Digital Pacific Company Blog

The Most Popular Free and Open Source Shopping Carts

Digital Pacific — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:47:32 +0000

A shopping cart is a system that is set up on a website with the sole focus of listing and selling products via the Internet. These systems will integrate into the main website and generally provide a back-end or dashboard area that lets the owner do all of the administrative work involved. This work includes: updating and modifying content; listing, organising and pricing products; printing invoices; and tracking inventory. A shopping cart gives you the ability to run an e-commerce business.

Most of the popular shopping carts today are actually Open Source. What this means is that the source code for the software is available for anyone to modify and enhance, which ultimately means that many people from all over the world are creating features and upgrading security all the time. Just like with many content management systems, such as WordPress and Joomla!, these shopping cart systems are put together in a way that many non-tech-savvy individuals can use them without getting their hands too dirty with code.

We have compiled an entire list of both free and open source shopping carts that can be hosted with Digital Pacific. A wide variety of our clients use these shopping carts to build an online business that allows them to sell products and services online.

Here are 9 of the most popular Shopping Carts hosted at Digital Pacific:

Magento

Magento’s slogan is that it is an “ecommerce platform for growth”, and this indicates that the type of businesses using the system are those looking to have the ability to become much larger without the need to change to a new ecommerce program down the road. Originally released in 2008, Magento has already had more than 1.5 million downloads, but that’s not hard to believe when the perks of this package include a very streamlined and powerful back-end and a fairly easy to theme capability. They even offer both a free and open source “Community Edition” and a paid “Enterprise Edition” of the software. While the Magento “Community Edition” is a powerful tool, the “Enterprise Edition” takes the website to a whole new level. Some features to note of the upgraded version are the ability to issue gift vouchers, as well as the ability to issue store credits.

The downside to Magento seems to be its rather large size. Not only is it a huge download, but it is a little slower and tends to require a bit more power. We often recommend to our customers to go with a VPS hosting package in order to see the best results with Magento.

Demo: http://www.magentocommerce.com/demo
Open Source: Yes – Magento Community Edition Only
Price: Free
Platform: Ajax / PHP / MySQL
OsCommerce

OsCommerce has a community of over 230,000 people, as well as a live shops showcase of 12,700 websites listed on their site alone. OsCommerce makes for a popular shopping cart system not only because of its free and open source nature, but also because of its out of the box functionality. In addition, there are over 5,900 add-ons that can give the online shop additional features depending on your specific needs alone. OsCommerce has been around since 2000, which means it has withstood the test of time and now has a large community that can aid in support and growth.

The main downside of using osCommerce as your shopping cart of choice stems from its past criticisms of security vulnerabilities, but that more recently appears to be mended by its upgrade to MySQL 5 and PHP 5.

Demo: http://demo.oscommerce.com/
Open Source: Yes
Price: Free
Platform: PHP / MySQL
Zen Cart

Zen Cart was released in 2007 as an off-shoot of the osCommerce system. The shopping cart features a list of useful integrations like accepting payments through PayPal, the setup of shipping and tax modules and even the use of different languages and currencies. Zen Cart is a fully open source program, meaning the price is free to those willing and capable of installing on their own. Even in the free version, it offers gift vouchers and newsletter management to shop owners.

A downside to this shopping cart is the inability to truly customise certain features without editing some of the core files of the system.

Demo: http://php.opensourcecms.com/scripts/details.php?scriptid=97
Open Source: Yes
Price: Free
Platform: PHP / MySQL
CubeCart

CubeCart , like Magento, provides both a free (version 3) and paid version (version 4) of their shopping cart. Understandably, the paid version (that can run for $180) boasts added features and capabilities, such as the use of gift vouchers and alternate checkouts. However, both of the carts provide a powerful ecommerce package that manages to keep the HTML and PHP code separate. When it comes to those with less coding knowledge, this feature is a major plus. Perhaps that is one of the reasons CubeCart is used in over a million shops worldwide. A downside to this shopping cart is the inability to truly customise certain features without editing some of the core files of the system.

The downside to using CubeCart stems from the fact that it isn’t an open source software, therefore not free to use at the more functional level. Unlike Magento, CubeCart’s free version is also not open source, which means that the features that are lacking in this model are put there for a reason by the company in order to coerce the user into upgrading. The free version, for example, lacks the ability to change text in the footer, or even to add new skins, which are pretty much key elements in creating a website’s look and feel.

Demo: http://www.cubecart.com/demos/
Open Source: No
Price: CubeCart Version 3 – Free, CubeCart Version 4 – Paid
Platform: PHP / MySQL
PrestaShop

PrestaShop , released in 2007, is a fully open source and free shopping cart platform for your ecommerce website. With only 33,000 shops using this software, it may not be as popular as some other carts, but it definitely has a full list of features that say it is here to stay. Moreover, the software claims to run without major headaches for shoppers, even for those on slower connections, because of its incredibly small size. This shopping cart is generally good for small to medium sized endeavours.

