Developing websites means testing on multiple browsers and platforms. I recently installed Windows XP on my MacBook Pro so I can test on both Windows and OSX browsers.
Here are some notes on how to do this:
* You must have a Mac with an Intel chip (all new Macs have Intel)
* You must purchase Windows XP ($299) and Parallels ($80).
* install Parallels first and you will be prompted to install Windows XP when Parallels starts
* make sure your computer does not sleep during either of these installs
Many of our Clients engage Divinia to design and build a better solution for their website and web marketing needs including hosting their website with our Hosting Provider, Nexcess. Moving a website to a new Hosting Provider requires changes to your domain configuration.
Before watching this video it is important you understand these terms:
1. Registrar - where you purchased your domain name (ie: Go Daddy, Network Solutions)
2. A Record - the IP address where your domain name is hosted (ie: 208.100.12.10)
This video demonstrates how to change an A Record for a domain purchased at Go Daddy.
1. Website Payments Standard - a FREE solution that lets you place a ‘Buy Now’ button on your website. When a user clicks this button they are transferred to PayPal to complete the transaction, then returned to your website after the transaction is processed.
Ex: put a ‘Donate Now’ button on your Non-Profit website
2. Website Payments Pro - $20/month for unlimited transactions, this solution enables a programmer to customize your eCommerce feature so it appears as though your website processes the transaction, not PayPal.
Ex: pay for a product or service online
My current email strategy is to use Google Apps for your Domain with my iPhone with the Apple Mail client. Because I am constantly referring to my ‘Sent Items’ and projects are sometimes managed through email, keeping my mail synchronized and organized is a challenge.
Here are some approaches:
1. Keep mail on the server for a week
Each time your laptop or phone client retrieves messages via POP (every 5 minutes, etc) you will get duplicate messages on your laptop and phone.
By setting your preferences like the above screenshot you will not surpass your quota on the mail server.
2. Whatever device you are using is the “master”
Setup both your laptop and your phone to “delete messages from the server after downloading”. Whichever mail client downloads the message first gets to keep it. This means when your computer if off your phone should be fetching your email, when you are using your computer to retrieve mail, turn off email on your phone. Some POP clients I have seen for the phone allow you to define time ranges for retrieving mail (ie: before 7am and after 7pm).
If you aren’t familiar with RSS try a quick Google search or read the Wikipedia definition before continuing reading this post.
RSS is a great way for websites to keep a connection with their users. Let me explain how I use RSS:
1. When I am reading something on the web and I come across a blog or website that I want to spend more time on and stay connected with…..I look for the orange RSS feed icon like this:
2. If I see that the website or blog I am reading has an RSS feed, I will open Newsfire, my RSS Reader, and “subscribe” to the feed.
To “subscribe” to a feed, click on the orange icon to see a very plain looking page of text, copy the URL and add it to your prefered RSS Reader.
3. Every few days I will open my RSS Reader and browse the different RSS Feeds that I have subscribed to. My feeds are all over the map including software development, skiing, environmental and world issues, etc.
To get started with RSS you need to download a Reader, here are some suggestions:
Google offers a free suite of applications called Google Apps for your Domain. This suite comes with the following:
Email (Gmail)
Calendar Sharing
Document Authoring
Our Clients use Google Apps mainly for Email. Google’s email program called Gmail is highly recommended. You can setup Outlook or another Email Client to download email using POP or IMAP and you can access your email via the web using Gmail.
If you decide to host your Email through Google Apps you will need to make changes to your DNS including MX record changes. If you MX record changes are made correctly you will not lose email when migrating to Google Apps.
Google offers a free service called Google Analytics that when installed into your website gives you reports on your website traffic.
Understanding your website traffic is important because it can help you answer these questions:
1. How many people visit my website and what pages are they clicking on?
2. Does anyone find my website from Google? What are they searching for when my site comes up in the search results?
Google Analytics will email you a report each week or you can login and check reports anytime.
We use Google Analytics to measure all traffic to your website, including your Blog. Of course, traffic is not the only metric to use when measuring the success of your Blog.
Number of visitors who come to your website or call your organization via a link on your blog (of course you need to set up a specially coded homepage or phone extension to track this count)
A small fertilizer company named TerraCycle is being sued by Scott’s (MiracleGro) over packaging/brand conflicts and for claims TerraCycle has made about their products.
TerraCycle created a blog called suedbyscotts.com to rally public and media support against Scott’s. It remains to be seen how effective this blog will be against fighting this lawsuit, however it is worthwhile to appreciate the potential a blog has to spread your company’s message in times of crisis.
