Did you know you can make a pretty good web site form with Google Docs? I have done so with both my Web Hosting Show ask a question page, and also the Web Hosting Show’s web hosts on Twitter page too.
How can you do the same?
Tag Archives | tutorial
Marketing with Mitch
I write all the time, but not often can I really look back and say I am totally happy, inspired and happy about an article. With that said, I wanted to share with you all a marketing article I wrote for this month’s Lunarpages newsletter. There is no confusing lingo, or talking over anybody’s head. Just straight forward facts anybody can use to market themselves.
3 Simple Ways to Market Your Business, Project or Web Site
Over the years, I have become a ‘bit of a marketing junkie. I am always checking out the latest trends, following successful marketing techniques and trying to figure out how each works. For those not as familiar with the idea, marketing is the process associated with promoting the sale of a good or service you provide.
Successful marketing can be the saving grace for a failing business. Here are three simple marketing ideas you can use to help your business, web site or project.
Be sure to drop in, leave a comment and let me know if you would like to see more “poor boy” marketing suggestions anybody can use.
Get Twhirl Setup to Update Ping.fm
You know I am having a good day when I can get two of my favorite services talking to one another. Another reason why I picked Twhirl as my Twitter client of choice is because of it’s easy integration into another awesome service I love to use, Ping.fm.
So how do you get the two to talking to each other? First, you need to open up Twhirl and wrench icon, which will open up the configuration menu.
Now, you will need to go down to where it says, “Post status updates to other services”. Click on the checkmark box next to Ping.fm.
Click the key icon next to the empty text box to go get your API key from Ping.fm. Copy it from the Ping.fm web site, paste it into the empty text box and then hit the “Save” button.
Each time you update via Twhirl, your updates should also to to Ping.fm which can in turn update Plurk, LinkedIn, Tumblr, FriendFeed and more. Now when your all done, you can come follow me @mitchkeeler.
Indiana Favicon and the Temple of Generators
What is a favicon? It is that tiny icon you see in most modern browsers, right next to your web address.
Think of it as a visual reminder for the browser of what site you are on. This is really handy when it comes to favicons in tabs, because you can quickly see and think “Oh, there is an ‘m’ there, and it looks like Mitch’s layout – that tab must be where I loaded Mitchelaneous.com”.
Favicon creation is not that hard, as long as you have a good graphic editing program. What you need to remember is keep it 16×16 pixels and name it favicon.ico. Also it will need to be in the root folder for the domain in question – so for example on most Linux-based/cPanel hosting plans for your primary domain name that would be your public_html folder. If it is located somewhere else you can specify a location with these strings in between your <head> and </head> code on your web page:
<link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/ico" href="/favicon.ico" />
Going back to the favicon creation, there are several good resource online to help you get this done quickly and easily. Here are some of my favorite favicon generators:
- FavIcon from Pics
- Dynamic Drive’s FavIcon Generator
- Favicon Generator and Gallery
- Anti FavIcon
- FaviconGenerator.com
- Favicon Editor
- Favicon Drawing Program
- Graphics Guru Favicon Generator
There you can quickly create, edit and download your own personal favicon to use. It cuts some of the work out of the overall chore of getting your favicon ready for public consumption.
Site Usage in Google Analytics
I have been using Google Analytics since its debut, and love it as a stats tool. I probably use it more than I have any tools built into a hosting account. Some people might be overwhelmed by some of the terms though, so to break it down I thought I would take a look at the first thing you see, the Site Usage section.
Visits – In Google Analytics, visits are the number of individual sessions initiated by all the visitors to your site.
Pageviews – With Pageviews, these are defined as a view of a page (inside of your web site) that is being tracked.
Pages/Visits – This number is an average of how many pages your average viewer are checking out inside of your site at a single time.
Bounce Rate – Once of the more confusing stats, it is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. The lower the number, the better you are doing.
Avg. Time on Site – Ok, maybe this one doesn’t need to be explained. It is the average time a visitor spends on your web site in a single session. The longer, the better (in most cases).
% New Visits – This is a comparison of new visitors with old visitors. It is always good to bring new people into the fold, but you also want to make sure you give people something to come back for.
Now, at least, you have a better idea of what those numbers mean to your web site you are tracking. Need help getting Google Analytics setup for your site? WebHostingShow.com has a great guide on how to get started.
Care to Ubuntu? Part 2
Hi again. Hope you all had a great holiday weekend. Hopefully, you’re getting over the last blast of the summer without too much pain. What do you say we pick up where we left off last week on the installation of the Feisty Fawn (Ubuntu 7.04)?
