answers to the questions in this post and good luck!

Joomla 1.5 RC2 Wrapper issue fixed in nightly builds

Joomla 1.5 RC2 Wrapper breadcrumbs now working after installing nightly build

I had posted earlier about having messed up links above 'wrapper' IFRAME page content after installing Joomla 1.5 RC2 over Joomla 1.5 RC1.

I had posted on the Joomla forum but no one knew of a fix, and another person said that he had the same issue.

I finally decided to see if it was fixed. I downloaded the latest nightly build from Joomla and copied it into my Joomla install. The fix took. Wrapper pages are showing up correctly.

If you notice that your breadcrumbs are broken in Wrapper after installing Joomla 1.5 RC2, just install (copy & upload) the nightly build over it and that should resolve the issue for you.

Joomla 1.5 RC2 bug: Wrapper breadcrumbs path to file above content is broken in Wrapper

Joomla 1.5 RC2 bug: Wrapper breadcrumbs path to file above content is broken in Wrapper

On my main site, I had installed Joomla! 1.5 RC1 which I later upgraded to the new RC2.

Above the content of IFRAMEd content using the Joomla 'wrapper' to include external pages, I used to see the path from 'home' to my file. Now I see funny code. including the html <span>.

This error only seems to appear in external pages included using Joomla's wrapper.

I have posted in the forum and I'll update this site with the fix. Until then I suggest not upgrading if you use IFRAMES in Joomla 1.5.

Joomla 1.5 RC2 from Joomla 1.5 RC1 Upgrade

How to upgrade from 1.5 RC1 to 1.5 RC2

1. Download RC2 from the link .

I downloaded the zip version.

2. Copy the contents to your Joomla folder overwriting earlier versions.

The extracted files took 10.3 megabytes of space on my hard drive.

3. Upload the joomla folder to the server via FTP.

I use Dreamweaver's FTP function to manage my sites, but any program that can upload a folder or directory is fine.

Since this takes a long time. It is good to prepare supper or watch a movie or something so you don't stare at the clock.

4. Log in to your Joomla 1.5 RC2 site and click on the administration menu item then system info under the help menu to verify the version.

It will say

'Joomla! Version: Joomla! 1.5.0 Production/Stable [ Endeleo ] 1-September-2007 15:00 GMT' (Obviously with a different date and time)

Joomla 1.5 RC2 is available

Joomla 1.5 RC2 (Beta/Release Candidate 2) is available for download from Joomla!

The new version of Joomla 1.5, called RC2 has been available for download since Saturday the first of September.

Here is the information posted on the Joomla.org site. Please note that if you are using RC1 you should upgrade due to security risks.

Joomla! 1.5 RC2 [codename: Endeleo] is now available for download. What better way to celebrate our 2nd Birthday! We chose Endeleo as the codename for this release candidate as it is Swahili for 'development, growth, progress ... improvement'. Highly appropriate we feel.

It is roughly five weeks after the RC1 release and we have made major improvements in certain areas of the 1.5 codebase. Time to share another RC with the community. Some improvements and areas of changes are listed below:

* Router refactoring solving a range of bugs
* Media Manager refactoring, moving this to MVC standards
* Updated scripts (version); mootools, tinyMCE, Xstandard
* Core template improvements
* Template language installer support
* ... and of course a lot more
Note: due to the Router refactoring there will be known issues with SEF url's.

Important, you need to upgrade! In the current RC1 we found three security issues, one SQL injection, one XSS, and a few full path disclosure vulnerabilities. Those security issues are solved in the new release.

Where we go from here: as you might have read on a recent blog, we will have at least one more Release Candidate (RC3) and hope to move to a Stable release from there on.

