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How To Move Your Blogger Blog To Your Own Domain or Subdomain in GoDaddy

Did you know that Blogger allows you to have your blog hosted on your own custom domain? Well, it's true.

You can have your blog up in minutes without the headache of paying for web hosting. You basically continue to blog on Blogger, using the same login and having the same back-end interface (dashboard) but you get to have your own dot com domain.

This allows you to build your online brand and it also makes your readers remember your web address easier. Don't forget to keep your blogging useful and entertaining!

Move your blogspot blog to your own subdomain

In order to do that, you must follow the fist three steps described in a previous post: How To Make a Subdomain in GoDaddy.

1. Once you are on Domain Details page, look for DNS Manager and click the Launch link.

2. You'll land on Zone File Editor where you have to click on Add New Record.

3. A popup window will appear - select CNAME (Alias) from the list of options.

4. If you want to host your blog on a subdomain you previously created then type your full subdomain in the first field and then type ghs.google.com in the Host Name field. Click OK and you're done!

Create CNAME Record - Host and Subdomain

Move your blog to your domain (not subdomain)

If you didn't create a subdomain for your blog and you want to host it on your main domain, then follow the steps below.

In the CNAMES section (File Zone Editor - step 2 above), click the Edit symbol (pencil) for the "www" record.
In the Points To host name field, type ghs.google.com.
Click Save File Zone button.

How to configure your Blogger account

Log in to your Blogger account.
Go to the Settings tab.
Click Publishing.
Click the Custom Domain hyperlink.
In the Buy a domain for your blog section, click the Switch to advanced settings hyperlink.
In the Your Domain field, enter your domain name. For example, enter www.coolexample.com.
To specify another location in which to look for files, in the Use a missing files host? section, select Yes and enter the path. If not, specify No. (Most of the time you may wanna specify No.)
In the Word Verification field, enter the characters as they display in the image above the field.
Click Save Settings.

You're done.

You can now blog your way to success on your own domain! Cheers!

50kzone

Hack Attack: Set up and host a blog on your home computer

by Adam Pash

Click to viewIf you want to host your own blog, you can purchase a plan at a web hosting provider for a few bucks a month - or you can set it up on your home computer for free.
Weblogs, as most people know them, are web sites made of individual entries of various length, by any number of authors, organized in reverse chronological order. Of course, you know what a blog is - you read Lifehacker, and if you don't already have a blog of your own, you know someone who does.

The cool thing about blogs (and many other web apps, like wikis) is that they don't actually have to live online. A blog can live on your personal computer or somewhere on your network; you can use it as a private journal or as the main conduit for intracompany communication. Or maybe you just want to keep all of your personal data, blog posts included, on your own computer and not on Google's servers. Whatever the reason may be, setting up and hosting a blog on your personal computer is a painless process. Today we'll set up a weblog on your Windows PC using the popular open source blogging software, WordPress.

Note: WordPress is a full-featured, excellent piece of open source blogging software. In order to run it on your computer, you'll need to install an Apache web server, the PHP scripting language, and a MySQL database server. Although setting all of this up is not difficult (the process is detailed below), you can easily avoid the whole shebang and get your own free hosted weblog somewhere like WordPress or Blogger if those sites fit your needs. If you're aware of the alternatives, but you're determined (for whatever reason) to run a blog on your own computer, read on.

How to install and host WordPress on your Windows PC: The slideshow

I've put together a step-by-step guide (7 steps in all) for installing WordPress and all the tools necessary to host it locally, so if you're ready to get blogging, click here (or the image above) to get started.

Note (part the second): Our gallery tool is a bit - erm - quirky at the moment, so to advance from one step to the next, click the link at the end of each description. You can try clicking on the thumbnails to progress, but chances are that doing so will leave you confused.

Getting good with WordPress

Now that you've got WordPress installed on your local computer, you've got a lot of options. If you want to make your blog accessible to the outside world, see:

Keep in mind that you wouldn't be able to run a heavily trafficked blog from your home computer, but if it's just a personal blog for friends and family, hosting it yourself is definitely an option (your service provider may not be into the idea, so you may want to check your ToS).

To get familiar with and tweak your WordPress blog, check out our WordPress tag, specifically:

Got your own blog? Weigh in on how you use it. Got a WordPress blog? Let us hear your favorite plugins, templates, and tweaks. All this and more in the comments.

Adam Pash is an associate editor for Lifehacker with a thing for hosting web apps for personal use on his home computer. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Contact Adam Pash:

Discussions

@Pat/HeartBurnKid: Like I said, opening the blog to the outside world may violate your providers ToS. That said, unless you're garnering a significant amount of traffic, chances are you'll be safe. I run a personal-use home server all the time without issue.

That said, nothing says you have to open this up to the internet at large. As I said above, you can set up a blog for personal journaling, or just to use on an internal network (e.g., a company blog).

@BostonMark: Again, of course you could purchase a cheap hosting account, but it'll never be as cheap as free. Unless I haven't made it clear, you don't want to set up a blog on your home computer that you expect to get any significant amount of traffic.

50kzone

PHP iCalendar

Documentation : Forums : Download : Demo : Template tools
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rapidcal for Rapidweaver - Two Thumbs Down

12/06/09 06:27

On a positive note I found a free calendar php script that will work directly with your Mac iCal application. It has many more features, looks better and is easier to read! You can get it for FREE here:

http://phpicalendar.net/

It’s quite customizable and allows you to merge many calendars together. It even has the capability to display multiple calendars one at a time. The user simply selects from a menu which calendar they wish to view. It’s very well thought out and well executed.