Running from Live CD or Full Install
Last week, I had downloaded the ISO file, burned it to a CD with DeepBurner and was preparing to install Ubuntu on my hard drive. Before we go much further, let me tell you that you can run Ubuntu right from the CD. That’s right! You can run it and all it’s programs right off the CD. It’s called a Live CD and this way you can check out Ubuntu without installing it. Now, you won’t be able to save anything as it’s a live CD and is read only. You would have to install it to do any of that but, the Live CD will give you the opportunity to see what all Ubuntu has to offer. It tends to run quite a bit slower than an actual installation so don’t let that influence your decision.
My installation went so smooth that I was left wondering why I hadn’t tried this before. As Ubuntu runs through the pre-installation process, it asks you questions like what time zone you’re in (it does this in a general way as my time zone was selected by way of Mexico which is CDT), keyboard preferences, language, and eventually, you get to the part where you get to decide where to install Ubuntu and how.
This can be frustrating to some as your average user (like me) normally wouldn’t have a clue as to what partition to install Ubuntu to. This is easily overcome because Ubuntu gives you several choices on how to install it. I chose to install it to my second hard drive and clicked next. The next screen allows you to review your choices and if they’re good to go, click install.
Taking Your First Steps Into Ubuntu
Now, because I still wanted to keep Windows due to the many apps/programs/files/junk that I had accumulated over the years I was a bit nervous by this point. Remember, I was a first-timer at this too at this point. Well, my fears were totally unfounded as Ubuntu recognized my other hard drive with Windows and asked for logon credentials to be able to access it. Sweet! Dual boot plus access right from the Ubuntu Desktop! Can it get any better than this? Oh yes…read on!
After the installation process completes, you remove the CD (it tells you to as it needs to reboot now) and when Ubuntu boots back up, you’re greeted by your new desktop. Right about then you’re presented by a notification that you need to update your new installation with around 148 updated files, apps and so forth. Just click the icon and follow the prompts. After it finishes you may need to reboot once more.
Now is where you see that you have a wonderful new desktop that is secure (no viruses to be concerned about, no malware), many apps to check out like Open Office (a M/S Word/Excel/Powerpoint substitute), Firefox (much better than M/S Internet Explorer), Evolution (a replacement for M/S Outlook) and many more apps and programs that are real similar to their paid for counterparts that run on Windows but are installed free on your new operating system.
Ubuntu Linux Resources
This site has an excellent tutorial on installing Ubuntu 7.04, although you don’t need to install all the apps/software that he does unless you just want to. Keep in mind that you can access your Windows drive from Ubuntu anytime you want plus having the option to boot into Windows can’t be beat.
These next sites address some neat information for those who want to know more about Ubuntu:
Now considering I was new to all this Linux stuff and was a bit unsure what to expect, I was impressed by the ease with which Ubuntu installs, updates, and operates. It’s so easy you’ll feel comfortable in no time. As a matter of fact, I’ve rarely booted into Windows at all in weeks! That’s just how impressed and at ease I am with Ubuntu now. That speaks volumes!
Next week I’ll go over some neat apps that Ubuntu has to offer that Windows also has. Call it a comparison or battle royale between the two operating systems. Either way, I think you’ll find it interesting.
Article by Scott Wilson – Scott has been involved with PC’s, operating systems and web development for around 6 years. Once he figured out how to turn a computer on he’s never been quite able to turn it back off again. He’s been continually adding to a weblog to help pass on information relating to the world wide web. You can find out more about Scott and his work at MerlinsMinute.com.
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Akismet Help and How-tos
The way it works is it checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not, then you can review if necessary.
Akismet Says I Need an API Key. Where Do I Get That?
WordPress.com has what’s called “API keys” which allow you to use services and enhancements built on the WordPress.com platform. This allows you to leverage the power of WP.com while still hosting your blog elsewhere.
All you have to do is sign up for a WordPress.com account, and you will get your API key to add to your Akismet settings so it will work.
I Deleted Akismet Before I Knew How Awesome it Was. How Can I Get it Back?
You can download the spam comment fighting plugin here:
http://akismet.com/download/
How Can I Show a Badge of How Many Spam Comments I Have Filtered Out?
If you want to put the Akismet fear of God into any spam commenters looking at your site as a target, just cut and paste this tag into your template:
<?php akismet_counter(); ?>That will display how many spam comments Akismet has caught for you.
I Am Getting a Akismet 2.1 Parse Error. How Can I Fix It?
You can find a fix here or better yet, upgrade Akismet to the latest version, which fixes this bug that was in the Akismet 2.1 release.
Where Can I Find More Help for Akismet?
Try searching the WordPress.org forums. Using the “akismet” tag, you are bound to turn up a lot of results to browse through too:
http://wordpress.org/tags/akismet