Hosting & Webmaster Tips

mod_rewrite

2005-12-27T04:13:00.000+02:00

mod_rewrite or URL Rewriting offers a lot of possibilities for SEO and Statistics.

Basicly, URL Rewriting is a marketing dream come true!
You can transform read.php?aid=5823&mode=search&full=1 into this:
search_business_101_secrets_full.htm !

Now, this gives a added bonus to your SEO efforts, adds a lot into that, but that is not all, i found that perhaps even of greater value is that now i see in my statistics:
business_101_secrets_full.htm 375 Views
Instead of:
read.php 3 485 393 Views

Now you are able to see specific articles right from your AWStats/Webalyzer or any else web statistics analyzation system!
By default the get values, aid=5823 etc. are not saved into logs, so these cannot be analyzed, but
now you will seemingly have different page for all your articles!
Think about the benefits of in terms of Marketing Enhancements!

Now about the implementation then?
Some systems, like Wordpress comes stock with mod_rewrite capabilities, some systems like
4images & phpBB2 has mods for this.

The problem with 4images mod altho was that you needed yourself to change the linking style of 4images to this style, the mod was just to allow these kind of URLs, this might be a lot of work, but with some PHP knowledge not hard at all.
in the case of 4images, you just search all the files for references to:
categories.php
details.php etc.
and change them according to how you want to.

URL Rewriting rules are defined in the .htaccess file, and uses Regular Expressions to form the URLs which are rewrited.
It takes a little bit of learning, but isn't too hard.

Now, go and enhance your website marketing!

Free & Public articles, save the time of writing your own ones!

2005-11-15T22:45:00.000+02:00

We all know that even the most productive writers can write perhaps couple articles per day, right? You know the ache & pain to get creative and get more articles written to have fresh content?

Well, there is some 'bandaid' available!
There is websites dedicated to free content, and here is couple ones:
GoArticles
eZineArticles

Now, they are very wide spread articles, well some of them, and there lies the risk also: for example it's rumoured that google punishes for content which is duplicate of someone else's content, not good, right?

If you use content like that ALONE, and no unique content it would be bad, but if only part of it is the same, so what? Google as far as i know doesn't punish for RSS feeds either, so it should not punish for those neither!
Just remember it's only a rumour that it punishes, and we see many of sites using this kind of content doing really well, that particular site is a bit that way too, it's not directly a free content & articles place, but in truth it is. and they do well :)

Another good thing about this is that you can write your own articles, and submit them to those websites and others will use your article(s)! Talking about tons of inbound links!

Yet another good thing for browsing around them is that it will actualyl give you lots of ideas, and you might come up with an nice article idea too :)

When you use, just remember to add the biography box, or some people will be really angry to you! I know i would!
I google now and then to see if my articles has spread, and it's nice to see my article being used here and there :)
Lately i wrote an article which i added to GoArticles and it were for sometime 2nd most popular in hosting category, wohoo! ^^
After a few days, i found already 4 or 5 websites having that article and featuring it off, i got a nice feeling about :)

Also, when you use these articles, remember to qualify them well! Don't add just anything, but actually go thru the articles, read them thoroughly, and only pick the best ones, don't flood your visitors for underqualifying articles.

RSS or Really Simple Syndication

2005-11-02T10:18:00.000+02:00

this time it's ALL about RSS & Blogs!
RSS is very good for "pinging" other places that your site has new content, and bringin in new visitors for basicly free :)
Who wouldn't love free visitors?

Anyways, see for example RSS feed of Life of a webhost blog at http://life-of-a-webhost.blogspot.com/atom.xml, people can use that to syndicate new content there :)

Now grab yourself syndication of this blog also! it's named like the another one: atom.xml, and you can easily use it at your own webmaster related website to give your users more content, fresh & informative :)

Most CMS's, well anyways all the good ones and worth your while, has built in features for showing RSS feeds and giving other's your RSS feed.

Also, google for RSS feed announcer sites, which collects & categorizes RSS feeds from all around the web, yet another easy way to give your visitors more content, or find something which intrests you :)

Now, why it would be good to give other's traffic? Well, you know partially why blogs do so amazingly well? because they are generous linkers! and it REALLY pays off by bringing you MORE traffic! Some webmasters see your blog in their referrerring sites list, they might just add you a link just to appreciate the traffic you are sending to them, and on other perspective, visitors come back to your blog because they know they find quality content & fresh links to more quality content, well not daily, but as often as your blog is updated!

Now turn your website a little bit to that fashion and get more visitors! :)

Photoshop tutorials directory

2005-11-01T02:36:00.000+02:00

I just made a photoshop tutorials list blog to here also!
See it here!

I will feature there only the nicest tutorials available, with a twist for you webmasters!
Today i added there 1 website template tutorial and 2 photo manipulation tutorials.

No, wait a sec, for what a webmaster needs to know about photo manipulation? Easy! You want to feature people or photos in your template, but first you need to modify them a little bit? Well, there comes in photomanipulation! Make the chick look hotter, make the guy look more muscular!

Oh yeah, and google FINALLY indexed these two blogs, this & life of a webhost one! :)

Acquiring a website template and choosing a good one

2005-10-25T20:42:00.000+03:00

Website templates & layouts, you ask, yes?
There are a lot of different kind of website templates etc.