This script comes with instructions which are easy to understand. You have to edit a php file and copy a few files to your server but its a piece of cake with any basic ftp program.

Who needs to throw away money when this awesome calendar script does an amazing job for free! It’s even RSS capable so your visitors can subscribe to your calendar!

50kzone

How to Display Your Standalone Pages in Blogger

Steps:

1. Navigate to Blogger Dashboard.

2. Click on your Blog Title.

3. Jump to Pages tab.

Note: On this page you will see list of your static pages if you got any. Else it will just show Home which links to your homepage.

4. Now click on drop down button next to Show pages as option and select an option to display your pages in that particular way.

Top Tabs - Your pages will display under your blog header as a horizontal navigation bar.

Side Links - Your pages will display as a list of links on your sidebar.

Don't Show - You can make use of this option if you don't wanna show any of your pages or if you wanna link them manually.

5. Click Save arrangement button on the top.

6. Yeah... you made it. But if you selected to show pages, it will list all your published pages on your blog. If you wanna manage them and get rid of some pages, jump to Layout tab.

7. Now find an element named as Pages.

8. Click Edit link correspond to that element.

9. Now select pages to display and arrange your pages in the configuration pop up window.

10. Click Save button.

11. Now save your blog layout.

Read More: http://mayura4ever.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-display-your-standalone-pages-in.html#ixzz1ycGpLYiH

50kzone

Multiple Website Hosting - Subdomains are the Answer!

04-Jul-2007

John Michaels

Many business owners find themselves in a quandary over the ways to make the most of their company's web site. This is especially true of those who have the need to maintain more than one web site but do not wish to pay for multiple hosting accounts. If this is you, a subdomain may be the answer.

Subdomains are sort of a site within a site. They are not, however, simply additional pages of an existing web site. The subdomain can have a web site all its own, completely separate from the site located at the main domain name.

To understand the use and purpose of subdomains, it may be necessary to first understand the concept of an internet Domain Name. Every web site that is active on the internet (and there are literally billions of them now - it was estimated as long ago as 1996 that there were more web pages in existence than there were people on Earth) has a unique domain name. There can be only one Ebay dot com, for example, on the entire internet. The domain name, however, is really just a way for humans to relate to the site. Internet servers see web site names as unique I.P. addresses. It is the domain name server that translates those numbers into names and back again.

A subdomain is simply an offshoot of your web site's domain. In terms of the way it appears on the server, the subdomain is simply a folder or a sub directory located within your domain's root directory. Any sub directory can serve as a sub domain. For example, if your web site is "www.mycompany.com" and you store the images for your site in a directory called "images," then you could, if you wished, create a subdomain at "images.mycompany.com". As long as you put an "index.html" page in the folder you should be able to pull it up in a web browser that way. In most cases you will create a new sub directory to be associated with a subdomain and some web hosts do not support subdomains on their servers or put a limit on the number of subdomains you may associate with your site.

The benefits of using subdomains as opposed to opening multiple hosting accounts are twofold. First, you get the obvious benefit of only having to pay for one hosting account. You also benefit from being able to have a completely separate web site, but one that your customers will easily recognize as being associated in some way with your business. Some companies will set up subdomains for various divisions (xyz.com may also have sales.xyz.com or support.xyz.com) and some will use subdomains for various businesses that are all offshoots of the same parent company.

That association could be a downside to using subdomains as well. If you want to keep the relationship between your companies under wraps (like Disney tried so hard to do with Touchstone Pictures so many years ago), you may want to use multiple accounts rather than subdomains.

The web address clandestineproducts.megamall.com would clearly betray that there was some connection between Clandestine Products and Megamall, whether you wanted that information to be known or not.

John Michaels is a freelance author for WebHostPacks.com where he regularly publishes articles on how to find a cheap web host and reviews of low cost web hosting services.

Hosting Sub-Domains Website Design

50kzone · Monday, September 27 at 02:40

Multiple Domains vs Subdomains vs Folders in SEO | Web SEO Analytics

Posted bybbriniotison Monday, September 27 at 02:40

to Guides, SEO

103 Comments

Usually the most important decisions in SEO are the ones that affect the structure of the website. A popular SEO debate is if one should use multiple domains, sub-domains or folders when he/she has multilanguage websites or various main categories/activities.
This decision can heavily affect the performance of the Website in the major search engines and if someone makes the wrong call, it is extremely difficult to make changes. The truth is that there is not a single best practice, since all of the aforementioned methods have several pros and cons. In this article, we’ll discuss when it is advisable to use different domains, subdomains and folders and we’ll analyze how each method affects the SEO campaign.
Below you will find one example URL for each method:

www.example.fr (multiple domains)
fr.example.com (subdomains)
www.example.com/fr/ (folders)

In order to get a holistic view of the issue we will examine the effects on many different factors. We’ll discuss how Geographical targeting (GEO Targeting) can be achieved in each case, whether any Authority/Trust/Domain Strength passes from the original Domain, how the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) are affected, whether Sitelinks are supported, what is the degree of Control over the website, what is the degree of freedom that we have in terms of Design & Web Structure and how Link building and Link structure are affected.

GEO Targeting

As we all know, the major Search engines usually serve different results for the same keywords in different countries. Several factors are taken into account such as the language of the page, the IP of the server, the country code (.gr, .fr, .de) of the domain (ccTLD), the language of the websites that link to our domain, the settings in the Google Webmaster Console, the META-geo tags (supported only by Bing and Yahoo) and more.

