Web 2.0: All the Best Opportunities Online are Soc...

Web 2.0. Say it out loud because it’s here. But what is it?

In a word, Web 2.0 is the name given to the post dot-com boom and bust of Internet growth. It’s been impressive, hasn’t it? Companies like eBay, PayPal and Amazon.com have proven that business can be conducted on the Web and it can be profitable. Now the rest of us can have our turn.

Internet growth and business management in the post dot-com bust world can be described in one word: Collaboration. If you’ve been wondering how to tap into this Internet boom you’ve got to learn how relationships are built online and capitalize on it. There are no lone rangers online.

While collaboration is the key to success in the Web 2.0 world, it helps to know the tools available to you as you embark upon your new venture in cyberspace. Here’s a short list:

• Blogs

• Content Management Systems

• Wiki

• RSS

• Affiliate Programs

You can expect this list to grow. The question that is probably on your mind is, “What can I do with these tools?” That’s a good question and the answer is, Whatever your imagination unveils. Nevertheless, here are a few tips:

Blogs – If you don’t have a blog by now, you’re behind the eight ball. Blogs are the first step into Web 2.0. They allow you to start a conversation with your customers, to enter into dialogue with the marketplace. You can update your customers on your business plan, survey or poll your customers to find out what they want and receive feedback from your customers by allowing them to comment on your posts. Of course, you can always have a collaborative blog where more than one blogger makes posts to the blog as several successful and high profile blogs have already done. Example: Church of the Customer.

Content Management Systems (CMS) – A CMS is an easy way for you to manage your website’s content. It’s almost impossible not to have one in the Web 2.0 market. Unless you are planning to learn programming languages like HTML and Java, or you have the money to hire a full-time webmaster, then you’ll benefit from a CMS. There are three ways to go about this, however:

• Open Source

• Purchase a System

• Design Your Own

Which of these ways is best for you depends on your goals and circumstances. Just know that a CMS can shave off a lot of time in your marketing and business plans. You can upload content to your website in just a few minutes as opposed to a few hours. This is something you definitely want to learn about. Examples: Joomla and Drupal are two open source content management systems.

Wiki – The ways to use wiki have not been fully explored yet but what you’ll need to understand about wiki technology is that it is intrinsically collaborative, unlike HTML. Wiki allows you to build a website without spending time uploading content. This is true collaboration and gets right to the heart of what Web 2.0 is all about. One famous wiki, Wikipedia, allows users to add encyclopedic entries and edit content input by others. This is truly amazing technology.

RSS – Another Web 2.0 technology we couldn’t live without is RSS. There are several acceptable meanings to this acronym but the one I prefer is Really Simple Syndication. In essence, if you’re not syndicating your content then your content is getting found. Everyone is doing it, or should be. And anything can be syndicated – blogs, articles, Web copy, news, jokes, anything you put on your website. RSS allows your website visitors to subscribe to your content and receive updates automatically every time you change or add to your content. Yahoo! Pipes is the latest RSS tool to appear on the scene and gives users the ability to mash several RSS feeds into one.

Affiliate Programs – It is difficult to fit this one into the Web 2.0 model without a little imagination but it’s a powerful tool for building any Web business. An affiliate program allows you to build a sales force that will promote you, your products and your services for you. The great thing about affiliate programs is that you don’t have to pay your sales force until they make a sale. You can build a list of business partners, most of whom will become your customers before anyone else even hears about your new products just because they want to try it out first so that they can help promote it and make extra income. Don’t overlook this powerful method of building your Web 2.0 business. One of the foremost authorities on affiliate programs is Allan Gardyne at www.associateprograms.com.

Web 2.0 is all about building online relationships and collaborating for maximum growth. To succeed online, you must be willing to shed your lone ranger mentality and develop partnerships. My most successful ventures were a result of joining forces with someone else. I’m confident that yours will be too.

top rank seo best seo book...

The beginners guide to the art of search optimization,It goes without saying that those that write/read books sing their praises and those that blog know that their way is best and forum hounds know that is the way. Each format has it’s evangelists.You should consider exploring each of these avenues and more to truly get the most out of your path to understanding search engine optimization. Some methods are more appropriate for enthusiasts and others for those looking to become SEO professionals some day.. Obviously experience is the best teacher, but what other ways are there these days?

We all learn in our own way..

While there is no end to the SEO advice that permeates the web marketing world, it can often be very difficult to sort out exactly how one should research and where one should turn to learn about SEO. In a follow up to a post I made a year ago, I thought an updated look might be a good idea.

Now let us count the ways

SEO Books

One of the great things about books, real or eBook, is that you can not only take them with you and read on-the-go, but they are often easier to reference later should you be looking for a nugget to deal with a given situation.

The downside of SEO books, as with many technology books, is freshness.

The world of search engines is constantly changing and thus any related information must also be updated. Be sure to cross reference information found in books relating to search to ensure freshness and reliability of the information.

