Templates for Constant Contact
Creating Templates for Constant Contact or any other newsletter system requires some basic and advanced techniques in order to avoid mistakes when sending the newsletter to our mailing lists.
We can refer to many forums around and find valuable information about how to create Constant Contact newsletter templates. (more…)
How to know if a request is AJAX or Not
Using PHP you can easily know if your request was using AJAX or not. I found this interesting article published on ElectricToolbox that explains how to determine if a Request is using AJAX or not in PHP. By using it you can easily branch your code for AJAX based calls and normal calls. For example, it may be useful when you need to generate different response depending on the request type.
Optimize a location for Google Maps
Optimizing a location for Google Maps is really easy. Notice that not all the people or businessmen optimize their business for Google Maps.
Something important you need to have in mind is that Google Maps can show your business in their maps during a search. Maybe the most important step is to include geo tags into the homepage head.
<meta name="geo.position" content="25.78,-77.799688"> <meta name="geo.placename" content="Cococay, Bahamas"> <meta name="geo.region" content="BS">
The previous example shows how to add geo.position, geo.placename and geo.region tags. The purpose is simple, search engines that takes seriously geo coordinates will search for this info in the <head> variable.
Remove .SVN folders in Windows using a .BAT file
If you want to remove .svn folders from a directory in Windows, for example let’s say that you need to import an existing repository into a new repository and do some clean up, then you can even use the Windows batch or commend line to do that.
The easiest way is that you create a simple .bat file in the directory where you want to remove .svn folders recursively.
Then, you can add the following content:
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%G IN ('DIR /B /AD /S *.svn*') DO RMDIR /S /Q "%%G"
Finally, just go to your command line and run the .bat file and all your .svn folders will be removed recursively. At this point you are ready to import the content into a new SVN repository.
How to get the User IP in PHP
Get the IP in PHP using this simple valueÑ
$ip=$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
If you want to test with your own host or localhost, then you can try Dame Mi IP, it’s a simple service that allows you to check what is your IP assigned by your ISP.
Show a Map in a Webpage
You can use Google Maps or Microsoft Maps to easily show a map in a webpage.
In order to use Google Maps, first you’d need to signup for free to get the Google Map’s API Key. You can get it here.
How to combine JS and CSS files to reduce the page loading time
Rakaz explains how to combine JS and CSS files to reduce the page loading time with this clever solution that involves:
- A few rules in .htaccess
- A cache directory
- A small PHP script
By using this kind of methods you can extremely reduce the HTTP requests loading times in your applications. For example if you have many external JS or CSS files.
Configure multiple outgoing SMTP servers in Thunderbird
This is something that I usually forget so I decided to post it here, probably would be helpful for someone else. If you want to configure multiple outgoing server settings in Thunderbird then you need to go to Account Settings and scroll down to find Outgoing Server (SMTP) as shown in the following screenshot.
Check if a Domain Name is a Trademark
Check if trademark through this site: http://uspto.gov
And you can check if a domain name is available, here.
How to Boost Website Traffic
Boosting your website traffic is one of the most wished things in life. By increasing your website traffic you can reach more and more people and make great conversions in sales, advertising, PPC, affiliates, etc.
One of the Internet’s strengths is its ability to help consumers
find the right needle in a digital haystack of data. – Jared Sandberg
There are many creative ways to increase the traffic to your website. Some costs money but there are other free proven techniques to boost the number of visitors to your website.
Offer Free Content
Offering free content is probably one of the most successfully techniques to get quality traffic. People love quality but also love the chance to get something without spending a cent. If you are reading these lines, does not sound better to know the boost traffic techniques that are free instead of the costly ones? Well, that is a sign that free services are more attractive sometimes.
Create Quality Content
Use a proofreader to validate the grammar and spelling in your site. Poor spelling websites are not so much attractive, for visitors but also for search engines. Google for example seems to pay more attention to well-written websites.
Content generators are a bad idea. That only generates duplicated content and your site could be banned or penalized. Avoid content generators and spend more time creating quality and original content.
Avoid copying from other websites, that could be also penalized by search engines and is not an ethical approach. Instead, focus on creating original articles.
Try to get more backlinks
How many websites links to your site? As more websites linking to your site (related websites for example) may look it more important for visitors and search engines.
Imagine that a Search Engine is a Unique Visitor
Avoid creating different content for search engines than your normal visitors. Practically a search engine works like a normal visitor trying to find usable information in your website. If you offer good information, then forget avoid creating a segmented content for search engines. Search engines love exactly the same than normal visitors that look for information. For example, if you are looking how to boost your website traffic, then search engines will try to search the same while reaching your website.
Get a better ranking at Search Engines
Prepare your pages SEO friendly. That is, do an analysis about what are the keywords that best fit into each page, and then prepare the HTML/CSS for Search Engine Optimization friendly. That means you will need to put specific tags in the titles, paragraphs, ALT images, as well as using standard conventions.
Born to be Fast
Try to optimize your server for speed. Many people say that speed is one of the most important factors for Search Engine Optimization. If your website loads so much faster than your competitor, then you have a plus.
Advertise your presence
If you have some buckets, consider Pay-Per-Click networks like the ones offered by Google Adwords, Microsoft or Yahoo. Also, you can submit free press releases, like e-zines.
And, be patient
Yes, be patient. That is not immediately. All this work takes time and effort. But after that you will notice that using ideas like the ones published here you will see how the traffic is improved.
