Serious security flaw found in IE

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.

Microsoft urged people to be vigilant while it investigated and prepared an emergency patch to resolve it.

Internet Explorer is used by the vast majority of the world's computer users.

"Microsoft is continuing its investigation of public reports of attacks against a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer," said the firm in a security advisory alert about the flaw.

Microsoft says it has detected attacks against IE 7.0 but said the "underlying vulnerability" was present in all versions of the browser.

Other browsers, such as Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, are not vulnerable to the flaw Microsoft has identified.

Browser bait

"In this case, hackers found the hole before Microsoft did," said Rick Ferguson, senior security advisor at Trend Micro. "This is never a good thing."

As many as 10,000 websites have been compromised since the vulnerability was discovered, he said.

"What we've seen from the exploit so far is it stealing game passwords, but it's inevitable that it will be adapted by criminals," he said. "It's just a question of modifying the payload the trojan installs."

Said Mr Ferguson: "If users can find an alternative browser, then that's good mitigation against the threat."

But Microsoft counselled against taking such action.

"I cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw," said John Curran, head of Microsoft UK's Windows group.

He added: "We're trying to get this resolved as soon as possible.

"At present, this exploit only seems to affect 0.02% of internet sites," said Mr Curran. "In terms of vulnerability, it only seems to be affecting IE7 users at the moment, but could well encompass other versions in time."

Richard Cox, chief information officer of anti-spam body The Spamhaus Project and an expert on privacy and cyber security, echoed Trend Micro's warning.

"It won't be long before someone reverse engineers this exploit for more fraudulent purposes. Trend Mico's advice [of switching to an alternative web browser] is very sensible," he said.

PC Pro magazine's security editor, Darien Graham-Smith, said that there was a virtual arms race going on, with hackers always on the look out for new vulnerabilities.

"The message needs to get out that this malicious code can be planted on any web site, so simple careful browsing isn't enough."

"It's a shame Microsoft have not been able to fix this more quickly, but letting people know about this flaw was the right thing to do. If you keep flaws like this quiet, people are put at risk without knowing it."

"Every browser is susceptible to vulnerabilities from time to time. It's fine to say 'don't use Internet Explorer' for now, but other browsers may well find themselves in a similar situation," he added.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7784908.stm

Google Talk: Run Multiple Instances or Login as Multiple Users

If you have several google talk accounts, you may want to run multiple instances of google talk at once. Here’s how to do it.

Many users, including myself, like to have several different personalities on IM–Work, play, etc. By default google talk with only allow you to run instance of the program at a time. Here’s how to get around that…

Run google talk with the following switch: /nomutex

If you installed google talk to the default location, you can easily create a shortcut to this setting.

1. Right-click on the desktop
2. Select New
3. Select Shortcut
4. Paste this into the text box:
"c:\program files\google\google talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex

5. Click Next6. Name it whatever: Google Talk Multiple, etc.
7. Click OK until you are done.

What does `lorem ipsum dolor' mean?

What does `lorem ipsum dolor' mean?
`Lorem ipsum dolor' is the first part of a nonsense paragraph sometimes used to demonstrate a font. It has been well established that if you write anything as a sample, people will spend more time reading the copy than looking at the font. The ``gibberish'' below is sufficiently like ordinary text to demonstrate a font but doesn't distract the reader.

Hopefully. Rick Pali submits the following from Before and After Magazine, Volume 4 Number 2.:
[quote]
After telling everyone that Lorem ipsum, the nonsensical text that comes with PageMaker, only looks like Latin but actually says nothing, I heard from Richard McClintock, publication director at the Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, who had enlightening news:

"Lorem ipsum is latin, slightly jumbled, the remnants of a passage from Cicero's _de Finibus_ 1.10.32, which begins 'Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit...' [There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain.]. [de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, written in 45 BC, is a treatise on the theory of ethics very popular in the Renaisance.]

"What I find remarkable is that this text has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since some printed in the 1500s took a galley of type and scambled it to make a type specemin book; it has survived not only four centuries of letter-by-letter resetting but even the leap into electronic typesetting, essentially unchanged except for an occational 'ing' or 'y' thrown in. It's ironic that when the then-understood Latin was scrambled, it became as incomprehensible as Greek; the phrase 'it's Greek to me' and 'greeking' have common semantic roots!"
[unquote]

One Example of Lorem Ipsum Dolor Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetaur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum Et harumd und lookum like Greek to me, dereud facilis est er expedit distinct. Nam liber te conscient to factor tum poen legum odioque civiuda. Et tam neque pecun modut est neque nonor et imper ned libidig met, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed ut labore et dolore magna aliquam makes one wonder who would ever read this stuff? Bis nostrud exercitation ullam mmodo consequet. Duis aute in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. At vver eos et accusam dignissum qui blandit est praesent luptatum delenit aigue excepteur sint occae. Et harumd dereud facilis est er expedit distinct. Nam libe soluta nobis eligent optio est congue nihil impedit doming id Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, set eiusmod tempor incidunt et labore et dolore magna aliquam. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerc. Irure dolor in reprehend incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse molestaie cillum. Tia non ob ea soluad incommod quae egen ium improb fugiend. Officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum Et harumd dereud facilis est er expedit distinct. Nam liber te conscient to factor tum poen legum odioque civiuda et tam. Neque pecun modut est neque nonor et imper ned libidig met, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed ut labore et dolore magna aliquam is nostrud exercitation ullam mmodo consequet. Duis aute in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. At vver eos et accusam dignissum qui blandit est praesent. Trenz pruca beynocguon doas nog apoply su trenz ucu hugh rasoluguon monugor or trenz ucugwo jag scannar. Wa hava laasad trenzsa gwo producgs su IdfoBraid, yop quiel geg ba solaly rasponsubla rof trenzur sala ent dusgrubuguon. Offoctivo immoriatoly, hawrgasi pwicos asi sirucor.Thas sirutciun applios tyu thuso itoms ghuso pwicos gosi sirucor in mixent gosi sirucor ic mixent ples cak ontisi sowios uf Zerm hawr rwivos. Unte af phen neige pheings atoot Prexs eis phat eit sakem eit vory gast te Plok peish ba useing phen roxas. Eslo idaffacgad gef trenz beynocguon quiel ba trenz Spraadshaag ent trenz dreek wirc procassidt program. Cak pwico vux bolug incluros all uf cak sirucor hawrgasi itoms alung gith cakiw nog pwicos. Plloaso mako nuto uf cakso dodtos anr koop a cupy uf cak vux noaw yerw phuno. Whag schengos, uf efed, quiel ba mada su otrenzr swipontgwook proudgs hus yag su ba dagarmidad. Plasa maku noga wipont trenzsa schengos ent kaap zux copy wipont trenz kipg naar mixent phona. Cak pwico siructiun ruos nust apoply tyu cak UCU sisulutiun munityuw uw cak UCU-TGU jot scannow. Trens roxas eis ti Plokeing quert loppe eis yop prexs. Piy opher hawers, eit yaggles orn ti sumbloat alohe plok. Su havo loasor cakso tgu pwuructs tyu InfuBwain, ghu gill nug bo suloly sispunsiblo fuw cakiw salo anr ristwibutiun. Hei muk neme eis loppe. Treas em wankeing ont sime ploked peish rof phen sumbloat syug si phat phey gavet peish ta paat ein pheeir sumbloats. Aslu unaffoctor gef cak siructiun gill bo cak spiarshoot anet cak GurGanglo gur pwucossing pwutwam. Ghat dodtos, ig pany, gill bo maro tyu ucakw suftgasi pwuructs hod yot tyubo rotowminor. Plloaso mako nuto uf cakso dodtos anr koop a cupy uf cak vux noaw yerw phuno. Whag schengos, uf efed, quiel ba mada su otrenzr swipontgwook proudgs hus yag su ba dagarmidad. Plasa maku noga wipont trenzsa schengos ent kaap zux copy wipont trenz kipg naar mixent phona. Cak pwico siructiun ruos nust apoply tyu cak UCU sisulutiun munityuw uw cak UCU-TGU jot scannow. Trens roxas eis ti Plokeing quert loppe eis yop prexs. Piy opher hawers, eit yaggles orn ti sumbloat alohe plok. Su havo loasor cakso tgu pwuructs tyu.