Usually the best solution from the geographical targeting point of view is to have multiple domains. This method allows you to create different websites with the country code TLD of your choice (when there are no law restrictions), to use the META-geo tags, to have different servers around the world and to use IP addresses from the targeted country. If a generic TLD is used (.com, .net etc), you are also able to set the Geo Targeting from Google Webmaster Console. The second best solution is to have multiple subdomains and use META-geo tags, have different IPs and set the Geo Targeting from Google Webmaster Console. Finally by having Folders you can only use META-geo tags and Geo Targeting from Google Webmaster Console.

Authority, Trust & Domain Strength

Search engines use several metrics to determine the authority, the trust and the strength of a domain. Those metrics are very important since they can heavily affect the search engine results. This is the reason why in some queries, less targeted and low PageRank pages that belong to high authority websites, appear on the top of the search engine results (for example Wikipedia).

So the question is which of the 3 methods keeps the Authority, the Trust and the strength of the main domain? From this point of view the best choice is to use Folders (ex: www.example.com/blog/). Since the folders are part of the main site, all of the domain metrics are maintained. When you use different domains (ex: www.example-blog.com) then none of those metrics pass to the new domain.
So the question is what happens when you use subdomains (ex: blog.example.com)? The SEO community has suggested several theories in the past on this topic. Experiments showed that in some cases, when the main domain has a relatively small amount of subdomains, part of the authority passes to the subdomain. According to other theories, the subdomains are handled like different domains and thus none of those metrics pass to them.
WebSEOAnalytics.com team has done extensive analysis in the past on the Data that we collect from the reports of our SEO tools. Based on those data there are strong indications that a part of Authority and Trust passes to the subdomains only when the domain has a small number of subdomains and when the link structure of the main website passes enough link juice to them. An additional factor can be whether the subdomain keeps the same website and link structure as the main website. On the contrary, when the number of subdomains is too great (ex: blogspot.com) and when there are no links pointing to them from the main domain, then no authority or trust is inherited.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

When for a particular query a website has more than 1 page appearing on the SERPs, there are increased probabilities of getting more traffic. Nevertheless usually search engines avoid showing more than 2 results from the same website in order to increase diversity and ensure the quality of the results.
So in this case, using different domains can lead to multiple appearances on the SERPs. Also it is clear that usually by using Folders you can’t get more than 2 pages on the SERPs. So the question is what happens when we use subdomains? As we saw above, one SEO theory suggests that Google is supposed to handle subdomains as totally different domains. But if this was always true, should not we see more often multiple subdomains in the SERPs? In order to answer this question we need to take a closer look on how search engines work.
Google uses anti-“host crowding” algorithms to ensure that the user receives results from different sources. Almost 3 years ago, Matt Cutts has provided information on this subject in his article “Subdomains and subdirectories” (Note that since the article is old, there might be significant changes in those algorithms). He suggested that in most cases their algorithms ensure that no more than 2 results appear on the SERPs from the same domain or subdomain. Nevertheless there are cases (for example when we search for “hp”) where the SERPs include results from different subdomains. By searching for similar terms that include the brand names of big companies, it becomes clear that in such cases sub-domains are favoured against pages from the same domain.

In order to be understand how subdomains are handled by the search engines, we need to know exactly how they work and thus we can’t give a define answer. Nevertheless as we said above extensive analysis on SERPs & SEO experiments showed that by using subdomains you can get more than 2 results on the same SERP for particular search queries.

Sitelinks support

The sitelinks are links to internal pages that appear in some SERPs in order to help the users navigate the website. They are generated algorithmically but webmasters can select the most relevant sitelinks from the Google Webmaster Console.

Sitelinks are supported for both Folders and subdomains. Obviously since the addon domains are different websites, they can’t appear in the sitelinks of the main domain.

Website Control

The most straightforward and safe solution is to use Folders, because no special code is needed to handle the different parts of the website. This solution allows you to control easier your website, simply because all of its parts are integrated.
Creating multiple subdomains usually means that you have additional parts of the website that need to be handled separately. As we said earlier the sub domains can be hosted on the same or on different servers, they can execute the same code or have a completely different technology to support them. The same happens when you use multiple domains. Of course from one point of view this gives you the freedom to handle those parts differently from the main website (see below), but this certainly is going to create additional costs for you.

Design & Web Structure Freedom

Mainly for usability reasons, when we create a website, we tend to keep the same design and structure across all the pages. This helps users navigate easier and find faster what they are looking for. Additionally by keeping the same website structure we help search engines understand which are the basic components of our website (menus, footers, headers, etc). That is why when we use folders, which are considered to be parts of the same website, we usually tend to have a similar layout in all pages.
On the other hand, when we use subdomains, we can consider them as different websites and thus we can have a different layout and website structure. The same applies when we use different domains. Especially when we have multilanguage (or multicultural) websites, where the menu, the categories or even the philosophy of the website might be different, using separate domains or sub domains can be a great solution.

Link Building & Link Structure

When you use Folders the link building campaign of your website is not affected. Depending on your plan, you can add the links directly to your homepage, or place them on the internal pages to boost their rankings. Additionally in this case you can manipulate your link structure in order to flaw the link juice to the most important pages of your Website.

When you use subdomains and especially when you have different domains, it is highly recommended to launch separate link building campaigns for them. You will need to ensure that those subdomains/domains receive enough links from external domains in order to speedup indexing and increase authority, trust and PageRank. Additionally in the case of subdomains make sure that you place links from the parent domain. Finally when you have multiple domains make sure you cross link them in a whitehat and transparent way (avoid hidden links and cloaking).

Should I use multiple Domains, Subdomains or Folders?

So this is the point were we covered almost every aspect and you have to make the decision. Obviously it’s up to you to decide which of the 3 methods suits you best. Below you will find the most common uses of each method.

