Tag Archives | Web Hosting

Mitch in Print During 2008

Dec/22 in Personal, Web Hosting

This year, I set a new record for myself – I made it into print four times!  Now in this digital era, that might not seem like much.  Heck, it might even be a step backwards.  However, holding a magazine with an article you have written inside it still something that gets me all excited.

Here are all the issues of Ping! Zine that I have made an appearance in this year:

+ Download Issue 26 of Ping! Zine (.pdf)

+ Download Issue 27 of Ping! Zine (.pdf)

+ Download Issue 28 of Ping! Zine (.pdf)

+ Download Issue 30 of Ping! Zine (.pdf)

Hopefully they’ll have me back next year too.  If you have never heard of Ping! Zine before, it is a web hosting magazine for web hosting professionals and fans.  One of the two biggest out there in the hosting industry to date.

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WordPress

Dec/12 in Web Development Tutorials

By far, if you want the most bang for your buck, WordPress is the hottest blogging script out there today.  I have spent the past few weeks looking at a lot of WordPress alternatives, but when push comes to shove – thus far nobody does blogging scripts better than WordPress, in my humble opinion.

The install is simple, and famous for being able to be done in 5 minutes or less.  As far as features go, you have link management, post categories, tags, auto-saving of posts, categories, and more.  It would take me days to list them all.

Here is video of WordPress 2.7 doing what it does so well:

You have plugins and themes included too, which means you can customize and add features you might need, but the developers for got about. Here are a few more usual WordPress links that any WordPress fanatic should have handy:

I haven’t had much time yet to really play with an appreciate the newest version of WordPress yet, but from what I have seen thus far – WordPress 2.7 is a great improvement visually over the previous versions.  You can pick up WordPress via WordPress.org.

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A Wiki/Blog Hybrid in WikyBlog

Dec/10 in Web Development Tutorials

free-wikyblog Coming in today for review is WikyBlog.  It is a groupware platforms that fuses together the collaborative editing features with a user friendly design.  There are several features here to love.  Here are a few that the developers list on the main page:

Designed for speed and ease of use, WikyBlog has a unique AJAX enhanced tabbed interface that enables users to view and edit multiple files within the same page. Custom templates, file attachments, a flexible user privilege system, and Google Maps number among its many features.

To check out more features WikyBlog provides, visit the features list.  The install process does not look too complicated.  From what I could find, you just need to upload, create your database, and configure.  They do note you might need access to mod_rewrite and a .htaccess file too.  That should not be to hard to get setup on today’s usual shared hosting plan.

Want to give it a shot for yourself?  Check out the live demo on OpenSourceCMS.com.

All in all, WikyBlog looks nice if you are looking for a change, however the navigation interface confused me some.  Almost like they are trying to do too many cool navigational tweaks.  However, I would still suggest giving it a shot if you need a new way to manage and collaborate on your own blog.. err.. wiki… umm… WikyBlog!

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Flexible Blogging/CMS with Serendipity

Dec/08 in Web Development Tutorials

Serendipity If you are in the search for a PHP-powered blogging application that gives you an easy gateway into running a blog, online diary or even a complete web page – Serendipity is a free script worth checking out.

Looking over the fresh install instructions, the process looks pretty straight forward.  You upload, configure and get your blog going.  Some of the features include (but are not limited to):

  • Simple. Designed for users of all technical levels.
  • Robust Editing Interface. Featuring an (optional) WSYISWG editor, easily browsable image manager, extended entry support, entries statistics and a host of other features.
  • Threaded comments, Nested categories and posting to multiple categories are supported.
  • Anti-Spam / Comment moderation. Through use of a (bundled) plugin you can enable CAPTCHAs, SURBL-blacklisting, automatted comment moderation based on the content of a comment. Highly configurable.

Here is a little more about the blogging script from the developers:

Serendipity is a PHP-powered weblog application which gives the user an easy way to maintain an online diary, weblog or even a complete homepage. While the default package is designed for the casual blogger, Serendipity offers a flexible, expandable and easy-to-use framework with the power for professional applications.

There is also full support for both themes and plugins.  So extending Serendipity is an option, if you need a few more tools at your fingertips.  Also, be sure to check out the demo hosted over on OpenSourceCMS.com.

Want to know more?  Check out the FAQ.  I would highly recommend Serendipity to anybody looking for an alternative to MovableType or WordPress. 

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Small, Yet Powerful Blogging with Pritlog

Dec/06 in Web Development Tutorials

Pritlog sounds like a knock off cheese log you might be expecting to see from your great aunt Marie this holiday season, however I can confirm, right off the bat, that you are wrong.  Pritlog is an extremely simple (yet powerful) blogging script.

pmwiki-32 Some of the features included are:

  • Archive
  • Comments with users
  • Mail on Comments
  • Reddit
  • Pagination
  • Bbcode by editing html (work around)
  • RSS Feeds
  • List all comments

So it has a lot of the standard bases covered.  It also probably has one of the shortest install documentations I have ever seen.  Another interesting factoid is it does not use or need a MYSQL database and fully works based on flat files.

Have a sold you yet?  Pritlog is totally free and can be downloaded here:

http://hardkap.net/pritlog/pmwiki.php?n=Pritlog.Downloads

Check out the demo, and let me know what you think.  It might be too simple for some – but if you like easy and small, Pritlog is the way to go.

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LifeType is Your Blogging Solution?

