12/03/07: The Six Pages Every E-Commerce Site Should Have (Video)

Successful e-commerce sites aren't just about having the right products. Many times what determines whether a site will get the sale is dependent on other information on the site. This video discusses six pages that will help any commercial website increase sales.

        

11/21/07: FutureGoogle -- What Google Might Be Like In 2020

By 2020 Google and the entire Internet will be very different creatures than they are today. We may no longer search for things by typing in some keywords and wading through page after page to find what we're looking for. Instead, we may talk to Google and let it do the wading for us. While this video has the 2020 user using a keyboard, I suspect 13 years from now we will talk to sites like Google with our voices, and they may well talk back in a voice as well.

        

11/19/07: GoDaddy.com Hosting Please Go

Generally I try to keep my opinions to myself about Internet companies, but after a few times of working on domains hosted by GoDaddy.com my level of frustration has reached a point to where I can't hold it in anymore. Of all the servers I've worked on in the last year GoDaddy.com's are the worst. Working on their servers has been such a nightmare, and so time consuming that I'm at a point where it is likely I'll turn down any work on sites hosted by GoDaddy from now on.

Okay so what's wrong with GoDaddy? Well, besides the price I'd say everything. Based on my experience I would say GoDaddy's database servers are extremely sluggish, and extremely challenging to load large datasets into. Of course that's if they work at all! Last week I tried setting up a few scripts for a client, but could never get the database to hook up because it was misconfigured. When the client spoke to GoDaddy's tech support about the problem they told her to reset her password. I did and it didn't work. I then loaded her up with information about what the problem was and how to fix it, so she could pass on the information to GoDaddy's tech support. Well, after a few hours another member of GoDaddy's tech support team wrote her back and told her to reset the password. This of course would never work. Clearly the tech support at GoDaddy has no idea what they are doing. In the end we moved her to a new host and all the scripts she purchased were up and running in less than an hour.

The upshot: if you're looking for hosting GoAlmostAnywhere, but don't GoDaddy.

So what are some good hosting companies?

My sites are hosted by alphaomegahosting.com. I have been with them for quite a few years now, and have always been pleased with the hosting. Tech support is tremendous, and overall their real uptime is one of the best in the business. Plus they are in the process of upgrading all of their servers to some very powerful machines. Considering the superior tech support you get and the great servers they have alphaomegahosting.com's hosting is very cheap. As a developer, I'd love to see all of my clients move to alphaomegahosting.com, because I know everything will work and my clients, big or small, will be treated right. Alphaomegahosting.com saves my clients money because we're not constantly waiting for tech support and their machines real uptime is truly outstanding.

The client above wanted to be on the same servers as the rest of her family, so she ended up moving to BlueHost.com. The setup went as it should, and all the scripts she purchased were up and running in a very short time. I don't work on BlueHost often, so I can't comment on their tech support or real server uptime.

As a disclosure, I do not have an affiliate type relationship with either BlueHost or Alphaomegahosting.com.

        

11/15/07: How to Hide Files in JPEGs (Video)

If privacy is an issue, hiding files in JPEGs, can be a quick and easy solution for keeping your files out of sight without encrypting them.

        

11/14/07: Basic Steps to Optimize Your Pages For Search Engines (SEO)

While many people seem to think you need experts to optimize their pages for search engine, the fact is anyone can make their pages far more likely to be spidered favorably by following as many of the DOs and Don'ts below as possible.

DOs
1. Place keywords in your pages' URLs. For instance, if your page is about dogs, work dogs into the URL of the page.
2. Work keywords into your page's content. Don't go crazy with this! If you have your keyword appear too many times your page may be penalized for keyword stuffing.
3. Use keywords in your pages' <title> tags.
4. Make page headings that use keywords (<H1>, <H2>)
5. Put keywords in links. If possible, have those who link to your site use keywords as well.
6. Work keywords into the alt tags of images.
7. Work keywords into the beginning of your pages' content
8. Place keywords in meta tags. Meta tags may not be as important as they once were, but they still have some weight with MSN and Yahoo.
9. Group keywords. Pages that have keywords strung together tend to be weighted as more important by search engines.
10. Use keywords in phrases.
11. Use secondary keywords.
12. Use synonyms as well. As an example, search engines will see words like car and automobile as being related and will weight your site favorably based upon them.
13. Keep near keyword mistypes use limited to your meta tags.
14. Get other sites to link to you.
15. Try to work to keywords into all links.
16. Links from sites similar to yours are seen as a positive by search engines.
17. Links from .edu and .gov sites are often weighted stronger.
18. List your sites in link directories.
19. Limit links going to other sites. Try to have more links coming into your site than are going out.
20. Content rules. Content that is unique to your site can really boost a sites rankings.
21. Try to change your content regularly.
22. Keep the size of your pages reasonable. Search engines do not like pages that go on forever.
23. Design your pages to work in all browsers instead of redirecting based on the user's browser.
24. Accompany videos and podcasts and flash with text. Search engines can't read flash or podcast or videos, but they can and will read the text that accompanies them.
25. Create a sitemap for your site.
26. The larger your site is the better. Search engines love large sites that are easy to navigate.
27. Age counts with sites. The older your site is the more respect search engines will show it.
28. Keep your site as horizontal as possible. That is, avoid having pages over 5 levels deep.
29. Have a unique domain name. Subdomains do not carry the weight of a standalone domain.
30. Stick to .com, .net, .edu, and .org when creating a new domain.
31. Make URLS easy to read by search engines by separating keywords with dashes or underscores.
32. Use rewrite tools to make dynamic URLs more search engine friendly.

DON'Ts:
1. Don't stuff your pages with keywords. Keyword stuffing can actually get your page banned from search engines.
2. Don't use keywords that are not related to content on the page.
3. Don't use link farms and suspicious sites.
4. Don't stuff inbound or outbound links to other sites.
5. Don't create links that are not visible to humans.
6. Don't use redirects like the <refresh> metatag to move visitors from one site to another.
7. Don't use sloppy code. If your code is too sloppy your pages may not be indexable.
8. Don't use copyrighted material without permission.
9. Don't promote illegal activities on your site, or link to sites that do.
10. Don't duplicate content.
11. Don't show search engines one page and users another.
12. Don't use frames unless there is no way around it.
13. Don't use a flash homepage. Search engines can't index them.
14. Don't create a site that is mostly private.
15. Don't ban robots.

        

11/12/07: SEO Basics (Video)

The is a great short tutorial on optimizing your pages for search engine spidering.

        

11/08/07: How To Submit A Podcast To iTunes (Video)

This great tutorial walks you through submitting your podcast to Apple's iTunes.

        

11/07/07: How To Make a Podcast Part 3: Publishing (Video)

Learn how to make publishing your podcast a fast and painless procedure.

        

11/06/07: How To Make a Podcast Part 2: Recording and Editing (Video)

This short video teaches you how to create a basic podcast using either a Mac or Windows PC.

        

11/06/07: How To Make a Podcast Part 1: Planning and Preparation (Video)

In the past few years podcasting has become a very popular and effective method of marketing, but to get the most bang from your podcast there are some general rules you should try to follow. This video lays down some basic guidelines for creating podcasts that pack a punch.