When you should use Multiple Domains

Multiple domains are used when we want to be very GEO targeted and when we have enough content and resources to support all these websites. This solution allows us to have different website layout, structure and categories and it helps us increase the number of results in SERPs. Creating Microsites is a good way to promote individual products and services and they can help you achieve better rankings especially if you can incorporate the main targeted search terms in the domain name. There are several business, marketing and SEO reasons that can affect your decision on whether you should have multiple domains, but we will analyze them in another article.
Examples:
www.example.com
www.example.de
www.example-blog.com
www.micro-example-product.com

When you should use Sub-domains

Subdomains are used when you have different products and services that you want to present by using a different website structure (Google does this for several products such as Adwords, Google Docs etc). Also they can be used for GEO targeting, or for increasing your results in SERPs. In many cases websites use subdomains because they use hosted blog services to power their blogs. Finally for dynamic multilanguage websites, subdomains are a great solution because they can be easily coded and they can achieve good SEO Results.
Examples:
specialproduct.example.com
blog.example.com
fr.example.com

When you should use Folders

The folders are the most common, easy to use and all purpose solution. It is the safest method in terms of SEO and Web Development. You should use folders when you have a relatively small website and when you want to maintain the authority of the domain in the main categories.
Examples:
www.example.com/product/
www.example.com/blog/
www.example.com/fr/

Summary

In this article we examined in detail the best current practices, we covered when and why each method should be used and what are the pros and cons. Remember that before making the decision you have to ask yourself the following questions:

Do I have the resources to support multiple websites or subdomains?
Do I have the knowledge to setup correctly the domains/subdomains?
Can I develop a strong SEO campaign for them?
Do I have enough content to add to all the new websites?
Can I provide enough links to all the domains and subdomains?

If you don’t answer positively to all the above questions then the safest way is to proceed with folders.
The table below shows the various factors that we examined along with the 3 methods:

	Different Domains	Subdomains	Folders
GEO Targeting	High	Medium	Low
Authority, Trust, Domain Strength	No authority is inherited	A part of authority is inherited	The authority is inherited
SERPs	Increased number of results	Increased number of results in some cases	Limited number of results per domain
Sitelinks support	No	Yes	Yes
Website Control	Very Difficult	Difficult	Easy
Design & Web Structure Freedom	Very high	Medium-High	Very low
Link Building & Link Structure	New Link Building Campaigns Cross linking domains	New Link Building Campaigns Cross linking Subdomains	Single Link Building Campaign Internal Link Structure

Last but not least, remember to share this article if you like it. Sharing is caring!

Benefits of Starting a New Site with a New Domain Name

Thematic Focus Vs Confusion of Aims
New readers of thesitewizard.com may not realize this, but the early articles on thesitewizard.com were originally published in a subdirectory of thefreecountry.com. As time progressed, and more and more articles were published, I realised that the sub-site was taking on a life of its own. It had its own audience and adherents, who, through their links, recommendations to others and email to me, were indirectly influencing the direction the whole site was going.

Since I had a slightly different focus in mind for thefreecountry.com, I thought that if I could spin off the webmaster articles onto its own site, the two sites could take their own separate paths, unhobbled by the other's direction in life (so to speak). And so thesitewizard.com was born.

When you separate two sites under two different domain names (not subdomain names, mind you), you allow both the sites to take on their own personality, themes and target audience, unencumbered by the interests and focus of the other. This is even more crucial if, as is the case for the visitor asking me this question, one of the sites has a commercial purpose and the other has a completely separate theme, unrelated to the commercial enterprise. For example, if your commercial arm sells "Widget X" and your new site is a blog talking about "Life in the Bronx", putting the two sites together might make your potential customers think that your Widget X is only for people living in the Bronx.
Separate Fates and Separate Deaths
It's difficult to predict the fate of any site when you first start out. A site may be successful or it may not. It may be a joy to work on or a massive burden. Separating the domains uncouples the life of one site from the other. It allows one site to be killed off without the other being affected (like what I tried to do, unsuccessfully, with thefreecountry.com a few years ago). It also allows one site's reputation to be ruined or its rankings penalised by the search engines, while the other site continue its business.
In other words, separating the domains lets one site continue to exist without being dragged down by the fate of the other, should (perish the thought) such a thing ever happen.

Benefits of Using a Subdirectory on an Existing Domain: Additional Link Weight

The primary benefit, I think, of putting your new site in a folder on an existing domain is the additional links that the sub-site attracts.

For example, if you write a blog on your sub-site, and sell "Widget X" on your main site, links to your blog posts will be regarded as additional link credit for your main domain as a whole. This is especially useful if your main domain is a commercial site selling a product or service. I'm sure you have experienced how hard it is to get people to link to such sites. It is far easier to get them to link to a blog post, especially if your blog articles are interesting and do not look like blatant attempts to sell your products.

This benefit alone, I think, makes the use of a sub-directory a worthy option to consider, one that you should not discard lightly. Had I not separated thesitewizard.com and thefreecountry.com, the combined weight of links to the different kinds of materials on both sites, all pointing at one site, would probably have substantially improved my ranking in the search engines.

Creating a New Site in a Subdomain

I tend to view subdomain names as creatures that try to stand astride two worlds, but that don't completely reap the benefits of either.