Dec/03 in Web Development Tutorials

lifetype-blogging-help A “state of the art blogging solution” is how LifeType describes themselves.  For me, they were filed in the drawer labeled “blogging engines I had never heard of”.  It does a good job at covering all the blogging basics.  

They have ping and trackback, RSS, blogroll, permalinks, and come reading for moblogging too. 

How easy is it to install?  The installation process looks pretty straight forward.  Should be good to go on any Linux-based hosting setup with MySQL database support.

LifeType also has a very interesting history, as described by their about page:

The LifeType project started in February 2003 when its leader, Oscar Renalias, needed a set of dynamic scripts for his personal web page. Even though he did not know about the idea of weblogs back then, the outcome of the first iteration of the project already resembled one. A few weeks later Francesc, another one of the founding members, suggested that developing a blog with support for multiple users and blogs could be a better idea, and so pLog 0.1 was released on the 2nd of September 2003 featuring most of the features that are still part of the core features nowadays: multi-user and multi-blog from the ground up, template engine, localizable and extensible via plugins.

It seems it was also known as pLog for some time, but they had to drop the name due to trademark concern with Amazon.

Here are a few more links you may wish to have handy:

  • LifeType Templates and Styles – The styles for LifeType are fully customizable, so you can fix it up to suit any design need you might have.
  • LifeType Plugins – As with other blogging scripts (like WordPress) LifeType comes with the ability to add a number of different plugins too.

If you want to give it a whirl before you install, you can try out the admin and user interface demo over at OpenSourceCMS.

LifeType’s biggest feature is that they support multiple blogs and users in a single installation.  You can download LifeType via their web site, and if you have had any experience with it, I would love to hear your feedback.  Is it really the state of the art blogging solution it claims to be?

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Sales Advice – Learn to Highlight the Good Things!

Nov/10 in Hot Web Topics, Personal

If there was one basic idea of sales and how to work sales to your advantage when you are in a business, it would be to don’t sell what you don’t have.  Day after day, I see people who ignore this one simple rule for selling anything.  No mater if you are in web hosting industry, like I am – or you are selling shoes down the block.

Highlight the Good Things, not the Bad Things!

Now what do I mean by this?

You do not bring up the features you don’t provide.  Instead, you want to highlight the features that you do provide.  Take for an example, you sell cars.  The consumer comes to you interested in that truck out back.  Now, you don’t highlight the fact that the truck has no wheels.  You want to point out to the consumer that it has a fresh coat of paint, and an all new interior.

That may be an extreme example, but it gets the point across.  Now, I am not telling you to lie.  That would be wrong.  What you need to do though, is find at least three highlights on a product for every down side.  Let’s say I want to sell you a wired computer mouse, that has a ball in it.  Now, most people would say that thing is dated and past it’s prime.

Where can you find the positive in that negative?

  • It still works, just like it was brand new
  • Makes a loud noise when you click, so you know you the button is being pushed
  • It makes a great alternative to a wireless one, just in case you ever run out of batteries

You can not be a good sales person without being able to see that the glass is half full, and not half empty.  You have to be optimistic, because if you are not – do you think the customer will be?

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Yahoo! Web Analytics?

Oct/16 in Web Development Tutorials

Looks like Yahoo is following Google into the web analytics game.  If you visit http://web.analytics.yahoo.com/ you will see that IndexTools is now well, Yahoo! Web Analytics. What was Index Tools?  I don’t know either.

yahoo-analytics2

They are promising a powerful and flexible web site stats package.  Not much is known yet due to the only thing we have to go by is the web site.  I am excited to see that they are promising to get detailed reporting within minutes after and action occurs on your web site.  With other similar tools, you usually have to wait till the next day to get the best results.  Other features include:yahoo-analytics

  • Dashboards
  • Custom Reports
  • Advanced Campaign Management
  • Real-Time Segmentation
  • Scenario Analysis… and more!

So when can you sign up for this new tool?  Yahoo! Web Analytics will be made available to a wide range of Yahoo!’s customers, partners, developers and advertisers in stages throughout the rest of 2008 and into 2009.

Maybe my glass is half full, but I am excited about giving this a shot.

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iimmgg.com – bad name, good free hosting?

Aug/27 in Free Hosting

I have checked out my fair share of free image hosts out there, but nobody’s name has caught my eye more than iimmgg.com.  I’m just glad I’m not plugging this one on the podcast, due to the fact I am not even sure how to say that. 

screenshot_en

One funny thing I noticed was they have a notice on the upload page saying, “You must be at least 21 years of age.”  Of course they have no way of telling, so don’t worry too much. 

That offer visitor stats, gallery management, editing (via picnik), easy embedding and more.  Looks like all the basic “what should a free hosting service have” boxes have been checked.  After playing with it a ‘bit, iimmgg.com might have a bad name but I think it is yet another good free hosting solution for your images.

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Appreciating the Wiki Process

Jul/28 in Web Development Tutorials, Web Hosting

One of my most recent project I have been put in charge of for Lunarpages is building up a support site wiki for all of their customers to use.  Now as somebody who uses WordPress for just about everything – I was skeptical about moving over to the wiki format. 

I do have to say I think I am getting a grasp on how to move around, edit and customize a wiki.  Thankfully, there is a lot of good help and resource information on MediaWiki’s web site.  If you ever find yourself building a wiki this is one nice resource your going to be using over and over again for sure. 

One of the most helpful have been the post about categories, think I have that about mastered by now.  I haven’t even started looking at all the extensions though.  Have any other wiki advice for me as I tackle this new project of mine?

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