* Professional Link builder’s guide – SEOmoz ($29)

* SEO Fast Start - from Dan Theis (FREE)

* Small Business guide to Search Engine Marketing – by Jennifer Laycock ($79)

* the SEO Handbook – by yours truly ($10)

Considering the recent decline in SEO book publication one has to imagine the popularity of this form is on the decline. I myself prefer a good read in hard copy or portable digital form. but potentially in the minority on that one.

Online Guides

Once more, like books. the main consideration is how up to date the information is. Here are some guides that are great for those looking for great information online;

* Beginners guide to SEO – SEOmoz

* Local small business SEO basics – by Sugarrae

* Bloggers guide to SEO – by Aaron & Giovanna Wall

* 11 Experts on Link building – From Sugarrae

* SEO Theory guides – SEO Theory

* SEO guide to information architecture – Audette Media

* 5 Easy SEO tips for your website (video) – Search Marketing Gurus

* FireHorse guide to Google personalized search – Firehorse Trail

There are many more out there but these are some that are truly worthy for anyone getting around the waves of the search marketing ocean. If you know of others, feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list.

Online Training

Unfortunately I haven’t had the pleasure of reviewing any of these services, but there are some fairly respected resources out there for those looking for a more structured system of learning. For me, this type of learning does well as there are generally instructors on hand to help guide the student.

* SEO Book Training – from Aaron Wall

* Link Ninjas – Jim Boykin (and others)

* Link Bait Coaching – Lyndon Antcliff

* SEOmoz Pro membership – SEOmoz

* Learn SEO Live – Garrett Pierson

* Search Engine College – SEC

* SEOmoz Video training series

* the Joomla SEO Book Club

Classes, Seminars and Conferences

Again, while I am a big believer in these types of mre hands-on interactive approaches to learning SEO – I have not had the chance to really participate in many of these. If you want to get out and play with some industry thought leaders, there is no better way than one of these offerings;

* SMX (conference)

* SES (conference)

* PubCon (conference)

* SEO ToolSet – from Bruce Clay

* Elite Retreat

* SEMPO Training

* SEO Class (We Build Pages)

* SEM Canada (conference)

Blogs

In some cases, blogs are not the greatest place for learning; at least for the noobs. Many times there are advanced theories, rants and personal perspectives more than structured reading for a person looking to learn SEO. That being said, they are a great wealth of information for beginner, intermediate and advanced SEOs alike. Some of the best include;

SEO by the Sea

- SEO Theory Blog

- Bruce Clay Blog

- Top Rank Blog

- Search Engine People

- SEO Scoop

- Snydey Sense

- SEO Smarty

- The FireHorse Trail

- Pole Position

- Local SEO Guide

- 10e20 Blog

- SEM Scholar

- the Link Spiel

- AimClear Blog

- SEO Book Blog

- Blog Storm

- Wiep Knoll Link building blog

- SEOptimize

- Brian Chappell

- Fuel Interactive

- Hamlet Batista

- Jordan Kasteler

- SEM Portland

- SEOpscenter

- Jennifer Slegg

- Search Rank

- SEM Insights

- SEO Design Solutions

- SEOmoz Blog

- Audette Media

- Cornwall SEO

..and there are plenty more in Lee’s Big List.

Media Outlets

Much like the blogs, these sites are more for those looking for the latest industry happenings and musings. While they may not always offering teachings for the noob, in any industry, staying abreast of the times is an essential element in the process. Here are the more popular websites;

* Search Engine Land

* Search Engine Journal

* Search Engine Watch

* Search Engine Guide

* Marketing Pilgrim

* Search Marketing Gurus

I like these collective publications and advise having them in your reader. They may not be all about the teaching, but can give a strong ongoing grounding in the industry.

SEO Forums

While many times forums can be filled with contradictions and more noise than signal, there is often a dialogue around real-world situations in forums. As with anything, take nothing as gospel and be sure to cross reference information with other sources. Here are some of the more popular forums out there;

* Site Reference

* Digital Point

* SEO Chat

* SEO Roundtable

* Web WorkShop

* WebmasterWorld Forum

* Internet Business.co.uk

* Google WebMaster Help

* WebPro World

* SEO Guy

* SEO Refugee

* Cre8aSite Forum

* HighRankings Forum

* IHelpYou Forum

* Search Engine Watch Forums

With a grain of salt

One thing is for certain; on hands experience is ultimately the best way to learn SEO. By taking a cross section of different methods and principles one has the power to go forth and create/test the theories.

This will be the most essential tool in the learning experience. To me there is no best way to go about it. what is important is to remain objective and open to new concepts.

How To Learn SEO With Basics In 2008

How to Extract the best of Web Development Service...