[This version was found on CompuServe. It differs from other versions I have seen in print, increasingly so as you go along. It almost looks computer-generated, doesn't it?]

Shopping carts & ecommerce software solutions guide

Shopping carts & ecommerce software solutions guide

Choosing the best shopping cart solution for your launch into ecommerce is critical to the success of your online business. If you're wanting to learn more about this sometimes confusing world, this guide will explain the points you should consider before purchasing a cart.

If you're currently in the market for software or services and would like our recommendations, read our shopping cart software and services review.

What is a shopping cart?

In a basic definition, it's a series of scripts that keep track of items a visitor picks to buy from your site until they proceed to the "checkout".

A popular misconception is that shopping carts handle the whole financial transaction, but they only really act as a front end which passes information via a secure connection (another service) to a payment gateway - a separate service altogether.

The payment gateway service then channels the requests and transfers throughout relevant financial networks, including the Internet merchant account with your bank. It then sends back confirmation or denial back to the shopping cart software. For further information on the "back-end" aspects of ecommerce; read our guide to payment gateways and merchant accounts.

The good news is that there are literally hundreds of shopping cart packages available. The bad news is the same as the good. Sometimes, too many choices make it very difficult to make a decision - especially when all companies claim to have the superior product. After having worked with or examined over a hundred different shopping cart applications over the years, I hope this article may make your life just a little bit easier!

Free or premium shopping carts?

It's very important before you begin reviewing software and services to be to be very specific in what you actually want the cart to be able to do. It may be that you really don't require all the bells and buzzers offered by high end packages - if this is the case, then a good package will cost around the $US250 - $300 mark; with some excellent, and in my opinion, crucial features included at the high end of that range. Some companies offer free shopping carts, but bear in mind that nothing in this world is truly free - read the fine print.

Be careful not to limit yourself either - you may only want limited features initially, but what about in the future? Give yourself room to grow as having to change software mid-stream to a totally different package can be a real time-sucker.

Free ecommerce solutions

One of the best free ecommerce solutions around is Paypal, which integrates basic shopping cart functions with a payment gateway and merchant account - funds are paid to you via check or through direct deposit. Paypal is an excellent way to begin in ecommerce and is very widely accepted around the world.

You only pay a small percentage of each sale and there are no monthly fees or setup costs, plus you receive free fraud protection - no chargeback fees to worry about. Paypal also offers web developers a wide variety of easy to use tools to assist with rapid implementation.

What other features do shopping carts have?

Shopping cart software has come a long way in recent years, and many packages are so advanced that they are in effect entire store fronts and can actually be your entire web site. Some integrated elements of benefit to your online business you may wish to consider include:

Suggest sell/cross selling functions

Just as in the physical world, impulse buying via the Internet is quite common. Some shopping carts will suggest another product to complement a customers current selection. If offered at a discount rate, this strategy proves quite successful.

Quantity discounts/coupons

Many shopping carts now allow for the calculation of discount rates based on the number of units a customer wishes to purchase. Coupon functions allow you to issue special offers as part of your marketing campaigns. Usually, prospective clients are given special codes that are matched against a particular item or overall discount rate. I strongly recommend using a shopping cart that supports coupons; it's such a powerful sales strategy.

Autoresponder and newsletter functions

If you follow up all your clients with regular email offers, you may want to consider shopping cart software that has integrated autoresponder and newsletter capabilities - this will streamline your operations and can be used for maintaining other contact lists as well. Why buy two pieces of software when you can get them rolled into one?

Affiliate modules

One of the most effective, low cost ways to advertise your product is through an affiliate program. Your outlay is minimal if you only pay on performance; i.e. sales generated. An affiliate module can handle the signup process, provide statistics, streamline communications and keep track of payments to be made to affiliates.

Other features commonly incorporated into carts include inventory tracking, sales tax calculation, stationery creation/management, reviews and wish lists.

There's a number of questions you'll want to ask yourself when compiling a shopping cart wish list:

What kind of shopping cart does my hosting service support?

Shopping cart scripts are written in many different coding formats - PERL, PHP, ASP just to name a few. Be sure to check with your host before purchasing a program. If you opt for a remotely hosted service (explained in more detail below), then it won't matter what programming language the cart software is written in.

What is my budget?

It's easy to blow your budget on a turbo-charged shopping cart only to find that there were a number of other critical items you didn't factor in - like a payment gateway, or the fact that the cart software may be so complex that you need to hire somebody else to assist in implementation!

What kind of delivery mechanisms will I require?

If you are selling hard goods that need shipping, choice of cart is a little easier as this is a standard function. Many carts also offer customers the ability to calculate different shipping options and to get live quotes back from shipping companies.

If you are trading in soft goods such as software and want to make delivery available online immediately, you'll need to carefully compare carts.

As an example, some shopping carts that are capable of delivering goods online redirect customers to a static download page after a successful transaction. This isn't a good idea as the customer (and his/her friends) are able to return to the page to download again and again. A better equipped shopping cart will only provide customers with a temporary URL, that will be unique to that customer and may only be available for a few hours after purchase before it is deleted.

