DotProject Benefits---Why DotProject Should Be Your Chosen PMS?

by: Fat Jack

While it comes to describing DotProject---the popular project management solution----one word is sufficient and that is ‘robust’. While its commercial counterparts come with an exorbitant price tag, this free PHP/mySQL based open source application offers you more features than most of them.

The basic objective of project management system can be divided into three main categories:

* The creation of planning of the project

* Breaking the whole plan structure into a series of tasks

* Assigning schedule to each task to achieve certain outcomes

* All these three main aspects of project management vary with the nature and type of each project.

Efficient project management

DotProject is a project management solution that helps to meet you with all these above mentioned project management needs and beyond that. It helps categorize projects as ‘in planning’, ‘in process’ and as ‘on hold’.

This program helps in tracking the various aspects of the expansion project.

A full calendar and ticket system helps update and prioritize your to-do lists.

It supports a better communication with your long distance employees as well as clients.

The right choice for the budget conscious

The DotProject can be the ideal project management solution for the organizations who have to keep the budget factor in mind; for DotProject being an open source solution it has no fees. It comes under a generous license agreement under BSD, GNU General Public License (GPL). Thus you don’t have to pay license fees, maintenance fees, or purchasing fees.

Simple technology; easier operation

In addition to that it is stable software and utilizes purely open source LAMP technologies including PHP hosting and MySQL database management. It works on all the major browsers and is backed by a supportive community. It supports a fine-grained permission system and also scalable.

Modular structure

DotProject can be integrated with other popular open-source projects such as PostNuke. Its modular character lets you expand its functionalities. With dotProject you have the option of using only the modules you need. Just disable the modules that don’t match your project management needs. Its sleek framework makes it easier for the customization by users or by the developers.

If you are still not convinced, our recommendation is: try DotProject web hosting. We are sure with DotProject as your support system, you will never look back.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3901.shtml

Can Content Syndicators Work For The Benefit Of Your Business?

by: Fat Jack

A savvy internet marketer should always be aware of the new techniques and tricks of the business and RSS has emerged as the latest alternating messaging medium. With html fast becoming the thing of past, RSS is going to be the next big thing in the web; it is going to become the backbone of the internet by helping share the contents all over the web.

So what is content syndication all about?

This is a technology for sharing content among multiple websites. The characteristic features of this technology are:

* Syndication does not necessarily mean sharing of the full article, images or files.

* Syndication amounts to providing you information about the source website where the full article can be read.

* The information are found in forms of headlines with links to the web pages where the original content can be accessed.

* The syndication file is the basic element of content syndication. These files containing information about the site, the headlines and the links to web pages are located on the web server of the distributor of the content.

A professional webhost allows its customers to participate in content syndication for better business results. So what business benefits are you expected to get from content syndicators provided by your web host?

* Suppose you are engaged in the travel related business. What is the fastest and most effective way of circulating the news about your discounted summer travel package? Just create content with sensational headline and circulate it as RSS feed. Nothing can create speedier impact than this.

* RSS feeds help earn you more reliability from your customers for the simple reason that RSS feeds allow your subscribers to control the flow of information and your customers would trust you more when they are able to control the information they receive. Syndicating increase your online visibility by affecting your search engine rankings positively.

* In the corporate circle and in the intranet, syndication provides a better mode of communications and information about time sensitive issues to the remote employees and clients.

* Finally, its keyword search capabilities empower the marketers in tracking their immediate competitors.

Why not follow the footsteps of such powerful sites as MySpace or YouTube in sharing your contents online? Let RSS be the focal point in your internet marketing and wait for the best to come.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3902.shtml

The B2Evolution Features Than Can Add Value to Your Blog Site

by: Fat Jack

If you are looking for a suitable tool to host a blog site then believe me, nothing can give you a better option than a B2Evolution software package. Going beyond traditional blogging tools, this software can offer you a range of other unusual features that add to the uniqueness to your blog site.

Multiple user/multiple author/ multilingual support

First of all, it supports a multi user, multiple authors set up.

By installing the software for once the software helps organize your blog in a way that each blog has its own set of member users. Thus, you can take the decision as to who gets to write on a particular blog.

On a more advanced level, certain readers can be denied access to particular posts.

To top it all, full user management is included in the software.

RSS feed enabled

Content syndication is one of the most prominent features of today’s blogging behavior. This is a process of article sharing among several related sites. But it is not essential that the full article should be circulated. Through the RSS feed, you can get to see the title and the source of the article. The source link can take you the original article.

The B2evolution has built-in RSS feed support. It also has Atom feeds for both posts and comments.

Thus the readers can get to see your RSS feeds and subscribe to your site.

With B2Evolution, it is possible to assign separate feeds for each individual blog on your site. Alternatively it is also possible to get a feed containing all the blogs on your site by subscribing to the ‘Blog All RSS feed’.

Digging

Another recent blog-culture involves ‘digging’ of the articles. With the help of a plugin called, AstonishMe Digg Plugin, it is possible to add Digg buttons to your posts by simply checking a box in the Write tab. This allows you and your readers to dig the stories.

Advanced categorization

Another feature helping in advanced blogging relates to complex categorization of contents. This system allows for categorizing and sub-categorizing of the posts/news items by subject or theme.

However, with this software it is also possible to assign multiple categories to each post.

The additional features include: an integrated XHTML validator, supports recursive subcategories, cross posting and has an integrated skinning system.