Have you ever searched the internet for web development services providers? If you are into online business or you do have a website, then there is 100% possibility you making that effort at your end. Because, no one who eyes on getting a website developed for him/her or dreams of venturing into the thriving world of online business would love to simply resort to a professional web development company without any research on his/her part. As everyone invests his/her money, effort and time for developing a website, he/she would love to avail the best services so that the website gets the best looks and navigability. A professional web development agency can be the best place for a client for getting all web design and development thirsts satiated under his/her budget. Unlike yesteryear’s, web design and development now come at affordable prices – thanks to the mushrooming of web development companies the world over for that.

Whether you want your site to be developed using the basic HTML platform or you just want to make it a dynamic one by opting for Flash web development, a web development agency can offer you complete Web development solutions so that you need not have to compromise on your choice. You just need to name what you want, everything would be offered to you at the most attractive rates. PHP, .Net, SharePoint, Joomla! web development projects are also brilliantly handled by the website development companies as of now.

Those who always dream big out of their investment, they should try to find out the most reliable web site development company no matter how big the effort needs to be put. After all, a reputed firm only would be able to give you the most advanced and innovative web solutions which are really very crucial at the present day business environment where competition is getting cut-throat every passing day. You can consult with web site development consulting firms besides getting tips from your friends and colleagues on how to choose a reliable firm for projects. You can also do online research for that, but the bulk of links may just make you confused if you are not aware of anyone earlier.

Hire PHP developers to get best quality PHP develo...

In the fast changing world of development it is rattling essential to be adaptive to new technologies for becoming a budding developer. PHP is one of the best scripting language. PHP development is gaining more and more attention day by day. PHP is easy to use and with help of Open source very effective to implement. For remaining front in the challenging world of development Outsourcing can be the best solution.

There are lots of highly developed web development firm provides skilled and efficient PHP developers for hire. Many companies are deploying the strategy of outsourcing Web development need.

Small and medium sized businesses are running of a tight budget. So for getting best caliber impact in affordable price, outsourcing is the key. Some best outsourcing firm Rightway solution provides quality Web developmentand software development in affordable price. You crapper outsource for any category of scheme covering development, Enterprise covering development, portal development, real estate website development. PHP is increasingly becoming popular in scheme development industries as it is open source server side scripting module that helps to develop dynamic websites as well as make scheme applications.

If you are looking for low cost, good talented and technically sound PHP Programmers then outsourcing is the way to get it finished effectively. Offshore IT staffing is gaining more and more popularity. PHP gives support to different databases including the popular ones same MySQL, Oracle, Informix, Sybase, Solid, Generic ODBC, PostgreSQL, etc. PHP Programming functionality can be changed according to needs of every business. Besides developing website PHP crapper be used for developing Enterprise solutions same shopping cart with Content Management System (CMS).

One of the best PHP Open source is Joomla. Joomla website development is very easy and time saving. One can build a website instantly using Joomla content management system. So when you plan to build enterprise applications it’s advisable to use Joomla as CMS as it is an open source which can be customized according to our needs.

PHP Shopping Cart Software – Is Multi Vendor The...

A new wave in ecommerce is multi vendor shopping cart for small businesses. If your online store is struggling to get customers, this is worth a serious look. It lets you build a mini plaza – instead of just a store – to display products from different vendors. By focussing the strengths of complementing vendors into one store, the buyers get a larger selection to choose from and all vendors stand to gain.

For example, if you have a flower shop, you may consider joining with other merchants in the local area selling chocolates, wines or cards. Your bookstore may consider partnering with a video store.

The significance of mini plazas for individual businesses had largely been overlooked until recently. Most businesses thought of putting only their own products online and wait for traffic. This worked fine during the early years of ecommerce, when the few with online stores had an advantage over their counterparts. The exponential growth in the number of online stores wiped off that advantage.

How can the advantage be regained ?

The answer is “Team Play” and the multi vendor shopping cart is the playing field !

But, how do stores that once stood separately – like the boutique shops in a shopping mall – suddenly join together? It will be like shopping in a mall with a cart taken to different stores and then going to a central checkout. While it is nearly impossible in the physical world, even the virtual world has some hurdles to overcome, especially in correctly matching the products with vendors. A single-vendor shopping cart software is unable to do this matching.

The multi-vendor shopping cart, on the other hand, can distinguish between the items belonging to different vendors and dispatch the orders and shipping details separately to the respective vendors.  The customers will not even know that they have been to three separate stores.

Another advantage is better cross promotion. Unlike a physical store – and rarely a single online store – it can suggest to the customer that “many of those who purchased this item also purchased this!”. It can be a product belonging to another vendor.

Taking the flower shop as example, a customer who just added a bunch of flowers into the cart may be persuaded to buy a box of chocolate or a bottle of wine to go with the flowers. Suddenly, the vendors who once competed with each other are now recommending each other.