A subdomain looks like a completely new site, with a completely different top level directory structure from the main domain. Search engines load a robots.txt file from your subdomain root, such as subdomain.example.com/robots.txt, as though it is a whole new domain.
In spite of this, confusingly, search engines also sometimes treat it like a subdirectory of the main domain. It all depends on the search engine you're talking about, the linking structure between your two sites, and the state of the algorithm for that engine in question. And algorithms change all the time. Because you're never certain whether they will treat your subdomain as a separate site of its own or as a subdirectory of your main domain, the distinction between a subdomain and subdirectory is unreliable at best. It is thus hard to predict whether the links to your subdomain will automatically benefit your main site.
Similarly, it's entirely possible that the average user will regard your subdomain as belonging to the main business that you have on your domain name. Any confusion they might have with your business, such as Widget X being only for people living in the Bronx as mentioned earlier, might still be there with the subdomain. But this is just speculation. I really don't know what goes on in the mind of an average user. I've not been one for a very long time. Neither have you. Judging from the number of successful phishing scams though, chances are that the average user will not even look at the URL, let alone notice the similarity of the domain names.

Whatever the case may be, I believe that the benefits and gains accruing from a subdomain name is uncertain, at best, and will vary with time. If you need to be clear on the costs and benefits of the alternative you choose, you might prefer to go with either the new domain name or just put your site in a sub-directory. At least in those cases, the pros and cons are more clearly defined.

Conclusion

You gain something and lose something whether you put your new site on a new domain name or in a sub-directory of your existing domain. The information provided in this article will hopeful give you a clearer idea of the costs and benefits to either alternative, enabling you to make a better-informed decision.

Copyright © 2008 by Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
Get more free tips and articles like this, on web design, promotion, revenue and scripting, from http://www.thesitewizard.com/.

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50kzone

Can I Create Multiple Websites with One Domain Name? (thesitewizard.com)

by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com

One of my visitors recently asked me whether he could create multiple websites with a single domain name. My experience with new webmasters is that such questions usually indicate a certain amount of confusion about the various terms used by webmasters and about the entire process of creating a website. I shall attempt to answer the question in this article, and hopefully clear up any misunderstanding.

Domain Names, Websites and Web Hosts

A domain name is simply a name like "thesitewizard.com". You pay a domain name registrar an annual fee for the right to use that name. A website is, on the other hand, a set of documents placed on a computer that is permanently connected to the Internet. When you associate a domain name, like thesitewizard.com, with that set of documents, others can view them by simply using a web browser to go to that domain. For example, when you connect to thesitewizard.com using your browser, you end up on this website, and you can read articles that I make available here for others to read, like the one you're currently looking at.
You can do a lot of things when you buy a domain name of your own. For example, if you own a domain like "google.com" (which you can't, since someone has already bought it), you make make "gmail.google.com" point to a different website from (say) "www.google.com". These names, "gmail.google.com" and "www.google.com", are just subdomains of the main "google.com". That is, once you own the main domain, like google.com, you can add any number of subdomains you want, and have them point to different websites. Alternatively, you can also have them point to the same website if that's what you prefer. For example, both thesitewizard.com and www.thesitewizard.com point to the same website.
To make subdomains on your website, you will need the cooperation of your web host. A web host is simply the company that owns the computer where you place your website. You need a web host because your own computer isn't permanently connected to the Internet. Even if it is (eg, because you never turn off your computer), your broadband provider will usually not allow you to host a website using that connection. There are also a number of other complications involved, so it's simplest to think of a web host as a necessity if you want to create your own website.
Many (if not all) commercial web hosts will let you create subdomains and associate them with a new website (or the same website). This may or may not involve the payment of a additional fee per subdomain; it varies from web host to web host. You do not however have to "buy" a subdomain; once you own the main domain, all its subdomains belong to you.
It's also possible to avoid using sub-domains entirely and still create multiple websites on a single domain. For example, if you own a domain like "example.com", and you want each member of your family to have their own website on that domain, you can have each person create his/her website and place it in its own folder. So, for example, Tom may have his website in "www.example.com/tom/" while Dick has his in "www.example.com/dick/", and Harry in "www.example.com/harry/". You can create any number of folders this way, each associated with a different website.

Caveat

Having said all that, before you rush out to create multiple websites using a single domain name, you should probably also know that there are pros and cons to it. For details about the advantages and disadvantages of this practice, please read the article Should I Start My Site Under a New Domain Name or as a Subdirectory (Or Subdomain) Of My Existing Site?.

Demystifying the Process of Setting Up a Website

In addition, since such a question usually means that you are not entirely clear about what is involved in setting up a website, I strongly recommend that you take a look at The Beginner's A-Z Guide to Starting/Creating Your Own Website. The article is designed for the newcomer and explains what is involved in making a website in a step-by-step fashion, so it should give you a better idea of the whole process. Having an understanding of the entire process will hopefully make things less confusing.
The steps to getting your own domain name, as well as where you can buy one is described in How to Register Your Own Domain Name. However, unless you already know what to do after you get a domain name, you should really start with The Beginner's A-Z Guide which will point you, in a systematic manner, to all the relevant articles you need to get started quickly.
All the best for your website-making adventure!
Copyright © 2009 by Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
Get more free tips and articles like this, on web design, promotion, revenue and scripting, from http://www.thesitewizard.com/.

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50kzone

Usability vs. Feature Bloat. Have Rapidweaver Themes Gotten Too Complicated? More Doesn't Always Mean Better. | Blueball News | FreeStack Theme

08/22/10 11:26 Filed in: Blueball News

We've taken a break and been quiet this year regarding Rapidweaver theme development and the Realmac forum here at Blueball Design, but we've been keeping an eye on a trend that started appearing the past year for Rapidweaver themes: The reliance on javascript gimmicks and the huge unnecessary amounts of theme variations added into themes to help market them.

