Web Concepts

The March edition of the Lunarpages customer newsletter is packed full of great web hosting news, tips and tutorials.  To top it all off, Lunarpages announced two new contests you can enter too.

• Some of the other features from this month’s edition include:
• Better Server Access Logs Come to LPCP
• Your Affiliate Web Hosting Checklist
• News on Google’s Real Time Search Future
• 20 of the Web’s Best News Sources
• and much more!

So do not hesitate any longer, go see what all the fuss is about, and read up about the latest Lunarpages news.  Go check out the Lunarpages web hosting newsletter!

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

Original post by Mitch

Lunarpages has been hard at work giving it’s customers even more great web hosting tutorials via the web hosting wiki.  The LPCP control panel has released a slew of new features, and the Lunarpages wiki has been updated so that you know how to use all of them.

Here are some of the newest tutorials we have to share with you:

• Server Access Logs in LPCP
• Error Logs in LPCP
• File Manager Help in LPCP
• Connecting to Databases in LPCP
• How to Create and Delete MySQL Users in LPCP

Also, we have added this guide as well:

• Google Attack Site Warning

As you know, your web site’s security is always a top priority to us too. 

Our LPCP team of developers deserve a pat on the back too.  Without them, this innovative web hosting control panel would have never gotten off the ground.  They are a brilliant bunch of developers, and deserve a mention and some praise.

I hope you enjoy these new web hosting tutorials – and if there ever anything else you want to see covered in the wiki, you can always e-mail us to let us know, or leave your suggestions in the comments.

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

Original post by Mitch

With 2009 ending, and 2010 starting up – now is the time to take a look back at some of the greatest tips, tutorials, guides and more we have published here.  Now you can catch that great post you missed the first time around, or revisit a tutorial you nearly forgot about.

Ready for the top ten?

Here is the best of the best blog.lunarpages.com had to offer you in 2009.  Hope you enjoy this trip back down memory lane!

Grab a Social Network Badge

Looking for some buttons to help promote your existence on the various social networks out there?  Try looking around at MySocialButtons.com.  These square badges would look great on any web site or blog.

• Get Social – Tips for New Facebook Users
  

Embed Your YouTube Playlist into Your Web Site

Thanks to relist.tv, you can now deliver a nice flash playlist player for your YouTube videos.  How does it work?  Well, after visiting relist.tv, you just fill out the options and then grab the code to copy and paste into your site’s design.

• Features! – YouTube Video Embedding Comes to Quicksite!

What is Your Bounce Rate?

Why is your bounce rate an important thing to keep an eye on, and better yet what the heck is your web site bounce rate? I will answer those questions and let you know the best ways to lower your bounce rate and get people staying on your web site a little ‘bit longer.

• More Analytical Help – How to Track File Downloads in Google Analytics

25 Most Popular Twitter Plugins for WordPress

Using Twitter in combination with your WordPress powered blog? There are tons of tools and plugins you can take advantage of to make that mix of micro-blogging, and regular blogging mix into a presentation anybody (and I am sure everybody) will enjoy.

• New to Blogging? – Check out the Best Blog Hosting Guide

Look Back at Great Web Hosting Scripts

On the Lunarpages blog this month we have been discussing some of the greatest scripts out there that you can install on just about any web hosting plan Lunarpages offers to you.  For those who might have missed it, here is a roundup of all the third-party script reviews we did over the month of November.

• Skin Support – 4 Great (and FREE) Themes for WordPress

Embed Google News into Your Web Site

Google is always coming out with some of the coolest web site enhancements around.  One new tool they are providing for free, for any webmaster out there to use is the NewsShow Wizard.  What does it do?  It allows you to embed your own Google News widget into your web site on any topic you might have in mind.

• Free Script – Customizable Flash Image Viewer

How to Save a Trace Route to a .txt File

When it comes to running a trace route, some people become confused on how you get that trace route from your command prompt window to your uber-friendly support team.  The easiest method would be to save the trace route as a .txt file, so you could copy the data, and paste it in your e-mail or help desk ticket.

