Domain Name, Hosting, Purchasing, CMS, HTML/PHP, Scripts

Clicky Web Statistics - Both Free & Paid Versions

One of the first things I do every morning is I log into my Google Analytics account, and review the statistics for the previous day. Because Google isn't 'real-time', it's the best I can do. Fortunately, I recently  ran across a really great free service for web statistics called 'Clicky' - that offers real-time statistics. I no longer have to wait until the following day before I know what my stats are for the website, I can look at the stats anytime of the day or night.  As I use iGoogle for my home page, I even have a Clicky gadget that appears on my homepage - you can see an example to the right. 

This gadget is a lifesaver - it not only has most of what Google Analytics has - but it's in real-time - I can watch the traffic to my site throughout the day - and almost instantly know if there's a problem.  I can spot new links that are sending me traffic, and see where the traffic is coming from, country, state, & city.  I can view what articles people are reading each day, and any searching that they do on my site.

Save Time - Outsource it!

We here in the United States are a fortunate people – our Constitution wisely put a fence between religion and government – unlike so many other countries, we are far more stable. With limited government control over our lives (and despite what you see in the news – we still have less interference in our lives than almost any other country) we are free to pursue wealth in many different ways.  This puts our standard of living higher than most other countries, and creates a situation where you can have highly qualified workers in other countries who are willing to work for far less money than Americans would be. Take advantage of it!

I've put together a number of websites over the years, and I've come to be somewhat familiar with just two CMS's - Wordpress and Drupal. I must confess that I'm new to Drupal, and I'm still learning it - but I suspect that I'll be soon known as a fanatic convert to Drupal. The learning curve seems to be far more steep than what I went through when learning Wordpress, but the additional power seems to compensate.

Eight Scripts Your Website MUST Have!

Website scripts are usually considered just snippets of code, perhaps coded in Javascript, PHP, or Perl; and that perform some useful function. There are many sites on the Internet dedicated just to various website scripts, many of which are free, so you can usually Google just about any sort of script you want to get.

Why You Should Learn HTML Basics!

HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language, is the most prevalent website programming language on the Internet.  It's a language for a website server to tell the end-users browswer just how to display the information being sent.  Although learning HTML is similar to learning a new speaking language, it's really not as difficult as it sounds.

Everything begins with the same basic format.  You start by defining a document as an HTML document...

Smart Website Coding

Do you want to put up a website?  Do you want to do it quickly, with little effort?  Do you want your website to have well thought out SEO practices, and the ability to 'ping' search engines when new content is added? Do you want to bypass months of tedious learning and coding?

The Lazy Man's Guide to Owning a Website

Purchasing a website is a wonderfully fast way to eliminate 90% of the headaches of putting together a new website ... you get the domain name already chosen, it usually comes with a web hosting package, and if you're smart and careful, you have a built-in product and traffic. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites for sale aren't worth the change in your pocket - so let's examine the facts.

Paid Hosting Providers That Rock!

Okay - you have your product; you have a website, or a template that you can work with, where do you put it? The place where your website 'lives' is known as your hosting package.

Domain Name Magic

Coming up with the perfect domain name for your website is considerably more difficult now than it was in the past.  As more and more people are putting up websites, available domain names that are easy to remember and spell - and have some relationship to what your website is about - are increasingly difficult to find.