Monthly Archives: March 2009

Getting Started Chapter 1 – The Basics(Part-2)

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Originally posted on 12 February 2009

THE BASICS – Part 2

site traffic

This the 2nd part of the Chapter 2 of the tutorial series, I started long ago! Let’s get started.
From where we left was the functionality that the scripting languages provide.
Now in Part 2, we will discuss about the following:
1. Site traffic
2. Search Engines and other traffic sources
3. Optimizing your site

Site Traffic

Like you need automobiles on the road, the same way you need visitors or readers on your site. Amount to people visiting your website is usually referred to as site’s traffic. Actually, the motto of a site is to spread awareness about something. As the time will pass you’ll come to know that getting traffic to your site is the toughest job for a webmaster.

Search Engines And Other Traffic Sources

Traffic coming to your site needs to come from somewhere. There is very little probability that somebody, unknowingly, will directly type in your site’s domain name and reach to your site.
Some sources we will discuss in detail in the following chapters:
1. Search engines
2. Mouth to mouth advertising
3. Social networking
4. Blog commenting
5. Forum postings, etc.
Don’t think too hard, you’ll be familiar with these terms by the end of the tutorials.

Optimization of your site

Optimizing your site involves matching the current standards of the web. Making it compatible to various browsers, search engines, etc. And this what’s gonna help you build traffic.
Detailed info of all the topics will be in the upcoming chapters.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Getting Started Chapter 1 – The Basics(Part-1)

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Originally posted on 26 Nov 2008

THE BASICS – Part 1

www

Introduction

This chapter will make you familiar with a few terms which constitute the basic knowledge required for creating or getting started with websites.

Part 1 will include the discussion about the following terms:

1. Web Hosting

2. Domains

3. Web Pages

4. Scripting languages

Hosting

What is meant by web hosting?

Web hosting allows you to make your site available to anyone using internet. Your website can’t accessed without being hosted on a web server.

Kinds Of Hosting

1. Free Hosting – Hosting on a shared server(i.e. many sites on one server) with all the basic features. This is what you should prefer when starting.

2. Paid Hosting

1. Shared Hosting – Similar to free hosting but may have advanced features.

2. Dedicated Server – A server dedicated to your sites, you get a server on lease and you may use it to your own wish but under some conditions.

3. VPS (Virtual Private Server) – Its like a virtual dedicated server on a big server.

We’ll discuss about “how to use” in the following chapters.

Domain Names

Domain names are a specific identity or address to your website. How do they work? We’ll discuss this in the following chapters.

Web Pages

It is a document which is suitable for the internet can be accessed through a web browser when hosted on a web server. They are generally created using html and css.

Scripting Languages

These kind of languages are used to add functionality to web page. They help you create dynamic sites.

What are dynamic sites?

Using only html would create sites which will be static, ie. there will be no changes in your web page unless you do them manually. When dealing with dynamic sites, you can modify pages or part of pages using a scripting language in a single click. You see tags plugin in the sidebar of this site, it updates as soon as I post an article.

Hope you got what dynamic means.

Scripting languages offer high functionality

You should have seen some web sites which allow to register, login , logout, etc. and that is what I mean by functionality.

Continued in Part 2 . . . . . . .

Popularity: 21% [?]

Getting started with websites – Introduction

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Originally posted on 2008-11-24

Introduction

welcome-to-the-world-wide-web-sign

This is gonna be series of tutorials which will help you become a full-fledged webmaster or will surely get you started with this.

The Reasons behind this tutorial

I have a large amount of relatives, quite a big family. There is a cousin of mine known as Shivohm Gupta who wanted me to create a website for him similar to this one. But vow! I am not a freelancer, I do this for fun. After I used my right of refusal, he asked me to give instructions on how too do this on his own. Instructions on IM err…… So that’s what motivated to me to write this series.

Prerequisite knowledge

You should know how to use internet and your computer, of course. :P As we’ll start from the basics, nothing is really required. But if you know any kind of language like PHP, javascript, etc. well and good. Don’t know what do I mean by languages here- don’t worry, we’ll discuss about them too. :D

I really don’t know how long will this be but I will surely compile this in a form of ebook later. I might create a audio version too. Remember, I might! lol

Popularity: 21% [?]

A PHP and Mysql combination.

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Originally posted on 29 Jul 2008

Hi masters,

You see a site with same content, same design and same navigation, and opening in an .html extension. Well this is a static site.

On the other hand you see a site where everything seems to automatically done. These sites are dynamic and usually have and extension like .php, .asp, .jsp, etc. They look just like html pages but have several other features. Out of all the languages, php is the most sought after because it is light and has great functionality, and most important it is free. It can run on most kind of servers.