Another strategy employed by some carts for soft goods online delivery is to use a static URL for downloading, but scripting is implemented to ensure the visitor to the page has come via the shopping cart after a successful transaction has occurred.

Yet another soft goods delivery means used by carts is that the software is attached to an email sent to the customer after a successful transaction. This may be suitable for very small files, but I don't think many ISP's would appreciate you sending 20 megabyte attachments to a customers inbox - in fact, it would not be possible in many instances.

Where will my business be in 6 months time?

Does the package allow for scalability? While you may not require bells and buzzers now, as your business grows you may find that your needs change. The better shopping carts are in a modular format which allow for scalability with minimum downtime. Be sure to check the prices of modules you may need in the future. It isn't uncommon for companies is to offer the base model for next to nothing and then to charge like wounded bulls for any upgrades.

Is the cart software compatible with my payment gateway?

There are dozens of different payment gateways which plug into various shopping cart packages - but perhaps not yours! Before purchasing your cart, also review gateway services supported by the software (and also make sure that the payment gateway is compatible with the Internet merchant account you have with your bank). It can be a bit of a challenge getting the cart you want to talk to the gateway service you want and also to your bank! Read our guide to payment gateways and merchant accounts.

What kind of payments are supported by the cart?

Credit card transactions are now a normal part of our online world. If your shopping cart software does not support credit card transactions or if you have not enabled credit card processing, you're in trouble - you may as well just close up shop!

There are still some customers who will refuse to use a credit card over the Internet, so you will need to be able to offer other forms of payment - e.g. money orders, echecks etc.

What about disaster planning?

A good shopping cart application will have excellent support for backing up files and allowing for export into a variety of formats. Flexible exporting functions will also be of value in the future should you need to change carts and wish to import existing data into a new application.

What level of support will I need and receive?

All shopping cart providers will tell you that their software is simple to install and configure. Few will be actually correct in making that statement. If you don't have the technical expertise to configure your shopping cart, get quotes from the company or a third party contractor to undertake this work for you.

Test out the support system by sending a query to the sales department - if they don't respond quickly this is usually a good indicator that after sales support will be even worse!

Also, read the fine print before parting with your hard earned cash - you may find that technical support will be charged out per incident.

Some shopping cart software companies also offer user forums as part of their service. This is an excellent bonus. If you are having problems with setting up your scripts, no doubt someone else has experienced the same issues and may be willing to help you out.

Be sure to review the company's "bug" policy; i.e. if a error in the software is fixed and an updated version is released, will you be entitled to recieve that upgrade or patch at no cost.

While I am all for supporting the solo programmers, a shopping cart is so crucial that it may not be wise to purchase a product from a one-man operation as customer support may not be efficient.

Remotely or locally hosted shopping cart?

Some shopping cart programs can be purchased as stand alone programs or as pay per month services hosted on another companies' server. Remotely hosted options usually allow for extensive customization of pages to fit in with your sites look and feel.

Remote hosting advantages

Fast implementation, secure connection supplied, monitoring of service and usually many other features are offered as part of the service. Because the cart is actually hosted on another server, you can also save on bandwidth charges - especially if your products are soft goods and delivered online.

Some remotely hosted shopping carts are in effect total marketing solutions, containing options to run affiliate programs and the ability to send sequential pre-defined messages to clients and leads. Some of these services are excellent for people 'testing the water' as they also include gateway services and even an Internet merchant account!

If you are looking for features without needing to spending thousands of dollars up front, remotely hosted may be the way to go. Plan on spending at least US$60 per month for these kinds of services. Compare prices carefully - I have seen one company charge US$200 a month for the same service provided by another for $US59 per month. Remember, this added recurring expense will need to be taken into account when establishing a price level for your products and services.

Remote hosting disadvantages

What happens if the company goes belly up overnight? Remote hosting also tends to give you less control over how cart pages display. If you are going to use a remotely hosted service, check the company history carefully. Some operators have also been known to 'harvest' your client databases for spamming purposes.

View some reviews of remotely hosted shopping carts.

Local hosting advantages

Total control over the software, no ongoing fees.

Local hosting disadvantages

Time spent in installation, configuration and maintenance, greater initial outlay, requires SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to be enabled on your site which usually incurs an extra charge per month.

View some reviews of locally hosted shopping carts

As you can see, there is a lot to consider before purchasing shopping cart software or services. It is very important to remember that the shopping cart is only one part of your ecommerce arsenal. Without an effective payment gateway and Internet merchant account (sometimes these are combined), the cart is useless.

Don't rush your decision to purchase based on marketing hype - the future of your business is at stake!

Source: http://www.tamingthebeast.net

Which Font Should I Use for My Web Page? Tips on Choosing Fonts for Your Website

It's true that preferences for visual appearance vary from person to person, so that one man's meat is another man's poison. However, where web pages are concerned, the range of fonts that webmasters can select for their pages are not as wide as you may think. Even if you were to have a million fonts installed on your computer, you are mostly limited by what your website users have installed on their computers. This article briefly discusses some of the things you should consider when selecting a font face for your website.
Why You May Not Be Able to Use Your Favourite Font

When you create a web page and specify a particular typeface (loosely called "font" here) for that page, the font is not embedded in your web page. All your web editor does is to put a reference to the font into the page. For example, if you create a web page that uses the Comic Sans font, then a modern web editor like Dreamweaver might insert the following line into the style sheet of your web page:
font-family: "Comic Sans" ;

The Comic Sans font itself is not embedded in the web page. If your visitor does not have that particular font, his/her browser will use some other font, even if it does not suit the content and design of your page.

This is the reason why most webmasters choose commonly available typefaces and avoid esoteric ones that only few people have.
Importance of Using Lists of Fonts

When you specify a font for your web page, it is important that you do not just specify a single font, even if it is a font that you think that most people have, like the ubiquitous "Arial" font. If your visitor uses a different type of computer, such as a non-Windows computer, even fonts like Arial may not be available. Cascading Style Sheets, which is the underlying technology used by a web page to control its appearance, allow for web designers to specify a list of fonts to be used on a particular page. If the first font in that list is not available, the browser will try to use the next font specified, and so on.

For example, the fonts used in all of thesitewizard.com's articles, including the one you are reading, are specified as follows:
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif ;

This means that if a computer has the Arial font installed, a browser is to use that font to render the pages on the site. Otherwise, it will try to use the Helvetica font. If the latter is also not available, then it should just use any sans serif font it can find.