• Network Speed – Best Web Site Speed Analyzers

60+ Links to Help You Learn CSS Web Design

I have had many people ask me what resources do I learn from, when it comes to being a modern day webmaster.  Now, there are many resources out there – but here are 60 of the best links (taken from my own bookmarks to your browser) to assist you in mastering the art of CSS in web design.

• More CSS Tips – CSS Round Box Generator

Free Background Images

In need of a new background pattern?  One new resource I stumbled upon this morning that would be perfect for your needs is Pattern8.  From this site, you can download, rate and review tons of tiled background images.

• Joomla Tips – 7 Great Joomla Template Resources

Home Grown Marketing Strategies

Where does customer service fit into the grand scheme of things, when it comes to planning a good marketing strategy?  Mention marketing to anybody, and they start thinking about sales, offers and deals.  While, they too are important, having a good customer service relationship also plays a key role.

• More Hosting Help – 10 Awesome Blog Clients to Help You Write

Happy New Year!

Thank you all for visiting Lunartics in 2009, and I promise 2010 will have even more great web hosting blog posts, marketing tips, script tutorials, designer guides and more. 

It has been my goal since day one to make this a resource both Lunarpages clients and the general public-at-large could get a lot out of, and I hope to continue that goal throughout 2010 and beyond.  Remember to come back, visit daily, subscribe to the RSS feed!

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

Original post by Mitch

Want to show off how many followers or members your web site has?  The perfect tool for this job, is the members gadget from the Google Connect service.  It shows a grid of photos for each web site visitor who considers themselves a, “member” of your online service.

So, where do we begin?

If you need help getting started with Google Friend Connect, check out our setup guide.

The first step would be to go to the Google Friend Connect page, and then click on the “Add the members gadget” link.

Setting up your Members Gadget

On the Members page, you can choose how you want your specific gadget to look and feel.  You can setup the size, colors and then grab the HTML code you will need to copy and paste into your web site template or layout.

Remember: Adjust the width and height here so that the gadget fits within your page. Members gadgets can be as narrow as 200 pixels, and have as few as 2 rows of faces.

Once you get it on your web site, your web site visitors can use this new web site tool to count themselves as a follower of your web site.

Make it easy for users to join your site and meet other users.  Add this members gadget to your own Lunarpages web hosting account today, and add a little more interactivity to your own web site.

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

Original post by Mitch

Want to make Sever Side Includes (SSI) work on .html web pages?

On a web hosting server, the .shtml has to be used when you use Sever Side Includes (SSI) on a server. You can override this behavior in your .htaccess file though.

To configure the server in a way so that on your hosting account .html files can use Server Side Includes, create a .htaccess file (or edit your current one) and add this to it:

AddType text/html .html
AddHandler server-parsed .html 

This will tell the server that it is, "OK" for .html files to use the Server Side Include code that you usually need .shtml files for.

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

Original post by Mitch

The holidays are fast approaching,  but have no fear because your favorite web host is here to help you with your web hosting woes.  Issue 27 of the Lunarpages customer newsletter is out and ready for reading!  What all do we have in store for you this month?  Here’s a sample of what we are leaving under your tree.

• Lunar News – December 2009
• Give the Gift of Web Hosting
• Xen Power Added to Lunarpages VPS Hosting
• Half Price Flash Template Designs
• 3 Simple Ways to Market Your Business, Project or Web Site
• Add Instant Retweeters to your Web Site Layouts
• Intel Core i7 Dedicated Servers at Lunarpages
• Lunar Picks – How Do You Celebrate the Holidays?
• How to Add a Badge and Earn Some Cash!
• Wiki-tastic Web Hosting Resources

Also, don’t forget that last holiday bonus.  When you order a new hosting plan, from now until Christmas, you can get $50 off your order!  If you have been planning on launching a new web site or getting that delayed idea off the ground, now would be the time to get a hosting plan for it.  Check here for more details on how to claim your Christmas web hosting coupon.

