Digital Pacific Company Blog

Useful tips on web design, hosting, marketing and more…

Posts Tagged ‘cms’

How to Manage SPAM in cPanel

Sunday, January 8th, 2012

To setup your control panel to manage SPAM email, do the following:

1. Log into your control panel at:

http://www.yourdomain.com.au/cpanel

Replace www.yourdomain.com.au with the domain name of your hosting account.

If you are unsure of your cPanel login details please refer the the email “Hosting Account Information – Please Keep Safe – Please do not reply”. This email was originally sent out to your default billing email address when you first purchased your web hosting.

How to Manage SPAM in cPanel

2. Go to the Mail section and select MailScanner Configuration

(more…)

Tags: blogs, cms, content management system, cPanel, Email, spam, Support, tips and tricks, Web Hosting, Website
Posted in Business Websites, Online Security, Random, Tips for Blogs, Tips for Hosting, Web Hosting, Webmaster | No Comments »

Ten Things Every Joomla User Should Know

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Joomla is a fantastic content management system, one of the best on the internet. All you need to do is add Joomla to a domain name and you are ready to go. But even the most experienced Joomla users have room for improvement. So here are ten things that every Joomla user should know about:

Joomla Template Overrides

Joomla may be a fantastic content management system, but there are times when you need to alter the main files for some specific purpose. Maybe you want to change the layout of the menu, or display the date in a different location.
The way to make these changes is through templates overrides. You will need a basic-intermediate knowledge of HTML and CSS programming to be able to make these changes, and don’t forget to back up your files before making any changes.
(more…)

Ten Things Every Joomla User Should Know

Tags: cms, content management system, joomla!
Posted in Programming | No Comments »

Joomla 1.6 Has Arrived!

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Creating web pages, maintaining your intranet site and providing access to applications has never been easier. No more the requirements for understanding HTML, JavaScript or the multitude of scripting and programming languages available. This day and age sees that we can confidently rely on Content Management Systems (CMS) to do a lot of the technical and behind-the-scenes work for us. Joomla is one example of these CMS’s – and the latest version 1.6 has just been released, offering more power, control, and options than ever before.

Joomla 1.6 Has Arrived!

Joomla is FREE, expanding at a sound rate and offering some powerful features that allow you to get on with what you do best – running the day-to-day operations of your business.
With new features found across the board for designers, developers, administrators, and webmasters, your business can benefit in a number of domains.

If we break it down, you’ll get a better idea of what’s in it for you.

What’s New in Joomla 1.6?

Joomla 1.6 Has Arrived!

Nested categories
User defined categories are available in both single and multiple level structures for article and content placement at almost any depth. This alleviates the requirement to source a third party extension that offers the same.

Access control system
Administrators can control what end-users view and manage in terms of site content. With viewing levels and configurable user groups, there is improved control and access offering more flexibility.

Manual user approval
Avoid ghost users and spam account creations by allowing administrators to manually check, approve or reject new user registrations. No more spam accounts!

Improved language support & SEO
Enjoy increased support when creating multi-lingual sites while further optimisation improvements are available for attracting search engines.

Built-in redirects
Administrators can exhale a sigh of relief knowing that users are automatically redirected from old to new pages, avoiding the 404 Page Not Found error message.

Template styles & Semantic XHTML Layouts
Increase the aesthetic appeal of your web pages and improve presentation of content through flexible templates that allow further creative control.

Extension updates
The process of updating extensions has been greatly simplified. Install multiple extensions in one package with one click!

Migration from 1.5 to 1.6
For compatibility, 1.5 components will need to be upgraded to the new version by developers in order to work. (This can be simplified by using certain coding platforms to automate a fair portion of the conversion process). Note: You will need to ensure the extensions that you use in 1.5 are currently available in 1.6 to guarantee the continued performance of their functionality.

Other benefits — A multitude of new and expanded features in Joomla 1.6 will free up your (and others) time, allowing for more efficient use of resources.

Joomla 1.6 Requirements

Decided that it may be the CMS for you? Time to upgrade? Before making a move, cast an eye over the below details.

