Free Website Promotion…Why Not?

Can you ever avail of free website promotion? Is that even feasible?

Of course yes! Nowadays, your baby website can amass huge traffic in no time thanks to free website promotion.

How does this free website promotion go anyway? What are things to be done?

1. Enlist your website.

Look for the hottest Internet directories and enlist your site there. This is the easiest and most effective free website promotion tactic. Start with this step and the rest of the good things will follow.

Just don’t forget to prep your website and make it all spruced up for a higher chance to get accepted in your directory of choice.

2. Know your forums.

One reason why forums are created is for free website promotion for everyone. Log in, post actively, let them know about your site in every post and you attract instant visitors right there.

3. Write a press release.

Release your writing prowess and start up a press release that advertises your site! This is a free website promotion tactic that you can do anytime. Type a brief paragraph or two and email it to your friends, colleagues, internet e-zines, newspapers and other media and massive traffic will come to you pronto!

4. Be friendly online.

Free website promotion means you need to be friendly to other webmasters. Why, you ask? So they can link you immediately! Establish contacts and never tire of link requests and exchanges.

5. Write an article.

Say, your website is about your travel agency. Write an article about the perks of traveling or the hottest travel spots in the world. On the concluding paragraph, mention your website in passing. This article works as an advertorial and doubles as a free website promotion approach.

6. Just let the whole world know about your site.

What is free website promotion without the word of mouth? Insert your website, its URL and features in daily conversations and let the good news spread from one mouth to another!

7. Make a banner ad.

Make a banner ad for your site and ask another webmaster to do the same for his site. Then swap!

8. Take up a free website promotion course online.

Yes, there are free website promotion tutorials. But don’t you know that you can actually take a free website promotion course that can help you out further? Part of the free website promotion program is signing up for newsletters.

When you make a website, you need not pay anything to promote it. You just read it — there is such a thing as free website promotion!

Automatic  – the creators of WordPress released their thirteenth major release code named as “Thelonious” and otherwise called as WordPress 3.0.

It is indeed worth the upgrade and the options of upgrading should already be available in your blog admin pages. So what is new in WordPress 3.0. Let’s take a quick look at it -

1. New Default Theme (Twenty Ten): One of the most refreshing changes is that Kubrick is gone and there is a new default theme called as the Twenty Ten theme. This is to go with the new theme APIs. Twenty Ten is a more modern and flexible theme that takes advantage of a lot of the new features.
2. A Newer and Lighter Admin Interface: WordPress 3.0 comes with a new administration interface. The new interface has contextual help on every page and has a light feel to it.
3. WordPress MU Merger: WordPress MU has now been designed into the wordpress administration in WordPress 3.0. This will let users create multiple blogs from a single installation.
4. WordPress URL shortener: URL shortening can now be done from within your blog as WordPress 3.0 has integrated support for URL shorteners including their own wp.me.
5. Choice of Admin name: You can now choose an admin name when you install a new blog and will not have to rely on the default “admin” username any more.

One of the major bugs that I found after upgrading to the new version was with the plugin “DB Cache Reloaded”. WordPress now has integrated a few new plugins which are probably conflicting with DB cache and producing the below error -

“Call to undefined method wpdb::get_blog_prefix() in /home/xxxx/xxxx/xxxxx.com/public_html/wp-includes/user.php on line XXX“

The easiest resolution to this error is to deactivate the “DB Cache Reloaded” plugin.

In conclusion I should say that WordPress 3.0 will change the way people blog. It is a welcome change – the admin interface and the contextual help and everything else. Upgrade and enjoy.

Thanks to dkspeaks for the article

Check this video for more information about the wordpress 3.0

Our goal

We’re going to edit the hosts file on our PC to make our servers IP address (e.g. 174.120.31.21) resolve to rockyrasonable.com, just like what a DNS server does when example.com’s name servers have been changed to point to the new hosting.

Configuring the server

All server configurations are different but the principle is generally the same, we need to find out/set our example.com to appear in the web browser when we visit our example IP of 174.120.31.219. For this example I’m going to explain the process on a Cpanel driven server (from this you should be able to get an idea of how this would be achieved through other management software packages).