Packages

For the 1.5 RC2 Release only full packages are available for download. As usual, the packages are provided in three compression formats (zip, tar, bzip2). The download link for this release:
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=2812

Upgrade instructions

Upgrading from any version of Joomla! 1.5 to 1.5.RC2 simply involves overwriting your current sites files, with the files in the proper Patch Package that applies to your site. Note; during Beta and
RC development, some files could be removed from the Core Code. Using the above method for upgrading might leave some deprecated files in place. This could be solved by performing a fresh
install once the Stable release is available and exporting/importing your database. Between Beta and the RC2 some small database changes have been made. Check the /installation/sql/mysql folder for the diff.sql file. Run that with any database tool such as phpMyAdmin to get your database updated.

This can be done by either uncompressing the Patch Package and then using an FTP client to transfer these files to your server and overwriting existing file. If you find errors after the process,
ensure that all files were properly transferred. There have been verified reports of some FTP clients not properly transferring files across to a server - without notifying the user of such a problem. One
possible cause is that under certain circumstances the webserver locks the files it is using, and the ftp-server can't update those files. One possibility is to take the site shortly offline during the FTP
transfer.

If your Web Provider gives you access to your site via some sort of Web Admin panel like CPanel or Plesk, you can use the syetems file manager to upload the Patch Package file to your server and
then extracting the package file and overwriting all the files on your server.

More information can be found on the Forums and if at any stage you are unsure, then search the forums for posts on the subject. Most will be found in the Upgrading forum .

Conversion / Migration

With the new 1.5 version it is not that easy anymore to convert for example a Mambo site to Joomla!, especially to 1.5. You will need to perform a migration which is described here:
http://www.joomla.org/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,105/p,401/

Backing up

Before undertaking an Upgrade or Conversion, it is extremely important that you backup your site's Database and if possible, also you site's files. While we try to ensure that an Upgrade or Conversion process is relatively straightforward, we cannot garuantee that this will always be the case for every user. So it is imperative that users take protective measures in case they face problems after the Upgrade or Conversion.

We hope you enjoy Endeleo and as always, we look forward to your feedback.

How to install Joomla 1.5 on your webserver

Step-by-step instructions for installing Joomla 1.5 RC & nightly build.

These instructions assume that you:

• have basic computer skills


• know how to use FTP


• have access to your webhosting account

Download Joomla 1.5

1. Download Joomla 1.5 from Joomla.org

Extract the download to your computer's website directory

2. Open the file and extract the contents to the directory or folder on your system where you'll keep your website backup. If you want to install it in a special folder on your site do so. It isn't recommendable to install it in the same folder as another web program, so if you have already installed WordPress or another program in your public-html directory then put Joomla in another directory like /joomla or /yoursitestopic.

Upload Joomla 1.5 via FTP to the web server

3. Upload everything to your webhost's server's FTP account. I use Dreamweaver for normal HTML coding and it has FTP included so I use that but any program that lets you upload a folder or directory is fine.

Some webhosting companies let you upload .zip files for later extraction online but many do not. That is why I don't tell you to upload the compressed file. If your host lets you do so then extract the file online to save time.

Take a break

4. While your Joomla files are uploading, watch something on TV, play a video game, call your mom, or whatever.

Go to your uploaded directory on the server

5. Once the files have finished uploading and they DID all upload, go in your favorite webbrowser, mine is Firefox, to http://yourdomain.com/yourjoomladirectory

Substitute the domain that you have registered and the folder you put the Joomla contents in.

If you installed Joomla in the public_html or main web directory on your server then just go to: http://yourdomain.com

again substituting your actual domain.

Verify that the Joomla! page appears

6. If you typed the address correctly then you'll see a page with "Joomla! Installation version 1.5" in the header.

Choose your installation Language

7. First you have to choose your installation language. En-GB for British English is selected. You could select a different language in the list and click the 'next' button. The next button is to the right of the language list.

Pre-install Check

8. The next page is the Pre-installation check. The Pre-installation check checks your PHP and Mysql settings.

This depends on your webhosting company and the server software that they installed. If your system fails a check then you'll need to let your hosting company know and see if they can change the software or if they can help you modify your php.ini. I have been using Bluehost and by default my system passed the Pre-installation check.