The end result is: you get blog software that runs easily on almost any web hosting service, generates web pages dynamically from the MySQL database, without any hassle of ‘rebuilding’. Also without running into any hassle, you can add to your site different ’templates’ or ’skins’ from time to time. It also comes with faster search/display capabilities and makes for the most comprehensive blog engine you could ever find.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3903.shtml

B2Evolution---Software with the Most Comprehensive Feature List

by: Fat Jack

When François Planque forked b2evolution from version 0.6.1 of b2\cafelog in 2003, little did he assume that within three or four years this newly forked software will emerge as the most favorite tools among the bloggers---beginners or seasoned.

This huge popularity can be attributed to the loads of features it come with; that turn it into much more than any other blogging tool. It is characterized by the ease of installation; if the webserver of the host happens to be LAMP compatible (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), the system can be installed in the server within minutes.

B2Evolution makes for a multi-lingual, multi-user and multi-blog publishing system, which is distributed under the GNU General Public License and as such can be downloaded free of charge. With the latest version of B2Evolution installed in your website, you will no longer need configuration file editing; all configurations will be handled through the installer or administrative back-end.

B2Evolution is popular for the extra punches that it packs in its package. Let’s learn about them:

Multiple blogs support

* B2Evolution supports multiple blogs at the same time. It will require you to install the software once and you can use it for up to 1000 blogs at the same time on different pages, in different folders, or on different domains.

This feature also allows you to display several blogs on the same page and you are allowed to add Photoblogs, Moblogs, Linkblogs, Blogrolls or likes in a snap.

AntiSpam Deluxe

* With an efficient combination of active and passive antispam measures, and with the help of community shared blacklist, the software works for blocking comments and referring spams.

Multiple users and authors support

* Through a comprehensive and detailed permission management, any user can be given permissions to read, write, edit or fully change any number of blogs.

Blog skins

* With the help of wide array of Evo-skins, you are not only allowed to customize the look and feel of your blog, you can also control how it behaves. The skins can be easily downloaded and installed.

Plugin framework

* To add more volume to its already expansive list of features, you can take help from the B2Eevolution's advanced plugin framework.

Some of the popular B2Eevolution plugins include Textile, Auto-P, Greymatter, BB code, Texturize, LaTeX, and graphic smilies.

Plugins are also available to facilitate full integration with third party tools such as Gallery 2, YouTube and digg.

Advanced categorization

* This feature will help you break your blog into several categories and sub-categories to organize the posts under different themes. The software even allows assigning multiple categories to one particular post. In addition to that, it allows cross-posting among multiple blogs at once.

To run b2evolution, you will simply need a webserver that can run PHP4, and a MySQL database. It remains the simplest and fastest way of taking your voice farthest across the web.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3904.shtml

Advantages of Open Source Software

by: Fat Jack

PHP-Nuke, PHP PostNuke, TikiWiki, Xoops, b2evo---you can find them everywhere in the web. These are all the open source software solution used in various areas of web applications. These are most of the time free applications released under special licensing terms. This allows the coding to be shared by all and edited to suit the unique needs of the user.

What is the secret behind this immense popularity of all these software? The use of open source software has some practical benefits. Let us discuss about them in details.

You get the core framework for free

For a start up company, budget is a major factor. You can save on your initial investment cost by adopting open source software which comes free of cost.

Modification benefits

With Open Source software, the code is openly available and that enables the users to fine tune the codes to suit their needs. It also contributes to the improvement of a software product by making it adaptable to changing conditions, fixing of bugs, security problems and so on.

Excellent support base free of cost

With open source software you are not tied to a single company or do not need to fall back upon it for fixing all your application related problems. This dependence proves to be very expensive. But with open source software, you get the support of the entire support community on which these applications grow and thrive.

Forking leading to a new product

The open source software keep open the possibility of forking when the existing code base does not work thus leading to the creation of a new software altogether.

The entire online community is indebted to the various open source software for what they have contributed to transform internet into a vast collaborative community that it is today. With an array of open source software, you may conclude that the days of commercial software are numbered. But it requires time for their installation, implementation and trouble shooting. If you lack the time then you have two options---go for the expensive commercial software or hire an efficient and renowned web host who will tackle these problems for you. The second option is definitely better.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3905.shtml

About Xoops---Pack of Information for the Newbie

by: Fat Jack

When it comes to the creation of a content rich, large, dynamic website, you are invariably faced with several myths---strong enough to make you drop your plan altogether. One such myth is: it requires you to be a smart programmer to upload and run a versatile website like this. WRONG!! Getting and running a dynamic website of your dream become piece of cake without hassle or lot of efforts, when you are armed with a tool like XOOPS.

If you are a web host, Xoops can be a great CMS tool for you to easily create dynamic websites. Xoops acts as an ideal tool for developing dynamic community websites---big or small. If you want to create personal weblog or corporate intranet site, or a content rich informative portal----Xoops can be the ultimate solution for getting them and running.

To install it in your server, simply what you need are: a PHP-capable web server such as Apache and a database preferably MySQL.

To keep with the spirit of the type of your website, you can use the software differently.

As for example, Lite XOOPS can be used to create a small size personal weblog or journal. The news module that comes inbuilt with its core framework is enough for the purpose.

For a medium size website you need to make use of the additional modules such as News, Forum, Download, Web Links etc. These modules will help in building up of a community and facilitate interaction among the members and with the visitors.

A feature rich e-commerce site however requires development of some of the customized modules. You can download them free or buy from the outside developers. In any case, Xoop’s uniform user management system will help you to seamlessly integrate these modules with the core system.

There are some must-to install modules which you need to use as add-ons for a stronger foundation along with the core framework of Xoops. These are:

Security module (antivirus and firewall), additional editors (word processors), a backup module to protect the data, and a few diagnostic modules for managing the site.

