I first came across Magic SEO for OS Commerce around 8 months ago whilst looking for an add-on S.E.O module for OS-Commerce. After doing a bit of research it seemed as if this module not only did more but also had less conflicts with other modules; Not that we actually use other modules but that’s not the point. Additionally this module offered a free dynamic site-map which is obviously key for search engine optimisation (s.e.o) into the major search engines.

So what has been the result? If I were to tell you that we have now purchased 5 modules then you should get an idea of how effective we feel that this has been! Additionally, if you were to know that I myself have created bespoke PHP5 code to handle search engine friendly URLs (SEF URLs) and yet have still have advised purchasing this module (mainly because we are using OS Commerce) then the answer should be beginning to take shape.

Magic SEO (for OS Commerce) is clearly not only effective but well written, and I guess, more importantly well supported. If you contact the owner and author, Jiri, within a very small space of time you will confirm the excellent level of support and help given to get this module up and running.

Jiri, was not only helpful and advised on un-related matters, such as Zend Optimiser (or Optimizer, for you Americans!) but also on support to get the module installed on your hosting setup. Indeed, the initial hosting that we were using was causing problems; the solution, Jiri fully supported and helped us to get this module successfully installed and setup on our e-shop.

Now after installing and setting up this module a number of times, I am pleased to say that in 99.9999% of all cases in takes just around a couple of minutes to get going. So, I personally would recommend this module, and have, and would definitely rate this as ESSENTIAL!

Dedicated Server Benefits

February 14, 2009    Category: Software and Hardware

For years we used nothing but shared servers, not through choice but rather cost and lack of technical (inter-networking eg Linux) abilities. On some providers they were issues, such as security; we once wrote a script which managed to display ALL username cpanel logins for the server we were on, not on purpose but by complete accident whilst playing about with new PHP functions.

On other hosting providers, we found other problems such as when we did a lookup on the amount of domains on our shared server - some had over 1,000 cpanel accounts running! This is fine, unless alot of sites require access to some core services such as MySQL etc. For instance, most providers that over-quota (as above) will not allow the same amount of DB accesses - which basically means at some point some of the DB connections will fail for some accounts.

For a client that I worked for this was clearly unacceptable as they had over 25 E-Commerce websites, and one lost connection could lose the customer and potentially hundreds or thousands of pounds.

Another factor for this client was using very modern applications such as Magento, which basically crawled to a halt under a shared server. Both of these problems were solved by a dedicated server, managed and setup by DataFlame, who are clearly the best hosting providers in the UK, in our opinion.

There are of course other reasons why a Dedicated Server is very useful, including SEO - such as setting up similar content websites under different IP addresses - although with google recognising links from the same Class-C, this is become less so.

But the greatest benefit, of course, is the fact that you get complete control over the whole server as well as the software that it is running - from my point of view, think Zend Framework!

Wordpress Plugins

February 14, 2009    Category: CMS and Blogs

article about current effective wordpress plugins.

Wordpress Themes

February 14, 2009    Category: CMS and Blogs

article on the leading provider of wordpress themes.w

In the current economic downturn, for very small business, we would always advise that they use a pre-built open website design, as it not only lowers initial design and development costs, but also gives the client the chance to see their new website (90% of it) before any work begins.

If you have worked with small business then you will no doubt recognise the fact that initial designs can be a complete nightmare that never seems to end. One part the website design gets changed or evolved, and then often a few days or weeks later the client will ask if ‘we can try this or that’. By using an open design you essentially can get your client to sign-off (on the design) upfront leaving them to concentrate on content rather than design.

In most of the cases that we have worked with the client has been more than happy to keep the designers link in place, thereby shaving days of initial design and development time - which can be quite a substantial saving - up to 80% of project costs in some cases.

For those that are adamant that they do not want the designers link, then in a lot of cases we have worked on, the designer is more than happy for them to remove the link for a small fee.

In order to present and highlight the professional designs currently being released as Open Designs, we have now created a new website called: Open Websites - built using exactly the same technique - e.g. the customisation of an existing open website design.

We hope to work with some of the providers of these designs in order to make the process of either employing the designer to customise the design further, or to remove the designer’s link, a much easier affair.

If like us you have say 5 or more log-ins per domain (hosting log-ins, email, social sites, applications, etc) and have so 10+ accounts, then trying to remember passwords is a complete nightmare.

Now rather than use insecure, easy to remember (and easy to hack) passwords, we would instead recommend the excellent, free, open source password manager KeePass.

By being open source you can download the code and check it is not doing insecure or unsafe things with your essential log-ins!

Also if you currently use E-Wallet, AnyPassword, Oubliette, PINs, or PasswordSafe - you can now import your existing password database straight into KeePass.

Now with a new beta version, as well as many very useful modules or add-ons, not to mention ports on to other operating systems - including PocketPC or SmarthPhone,  now is definitelythe time to utilise this ESSENTIAL software.

Putting OSCommerce to Work

February 14, 2009    Category: ECommerce

article on developing pulic ecommerce system with oscommerce including create or modifying basic template.

If you have rang Adobe suport for help and support on, say Dreamweaver MX 2004 or CS3 problems, then you will no doubt understand our sentiments!

Not only does Dreamweaver has serious problems handle thousands of images in a given directory, but if you ask Adobe support for a resolution they will tell you to ‘another ftp client’ - which clearly should be illegal under the grounds of ‘not being fit for purpose’ (here in the UK).

If that was not bad enough, if you have a given file that you are working on that is a specific size in bytes - or any factor of this size, you will have serious problems with Dreamweaver. This is clearly an outrage and needs to be solved, rather than just releasing new versions such as CS4!

In our opinion, if you dont have to use Adobe Dreamweaver MX2004, CS3 or CS3 - then we would recommend either the Open Source GUI IDE’s such as Eclipse and Notepad++ - both of which can print in colour - something which Dreamweaver MX2004 and CS3 cannot!

Desktop SEO

February 14, 2009    Category: Internet Marketing

article about desktop seo manager such as web-ceo etc.

article on some of the key differences and similarities from C++ to PHP.

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