traxor

Tres bien.
 
Very good now, it's surprisingly fast...

Wordpress is best I believe and you can also install free themes.
 
Its also good for sharing content with others.
 
Its best CMS for easy content editing and rich features.

Ubuntu & FreeBSD are renowned for having poor text rendering and support for websites so it's up to you. What I tend to do is launch the site working in all the main browsers and operating systems (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, IE7+, Opera on Windows & OSX) and then monitor my analytics. Head over to http://www.google.com/analytics/ and set yourself up an account if you don't already have one. Let it track your site for a good 2 or 3 weeks then click on "Visitors > Browsers Capabilities > Browsers and OS".
 
When you've determined whether linux users visit your site, you can then decide whether it's worth spending the time on building your site to work on said OS'.

As far as "real" SEO goes you've done most of it:
 
1. Page title reflecting the actual content
2. Good use of HTML headings
3. Well crafted post title
4. Well written and easy to follow writing style
5. Good use of article summaries/overviews on listing pages
 
The rest of what you're on about is really marketing and promotion
 
- Submitted my site to Google, MSN and Yahoo
you don't need to but submitting once won't do any harm
 
- Created a sitemap.xml file for Google to crawl
what about the other engines?
 
- Set my Wordpress settings for my blog to appear on search engines
ok
 
- Write alt tags for my images
alt attributes describe the image, don't stuff with keywords!!!
 
- Get a SEO plugin so I can write meta, and page title bits
fair enough, a lot of folks are abandoning meta descriptions nowadays because search engines are much better at indexing. For page titles just generate them from category/page/post titles.
 
- Sort out Google Analytics so it works
he he
 
- Develop the LinkedIn/Facebook/ Twitter page
if you think it will help
 
- submit my articles to blogging sites
don't republish on your own site, I'd suggest making a section of your site for "My published articles", create a list of them with summary and link
 
- link exchanging (good idea?)
waste of time
 
- join business directories online
sounds like a plan, what benefits would the directory gain from your membership?
 
- a little bit of ppc
yep, can be expensive if you have no return from it
 
- get adsense going
up to you but don't ruin an otherwise nice useful site

Back to basics.
 
For a 3-page website with no CMS. I would charge £400 max, regardless of whether I had purchased £150 worth of kit.

So what we've learned here is: the worse the website, the higher the traffic!

Before choosing which security suite to go for it's worth looking at http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/main-tests - they run tests on all the major security software.

Looking through it, there is a file missing called 'contacts.asp'

A bit punky I think is the word, as it is a bit punk a bit minimal, a bit modern, a bit bland, a bit pink, a bit of this and a bit of that. It is sort of a mash of styles and some of the site works other parts don't and as such it does give a little bit of an amateurish impression. Parts of the design do look good and show that you do have potential but other parts bring it down.
 
I would say go back and look at the purpose of the site and who you are designing the site for. Also if you are going to go or a style go for it whole hearted as half hearted means you might as well of not bothered, it just feels like you want to showcase all the styles in one site rather than letting your work speak for itself.
 
But keep at it, as looking at this and one of the other designs you have shown you do have a good eye for design, you just need to learn how to use it and think of the whole design rather than just different sections elements
 
 
EDIT: just to reply to what you wrote while I was typing, its not a case of trying to be the same or different its a case of designing a site that works with the content and also is suited to the people you are designing for... remember just because it is your site doesn't mean you are designing it for you, you are still designing it for the people who will be looking at the site. Which is why designing a site for yourself is the hardest thing to do, as it is hard to step away and think of the users and not yourself

Hello James,
 
What you're asking for is a content management system, which is a system that powers website allowing you to modify content, have members and much more. It's likely that by using some software like Joomla you'll be able to install a plugin that allows users to upload photographs.
 
Looking at your site, you're creating an adult dating and chat site, so you need the following from your CMS:
 

The ability for individuals to create accounts with your site. A plugin allowing that creates a 'profile' for these users. A plugin that allows image uploads to your site.
You're also going to need to use some chat scripts like IRC for the site in the future, but with a CMS you can just create a page and stick one on there.

are you sure you're a web designer?

I'd recommend you contact No Wires to find out what is going on, as it doesn't sound good that your sites are display another providers holding page!

Probably best to try ebay mate.