This has made the use of Rapidweaver themes in general much more difficult for the average to new Rapidweaver users then it should be. For advanced users who have the knowledge to fine tune and adjust the code to get it to work like they want for their sites it's not been a problem. But we've seen more and more support questions and posts about problems with these types of themes in the Realmac support forums.

So a couple of observations and comments on Rapidweaver themes:

1. There's a reason the stock Rapidweaver themes are kept simple. They just work with minimal effort required. The only thing they really need added to them are some custom image slots.

2. More is not better especially where web sites are concerned. The more javascripts you use on a site page, the greater the chance your pages will not load correctly, especially in IE6 and IE7. Also the chance for a conflict happening with a third party page plugin or stack is much greater.

3. There's a limit to the number of css files that IE6, IE7, and IE8 can apply to a site page. Currently these browsers can only apply up to a maximum number of 31 css files to a single site page. So if the theme you are using has more than 31 theme variations, any css file past the 31st css file listed in your web page will not be applied to style your page.

4. With web sites the simplest solution is always the best one. If someone goes to your web site and has to wait for the page to load, guess what? They go somewhere else. If someone goes to your web site and focuses on how nice the layout looks before seeing your site content and images, how effective is that theme layout? The viewer's focus should always go to your site content and images first before anything else. If the theme layout overwhelms your content instead of enhancing the content, you may want to review how effective your site is and if the layout used is acheiving your current goals.

This is not meant to detract from other theme developer's efforts as many outstanding themes have come out, but rather just some observations from us on the current state of Rapidweaver theme development, and that MAYBE an effort should be started to bring back simpler and easier to use Rapidweaver themes for the average and new Rapidweaver users.

Tags: Blueball

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50kzone

Roundup articles that caught our attention:

Damn Good Advice' From One Of The Real 'Mad Men
Create Zenhabits
A List Apart: Articles: The Best Browser is the One You Have with You
Insights You Can Learn About Your Freelance Business from Google Analytics
Reasons Why Online Advertising is the Worst Model for Your Startup
Simple Ways to Turn Your Website Archive into Profitable Books and eBooks
Ways to Fix Your Broken Marketing
Primary Questions to Ask a Potential Client
Reasons to Spend Time with Other Freelancers
Reasons Why Metaphors Can Improve the User Experience
Marketing Secrets of the Master Sommeliers
Features that Make Google+ Better than Facebook and Twitter
Social Media Mistakes to Avoid
Reasons Why You Should Quit Blogging
Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs
Lessons Seth Godin Can Teach You About Blogging
A Ridiculously Simple Way to Get More Revenue and Build Your Audience
Essential Elements of a Well-Designed Marketing Ebook
Websites for Code Snippets
Negotiation Tips Freelance Writers Can Use to Earn More
Ways to Make Idea Generation a Daily Habit
Grammar Goofs That Make You Look Silly
Pricing Principles for Freelancers
The Best Alternatives to Helvetica
44 Must Read Resources on Content Marketing
48 Elements of Persuasive Written Content
A (not so) jilted English professor’s guide to creative web design
Application Cache is a Douchebag
Fanfare for the common breakpoint
Applying Macrotypography For A More Readable Web Page
Author Erin Kissane On Content Strategy
Big Design in Small Spaces
Color and cultural design considerations
Cookies law changed at 11th hour to introduce 'implied consent'
Change aversion: why users hate what you launched (and what to do about it)
Designing With Audio: What Is Sound Good For?
Docracy - Free Legal Documents
Effective Presentation of a Website’s Navigation
Focus on the right-hand side
Footer Design Trends
Forget the perfect logo
Freelance Guidelines for Getting Paid on Time
The Procrastinator’s Guide to Creating a Cover Image for Your Facebook Timeline
Read More...

More articles that caught our attention:

Tinker, Tailor, Content Strategist
8 Reasons Users Don’t Fill Out Sign Up Forms
10 Trends to Beat Digital Darwinism
Artistic Distance
5 Steps to Getting More Targeted Website Traffic with SEO Copywriting
12 Breeds of Clients and How to Work with Them
A 5-Step Technique for Producing Ideas circa 1939
Applying Dieter Ram’s ten principles to web design
58 Ways to Create Persuasive Content Your Audience Will Love
Are comments 'bad business' for online media?
Bing & Google Recommend Responsive Web Design
Build a Better Freelance Business with Strategic Branding
Challenge: More Profits in Less Time
20 Mistakes that Will Undermine Your Call to Action and Cost You Sales
Clients or Grinders: The Choice Is Yours -- Understanding the Three Market Types
Getting Clients
Common Typography Mistakes
Designing Engaging And Enjoyable Long-Form Reading Experiences
Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles"
Get More Fans: 5 Tips to Promote your Facebook Page
How the 5 Ws of Journalism Can Help You Become a Better Freelancer
How To Choose The Right Face For A Beautiful Body
How to Craft an Exciting Marketing Message … Even for a Boring Product
How to Prevent Scope Creep
Ignore the design, please
Is Responsive Web Design the Right Path to Minimalism?
Jason Fried, 37 Signals, Marketing by Sharing
Keep Scammers & Bad Clients Out of Your Freelancing Business
Live from #SXSW: How to become a powerful visual storyteller
Microsoft and Skype set to allow backdoor eavesdropping
Migrating Side Projects into your Work Schedule
MUD: Minimum Usable Design
No Cookie Law - Hate the new EU cookie law?
Social Media: LinkedIn vs. Facebook
Startups, This Is How Design Works
Stephen King’s 20 Tips for Becoming a Frighteningly Good Writer
Respect Thy Typography
ROT: The Low-Hanging Fruit of Content Analysis
Rounded Corners and Why They Are Here to Stay
Separate mobile site vs. responsive design
Seth's Blog: When should we add marketing?
Social Media Is A Part Of The User Experience
The Copyblogger “Secret” to Creating Better Content
Read More...