You know you are ok if all the settings are in green, so click on 'next'.

License Agreement

9. This next screen has the License agreement. You can read it and click on 'next'.

Database page

10. This screen has fields for the Mysql database. You need to create a database for use with Joomla. If you haven't already just open a new window or tab in your webbrowser, login to your webhosting account, and create a database and user. Write down all this information so you can enter it into the Joomla window that is still open.

• In the hostname field type: localhost


• In the username field type the username for the database as you setup via your webhost.


• In the password field type you username's password for the database that you setup.


• In the database name field type the name of the database.

Click on 'next'

Joomla! FTP

11. This page asks for you to configure Joomla 1.5 with FTP. Use the same settings that you used to upload the Joomla files to your server OR create a new account with your webhost and enter it instead.

Click on 'autofind ftp path' and it will test your FTP settings and enter the actual directory path from your account root.

Click on 'next'

Main Configuration

12. This page is called 'Main Configuration'

Enter the name of your site.

Enter the e-mail address that you will use.

Enter your administrator username and password (and write it down in a txt file or on a sheet of paper).

If you have a new install keep the dot in the 'install the default sample data'.

If you are upgrading, use the option to load the migration script and add the required information.

click on 'next'

Finish

13. You are now on the 'finish' page. This means that Joomla 1.5 is installed. Wasn't that easy?

Delete your Joomla installation directory

14. Using your FTP program or your webhost's control panel or file manager, delete the installation directory inside your Joomla directory. You could also rename it but you should delete it for security reasons.

Log in to your account as administrator for further configuration

15. Log in as administrator so you can configure it to your heart's content.

warning: If you enable the 'wrapper' module you must add a URL to its URL field or the system won't open in Internet Explorer and you'll get an error message in Firefox saying that the URL is not valid.

As long as the site's URL is entered OR the wrapper module is disabled you won't have a problem.

Joomla 1.5 Problem isolated: The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded or http:///

If you remember from earlier posts I had started with HTML many years ago, I've updated my HTML knowledge but now I'm learning PHP and Javascript and I'm looking for a way to integrate or at least harmoniously have Wordpress and a CMS on my sites. Wordpress is powerful, and easy to use however it isn't Javascript or external PHP friendly. It also doesn't work with Iframes so that work around isn't available. I have made the comment in the Wordpress website how an integrated IFRAME option for pages would work around many problems and I have my fingers crossed. ;-)

I had tried Drupal but due to several issues including confusing options, overall bad administrative design, and posts that got cut off half way through, I have decided to drop Drupal until I feel like torturing myself.

I had stopped my adventure with CMSs, Content Management Systems, after installing Joomla 1.5 and getting the following error in Firefox:

The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded

I had posted the error in the Joomla forum hoping for an answer and I started working on other projects. I finally realized this morning that I still didn't have a solution so I reposted the error.

I quickly got a reply from a forum moderator to try a nightly install version. I deleted Joomla from the server, downloaded the nightly 1.5 version and uploaded it all into a new folder, /business.

I checked it and I didn't get the error. I was so happy I went into configuring the installation. Joomla has a very nice graphic menu system so I am able to check those settings quickly.

I marked SEO friendly URLs, Modrewrite, and I enabled a few modules that were preinstalled but by default deactivated. I tried again to log in and guess what?

Firefox gave me: The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded

When you get this message you can later click on OK and change settings. IE doesn't let you do anything.

and Internet Explorer gave me http:/// with a white page.

I went back to the admin options and tried changing the normal settings and I disabled all but the Wrapper module.

I got the error again and then I realized I hadn't tried disabling the Wrapper module as it was by default. I did so and the error went away. I went back into the wrapper module and I saw that there is a field in the right 'parameter' column called URL:

The URL field was blank. I don't know what it is supposed to do but I added the URL for my Joomla install. I reactivated the wrapper module and I don't get the error anymore.

