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30th
JAN

How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off by Your Web Designer

Posted by admin | Filed under Internet

OK, you’ve heard, read, and been told by folks that having a website is a great way to reach a global audience. You even know some folks who do a substantial business entirely on the internet. You don’t want to be left behind, so you decide to have your own website. But let me warn you - there are several things that you need to do, learn, understand and research before you jump in, unless you have money to burn. If not, let’s get started right away.

First of all, you need to decide what you really want and expect from your website. When I say want, I mean everything - A to Z. How do you want your website to look aesthetically? How do you want your navigation? Do you want a static site or a dynamic one? How frequently do you want it updated? Will you write the content yourself or will you seek the services of a copy writer? (warning: if you copy content off some other website you are doing copyright infringement and may receive a DCMA complaint and even get sued). Always plan your website content keeping the focus on your customer. What does your customer seek before arriving at your website? It is advisable to visit a few websites, especially your competitors and see how they have their websites done. This will give you pointers and help you take directions.

Once you know what you expect from your website, start inviting web design and development quotes from multiple sources, like recommendations from friends and associates, online sources like elance, yellow pages, etc. Also ask them what type of hosting plans will be required. Once you’ve taken sufficient quotes, do some research for hosting providers on Google; you will get several choices. I’ve found that AwareINDIA.net is one of the good ones who give excellent support. Their rates are also very economical (just a few cents to a few dollars a month depending on the plan you choose). You will also need to have some idea of search engine marketing (SEM) costs before you form a budget for web design. SEM is a great way to ensure free long term visitor traffic to your website. While SEM will not be required immediately, it makes sense to know if all expenses meet your budget, else you will require making some compromises. It is also advisable to let your SEM company work hand in hand with your designer, as your website also needs to be search engine optimized (SEO) so that SE robots can index your pages properly and rank them higher for your desired keywords and phrases.

It may interest you to know that there are several open source software available which can take care of your website needs. For example, OS commerce and Zen Cart are some great options if you plan to have a shopping cart system and ecommerce enable your website. If you want a discussion forum, PHPbb is one of the best used extensively. If you’re looking out for a Portal or CMS software, there are Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, Post Nuke, PHP Nuke, and many more. Some folks even use blog software to power their website which gives it an interactive edge. Popular blog software are wordpress, b2evolution and nucleus. The good news is, most of these software can be installed for free at the click of a button without requiring any technical skills, if your hosting provider supports fantastico (AwareINDIA.net does support it). In fact, you can even buy ready made templates specially designed for and compatible with these software. Some companies even make customized templates. It’s a good idea to research on these software and also discuss this with your programmer and weigh the options if it is viable or not. Building a system from scratch would be quite expensive, especially if you’re on a tight budget. In fact, just mentioning about fantastico and these open source software with your designer will immediately cause him to feel as if you’re very much aware of the market and he will certainly think twice before giving you an exorbitant quote!

Some hosting providers also provide a Do-It-Yourself website builder which is quite easy to use, eliminating the need for a web designer altogether. However, there are some limitations with such options. AwareINDIA.net does offer this option; in fact, you can even get a free trial and see if it suits your requirements. If you’re comfortable using Microsoft Word, you should be able to design your own website without much hassle.

If you do plan to use the services of a designer, make sure you have everything in black and white. Keep the terms and conditions of the contract crystal clear. This is good for both of you as it is binding. Use an escrow service if required - most online portals like elance have this option. If you wish to read more of my work, you can visit http://www.bharatbhasha.com/author.php/Nirjara%20Rustom - I’ve written several articles related to SEO, online success, marketing tips, email marketing, etc.



By: Nirjara Rustom

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29th
JAN

Customizing Content Management Systems

Posted by admin | Filed under Internet

There are two options available to you when you are looking for a Content Management System. One is that you have your web designer create a Content Management System for you, the other option is that you pick up a ready-to-use content management system and make some changes to customize it to your requirement.Most small to medium sized businesses choose to use a ready-to-use Content Management System so that they can keep the cost of development within limits and be ready to use the software within a couple of days.

Most ready-to-use content management systems are simple to implement and requires some changes to make it match your web site. Customization of an existing Content Management System can be done by your web designer and once this is done, all it takes to make changes on your web site is access to the system.Making changes become as easy as editing a simple Word document. Listed below are some of web design elements which need customization when using a ready made Content Management System.

Look and Feel of all the pages which are delivered by the Content Management System. One of the first things which need to customized in the look and feel of the content management system driven pages.This can be done by adding a customized header and footer. One of the disadvantages of ready-to-use content management systems are that they do not allow for unique graphical display. Most of them are restricted to certain layouts and color schemes and you need to conform to that.

Link structure or navigation structure. The link structure need to be customized as per your web site and once this is done, you can just choose the page for which you would like to make changes to and do it with the Content Management System.The navigation structure should also allow you to add pages under a specific link as well as add a new link to the web site.

Administration set up for easy management of the Content Management System is required to be done at this stage so that you can assign permissions to different groups of people to manage the web site. You can also choose the type of editor (HTML or plain text) which you would like to use when creating the content and updating your web site.

Most people prefer HTML editors as they are very simple to use and are also known as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors.Before customizing a Content Management System, you need to review the various modules available with the provider and choose the ones which are most relevant to you.

Some Content Management Systems may also provide additional modules such as shopping cart system, newsletter management system, user tracking system, advertisement tracking system etc.