• Configure your web space for rockyrasonable.com and upload all your files to it
• Login to Cpanel
• Select Server from the left-hand menu
• Go to the IP Addresses – This should present you with a list of IP addresses assigned to your server, when you configured the hosting for example.com you will have selected one of these IP addresses (you may even only have one IP address in this list)
• For each IP address there’s a column titled Hosting with a link showing the number of domains assigned to that IP address, click the link that corresponds with the IP address you selected for the web space
• Select rockyrasonable.com and click Set As Default - You can only select one default domain to be displayed if you visit that IP address in a browser
• Make a note of the IP address (e.g. 174.120.31.219)
• Visit 174.120.31.219 in a web browser – You should be presented with your newly uploaded site for rockyrasonable.com

Editing the hosts file

PC’s have a hosts file that we can edit to make 174.120.31.219 resolve to rockyrasonable.com just as if the name servers for rockyrasonable.com had already been changed.

• Open the hosts file
• Edit and save the hosts file

1. Go to the Start menu and choose Run. Type the following in the Run dialog box:
   1. For Windows NT and Windows 2000
      1. C:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc
   2. Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7
      1. C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
2. Click the OK button (This should open a window with several files in it.)
3. Find the file called ‘hosts’ and double–click it. If prompted, specify that you would like to choose a program to open the file with from a list of programs.
   1. Choose ‘Notepad’ from the list of available programs.

1. Start typing on a new line at the bottom of the file.
   1. To do so, place your cursor at the very end of the last line and hit ‘Enter’ to start a new line.
2. Type these two lines of text like this example:
   (use your server IP address and your site domain in–place of the defaults below)

   174.120.31.219  rockyrasonable.com

   174.120.31.219  www.rockyrasonable.com
   

3. Close the hosts file and save it when prompted.

PLEASE NOTE: At this point you should be able to view and publish to your web site using your domain name. After 3–4 days, you will want to undo this change to your hosts file so that you can check to see that your domain name is now resolving without assistance over the internet.

• Undo the Hosts file change (after you have confirmed that it is resolving properly)

1. Open the hosts file as described above.
2. Delete the information that you added previously and close the file.
3. Choose to save the changes to the hosts file when asked.

Over the years several programming languages have appeared on the scene and some have stayed the course. The first programming language to hit it big commercially with business applications was COBOL in the Mainframe days. This was followed by C and C++; when the client server era came briefly, Microsoft launched VB, VC++. The arrival of the web spawned several new languages such as ASP, Perl, Java, Cold Fusion, Ruby, C#.

COBOL still has its forte thanks to legacy applications and IBM. C/C++ has always retained its stronghold – engineering and embedded systems.

On the web front, which has seen enormous applications and innovation, a few languages stand out in terms of popularity – Java, Microsoft .Net (C#/VB.net), PHP, Ruby (on Rails).

How does one decide which language to use? A lot of factors come into play, some of the key ones being:

• Legacy
• Cost – development, tools, products
• Community – popularity, size of user base, developer base
• Support – product vendors, user groups, proprietary/open source
• Development – speed, simplicity, ease
• Performance
• Platform – Enterprise, Internet, Mobile, Device etc..
• Application type – Content, Transactional, Collaboration….

If you are an established enterprise, a lot of times this is dictated by existing environment, if you are an IBM/Sun/Oracle shop you are probably going the Java/J2EE way. Most large enterprises have chosen to go the J2EE route mainly because of its non-proprietary nature, the support from several vendors and its first mover advantage as a robust enterprise platform for the web. If you have been a Microsoft factory, the choice is obvious. Microsoft does particularly well with mid sized companies and in several non-US markets. PHP and Ruby seem to be going head-on and competing in similar segments. Startups and newer companies do not have legacy overheads and hence are free to choose any platform. Also when the hunt is for the best fit COTS product or solution rather than a bespoke application, programming language becomes secondary and more a consequence than choice.

In summary, the field has narrowed down to a few languages, each of which has its niche and application areas. The consumer now has some stable choices to pick from; it is a good time and setting to be in!