To make a site dynamic you need need a database along with your object oriented web developing language. For this, mysql is the best and is free too. Along with php, mysql is the most widely used database system.

Divyun.com is running wordpress which makes use of php and mysql. Php and mysql seriously rock and are the life of internet.

Biggest php rival

The biggest rival of php is asp and asp[dot]net. Though supported by microsoft they have multiple disadvantages:

1. They are slower than php.

2. The database used by them is ms-sql which is not free.

3. Not widely used.

So if you want to become a web developer, you should go for php and mysql.

Popularity: 19% [?]

3rd Open Source CMS award results are out

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ORIGINALLY POSTED ON 9 Nov

Well they were out a week ago, but I came across them today.

Since 2006, Packt Publishing has been organizing “Open Source CMS Award” for the best and deserving CMS.

The Award was split up into two main stages. The first being the nominations followed by voting. Nominations were open back in July 14 2008. Anybody was allowed to nominate a CMS. After a mother, the nominations were closed on August 25. Then, the Judges chose the finalists on the basis of the most number of nominations received and also on number of other factors including performance, usability, accessibility, ease of configuration and customization, scalability and security. Voting Began on 1st of September and ended a month and half later on 20 th October.

They had the following categories:-

1. Best overall CMS. -> The overall winner.

2. Most promising Open Source CMS. -> CMS which has the potential to become the best.

3. Best Open Source PHP CMS. -> The Best CMS written in PHP.

4. Best Other Open Source CMS. -> For CMS written in a language other than PHP.

5. Open Source MVPs. -> It is a new category introduced for the Most Valued People from Open Source Content Management Systems.

Note: The Category “Best Open Source Social Networking Content Management System” has taken a back seat this year.

Now its time for the winners:

1. Best overall CMS.

1. Drupal – Won this second time in a row.

2. Joomla! – Was the winner in 2006.

3. DotNetNuke – Replaced last year’s runner up CMS Made Simple for the third position.

2. Most promising Open Source CMS.

1. SilverStripe

2. CMS Made Simple

3. ImpressCMS/MiaCMS

Replaced MODx, TYPOlight and dotCMS who this last year.

3. Best Open Source PHP CMS.

1. Drupal – Defeated Joomla this time.

2. Joomla!, CMS Made Simple

e107 out of the list this year.

4. Best Other Open Source CMS.

1. Plone – Was the 1st runner up last year.

2. dotCMS

3. DotNetNuke

Mojoportal and Silva out of the scene this time.

5. Open Source MVPs.

A long list of 24 personalities including WordPress’s Matt Mullenweg, etc. Refer here http://www.packtpub.com/article/open-source-cms-most-valued-people-announced.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Can I be a webmaster?

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Originally posted on 28th july

Answer to this – Yup, you can be a webmaster.

Hi everyone,

Years ago when I started, people would laugh at me when I told them I can create a website. Well actually I was still a noob then and used to create some silly static sites made using frontpage and hosted on some poor quality free hosts. Well I really wasn’t a webmaster then. I was just a small scale webdesigner.

So what actually is a webmaster?

A Webmaster is a person incharge of a site. He should have all the qualities of a webdeveloper, designer, he should be able to SEO, etc.

How can you be one?

Just keep reading my blog. lol

You need several things for a site. Make a checklist before you proceed. Here is a sample.

1. A Domain or use a co.cc domain. Click here to get one => http://co.cc

2. Hosting. Go for a free one with a good space and bandwidth, mysql databases, cpanel[maybe], PHP5 will be good, etc. You may use my hosting services at aliengang.net [under construction] Just mail me at mail@divyun.com for free hosting.

3. An idea to work on. Like, you can make blog about yourself, make a community for you and your friends, create a site on a specific topic like aliens, etc.

4. Create your site using any free pre-made software or start from scratch.

5. Then, you need to work on search optimization of your site so that your site is indexed properly and you have to promote it too.

Well, this is all for now. If you are having trouble with any thing in my post, well, google is a webmaster’s best friend. I’ll write more about the things that will make you a webmaster.

Popularity: 12% [?]

How to change favicon in various cms?

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Originally posted on 2008-10-13

Well this is a little problem faced by lot of webmasters who are new to cms/ open source softwares.

Here are the steps for different cms:

Joomla-

Joomla directory> Templates folder> [Current Theme]> favicon.ico

Drupal-

Drupal directory> themes> [Current Theme]> favicon.ico

WordPress-

Drop the favicon in root.

Short one!

Popularity: 21% [?]

Your Web Site’s value (in dollar$)

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Originally posted on 31 october so the stats are quite old.

While wandering on web, I came across a site which helps you calculate your sites’s value or rather say, price. I searched for similar kind of sites, and was surprised to see the values they all show for divyun.com.