Unlike in a single store situation, you do not have to complement your inventory with companion products you are not the expert in. For example, a wine shop knows how to offer the best wines just as a flower shop knows flowers. By using them as a co-vendor, the flower shop can leverage on the wine shop’s extensive inventory.

Mini plaza is an entrepreneur’s opportunity

If you are an entrepreneur looking for ways to create a profitable business, this offers an excellent opportunity. Even if you do not have your own merchandize to sell, setting up a multi store and signing up merchants will help create a “mini plaza”. The participating merchants benefit in the low cost of setting up the store while the store administrator gets a commission or rent from each vendor.

The future of multi vendor stores

If the current trend continues, within a couple of years you will see that most successful online businesses are part of one or more stores. Many more mini virtual malls will emerge to cater for local businesses that work together.

These multi-stores will become places to sell for individuals and small businesses across all categories. This will especially be so for local artists who can deliver only locally.

Best Web Development Company India. Best Open Sour...

In India  the web development Companies focus generally on software development, Information Technology Consultancy, Web design and development, Offshore Outsourcing, Business process outsourcing, Knowledge process outsourcing, Enterprise Resource Planning Development and Implementation, Multimedia and custom software applications.
Expansion in global business has lead to a volume increase in the services requirement. Marketing challenges of the export houses need effective inventory management with quality. Software development companies in India possess expertise in the development of inventory based application and ERP solutions to implement the same for cost reduction, quality increase and profitability.
Retail Industry today needs support in retaining customers and also in ensuring customers to repeat their business by staying competitive. Indian Software development companies have proven expertise and experience in development of transaction based web application and e-commerce sites and client server applications.
Manufacturing sector and services sector is a major hub in the global business arena. Production Planning, automation of order to cash and procure to pay cycles play a significant role in global competitiveness and focused quality service. Software development companies in India excel in services offered in the areas of application development and Enterprise Resource Planning, development and Implementation.
Wireless mobility and automation systems need handling of security issues with user friendly interface and faster access through latest technology adaptation. To stay in tune with the latest demand in product development, Indian Software development companies provide design and development of Embedded Systems, wireless product and application development for blue tooth, IRDA etc.
Software development companies in India work as extended arms as offshore units to leading organizations to provide 24 X 7 development and support activities, cost effective resource management and flexible skilled manpower availability.
Many Indian IT companies extend outsourcing services with core expertise in Business to business, Business to customer, Banking, Finance, Real Estate domains and verticals like Insurance, Oil & gas, GIS etc.
Software development companies in India possess in depth core expertise in application development in .NET, Microsoft Technologies, Java based development, SAP, Oracle ERP and CRM solutions and various latest cutting edge technologies under different operating systems and platforms with options of multiple back end and database technologies. Development services are also offered in web application designing and redesigning, PHP, AJAX development, Ruby on Rails, content management solutions through Joomla and Drupal.
Thus it seems that Indian software developing companies had blocked disclosing their transaction wins especially behind the reaction rise a several years before against outsourcing.

Best solution for you regarding software outsourci...

Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources.

Services by an external supplier located in a country that is geographically remote from the client enterprise,  a type of offshore outsourcing. In this context, it refers to the offshore development phase of a software. The main reason behind the companies to use offshore software development services is the higher development cost of the local service providers.

In this article our major focus is on software development, website development and maintenance and other information technologies development.

Many companies’ faces different problems while selecting a third party (outsource company). This article provides solution for all the companies which want quality in their work.

Infinitus Technology  a company that specializes in the development of this type of application. The company is working for several years and delivering quality work to their clients.

Infinitus Technologies is the leading provider of Internet Offshore Outsourcing Solutions. Infinitus Technologies focuses primarily on outsourcing of web development and software services. Infinitus Technologies is located in Pakistan. Our clients are from all over the globe, mostly from USA, Canada and also from Pakistan.

Infinitus Technologies focuses on highly qualitative, timely delivered and cost-effective offshore software development services. With a rich and varied experience in providing offshore software development and project management capabilities and stringent quality standards ensure us to develop solutions that give your business an edge over your competitors.

The  primary asset of infinitus technologies  is their team of full-time IT specialists and our access to IT experts that can be engaged in the development of knowledge-intensive projects. These experts possess solid theoretical and practical backgrounds in various fields of knowledge.

Developers experience comprises mostly working on

Social Networking, Ecommerce Shopping Cart, Web Application Development, Open source development, LAMP, Smarty, Mambo, Joomla, OsCommerce sites, X Cart Solution, B2B & B2C Portal Development & Custom Software Development.

And many more as well.

System analysts, software developers, web designers, testers, and project managers are all highly educated and experienced professionals. Infinitus project managers have years of extensive experience in effective project management ensuring the unbeatable quality of our services.

Infinitus  team can develop your software project from scratch, beginning with setting proper requirements to delivering the soltion itself, in time and within budget, thereby meeting your IT challenges.