From our families to yours, we all hope you have a very happy holiday season this year, and remember to send your newsletter feedback to us, via the forums, by e-mail or in the comments!

Related Tips and Tricks:

• Save $72 on Business Hosting at Lunarpages
• All the Lunar News That is Fit to Print
• Create Your Own .htaccess with LPCP

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

Original post by Mitch

On the Lunarpages blog this month we have been discussing some of the greatest scripts out there that you can install on just about any web hosting plan Lunarpages offers to you.  For those who might have missed it, here is a roundup of all the third-party script reviews we did over the month of November.

Best phpBB Web Host Out There?

Could Lunarpages in fact be the greatest phpBB web host out there?  I would say so.  For those of you who do not know, phpBB is one of the most widely used open source forum solutions to date. 

Magento Hosting Comes to Lunarpages

As a professional and open-source e-commerce solution, Magento is offering your online store access to unprecedented flexibility and control.  You can also get it up and running here with Lunarpages, if you are using one of our new LPCP controlled accounts.

Hosting with osCommerce

One of the most widely used shopping cart scripts out there is osCommerce.  It gives the shop owner an open-source online e-commerce solution.  You might have already known that, however did you know a number of our web hosting plans come with a way to get it installed in a single click?

Get bbPress Hosting at Lunarpages

Yesterday, we took a look at WordPress, so today I figured we would check out it’s message board (and less popular) brother from another mother, bbPress.  Forum software can often be slow, bloated and filled with holes – however bbPress is the total opposite. The focus is around being easy to use, speedy, and compliant.

Vanilla Web Forum Hosting at Lunarpages

Lunarpages fully supports the lightweight and simple Vanilla forum script.  What is Vanilla? It is an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, fully extensible discussion forum for the Web. While it is not supported via the cPanel’s Fantastico or LPCP’s WebApps manager, the script is simple enough for anybody to download, setup and install in minutes. 

E-Commerce Hosting with Zen Cart

The free, user-friendly and open source shopping cart software, Zen Cart is perfect for any e-commerce web site hosted at Lunarpages.  With the thoughts of shop owners, programmers, designers and more in mind, Zen Cart is one of the best third-party shopping cart scripts out there.

PHPlist Hosting with Lunarpages

One of the world’s best open-source newsletter managers can be installed a number of different ways, here at Lunarpages.  PHPlist is a free script that will handle all your  newsletter or mailing lists for you.  It is downloaded over 10,000 tie per month – and is possibly one of the most popular open-source scripts.

WordPress Hosting at Lunarpages

All this month, on the Lunartics blog, we will highlight some of our favorite third-party scripts.  From image galleries to message boards, there will be a little something for everybody.  To get things started, I thought I would discuss with you why WordPress is my absolute favorite blogging script.

SMF Web Hosting at Lunarpages

Possibly one of the best forum scripts out there to date, Simple Machines Forum, is more than welcome to be hosted here at Lunarpages, on many of our web hosting plans.   It is a free, professional grade software package that will have you setup with your own online community in just seconds.

Get Your Joomla Hosting on at Lunarpages

The award winning content management system, which enables you to build web sites and powerful online applications is more than welcome at Lunarpages.  Joomla is all that, and so much more.  For people looking for an easy to use and powerful script to manage their digital empire, Joomla is a good way to go.

For more help with third-party scripts at Lunarpages, be sure co check out our web hosting wiki.

Related Tips and Tricks:

• SMF Web Hosting at Lunarpages
• Vanilla Web Forum Hosting at Lunarpages
• Get bbPress Hosting at Lunarpages

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

Original post by Mitch

Over the past year or so, a lot of people have enjoyed the write-up on how to create your own .htaccess file from within cPanel, so I figured I would give the same sage words of advice for everybody out there using the LPCP control panel.