Here are the results.

1. http://websitevaluecalculator.com/

My site is worth $78.
How much is yours worth?

2. http://www.sitevaluecalculator.com/result.php?domain=http%3A%2F%2Fdivyun.com

Site Value
Calculator

Values this site at
$231

What is Your Site Worth?

3. http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.divyun.com

My site is worth $2730.2.
How much is yours worth?

4. http://www.cubestat.com/www.divyun.com

$2,483.46

Awkward right! All of them show different values. :O

Values vary between $78 to $2730 which amounts to a difference of $2652. An this is huge.

Now the question of the day:

Which one of them shows the correct result or is the most accurate?

Can’t say.

What are these based on?

They are based on ranks and stats from google, alexa, etc.

If you know the answer then mail me at “IKnowThis at Divyun dot com”.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Better and faster way to propagate your site without using nameservers

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Originally posted on 2008-11-06

Sorry for such a long title. :P

What you see written up there is pretty much true but unpopular. Most of the times webmasters tend to just change the nameservers which take days to propagate,and this becomes pain in their butts. Now written below is a faster way to do it.

The answer is A records. Yes, they usually take only few minutes or sometimes hours to take effect worldwide.

What are A records?(from Wikipedia)

They return a 32-bit IPv4 address, most commonly used to map hostnames to an IP address of the host.

How to implement them?

First of all, check whether your host provides you with Dns facilities. If they don’t, you should try editdns.net.

Steps:

1. Note the shared ip address of your hosting account. If you use cpanel then the ip address written on the fronpage. If you don’t use cpanel, then just do a dns lookup of your host’s nameserver and get its IP address. You can use network-tools.com for this.

2. Add the following three A records to your domain:

(a) yourdomain.com – ip address you noted in the above step

(b) www.yourdomain.com – same ip address (without this record www.youdomain.com won’t work)

(c) *.yourdomain.com – same ip address (without this you won’t be able to create sub-domains using your hosting account. “*” means a wildcard entry)

You are all done and your domain will be working in a few minutes or very rarely hours.

Advantages of using A records:-

1. Faster propagation of domain.

2. You have control of other records like MX, CNAME, etc. instead transferring your controls to your host.

3. Gives you ability to use services like google apps, live domains, etc. to the full extend.

Disadvantages:

1. You won’t be able to use email accounts at your host till configure your MX records or you always have option to use google apps whcich is free.

2. Just one as far as I remember :P

Note: You need to use AAA records if the ip address s IPv6.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 11% [?]

Automattic’s presses update!

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Originally posted on 2008-11-24

What is Automattic?

For a straight answer to this, I would they are the creators of wordpress. Their projects include:

* bbPress – Forum Software
* Akismet – An anti-comment spam system capable of integration with many blogging platforms and forums.
* WordPress MU – A multi-blog community system built on WordPress.
* Ping-O-Matic – A pinging service.
* Gravatar – Globally recognized avatars
* IntenseDebate – Commenting Tools

With WordPress 2.7 on just around the corner and 3 betas already out, wordpress 2.7 is looking big.

But today I want to write about another press which is budding under Automattic, its called Buddypress. I have tried it and have to say that it works great.

What is Buddypress?

Well buddypress is a set of plugins which transform an installation of WordPress MU(multi-user) into a social networking site.

Features(from buddypress.org):

1. Extended profiles- The extended profile component allows site admins to create specific profile fields for site members to fill in.

2. Private messaging- BuddyPress private messaging works like internal site email. Members can message people on their friends list as well as forward and reply to received messages.

3. Interact with friends- Members of a BuddyPress enabled installation can be connected together by one member adding another as a “friend” and then the other member accepting the friendship request.

4. Groups- Groups in BuddyPress are a gathering of members, blog posts, photos and any other user generated content.

5. The wire- The wire is a place where friends and other members can come along and post messages to a specific piece of content within a BuddyPress installation.

6. Activity Streams- Activity streams aggregate all of your activity across a BuddyPress installation. All of your friends activity is also recorded so you can check what others are doing on the site.

7. BLOGS- Allowing multiple blogs and multiple users per blog is a key feature to WordPress MU. BuddyPress preserves this functionality.

8. Status updates- Status updates in BuddyPress will appear on a member’s profile page. A member can update their status as frequently as they want to.

9. Photo Albums- Members of a BuddyPress installation will be able to create their own photo albums. These albums can be shared with friends and groups.

When will this wonderful plugin will release?

As stated on the site, it should release by the end of this year, 2008.

What does all this mean?

THIS MEANS THAT YOU CAN USE WORDPRESS AS A SOCIAL COMUNITY LIKE ORKUT, MYSPACE , etc. ENJOY!!!!!!

Popularity: 2% [?]