How Infinitus Technologies Work

Software projects are inherently complex, risky and require careful planning. Planning software includes development, estimates, requirements capture, and risk and change management control procedures, business case studies, user interface prototypes and overall project control. Proper planning ensures that the project doesn’t move away from its targeted objective while the customer gets a clear definition of the project and is in the know of the project status and has ready access to project deliverables at any point of time. To ensure the timely and quality delivery for 100% client satisfaction we implement the following:

1. Envisioning
After we receive a request and initial information for your project, we form a core team that prepares vision/scope documents for your project free of charge. We envision the overall direction for the project, including determining which features the solution will and will not include, and a general schedule for delivery.

2. Planning
During this phase the team prepares the functional specifications, works the design process through, and prepares work plans, cost estimates and schedules for the various deliverables. The stage is completed by the signing of a contract. In complicated cases a screen prototype of a new system can also be developed. This allows the customer to review the future system and to give their feedback at an early stage of the development.

3. Design and Development
Our team accomplishes the building of solution components (code as well as documentation). Our development process is interactive. That means that customers monitor the progress of development online so they won’t be faced with any sudden issues at the end.

4. Testing

This is very important phase in software development and we have a professional team for this purpose.In this phase testing is conducted on a solution whose features are complete. Testing emphasizes usage and operation under realistic environmental conditions. The team focuses on resolving bugs and preparing the solution for release.
Testers develop the Test Plan, test cases and scripts, test the system and verify that it operates according to the specification. After rigorous testing, we launch the application.

5. Delivery and Support
Infinitus  team deploys the core technology and site components, stabilizes the deployment, transitions the project to operations and support, and obtains final customer approval for the project. It is not just a Product that is delivered to the customer, it is a Solution.
The development team keeps supporting the system after installation, and we also provide a warranty.

So just visit www.infinitustechnologies.com where you can get all what you want in offshore development.

The Best Open Source Scripts on Php/mysql...

Here are the best open source scripts that are top rated by users.They are categorized into different category as CMS(Content management system) or called as portals,Blogs,ecommerce,groupware,forums,elearning,image galleries,wiki and many more.

We have produced the 3 top ranked listing in each category.You can see more in http://www.solidscripts.com or http://www.opensourcecms.com/.

Content Management System (CMS)

Drupal

Drupal is software that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a great variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations have used Drupal to set up scores of different kinds of web sites. Drupal is open source software licensed under the GPL, and is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers.

Url – http://www.drupal.org/

Joomla

Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable.

url – http://www.joomla.org/

Typo3

TYPO3 has to be one of the best CMS programs I have ever worked with. While reading reviews on it I came across the people who didn’t like it. Yes, TYPO3 might take some reading, its not your standard program, also NO TYPO3 IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS. You should know about programming before attempting this software, there is a release for beginners, but it’s not the best. I really reccommend this for advanced users!

Url – http://www.typo3.org/

Blogs

WordPress

WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. What a mouthful. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your blogging software, not fight it.

Url – http://www.wordpress.org/

Textpattern

A free, flexible, elegant, easy-to-use content management system for all kinds of websites, even weblogs.

Built into Textpattern is Textile, a simple syntax for nudging plain text into structurally sound and stylistically rich web content. Ordinarily fussy text amendments such as headers, hyperlinks, image tags and tables are created with one or two simple markers. Compared to navigating the tag soup of markup, writing and revising with Textile is much more intuitive, being closer to working with ordinary text. Once you’re ready to publish, copy marked up with Textile is automatically converted to valid XHTML, and because Textpattern stores both versions of each article, revising and updating is a snap. When composing or readying articles for publication in Textpattern, you can switch between three views of the article:plain text, XHTML (the code with which a web browser renders the article), and a rendered preview.

Sites published with Textpattern can employ unlimited registered contributors, each of whom may be assigned privileges by the publisher of the site. Five levels of privileges (publisher, managing editor, copy editor, writer and designer) are provided, and each reflects different access to article creation, approval, editing and deletion, and to image uploads, page design and CSS, and of course adding more contributors.

Installing and managing plugins that extend Textpattern’s abilities is straightforward. Once installed, plugins can be turned on and off from within the Textpattern interface, where detailed help and access to parameters used by plugins is also available.

Url – http://www.textpattern.com/

b2evolution

b2evolution is probably the most comprehensive blog engine you can find! It includes almost any feature you could expect from a blog tool, and more. Plus, it’s free, it’s open-source (GPL), it runs virtually anywhere (PHP/mySQL) and it’s available in many languages!

Url – http://www.b2evolution.net/

E-Commerce

osCommerce

osCommerce is the leading Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free under the GNU General Public License. It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain their online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, license fees, or limitations involved.

The goal of the osCommerce project is to continually evolve by attracting a community that supports the ongoing development of the project at its core level and extensively through contributions to provide additional functionality to the already existing rich feature set.