Here is a brief guide of the locations from where you can download these add-ons.

Security (the Protector Module v3.0)

Backup (DB Backup and Restore)

Editors (Frameworks and Xoopseditors v1.10)

Diagnostics (XoopsInfo v2.12)

In addition to the above mentioned modules which are essentially administrative in nature, you need to download more modules to support the features like news, photo galleries, links, forums, wikis, blogs and games.

Here is the last piece of advice relating to the selection of the version. We recommend the latest version which can be found by clicking Download Xoops’ in the Xoops .org Community menu. The latest version---2.0.16 has been released in March 2007.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3906.shtml

About Drupal

by: Fat Jack

The Onion
The Spread Firefox
Ourmedia
KernelTrap
The Defective by Design campaign

Do these above mentioned names make any sense for you? Well, they are all the names of high-traffic websites….but apart from that?

Well, they are all bound by a common thread…they all use Drupal as their web application framework or blogging engine.

So what Drupal actually is?
Drupal is a software package that is

* Free o download and use
* Written in PHP
* Open-source system
* Distributed under the GPL
* Maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers across the globe.
* Allows an individual or an online community to publish, manage and organize a content rich website.

The background

The credit for writing this software---today’s most popular tool for building online communities goes to Dries Buytaert. The name of the software has significance; the word Drupal has its origin in the Dutch word, “druppel” or Drop. Now Drop in Dutch also stands for Village or community. So the community aspect of the software has always been emphasized. However, others try to establish a link with the name of now defunct Drop.org website---the codes of which had a direct influence on the coding of Drupal.

What it can do for you

The latest version (Drupal 5.1) released in the early 2007 comes with the enhanced feature of easy-to-use web installer. The moment your web host adds this script to your web host account, it is all geared up to help you in your variety of content management and blogging tasks such as: Forums, Peer-to-peer networking , Newsletters, Podcasting, Picture galleries, File uploads and downloads and many more.

The wide ranging Drupal websites

Powered with a wide range of features, Drupal can support different types of website ranging from traditional blogs to Social Networking sites and Intranet applications to E-commerce applications.

If you want to have a glimpse of notable sites using Drupal, refer to this URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupal

On your way to create a community based website or a community driven portal?

Or are you up to introducing a resource directory or an Aficionado site?

Whatever may be your website requirements, Drupal can handle them all. So start your warming up from today; but before that make sure you find an efficient web host who can offer you Drupal webhosting.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3907.shtml

Royalty Free Stock Photos for Web Design

by: Sharon Housley

Stock photography websites contain thousands of existing photographs that can be licensed for specific uses. A customer who uses stock photography instead of hiring a photographer can save time, effort and money. Typically publishers can either purchase exclusive rights to a single image or they can purchase a subscription of sorts. The subscriptions allow publishers to download a limited number of photos over a specified period of time.

Stock photo websites allow webmasters, marketers and publishers to locate pictures for their marketing and promotional materials without the hassle of organizing a photo shoot. With copyright laws businesses must be very careful in using unlicensed photos.

There are also risks to using "free" photographs. Many of the free websites contain collaborative works from multiple photographers and artists. While the websites attempt to monitor the images in their collections in violation of copyright laws, there are no guarantees. If you opt to use photographs or images from a free portal, it is important to keep this in mind.

The following are a large number of reputable stock photo websites available:

Photo-Wizard.net - The Photo-Wizard's website contains thousands of fantastic, high-quality photographs, in more than 30 categories. Photos can be used on websites, in promotional materials or educational materials. The Photo-Wizard's stock photo directory is packed with eye-catching photos that will meet the needs of graphic designers and webmasters looking for exceptional quality images at reasonable prices. The site is filled with inexpensive, professional quality royalty free photographs. There is no longer a need to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a single photograph. Single images can be purchased for $.99 each or subscriptions can be purchased for $49.95 - $ 179.95.

Photo Wizard - http://www.photo-wizard.net

Photos.com - Photos.com contains professional royalty-free stock photographs available via a subscription. Pay only a single fee and download up to 250 photos from the Photos.com collection per day. The photos.com collection contains more than 325,000 professional quality stock photographs. Subscriptions can be purchased for $149.95 - $ 699.95 .

Photos.com - http://www.photos.com

ClipArt.com - The ClipArt website is exceptional, known for its large variety. You can filter images based on file formats, (photographs, photo objects or clipart) so only the specified format appears in the search results. Subscription can be purchased for $ 17.99 - $ 269.99.

ClipArt - http://www.clipart.com

Morguefile.com - The term "morgue file" is popular in the newspaper business to describe a file that holds past issues. The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits. Photos on Morguefile can be used free of charge, but only for personal use; but are not available for commercial or business use.

MorgueFile - http://www.morguefile.com

PixelPerfectDigital.com - PixelPerfectDigital contains 4,000 images. The website uses a forum format to display the images, many of which are clipart rather than photographs. The images can be used free of charge for personal use.

Pixel Perfect Digital - http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com/free_stock_photos/

StockVault.net - StockVault contains photos and logos that are free for non-commercial use. They have additional image packs available for fixed prices.

StockVault - http://www.stockvault.net

Free-Photographs.net - The Free Photographs Network is an online resource for royalty-free stock photographs for non-commercial use. The collection is very limited and a search function specifically for the site is not available.

Free Photographs - http://www.free-photographs.net

FreeStockPhotos.com - Photographs on Free Stock Photos can be used free of charge for non-commercial use, but the photograph must include credits to FreeStockPhotos.com when used on the Internet, in a web page, in printed publications, or in any product, advertising, or packaging. This credit, however, may be cropped out or digitally removed from the photograph if it is included in readable type near each photograph, group of photographs, in the text, or in the credits. The collection is limited and a search function is not visible.