Joomla 1.5 Question: Can upgrade from Joomla 1.13 to 1.5?

I discovered that you can't do a typical upgrade install. You'll have to backup your database and any special configurations and do a clean install of Joomla 1.5 and then reimport everything. You can find the exact steps to take to switch from 1.xx to 1.5 on the Joomla website.

• The Joomla Forum


• Joomla Help


• Joomla Extentions

Analyze the competition before designing your business website.

Check out the competition

Before you start writing that first page of code or installing Wordpress, Joomla, etc., go see what other companies in your industry are doing. Also check site for related industries.

How are their services and products better or worse?  How expensive are they?  Can you offer the same product or service at a better price or quality?  Can you do more promotions or give more of a sense of loyalty or added value?

What do you not like about the competitors' web sites?  Are the colors confusing or hard to read?  What about the page layout and font size?

Is the website for eyeglasses and contact lenses written in a small font?

Compare each competitor site with the others and make a list of good and bad features. Write down how that bad feature could be fixed or replaced.

Rank each feature accordingly

After you write down all of the above, start ranking each feature that you liked according to necessity. Keep in mind your objectives and target audience.  Make the most important features essential to your site design.  Integrate them before adding others.

Plan your Business web site before you start coding

So you've got a business plan but do you have a business web site plan?

Many companies today treat their web sites as insignificant extras, but a company's web site should be an integral part of its business planning.

Web site planning

To plan your business website you need to first consider your business objectives for having the web site. These should be similar to your business's general objectives. Additionally, you should consider your audience, or targeted demographics, and what products and services your company is offering or going to offer.

Web site goals

What are the primary and secondary goals for your web site?

Who will be using the web site internally and externally?

Here are some common goals:

• 
  

  Advertising your product or service

  
  

When your goal is advertising your product or service, you want to let people know about what you are offering.

The purpose isn't to make the sale but to pre-sell, or generate interest. You will want to include elements in your web site design that will help it spread virally. You could add social bookmarking and referral links.

Perhaps you could add video or pictures to show your product more clearly. If it works then the visitor will be interested in your product or service the next time he has a need. You might even create the 'need'.

• 
  

  Selling your product or service

  
  

There are several differences here. When selling the product or service, you will be giving specific details about the product or service. You will need to give a secure, simple, and easy way for the visitor to turn into a customer. If the visitor doesn't understand or gets confused, he or she will most likely cancel the order or leave it incomplete. You'll want to add information about any guarantees and warranties, return policies, shipping options, etc.

• 
  

  Providing customer service

  
  

If you are going to include customer service, then you will need to add text-based chat and a F.A.Q., frequently asked questions. You could include steps to solve common problems. Perhaps you could integrate help-desk tracking software.

• 
  

  Providing information about your company.

  
  

Who is your audience? You should provide information according your potential audience.

It might include press releases, news, media kits, a telephone and e-mail directory. You might even include a newsletter.

• 
  

  Providing information about your service.

  
  

Here you could provide technical documentation, product demonstration videos, news about new products and product updates, white pages, and more.

• 
  

  Creating or establishing brand recognition or awareness.

  
  

When creating or establish brand recognition or brand awareness you must provide a very consistent look. You should have professionally designed logos and images. It would be essential to use a CMS, Content Management System like Joomla, so that any changes to the web site theme will update on all pages. If you need a less complex site then Wordpress is more than adequate.

• 
  

  Advertising another company's products or services.

  
  

If your company will do outsourced sales and marketing then your focus is on the image and products of the other company so you'd want to downplay who you are and provide more information, and advertising so that the user will be ready to click on over to the main company to buy their product or service.

Trying out Joomla 1.5RC: Part 2

I have been a little busy so it took me a couple days to go back to my Joomla 1.5RC install and see what works and what doesn't.

First of all I went to my /joomla folder and I noticed something that I suppose occurred before. I got an error message saying "the URL is not valid and cannot be loaded".