Even more articles that caught our attention:

10 Ways Specificity Helps You Build a Profitable Audience
For a Future-Friendly Web
Deal With Stress in a Positive Way
Dear ICO: This Is Why Web Developers Hate You
Design Process In The Responsive Age
Engagement ain’t nothing but a number – why 1% isn’t good enough
21 Warning Signs You’re Becoming a Social Media Snob
Helping Your Clients Build an Effective Mobile Strategy
How One Man’s Passion Created 500,000 Profitable Fans
How to Break Away From Boring Design Standards
How to Craft an Offer That Can’t Be Refused
How to Leverage Inbound Marketing to Make Clients Claw At Your Door
Say No to Faux Bold
Device-Agnostic Approach To Responsive Web Design
How to Use Webinars to Create Great Relationships with Prospects and Customers
Idea fail: why it’s hard to push innovation
Improving 404 Page Design
The Upside of Being Ordinary And Obvious
Is The Way We Communicate With Clients All Wrong?
Ken Burns: On Story on Vimeo
Lists of Note
Make this very important change to your design contract today!
Not Just Pretty: Building Emotion Into Your Websites
Perfect Pricing Part Deux — More money from fewer sales
Piecing Together Your Online Marketing Puzzle
Posting a price list on your web site: does it work or fail?
Two, Not Three: Boost Sales By Offering Less
Quick Course On Effective Website Copywriting
Read to Lead: The Secret Code for Cracking 'Tough' Books and Reading Above Your Level
RSS: Your Social Media Monitoring Secret Weapon
Say it quick, say it well – the attention span of a modern internet consumer
Selling Isn’t Just for Sales People
Seth Godin on When You Should Start Marketing Your Product, Service, or Idea
Setting the Bottom Line for your Web Projects
Should Web Design and Development Trends Be Focused on Social Networking?
Six Must Have SEO Basics
Stock Photos: Pros, Cons, Fixes, and Strange Examples
Stop Doing the Same Things and Expecting Different Results
Being Very Good at Anything Involves Being Somewhat Addicted
Symptoms Of An Epidemic: Web Design Trends
Taming The Wild Mind
Technology, Art, And Why The Future Of Branding Is Nonfiction
Telling stories with your designs
The "Hell Yes!" Approach To Better, Bolder Decision Makin
The 10-Minute Technique to Becoming a More Productive Writer
The Art of Structuring Information Effectively
The History Of Usability: From Simplicity To Complexity
The Keys For Keeping Your Brand Relevant In The Post-Occupy Era
The Ultimate Conversion Optimization Reading List
The Web Needs to Get Ready for the High-Resolution Future
UI vs UX: what’s the difference?
The Naked Marketing Guide to Compelling Copy that Closes Sales
Why Your Freelancing Business Must Have a Brand
Read More...

What, even more articles?

The Elements Of Navigation
How to Know and Beware of Some Bad Clients?
Publication Standards Part 2: A Standard Future
How to Create an Exceptional Workplace
Why Your Marketing is Missing the Mark (And How You Can Fix It)
Redesigning With Personality in Web Design
Stop the Abuse! 7 Steps to a Well-Trained Client
Stop Waiting to Be Picked
Stop Wasting Time with Prospects Who Aren’t Serious
The 7 Deadly Sins Of Content Promotion
The 10 Commandments of Landing Pages That Work
The Art Of Content Marketing
The Tao Of "No": 3 Guidelines For Politely Declining
The ultimate guide to web type
The Un-Cool Virtue That Defines Entrepreneurs
To Thine Own Brand Be True
Traditional Advertising is Truly Dead
Uh-Oh: Science Says Creativity And Dishonesty Go Hand In Hand
The Ultimate Photoshop Web Design Workspace
Video Pick: A New Way to Think About Creativity
What Does It Mean to Have “Balance” in Your Life?
Why Minimal Web Design Works? Examples and Analysis
Why Quality is King: Interview with Sonia Simone
Why smart authors are cutting Amazon out
The Ultimate Guide to Publishing Your eBook on Amazon’s Kindle Platform
Why Subtle Typographic Choices Make All The Difference
Why Working More Than 40 Hours a Week is Useless
Will Your Freelancing Business Rest in Peace?
Writing A Creative Brief: Dragging The Right Information Out Of A Client
You’re a terrible client
You’re losing clients by committing this one critical web site mistake
Miscellany

How to use FF Chartwell
Modern Pictograms - The Design Office
CSS

20 Fresh CSS3 Tutorials
Animated Buttons with CSS3
CSS buttons
Icon Fonts are Awesome
Mastering CSS3: 7 Cool text-shadow Samples You Can’t Miss
Simple Styles for Horizontal Rules
Freebies & Icons

25 Gorgeous and Free Badges And Stickers PSD Files
40 Useful PSDs From Dribbble
80 Free High Quality Social Media Icon Sets
Preparing for Earth Hour: Vectors, Icons, Stock Photos, and Inspiration
Subtle Textured Grunge Noise Social Media Icons
10 Free Icon Fonts for a New Kind of Web Design
50 Amazing Free Icon Sets
A Clean Mini Social Media Icon Set
Flat Icons & Icon Fonts
Free Set of Photography Icons
Free Zocial Button Set: Social CSS3 Buttons
Fresh Free Icon Sets
Mix Collection Of Free Icons For Almost Every Kind of Design Project – 30 Sets
Web Design Inspiration – 10 Free Icon Sets
Free Photoshop Patterns
Resources

Hextone: convert hex to rgb
Demonstrating Responsive Design
Fool.js — I pity the user!
IcoMoon
Infographics and charts - interactive data visualization
Mixpanel Flow Mobile and Web Analytics
Responsive Design Testing
The Responsinator
Read More...