(For those not familiar with the terminology, "serif" fonts are those that have little hook-like lines at the ends of the main strokes of each character. For example, the Times New Roman font, found in Windows system, is a serif font. "Sans serif" fonts are those without the small hook-like strokes. Well known sans serif typefaces include Arial and Helvetica.)

I chose these three items to place in my list of fonts to use for thesitewizard.com's pages because they are somewhat similar to each other. Or rather, Arial, which is a sort of poor man's version of Helvetica, looks almost the same as Helvetica. This way, I can be sure that if a particular computer only has Helvetica and not Arial, my page will still look more or less the way I intended, and things that I carefully aligned will not go out of alignment which may happen if a fatter or thinner typeface is used.

However, if the user does not have either of these fonts, then all bets are off. The browser can use any other sans serif font it finds on the system. This probably means that on such a system, the appearance of my web page will differ somewhat from my intended design.
Most Commonly-Used Lists of Fonts

In general, if you want to create a web page that looks mostly the same no matter what sort of computer your visitors use, it's best to think of three groups of fonts.

1.
Sans Serif Fonts

Many websites tend to use one of the following series of fonts mainly because most people find the sans serif fonts easier to read on a computer monitor.
*
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif

As mentioned earlier, this is the combination I use in most of my sites, including thesitewizard.com, thefreecountry.com and howtohaven.com. Arial and Helvetica look very similar to each other, and to the average casual reader, may even be indistinguishable. Between the systems that have the Arial font and those with the Helvetica font, I think this combination basically covers most, if not all, commercially sold operating systems.

Some people prefer the combination "Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif", so that if the Helvetica typeface is available, it will be used in preference to Arial. These people probably have Helvetica installed on their systems and find it preferable to Arial.
*
Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif

Verdana looks somewhat like Arial, but is larger, wider and spaces the characters further apart from each other. In theory, this is supposed to improve legibility, but in practice, some people find that it decreases the speed at which they can read a block of text since the bigger spaces between words make it harder for them to visually scan the text.

Verdana is installed by default only on Windows systems, so if a person uses another system that does not have Verdana installed, the next font in the list will probably be used.
2.
Serif Fonts

Although not many sites use serif fonts, since they seem to be harder to read on a computer screen, if such fonts are used, the combination most commonly listed is:
font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif ;

3.
Monospace Fonts

Monospace fonts, where the width of every single character is the same regardless of whether the character is a wide one like "w" or a thin one like "i", are commonly used on the web for source code listings. For example, most of the code listings on thesitewizard.com employ the following list:
font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;

In fact, if you look carefully at the list in the box above, you will see that it is rendered using that very series. If you are reading this on Windows, and have not removed the Courier New font, it will be displayed in that typeface.

Introduction to "robots.txt"

Introduction to "robots.txt"

There is a hidden, relentless force that permeates the web and its billions of web pages and files, unbeknownst to the majority of us sentient beings. I'm talking about search engine crawlers and robots here. Every day hundreds of them go out and scour the web, whether it's Google trying to index the entire web, or a spam bot collecting any email address it could find for less than honorable intentions. As site owners, what little control we have over what robots are allowed to do when they visit our sites exist in a magical little file called "robots.txt."

"Robots.txt" is a regular text file that through its name, has special meaning to the majority of "honorable" robots on the web. By defining a few rules in this text file, you can instruct robots to not crawl and index certain files, directories within your site, or at all. For example, you may not want Google to crawl the /images directory of your site, as it's both meaningless to you and a waste of your site's bandwidth. "Robots.txt" lets you tell Google just that.

Creating your "robots.txt" file

So lets get moving. Create a regular text file called "robots.txt", and make sure it's named exactly that. This file must be uploaded to the root accessible directory of your site, not a subdirectory (ie: http://www.mysite.com but NOT http://www.mysite.com/stuff/). It is only by following the above two rules will search engines interpret the instructions contained in the file. Deviate from this, and "robots.txt" becomes nothing more than a regular text file, like Cinderella after midnight.

Now that you know what to name your text file and where to upload it, you need to learn what to actually put in it to send commands off to search engines that follow this protocol (formally the "Robots Exclusion Protocol"). The format is simple enough for most intents and purposes: a USERAGENT line to identify the crawler in question followed by one or more DISALLOW: lines to disallow it from crawling certain parts of your site.

1) Here's a basic "robots.txt":

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

With the above declared, all robots (indicated by "*") are instructed to not index any of your pages (indicated by "/"). Most likely not what you want, but you get the idea.

2) Lets get a little more discriminatory now. While every webmaster loves Google, you may not want Google's Image bot crawling your site's images and making them searchable online, if just to save bandwidth. The below declaration will do the trick:

User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Disallow: /

3) The following disallows all search engines and robots from crawling select directories and pages:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /privatedir/
Disallow: /tutorials/blank.htm

4) You can conditionally target multiple robots in "robots.txt." Take a look at the below:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /privatedir/

This is interesting- here we declare that crawlers in general should not crawl any parts of our site, EXCEPT for Google, which is allowed to crawl the entire site apart from /cgi-bin/ and /privatedir/. So the rules of specificity apply, not inheritance.

5) There is a way to use Disallow: to essentially turn it into "Allow all", and that is by not entering a value after the semicolon(:):

User-agent: *
Disallow: /
User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow:

Here I'm saying all crawlers should be prohibited from crawling our site, except for Alexa, which is allowed.

6) Finally, some crawlers now support an additional field called "Allow:", most notably, Google. As its name implies, "Allow:" lets you explicitly dictate what files/folders can be crawled. However, this field is currently not part of the "robots.txt" protocol, so my recommendation is to use it only if absolutely needed, as it might confuse some less intelligent crawlers.

Per Google's FAQs for webmasters, the below is the preferred way to disallow all crawlers from your site EXCEPT Google:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /
User-agent: Googlebot
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How to Install and Configure PHP 5 to Run with Apache on Windows

Many web developers want to run Apache and PHP on their own computer since it allows them to easily test their scripts and programs before they put them "live" on the Internet. This article gives a step by step guide on how you can install and configure PHP5 to work together with the Apache HTTP Server on Windows.

If you have not already installed Apache on your machine, check out one of the guides listed below. This "How To" guide assumes that you have already completed installing Apache.

• If you are using Apache 1.3.x, see the guide How to Install the Apache Web Server 1.x on Windows.

• If you plan to use one of the Apache 2 web servers, see the tutorial How to Install and Configure Apache 2 on Windows instead.

Note: those planning to install PHP 4 on Apache 1.x should read my article How to Install and Configure PHP4 to Run with Apache on Windows instead.

Steps to Setting Up PHP 5

1. Download PHP 5

   Before you begin, get a copy of PHP 5 from the PHP download page. In particular, download the zip package from the "Windows Binaries" section - that is, don't get the installer. For example, select the package labelled "PHP 5.2.5 zip package" if 5.2.5 is the current version.