I did a search for the error message in the built in help and found nothing.  I posted a message in the Joomla forum and am waiting for a reply.

I did a search and some people mentioned seeing 'http://' when using Internet Explorer. I use Firefox almost exclusively and I tried the URL in IE and I see the page start to load and then a blank page with http:///

Sounds strange, doesn't it?

So I decided to go back to the Joomla forum because I remember seeing blank page after install with http:// which wasn't my problem at least with Firefox.

I saw that someone else had the same error but no one had replied with a solution.

It seems like a nice program and everything else looked interesting in Firefox, but since most people use IE I can't use Joomla 1.5RC.

I might try the older version but since they aren't compatible I'll be causing a lot of work for myself.

Trying out Joomla 1.5RC after using Wordpress and trying Drupal: Part 1

Trying out Joomla 1.5RC after using Wordpress and trying Drupal: Part 1

As you can read in previous posts, I had attempted to use Drupal as a blog and I tried to get to know the different features it has. After finally noticing that it cut off my long posts after about a page I decided that enough is enough! If it is going to cut off my text without warning then I can't even use it as a CMS. I still haven't deleted it from my system.

I am of course still using Wordpress for blogging. I think it is great. I have only come across three problems:

1. You can't insert javascript.

2. You can't properly insert iframes. I tried two plugins but neither would display correctly.

3. You can't easily modify the menus. They are handled by the themes.

What I mean by changing the menus would be a way to do it through the administration or page writing menus. It would be nice to be able to select a list or category and a type of menu and move it over as a widget.

These limitations are the reasons why I am trying to use an additonal program for site management. If I could do those things then I wouldn't install anything else.

Remember that the less time you have to manage your site, the more time you'll have available for adding more content, making sales, and other activities.

So finally I'm going to try testing Joomla 1.5 RC. I didn't want to do it yet since it is still technically a beta version and there are limited modules/plug-ins available.

Why test with 1.5 when there are the 1.x versions?

If you check the Joomla site, it tells us that Joomla 1.5 and 1.x.x versions are incompatable. This is to say that you can't easily patch the upgrade on top of your 1.x system.

When new features and patches come available I will be able to use them with 1.5, but that isn't the case with the 1.x.x versions.

Yes, there aren't many modules avalable for testing but I hope that if I decide that I like the system, I will be able to get the updated modules as they come. If I don't like Joomla 1.5 either then I will probably wait another 6 months or so for significant updates and keep using Dreamweaver with templates even though it isn't dynamic and a pain to upload changes (templates in dreamweaver are modified in each page so if you make a change you have to reupload every modified page. It is simple but slow).

I downloaded Joomla 1.5 from its website and I extracted the files to /joomla, and uploaded them to the server. I then went to my webpage URL + /joomla to see what would happen since normally you have to type in the full installer addresses when putting new programs on a server.

I was surprised to find that it went directly to the installer and I had no conflicts. My php configuration was ok. I later had an option to install sample data which I selected. I of course had to enter my database name, host name, database user name, and database user password. This is normal for any installation of a program online.

Once the installer finished, it told me to delete the install folder. Once the installation folder is deleted or at least renamed, you can enter Joomla.

It showed me the sample data on a page with a lot of blue and a white background and a column layout. There were no instructions, so after reading the sample data I found a log in box in the lower left hand corner.

I entered the administration user name and password that I had entered in the installation stage and a new menu 'box' appeared in the left sidebar.

I clicked on 'administrator' and I got a log-in screen which later took me to an attractive and organized control panel screen.

This was a big change from my attempt at using Drupal! Drupal was messy and hard to read. The admin stuff only appeared as a menu on the side bar.

For a Release Candidate (beta) version, it seems less of a beta than the Drupal version I had tried.

There is a horizontal menu bar on top with:

Site, Menus, Context, Components, Extensions, Tools, and help.