10 Top Programming Trends for 2010

More Control over Flash Apps

Anyone that knows a little bit of SEO will surely tell you that Flash is not a search engine’s best friend. Often, Flash sites and applications are built in one big compiled block, impenetrable to any indexing script or web spider. Hence their low ranking on all search engine results pages.

While this limited Flash in the past, in recent years, Flash CMS (content management systems) have been under constant development to help regular users and developers alike in building modular websites, with lots of SEO-friendly content.

This is also possible because of the ever more present interaction between ActionScript and other scripting languages. There are many scripts and AS3 classes out there especially built to facilitate the interaction between JavaScript and Flash. Doing so, it indirectly provides access between the Flash app and other content on the web; here including the search crawlers as well. Not being offered anymore in a single block of binary data, Flash websites are moving away from niche and brand sectors and into a category of deep and searchable content authoring tools.
Flash applications will evolve with the release of Adobe Flash Player 10
Enlarge picture

Besides some successful programs like FlashMoto CMS, SILEX, fCMSPro, FlashNuke, XOT Flash CMS and others, Flash in general has some big events coming up this year too. Already released in a beta version, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 has included NVIDIA support, delivering enhanced rich Web content to NVIDIA GPU owners.

Alongside NVIDIA support, Flash 10 will also bring support for multi-touch and mobile devices, expanding its horizons to more than the average PCs.

Aside from Flash Player, another beta version of a piece of software revolving around Flash has sparked some genuine interest in the world of Flash developers as well. Adobe AIR 2.0 will surely capitalize on the success of its predecessor, AIR 1, with a much hyped release. The newer version will bring some exciting features such as API for accessing microphone raw data, HTML5 support, CSS3 support, global error handling, very much improved cross-platform printing, UDP support, secure sockets, socket listening capabilities, mass storage device detection, native code integration, multi-touch and gesture support, the ability to open a file with its native program, etc.

HTML5 & CSS3 Tutorials Will Flood the Web

While an official date for HTML5 or CSS3 hasn’t been announced, developers have already jumped on the available standard drafts, and are constantly pouring tutorials and articles about the soon to be released languages.

HTML coders and slicers should be more than happy this year, with lots of tutorials and tips & tricks articles being published on any respectable tutorial-content website network. Actually, I think I’m one of those editors that couldn’t wait for the official version and got ahead of myself in this article here.

These newer versions of HTML and CSS will be better adopted and accepted much faster compared to the fiasco with the previous release of ActionScript 3, which saw many programmers stick to AS2 because of hard to read documentation and the lack of online tutorials. The Internet is full of them now, but at the time of AS3′s release, they were kind of scarce, denting the success and features of AS3.

Compared to the huge mass of HTML5 and CSS3 tutorials currently available on major search engines, we surely are in a better position to transition to the new standard pretty fast.

Touch Technology

As mentioned above, touch technology has been on the rise since the iPhone made it available outside security departments and high-tech gadgets. Now, it is the number one topic of development and integration at Microsoft, but the Redmond-based giant is not the only one leading the way on this wave. Through Flash10, Adobe has joined the current alongside Apple, Microsoft and Google.

Look no further than a couple of years when this will be standard in any newly released hardware gadget or software.

Do-it-yourself Applications

eople with no programming knowledge that use “coded” products generally do not want to know how their product basically works. This is why WYSIWYG editors, CMSs and GUIs have been so successful. These do-it-yourself (DIY) applications will continue to grow, expand and conquer new markets, changing the way general purpose applications need not only to be operated, but built.

These days, programmers have not only to bullet-proof a website against hackers and virus attacks, they have to also “dumb it down” for their administrators and users. While frameworks basically build other applications, CMS have entered the common day-to-day vocabulary, being considered a must in any coding project.

People want to build their own website, create their own blogs, put together their own form validation process, manage their own user pool, create and administrate their own ad campaigns, and the list goes on. For an application to have success in 2010, it must allow the user to do everything and not depend on any company support or complicated FAQ page. In other words, programmers should not alienate form the KISS rules and the proper success will follow. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the most successful tools out there: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Coppermine, LimeSurvey, XOOPS, etc.