Courtesy of the official Joomla site, you’ll find that version 1 .6 requirements are as follows:

Apache: v2.x recommended +
PHP: v5.2.4 +
MySQL: v5.0.4+

For those operating on the ever successful Joomla 1.5, you need to (as always) weigh up the benefits and sacrifices of an upgrade. Yes, a new version offers increased functionality. However, it can also come with the ‘price tag’ of unsupported (incompatible) components, regular patch updates and bug fixes.

If you are new to Joomla or CMSs in general, grab a hosting plan and feel free to download and give it a whirl. You may well be pleasantly surprised.

Joomla 1.6 Has Arrived!

Tags: cms, content management system, Joomla 1.6, joomla!
Posted in Web Design, Webmaster | No Comments »

The top questions every business should ask its web designer

Monday, December 6th, 2010

The top questions every business should ask its web designer

So, you’ve taken the big step and decided to engage a professional designer to build your web page. That’s the hard work done, right? All you need to do now is kick back, relax, and wait for the new site to roll on in. Right?

Wrong. Not all web designers are created equal, and not all web designers will be in tune with what you want. As in any other business arrangement, miscommunications happen. You don’t need to understand the technology behind how your website is made. After all, this is why you’ve hired a pro. However, by arming yourself with the following simple questions, you will be able to exercise a greater control on the final result.

Can I make minor changes to the content myself?

If you want information on your site to remain current, you need to be able to change the content yourself. The last thing you want is to wait two weeks just to get your restaurant’s summer menu uploaded, or to add details of your next client workshop. If your site is more than an online pamphlet, you will benefit from it being designed in such a way that you can upload files and make basic changes to content yourself. Often a Content Management System (or CMS) is required for such ease of use. A good working knowledge of HTML and FTP programs will also give you greater options.

Is this Flash/JavaScript/fancy widget really necessary? Will it degrade gracefully?

Have you ever you visited a website and tried to bookmark a page so you can refer back to it later, only to discover that the site has been built entirely in Flash, preventing you from bookmarking anything at all? Perhaps a site’s navigation won’t load because the JavaScript-heavy design doesn’t support the outdated browser that your day job makes you use. It doesn’t do you any good to have a fancy looking website if people can’t use your site or find it too difficult. If the allure of using the latest technology is too strong, ensure that your designer knows how to make the site “degrade gracefully”; that is, that the site will still work for people who don’t have Flash installed (iPad and iPhone users for a start), or have JavaScript turned off, or use a browser that is too old to support latest web standards like HTML5 and CSS3.

Who is responsible for keeping the site secure and safe from hackers and spammers?

Many small businesses have discovered the power of a CMS like WordPress or Joomla. However, running a CMS is like running a bundle of software in the wild on the internet. Like software on your computer, a CMS can be vulnerable as hackers and spammers find new ways of exploiting inadvertent holes in the code. This is something that needs to be taken very seriously and keeping up to date with the latest patches and updates can be a full-time job itself. Find out from your designer if ongoing security and maintenance is part of the quote, or if they provide a secondary service. It is possible to do this maintenance yourself (and many do) but you need to factor in the extra time this will require when commissioning your next web project.

Do you design to agreed industry web standards?

A site built with web standards is more likely to be cross-browser compatible and future proof than a site that has been designed to take advantage of tweaks and vendor-specific extensions of some browsers. You may choose to adopt some browser specific enhancements for your site as a “value-add” for users of that particular browser. If you do go down this path, make sure the tweaks don’t form a core part of your site’s functionality. Such designs should also adopt the logic of Flash and widgets discussed above: if you have to use it, make sure it also degrades gracefully so you don’t punish your viewers for not being early adopters.
Shane Perris

The top questions every business should ask its web designer

Tags: cms, flash, javascript, w3c, web design, web designer
Posted in Web Design | 1 Comment »

Never Had a Website? No Worries! Try a CMS

Monday, August 9th, 2010

We get plenty of customers coming to us concerned that they won’t be able to get a website going since they have never done it before. There’s so much to learn as a total beginner, and it is usually so much that it scares them away from giving it that initial go. However, with the Internet being around for some time now, many systems have been put into play that make it so even individuals with no prior knowledge can harness its power.

So, if you’re wondering, “Can I make a website if I’ve never had any experience?” then you should know that you can. There are several options for you, and the best one that we can recommend is to choose a content management system (or CMS).

