Scratching my head on XML sitemaps again. Yes I've written them before, but now am writing a little script to automate the process. (Remember ... it's all about automation & making your life easier)
What it is?
A Google sitemap is a file which contains URLs and some additional information for all public pages or documents of your website.
So here's a quick update, a so called 'cheat cheet' for Google sitemaps. These links should get you started in the right direction.
Make sure you have a Google Webmaster Tools account
Here's a recent FAQ post from Google Webmaster blog on sitemaps
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/01/sitemaps-faqs.html
Sitemap protocol
http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php
Validating your XML sitemap
http://www.w3.org/2001/03/webdata/xsv
Nice & simple class for creating xml sitemaps with PHP
http://www.idealog.us/2006/09/php_class_for_c.html
Gracias!
Wonder if Microsoft had Yahoo has an entry in their dynamic CRM system?
View presentation ...
More about dynamic CRM w/ Outlook
Simple rules for website developers building performance based websites.
Why build a shopping cart e-commerce website that takes forever to load?
Caching, bandwidth issues, HTTP requests, script execution & more ...
Why is my page slow?
YSlow
"At Yahoo, our users are #1"
Want to scratch my back for a buck?
How many of you out there with a blog or blogs out there?
Seen any money from AdSense?
Not much will be seen from personal blogs in this area unless your traffic is out of this world
Why not sell some links?
With Scratchback you can purchase links for as little as a $1 - interesting
Here are some simple examples:
Simple Webmaster Guide
Article Submit Service
Combine some XML with PHP, add some affiliate accounts, grab some caffeine and spice your website up with some affiliated code mashups.
There are some great scripts out there for putting various content from various places together online. A simple example would be from this simple Wireless router deals website. Grabbing some eBay, some YouTube, a bit of Amazon and more.
How about integrating your website content with FaceBook?
This is already possible and this will come later as I still figuring this out!
Questions to ask are:
why would you want to in the first place?
To market to your friends?
To source out new business clients?
An interesting item to point out is the RSS feed by FeedBurner on the AdJingo Classified Ad forums ....
Look at the bottom of the page any you'll see a little orange RSS chicklet ...
Clicking on the chicklet will bring us to a page generated by FeedBurner that displays ads posted on the newly created forum (the forum is very new BTW)
Listed within each ad are a few cool link additions by FeedBurner, such as 'Email this', 'Share on Facebook', 'Add to del.icio.us', 'Technorati Link', etc ...
'Share on FaceBook' ?!?
What a treat!
You mean to say, if I post an ad on AdJingo forums, I can actually share it with all my friends :)
Of course I'll share, because it's all about sharing on Facebook.
Your thoughts, your friends, your likes, your privacy and more.
Did you know FeedBurner is owned by Google?
News is a bit dated, but I thought I'd point it out anyways
With the great tools Google already has (Analytics, Webmaster Tools, etc), FeedBurner has been a great tool in my life ;)
100 Million Dollar Deal
True-gle
Back to exploring ...
In search for a CMS system, I was referred to Joomla today.
What a wonderful surprise to come across information about Joomla! Day in Rome, Italy - my former home.
http://www.joomladay.it/
http://www.joomla.org/content/view/4460/1/
The official program for JoomlaDay Italy:
8,45 Welcome and delivery of welcome pack.
9,30 Presentation and starting. - Andrea Marzilli
9,45 VirtueMart: e-commerce solution for Joomla. - Stefano Bagnatica e Alessandro Chessari
10,30 The importance of having a specific hosting for joomla.. - Marco Mangione, Carlo Granisso
11,00 Coffee Break
11,30 Migration from Joomla! 1.0 to Joomla! 1.5. - Gianmarco Odorizzi
12,15 Joomla become multilanguage with joomfish. - Luca Curatola
13,00 Lunch
14,30 Joomla FAP. - Alessandro Pasotti
15,15 Analysis of the template structure of joomla 1.5, what changes and how. - Franco Danese
16,15 The TV in Joomla! : WebTv and digital terrestrial. - Massimo Marchetto, Roberto Borghi, Stefano Ciammarughi e Isacco Occhiali
17,15 CMS's optimization and positioning. - Zaffi Alessandro
18,00 Conclusion
I'm a big believer in where your website traffic is coming from. You may be putting up a website about Buffalo routers or something similar, but what is people are visiting your website because they are typing in specific keywords like 'voip routers' or 'wireless routers' or something similar.
Are you listing model numbers on your website? example: WHR-HP-G54
Are you listing manufacturer names? Buffalo
What keywords are you specifically after?
Along the standard AWStats and other tools built directly in to your web host provider, a few tools any serious SEO marketer & web developer should be utilizing is Google Webmaster Tools, Analytics and Yahoo Site Explorer
Submit you xml file and watch your site get indexed quick! (There are other methods too) :)
I love automation, the simpler the better.