50kzone · June 12

The Future of RapidWeaver - realmacsoftware

Kevin Mullins

June 12 Members

"The thing that amazes me the most is that RM to not develop any plugins themselves and its probable that people like Joe Workman earn as much revenue"

That is what surprises me. I have a love/hate relationship with Rapidweaver but if they themselves threw their weight behind developing quality stacks in-house or built out the robustness of the platform through incorporating CMS (PageLime) or buying Armadillo they could flourish. I mean, how are they making money at this? Personally, I think that the 3rd-party ecosystem through them off guard and like facebook, they haven't found a way to monetize the monster they've created. Hence, the need to develop their other platforms to keep the ship afloat.

I think we're at a cross-roads and RMS needs to decide very quickly who their market is, otherwise little by little their long-term users (read advanced) are going to leave for more robust eco-systems like Wordpress.

50kzone

Ever wondered about the 'Applies to this page only' thing?

“Applies to this page only”

This is one of the things that causes the most trouble for people on the RapidWeaver forum. It’s actually very easy to solve, although to be fair, it could work better. Perhaps in the next version … in order to understand what’s going on, follow the steps below and you’ll soon get it.

Make a new project in RapidWeaver. Add three Styled Text pages; you’ll get the Alpha theme by default, and that’s fine. Also by default, the Alpha theme has a style applied already, which you may not like, particularly as the menu links are too dark to see. You’ll notice that each page that you’ve make has ‘Applies to this page only’ set.

So, click the ‘… is the master style for the Alpha theme’ button. Nothing will happen. Go to the Styles tab of the Page Inspector and turn off the sidebar. Go to the colors section and change the ‘Menu text’ to red. Now go to your second page. It will say ‘Applies to this page only’. Click the ‘… is the master style for the Alpha them’ button. Notice how it changes to be like your first page; the sidebar disappears, and the links turn red. Now you can see why this should read: ‘Uses the master style for the Alpha theme’ instead of what it does say. That’s really all there is to it. If you switch a page to ‘… is the master style for the Alpha theme’ and then make changes, then those changes become the master style for the theme. If you go to another page and click ‘… is the master style for the Alpha theme’, then that page will take on the same appearance as the first page that you altered [i]after[/i] clicking the ‘… is the master style for the Alpha theme’. By clicking that button, then altering the page, you set the master style. You apply it by clicking that ‘… is the master style for the Alpha theme’ button on any page that doesn’t have it clicked.

But, I hear you say: ‘What if I’ve got a twenty page site, with the sidebar hidden on fifteen of the pages and I just want five pages to have a sidebar and no others?’. If you click the ‘Applies to this page only’ on those pages, you’ll get your sidebar back, but you’ll lose [i]all[/i] the other changes you made to colours etc., because it takes the page back to what it was like when you first made it, with the Alpha theme defaults, illegible links and all. So that’s not a good idea.

But there’s a way round that; you just have to figure out what you want to do [i]before[/i] you start making the site in earnest. Have a look at this:

You’ll see that you can save styles. So, if you know you’re going to want some pages with, and some pages without a sidebar, first make one page that looks exactly as you want it as regards colours, sidebar, etc. Then go to that menu in the picture above and save the style. If it has a sidebar, save it as ‘mystyle sidebar’ or somesuch. Then, turn off the sidebar, and save another style and call it ‘mystyle no sidebar’. Then, when you need to apply the sidebar to those five pages, just go to the first one and choose the ‘mystyle sidebar’ style from this menu:

… that is, the button to the left of the ‘Save Style’ button you used to save the style. That will give you your perfect page, but with the sidebar, without losing any of the colours you made earlier. Although I said earlier that you have to do this before you start making your site, that’s not striclty true, it’s just easier. You can still do it when you’re halfway through; you may need to make a dummy page to work on to get your style right before you save it though.
The information on this page is completely free, but if you want to make a small donation it will be greatly appreciated …

Sunday 24 June 2012

Hack Attack: Set up and host a blog on your home computer

How to install and host WordPress on your Windows PC: The slideshow

Getting good with WordPress

Adorable Lunch Blogger Will Team with Celebrity Chef to Make Better Lunches Jezebel

9-Year-Old School Lunch Blogger Silenced By Politicians (Updated) Gizmodo

Puerile Blogger Dan Riehl Finds a Way to Make Breitbart.com Even Ickier Jezebel

Saturday 23 June 2012

Friday 22 June 2012

GEO Targeting

Authority, Trust & Domain Strength

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

Sitelinks support

Website Control

Design & Web Structure Freedom

Link Building & Link Structure

Should I use multiple Domains, Subdomains or Folders?

When you should use Multiple Domains

When you should use Sub-domains

When you should use Folders

Summary

Related Posts:

Benefits of Starting a New Site with a New Domain Name

Thematic Focus Vs Confusion of Aims

Separate Fates and Separate Deaths

Benefits of Using a Subdirectory on an Existing Domain: Additional Link Weight

Creating a New Site in a Subdomain

Conclusion

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Demystifying the Process of Setting Up a Website

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Thursday 21 June 2012

So a couple of observations and comments on Rapidweaver themes:

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Thursday 14 June 2012

“Applies to this page only”