Never Had a Website? No Worries! Try a CMS

Why a CMS Works

It’s easy. Once the CMS software package is installed on your hosting account, you simply log in and start producing content. You can add photos, videos and other media to make the site come alive.

It’s simplified. A CMS takes the hard-to-understand code and wraps it in an easy-to-use back-end. It is possible to have a dynamic site without ever having to sort through random tags and functions.

It’s visually appealing. With the amount of templates and themes (some free) that are available for all the CMS options, you can be sure that there is one that will make your website look amazing.

It’s dynamic. A CMS can often be enhanced with additional add-ons or plugins. If there is a feature you’d like to incorporate into your website, there is probably one around to make it happen.

Which CMS to Choose

There are many different CMS platforms to choose from, and since they are all a little bit different, it is important to choose one that suits your needs and website goals. WordPress, for example, is a CMS platform that is typically used for simple, blog style websites. Drupal, on the other hand, is harder to learn but can be used to create websites of a more advanced nature.

To help you make a decision on which CMS platform to choose, check out the 12 Most Popular Requested By Our Customers. This list touches on the different CMS platforms Digital Pacific customers choose and use, which means you can do the same. Of course, you’re definitely not limited to this list. If you happen to find another system that you like, as long as it is MySQL and PHP based, it will most certainly run. If you’re not sure, don’t hesitate to ask us!

Out of all of these, the 3 most popular CMS platforms are probably WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. We did a nice comparison of the three a while ago, which may also help in your decision.

Setting Up the CMS

Many newbies find that getting the platform set up is the hardest part of the whole process, and we agree. It involves installing the software on the hosting account, setting up a database, and configuring it all to work together. If this seems a little overwhelming to you, we are more than happy to help. For a small fee, we will get the CMS set up and ready to go (see Extended Support). From that point on, it is extremely easy to customise and update the website on your own.

Using the CMS

After you’ve got it set up, some CMS platforms make it so easy. WordPress, for example, allows users to browse and change website templates with a click of a button, directly from the back-end. It also gives users the ability to compose pages and posts using a WYSIWYG editor. What this means is that you never have to worry about including HTML bits to change the way your content appears, which is absolutely perfect for a beginner that just wants to get online, and look good doing it.

You don’t have to be a web genius to get on the Internet, as long as you know where to look for help. We are always here to assist our customers with any questions that they have when it comes to getting online for the first time. It’s a big step, but it doesn’t have to be difficult.

Never Had a Website? No Worries! Try a CMS

Tags: cms, content management system, drupal, how to build a website, joomla!, wordpress
Posted in Web Design | No Comments »

5 Cool Ways to Use Joomla & the Extensions That Make It Possible

Friday, April 16th, 2010

We’ve discussed Joomla quite a bit on this blog seeing how it is one of the world’s most popular content management systems out there today, but we haven’t gone into detail about what you can do with it. With the Joomla CMS, you are able to create a wide range of web projects from building online shops to creating a blog. Here are 5 of those cool ways to use Joomla, and the extensions that can help make it possible!

1) Online shops.

VirtueMart Extension: You are able to turn your Joomla website into an online shop just by installing the Virtuemart shopping cart extension. This extension adds the capability to list and sell products, integrate payment methods and even for shoppers to register and track their transactions. Virtuement is very popular, with over 2.5 million downloads worldwide, and it was made to work with Joomla.

2) Community focused websites.

JomSocial Extension: Create an interactive community using the JomSocial extension. Features include, but aren’t limited to, being able to create individual user profiles with walls and comments; to integrate Twitter streams; to build photo albums and upload videos. JomSocial gives your web visitors the ability to interact with others on a level similar to what’s found in Facebook and many other popular networking tools.

Community Builder Extension: Community Builder is based on a similar idea as the JomSocial extension (to build a community) except that it lacks some of the same features, such as the ability to build photo albums and upload videos. It is also lacking user walls and commenting straight out of the box. However, it is still a fantastic community building extension for Joomla that should not be overlooked, especially since it has a huge list of its own plugins for customisation. This extension even gives the web visitors the ability to create content for the main site, with moderation approval of course.

Kunena Extension: Kunena is a forum extension that integrates seamlessly with Joomla, especially since it was made while working closely with the Joomla team. The forum itself is clean and fresh looking, as well as easy to manage, but that doesn’t mean that this extension lacks the features to create a full forum-based community to your Joomla site.