Free Stock Photos - http://www.freestockphotos.net

FreePhotos.com - FreePhotos is a collaborative website that contains photos. The website contains many different image categories, but not a large variety in each category. In order to download an image users must register.

Free Photos - http://www.freephotos.com

ArtFavor.com - ArtFavor contains a limited selection of small high-quality photographs. The images are not available for commercial use.

ArtFavor - http://www.artfavor.com/types.php?type=12

FreeDigitalPhotos.net - The photos on Free Digital Photos can be used for commercial and non commercial interests. If the images are used for promotional items (greeting cards, mugs, t-shirts, screen savers) there is a $ 20.00 charge for the use of each image. Some images also stipulate that they require a link back to the FreeDigitalPhotos website.

Free Digital Photos - http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

FreePhotosBank.com - Free Photos Bank is a collaborative website with a number of attractive photos. Photos contained on the Free Photos Bank are from a variety of photographers and the reprint permissions may vary.

Free Photos Bank - http://www.freephotosbank.com

DesignPacks.com - Design Packs offers free, high-quality image collections that can be used in both personal and commercial web design projects. Each collection features a group of 15 images that share a common theme.

Design Packs - http://www.designpacks.com

ShutterStock - Shutterstock is a large subscription-based stock photo agency. They have an outstanding collection of premium, royalty-free photographs, illustrations, and vectors. Subscription can be purchased for $ 199.00 - $1,999.00 and allow subscribers to download up to 25 images per day.

ShutterStock - http://www.shutterstock.com/

ComStock - ComStock contains a large collection of royalty-free images. ComStock offers three purchase options images can be purchased individually, CD options are available or publishers can purchase a subscription for $299 - $1999.00 which allows them to download up to 50 images per day.

ComStock - http://www.comstock.com

These are all a number of options available for webmasters and publishers in need of images for marketing campaigns or packaging. Regardless of the website selected, be sure to read the agreement terms carefully to ensure that you are adhering to the guidelines.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1307.shtml

Spicing Up Your Blog with 3D Animated YouTube Playlists

by: Jeff White

People have blogs for different purposes, some people maintain a blog purely for commercial reasons, and other people keep blogs strictly as a hobby. Blogs serve people in various ways and means and ultimately the aim is to provide the audiences reading these blogs with as much content and information as possible. Usually such information is written but sometimes a little something extra and visual is appreciated. We're not talking in the sense of pictures but rather video and movie type content that is becoming increasingly popular these days.

Strictly speaking there are a limited number of videos that we can afford to upload on most standard hosting packages and websites. If you really want to show your users video content then maybe you should consider YouTube videos as an option. You can find a whole number of videos on YouTube or you can upload your personal videos as well. Certain websites offer you the capability of creating playlists of your favorite videos and listing them on your blog. It's almost similar to the way you use other codes to display MP3 songs on something like your MySpace profile but in this case you're using codes to display YouTube videos on your blog.

YouTube video codes are a great way of displaying great content to visitors of your blog without going through the stress of having to upload videos on your own server. There's no limit to the number of videos you can use in your video playlist. If your blog is about rap music for instance you can use the video codes to display a playlist for some of the videos of the latest rap music available on YouTube.

You can think of other imaginative ways of using YouTube video codes as well and it all depends on how creative your mind can get. If you run a blog that offers advice to people, maybe a blog that shows people how to make stuff or do some DIY project or the other, YouTube video codes and YouTube playlists make it all the more fun. Rather than having boring graphic descriptions, followed by a whole lot of words describing a very simple process, you can simply upload your videos to YouTube and create a YouTube playlist. Using video codes you can now give your users access to your playlist of videos through your blog.

Of course you don't necessarily have to do all the hardwork yourself, a number of websites out there will provide you with the content that you need. Some people have content that is freely available for redistribution and viewing on YouTube, you can also use websites like YouTube-Video-Codes.com to create playlists of other people's content that can be found on YouTube.

For more information be sure to visit us at http://www.Youtube-Video-Codes.com

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1308.shtml

Free Image Hosting Service

by: Russell Hawkins

Image hosting is a part of most web hosting services, providing hosting solutions for images instead of words. Most web hosts that host web pages do allow image hosting as well, but most times you have to pay for those services, or of those that are offered with no charges, you are limited to the size or quality of images you can submit. Free image hosting however is not a faux promise, neither is it too good to be true.

Why may image hosting be necessary? Sometimes a person might wish to publish a web page, but may find that his server at home or at the point of production is not adequate enough to keep the page running on the internet – in order that the published web page is to be continuously displayed, the server through which it is published must also run continuously on the internet. Also, a server also has to be able to support high traffic flowing to the websites that it connects to the Internet – what would be the point of publishing a page without the intension of having people visit the page? If the server is shut off, then the page also goes offline and becomes inaccessible to the public. Web hosting is the service provided to persons who wish to have their web pages up on the internet at all times but who do not have the means or support to do so on their own. Web hosting services may be offered free of charge or they may require a service fee, but almost all web hosting packages include free image hosting services.