Everything you need to get started in selling physical and digital goods over the internet, from the Catalog frontend that is presented to your customers, to the Administration Tool backend that completely handles your products, customers, orders, and online store data.

Url – http://www.oscommerce.com/

Zen Cart

Zen Cart truly is the art of e-commerce; a free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart system. The software is being developed by group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think e-commerce could be and should be done differently. Some solutions seem to be complicated programming exercises instead of responding to users’ needs, Zen Cart puts the merchant’s and shopper’s requirements first. Similarly, other programs are nearly impossible to install and use without an IT degree, Zen Cart can be installed and set-up by anyone with the most basic computer skills. Others are so expensive … not Zen Cart it’s FREE!

Zen Cart will deliver the ultimate online shopping experience to your customers. Navigating through your merchandise offerings is a breeze with Zen Cart, the program provides several “Spotlight” lists in addition to the traditional category to product links. Once a product is added to the shopping cart, secure checkout is a simple 3-step process. After providing the billing information, your customer chooses the shipping method. (multiple shipping methods including real-time internet shipping quotes are built-in) Next, a payment type is chosen from one of the popular payment modules. (PayPal and AuthorizeNet are just 2 of the included modules) Last, the customer reviews the order, shipping and payment choices, and confirms the order. You are immediately notified of the order and your customer automatically receives an e-mail confirmation.

Zen Cart gives web designers a robust and customizable electronic storefront that’s easy to keep up-to-date with new features. It provides usable, intuitive and unobtrusive purchase flows right out of the box based on proven industry best-practices – there are no major revisions required to get things right for your clients!

One of the secrets behind its power lies in our robust template system that “abstracts” the look-and-feel from the code and logic behind Zen Cart. This enables you to give clients a truly custom solution that integrates quickly and perfectly with their existing marketing websites.

Url – http://www.zen-cart.com/

phpShop

phpShop is a shopping cart application. The goal of the phpShop development team is to provide a stable web application platform that allows for additional development.

phpShop has been used by hundreds of web sites for selling online.

Url – http://www.phpshop.org/

Forums

PhpBB

phpBB is a high powered, fully scalable, and highly customizable Open Source bulletin board package. phpBB has a user-friendly interface, simple and straightforward administration panel, and helpful FAQ. Based on the powerful PHP server language and your choice of MySQL, MS-SQL, PostgreSQL or Access/ODBC database servers, phpBB is the ideal free community solution for all web sites.

Url – http://www.phpbb.com/

PunBB

PunBB is a fast and lightweight PHP-powered discussion board. It is released under the GNU General Public License. Its primary goals are to be faster, smaller and less graphically intensive as compared to other discussion boards. PunBB has fewer features than many other discussion boards, but is generally faster and outputs smaller, semantically correct XHTML-compliant pages.

Url – http://www.punbb.org/

SMF

Elegant. Effective. Powerful. Free. SMF is all of the above. SMF is a next-generation community software package and is jam-packed with features, while at the same time having a minimal impact on resources. And, yes, it is free.

Url – http://www.simplemachines.org/

Image Galleries

Coppermine

Coppermine Photo Gallery is a picture gallery script. Users can upload pictures with a web browser or Windows XP Web Publishing Wizard (thumbnails are created on the fly), add comments, send e-cards, rate pictures and have their own gallery. The admin can manage albums/pictures/comments and batch add pictures that have been uploaded by FTP. The script has a theme system and is available in the following languages : Bosnian, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (standard and Brazilian), Russian and Spanish. The script use PHP, a MySQL database and the GD library (version 1.x or 2.x) or ImageMagick to make the thumbnails. An install script makes the installation very fast and easy.

Url – http://coppermine.sourceforge.net/

Gallery

Gallery is a web based software product that lets you manage your photos on your own website. You must have your own website with PHP support in order to install and use it. With Gallery you can easily create and maintain albums of photos via an intuitive interface. Photo management includes automatic thumbnail creation, image resizing, rotation, ordering, captioning, searching and more. Albums can have read, write and caption permissions per individual authenticated user for an additional level of privacy. Give accounts to your friends and family and let them upload and manage their own photos on your website!

Url – http://gallery.menalto.com/

Plogger

Plogger is the next generation in open-source photo gallery systems. A web application not bloated with superfluous features or complicated configuration settings. Plogger is a simple yet powerful tool — everything you need to share your images with the world. Plogger is your photos integrated into your website, a fully featured photo sharing package with an attractive and easy to use administrative interface that makes managing your galleries a breeze. Integrating our gallery software into your website is as easy as inserting three lines of PHP code.

Url – http://plogger.org/

Best CMS Applications For SEO...