It's one of the things I used to talk about to programming students in the past, build once, duplicate and replicate.
Imagine your website on auto-pilot?
Automatic blog postings, content generation, revenue creation.
Recently have been exploring a few scripts to assist in simplifying things.
Back in the day, Corey Rudl was the master of this ... put your business on automation!
Now we are launching a new blog for cool eBay deals
Ubuntu update:
Up and running - what a sweet OS and alternative to the Windows environment.
BC update:
Rain, rain, one small sunny day and back to more rain!
Cheers & the best to your '08
Tis the season to go through a HD failure (like I have for the last 3 years around this time), because I like to try out new things, push things to the limit, tweak and more.
Right now, Ubuntu is partitioning my drive on another box. There is no guarantee that this will work, it's an older box and as one video on YouTube displays
Ubuntu? Linux? Alternative to Windows Vista? Maybe so
Video
Check out some of the cool things this OS can do here ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UZIwtHw99E
Article:
Ubuntu vs Vista:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199201179
Ubuntu website:
http://www.ubuntu.com/
Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you'll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools.
Inspirational dissatisfaction - I love this saying.
To me it means that "Because I am dissatisfied with the current situation, I am inspired to do better"
or the other way around
"I am inspired due to my dissatisfaction of the current situation"
To me it also means, motivation for action!
Some of these findings and others are located in books like these ...
or even in the Success system that never fails!
Directory Scripts findings
Being the constant script writers and editors, my development partner passed on an interesting find for an interesting script for a SEO'd directory script which literally has all the admin tools built right in.
View the script here ...
Some of the initial features that caught our attention: SEO optimized, friendly URLs, great support and more.
Turned out to be an interesting week with various clients wanting to sell online. Always exciting these new projects. Everything from selling direct, selling affiliate products to creating websites for drop shipping opportunities.
IMO, it's almost too easy these days to set up an e-commerce website. Some tools are free while others charge a minimum monthly rate depending on the number of products you plan to sell. I even talked to a company that was looking for a $35K minimum before they would even consider setting you up online. If you want the cadillac of shopping carts, this would be the way to go. Considering that companies are also spending anywhere from $100-$2000 a day advertising with Google AdWords for their various e-commerce and marketing campaigns. How much money does your company have to spend online?
An interesting find was Magento eCommerce Open Source. This initiative in exciting although it may have a few draw backs if you are considering getting an e-commerce site online. To name a few: your web server must support PHP5 (most hosting servers are still operating at the PHP 4.x flavor), initial page load times are apprehensive (10 secs. & up in some cases), the current version is still in development (production release not up yet - Jan/Feb 2008) and a few other items.
On the positive side, excellent CSS templating, product recommendation, great navigation, good support community growing by the day, and finally great potential for this venture. One to keep an eye one.
Back to selling online
Again, yes it is easy to create your own e-commerce website with tools like OsCommerce or even X-cart, what needs to be considered are:
- the time it takes to configure the shopping cart application
- the time it takes to input your products, images and descriptions
- setting up tax and shipping calculations
- setting up product groupings and categorization
- overall theme and template for the website
- plus more
- How are you going to drive traffic to your new website (links, search engine, PPC ad campaigns, AdWords, etc)
- Do you plan to blog about your website?
- Who will perform product reviews and research?
- How often will your prices change?
- Will you create sale partner channels online (resellers, affiliate programs)
- How will stock be maintained
What about drop shipping to your customers?
In regards to one client, they expressed they wanted to start a drop shipping business from home. Hey ... if their neighbor is selling garden equipment and supplies, well then why couldn't they are well? On top of that, why deal and worry about the hassles of maintaining inventory, dealing with shipping issues, RMAs and more.
One interesting publication that has been around for a while is a list of drop ship companies in the US that offer wholesale services.
Get more info on the drop shipping list here ...
(look for the drop ship company list)
So that challenge always lies in how do you set up your structure, what products are you prepared to market and promote online and where do you think will be most profitable for you and your business.
Some things to ponder on a lovely weekend.
You've done work - people owe you money or have not paid for your service - what are your options?
If you former employer or client has a credit card, try PayPal. Probably the simplest and easiest account to set up. Within PayPal you can create invoices, create subscription payments, sell products or services and more. Best of all, it's FREE to sign up. Your clients do not need an PayPal account - there is an option to simply process the credit card. When you signup for PayPal, you can start accepting credit card payments instantly. As the world's number one online payment service, PayPal is the fastest way to open your doors to over 150 million member accounts worldwide.
Cost: small percentage per transaction (2.5%)
If you're in Canada, why not a debit card transaction with Interac
A very simple and easy process of sending money by email. Some clients may not have a credit card (i.e., students), but most people do have a debit card of some sort.
Cost: $0
Now if all else fails, you take them to court!
Cost: under $100