Image hosting is a big industry today, drawing almost 90% of the audience market. In fact, almost every site wants to publish a video advertisement or a music introduction in an attempt to increase his market size. Most sites that provide free image hosting services however will limit the amount or size of images that you can post. For example, if you have a site that is dedicated to providing ring tones, music videos, large amounts of photographs or any other image in very large amounts or with very big file attachments, you will not be allowed to publish via the free image hosting service. On the other hand, if you wish to post images on a blog site or any other site with size restrictions, then free image hosting is your solution.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1309.shtml

Website Basics-Choosing a Hosting Plan

by: Richard James

Once your website has been created, it is time to make it go live on the internet. In order to do so, you will need a hosting plan. A hosting plan is different from a domain name. You own your domain name but you rent a hosting plan. A hosting plan in it’s simplest terms is paying a company to broadcast your website onto the internet. This article covers what to look for in a hosting plan.

SERVICE The number one thing to look for in a hosting plan is service. It does not matter that a multitude of features are offered or if the price is low if the service you will be getting with your hosting plan is sub par or even worse, nonexistent. Once your website is live on the internet you will want it to be up all the time. Therefore should a problem occur it is important to select a hosting provider that is readily available and will resolve the issue in as timely a manner as possible.

UPTIME What is the hosting company's "uptime guarantee". Many guarantee 99% uptime for their servers. That sounds great, but it does mean that your site could go down for 1% of the time, which means over 7 hours out of each month! If you can, choose a host guaranteeing 99.9 uptime.

SIZE How large is your site? Most sites do not require much space but if you're planning on having a large site with a lot of multimedia content or an ecommerce site selling multiple items, you'll probably need additional disk space.

DESIGN How was your Web site designed? For example, if you designed a website using ASP or ASP.NET, you'll need to find a Windows hosting plan. If you have a Web site that uses CGI or PHP, you'll need to get a Linux hosting plan. For the novice user who is building a simple website the above may not be a consideration at first, but may become important later on as you become more experienced and add more features to your website.

TRAFFIC How much traffic or how many visitors do you expect monthly? The more visitors or traffic you expect on your site, the higher the bandwidth you will need.

At www.startmywebsitetoday.com we offer 99.7% guaranteed uptime and service 24/7, and a variety of shared hosting, virtual dedicated hosting, and dedicated hosting plans with either Linux or Windows operating systems for every need and budget ranging from the small personal website to large online multimedia sites to those interested in ecommerce website building. Check us out HERE.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1310.shtml

Website Basics-Creating a Website

by: Richard James

If you are new to building websites, you might be surprised to find out that it is not as difficult an endeavor as you might suspect.

After securing a domain name, there are 2 main considerations to having a live website on the internet. The first is creation of the web pages, and the second is hosting it on the internet. (Hosting is discussed in the next article).

A webpage is just that, a page. If you have some familiarity with using a tool such as Microsoft Word, the concept is very much the same: when you type a letter or document into Word, you are creating a page. When you save it on your computer’s hard drive, you are saving a page. In point of fact, you'll find you can create a website easy using Microsoft Word. You can type information, adjust the font size and colors, paste in pictures with captions, and add links to other websites. All you have to do when finished is choose the option “save as web page” instead of “save as word document”. The resulting file is saved in html code, the universal language of the internet. Voila! You have created a simple website. In fact for someone who wants to start up a website with a simple single web page website, this is a very easy to use website tool.

Of course, while Microsoft Word will serve the purpose, it is not the best tool for building a website. The 2 most popular software packages for website creation by far are Microsoft Frontpage, and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Both are excellent and fully featured for building and publishing websites. (Uploading a website to the internet is known as “publishing”). Both of the above mentioned products require quite a learning curve, and are really aimed at the more advanced web author.

For the first time web builder, www.startmywebsitetoday.com offers easy website design software with a package product called Website Tonight. The package includes easy to use web site tools in the form of easy website design software combined with hosting. The software offered in Website Tonight is geared toward the newbie. You simply select a basic template, or page design, to begin. Next you will decide on a basic color scheme. Next, a page layout. When these 3 elements are in place, the rest is all menu driven. When you place the mouse pointer into a given area of the page, a menu will pop up, allowing you to select from a number of options, whether you will be adding text, video, audio, photos, etc. All elements of the page are able to be edited and changed as you desire at anytime. When satisfied with your final design, simply press “publish” to make your web page live on the internet. It's easy to make websites using Website Tonight. For more information on Website Tonight click HERE.

Whether you choose to use Website Tonight or another website building software, www.startmywebsitetoday.com offers a wide variety of easy to use website tools to make your presence on the internet a successful one, starting with our hosting plans, discussed in the next article.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1311.shtml

About DotProject - A Guide for a New Entrepreneur

by: Fat Jack

Project management is the most vital but often neglected aspect of your business. While the term project management conjures up the picture of complicated task---and surely it is---it can be managed with high level of efficiency if you know the tricks of the trade. In the software called dotProject you can find this trick----the key to your project management success.

Here is a short description of DotProject to help you understand what it is.

DotProject is a Web-based project management application. It is licensed under GNU General Public License (GPL), which means dotProject is free to use.

It comes with a modular structure and multilingual feature---- It is translated into 17 languages.

Its comprehensive feature list includes modules for companies, projects, tasks (with Gantt charts), forums, files, a calendar, contacts, tickets/helpdesk, user/module permissions, and themes.

Its modular architecture allows further addition of extra modules such as time sheets and inventory for enhanced functionalities.

Technology used in the software

The software uses the JavaScript and PHP as its Programming Language

It takes the Database support from MySQL.

DotProject can support your websites on an intranet, as well as on extranet environment.

How to install

DotProject is completely open source, and is supported by purely open source technologies. As such a Linux based web hosting service provider using PHP hosting and MySQL database management can add Dot Project in your web hosting control panel. Once installed, it will occupy not more than 2 MB size in your disc space.