Also, how to choose between Free website template and Paid website template?
You should account in that if you are aiming to get cash from your website, how long it would approximately get to cover your template fees?
If the template fee is fastly covered and it enhances your website enough, then sure go for a paid one!
It's a "simple" ROI(Return on Investment) calculation :)

Couple places to acquire templates is:
TemplateMonster <-- Only paid templates
ArticHost Premium Templates <--- Registered users get 1 free website template at the moment

Following contains a lot of free ones or are sites with only free templates: FreeWebTemplates.com
Templates Resource Free Web Templates
Free Photoshop Website Templates <-- these are some real quality too! :D

Some of the differences are something you perhaps wouldn't instantly think about: TemplateMonster templates are recognizeable, while acquiring templates from a place such as AH is completely different, and hard to recognize!
Also the price is quite different, and the type of the templates. AH doesn't offer such a "numedia" or "multimedia" like templates, but more like functional, basic ones which are easy to read & emphasis on the content & it's worth.
especially, while their templates are quite nice to look at, they differ from the masses! While TemplateMonster templates are more of eyecandy, only short snippets of content here and there, a lot of trickyness to make the user to look at specific spots (ie. what you are selling) instead of the real content.

It's your choice which you want more: Content Rich, or Eyecandy. From Marketing i know this: Sell Time is Not Show Time.

Make emphasis on the offer you have, choose a template which will get your IDEA out the best, and most notably, whether one it might be. Take your time in picking out a website template, take a closelook at your closest & best competitors on what kind of they have.

I'd recommend choosing the same or very close to same basic layout as your best competitors, but better looking, somewhat enhanced.

There is no AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) templates floating around yet, but i wouldn't wonder if there would soon start to appear such ones. For examples of AJAX driven websites: start.com and Gmail

Enhanced version of Babes Galore

2005-10-23T19:04:00.000+03:00

more on the "dormant pages", i made an enhanced version of Babes Galore.
What's in it you ask?

Well, i added sending pictures to mobile phone, and i put it on different address:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/supersexyandjuicyass/

It costs for the user 2€ to get the picture on his cell phone, i'm getting ~34-38cents per image.

Checkout txtNation if you want to do this also, they have other mobile services also, and can offer content etc. also. Take a peak, recommended to check out :)
Hell, even signup just to see what they can offer. I tell you, this is awesome service!

On, Wallpaper Haven i can get 1 sale per 1,000 unique visitors at the moment, giving currently .37€ per each, so CPM is quite high :)

CPM on pageviews is completely different story altho: 8,000 pageviews per sale at the moment, bringing CPM to: 4.62 euro cents. But then again, it does add nicely on top of your website revenues :)

Currently i'm also testing Adult Friend Finder for WPhaven to see if it could bring in some results also :)
Just started so we got to wait atleast a month to see what kind of results it's bringing in.

On other news, Babes Galore have brought in already 4 visitors directly to wallpaper haven in these couple days, and not yet even listed on google... Hmm, let's see what happens in a month or so, when it gets listed on google, and hopefully starts bringing in some visitors ;D

Dormant, advertising pages etc.

2005-10-21T16:15:00.000+03:00

I would remind that, it can be efficient to put here and there in the web some sites which have some content and your link on it.

Just make sure it's quality content, the page doesn't need to be updated regularly or anything, if it's just something people want to see :)

here is a example: http://www.freewebs.com/babesgalore/NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
See, it's all about 1 single babe, there is some banner advertisements and links to this website: Wallpaper Haven

No doubt it's all about advertising that particular website, but offered in a nice package of content, i know i want to see those pics over and over again :)

One page like that might not generate more than like 10-20 uniques per day, but think about if you have 100 of them, 1 000 to 2 000 uniques per day!
How long it takes to create one such a page? Couple hours! Not bad tradeoff?

It takes a while to take off & start generating, this type of pages aren't as good as regularly updated pages, but they do generate also, and especially good for the long term! :)

Blog created & First steps on getting your own REAL website up & running!

2005-10-20T15:26:00.000+03:00

Hi there!

This blog has been just created, and here we go for the first step in getting yourself a "proper" website!

What's a "proper" website?
That means that you have the ultimate control over your website, code & technicals, graphics, functionality, anything!
Unlike blogging services like this (as easy as they are), aren't "proper" ones, but a quick fix for it :)

So what i can do there?
Just about anything you've seen on the web!
Become creative, and make things happen!
you might just create a simple page with static content (no content management etc. manually updated via editing HTML), or dynamic, using your custom or an open-source system to do it, like WordPress, b2Evolution, Post-Nuke, PHPNuke etc.

Where can i acquire such a service & what it costs?
Cost is less than a burger meal @ McDonald's, sometimes only a fraction of it, but beware, you need to choose a quality host which won't go under all of sudden!
I recommend checking out ArticHost
There you will get quality service, with unmatchable price : quality ratio! You get more for your cash :)

How do you order Hosting services & what i get?
You goto the website, create yourself an account to the billing system, choose a hosting package, click order, choose yourself a domain name using the checkup functions etc.
and proceed to checkout, after payment, in some time (5mins to 24hrs) you should receive an e-mail of hosting account & domain setup.
You will get access to cPanel, in where is included Fantastico (atleast at ArticHost), from Fantastico you can easily install some open source blogging or cms system, like b2Evolution, Drupal or Joomla (formerly known as Mambo).