Content Management Systems are sure to enhance the value of content as delivered on your web site and if you are tired of a web site which is as old and as the hills; it is time you upgraded yourself and got a CMS for the web site

Popular Content Management Systems for your web site

Choosing an off-the-shelf Content Management System requires a close evaluation of the ones which are available today. There are two choices here as well: you can buy one which is well known for its quality of service and overall product quality is good or you can use one of the free CMS’s which are available. The problem with free or open source Content management systems are that you cannot be sure about the trouble shooting aspect of the work and you can never be sure about the longevity of the company.
Some of the popular Content Management Systems are reviewed below. Their technology usage and general information about them are outlined as well.

Drupal: Drupal is probably one of the most advanced Content Management Systems available online. It is an open source product and is free for download. Since there are thousands of people who contribute to the development of Drupal, it is quite updated and has some of the best community tools and marketing tools which can be found within a content management system. Thanks to its popularity, you will have no trouble locating a web designer who is familiar with this system. This is one CMS product for which you can be rest assured about support as it has a large online support network.

MamboServer: Mambo is open source software which is very popular. It is free and extremely easy to set up. It is a scalable system and can accommodate simple web sites as well as large corporate web sites as well. One of the key selling points of the Mambo Content Management Systems is that it is extremely simple to install and use. Some of the features which are available in Mambo are advertisement management, media management, content syndication, easy to use administration system and a multi-lingual interface.

Open CMS: You might start thinking that the world is full of open source content management systems. OpenCMS is yet another open source Content Management Systems which is available free of cost. However, one of the key technological differences between OpenCMS and other Content Management Systems of their genre is that this system uses Java and XML technology and this makes it platform independent. OpenCMS developers believe that the system can support a wide range of web sites and is also suitable for large corporate applications.

Joomla!: One does wonder about the inspiration behind the various names of the Content Management System. Joomla! is one such application which is a high powered Content Management System which is available free of cost and is becoming quite popular with the development community. The product is available on the open source platform and is quite sturdy. Joomla! Is actually a continuation of the Mambo CMS system and the team originally designed Mambo before resigning from there en masse.

Typo3: Typo 3 focuses on providing an open source content management system which is completely designed for corporate intranet and enterprise level applications. It is one of the most professional open source content management systems and addresses soft issues such as branding, version control and even maintaining templates within an application. Typo3 is currently available free of cost but it will not be long before such advanced content management system companies are purchased by a large software company. You only need to pay for the customization and you can be rest assured that Typo3 will help deliver your web site content effectively.

For every free open source content management system, there is a content management system which is available on a paid basis. The choice of the right CMS should be governed by your requirement and your budget.



By: Mike Oslow

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27th
JAN

Comparing Joomla to Other CMS Programs

Posted by admin | Filed under Internet

Joomla is a content management system (CMS) like none other I’ve researched to date. There are a dozen or so CMS competitors. Some are commercial and charge for their software. Several others, like Joomla, are open source and available without cost.

Any perceivable differences are limited to a few specific traits. For some there is the cost factor which could deter many potential purchasers from buying the commercial products. While there are a few open source products that have low costs the commercial software products tend to be much higher.

Many proponents of the commercial CMS software suggest the product is a better choice once installed, primarily because of the post sale support such as training and stability associated with security experiences with the software.

Since most of the open source CMS developers are largely volunteers the issue could appear to be a potentially formidable challenge. This is where Joomla, for one, works very hard to capitalize on several factors that are currently feeding the product’s success.

An example of Joomla’s out-of-the-box approach to creating a trouble free product is a recently held “Doc Camp.” This international get-together was a follow-up to a weekend Joomla “bug squashing event.” The company promoted the events with the goal of increasing the viability and functionality of the product while focusing on cleaning us any inconsistencies in its operational functions.

Reports indicate literally thousands of volunteer developers were on the project. Industry observers state Joomla has a strong commitment to timely upgrades and new releases. Credit is given to the marshalling of volunteers and their exuberant, as well as technologically strong support.

Comparisons tend to favor open source CMS options due to several features:

Consumer friendly free downloads

Strong documentation.

Reliable training.

Ongoing support and development

The Players

In addition to Joomla other open source CMS’s are Mambo, Drupal, PHPNuke, Post Nuke, Plone, TYPO3, e107, Open CMS, MODx CMS, WordPress, XOOPS and Zope.

The commercial entrants in the field are Vignette, Alfresco, RedDot CMS, Interwoven Teamsite, Tridion, Microsoft CMS, Oracle portal, Immediacy CMS, GOSS iCM, Hot Banana and Fatwire Content Server.

Can Joomla Hold On To The Top Spot?

Joomla tends to meet the strictest parameters expected of companies that would like to be considered leaders in the field. The competing team at Mambo also renders a build quality and application strength that keep them squarely in Joomla’s sights.

The remainder of the group provide add-on features like, job posting, guest books, and chat to name a few of the most popular features.

Once thing all open source CMS have in common is they are distributed under GNU GPL and tend to work well with most operating environments. Joomla gets the higher marks mainly because of the strengths of its largely volunteer developer family.

When looking more closely through the list of commercial CMS contenders we find the licensing differs greatly. Additionally databases and related servers in addition to programming languages are similar but created specific differences depending on the applications.

Overall, when comparing features like, building applications, operability, performance and user friendliness, Joomla out ranks 99.9% of all comers in every category. It must be hard to be humble when you’re that good and Joomla’s legion of fans is expanding more rapidly at every download.



By: Alex Rich

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