Amazon might be worth a look too

Hi Traxor,
 
eBay and Amazon.Com are good sources of second hand Adobe softwares as mentioned in this thread. Just would like to add some details. You mentioned Photoshop CS2, I am assuming you're buying an Intel Based iMac and not the old PPC iMac? Because Photoshop CS2 is native to the old PPC iMac and runs SLOW in an Intel Based Mac. CS2 is processor dependent. CS3 or CS4 is the better choice as it runs well both on either an Intel Based mac or the old PPC iMac. Would be better if you get the Intel Based Mac because this year the new Mac OS will be launched, The Snow Leopard. The down side is this new OS will no longer run on old PPC Macs.
 
Just a short history, before 2005 Apple uses the IBM Velocity Processors known as PPC or PowerPC. Apple wanted a much cooler, faster processor and more compact and that can run windows too. Intel can deliver these requirements as they can produce cooler, quieter processors and cheaper than the IBM counterpart. Being able to run Windows and Mac OS in one machine changed the lifestyle of most people and the market share of Apple.
 
Make sure to ask the seller of the second hand photoshop if the software is registered under his name which needs a transfer of ownership. I once saw a seller in ebay selling a second hand Adobe Creative Suite 3 Premium for only $300 dollars.
 
Thanks
MacDesign

Hi Traxor,
 
The 20" iMac you mentioned is a good choice and its specs are good to last for 3-5 years without the need to upgrade. I am using a 2.4Ghz iMac and adequate to handle all the graphics for both print and web. Photoshop only uses 1-2 cores as of now. Most softwares are still not "written" for multi-core processors like Octo cores. And for ram, I use a third party brand like Kingston and not the Apple branded ram. They are 40 percent cheaper. With the current economic recession, we need to save as much money as we can.
 
 
I bought my Adobe Creative Suite CS4 Web Premium (brand new, sealed) at www.softwaremedia.com This is the retail version. They are based in Utah, USA. They sell it for about $750 US dollars. I don't know how to convert the amount to British Pounds as I live outside UK to determine if it's cheap or not. You can also check out www.resellerratings.com It's a website that compiles all the online stores and rates their customer service. In their search box, just type "Adobe Photoshop CS3 or cS4. Just avoid buying at ecost.com as they have poor customer ratings.
 
Student editions are cheap but not upgradeable to the next version. Better get the retail version. Adobe is very business minded because they have a ruling. Like if you have CS3 and want to upgrade to the new CS5 which is 2 versions higher, you would have to pay more than someone who has CS4. This way Adobe wants people to keep on upgrading regularly.
 
MacDesign

Cant really add much more than what traxor has said. Only thing I could pick at is what it looks like at 1024x768. I guess your average joes wont have much more than that so try to save as much space at the top as you can.

Erm... -1 for me and Traxor for some reason?? lol

Yes affiliatre links area allowed. The admin uses them too (the one saying expression engine is the best CMS available - that is an affiliate link)
 
Traxor makes no hiding of the fact that his is an affiliate link (at least, in most of his posts ive seen) but there is no harm in him recommending them, as they are a good company, and they dont charge any extra if you buy direct or from an affiliate, so its not the end of the world.
 
Reaper

You could look at installing the Apache web server, mySQL database and PHP on your windows machine. Everything is free, so you don't need to worry about cost.
 


 
You can download (and easily install) all of this by installing the XAMPP package, which you can obtain for free here: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
Free web page creator/editor: Kompozer
Here is a link to a site explaining how to set up Apache Web Server for Intranet usage: http://www.irt.org/articles/js160/index.htm
Here is a link to some tutorials for PHP beginners: http://www.keithjbrown.co.uk/vworks/php/php_p1.php
Here is a link to PHP beginner books on amazon.co.uk (I've read books by Wrox Press before and find them to be quite good)

 
 
Hope this helps you

The system has changed, so the system should reset. Plus, it's hardly fair on others if some people have given themselves reputation has it?

The system has changed, so the system should reset. Plus, it's hardly fair on others if some people have given themselves reputation has it?

It's calculated by how many +1s you are given, that's literally it. Before this weekend there was also a '-', that allowed people to give others a negative reputation. So now this is literally just an 'ah thanks!' type of thing, where if someone has genuinely helped, you give them a +1.
 
It is limited to giving 25 per day.

Look at the green '1' at the bottom right of your post, that's repution .
 
View the total in your profile.

Remember the reputation is still in 'trial' period so I'd ignore it if I were you, there is a bit of a fuss about people abusing the reputation system but it's all getting sorted out by the moderators and stuff, so don't fear, the mods are here (somewhere). That being said, if you see unfair negative reputation, then give it a +1 to even it out, do your part .