I can tell right away that I can easily modify menus through the menu menu.

Using Drupal after using Wordpress. Part I: first impressions

Hello everyone!

I am trying what I was trying to find out about, and after many hours of searching, didn't find.
What it is like going from using regular HTML pages with some PHP applications and Javascript games to using Wordpress and later Drupal.

Background

First of all, I am not new to using the internet, computers or websites.
I made my first web page in 1995 or maybe 1994 on a free site. I used HTML and I coded it in a basic text editor. It had hyperlinks and photos and some profile info. It was on a university server.
After leaving the university I didn't really make an effort to have a website since for one hosting was very expensive and 2. I didn't have an internet connection at home. I did try once to have an Angelfire free site but the URL was so confusing I would keep forgetting to log in and I didn't bother giving it out so I forgot about it in only a few months.
I am as I said not new to computers. I first used them around 3rd grade. My parents bought an Apple IIgs when I was in either middle or high school (I can't remember), and I got my first computer, an Apple Powermac, when I was 18.
I even had two jobs in the computer industry more than a few years ago. I worked 18 months for Apple Computer when I lived in Austin Texas doing Technical Support. After that I worked for Dell Computer, now just Dell, doing technical support. First in telephone support, then in e-mail and internet based support and I finally got bored and quit and moved to Mexico City where I've lived since January, 2001. I've been teaching English as a second language. I also do the occasional Spanish-English translation.
I put up a website a year ago to promote my classes and mostly to have an e-mail address as a 'company' which I legal have, even if there are only 3 of us working. I have been using Dreamweaver as an editor along with free opensource applications I find and later adapt. So far it has worked well but I decided to make some changes.

1. Getting back to making a website

For a basic website a normal editor and HTML files along with a PHP send mail script are really perfectly adequate if not exciting, but over time things got difficult to update. In fact it was fun at first. I felt like a 18 year old again! :-)
Later It got frustrating. I eventually stopped using tables and started using CSS with DIVs. Keep in mind that CSS and DIVs didn't exist when I started. I now use CSS for everything. It does make things easier but not dynamic.

2. Website programming languages and their frustrations

I looked into Java, Javascript, and PHP but I really am not a programmer. If you don't make it perfect a PHP file just gives you a blank page! I don't see how checking for the missing quote or misspelled variable or extra bracket is supposed to be fun.

3. The need for more dynamic content that can be updated more quickly and easily

I really started to want something more dynamic
I noticed that we have CMS and LMS, and blogs... .whatever those are. I know that they existed but the first time I heard blog was around two years ago when once of my students asked what they were. I thought they were just glorified profile and picture pages for teenagers ... and I was right...
However I was also wrong. Blogs can also be independent programs used for many topics not only your rantings and trip journals but also news and review sites, etc.

4. Choosing Wordpress

I finally took the plunge only a few days ago and I decided to install Wordpress on my hosted server. I did it because I was posting updates to my website on a table which at first sounded good but really it became a pain. I'd have to add a row, type the date, save it and upload the file using FTP through Dreamweaver. First of all that is a slow process and second, it doesn't look very nice.
I thought I could do this with a blog!

5. Taking the blog plunge with Wordpress.... absolutely no regrets

So I had read up on different types of blogs. I knew I didn't want it to be hosted separately. I want to be in control and I want to be able to change the configuration as needed. I also didn't want to have to pay more for it since my funds are limited. I am very happy I went with Wordpress.

6. Wordpress is easy to install and configure. Use widgets to save time and write more!

Wordpress is easy to install and setup. You literally can be 'blogging' in minutes with only minimal configuration. The theme templates use CSS fil es, and there are lots of free themes available on the Wordpress website.
Wordpress also uses widgets. Widgets allow you to add special plug-in programs to modify the code and make it more dynamic. Widgets are great because it means you spend less time editing files and more time doing what you want to do.
It would have taken me all year programming to set up a working blog with many plug-ins in what took only a couple days using Wordpress. Best of all it is free! Using the blog I can post the 'updates' to my website and they automatically appear with the date and the category I choose.

