Jun 11

WordPress has jumped ahead of the pack with its blog hosting software. Thousands of webmasters are utilizing WordPress as their software of choice for both blogs as well as regular websites.

Although there is other blog hosting software, WordPress offers the functionality and robustness needed for a successful site. The following is a list of reasons to choose WordPress as your blog host:

  • It’s free!
  • Excellent support
  • Plug-in optimization
  • Choice to choose a theme
  • Theme modification
  • Link building

The most appealing aspect of the WordPress software is that it’s free to download and install. Users have two options, download the client to their paid web domain or utilize free blogging sites that add your website name as a sub-domain for the ultimate free hosting. Those that have their own paid web domain have access to many more features.

Just because the software is free, doesn’t mean the support is non-existent. There’s a plethora of information on various topics in community support forums. Since there are thousands of users, theme designers and plug-in developers, support is one of the strongest points.

Another reason to choose WordPress is the ability to add any plug-ins you desire. There are thousands of plug-ins available that can be downloaded for free. Installation is extremely easy and can be accomplished at the simple click of a button.

Also, there are many themes available that determine the look and feel of your site. Once again, these are all free. Unfortunately, these can only be utilized by those that host their own domain name. With other blog services, you can only display those themes they allow. On the other hand, WordPress has thousands of user-created themes.

Furthermore, themes can be modified to fit your exact standards and make the website even more unique. This can be accomplished by changing either the HTML or CSS code. If you’re not knowledgeable in these areas, hire a freelance designer to do this.

The final reason to choose WordPress is to build links to your own domain. If the blog is only in a sub-domain, links to the blog are improving page rank for the main domain. This is one reason to host your own domain.

WordPress is a fantastic blog creation tool with endless features. Themes, plug-ins and the actual software are constantly updated with new features being added all the time. WordPress is a great resource for both novice and veteran webmasters. The flexibility of the software is unmatched.

Jun 09

There are many instances that arise where a FrontPage user would like to create a website without utilizing the powerful FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE). Users do this when creating a website on their hard drive to upload to the system at a later date. Other reasons could be a lack of support from the server or the server is not available during the website development process.

Luckily, this task can easily be accomplished and the use of the excellent development features will still be functional. Unfortunately, some of the server-side features will be affected. These include:

  • Hit counters
  • Search functions
  • Form to e-mail

FPSE’s are various small programs that are created to work alongside a web server in conjunction with FrontPage’s powerful software. Many of the extensions are installed during the FrontPage installation process without the user ever knowing. There are customization options so the user can remove those extensions they don’t wish to have.

There are a few primary tips to consider when using FrontPage without the extensions. These include:

  • FPSE’s make publishing easier
  • There may be limits
  • Use the “Preview in Browser” feature
  • Utilize FrontPage’s publishing feature

The first thing to remember is that FPSE’s were developed to make creating, publishing and maintaining a website a much easier task. By not including the extensions, you may be losing out on valuable services. There are plenty of web hosting providers that offer a package that includes FrontPage extension support for a reasonable price.

Also, those web servers that do not support FPSE’s may also have a few other limits that can affect your website. This is a good question to ask before signing up with a new hosting provider. Plan your website around their response as it can be frustrating to have an incompatible website.

Another important tip is to use the “Preview in Browser” feature found in all FrontPage software variants. This is a useful method for detecting compatibility problems. If the site appears as it should, then it will work on most servers. Finally, FrontPage’s publishing feature is extremely powerful. It can handle any type of technique used to develop the website.

There are many resources available with FrontPage support. Taking consideration on these four important points will help to decrease compatibility issues while still allowing you to publish a high quality website without FrontPage server extensions.

Jun 01

Content management systems are robust administrative platforms, used to build and operate websites ranging from small personal blogs to large corporate online headquarters. One of the most popular content management systems (WordPress) started as a blogging platform, and quickly grew into a comprehensive CMS used around the world.

Today, WordPress is used to manage many kinds of websites including multimedia sites and online shops. It is also still used by many to blog about their everyday lives and current world events.

Why is There a Date by Every Post?

As mentioned before, WordPress is actually a blogging platform. Blogs consist of posts that are organized into categories and are basically online journals. When a new post is published on a blog it is moved to the top of the home page, and every post includes a time/date that the post was published. However, many people do not want the date to show up on their WordPress blog for each post, as this may provide insight to the actual age of the site, and a new site is generally seen as being “unprofessional” in the online industry. This is especially true for site owners that want to create static sites that remain the same and are not changed in structure by the latest posts. The following methods will let you remove the date from your posts and pages.

