I can definitively say that local hosting firms can be the absolute worst – if they are physically hosting their own servers.  It takes a fair amount of money and personnel to do it completely and it just doesn’t pay well enough to provide great hosting, great prices and great support.

However, if one were to lease a server from one of those big folks with the money and the personnel to tend the physical parts, then that hosting can be not only a bargain but a great experience.

I say this because, yes, I have my own dedicated server that I lease from a large company but I don’t market it. (Yes, I’m saying I’m not using my blog to sell hosting.)  I provide full featured hosting at pretty good prices on a cPanel server to only my clients – ones that I either do the work on or that I know what they are doing on their website. Since I take care of most of the websites on my hosting, most don’t need much support at all and I try to respond immediately to questions and concerns.

It’s ideal for my customers – and  it gives me super hosting for my own sites.

I had reseller hosting from a relatively large company in Atlanta on a shared server some years back. I was actually talking to them about me providing some support when they got hacked (surprise), I told them that the databases were fine and to be sure to save them.  They didn’t listen to me and my customers lost a month. So large hosting company – bad results due to 2 things, shared hosting and panicked techs.

The point is to choose carefully – know what is most important to you. Ask yourself:

1. Does the hosting provide a satisfactory environment? Do you need anything beside static html?  Is your static site large enough to benefit from includes?  Does the hosting allow either shtml or a dynamic language such as php, asp, .net?  What might be in your future in addition to what you have now – might you need a blog, a cart or other database driven application?  How many databases do they allow? ( minimum of 2 is best always – in case of upgrades, a second can come in very handy and save you money in the long run)
2. What’s the best deal? $2 a month?  Stop!  Do you value your website? Think higher.  You do get what you pay for. What do the fees include? Do they nickel and dime you with little add-ons? Think into the future. What can it cost you? Paying over $20 a month – there are better deals out there most likely.
3. What kind of support do you need? 24 hour and you don’t mind it all being by email? Do you want to talk to someone? Have you researched to see if there are any complaints about their hosting? Google it. The larger the provider, sometimes the worse the support. I consider Godaddy to be the bottom feeders of the hosting world but have good experiences with BlueHost.com.
4. Are they bragging about serving many thousands of customers?Be wary – that can mean reduced bandwidth, slower servers speeds and a higher possibility of hacking.
5. Do you want FrontPage?  A server with FrontPage has just opened a door to everyone’s website – less secure servers.  Look for an alternative – where they might have a sitebuilder of some sort.
6. Do you want to pay by the month or year?  Monthly hosting can cost more or, if it doesn’t, can also mean a transient server – too easy to move websites around nowadays especially if someone is trying to hack the server from within his website hosting account. Yearly paid options may cost more out of pocket but you might get better hosting … or not.

As usual, there are no absolutes on the Wild Wooly World of the Internet.

Since there are a number of core changes and a few template changes in the 1.3.9a upgrade, research and preparation is definitely key to a smooth and successful upgrade.

First of all, templates: have you made changes to the login_default or shopping cart templates? Those are the most likely sources of problems with the templates but there are changed to 10 main templates and 8 sidebox templates.  One important template changes is the common/htm_header.php template.  It’s rare to change that template but whatever changes might have occurred in the file are going to be very important to your site (or should be).

So if you’ve done the template overrides correctly, your changed templates will not be upgraded and you could find things no longer work (that shopping cart change is important folks) or your site may be left vulnerable.

Once you’ve checked those templates, look at what mods you have installed. Any of the SEO url mods will not work. Someone is going to have to upgrade those but upgrades may be a long time coming. Decide now whether you want to keep them or not.  If you do, stop reading now!

Using any of the Fast and Easy  Login or Checkout Modules? He’s not supporting any checkout but the paid Ajax version so those are highly unlikely to get upgraded.  (He still lists the FE login on his site but do not know his plans to upgrade that one.)