To create a .htaccess file in LPCP, log into the LPCP, and then go to your File Manager. Click on the text link labeled, ” public_html” to navigate yourself inside the public_html folder.

Now, in the empty text box to your upper-right type in .htaccess, make sure the drop down box is set to “File” and then hit the button labeled, “Create”.

Your .htaccess file will be created in your public_html folder on your LPCP powered account.

• Find out how to manually create and upload the .htaccess file to your web hosting account!

For more LPCP help, tips, tutorials and more, be sure to check out the web hosting wiki.  Over 340 guides have been published there to help you get more out of your web hosting account at Lunarpages.

Related Tips and Tricks:

• PHPlist Hosting with Lunarpages
• SMF Web Hosting at Lunarpages
• E-Commerce Hosting with Zen Cart

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

Original post by Mitch

The free, user-friendly and open source shopping cart software, Zen Cart is perfect for any e-commerce web site hosted at Lunarpages.  With the thoughts of shop owners, programmers, designers and more in mind, Zen Cart is one of the best third-party shopping cart scripts out there.

You can easily install Zen Cart one of three ways.  We give the option to install manually, through LPCP’s WebApps page or cPanel’s Fantastico page.  The process is simple, straight forward and to the point.

If you need to see example of Zen Cart powered web sites, you can check out Zen Cart’s showcase page.  OpenSourceCMS.com also has a hosted demo of the shopping cart script on it’s web site.

Here are a few more Zen Cart tutorials that should come in handy:

• How to Move Your Zen Cart Install to Lunarpages
• How to Reset the Admin Password
• How Can I Upgrade Zen Cart Manually?

You can find more how-to articles in our web hosting wiki.  The third-party scripts and services section of the Lunarforums should also come in handy if you run into a problem.

November is Lunarpages Script Month!

Keep watching the Lunartics blog all throughout the month on November for even more third-party script suggestions, tutorials, tips and more.  You can also get tons of information and details about just a handful of the third-party scripts we support on the web hosting wiki.  We also have a special forum dedicated to third-party script discussions over at the Lunarforums.  Subscribe today to the Lunartics RSS feed for instant updates when we release a new script suggestion!

Related Tips and Tricks:

• SMF Web Hosting at Lunarpages
• PHPlist Hosting with Lunarpages
• Get bbPress Hosting at Lunarpages

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

Original post by Mitch

One of the world’s best open-source newsletter managers can be installed a number of different ways, here at Lunarpages.  PHPlist is a free script that will handle all your  newsletter or mailing lists for you.  It is downloaded over 10,000 tie per month – and is possibly one of the most popular open-source scripts out there today.

PHPlist is fully installable via cPanel’s Fantastico, the LPCP WebApps, or by downloading it and installing it manually.  Here are a few more features that it includes:

• double opt-in subscription mechanism
• scheduling
• RSS
• list segmentation
• click-tracking
• attachments
• bounce management

Here are a few more tutorials on PHPlist to help you out:

• Changing E-mail Sending Rates
• Configuring E-mail Sending Rates
• How to Create a Custom Subscribe Form

To learn more about PHPlist, be sure to check out their official web site, the support page for PHPlist and the official PHPlist documentation. If you need anymore help – you can always turn towards the Lunarforums too:

• Lunarforums – Third Party Scripts and Services Forum

It is easy to see why PHPlist is possibly the best mailing list script out there.

November is Lunarpages Script Month!

Keep watching the Lunartics blog all throughout the month on November for even more third party script suggestions, tutorials, tips and more.  You can also get tons of information and details about just a handful of the third party scripts we support on the web hosting wiki.  We also have a special forum dedicated to third party script discussions over at the Lunarforums.  Subscribe today to the Lunartics RSS feed for instant updates when we release a new script suggestion!  

Related Tips and Tricks:

• SMF Web Hosting at Lunarpages
• Get bbPress Hosting at Lunarpages
• WordPress Hosting at Lunarpages

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

Original post by Mitch