Web Concepts

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!

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blog25

Original post by Mitch

By Mitch “Link Crawler” Keeler

Finding broken or inactive links in your web site can be a painful thing for any big web site to do. If only you had your own little crawler that would check through all of the links to make sure that all of them were in working order. Well thankfully there is such a free program, or I would have lost my sanity doing this by hand a long time ago.

Xenu Link Sleuth is a free program, that does a great job checking web sites for broken links. Link verification is done on “normal” links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets.

Xenu Link Sleuth Pro: Makes a painful process a whole lot easier.

Xenu Link Sleuth Con: Could use a more user friendly interface.

Download Xenu Link Sleuth! | Visit Xenu Link Sleuth’s Web Site

If you need any help in installing or using the product, be sure to check their official web site for more information in that regard. I think that Xenu Link Sleuth is yet another freeware download you can not miss if you spend a lot of time and money managing your own digital empire on the Web.

+ Check Out More Freeware and Open Source Applications!

&copy Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blo⡕

Original post by Mitch

By Mitch "Mr. Organization" Keeler

There is no doubt that when you sign on the dotted line and get your hosting plan of any type, shape or size (you know, we do that sort of thing here at Lunarpages web hosting) you are given a lot of links to keep track of.  You have the link to your customer account page, to your own domain, to manage your domains.  Now the Customer Account Page does a good job for most at centralizing all your Lunarpages goodies but I thought I would share my way of doing things.

In your browser’s bookmarks make a folder named projects and a folder named admin.  In the projects folder I want you to create a new folder for each domain you are hosting.  Inside of this folder you would put all the links you want quick reference to (such as actual domain links, cPanel links, stats and more).  It should look something like this:

Projects Folder

     YourDomain1.com Folder

           - Control Panel Link

           - Actual Domain Link

           - Stats

Now if you put all the important links by domain inside of the projects folder then what is the admin folder for?  This would be for the domain links that you use the most.  For an example, if you installed WordPress you would be logging in there more often than cPanel, right? Just fill this folder with links for the admin interface for the scripts you have installed on your hosting account.  Here is an example of that:

Admin Folder

     - YourDomain1.com WordPress Admin

     - YouѶndDomain.com SMF Admin Screen

Then you can go on and on from there.  What organizational tips do you use to manage your own web site links?  I’d love to hear them if you have any that are really unique.  

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blog25

Original post by Mitch

By Mitch “The Developa” Keeper

When you talk about awesome tools for Firefox to make your web development job just that much easier you can’t overlook the Web Developer toolbar extension. The best thing about this freeware download is that it mixes two great things into a handy tool to keep close at hand (Firefox and the Web Developer tools).

Once installed the addon will add a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. You can mess around with CSS, forums, resize the window, view the source and more. For a total rundown it might be best to check out the official site for every single feature because there are just too many to name right here, right now.

Web Developer Pro: The king of the mountain when it comes to Firefox/web dev tools.

Web Developer Con: Kind of bulky toolbar, but can always be hidden away.

Download Web Developer! | Visit Web Developer’s Web Site

The Web Developer toolbar for Firefox is a must have for those of us out there that both use Firefox and spend a lot of time hacking away at web sites, trying to make them better than they were. It has all the tools you would ever want right there in one simple toolbar and it will not cost you a penny to use.

+ Check Out More Freeware and Open Source Applications!

&copy Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blog25

Original post by Mitch

By Mitch “All About the Tabs” Keeler

When it comes to having a solid navigation, that looks good as well you can get no better than a few well styled tabs. Now with the power of HTML and tossing in some CSS you can have awesome tabs on the side or top of your web page. With CSS Tab Designer though, you won’t have to lift a finger to get them made.

CSS Tab Designer takes all the hard work out of designing your own CSS styled tabs for your web site navigation. You can pick from over 60+ styles and colors, and it generates strict XHTML compliant code to copy into your domain.

CSS Tab Designer Pro: Makes creating CSS powered lists as easy as picking what you want and filling in the blanks.

CSS Tab Designer Con: I wish I could create a whole web site like this.

Download CSS Tab Designer! | Visit the CSS Tab Designer Web Site

Truly a unique freeware download, this software will help you create a CSS powered list and tab that will require you learning absolutely no programing or designing knowledge. When your friends and family go check it out, they will think you are a web designing master and as long as you don’t blab, you don’t have to tell them about our secret.

+ Check Out More Freeware and Open Source Applications!

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blog25

Original post by Mitch

I have gotten a handful of e-mails from people asking me to go over and explain blogging. From head to toe, first you need to find a blogging script to use, then you need to find the best way for you to blog and lastly you need something to blog about.

Blog and Content Management Scripts

Of course, to setup a blog you must first have a good blogging script or content management system. Here are a few of the best alternatives out there to choose from:

• WordPress
• Drupal
• AJAXPress
• CuteNews
• MovableType
• Textpattern
• Serendipity
• Joomla
• b2evolution
• blojsom
• Sblog
• Expression Engine
• blosxom
• Simplog
• Nucleus
• Wikiblog
• bBlog

Best Tools to Blog?

There are a number of tools out there that will help you to post to your blog. One of the best of the best out there (and yes, it even surprised me!) Is Windows Live Writer.

I can tell you from personal experience it is a superb companion to WordPress (because it is what I am using to write this, right now!). All you need to do is plugin your WordPress login info and address and it does the work for you. If you are using Firefox, then you might want to look at the ScribeFire addon.

(more…)

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blo⡕

Original post by Mitch

By Mitch “Better than a Newspaper” Keeler

There have been several little things to share going on here at Lunarpages, so let me see if I can sum things up:

Lunarpages February newsletter is out! There are tons of goodies in store for you too. You can browse though the links here or just visit web-hosting-newsletter.com for February’s issue and any past issues you would like to browse though.

Need a layout or design? Time to rejoice! Lunarpages now has an awesome designer’s directory.

In other news, Lunarpages has also started delivering Basic and Business plan customers unlimited addon domains. This is a feature that should come with all new orders and older customers will be upgraded to the new limit over the next several weeks. This is a feature you wanted, so we delivered.

The Lunarforums Site of the Month voting is underway. Be sure to vote, and check back on March 1st as I’ll come in on my day off to announce the winner. Really excited about the line up this month, and I am really looking forward for this to be a returning contest month after month!

Also don’t forget to check out our new free hosting downloads page to get tons of free and open source applications to help you with your own web site creations.

Be sure to check out the LunarNews post form this month’s newsletter to read up on more fantastic offers, upgrades, deals and specials from us to you.

© Lunarpages Web Hosting - $25 off Web Hosting! Coupon Code: blo⡕

Original post by Mitch

You can see the hosting video featured at Daw. It is about those so-called hosting directories who claim to be “hosting reviews sites” while just offer advertising for overselling hosts through affiliate networks or paid programs. This is something that makes web hosting to look “dirty industry” and produces unhappy site owners. Do you know which one […]

Original post by D.Avramov

The good thing about web hosting market is that it is competitive. It is not possible to wake up in the morning and to realize that your are stuck with your current web host and there’s nothing to do. Many people have this feeling anytime when they take a look at their new cellphone bills. The […]

Original post by D.Avramov