3) Group or office website.

JCal Pro Extension: Create and manage a working calendar for your group or office with this fantastic Joomla extension. It gives you the ability to stay on top of everyone’s schedule, or it just lets everyone in the office know when important events lie ahead.

DOCman Extension: Instead of sending important documents around the office via email, you can easily make them available for download from your website with the DOCman extension for Joomla. Simply store the documents on the server (or even locally) and then set the permission levels. Documents can be made accessible by individual users or to the entire group.

4) Blogs.

MyBlog Extension: MyBlog takes the Joomla CMS and gives it the added oomph to create a powerful blogging platform. This extension will provide the user with a number of modules that are essential to blogging, as well as the ability to tag and categorise entries, easily add photos and syndicate with RSS feeds. The platform also integrates the JomComment extension so people can get the most out of interacting with posts.

SuperBlogger Extension: Like MyBlog, SuperBlogger takes Joomla’s article system and implements features like tagging, rating and social bookmarking to name a few. Instead of JomComment, SuperBlogger implements the Disqus commenting system. The extension is supposedly a good match for WordPress when all set up.

5) Media gallery websites.

Phoca Extension: The Phoca extension gives the Joomla user the ability to create image galleries that can be displayed in a number of ways depending on the desired effect. Slideshows are also integrated into the galleries, and each can be organised according to categories. Videos can also be uploaded and displayed with Phoca galleries.

Obviously Joomla is a very flexible website management tool, as you can tell from the list of possibilities above. And, this list only mentions a few of the thousands of extensions that are available for Joomla, meaning the possibilities are practically endless.

Don’t have Joomla! yet and need assistance getting it installed? We can help! Take a look at our extended support section for details.

How do you use the Joomla content management system? Let us know what you did, and how you did it, by leaving a comment.

5 Cool Ways to Use Joomla & the Extensions That Make It Possible

Tags: cms, Community Builder, content management system, DOCman, JCal Pro, JomSocial, Joomla extensions, Joomla Shopping Cart - VirtueMart, joomla!, Kunena, MyBlog, Phoca, SuperBlogger
Posted in Webmaster | No Comments »

Content Management Systems – The 12 Most Popular Requested by Our Customers

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Many people phone Digital Pacific to ask if we can run a particular type of Content Management System (CMS). Generally speaking, if the CMS runs using PHP and MySQL it can be hosted by Digital Pacific.

To technical, PHP is a scripting language used to create dynamic websites. It works with the MySQL database to present a website’s content that has been stored on the server in its tables and cells. To break it down, you could imagine a MySQL database as being like an Excel spreadsheet. The PHP code calls specific tables and cells of information and then presents it on the website in the specified location and format.

The beauty of a content management system is that the program does all the hard work for you in the background. All you have to do is input the information (after having it installed of course) and the rest is history.

3 simple steps to get started with your own content management system.

- Sign up for a hosting plan with Digital Pacific
- Follow the prompts to register / transfer domain name(s)

- Install your content management system using cPanel’s Fantastico or FTP

Contact our friendly sales team on 1300 694 678 if you experience any difficulties or need some help getting started. We can install any cms that is
php / mysql based for a small one off fee. Please see our extended support section for more information.

Here are 12 of the most popular requested content management systems at Digital Pacific:

Joomla!

Joomla! is one of the most popular content management systems on the market today. It is said to have an impressive amount of functionality, but the simplicity cannot beat ones such as WordPress. Joomla! is the perfect CMS for corporate, e-commerce and even personal websites.

Joomla! Demo

Related Blog Posts:
Drupal, Joomla!, and WordPress – Which CMS to choose?

WordPress

WordPress has become the software choice of bloggers everywhere in the world. Created by users for users, WordPress does an excellent job of taking the confusion out of constructing fully-functional websites and weblogs. Navigation is never an issue, & countless features can be added in the form of plugins.
wordpress demo

Related Blog Posts:
Five Reasons Why Blogs Benefit Businesses
10 Essential WordPress Plugins for Your Blog

Drupal

Drupal is said to have the highest learning curve of the top 3 content management systems listed here, but its users and developers swear by its overall power. Drupal can be used for community sites, forums, weblogs, and corporate websites.