Ruby Closing the Gap on PHP

While PHP was still dominant  on the Elance Online Work Index, that didn’t mean anything on the quality and performances of the two scripting languages. While PHP owes its #1 spot to its widely spread community, Ruby has managed to go under the radar and insert itself through various Ruby-powered platforms like Rails and Sinatra on very big and popular websites.

Currently, if someone is tempted to build a social network, any big consulting agency will recommend using Ruby as its code base. Just take a look at some sites running Ruby these days and see how much it has spread, shadowing PHP in performance and code re-usability. Some examples of sites running Ruby code are: Twitter, Google, Justin.TV, YellowPages, Scribd, Hulu, Github, BaseCamp, Jobster, CrunchBase, Identi.ca, Shopify, Urban Dictionary, Lighthouse, XING, Campfire, Odeo, iLike and many more.

Also, besides Ruby, look out for Python and other scripting languages to emerge from the pack and bite from PHP’s market share.

More JavaScript, AJAX and Flash than Ever

Imagination levels are at an all-time high on the web. The ones to blame for this aren’t designers, project managers or art directors. The guilty ones are only code developers. While earlier versions of JavaScript, AJAX and Flash were doing some basic animations (move slow or fast from here to here), these days, the same languages have become standards in the hiring process. What do I mean by that? Well, if a developer or designer wants to get a job, they must know all of them, or at least have a clue of what they can do.

With the rise of JavaScript libraries like jQuery, MooTools, YUI, Dojo, Prototype and many more, developers were given a tool not only to write faster and more intelligible JS code, but powerful tools to go after the user interactivity and design that only Flash applications were providing. With a plugin database as big as Joomla‘s module repositories, jQuery is surely the leader of the pack, influencing every part of the web. Its success is so great that, recently, W3Schools, a very famous tutorial website for learning programming and scripting languages has included a course for learning jQuery, something it did not do in the past for other similar JS libraries.

At the same pace with jQuery, AJAX has been keeping up with the rhythm of modern day designs, being more and more used to animate and load remote and local content. Just check out the AJAX-based scripts indexed on Softpedia or other resources like Ajax Rain, Solutoire, MiniAjax, AjaxDaddy and DZone Snippets.

Online Work Gets More Profitable

We have already talked about this trend in Part I of this editorial, and wanted to advise all the developers and programmers still reading this editorial to take advantage of the recent trend in companies and businesses around the world that choose to give freelancers more work opportunities on their projects hoping to achieve lower total costs in code developing. We recommend online work marketplaces like Jobster, Guru, Elance, Rent-A-Coder, ODesk, GetAFreelancer and much more.

Cloud Computing

The 2009 success of this topic has been built mainly on the quality provided by companies like Amazon, RackSpace and GoGrid. While it still has its naysayers, cloud computing seems to have at least slid a foot in the door for later discussions.

Silverlight Continues Growth

Still not as known and used as Flash, Silverlight has been quietly building a user base by slowly getting itself installed on as many computers as possible. While the biggest web user of Silverlight (besides Microsoft sites) remains NBC, developers taking a look into Silverlight apps have been praising it for its fast development pace.

Personally, I think it artificially considered the stage of evolution it’s in. Also, I heard many opinions on the web from much more Silverlight and Flash knowledgeable personas stating that Microsoft’s Flash-clone had surpassed Adobe’s product in many areas, while still implementing new features at a rapid pace. Even so, Silverlight has a long way to go, being still behind Adobe in terms of reachability.

.NET 4

Microsoft’s new product will be released alongside Visual Studio 2010 in the coming months, but the buzz surrounding the event is getting as big in the programming world as the Windows 7 release had on regular PC users.

With the new versions of these products come fresh features like after install ready-to-use ASP.NET MVC, inclusion of F# in the .NET Framework, C# and VB.NET feature improvements, Visual Studio 2010 to fully support all of .NET 4 environments, and much more.