He has already upgraded his paid Ajax version – I suspect spending the money for that is worth it at this point.  I like the mod but find few clients who will pay the $75.  http://www.numinix.com/zen-cart-modules/template-modifications/fast-and-easy-ajax-checkout-for-zen-cart

The offline credit card payment module has been removed in this version in a stab at PCI compliance.  So if you install the new version and not upgrade, it’s gone. There is a mod for that however! And using this mod does work for pci compliance.  If you have to explain it to your merchant processor, be sure to let them know that the full credit card number is not stored anywhere on your site nor is it sent thru email.  Ceon Manual Card: http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=1277  (I don’t know if it works with this version but I’m expecting it to.)

If you are upgrading only, your offline credit card will still be there. Test it out to be sure it still works properly.  If not or if you develop problems with it, install the Ceon Manual Card instead.

One little extra piece of advice: cleanup! The upgrade does away with the old patch files for the last version.  There are blank files included in the upgrade by the same name but  delete them instead.  Tidy up!

Here’s the full change log for this version: http://zencart.deliawilsondesign.com/changelog-v1-3-9.html

Stay tuned.  More information for this Zen Cart upgrade is coming!

The one that has caused so many problems simply inserts php code into the images folder and that code usually just needs removing and your cart can be restored to working order.

If you are a Zen Cart owner and you are not subscribed to the announcements thread or your web person doesn’t inform you of the necessity of certain patches, subscribe today!  Otherwise, you are just inviting problems.

So the good news is if you stay on top of what’s happening, you won’t get hacked!  The Zen Cart support community is very proactive and fixes problems before they become problems.  That’s one of the reasons I use Zen and one of the reasons my hosting customers with Zen Carts have so few problems. I watch out for them!

It seems the most popular use of flash is that ever present top banner – that place you cannot avoid looking at.  And therein lies the problem.

First, consider a hidden division with keywords.

Place a division with a display none style above the flash to get those keywords and good descriptions up top.  Maybe repeat the good info from below the flash? Increase your keyword density on the sly! (Oh, if anyone sees a problem with this and search engines – speak up quickly!)

Think css backgrounds!

Create a division for your flash and attach a background image – a repeating one would be optimal. These images can usually be optimized to a very small size and repeating it requires little discernible load time.

Then make your flash background transparent.  The flash can appear to stretch the whole width across the web page but in actuality can then be a lot smaller than the space provided for. In other words, you can reduce the size and load time of the flash.

In addition, add some text into the division next to the flash – maybe even use a bit of jQuery to add animation to the text.  So then you will have searchable text at the top of the page as well.

Speaking of jQuery (and other javascript libraries)

Sometimes you can use it instead of flash and achieve the same effect for less cost to your customer.  I’m not fond of browser side scripting but the libraries can be very solid across different browsers; jQuery then reducing load time and using searchable text instead of that chunk of flash.

I use jQuery because it has a lightweight footprint, is CSS3  and crossbrowser compliant.  One simple little interactive effect is a text fade out. Note the ‘interactive’ part of that description. Click it and it works.  It’s a 2 minute set up in jQuery but much more time consuming in flash. You can read more about the jQuery library at jQuery.com.

CSS Positioning

The closer to the top of the page in the html, the better for SEO purposes  – so put the best content up top and push that flash down in the html.

Did you know that you can have the middle section of a three column layout fall after the left and right columns in the html code? Float left the left one and float right the right and the middle will then rise visually to top.   Don’t forget to put a fixed width on those floated divisions. If you’ve got Dreamweaver – the 3 column elastic layout is a good example of this technique.

Quickie code:

.left {
float: left; width: 200px;
}
.right {
float: right; width: 200px;
}

<div>this is the left side - keywords!!!!</div>
<div>this is the right side - keywords!!!!</div>
<div> and put the flash here at the bottom</div>

Then you could put background images in both left and right columns to make it look like part of the flash like I did in the above example.

CSS Advanced

Of course there are all sorts of fancy shmancy ways to arrange your divisions visually with CSS positioning to benefit SEO.  I, however, am a fan of simple CSS – straightforward CSS is more likely to be crossbrowser compliant and easier.  So I rarely ever use techniques like -500 margins for positioning sakes.  Which is kinda funny since I am using a template here on my blog that does just that!  (I was too lazy to do the CSS from scratch!)