2. Install PHP 5

   Create a folder on your hard disk for PHP. I suggest "c:\php" although you can use other names if you wish. Personally though, I prefer to avoid names with spaces in it, like "c:\Program Files\php" to avoid potential problems with programs that cannot handle such things. I will assume that you used c:\php in this tutorial.

   Extract all the files from the zip package into that folder. To do that simply double-click the zip file to open it, and drag all the files and folders to c:\php.

3. Upgraders: Remove the Old PHP.INI File from Your Windows Directory

   If you are upgrading to PHP 5 from an older version, go to your windows directory, typically c:\windows, and delete any php.ini file that you have previously placed there.

4. Configuring PHP

   Go to the c:\php folder and make a copy of the file "php.ini-recommended". Name the new file "php.ini". That is, you should now have a file "c:\php\php.ini", identical in contents with "c:\php\php.ini-recommended".

   Note: if you are using Apache 1, you should either move the php.ini file to your windows directory, "C:\Windows" on most systems, or configure your PATH environment variable to include "c:\php". If you don't know how to do the latter, just move the php.ini file to the "c:\windows" folder. You do not have to do this if you are using Apache 2, since we will include a directive later in the Apache 2 configuration file to specify the location of the php.ini file.

   Use an ASCII text editor (such as Notepad, which can be found in the Accessories folder of your Start menu) to open "php.ini". You may need to make the following changes to the file, depending on your requirements:

   1. Enable Short Open Tags

      Search for the line that reads:

      short_open_tag = Off

      If short_open_tag is set to "off", tags like "commercial web hosts that support PHP have no issues with your scripts using "

      short_open_tag = On

   2. Magic Quotes

      By default, input data is not escaped with backslashes. That is, if your visitors enter an inverted comma (single quote) into your web form, the script will receive that unadorned inverted comma (single quote). This is for the most part desirable unless you special requirements. If you want your input data to have the backslash ("\") prefix, such as, for example, to mimic your web host's settings, search for the following:

      magic_quotes_gpc = Off

      and replace it with:

      magic_quotes_gpc = On

      Do not do this unless your web host has this setting as well. Even with the setting of "Off", you can still use the addslashes() function in PHP to add the slashes for the specific pieces of data that need them.

   3. Register Globals

      A number of older scripts assume that all data sent by a form will automatically have a PHP variable of the same name. For example, if your form has an input field with a name of "something", older PHP scripts assume that the PHP processor will automatically create a variable called $something that contains the value set in that field.

      If you are running such scripts, you will need to look for the following field:

      register_globals = Off

      and change it to the following:

      register_globals = On

      WARNING: Do NOT do this unless you have third party scripts that need it. When writing new scripts, it's best to always code with the assumption that the register_globals item is set to "Off".

   4. Display Errors

      On a "live" website, you typically want errors in your script to be silently logged to a PHP error file. On your own local machine, however, while you are testing and debugging a PHP script, it is probably more convenient to have error messages sent to the browser window when they appear. This way, you won't miss errors if you forget to check the error log file.

      If you want PHP to display error messages in your browser window, look for the following:

      display_errors = Off

      And change it to:

      display_errors = On

      This value should always be set to "Off" for a "live" website.

   5. SMTP Server

      If your script uses the mail() function, and you want the function to successfully send mail on your local machine, look for the following section:

      [mail function]
      ; For Win32 only.
      SMTP = localhost
      smtp_port = 25
      
      ; For Win32 only.
      ;sendmail_from = me@example.com
      

      Change it to point to your SMTP server and email account. For example, if your SMTP server is "mail.example.com" and your email address is "youremail@example.com", change the code to:

      [mail function]
      SMTP = mail.example.com
      smtp_port = 25
      sendmail_from = youremail@example.com

      Note that after you do this, when your script tries to use the mail() function, you will need to be connected to your ISP for the function to succeed. If you do not modify the above lines and attempt to use mail() in your script, the function will return a fail code, and display (or log) the error (depending on how you configure php.ini to handle errors).

      (Note that in Apache 1.x, the smtp_port line may not be present. If so, don't include it.)

How to Configure Apache for PHP 5

There are two ways to setup Apache to use PHP: the first is to configure it to load the PHP interpreter as an Apache module. The second is to configure it to run the interpreter as a CGI binary. I will supply information for how you can accomplish both, but you should only implement one of these methods. Choose the module method if your web host also installed PHP as an Apache module, and use the CGI method if they have implemented it to run as a CGI binary.

1. Running PHP 5 as an Apache Module

   To configure Apache to load PHP as a module to parse your PHP scripts, use an ASCII text editor to open the Apache configuration file, "httpd.conf". If you use Apache 1.x, the file is found in "c:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\conf\". Apache 2.0.x users can find it in "C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf\" while Apache 2.2.x users can find it in "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf\". Basically, it's in the "conf" folder of wherever you installed Apache.

   Search for the section of the file that has a series of "LoadModule" statements. Statements prefixed by the hash "#" sign are regarded as having been commented out.

   If you are using Apache 1.x, add the following line after all the LoadModule statements:

   LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache.dll"

   If you are using Apache 2.0.x, add the following line after all the LoadModule statements:

   LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache2.dll"

   If you are using Apache 2.2.x, add the following line instead:

   LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache2_2.dll"

   Note carefully the use of the forward slash character ("/") instead of the traditional Windows backslash ("\"). This is not a typographical error.

   If you are using Apache 1.x, search for the series of "AddModule" statements, and add the following line after all of them. You do not have to do this in any of the Apache 2 series of web servers.

   AddModule mod_php5.c

   Next, search for "AddType" in the file, and add the following line after the last "AddType" statement. Do this whichever version of Apache you are using. For Apache 2.2.x, you can find the "AddType" lines in the section. Add the line just before the closing for that section.

   AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

   If you need to support other file types, like ".phtml", simply add them to the list, like this:

   AddType application/x-httpd-php .phtml

   Finally, for those using one of the Apache 2 versions, you will need to indicate the location of your PHP ini file. Add the following line to the end of your httpd.conf file.

   PHPIniDir "c:/php"

   Of course if you used a different directory for your PHP installation, you will need to change "c:/php" to that path. Remember to use the forward slash ("/") here again.

   If you are using Apache 1, you will have already placed your php.ini file in either the Windows directory or somewhere in your PATH, so PHP should be able to find it by itself. You can of course do the same if you are using Apache 2, but I find modifying the Apache configuration file a better solution than cluttering your c:\windows directory or your PATH variable.