As compared to its rival solutions, DotProject makes the BETTER CHOICE for two reasons:

1. A greater number of features
2. A more user-friendly interface.

So make sure to add the DotProject feature in your project management script and boost up your business with a flawless planning, smart execution and quality deliverance of tasks.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3908.shtml

What Management Membership Software Can Do For Your Subscription

by: Mario Churchill

Subscription is part of the entire member management package. You will hardly find management membership software that does not have functionality for managing membership subscriptions. Almost all of the management membership software available in the market caters to membership subscription management. Subscription is one of the most effective ways to syndicate your site, and it is also one of the most difficult to put up if you do not have the software to back it up. With people subscribed under you, there are infinite possibilities, You can send them newsletters, tell them of your promotions, rally for their support in certain endeavors and offer them products which can really benefit them and bring you income. With more people subscribed under you, other websites will also want to link up with you and this will further increase your affiliations online. This increases your exposure and makes you gain positive online presence and credibility, among many other things.

Minimal technical knowledge is needed when trying to make use of management membership software for subscription. All you need to do is to master the software and set the preferences you have for your subscribers and the software will do the rest of the work for you. This is what is most rewarding about having an effective management membership software: you will not work too hard for your subscription and you will still get very favorable working results and conditions. Some software can get very difficult and requires some technical learning of sorts in order for one to be able to use it. But thankfully, this is not the case for management membership software.

With the software for membership management you can also expect faster dissemination of subscriptions to your individual members. Whether it is a membership of thousands to millions, you will find that your software will be able to generate the needed subscriptions straight to the people you want to send it to. The software will also be able to alert you if email addresses by your members are valid. With an organized set of details, you will also find updating to be quicker than manually cutting and pasting them before forwarding to email addresses. Effective management of replies is almost always part of the whole package of managing subscriptions. Outgoing and incoming email messages will both be regulated accordingly.

This eventually leads to a very efficient management of people who will be subscribing. With this efficient system, you will also be bound to succeed in making your website well-visited and you will earn the loyalty that every movement or organization needs to survive. Since you will be able to effectively manage the people currently subscribed under you, they will continue to welcome their subscription mails and not feel out of the loop even for a short period of time because your software will ensure that all the news gets to all the concerned people in the shortest possible time.

The automated alerts for subscribers without causing hassle on your part is what you truly pay for when getting and installing a membership management software. It is part of a whole bunch of systems in managing your memberships which help keep your organization and website in top condition. If a membership site is being constantly promoted and gains a reputation for efficient management, you will find yourself with higher capacity to have more people subscribing under them.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3909.shtml

Creating Screen Capture Videos

by: Deepak Arora

One of the biggest new digital products on the market today is video instruction. Where just a few years ago, ebooks were looked at as the hottest commodity, that has changed. Ebooks still sell. Videos sell hotter and, if marketed well, can be sold for a much higher price.

Video instruction can refer to different things. You could have a video of yourself cooking a steak dinner and showing how to create a great barbecue for your guests. Just get your video camera, some conversion software (Windows Vista has it included as does Mac).

With increasing frequency, however, more videos are appearing that show how to do something using your computer. There are videos that show how to set up a website. There are videos that show how to use a piece of software. And so forth.

These videos are created by using software that captures what happens on your computer screen. The software can optionally capture your voice as well. And once captured, the software can also be used to annotate what is on-screen with text and animation that highlights important parts of the video.

To create screen capture videos, you need the right software. While TechSmith's Camtasia is the leader in the field, one of us uses a different (and far less expensive) product called AllCapture with great success.

You'll also want to plan what your video is about. Just because you can "wing it" doesn't mean you should. Here's a brief 5-step guide to get you started.

1 – Plan - Figure out what you want to say; what you want to show. Make notes and be sure that it makes sense.

2 - Run through the software yourself to perform the operations you intend to show. Speak as if you were actually instructing someone sitting next to you.

3 – Do several dry runs with your microphone on and the screen capture program running. You're going to want to make sure you select the right window size for your video, that you've got sound levels right, and that the software you're about to demo is set to the right window size as well.

4 - Play it back so you can see what your customers will see. Chances are your first few runs aren't going to be perfect. One of us finds himself hesitating too frequently in the initial recordings. This leads to stuttering, and so forth. A possible sign that insufficient planning went into the effort. Or it could just be that one gains familiarity with the subject matter by running through it a few times.

5 – Once you've got the video the way you want to distribute it, you now need to convert it to a format that your customers will be able to use. There are usually several format choices, including those for Windows Media Player™, RealPlayer™ and Flash™. Of these, Flash has the greatest popularity for online screen capture products. Both Camtasia and AllCapture produce videos in all three formats.

Related resources:
For Camtasia - techsmith(dot)com
For AllCapture – balesio(dot)com

©2007, by Deepak Arora and Bal Simon

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3911.shtml

Getting Free Photoshop Tutorials

by: Mario Churchill

The Photoshop software is truly a big deal for most people. It pays to have this program in your computer in order to manipulate your pictures as your desire. With this at hand, you can be sure that you get to improve those digital images you have taken even before they get printed. This is more reason for you to give away beautiful pictures to friends and relatives.

However, it is not enough that you have the Photoshop program installed in your computer. It is a must that you have a basic knowledge in Photoshop so you can do the things that you want. As such it is very important to get a Photoshop tutorial.

There are options such as to hire a tutor or enrol in program where you can learn Photoshop skills. You can also choose to buy books that will teach you the aspects of the program. These are options that are open to you. However, it may even be a better choice for you to get a free Photoshop tutorial. Here, you get to learn a new skill without having to spend the extra money in your pocket.

