Zapdos

Yeah I see what you mean. But for me personally its the cms I am familiar with and have been using and making templates for for years. I have used Joomla too but I find that a bit less user friendly and with less functionality in terms of plugins etc.. I think its probably just laziness. Rather than have to take on an unfamiliar cms people just stick to what they know, even if they end up being hacked. teodora - thanks for that plugin you recommend. I will try that..

No it was an informal agreement to build a site. Nothing legal signed by either me or the client. I don't know why the site was hacked or the reason that it now has a permanent link for online casinos. I have searched the database and individual files and I have concluded this spam has been inserted either remotely or through some kind of disguised code. It is also difficult to pinpoint because it disappears whenever I login to the admin of the site. So I can't simply go through plugins to find it. I gave the client a login on completion of the site and let them do their edits. I was not paid to be webmaster of the site. I do not host the site. My friend gave me a good analogy on the matter: 'If an artist is commissioned to paint a picture for someone and someone afterwards comes along and throws acid on it. You cannot hold the artist responsible.' Whilst I will say I should have taken more precautions and dedicated some time to security (you live and learn). I am not legally obliged to fix anything without payment. Especially as in this case it means I will have to pay someone else to fix it. That it seems is most likely anyway. I have said I will continue to try and help as goodwill. But have recommended the customer use this: http://quttera.com/anti-malware-website-monitoring-signup (that is what I would do if it was my own site). This customer has been very cheap throughout building the site. They quibbled over every last bit of extra design I had to do (very fussy). They persuaded me against my better judgement that several hours of extra edits could be included in the original quote. In other words I have been very kind and not charged nearly as much as I could have so far. This is why I am not particularly happy to 'go the extra mile'.

Hello, I have had one of my Wordpress websites hacked. I don't know if the reason is my own lack of updating/weak passwords. Or whether it is the persons own computer having a virus or the server (which is not owned by myself) having some sort of security leak. I am suspicious of the server the site is on. because most of my own sites hosted by myself have not had any issues at all. Anyway I was wondering; if the site is hacked is it my obligation to get it fixed free of charge and should the customer be rightfully angry with me? thanks..

Yes I agree. I have sent them a support ticket..

Hi I have recently purchased this plugin for my WP e-commerce store (with gold cart plugin). I installed the plugin, which is recommended on Barclaycard's site. Everything appears to work fine and the transactions even process with the bank. However when you are re-directed to Wordpress It simply displays a page that says: "Transaction Results Sorry your transaction was not accepted.Click here to go back to checkout page." I think there is a slight error in the code somewhere. As with this plugin the transaction is processed away from the wordpress site and then redirects back. It is obviously not receiving the message that something has been bought. I am thinking maybe there needs to be a slight edit to the code in GoldCart or WP ecommerce? I have setup the Barclaycard backend till I am blue in the face and that part seems to have been working all along anyway as transactions are processed and emails sent. Any Ideas what code I need to edit?

Hi, I have a client that I asked to setup an e-mechant account. They went to their bank and got a Barclaycard eDPQ account setup. I had suggested some easier options, in particular Paypal but.. hey ho. Anyway I need a compatible plugin for the WP e-commerce system that will link in the eDPQ to the system's payment gateway. I already have Gold Cart. Is there anyway to integrate it to that? I have already found this. But it is expensive and I don't even know if it will work considering I wish to keep gold cart installed (due to some of its features). I am thinking of just suggesting to my customer to setup a less obscure e-merchant service since this is seemingly a pain in the neck. Thanks for the help!

Ahh.. I checked out the error: "550 - The requested command failed because the user’s mailbox was unavailable (such as not found)" Since its a new business he might not have the email address yet. Sorry for my laziness feel free to delete this thread (although it may help others).

I am using a simple php contact form on one of my clients websites. Problem is - his mailbox won't accept it. I think last time I had a problem someone mentioned changing permissions on the email server. Here is the error email I received: This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more ofits recipients. The following addresses failed: <********.com> SMTP error from remote server after RCPT command:host mail********.com[***************]:550 Blocked. I have had this problem with contact forms before and its one of those areas I like to avoid looking into. However I need to learn what the issue is sooner or later as its becoming a common problem.. I am sure many of you here know what is going on, thankyou.

Thanks I appreciate it. I think this has been clarified now for me. I don't know how these cretins sleep at night, but oh well lol.

I think it was the psd files I sent. I have checked and they haven't been used on the site they were asked for. Maybe this person is using my design elsewhere?

I see. Well I have it in perspective now. I don't want to go to court, it would be difficult anyway. I just wondered why this person is messing me about. They don't benefit out of it themselves from what I can see. I didn't know contracts were so important. I usually go on trust alone. Naive as that may seem I haven't had many problems up to now. If it is normal practise to have a contract involved then I will try and make sure everyone I do a site for signs one from now on.