Looking for the “Perfect” CMS for you SEO campaign? Well according to many professionals, particularly with numerous SEO Philippines consultants that had their hands on some of the many CMS’ out in the market, there really isn’t a “perfect” CMS that could used for SEO. Almost all CMS softwares has their advantages and disadvantages pertaining to its use in SEO. The only basis that describe’s a CMS’ capabilities in terms of SEO or with any other uses are its user-friendly features. Although almost all CMS applications can be used for SEO, many still agree on several CMS applications because of its ease in use as well as with its built-in or add-on features primarily use in SEO. Popular names in the CMS market today include the popular Joomla! CMS, MODx, SilverStripe, and Drupal, and WordPress. Joomla! Many have agreed of Joomla!’s uses in SEO is the best by far. It was a re-branded release of Mambo 4.5.2.3 which, itself, was combined with other bug and moderate-level security fixes. Part of what made Joomla! very popular in the market, not only for SEO but in almost all web management purposes, is its third party program extensions called “Plugins” (Previously known as “Mambots” in Mambo). Plugins, like those found in Mozilla Firefox, are background extensions that extend Joomla! with new functionality. One example is the WikiBot which allows the author of Joomla! content to use “Wikitags” in Joomla! articles which will auto-create dynamic hyperlinks to Wikipedia articles when displayed. There are over 3,000 extensions for Joomla! available via the Extensions Directory. One popular Plugin used specifically for SEO is JoomSEF. ARTIO JoomSEF is a SEO component for Joomla! Content Management System that rewrites URLs to be Search Engine Friendly (SEF) and to be human easily understandable. It works with multilingual sites by integrating JoomFish component support. It also nables users full customization of wide-range of meta tags for any URL of the website and works with both Apache HTTP Server and IIS. Popular features of JoomSEF used for SEO inludes:

Rewriting of original Joomla! URLs to be Search Engine Friendly and human understandable. Providing support for multilingual sites using JoomFish. Providing URLs internationalization. Providing wide range of editable meta tags for any URL in your Joomla! Providing fully customizable URLs. Providing customizable 404 page. Helps in handling 301 redirects. MODx MODx is another popular CMS used by many SEO Philippines consultants. One feature that made it popular is its complete control of all metadata and URL structure for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes, all of it found in the application. Other than its SEO capabilities, MODx also became popular because of its other features. This includes: Cross-browser flexibility including Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer on Windows, Firefox and Safari in Mac OS X, and Firefox in Linux. Works well even on modest shared servers. Supports any Ajax library including jQuery, MooTools, ExtJS and Prototype. Object-oriented core code. Ability to customize the Manager on a per-deployment basis. MODx were also known for its several awards and recognitions. In July 2007, MODx was awarded Packt Publishing’s Most Promising Open Source Content Management System award. On February 6, 2009, OpenSourceCMS.com user rankings placed MODx version 0.9.6.3 as the 3rd highest ranked of 78 applications in the CMS/portal category with 2885 votes. SilverStripe Although not as popularly used compared to Joomla!, some have agreed that SilverStripe can be as useful as Joomla! in SEO, particularly because of its Search engine friendly URLs, meta-data management, and XML sitemap generation. According to many professionals, SilverStripe’s popularity in SEO was mainly fueled by its user-friendly features. Features of SilverStripe include: A modern, extensible web-application interface. Drag and drop tree-based navigation structure. Work-flow management: Draft/Published separation through content staging, document revision control/rollback with ‘compare’ functionality. Highly configurable security/permissions model. Optimizations for heavy loads (e.g. manual cache refresh). Drupal A very popular CMS used for web design, Drupal was also used in SEO. Similar to Joomla!, Drupal also allows third-party contributed (often abbreviated to “contrib”) modules and themes to extend or override Drupal’s default behaviors without changing Drupal core’s code. However, current versions of contribs doesn’t support any special SEO functions. According to several Web design Philippines consultants, many are still using the CMS for SEO purposes.
One popular feature of the Drupal is that i can run on any computing platform that supports both a web server capable of running PHP version 4.3.5+ (including Apache, IIS, Lighttpd, and nginx) and a database (such as MySQL or PostgreSQL) to store content and settings. The disadvantage, however, is that Drupal is a bit complicated compared to other CMS applications. For more information visit to our site at http://www.myoptimind.com

Wordpress Technology – the Best Way to Create a ...

Wordpress is the best tool for Blogging. Moreover it has become popular as Content Management System. As its functionality can be enhanced by using pluggins .Content Management is total content control. With a content management system, or CMS, you can maintain consistency across your site with a few clicks. Whether brand messaging, news, or even look and feel, a CMS makes site wide maintenance simple and quick. But there’s more to it than that.

With the many capabilities of a Wordpress, businesses can leverage this technology to meet business goals, drive demand, and create deeper user engagement.

By immediately posting news, comments, and other information, a company can respond almost instantaneously to changes in the digital marketplace. Whether this means adding, deleting, or editing live content, a wordpress is a tool that should be carried in every webmaster’s toolbox.