The Free Photoshop Tutorial

There are many ways for you to get a free Photoshop tutorial. Be sure that you get to use these options because it sure is a good thing to save your extra money instead. If you can have something for free, then just grab it and make the most out of it.

Ask a Friend for Help in the Photoshop

Some people are fortunate enough to have friends and relatives who are skilled in the Photoshop application. If you happen to have a friend of your own, then ask him or her to teach you basic Photoshop. This is a good way to get the free Photoshop tutorial. You can even use that extra time of learning as a bonding activity.

Explore the Photoshop Program

If it happens that you cannot access any friend to give the tutorials, you can explore the Photoshop program. The manufacturers do provide basic tutorials with the installation. You can easily check the options for the basic tutorials. This can explain to you how certain commands work and when to use them. You can read on the instructions and the step-by-step processes. There are also editions in the Photoshop software that can actually give tutorial using visuals. You will definitely enjoy viewing how a project is developed.

Download Files Online

You can also get free Photoshop tutorials online. There are numerous web sites that will give help for free. You can access the tutorial in PDF format and see the instructions. You can also browse through the sites to find the discussion on a particular topic. You may even love the options of seeing the tutorial in video format.

Ask for Assistance Online

The manufacturer can provide an option for you to get help online. However, you may find it even amazing to explore the different discussion boards and forums where other Photoshop users converge. This can be an opportunity to get free Photoshop tutorials from them. You can post your question and you can expect the other users to give you the advice you need.

Conclusion

Get your free Photoshop tutorials and learn the basic skills needed to operate the program. This way, you can turn out your nice images into fabulous pictures.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_3910.shtml

Website Basics-Why Register Dot Mobi Domain Names?

by: Richard James

Dot mobi domain names are here to stay. With today’s society becoming ever more mobile, it makes sense that in the coming years people will more and more depend on mobile devices. It’s already happening; people use their mobile phones and pda’s for everything from scheduling appointments to making purchases to surfing the web. Consequently dot mobi domain registration is on the rise.

Just like dot com is the domain name ending for many Web pages on the wired internet, dot mobi domain names are the suffix for Web pages that are formatted for cellphones and other wireless devices. The principle behind the dot mobi domain name is that it will make finding websites designed for use on mobile or cell phones easier. It is also hoped that the release will herald a new age of mobile internet with the inclusion of industry standards. Above all else, though, the hope is that mobile Internet browsing and surfing will become as commonplace as the cell phone itself. Running a dot mobi domain name website could potentially be very profitable

The mobile Internet is virtually untapped. As the price war wages between mobile Internet providers and the quality of the mobile network increases, there is a very real chance that the majority of the population that owns a cell phone will start to regularly access the Internet through their cell phone browser. You could be one of the first to take advantage of what could be the next big communication revolution- dot mobi domain names.

It’s pretty much common knowledge that at the present time trying to access most web sites on a cellphone is difficult if not impossible. This is because most companies web sites have not yet accommodated the scaled-down version that is necessary for mobile devices. Actually creating a dot mobi domain name site is very easy compared to a standard computer accessed dot com site, the tools used are little more than a text editor, which is good news for anyone with an idea for how to build a better mousetrap out there.

Even if you have no current plans to pursue a dot mobi domain name type website at the moment, you are well advised to register your current domain name also as a dot mobi domain name to protect your brand. Any worthy commercial site should plan to, if not already be in pursuit of, a mobile ready version of their site.

Lastly, some are interested in the dot mobi domain name as an investment vehicle, in remembrance of the original dot com land rush. And indeed there seems to be a mini land rush on for dot mobi domain names at the moment. Dot mobi registration is building momentum. There is some merit to this, but pick your categories carefully, as not every website is likely to transition smoothly over to mobile devices. And keep it short…remember, the dot mobi domain name is being typed into a cellphone!

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1312.shtml

Website Basics-Fine Tuning a Domain Name

by: Richard James

OK, so now you’ve found the domain name you want, but someone else owns it. Can you still get it? The answer is a qualified YES. You can still possibly register that coveted name even if someone has beaten you to the punch. In the next article we will discuss how to go about registering a domain name that is already taken. But for now, lets look at some alternatives to that:

Hyphenated Names Sometimes it is a good strategy to just take the same domain name and hyphenate it as in turning bobsautoparts.com into bobs-auto-parts.com. Is it always the best strategy? Yes and no. If you are dealing with an already well known name, generally the answer would be no, as most web surfers would usually just enter the non-hyphenated version in, and end up at your competitors’ website instead. Not a good strategy. Also, the longer the name you have chosen, the more tedious and error prone it becomes for the surfer to type in the name correctly, again foiling the chances that they will end up at your website. Definitely shorter is better. But if the name you have chosen is already taken and there is no chance of getting it from it’s owner, and the owner either has no website or a poorly designed one with little traffic, this can be a good strategy in purchasing a name.

Longer or Shorter Domain names can be up to 67 characters long. At 63 characters, thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com claims to be the longest domain name in the world, and it may very well be. But who would want to type it into a browser? Our website, www.StartMyWebsiteToday.com features a name that in a few words encapsulates the purpose of the site. It is helpful also with search engines. In as few characters as possible the name of the site, the purpose of the site, and the keywords of the site have all been neatly put together in a domain name. Shorter is better here. Nuff said.

Brand Name or Generic The answer here is it depends. If your business is your brand, of course it is the best possible strategy to try to register that domain name. For instance, Nike.com is a well known brand name site, although there is nothing in the domain name to suggest that it is a site about shoes. Still, Nike is such a well known brand name to the public that people automatically know what they will be shopping for when they get there. If your brand name is well known, definitely try to obtain your brand name as a domain name. But if you are Nike or Coca Cola don’t discount the idea of buying shoes.com or soda.com if they are available as well. People often search the web using generic terms, more so even than brand names. A person is more likely to search the internet for shoes or footwear or sneakers than to search by a single brand name, even one as big as Nike. So if possible cover all the bases, but a generic name if your business is new or not yet well known can get better results, if you can find a good one.