Hi, I am a little conufused about the actions of a bigger designer that sub-contracted me to deal with some of their spillover. I met the person in question. They seemed pretty nice and liked my work and were keen to help me etc... Since then I have had sporadic 'work'. The only problem is that I will do some pre-lim designs and agree a quote and then the work never materialises. This has happened 3 times in sucession. Each time I am rather cheesed off as I work hard on a potential design on Photoshop send it over then no further word.. As this has now happened for the third time I really am smelling a rat. I think there is some sort of scam. What I do supply each time is neat and website ready designs. Is it possible this salt of the earth person is just using me to get free design work? The reason I would doubt this is that the sites that I was briefed for in all cases never went online anyway (the excuse each time that the client never went ahead). Its plausible the client dropped out or was inefficient as you guys probably well know a lot of clients are about as useful as a square wheel when it comes to finishing jobs. If this is a scam I am guessing this rogue designer is using my artwork elsewhere. I have given most of the facts, what are peoples thoughts? Since being in the business I have learnt fast it is full of charlatans.

This is more or less what I thought, there seems to be no quick fix for SEO hence why I find it a pain.

Not at all. I am no expert on SEO I find it rather tiresome in comparison to designing and I have not been doing this for very long. No need to be condescending not everyone here is an SEO veteran you know.

I want to get some sites into the first page of search engine listings with more of the keywords I am using for these sites. Attracta offer lots of services but most of them are expensive to say the least. Is it worth it? If not what is a good way to get a trade site further up the listings fast and cheaply. thanks

I get this error message: "The Vendor name you provided, '---------------', cannot be found in the database. Please ensure you are using the correct Vendor Name as assigned to you by Sage Pay." I am sure I am using the right vendor name. Any ideas what I can do? Thanks

Here is a customer brief I got: Thank you for your interest in the position. We are basically looking to create a budget website similar to compare the market, but for a particular product only. If we used shoes as an example, the people using the site would select the different attributes that they want in a shoe e.g colour, size of heel, open toe etc and then our website would act as a search engine and find shoes that match. However what we want to do is have the website create matches from a variety of stores not just one. Once the user has found shoes that they like, they would then click on the photo and that would direct them to the shops website. So thats the kind of site we are looking to create.... I am not an advanced coder yet. Therefore I normally setup anything like this with Joomla. I was thinking I should start with a custom search extension. The main problem I guess is finding one that can find the right products and display a picture in the manner desired. So far I am not even sure if the available extensions can find urls that aren't part of the site or products that aren't on your own Virtuemart. Any recommendations? As I said preferably all on Joomla. Thanks

I don't have to spite them or anything. I just get annoyed that people are allowed to try and sell you scams and the fact that most people have to fall foul of them once before they get wise to it. No Thanks and phone down before I can hear any smart-arse comment is my current method lol.

I dunno about that. If they are being upfront fair enough. But most of them are deceptive little bastards. I just had two such calls recently. The first was to put my logo on some brochure of a company I found out didn't exist. The second was a similar offer with another highly dodgy looking company promising me the earth in business but the delivery of which seeming highly dubious. So I pay you £300 to put my web design company logo on your brochure that you promise will be seen by such and such a people. Yeah yeah pull the other one. I think the best word to describe them (and I mean the scamming ones) is parasites. They try to feed off you. The only people I am interested in are people who want a website. I don't want gas, electricity, advertising, accountants (thiefs) or anything else for that matter.. and I wasn't born yesterday so go call some other unfortunate mug!

This Yell company is a bunch of shysters and a half isn't it! I got a call asking if I wanted free advertising...blah blah. So I got hooked in a little and the guy went through setting up my 'free' profile on yell.com. Then he says so how much are you looking to pay...blah blah £400 pounds blah blah... Now I am thinking no thank you pal - I made it clear I didn't want to pay anything and was quite happy with the business I already had. He wouldn't let it drop and every answer I gave he would try and find a way around it. Then he called me back a few times.. Honestly I can't stand these sort of people.. Never mind the company. The people that try and sell these things are utter snakes and they have no honor whatsoever. You just need to be wise enough to slam the phone down before they can 'silvertongue' you.

I just wanted to start a topic on the annoying sales calls I have received since becoming a freelance designer. Not only do they push things like gas and electricity that I don't want or need. I found one of the ones I tried to say no to politely the other day was extremely rude and sneaky. Just wondered what other freelancers experiences with these undesirables are like lol.

Ok so I was thinking.. When I make a site for someone I will finish it and often that will be that. But what if I did the hosting myself and charged a similar fee to generic web hosts. I tried looking it up and all I could find were crappy demos of setting up a silly domain name through X-ampp. Is this idea technically and financially feasible? Surely you guys have covered this in the past.. Thanks!

Thanks for that. Top man. I don't mind waiting but my client is going bananas lol. I think it will be ok though..

I maybe didn't describe the problem right. Its kinda tricky to do. Yes I have uploaded the correct page now but for some reason the other site still pops up. Maybe it would be easier if I just gave the sites info. Type 'personaltraining4u' in the google search. One of the top results (along with the correct site) directs you to the wrong site (Twickenham-fine-ales.com). The index page on Twickenham-Ales has been corrected yet this search result is still interfering with the other site. I don't know why its still appearing thats why I am asking, ta.

Hi, I have a problem with a search result for one of the sites I have worked on. When I had finished work on one site I accidentally loaded (FTP) the index page(on filezilla)from a different site. I have since corrected this error, however. The page for the site I accidentally loaded now appears in Google search with a link to the other site. How do I get rid of this irritating problem? I can't have a top search result that directs people to the wrong page, cheers.