Investigate the possibilities. Here’s three of my favorite sites with great demos, tutorials and usable scripts:

http://meyerweb.com
http://www.cssplay.co.uk
http://www.alistapart.com

This got to be the biggest bane of web pros:  clients who pay to have it done their way rather than pay a web pro to manage the project.

I’ve developed quite a bag of tricks to deliver the look of what they want — and learned to accept the inevitable: they pay money for a site and then they may well pay (with money or lack of income) for it over and over because they didn’t listen to a web expert in the first place.

So what do you do?

The issues: search engine optimization, load time, visual distraction, function and, once more, search engine optimization.
The action keywords: educate, negotiate and fronting (appear to give up the fight while working in the background).
The tools: CSS, image optimization, and a lot of creativity in flash and javascript.

The best example we’ve all heard more than once in our careers: “But I want a massive, fancy, moving flash at the head of my page!”

So…

Educate:

• explain how this hurts search engine optimization and therefore the website bottom line, i.e., importance of text, load time and positioning
• gently mention how some visitors are distracted by moving elements, using the key phrase, “it distracts from your message or purpose”
• explain the cost of the flash will not have a reasonable return on the money (I quote large prices for these kinds of flash objects)
• give up when you get a blank stare or “but I want…” in return

Negotiate:

• agree to a flash but require more text above it
• insist on driving the flash creation (charge him/her less, bribe, do whatever it takes to have some control over the flash itself)
• reduce the flash visual size
• move it to one side instead of all the way across
• agree to it only on the home page and use an image on subsequent pages.

Appearance:

• work to create the visual look he/she wants but creatively work in the html and CSS code to mitigate the effects such as using a div with a background to blend into the flash images and that contains keyword-driven text
• moving the flash div lower in the code with CSS positioning tricks
• don’t forget flash can have a transparent background – move large visuals out of the flash and into backgrounds where possible
• work to create a non-streaming flash that appears to stream by pre-loading images and watching the frame by frame load time
• switch to a javascript solution such a jquery that will enable the use of keywords and lessen load time but still have a fancy appearance (oh and it’s more “Web 2.0″ – I do hate that phrase!)

In my next blog post, I’ll give an example of some of these techniques. so stay tuned.

My favorite walk is down at Riverview Park.  This section of the Rivanna trail has everything from the roar of traffic to the almost quiet of the forest to the sounds of the river. Between the birds (including a flock of geese),  cicadas and the regular deep croak of a bullfrog, it’s never a quiet place, especially in the summer. The views are astounding: glimpses of the river, flowering undergrowth coupled with the rear entrances of businesses and derelict panel trucks that stare right at you. All of that is forgotten when you enter into the unusual sounds and sight of the 250 bridge.  Best of all I love the bit of that “runners high” I get towards the end,  an end that always feels like the beginning of something new and refreshed.

Read the original post:

http://www.sitepronews.com/2009/10/27/top-ten-ways-to-use-twitter-for-marketing/

I’m not complaining actually because juggling it all is a delicate dance that, once mastered, gives one a feeling of satisfaction.

FACEBOOK

So it goes like this.  I have non-business connections on Facebook – mainly relatives, friends, and high school classmates.  It set up my class from Athens High School for a great reunion – getting to talk and connect ahead of time was super preparation for a weekend of fun.  It helped reduce the anxiety a reunion produces and helped us to find out what we’ve all been up to in the past 40 (!) years.

I had connected with a couple of business folks on Facebook. One hosting client who later abandoned me (hmm?) and one internet person I work for.  After a Facebook post that got me in trouble with the internet person, I “unfriended her” very quickly.  You have to remember that you are posting to others connections as well – it goes beyond your little world.  Lesson learned!

FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS

I do have a Facebook page for my business as well but haven’t worked at getting followers – I only have 5 including me – so I’m not much on posting there.  Established my presence and moved on!

Follow me there- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Charlottesville-VA/Delia-Wilson-Design/92602374329?ref=ts

TWITTER

I keep my Charlottesville connections on Twitter – that’s one way for me to keep in touch with what’s happening here. I’ve gotten job leads that way and managed to worm my way into C’ville’s consciousness without pounding the streets.