2. Running PHP 5 as a CGI Binary

   If you have configured PHP 5 to run as an Apache module, skip forward to the next section. This section is for those who want to configure PHP to run as a CGI binary.

   The procedure is the same whether you are using the Apache 1.x series or one of the 2.x series.

   Search for the portion of your Apache configuration file which has the ScriptAlias section. Add the line from the box below immediately after the ScriptAlias line for "cgi-bin". If you use Apache 2.2.x, make sure that the line goes before the closing for that section.

   Note that if you installed PHP elsewhere, such as "c:\Program Files\php\", you should substitute the appropriate path in place of "c:/php/" (for example, "c:/Program Files/php/").

   ScriptAlias /php/ "c:/php/"

   Apache needs to be configured for the PHP MIME type. Search for the "AddType" comment block explaining its use, and add the AddType line in the box below after it. For Apache 2.2.x, you can find the AddType lines in the section. Add the following line just before the closing for that section.

   AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

   As in the case of running PHP as an Apache module, you can add whatever extensions you want Apache to recognise as PHP scripts, such as:

   AddType application/x-httpd-php .phtml

   Next, you will need to tell the server to execute the PHP executable each time it encounters a PHP script. Add the following somewhere in the file, such as after the comment block explaining "Action". If you use Apache 2.2.x, you can simply add it immediately after your "AddType" statement above; there's no "Action" comment block in Apache 2.2.x.

   Action application/x-httpd-php "/php/php-cgi.exe"

   Note: the "/php/" portion will be recognised as a ScriptAlias, a sort of macro which will be expanded to "c:/php/" (or "c:/Program Files/php/" if you installed PHP there) by Apache. In other words, don't put "c:/php/php.exe" or "c:/Program Files/php/php.exe" in that directive, put "/php/php-cgi.exe".

   If you are using Apache 2.2.x, look for the following section in the httpd.conf file:

   
   AllowOverride None
   Options None
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
   

   Add the following lines immediately after the section you just found.

   
   AllowOverride None
   Options None
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
   

3. Configuring the Default Index Page

   This section applies to all users, whether you are using PHP as a module or as a CGI binary.

   If you create a file index.php, and want Apache to load it as the directory index page for your website, you will have to add another line to the "httpd.conf" file. To do this, look for the line in the file that begins with "DirectoryIndex" and add "index.php" to the list of files on that line. For example, if the line used to be:

   DirectoryIndex index.html

   change it to:

   DirectoryIndex index.php index.html

   The next time you access your web server with just a directory name, like "localhost" or "localhost/directory/", Apache will send whatever your index.php script outputs, or if index.php is not available, the contents of index.html.

Restart the Apache Web Server

Restart your Apache server. This is needed because Apache needs to read the new configuration directives for PHP that you have placed into the httpd.conf file. The command to do this for the Apache 2.x series can be found in the Start menu: Start -> Programs -> Apache HTTP Server -> Control Apache Server -> Restart.

Testing Your PHP Installation

Create a PHP file with the following line:

Save the file as "test.php" or any other name that you fancy, but with the ".php" extension, into your Apache htdocs directory. If you are using Notepad, remember to save as "test.php" with the quotes, or the software will add a ".txt" extension behind your back.

Open your browser and access the file by typing "localhost/test.php" into your browser's address bar. Do not open the file directly on the hard disk - you'll only see the words you typed in earlier. You need to use the above URL so that the browser will try to access your Apache web server, which in turn runs PHP to interpret your script.

If all goes well, you should see a pageful of information about your PHP setup. Congratulations - you have successfully installed PHP and configured Apache to work with it. You can upload this same file, test.php, to your web host and run it there to see how your web host has set up his PHP, so that you can mimic it on your own machine.

If for some reason it does not work, check to see whether your PHP setup or your Apache setup is causing the problem. To do this, open a Command Prompt window (found in the "Accessories" folder of your "Start" menu) and run php-cgi.exe on test.php with a command line like "c:\php\php-cgi test.php" (without the quotes).

If invoking PHP from the command line causes a large HTML file with all the PHP configuration information to be displayed, then your PHP set up is fine. The problem probably lies with your Apache configuration. Make sure that you have restarted the Apache server after making configuration changes. Verify that you have configured Apache correctly by looking over, again, the instructions on this page and the steps given in How to Install and Configure Apache 1.x for Windows (for Apache 1.x users) or How to Install and Configure Apache 2 on Windows (for Apache 2.x users).

Source : thesitewizard.com

How to Choose a Domain Name
In the internet business, the domain name could be the beginning or the end of your business. Choosing your domain name wisely is essential to be ahead in the market. There are 2 types of domain names.
1. Keyword rich Product related domains For example, webdesignuk.com, smallbusinessreview.com etc. These domains clearly give you an idea of what the website is all about from the domain name itself. They are keyword rich and often rank well for the keywords in the domain if the site is optimized well. These websites usually fare well with most search engines.
2. Brand named Domain names Yahoo for instance or Google is a brand name. The Name Google itself will not tell you what it is. But who doesn’t know Google and yahoo. Brand name domains are good once you are into brand marketing. It’s often a bad idea if you are a start up Website Company to invest into a brand name domain. It usually costs a lot for brand marketing and its altogether a different ball game.
When choosing a domain name, make it as keyword rich as possible and also as short as possible. A domain name like makemoneyontheinternet.com is a great domain name but considering its length, it could just be bad. Limit your domain name length to as little as 10 to 12 characters. This would make your domain look good with the search engines. Also take enough time to choose your domain extension. If your domain is a .com it will have more chances to be found. .com domains are more preferred and will benefit you on the long run.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rajiv_Sahadevan

Payment Gateway Reviews in India

Payment Gateway Reviews in India

There are now many payment gateway options are available in India. Some of these:

• CCAvenue
• Payseal from ICICI Bank
• EBS from UTI Bank
• HDFC Bank

According my opinion CCAvenue is good payment gateway in India. Hence their interface is very slow due to jsp page. But in this time they have lots of option for making payment.

CCAvenue Accepts following Credit cards:
VISA, AMERICAN EXPRESS, DINERS CLUB, CITIBANK E-CARDS and JCB CARDS

CCAvenue Accepts following Netbankings:
CCAvenue has been approved as a Super/Master Merchant by Citibank, ICICI Bank, American Express, UTI Bank, IDBI Bank, Centurion Bank, Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Kotak Mahindra Bank, The Federal Bank, Bank of Rajasthan, IndusInd Bank and HDFC Bank.

ICICI Bank (Payseal) also good but they have stopped mastercard option for number of customer without any intimation. Also they have no ETA to start again. They accept Master & Visa Cards Only.