Drupal Demo

Moodle

Moodle is a content management system that is used to create online courses and web-based learning websites. Moodle stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, but the word “moodle” itself means to while the time away (a little trivia for you). This CMS is great for universities, schools and any organisation that needs to run learning modules on the web.
Moodle Demo

Pligg

Pligg is a CMS that is meant to create social network / user-driven websites. Pligg offers the ability for members to log in and submit their own content, news, video, etc. to the site. Users are then able to vote for their favorites, which are bumped to the front page.

Pligg Demo

Xoops

Xoops is yet another great and powerful CMS software that is said to work well for large and small organisations and companies, as well as personal blogs and websites. Xoops stands for eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System, and like other CMS software, it can be customised with add-on modules.

Xoops Demo

TYPO3

TYPO3 is a CMS that is ready to take on small to medium enterprise websites. It offers user-friendly tools, detailed permissions settings and an internal messaging system to help bring collaboration to any project.

TYPO3 demo

phpBB

PhpBBboasts its community building powers through the use of its dynamic forum layouts. It provides multi-category layouts, advanced settings and video tutorials to help anyone create an amazing stand-alone message board or integrate one with an existing website.

phpBB demo

MediaWiki

MediaWiki software was originally used on the Wikipedia website, but has become available to web users wishing to create a collaborative and informational website. MediaWiki allows for users to collectively update and edit information, so it is good for help and knowledgebase sites where the data changes often.
MediaWiki Demo

Mambo

Mambo is a content management system that can cover just about any type of website out there, and better yet, it is simple to use. A number of high-profile websites have used Mambo, such as Mitsubishi and the French Parliament to name a few.

Mambo Demo

CMS Made Simple

CMSMS talks about its cross-the-board functionality from personal to corporate websites. It features drop-down site navigation menus, SEO friendly URLs, various extensions and the ability to incorporate a different design on every page.

CMS Made Simple Demo

PHP Link Directory

PHP Link Directory is the perfect solution for any directory or listings website. It allows users to assign categories, allow link submissions (even paid ones) and the creation of articles and pages.

PHP Link Directory Demo

Have you experienced success or failure with any of the content management systems in this list? If so, please share your story by leaving a comment below.

Content Management Systems The 12 Most Popular Requested by Our Customers

Tags: cms, CMS Made Simple, content management system, drupal, joomla!, Mambo, Media Wiki, Moodle, Php Link Directory, phpBB, Pligg, TYPO3, wordpress, Xoops
Posted in Support, Webmaster | 5 Comments »

iPhone Applications for Content Management on the Go – WordPress, Drupal & Joomla!

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

With the popularity of iPhones, and other mobile browsing devices, more people are starting to do everything from paying bills to buying Christmas presents right from their hand-held phones. The convenience that mobile internet brings is undeniable, and iPhones, with their various applications, are making it even more user-friendly. There are now even WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal apps that make thoroughly managing your CMS website directly from your iPhone a possibility.

iPhone Applications for Content Management on the Go – Wordpress, Drupal & Joomla! WordPress for iPhone – WordPress for iPhone is a new application that gives the iPhone user the easy and customised way to manage a WordPress website while on the go. It was only just released on October 26, 2009 in the AppStore and has already had over 20,000 downloads. The WordPress for iPhone app functions on both the iPhone and iPod Touch devices, and it supports wordpress.com and self-hosted WordPress websites of at least version 2.7 or higher. The features include the ability to publish new posts with photos, edit pages, manage comments and access the backend in a fashion optimised for your mini-browser.

J Admin Mobile – J Admin Mobile is a Joomla! for iPhone app that makes managing your Joomla! core features a snap right from your hand-held device. There are two versions available in the iPhone store, one free but with limited capabilities. The paid J Admin Mobile application gives a Joomla! site manager the ability to publish new articles, work with categories and users, and all without advertisements. Just remember that J Admin Mobile requires a free plugin installed on your Joomla! site in order to enable the remote access administration.

iDrupal – iDrupal has not yet been released to the iPhone applications store, but it is currently in Beta version on the Drupal modules page. iDrupal will make managing your Drupal site, such as updating content, more accessible remotely.