7. Wordpress allows you to make 'pages' which you can link to your main page.

I noticed that you can also create 'pages' with static information and links which got me thinking.... If I can change the appearance, organize my pages, and make it more dynamic using Wordpress, why don't I see if I can do that for the rest of my site?

8. Wordpress has limitations, and other CMS, Content Management Systems, exist.

While I love Wordpress, I can see that it is limited when it comes to website development. I started looking into CMS, Content Management Systems (which also didn't exist years ago). I see that most people use either Joomla, Mambo, or Drupal. Yes, I know there is others, but if you use one that isn't popular, you'll have to wait longer to get updates and plug -ins supposing you get any at all.

9.  Joomla, Mambo, and Drupal ... oh my!

I read that Joomla came from Mambo and that they are very similiar but that the new version is different. Unfortunately the 'new' version that is supposed to fix all the problems I kept reading about, is only in beta. That leaves me with Drupal. Who names these things?

10. Joomla will have to wait since it is still in beta.

I really wasn't convinced by what I read online either. It really sounds like the developers don't care. There isn't a plug-in for integrating it with Wordpress either. I did read it is flexible and small and like Joomla there are many plug-ins. I can try Joomla CMS when the 'new' version is finally released.

The installation

1. Drupal installed using Fantastico

I used the fantastico installer provided by my webhost and it went well. I did have to download the update from the Drupal website and ran the upgrade.php as instructed. This is because the fantastic installer was one minor version off.

2. Minor upgrade and modules were installed.

The minor upgrade went without a problem.
I made sure I could log in and then started looking at the different modules (plug-ins) available for download.
I saw the ones I needed. I needed one for paypal, for donations and for translation payments. I needed one for google adsense to more easily work with that and I needed one for Amazon since I love reading.
I still have to test those to make sure they work. I'll let you know in another post how they go.
The modules seemed to more or less install and I went on to looking for themes. Those seemed to install ok too.

 3. The lack of Drupal themes

There aren't many themes if your compare Drupal with Wordpress.
I couldn't really find a theme that I liked much for Drupal whereas Wordpress has many wonderful themes to choose from. I want my blog and my website content to match even if they aren't integrated.

4. Chosen theme doesn't match but at least the colors do ... for now.

I picked one theme I had installed and stared playing with the CSS using Dreamweaver and I changed the colors to match a blog for the same site. The Theme's layout doesn't match at all. Only the colors match.
I edited the pictures to make a custom picture for the name of the site.

5. Which site is being used for the Drupal test?

I forgot to mention that I am testing Drupal on my new page http://crucialbusiness.com
Don't bother going there yet (if you aren't already) . I'm currently only using it for testing blog plug-ins and Drupal.
If it works, I will configure it Drupal for use on my main website which is http://portallanguageservices.com
which has activities for helping people learn and practice English.

6. Drupal's administrative panel is not very intuitive compared to wordpress.

One thing I don't like is the way you manage Drupal. While Wordpress has an intuitive administration panel that is very fast. I found Drupal's administrative options to be unorganized and unintuitive. It was like going from A Macintosh to IBM compatible computer all over again.

7. Adding links and categories is much more complicated using Drupal compared to Wordpress

While it is very simple to add a link or page to Wordpress I saw that I had to choose more options to add a link to Drupal.
What link? I linked The blog to the Drupal page. I will have to do the same later in Wordpress.

I noticed that Drupal doesn't have a WYSIWYG editor. What is the point of using it if I still have to edit my pages in Dreamweaver?
There was a module for installing one but It seemed awfully silly that one wasn't already integrated.

This message was written originally using Drupal's blog option but I copy/pasted  it to my Wordpress install since I actually know how it works :-)

I couldn't find a way to put in categories for the article in Drupal while Wordpress made it easy to add Drupal as a category.