Web Concepts

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To learn more about this amazing offer, or to check out the one of four different gift cards we have available, be sure to go check out the Lunarpages Gift Cards site.

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Original post by Mitch

Today I have offered some help on Search engine optimization to a friend of mine. His website’s Google page rank dropped to P̶. I have suggested him to work with me on some interesting ideas, which would result in producing quite unique and interesting publications, that I expect many people to like. I have also […]

Original post by Your (optional) podcast author email address (http://hostingblog.♒wh.com/)

It is always good to search for ways to make yourself different from the pack, and one way to get that done is to perhaps provide your web site users thumbnail previews of the links they are visiting.  Snap Shots provides you with this new web site interactivity, and it is easy to setup.

The way it works is, after you have enabled it on your web site, you have the ability to make any text link to a number of "shots” that Snap Shots provides.  You could link to a thumbnail of the web site or a number of other cool services.  You have AudioShot for .mp3 playback, MapShot for embedded Google Maps, PhotoShot for images, RSS shot for an embeddable RSS reader.  The list goes on and on.

Here are some more great features of the Snap Shot service:

• Snap Shots uses your links to bring the most appropriate information about the sites you’re pointing to. Your audience doesn’t even have to leave your site to get the best of other sites.
• Snap Shares gives you a portion of the ads that appear in Snap Shots and lets you do what you wish — market yourself or share them with charity.
• Snap Shots Engage looks for certain key phrases within your site and connects them with the best content in the world. And you don’t even have to write a link.

Head on over to Snap.com to get started embedding more interactive content in your own web site.  It is a true efficiency tool that will save your users time.

Related Tips and Tricks:

• Enhance your Blog with Yahoo! Shortcuts
• Take Better Web Site Captures with WebSnapshot
• Quickly Create Free Online Polls

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

How much do you know about the Robots.txt file?  It can be a handy tool for any webmaster to know more about.  Here are some of the most frequently asked questions I get about this special little file.

What is the robots.txt file used for?

In web site development, the robots.txt file is used as a special file that can talk back to the search engine spiders and crawlers to tell them what to do. Here is a little more about them from robotstxt.org:

Web Robots (also known as Web Wanderers, Crawlers, or Spiders), are programs that traverse the Web automatically. Search engines such as Google use them to index the web content, spammers use them to scan for email addresses, and they have many other uses.

How do you create a robots.txt file?

All you have to do is create a basic text file (with the name robots.txt) in your public_html folder inside of your hosting account. You can create that from within your control panel or you can create it on your desktop, and upload it via an FTP client.

Can a robot ignore my robots.txt file?

Yes, but this does not happen that often.  Most good main-stream  robots will not do this.  So is there a way to block just the bad robots?  Kind of.  You can only control robots that obey the robots.txt file.  If that doesn’t work, you might also be able to block the IP address the robot is coming from (if they are coming from a single IP address). 

What should I put in my robots.txt file?

This would depend on what you want to do.

If you would like to make sure all crawlers and spiders make their way in, insert this into your robots.txt file:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

If you want to keep the spiders and bots away from your content in a particular folder, use this:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /privatestuff

With "privatestuff" being the folder you wish to protect.

How can I check to see my robots.txt file has been created successfully?

It is easy to check if your have an account with Google Webmaster Tools. To analyze a site’s robots.txt file:

• Sign into Google Webmaster Tools with your Google Account.
• On the Dashboard, click the URL for the site you want.
• Click Tools, and then click Analyze robots.txt.

How can I figure out where this robot or crawler came from?

You can find a good list of just about all the different robots out there here:

• http://www.robotstxt.org/db.html

That would be a good list to check first, when you have a robot crawling your site, and you are unaware where it came from.

How do you know you are being visited by a robot?

He will mumble something about klatu verata nikto.  No wait, that was my buddy Gort.  Often the sign that your being visited by a robot is that in your server logs you see many documents have been retrieved in a very short period of time. 

Hope that helps in your robot taming ways.  If you have any other questions, feel free to ask away.

Related Tips and Tricks:

• Five FAQs to Help You Make Some Money!
• Search the Lunarforums via Firefox
• A Clean Modern Font for Your Next Logo

&copy Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don’t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Did you know that Lunarpages has an affiliate program?  The Lunarpages affiliate plan is a referral service where Lunarpages will reward you with $65, just for spreading the word about Lunarpages web hosting, and getting your friends to sign up. 

Many in the web development community get asked everyday where they should host, and we want to give back to you for recommending Lunarpages web hosting to others.  With that in mind, I wanted to go over five frequently asked questions that will help you start earning money a little quick with this fantastic offer.

Do I have to host with Lunarpages to be apart of the Lunarpages affiliate plan?

No, not at all.  We have affiliate program members that are and some that are not actively using one of our hosting plans.  So hosting with us is not a requirement, however – we would always be happy to have you aboard!

How much does it cost to join the Lunarpages affiliate plan?

Not a dime!  You can sign up right now, and get started referring your friends to Lunarpages today. 

I think I lost my affiliate plan user name and password, how can I get them back?

Sure, you can always visit this page to get your login information resent.  All you have to do is type in your e-mail address, and click on the “Get Lost Password” button.  Also, please remember that if you host with us, you might have had an affiliate account already created for you, however you may have a different user name and password (in comparison with your hosting plan). 

How much could somebody earn by referring a person to sign up for one of the Lunarpages dedicated hosting plans?

Many know we offer $65 for regular referrals, however not many know that we also offer referrals for dedicated hosting too!  We offer a whopping $180 per dedicated server sale, so if you know folks who may be interested, let us know and we can assist.

How do you track commissions?

Every affiliate is provided with an Affiliate Tracking URL (or link) upon signup.  This link has a cookie attached to it, which remembers your unique affiliate username. When a customer clicks your link, the cookie is stored in their browser and follows them all the way to the signup page. After they purchase hosting, your commission of $65 magically appears in your affiliate stats! This is an automatic and immediate process that tracks every single sale you make.

That should cover the basics.  If you have any other questions, please feel free to drop in an e-mail to affiliate@lunarpages.com or give us a call at 877-586-2772 x4.  We’d be more than happy to help you earn a little more of the green stuff, for sure.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Also, don′t forget to follow @lunarpages on Twitter!

Original post by Mitch

Having a good idea what your web site’s keywords are is a great way to make sure you meta-tags are in order.  So how do you know what are the best ones to include?  Keywordle, will automatically suggest descriptive keywords for your web site. 

All you have to do is input the URL of the web site you wish for Keywordle to examine, and then hit the “Generate Keyword Suggestions” box.  After doing so, you will be given a plethora of keywords to use.  You can delete the keywords you don’t like and then export them in a number of ways.

You can export them as a CSV list (comma separated list), a text-based list, or as meta-tag code.  Now search engines don’t really weigh keywords as heavily as they used to, but they are still important to use correctly.  I would suggest keeping your list at 10 or less, just to be on the safe side.

Go visit Keywordle, and spice up your own web site meta-tags.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - Great web hosting with unlimited disk space and bandwith for only $4.95 per month? Check out the Winter Special!

Original post by Mitch