So, if you’re the type of person who gets inspiration for blog posts and web articles in the most random places, then downloading the proper iPhone app can help you turn those good ideas into content before you forget them. Or, if you’re just someone who prefers to utilise their spare time and work on the go, then these CMS specific applications are probably just a necessity in your life.

iPhone Applications for Content Management on the Go – Wordpress, Drupal & Joomla!

Tags: applications, cms, drupal, iPhones, joomla!, wordpress
Posted in Webmaster | 1 Comment »

How to Build a Website

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Being a web hosting company and providing the means for users to gain a presence online, we get countless enquiries on how to build a website. Even though we don’t provide support for actually creating a website (beyond Sitebuilder), being the happy, helpful company that we are, we try to give our customers a fair bit of information on the basics, from easy to hard, on the various ways it can be done.

Our advice can be broken down a little bit like the following:

Easy = Sitebuilder

Sitebuilder is a very basic platform to put together a website quickly and easily, and without any design skills whatsoever. If you are the type of person who is just looking for a way to put your presence on the web, but does not need all the bells and whistles, then Sitebuilder makes for a great option. We provide Sitebuilder Basic for free with any Digital Pacific shared hosting account. You can even try Sitebuilder out before purchasing Digital Pacific hosting for free.

Medium = Open Source

Open Source systems for building websites are usually free and easy, even if they do seem overwhelming at first. The Open Source packages will often contain all the necessary coding to create a user-friendly interface allowing for non-technical users to build a dynamic site. Being open source means that the source code is made available to web developers who can constantly work on fixes, upgrades and new features.

Besides the fact that they create a user-friendly interface, letting a user bypass looking at lines of mindless code, there is still a small learning curve involved, therefore making it not as easy as Sitebuilder. However, the ability to grow and update over time helps a user quickly overlook the extra work.

Popular open source content management systems are WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal, which are all three used around the world to put together blogs, websites, forums, news site, community portals, and more. Digital Pacific, for example, uses WordPress to run this blog, so if this looks like something you would like to incorporate into your web presence then you better run out and get WordPress.

If you need assistance picking out the proper content management system, take a look at our previous breakdown of Drupal, Joomla! and WordPress and be sure to see the comments section to see what some of our existing customers had to say. Digital Pacific can help with the installation of these as well, so be sure to check out our extended support page for details.

Hard = Learning to Code

The most difficult option for building a website, but also the most customisable, is to learn how to code. By learning the coding yourself, you can have full control over the look and feel of the website without the hassle of explaining your vision to someone else or trying to work with pre-made software.

However, this route is labelled as “hard” for a reason, and if you are determined to get the most out of it, you will need to spend a serious amount of time reading, researching and practising. To get started with this method, it pays to take a look at these great web languages resources:

tizag.com – Tizag is a resource for beginners to learn about HTML and CSS.
w3schools.com – W3Schools is a resource with tutorials and web building references.
htmlgoodies.com – HTML Goodies houses everything on HTML and beyond with discussion boards and mentors available.
webmonkey.com – Webmonkey is an online resource for web developers of all skill levels.

Luckily, you will not be the only one learning how to code a website, so plenty of resources like the ones above are available to teach beginners the ins and outs of various coding languages. If unable to find what you need, a great place to turn is to web design and webmaster forums where countless members exchange tips, share insights and answer questions usually with very short turnaround.

DID YOU KNOW? You can code a website using just notepad. There are many other web coding programs around that make life easier than notepad, but yes – you can code an entire website using just notepad.

Alternative = Professional Designer

The alternative to these firsthand design methods is to simply hire a web designer to do the work for you. Now, that sounds nice, right? Simply give the designer a list of wants and a timeline and the website magically appears on the internet! Just remember that there is a price tag involved with this method.

As with anything in life, you get what you pay for, and since web designers are professionals with probably years of experience, practice and training, you can expect the final product to be a well thought-out piece of art to say the least. A good web designer will actually think way beyond the design aspect and try to tie in SEO standards and navigation techniques that maximize the overall effect of the finished product. So, if you’re the type of person who thinks that hiring a designer is too pricey, you may want to think again once you consider the amount of effort that goes in as well as the amount of time it saves you.

One thing for sure is that if you have a professional business image and the budget to back it up, it is extremely hard to beat paying a web designer to do the job.