EBS also just started the payment gateway. They accept Master & Visa Credit cards. But i have checked on some reference websites which they have given, thier processing is very slow, but they have assured me to resolve asap.

HDFC Bank also offering payment gateway, but its just biginning… Let’s see.

Source: ZNet India

Basic website design tips

Website building has become a common and essential knowledge to many people. Businesses, organisations and individuals have created websites either for commercial, or for personal recreational purposes.
When it comes to website building, one should pay extra attention to the fine details. This is to make sure that it performs optimally. Here are some important tips to observe to make sure your website serves its function properly.
1. Display simple and clear navigational menu
Provide a simple and easy to understand navigation menu so that even someone who is not internet savvy will know how to use it. It is best to stay away from complicated multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don’t know how to navigate the site confidently, they will eventually leave it.
2. Avoid using flash
Where appropriate, avoid using flash, especially for the first introduction page. People have to download the Flash player beforehand before they can view Flash movies. Because of this, the number of visitors will decrease considerably because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to view your website.
3. Avoid using large graphic images Large graphic files take a long time to download and display.
Usually, visitors do not have the patience to wait for more than several seconds for the site to display itself. For this reason, keep the graphic files as small as possible. It is a good practice to optimise images before uploading them onto the server. I use GIMP, the free image editor for reduction of image file size.
4. Avoid using audio on your site
Audio is subjective and therefore not all will like the kind of music that is playing on a website. However, if you insist on adding audio, make sure the visitor can control the volume, stop or pause the music.
Well, these are some tips. They are by no means exhaustive, though. The key is to make the trip to your site as easy and as pleasant to the visitor as possible.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shen_Gerald

Enable Thumbnails For PSD Files

Recently, I really got frustrated when I needed a quick preview of a PSD file, and the folder where it was saved was full of PSD files. I needed the file urgently. Then, I ended up opening each file manually to see what it was. Later, after I got through my work. I Googled some ways to overcome this problem in the future.

Adobe Bridge is good, and can be used to view what’s in the PSD file, but it eats half of my RAM, so I usually ignore it. After Googling for about an hour, I was finally able to have thumbnails instead of those blue feathers.

How To Enable Thumbnails For PSD Files

If you think this is going to be a long procedure, then you are wrong. It won’t even take 5 minutes to set up your PSD files to show the preview thumbnails. Simple follow the steps below.

First, make a quick backup of your system using System Restore. And backup your registry too!

1. Download psicon.dll from here (it’s a zip file)

2. Unzip it anywhere in your PC (You should have 3 files. psicon.dll, psicon.dll.reg and read me.txt)

3. Copy the psicon.dll to the following path:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell\

Remember, you might need to create the Shell folder, in Adobe directory.

4. After copying, execute the psicon.dll.reg file.

5. Click OK, for the info window that pops up to tell us that the registry key has been copied.

Done. See, no more than 5 minutes! ;)

Go to any folder containing PSD files, and choose Thumbnails from the View menu. You should now be able to view the thumbnails for PSD files, just as you see thumbnails of images.

I hope you enjoyed this trick and it has been helpful to you. I’d love to see you again on my blog.

HTML and JavaScript inside blogger posts using custom display boxes

It is very difficult for anyone using blogger blogs to show HTML codes and JavaScript inside the blog posts . You might have seen people showing the scripts in small display boxes of fixed length and width. Now after applying this blogger trick you will be able to show HTML and JavaScript inside blogger posts with custom display boxes .

Click on layout of the blog in which want show HTML or JAVA script and now select edit HTML
Before you apply any blogger trick ,remember to download and save your full template.
Now tick the expand widget templates and move onto the selection shown below

Otherwise you can press Cntrl+F and paste ]]> on appearing search box then enter
Paste the following code above the text appearing green and save the template

box
{
background:#efefef;
border:1px solid #A6B0BF;
font-size:120%;
line-height:100%;
overflow:auto;
padding:10px;
color:#000000 }
pre:hover {
border:1px solid #efefef;
}

code {
font-size:120%;
text-align:left;
margin:0;padding:0;
color: #000000;}
.clear { clear:both;
overflow:hidden;
}


The above code is for drawing a display box inside the blogger post to show HTML and java scripts.You can change the length ,width ,size and color of the box by editing the code .After adding this code you can call the display box anytime into your post by following next step.



Before you add "your HTML or JAVA script " make it post friendly by following this link
Inside the box provided paste the script and click make it friendly


Making the script postable is the only requirement if you plan to show the HTML or JAVA script alone without a box.

Javascript Magnification on your Website.

Note that: Microsoft's release of internet Explorer v7 in November 2006 has a built in zoom magnifier so in the long run the zoom magnifier will be of use to fewer and fewer visitors.

This page gives some simple instructions on how to set-up a Javascript zoom magnification function on a web site. So if you have a web site and a basic knowledge of html web pages read on.

Javascript Zoom Magnifier in Action.

Like to see the zoom magnify function in action, click the +10% or -10% button in the top left of the page. Can't see them? That means your not running Internet Explorer or have Javascript turned off.

For anyone with a web site this is a useful utility to allow most visitors to easily change the text and graphic size in a single click.

The Zoom Magnifier is Freeware.

The Javascript code on the 'zoom.js' link and its 3 variants is free for any use.

Magnifying Limitations.

To use the magnifier, there are th ree main limitations:-

• Javascript must be switc hed on.
• It only works for the Internet Explorer Browser version 5,6 or 7 must be used.
• If Cookies are blocked, the zoom factor is not remembered and page magnification has to be set for each page viewed.

It degrades gracefully, so simply no buttons appear if Javascript is switched off or a non Microsoft browser is used.

Opera is an exception as the Opera browser has an option to 'pretend' to bea Microsoft browser. With Opera if this option is used the buttons will be visible but will not work, full marks to Opera!?

Overhead and Size of Script.

On slow PC's using cookies to remember magnification you may notice a 're-size' effect, as the text expands after the page loads. Not a problem on newer PC's but a minor irritation on very large pages viewed by slow PC's.

Script size shouldn't be a problem even on dial-up. One script file of about 2k is needed in an external javascript file 'zoom.js' file, with two lines on each page using the zoom utility.

How to Set the Magnifier Up.

1. Set-up an extern al Javascript file 'zoom.js'. Start by opening a text editor like notepad. Click below to see the file :-

   zoom.js.

   Then high light all the text an

   d copy and paste

   into notepad. Use File-> Save As zoom.js and save in the same directory where you hold your htm or html pages. Saving as a text file.

   N.B. My file statistics still sh

   ow some of you save these files directly. If it works fine but I recommend the cut and paste approach into a blank notepad file, then use save as 'zoom.js'.