Wordpress is easy to customize

Pick a theme that vaguely resembles what you would like i.e. 2 column, 3 column etc. I’ve chosen to use the default template for this example.

If choosing other than one of the defaults, download and extract the file to the your wordpresswp-contentthemes directory

Either extract the same downloaded file to the same place giving it a different name or simply navigate to the themes folder and copy/paste it into same directory giving it a different name.

You now have 2 identical themes one with the correct name and one with the name you gave.

From Your Theme directory, Open up the style.css file in your favourite text editor and edit the first few lines to suit e.g. Theme Name, Theme Description, version and urls. I made the changes shown below:

That’s it, save and close the style.css file. Then, if you haven’t already, upload those two theme directories (default and MY Theme) to the themes directory online.

Login and Open up your WordPress dashboard under Presentation > Themes you should see both themes, with the correct names beside them, activate the one with your name.

 

At this point this theme is exactly the same as the original (default), and if any edits you make to your theme do not do as expected, then you can do real-time switching back to the default.

Wordpress as a E-commerce Website

The lite version of this plugin allows you to sell products via PayPal only. Whilst it’s called ‘lite’ it’s not that simple as such. You can have your products in categories, there’s a shopping basket and it uses the PayPal IPN for instant notification. I’ve not gone through the whole process but I would assume that if you’re selling a digital product it will also then provide a download link to the buyer to download the product, as I’ve had the option to set how many times the product can be downloaded by the buyer.

WP e-Commerce is just like any other plugin for the installation. Just unzip the files and upload the directory to your plugins directory, and activate it in the WordPress admin. You then get an extra menu for it, where you can set your shop settings, other preferences, and start adding categories, brands and product information. It can deal with physical products or digital products, the latter was what I was interested in. You can also easily select which fields to have in the form on the front end, and which of these fields to send PayPal so that they’re prefilled. As I’m only looking to sell digital products I took the address details out as these are not needed.

Marketers need to remember that a wordpress gives them the ability to leverage unique pieces of content across multiple sites while providing multi-lingual support and content, a critical factor for companies with an international reach and online presence.

Wordpress as a Forum Website

WP-Forum is a WordPress plugin that enables you to have a forum directly attached to your WordPress installation. As one of the more popular forum software available today, SMF would be a good choice if you have no particular preference towards any forum solution. It’s still pretty bloated/bulky and can be difficult at times to customise (though less than many alternatives really), so I can’t say it’s my first choice solution at the moment. And while its backend integration with WordPress just requires the installation of a single WP plugin, I can’t seem to find a proper guide on layout integration yet. Here’s how you do it:

1.Install either one of two “bridge” plugins, i.e. WP SMF Bridge Plugin 1.0 or the CMS & SMF Plugin. While both provide user account integration (log into/register via WP = log into SMF/register into SMF), listing recent forum topics/messages on your blog, and etc., the latter plugin hooks WP to SMF via a portal CMS known as Enigma. This results in a more powerful setup, but also a more complicated one. So, for those who just want a forum to use with WP, I suggest using the former plugin.

2.Now that we have our backends integrated, layout is next. It’s a pity, however, that there doesn’t seem to be a step-by-step guide on how to do this. So, for now, you’re on your own on this. SMF does have documentation on how to create/edit its themes though.

More SEO For Wordpress

The Meta-Description is used by Google and other search engines to provide the description of a page. This is quite important – particularly since Wordpress by default does absolutely nothing about it. wpSEO can generate post descriptions in a variety of ways, however in most cases it makes sense to cite the actual postings – automatically. If you’d like to be more precise, you can also provide a brief summary for Meta-Description manually. The definition of used Meta-Keywords offers you more flexibility. If you are already using the plugins UT’W or STP, wpSEO can use your tags as keywords. Otherwise the keywords will be automatically generated from the article, which is not always a sound solution for efficient SEO. By default wpSEO generates keywords fully automatically, however you can let it extract text passages marked in bold or italics or in -tags. You can also use filters to ensure that only relevant data is being used

To install the plugin, it’s enough to upload it to the plugins directory (wp-content/plugins) and activate it in the Wordpress engine. You should avoid using two or more plugins (as mentioned before) at the same time. Previously installed plugins can cause conflicts, just like manual entries in your header.php file. To make sure the wpSEO is working properly, you should at least deactivate similar tools; better – delete them.

A last useful feature you might never use, but would be happy to have available once you need it: you may export all your settings as an XML-file and use them for another blogs. Therefore it’s very easy to maintain the optimal configuration and adjust it to a number of blogs.

At it’s very core, Wordpress content management is about reaching the right person, at the right time, with the right CONTENT. This creates an engaging user experience that drives demand. The dynamism of content management, and the re-purposing of relevant and engaging content, is an evolution in online strategy that will drive strong results for any organization.