There were 20,000 web hosting companies worldwide a few years ago. Today they probably are more than 100,000… At the same time there is not standard criteria which newbie site owners can use when choosing a web host. I know there are tons of “how to choose web host” articles. This one is not one […]
Original post by Your (optional) podcast author email address (http://hostingblog.b10wh.com/)
By Mitch “Yipee!” Keeler
Now I know many of us have used Google’s Webmaster Tools section a time or two, and maybe even submitted our own site map to it. Did you know though that you can do the same with Yahoo! search? The Yahoo! Site Explorer is one way to make sure that Yahoo! knows you are on the web and ready to be indexed.
One really cool thing is that they allow you to submit your RSS feed to be crawled too. You can also setup dynamic URLs. There are up to three dynamic parameters that you want Yahoo! to treat specially whenever these are seen in URLs belonging to your web site in question. Think of it as redirects that only Yahoo! can see.
All in all, I would say the Yahoo! Site Explorer is another “site stuff” bookmark you should be sure to submit yourself to.
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Original post by Mitch
By Mitch “Tutorial Finder” Keeler
Now that the WordPress Design Contest (version 2!) is on its way I have been getting a lot of questions that sound a lot like this one: I want to enter the contest, but I am not sure exactly how to create a theme for WordPress? As long as you know some things about web site design, CSS and working with templates - you should have little to no problem at all. Here are a few tutorials though to get you started with the theme design process:
WordPress.org - Theme Development
WordPress.org - Designing Themes for Public Release
Wordpress Tutorial: How to Create a Wordpress Theme
So you want to create WordPress themes huh?
How to Create a WordPress Template or Theme
Have any other favorite WordPress theme tutorials you would like to share? Feel free to drop them into the comments!
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Original post by Mitch
By Mitch “Monochrome” Keeler
Move over Google Docs and Zoho Writer, there is a new word processing application online. Feast your eyes on Writer, the Internet typewriter.
No logging in, complicated menus or any of that jazz. This is the first lightweight online word processor I have run across. Just because it is lightweight doesn’t mean it is short on features though. You can setup a new document, save, get word count, send it to others, download and print your written words.
So is this just one out of many more to come like it? I’ve always been a big fan of your lightweight writing programs and this online counterpart looks very compelling as well.
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Original post by Mitch
By Mitch “THE April Fool” Keeler
I have to say there have been a lot of “creative” stories Online today. Here are some of the best (or maybe the worst depending on how many you have seen) April Fools 2008 stories so far.
I love April Fools Day! Seen any other good ones?
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Original post by Mitch
By Mitch “B-Ball” Keeler
The latest and greatest release of the hosting industry’s greatest newsletter is out and ready for reading. Lunarpages Newsletter, Issue 8 is ready for the masses.
In this month’s edition web have just for you packed in some of the best of the best:
Won’t cost you a cent to read, and you can keep coming back for more. Please feel free to leave us any and all feedback on it, and also we want to hear your suggestions for Issue 9 coming to an inbox near you, this April!
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Original post by Mitch
By Mitch "Loves CSS" Keeler
I am always in search for tools out there that will make the webmaster’s job an easier one. One of the most recent ones I have run across is called TabCreatr. The web site is still in "alpha" release, but already has a lot to love. All you need to do is visit the page, and click on the link to Start TabCreatr.
From there you choose from a selection of drop down boxes and options how you want your tabs to look.
After you are done, just grab the code and you are ready to go. Know of an easier way to create a tabbed navigation from scratch? TabCreatr almost makes the whole CSS design process too easy!
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Original post by Mitch
By Mitch “Q & A” Keeler
As some of you may know, Joomla is yet another one of the great free content management systems out there from the Web that you can install and use to make your web site even better. It adds management options you never thought you wanted or you never knew you needed. Over the weekend though I got a Lunartics reader asking me where could they find some templates and themes for this CMS king?
Here are a few of my suggestions for theme databases for Joomla powered web sites:
Have any more good ones? Feel free to send them my way or drop them in as a comment. Would love to get a few more opinions on where the best places are to get Joomla themes are.
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Original post by Mitch
By Mitch "Self Helper" Keeler
The question is, "How do I make my web site better?" and the answer could be given to you many different ways by many different people. There are often seven rules I tend to live by when it comes to webmastering, so I thought I would share them with you so that you too can learn from my own trial and error.
1. Look towards your friends - Many people overlook their friends as people who can help with their web site. You can use your friends to write up content for you, hire them for work (design, writing or other) or even just ask them to spread the word around about your online resource.
2. Update on a schedule - You need to find a schedule for updating your web site and stick with it. If your web site it static (not updated often) then you might be able to get away with checking up on things every two weeks or so. If you have a lot of content being posted though, you need to set aside a certain time to work on the web site.
3. Do it right the first time - Don’t half way do things right and then think, "well, if it becomes a problem I can always fix it later" because chances are later will never happen because you’ll find something else to fill your time with. Even if it takes a little more time, doing it right the first go around might save you on time and aggravation later on down the road.
4. Branch out your ideas - Don’t be afraid to branch out to related topics. For an example, if you are running a web site about shoes and you want to add some more content to your web site, then why not talk about shoe laces or those gel thingies you stick in your shoes to make them feel better? Find areas you can branch out in so your idea well never runs dry.
5. Find others like yourself - You can’t run a successful site these days without socializing yourself. Get out there virtually or in the real world and meet others who do the same thing that you do. Talk about how they cover things, how you cover things and you might even build a business relationship that will benefit you later on down the road.
6. Don’t waste time on design - Having a aesthetically pleasing to the eye is a grand idea to be apart of, but if you have all cosmetics and no guts to your web site, then you are left with 9/10 of the Baywatch life guards.
7. Features are nice, but content is king - I feel like I have given this last tip the most, mainly because I would consider it the most important and if you can hit this proverbial nail on the head with your webmastering hammer you don’t need me helping you. Make sure the content you have is not just there to take up space. Make sure it is both quality filled and that somebody is getting something out of it. Check out each of your pages, and if you can’t say that somebody is better off by reading your page then you need to ditch it or re-work it till it is serving a purpose for the average user.
One more suggestion, not on this list, that I can share with you is have a passion for what you are doing. If you are working on a web site of any kind, and you don’t care about it - it will show in your final product. You have to think of your web site as a child of your own, and treat it as such. Take care of it right, and it will grow to become a success, no matter what your final target might be.
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Original post by Mitch
By Mitch "WordPress Guru" Keeler
WordPress might be one of the more popular blogging tools and scripts out there today, but there are still many unanswered questions about it. Over the next few weeks I thought it might be a good idea to tackle some of these questions right here. If you have a general WordPress question that has been keeping you up at night, feel free to send it my way to mitch.keeler@lunarpages.com. Make sure you put in the title "Lunartics WordPress Question" so I can be sure to see it and also include your name and your Lunarpages hosted web site (if yo have one).
As an example, lets tackle the question of changing your blog’s title.
To change the name or title of your blog, you will need to login to the WordPress admin interface, usually found at:
yourdomain.com/wp-admin/
From there, click on Options and then the General tab.
To change the title of your blog, find where it says "Blog title:" and put your own title into the text box next to it. You can also change your in the text box under your title box. Once you have done that, hit the "update options" button and you are done.
Remember to keep your questions general if possible, so that way everybody can get something out of the answer. Have a WordPress question? Send it my way and see it answered right here!
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Original post by Mitch