Date Exclusion Plugin

The date exclusion plugin will automatically remove the parts of your WordPress theme that contain the date, by scanning through the files of the theme and find all instances of specific code snippets. This plugin is very convenient and easy to use, and can be programmed to exclude the date on a post by post basis, or on a site-wide basis. Unfortunately, this plugin will not work for all themes, and some themes may require manual removal of the time and date code snippets.

Removing the Code Snippets Manually

If the above plugin did not work, then you can use the following method to manually remove the time and date code snippets from your theme. You will need to use a program that can search through multiple files in a folder, like PR Grep. Using this program you can find all instances of “the_time” and “the_date.” Once you know which files the code is in, you can go in and remove the snippets from the theme individually. You can also use a Multiple Find and Replace program to replace all instances of these codes with a blank space within your theme folder.

Conclusion

Having the ability to remove the date and time from your post will let you create the illusion that your site is older and more established than it really is. Anyone building a professional business site should consider using these steps to remove the time and date of their site publishing. By leaving the date in tact you are giving your site visitors an open book of your posting activities, and this transparency could lead to a lack of trust and confidence.

May 24

One of the most important considerations when running a reseller hosting company is the billing software. There are many different types available to the general consumer at many different prices, some are even free. Those that are free are usually packaged with a reseller hosting account or within the control panel software.

There are many billing programs available for a price. A few examples of best quality reseller billing software include:

  • WHMautopilot
  • Clientexec
  • Modernbill
  • Account Lab Plus
  • phpCoin
  • WHMCS

WHMautopilot and Clientexec are generally offered packaged with reseller hosting plans. WHMautopilot is an excellent billing program for beginners. It has the basic tools and is easy to use making it a top choice for novice reseller businesses. While Clientexec does offer more advanced features, it’s a popular program due to the simplicity for everyday management.

Modernbill is generally used with larger reselling businesses. One primary downside is that Modernbill tends to be expensive. It offers many advanced features including fraud protection, automatic account creation and compatibility with major control panels like cPanel and Plesk. On the other hand, Account Lab Plus offers many basic features and is fairly inexpensive.

PhpCoin is a free script that is another helpful program for those new to the reseller business. It offers the basic billing options. Conversely, WHMCS offers many features including fraud protection, automatic suspension and built in support tickets which are extremely important in the billing department. Also, WHMCS is easy to use, affordable and easy to setup. That way, it’s easy for both reseller beginners as well as experienced users.

Billing software is a vital aspect of the reseller business. When first starting the company, free software with basic features is an acceptable method for conducting business as there are a limited number of clients. Once the company expands, the needs of the business change. With more customers, more features will need to be utilized especially the detection of fraudulent charges and the protection of important billing information.

The security of billing software bundled with many features makes for a well-rounded and well-trusted software program. The above list is some of the highest quality billing programs currently available. Depending on the stage of business, they offer everything a client needs to accommodate their users. As billing software becomes more advanced, the technology will allow for more automated procedures.

May 11

The software control panel industry has developed into big business. There are many control panel software companies available that sell to hosting companies. One downside is these companies do not sell control panel software directly to customers. For individual customers to purchase a hosting control panel, they must buy through a reseller.

Larger hosting companies tend to get control panel discounts than small business or even individual buyers. There are a few reasons that major control panel software providers only sell through licensed retailers including:

  • Small number of customers
  • Excellent marketing strategy
  • International exposure
  • Focus on software development

By having a smaller number of customers (the resellers), the major control panel providers can save money on sales, accounts and billing teams. Those companies that would like to deal directly with the software developer can purchase monthly or yearly licenses. Others must consult with another company such as a reseller. Overall, the costs of maintaining many small monthly payments can be high and it’s difficult to manage.

This method significantly decreases costs thus leading to lower prices for all customers. Consequently those corporations receive lower pricing because of the volume of licenses purchased. This relates directly to economies of scale meaning the more you buy, the less each individual unit costs.

From a marketing perspective, control panel software companies can have other smaller companies complete all the marketing and advertising for them. They sell the product and receive a small percentage of the sale while the software provider again saves money on marketing, advertising and sales. This also leaves the firm time to focus on the large volume buyers.

Furthermore, since there are many companies across the globe marketing and selling the software, this gives international exposure to the parent organization. Also, there’s no need to deal with different languages and cultures since there’s a local company in many countries that are marketing to their population.

The final reason is the control panel provider can focus on software development. Since there’s a plethora of companies selling their software, this eliminates the need for putting effort into the other segments of an organization; it’s already completed by competing smaller companies.

The sales, marketing and advertising methods of control panel software providers is ingenious. It uses a reseller to take these functions out of the company thus saving a great deal of money. These reseller companies all compete against each other utilizing the provider’s software. For individuals requiring control panel software, they must pay full price due to economy of scale. This is standard practice in all supply-chains.