From Softpedia.com

WordPress + ShopperPress = Secure Online Stores with Extra Affiliate Features!

ShopperPress is a wordpress theme that turns a standard wordpress blog into a feature rich shopping cart website used by thousands of people worldwide for many purposes;

Clear out your bookmarks. You’re going to need the space for 50 offerings that are indispensable to navigating, enjoying yourself, shopping or just killing time on the Web.

Sites to Visit

1. Flickr
2. California Coastline
3. Delicious
4. Metafilter
5. popurls
6. Twitter
7. Skype
8. Boing Boing
9. Academic Earth
10. OpenTable
11. Google
12. YouTube
13. Wolfram|Alpha
14. Hulu
15. Vimeo
16. Fora TV
17. Craiglook
18. Shop Goodwill
19. Amazon
20. Kayak
21. Netflix
22. Etsy
23. PropertyShark.com
24. Redfin
25. Wikipedia
26. Internet Archive
27. Kiva
28. ConsumerSearch
29. Metacritic
30. Pollster
31. Facebook
32. Pandora and Last.fm
33. Musicovery
34. Spotify
35. Supercook
36. Yelp
37. Visuwords
38. CouchSurfing
39. BabyNameWizard.com’s NameVoyager
40. Mint
41. TripIt
42. Aardvark
43. drop.io
44. Issuu
45. Photosynth
46. OMGPOP
47. WorldWideTelescope
48. Fonolo
49. Get High Now
50. Know Your Meme

Make no mistake about it, you will recognize the ideas behind these trends. Although this list isn’t a drastic departure from what was popular in 2009, it marks different trends that will be expanded upon and made better as a result. As you think of how you will incorporate new trends into your designs, focus on the main idea of each trend. Be encouraged to dabble into these trends so that you become part of the movement.

1. Oversized Logos/ Headers

Splash pages are so yesterday. To make an unforgettable impression on the visitor, the trend for 2010 will be oversized logos on an equally oversized header. These types of headers can take up the entire screen, but with one important note. Visitors will not need to click anything, just scroll down. Visitors often having a clicking phobia (due to years of poor navigation), so big headers do the job of a splash page without forcing your visitors to click anything.

Main Idea: Huge headers that make your visitors remember you.

2. Sketch/ Hand-drawn Design

Hand-drawn design is not exactly new on the horizon, but we all know that it is still on the fringes of web design. Many designers admire the style but are afraid to create their own sketches because of the “I can’t really draw” attitude. If you look at the most popular hand-drawn websites (and relative to other types of trends, there are only a few), you will notice that most of your fellow designers can’t draw. These designs are not exactly headed to an art museum, but they do convey a sense of whimsy, and blur the line between cold web and personal interaction– the ultimate goal of the internet. If you can doodle, you can sketch for web design.

Sketch in 2010 will become more elemental and not as much the main focus of a web design. It will be used to personalize standard web copy in new and exciting ways.

Main Idea: Sketch becomes an elemental part of corporate design.

3. Slab Typefaces

Slab typefaces are relatively new, although they’ve been around for over 200 years in traditional media. To get a good visual definition of slab typefaces, think of the old Wild West “Wanted” posters. Those bold letters are slab typefaces. Slab typefaces are commonly all capital letters and are bold and imposing. Many designers have shied away from slab typefaces in the past because logos and headers were smaller and more understated. However, combined with the trend toward larger headers, slab typefaces demand the reader to take notice.

Main Idea: Slab typefaces are used to bravely express who you are.

4. Typology

Typology is one of the most difficult trends to tackle which is why it will remain fresh in 2010. With all the cries for usability, web designers are afraid of using new and different fonts. The idea of mixing varying font sizes together is completely unthinkable. Fonts are meant to be explored, twisted, and molded to fit your purposes. With the correct placement, a website that utilizes typology as its main design element will be more interesting to a reader than overloading the same site with tons of photos.

Main Idea: Typology is young, but will continue to be a part of web design.

5. One Page Layouts

One pay layouts challenge you to edit away what’s unnecessary. In 2010, this trend will move away from the quirky navigation and become more minimal in its approach. Think of these websites as business cards. These websites will be more of a one-stop-shop for how to locate you and your work on various other sites– your blog and your social media hangouts.