Before Starting

We always suggest that when choosing any method to building a website, it is best to get your own domain name and hosting. Surprisingly, some free hosting providers will not allow for your website to be edited correctly or moved down the road, so you may have to start all over if the latter in particular were to happen. Not only this, but businesses especially need to have a reliable web host in order to ensure an optimal presence on the web.

This article pretty much lays out our basic advice on how our customers can build a website once they sign up for Digital Pacific web hosting. Which method did you decide to use, and why?

Tags: cms, coding, drupal, joomla!, Open Source, sitebuilder, web designer, wordpress
Posted in Webmaster | No Comments »

10 Essential WordPress Plugins for Your Blog

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

The joys of having a WordPress blog are that you can easily customise the software to suit your personal web needs. WordPress plugins are the add-ons that make this customisation process possible, and there is a plugin for just about anything… seriously. The official WordPress website alone houses nearly 7,000 options, so if you want to insert videos, display social bookmarks, re-route your RSS feed, or build a contact form, you can do it just by finding the right plugin.

We’ve scoured the net and handpicked this list of 10 essential WordPress plugins for your blog. We hope you enjoy it! Also, don’t forget to let us know what you would add to this list by leaving us a comment below.

1. TweetMeme – We mentioned in a recent Twitter tools post that TweetMeme provides an option to embed a retweet button for Twitter in every blog post. The ease of use makes it more likely that web visitors will retweet the content, helping you spread the word.

*The TweetMeme button is in action on this blog. Just look to the top-right of this post!

2. SocioFluid – SocioFluid, like the TweetMeme button, automatically inserts icons for your choice of social bookmarking websites into your posts. The backend lets you place the icons before or after the post content, or choose to call it yourself in the template in a particular location. The icons are displayed using a “mac effect” so that they grow from a mouseover.

*The SocioFluid plugin is in action on this blog. Look to the bottom of this blog post to see!

3. Contact 7 – The Contact 7 form is one simple option, out of several out there, for creating and inserting a contact form into your WordPress blog. Contact forms add to a website’s usability, and web users like that feature. Instead of opening up an email client, not to mention copying an email address, web visitors are able to quickly send feedback with no hassle.

4. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, known as YARPP, displays a list of posts at end of a single blog post that have related subjects or content. The YARPP list introduces your reader to more posts that may have similar themes, helping to keep a visitor on your blog for longer. YARPP lets you select a post match threshold and matching criteria, such as tags, categories and titles.

*YARPP is in action on this blog. Just look to the “Related posts” section at the bottom of this post!

5. Exec-PHP – Exec-PHP is a plugin for those wanting to customise their WordPress blogs on another level. Exec-PHP allows a user to insert snippets of PHP code into blog posts, pages and sidebar widgets.

6. Top Commentators – The Top Commentators plugin allows you to give notice to your WordPress blog’s most active commentators. The output can be customised by excluding users from the list, list number, tracking dates, and many more. This plugin appears as a sidebar widget, so web users can see it on any page of the blog and hopefully encourage more discussion.

7. MobilePress – MobilePress will take your current blog and render it into a readable format for hand-held, mobile browsing devices, such as an iPhone. It even allows you to target Mobile SEO to help for a listing on Google and Yahoo! search.

*We plan to use this plugin to make our blog mobile friendly, but will initiate it after the release of our new Digital Pacific website in the near future.

8. Viper’s Video Quicktags – Viper’s Video Quicktags is a plugin that allows for easy integration of videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and a list of many other popular video hosting websites. Viper’s Video Quicktags lets you customise colours, alignments and size all from within the blog post, and it keeps your site (X)HTML valid in the process.

9. Breadcrumb Navigation – Breadcrumb Navigation will display a list of the path to the current page. If your WordPress site contains many nested categories and pages, then this plugin will help with easy navigation throughout.

10. Feedburner Feedsmith – The Feedburner Feedsmith plugin assumes you have signed up for an account with Feedburner. Feedburner tracks subscribers for the RSS feeds of your WordPress blogs, as well as allows for various customisation and optimisation features to be activated. The Feedburner Feedsmith plugin forwards all of your blog’s RSS feeds to the Feedburner feed in order to help you track all subscriptions.

*The Feedburner Feedsmith plugin is active on this blog. The RSS feed button in the top-right of the template redirects you to our Feedburner feed.