2. Add the line of code be low to any page you wish to have the zoom function on.

3.Also change the tag to

Note the buttons 'float' to the top left and right of the screen which may not suit the design of your site! If you have knowledge of javascript and html the code is fairly easy to change.

Or here are three minor variations:-

• zoom.js with left hand side buttons only.
• zoom.js with right hand side buttons only.
• zoom.js with no buttons and html code to include buttons manually wherever you want - see the zoom effect on graphics on this page for an example.

For Automated Sites - PHP and MySQL are A Perfect Match

A bit of programming is going to be necessary if you want to automate a site. There are many types of programs that can be used to automate a web JavaScript, PHP, Perl, ASP, Java and more. So, which do you use? For many, it is a personal choice.

I prefer PHP for programming. PHP is a particularly useful programming language because it allows for advanced programming and is easy to integrate with web pages. Another plus of PHP is that the language interfaces very well with MySQL, a popular type of online database.

Yet another plus of PHP is that it is Open Source Code. The actual code that is PHP is available to the public for free, while the source code for products such as ASP are not. Because PHP is open source, there is a large community of PHP programmers that help each other with code. This means PHP programmers can rely on each other by using reusable pieces of code called functions and classes rather than constantly reinventing the wheel. This can dramatically cut down on production time.

Overall, PHP is flexible, cheaper than many alternatives, and built around a community. PHP and MySQL are excellent choice for webmasters looking to automate their web sites.

What Can PHP and MySQL do for me? Just about anything you can think of. That is the beauty of custom programming. A few ideas of what you can do with a PHP and MySQL driven site include:

1. E-commerce
2. User Polls
3. Keyword Tracking
4. Set User Preferences
5. Manage Password Protected Member’s Areas
6. Lead Follow Up
7. Customer Relations
8. Content Management
9. Email Newsletters
10. Accounting
11. Invoicing
12. Scheduled Updates

The list is limited only by your imagination. Once you have decided to go with a PHP and MySQL site, you can either get a custom program created, use a prepackaged version or a combination of both. Many PHP and MySQL programs that come prepackaged are easy to customize and can save you a lot of time and money over starting from the ground up.

How To: Optimize Your Images for Search

Have you every gone to Google image search looking for a quick photo, image or wine label? Image search is an area often overlooked when first dipping your toes into the world of search engine marketing.

Remember, search engine bots are a series of algorithms and routines that determine ranking and image search engines are no different. But, you can't expect a bot to be as perceptive as a human and identify what your keywords your wine images should relate to.

So, give them a hand. Effectively labeling your wine (or any) images and alt tags is a great start. But, do so within reason. A few months ago we posted about the abuse of search engines by black hat developers who used 'keyword stuffing' on their meta tags to lessen the relevance of certain determination factors such as meta tags - and it too has been done in image tagging. This shouldn't thwart you from using images as an effective means of SEO however - but do so within reason and without keyword spamming.

Properties to understand about images.

Naming: When saving or selecting a filename for your image, be sure to use something which is relevant not only to the image description, but the overall keyword theme for your specific site or page.

Do's: Separate words with hyphens. Search engines cannot decipher where one word begins and another ends without an identifiable delimiter such as a hyphen (-).

Example: wine-marketer-logo.jpg not winemarketerlogo.jpg.

Don't: Separate words with spaces or underscores when a hyphen will do.

Example: wine marketer.jpg will conver to wine%20marketer.jpg.

Alt Tags: Alt tags allow you to provide a description of your image to visitors and search engines for multiple purposes. First, the alt tag will show prior to an image being displayed should it take a few seconds to load and will give visitors a description of what is loading (or even maybe pointing to a bad link). Second, they provide a hover over effect on the image, allowing visitors to see a description of images they place their cursor on. Third, they display an image description for browsers or users who are unable to load your site images including those visually impaired. Lastly, and most importantly for this article, they provide a description to search engines of what this image is about. Pairing this with the selective keywords on your site and image filename, it is another opportunity to reinforce your search engine worthiness!

Here is an example of SEO friendly image naming and alt tag in HTML format:

HTML format: < src="specify image path here" width=" " height=" " alt=" write text that you want to show if an image is not appearing ">

Remember to use alt tags whenever possible as another form of traffic allocation through image search and in helping boost your organic search results by providing even more keyword relevancy for your site.

Suprisingly Wine.com adheres to alt tag standards however does not relate this into the their image filenames. All the little things make a difference in SEO!

For More details Visit My Site : www.sbeermohamed.co.nr

Preload Images with CSS

Posted in CSS, December 23, 2004

As support for CSS improves, pseudo-selectors like :hover, :active and :focus will become more widely used. Already :hover is in use on many sites to provide rollover states to buttons, as on this site (the menu bar). The other pseudo selectors will, in time, give far more opportunities for the use of rollover images.

One potential problem with image rollovers, though, is that in order for an image to be displayed, it must be downloaded. Consequently, for rollovers to work smoothly and quickly, all the necessary images must be already available on the user's PC. Otherwise, the rollovers will behave badly, like in this example using large images.

Until recently, rollover effects were achieved through use of JavaScript, and as a result, a plethora of solutions to the preloading image problem in JavaScript are available. However, using JavaScript to preload images, though not a bad idea when using JavaScript to control rollovers, becomes less bright when it is CSS that's controlling them. A user could very easily (and this is becoming more common) have a CSS-capable browser without JavaScript support or with JavaScript turned off.

So there's a clear need for a way to use CSS to preload images or find another way to avoid the problem. Which gives us two relatively simple solutions to our problem.

The first solution is to create a single background image for your element that actually contains both the rollover and non-rollover images, and then position is using the background-position CSS property. Instead of changing the image when the mouse moves over the element, you can simply change the background-position to reveal the previously hidden rollover image. There's a more detailed explanation of this technique over at WellStyled.com.

The other option available to you is to trick the browser into downloading the image before it is required for the rollover. This can be done by applying the image as a background to an element, and then hiding it using the background-position property. The image will then be downloaded but will not be displayed. Then, when the rollover is activated, it will operate smoothly and instantly.

First, you need to select an element that doesn't currently have a background image. If so select an element that does have a background image, you will either end up not preloading the image you are after, or you will prevent the element's normal background displaying. Neither is ideal.

Once you have picked an element to use for this purpose, you need to add the background image. The following CSS can be applied to the element and will place the background image outside the viewable area of the image:

background-image: url("rollover_image.png");
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: -1000px -1000px;
Your rollover image will then be loaded when the page itself is initially loaded, along with the other images. When a rollover is then activated, the image will already be available to the browser and the effect will be instant.

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