Main Idea: One page layouts will be more about personal profiles and less corporate.

6. Huge Images

A close relative to the oversized logo/ header, the huge image does much the same thing. It creates a visual impact that the visitor won’t soon forget. Unlike the oversized header from above, huge images are not part of the site’s branding. Instead, these images draw the visitor into your site, if not for their content then for their humongous size. In 2010, web designers will find themselves more comfortable using these big statements in their design to convey the site’s tone.

Main Idea: Huge images will be used to invite visitors in.

7. Change of Perspective

As we’ve discussed before, the desktop perspective has been done to death. 2010 will see a definite change in perspective to a more realistic view. There may also be a move toward side-shot aerial.

Main Idea: 2010 will play around with different perspectives.

8. Interactive/ Intuitive Design

Flash has seen better days. There was a time when you couldn’t visit a website without running into an annoying Flash interface. These days Flash is a lot more relaxed and much more professional. Although some designers prefer jQuery for forms and popup, Flash still has its place in design, especially when done subtly. Flash still has no equal to its interactivity. In 2010, web designers will move toward the more redeeming elements of Flash. Because the average visitor is more web savvy these days, designers will also create sites that are slightly more intuitive than in the past.

Main Idea: Interactive design will make a come-back.

9. Modal Boxes

Modal boxes are a trend that’s picking up steam and will be virtually everywhere in 2010. A modal box is like the pop-up’s more sophisticated older brother– its smooth, good looking and popular. Modal boxes are so easy to design and easy to use, making them the perfect solution for any designer concerned with usability.

Main Idea: Modal boxes will continue to pop up in 2010 designs.

10. Minimalism

Forget the old school minimal websites. Websites of 2010 will continue to feature lots of white space but with bold typology and surprising color schemes. Not all minimal websites will agree with the notion of black and white simplicity. Although minimalism is by nature muted, it will also showcase fresh colors. Minimalism isn’t cold, it’s warm and too the point.

Main Idea: Minimalism will venture into typology

Google wave is one of the most hotly-anticipated web applications of the year. Until now, only 25,000 eager developers have been able to get their hands on the project. Google believes that wave is the next ambitious step in online communication. The tool combines email, real-time chat, scheduling, wikis, micro-blogging, live feeds and more.  The html-based application will be released as an open source product and a full api is available to developers who want to extend the service. Web site owners can also embed wave widgets using a few lines of client-side code. The Google wave release also puts two other recent announcements into context

You can bring a group of friends or business partners together to discuss how your day has been or share files. Google wave has a lot of innovative features, but here are just a few. In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character. Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.

Visit  http://wave.google.com for more information

Compiled from http://wp123.info

WordPress is great! It’s no doubt. But unfortunately it still doesn’t have many quite necessary features. One of them is the ability to change wp-admin folder name, which is the admin directory as you probably already now. After searching for several hours on the internet without any success I started thinking of ways how to change my wordpress admin directory name. In this small tutorial I’ll show how to do it. Before starting the tutorial I have to say that this is rather complicated way and there may occurred some bugs. Anyway I have tested it and didn’t found any. So let’s start.

All we have to do is to search “wp-admin” in all wordpress files and change it to what we need to use as a admin directory name. Let’s name it for example “profile”. There are over 50 files to change. It’s practically impossible to find all these files manually so we need this great software called “grepWin” (Download). After installing this software right click on your wordpress folder and then choose “grepWin…” (see image below)

Then type “wp-admin” in “Search for:” box and “profile” (or anything you wish) in “Replace with:” and click “Replace”. This software will find every “wp-admin” and replace it with “profile”.

Now we are almost done. There is one file in /wp-admin/ directory called wp-admin.css. You have to change it’s name to “profile.css” (your_admin_directory_name.css).

Please note that some plugins and themes may also use the “wp-admin” name somewhere, so before you upload any theme or plugin don’t forget to scan it using grepWin and change every “wp-admin” to your chosen directory name.