In the next article, we discuss strategies for buying a domain name that has already been taken.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1314.shtml

Easy Web Design Software For Home Businesses

by: Charles Brown

Designing your own website from scratch that you're proud of is not as hard as you may think. Especially nowadays, because there is software available that takes on much of the work that used to be relegated to the webmaster (which is you!).

In days past, in order to build a website from scratch, you had to know HTML, or "Hyper Text Markup Language." And really, you are still better off knowing at least the basics of HTML. Nevertheless, it's not required. Especially if you find easy web design software that does most of the work takes care of this for you. Now, every single HTML editor on the planet now features a "WYSIWYG" interface. (What You See Is What You Get.) So, in theory, you shouldn't have to know the first thing about hand-coding a website.

The reality is, however, not all HTML editors (or "web design software") does WYSIWYG well. Little annoying problems tend to crop up. For example, say you typed the following sentence using your site builder:

"Discover the best places to SCUBA dive in the Cayman Islands." Say you want "best places" to be italicized and "Cayman Islands" to be bolded. Here's what's supposed to happen:

In the background, your HTML editor is supposed to 'type' the phrase as such: Discover the best places to SCUBA dive in the Cayman Islands. (I put extra spaces between the tags for this example, in order to keep the article publishing software from parsing it like normal HTML.)

But instead, this is what you get: "Discover the best places to SCUBA dive in the Cayman Islands." Even though you selected the words "best places" and clicked the little graphical icon on your html editor's toolbar that represented italics, your phrase comes out non-italicized. And your bolded words are not bolded.

Well, in this instance, you'd have to go to the "Source View" of your HTML editor and manually insert the above HTML tags to make these things happen. This is a very annoying problem with too many popular web design software titles nowadays.

Another problem that will frustrate the heck out of you, is seeing a totally different result in the web browser than you see in your desktop. For example, your formatting changes are (apparently) taking effect as you type--just as it should (remember it's touted as being WYSIWYG)...

However, they don't show up when you publish the page to the internet! I don't know why, but this problem still plagues most web design software to this day.

Fortunately, there are a few (very few) good software titles that work for cheap, while doing all the other things to make your site stand out and (if you're so inclined) draw visitors by the hundreds.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1315.shtml

Website Hosting - How to Select a Good Company

by: Brad Stone

Trying to select a hosting package is much like purchasing a new car—there are many different types and ways to go, but in the end it really boils down to how you are going to get where you want to be and the features you’ll need to get there. You certainly would not buy a Honda Civic to make an off-road journey across the Mohave Desert. Nor would it make sense to buy a Hummer to just drive around town.

So in considering the type of hosting package and company to host your website, you should first assess where you want your website to go and what you’ll need to get there.

But first, let’s understand what web hosting is exactly, and the many different features that need to be considered.

The Internet is a vast network of interconnected computer servers which house or host various pages of information, called websites. Hosting a website means to store and maintain a computer folder of various web pages. Hosting companies offer this service by providing computer hardware and software services. These services vary as much as cars do.

Some very important hosting features that should be a must for your hosting package, much like the importance of having a car with a motor and wheels, are the following:

* Security – Protection from Internet hackers.
* Space – Ability to grow my site without size constraints.
* Speed – How fast my website will load onto visitors computers.
* Up Time – Dependability of the hosting servers from crashing.
* Back Up – Protection from loss of data from my website.
* Support – 24 hours support to handle problems.
* Administrative Tools – For making changes to your site.
* Email – The number and size of email accounts.
* Hosting Company – History and track record for support.
* Search Engine Submissions – Submitting to the major search engines.

Now, let’s consider where you want your website to go and what you’ll need to get there. Some questions to ask:

* Do I want my customers to be able to look up information on my website? If so, you’ll need a database driven website with a hosting company that supports it.
* Do I want movement on my website? If so, you’ll need a web design company that can program flash for your site, as well as the ability to host the flash program.
* What type and how much email traffic will I anticipate? This helps to determine the size and amount of storage you’ll need for your hosted website.
* How many web pages will I need? This also helps to determine the size of space needed for your hosting package.
* Will I want to make ongoing custom changes to my website? If so, you’ll need a hosting company that supports ongoing custom design changes.
* Will my website have a lot of images and movement? If so, you’ll need additional space for larger web files for these functions.
* Do I want Internet Traffic to my Website? In order to receive traffic to your website, your hosting company needs to offer this service, or you’ll need to hire a third party for this service.
* Will I need Internet marketing help and consultation? In this fast-changing Internet world, it is important to have professional help and consultation.

The Better Business Bureau offers this advice:

“Choosing a Web Hosting Service for your Business Web Site. Is your business web site down again? Does it seem to have more downtime than uptime? You may want to consider changing your web hosting service. One of the most important decisions you will make for your business web site is selecting which web hosting service will display your web pages to the Internet. Choosing the right Internet Service Provider (ISP) to host your business's web site may feel like finding the right day-care center for your kids these days: Are they reliable? Will they be there next month? Do they know what they are doing? What services do they provide?"

Basically, it is important to find the right hosting company that will partner with you for all your hosting, design and consultation needs. The cheapest hosting is typically not the best route to go. It’s cheap because it is a bare bones package, with little, if any support. That is a sure way to online business failure.

source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1316.shtml