But it’s also provided an face-to-face social outlet – with Tweet Ups, First Wednesdays and the C’ville Social Media Club having meetings and get-togethers. I’ve met folks, discovered some great food and learned a lot about Charlottesville and some of its inhabitants.

It provides me with local  news and dining specials as well as breaking news stories in a quick, easy to digest format that I can delve into deeper or just simply absorb while working.

I use it to promote what I’m doing and to learn from others about topics that interest me.

Dang useful tool.

So you can follow me there, too.  http://twitter.com/deliawl

TUMBLR

Though not something you’ve probably heard of, I have had a blast using Tumblr to post my iPhone pictures to the web. Snap the pic, post it to Facebook and or Twitter from wherever I am. Of course, my Tumblr app just recently crashed and now need to spend time finding out what to do about it!

I really enjoy photography and have a decent eye for it.  Sharing my photos with my Facebook friends is fun for me and can be enjoyable for them.  I took a set of pics of the downtown C’ville mall and one of my friends was thrilled. She had lived here years ago and it brought back great memories for her.

Check out my photo blog! http://deliawilson.tumblr.com

LINKEDIN

And then there’s LinkedIn – more business oriented profile pages with resume type information. It’s become very important to have a profile there for many reasons.  And now one can designate certain Twitter tweets to be posted there as well – adding some refreshment to a dull, static page.

Choose those posts wisely folks!

View my profile there, too: http://www.linkedin.com/in/deliawilson

WRAP UP

The point is this. These are tools and used properly can promote your business and your brand. Used poorly they can hurt your business. I’ve even met someone thru Twitter and found I really dislike him – because he has revealed who he really is. And sometimes that isn’t good.

If you haven’t tried out some of these tools, take the time to investigate them. Sign up for Twitter at least – it’s quick and easy with little to learn.  Take the plunge!

“The social media movement has expanded the number of people we can reach and connect with on a personal level. The new relationships and connections we create with people all over the world can have a profound effect on our personal and business growth. We learn about cultures and nations that we were, perhaps, previously ignorant of. None of this is a new concept, but what may be is how quickly you can destroy your business by using social media incorrectly. ”

Read the rest of the article:

http://www.sitepronews.com/2009/11/12/how-you-use-social-media-can-kill-your-business/

Other times someone comes up with a brainy idea: “I want a site like VistaPrint”. My question, “Do you have the designs and the ability to print?” Answer, “No, can’t you do that for us?” (For very little money!)

Let’s talk about the realities of e-commerce.

1. Your site must be believable – seem real. Have a customer service number visible on all pages. Have a physical address posted on your contact page.
2. It must be easily navigable. Put categories, shopping cart, my account, shipping and contact us links on every page.
3. Make it obvious what you sell. Design like Amazon.com and you’ll never sell.  Amazon uses direct emails to entice customers to different areas of the site.  They know their site is actually overwhelming.  Design for few like or themed products .
4. State your privacy policy simply and up front – preferably on the page where customers have to enter their info.  Most sites do not need the policy written by lawyers. Do you give or sell your email list? Do you ever sell or give away other customer information like mailing addresses or phone numbers?
5. Make your product descriptions as detailed as possible with appropriate pictures.  I never ordered the office phone I wanted because I couldn’t find the info I wanted – what type of incoming ports on the back of a 2 line phone? No pics, no info, no sale.
6. Make sure your products are delivered quickly or else tell the customer before they order how long it might be til they arrive.  Too many sites ship immediately and customers are getting used to it.
7. Use newsletters to keep your customers interested – featured product of the week, latest sale, exciting new site features. (Please, it must be exciting and really interesting to the customer, not just a marketing ploy.)
8. Make it easy on yourself – a good site admin to manage your store easily is imperative for your sanity.
9. Site search! Make sure your product titles and descriptions are searchable; make it easy for your customers to find what you want.  Refer back to number 5 to do it right.
10. Security, security, security.  Using a reputable on line processor and a secured cart is the first step.  Then explain to your customer that you don’t keep their credit card information, ever, unless given permission to do so.  Small carts should never, ever, keep this info on the website. Any cart has the possibility of being hacked!