Despite its size, there have been a few reviews out there claiming that the software’s back-end functions at a slower speed. In addition, it may lack some of the more advanced features of other carts like product bundling.

Demo: http://www.prestashop.com/en/showcase_demo/
Open Source: Yes
Price: Free
Platform: PHP / MySQL
OpenCart

OpenCart boasts its support of over 20 payment gateways and more than 8 shipping methods. It is a free and fully open source shopping cart with the features to back up the claims of functionality. OpenCart says it can house unlimited products with unlimited categories in multiple languages and currencies. The organisation of OpenCart’s files is also another big plus for web developers.

Besides all of these perks, there is some caution to take as a few reviews speak of the number of bugs out there in the system. It is a good idea to take a look around the support forums to get a better idea of what to expect with the shopping cart.

Demo: http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=information/demonstration
Open Source: Yes
Price: Free
Platform: PHP / MySQL
Ubercart

Ubercart is a completely free and open source shopping cart, but it must be run in conjunction with the content management system, Drupal. The main draw of this system is the ability to build a community that revolves around the shop or product being sold. This occurs because of the shopping cart’s features to allow the selling of registrations and downloads in addition to tangible products, all while working into the normal website and Drupal features.
Although powerful, the main drawback for Ubercart is the fact that it can only be integrated with a Drupal CMS, which for new users can require a steep learning curve in order to gain full functionality.

Demo: http://demo.ubercart.org/
Open Source: Yes
Price: Free
Platform: Drupal – PHP / MySQL
AgoraCart

AgoraCart is yet another open source and free shopping cart system that Digital Pacific customers use to create an online shop. First released in 2000, AgoraCart has a long life-span, yet lacks the followers that other shopping carts have, even given the features it offers. AgoraCart shops can manage product bundling and pricing, discounts and digital goods to name a few. Additionally, web developers and designers appreciate the easy-to-work with and enhance platform.
The downside of this product starts with the fact that additional modules can only be accessed if paying for a membership.

The downside of this product starts with the fact that additional modules can only be accessed if paying for a membership.

Demo: http://www.agoracart.com/demos.htm
Open Source: Yes
Price: Free
Platform: PHP / MySQL
VirtueMart

VirtueMart is a very popular free and open source shopping cart solution with over 2.5 million downloads worldwide. Like UberCart, this cart must be used in conjunction with a content management system, that being Joomla!. VirtueMart offers a full range of features including the ability for shoppers to register and track their transactions. An unlimited number of products can potentially be supported in these carts, but it is generally recommended for sites that get no more than a medium-sized traffic.
Although powerful, the main drawback for Ubercart is the fact that it can only be integrated with a Drupal CMS, which for new users can require a steep learning curve in order to gain full functionality.

The downside to this robust cart is the fact that it must be used in conjunction with Joomla!, which for some with little knowledge of these products can cause more confusion than help. Other items of concern include some reviews that actually comment on bits of messy code in areas.

Demo: http://virtuemart.net/home/demo
Open Source: Yes
Price: Free
Platform: Joomla – PHP / MySQL
As with any software, it is important to consider your needs in relation to the software and its features before making a final decision. Here are some points we urge our customers to evaluate before going further:
- Are there postage and payment modules available for the shopping cart that target both Australian and overseas customers if need be? A good place to check is with the community forums on the product’s main website.
- Have you tried the demo for both the admin and user side to see if the shopping cart meets your goals as an online shop owner?
- Are you capable of updating the software when necessary in order to protect yourself against security vulnerabilities? Just as we noted before with content management systems, many of which are also open source, there is the need to keep them updated with the latest versions to get the most functionality and protection as possible.
- Is your web hosting capable of handling the software? The main concern here is to make sure there is a MySQL database available as all of the systems above run using one. All of Digital Pacific’s hosting plans (except personal basic) offer MySQL Databases.
As you can see, there are numerous shopping cart systems out there that can help you get an online shop running in no time. However, they each appear to have their pluses and their minuses, so the best method for selection is to take a look around at the demos to see which one works for you and your business.

Do you use one of these shopping carts on this list? If so, leave us a quick review about why you recommend it (or not) by submitting a comment below!

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Related posts:

5 Reasons to Choose Australian Web Hosting

Digital Pacific — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:26:51 +0000

If you are a business based in Australia, then the best hosting option for you is with an Australian company. Here is a list of 5 reasons why you should choose an Australian web host as opposed to hosting overseas.

Support – There could possibly be a huge time difference when dealing with an overseas company, which makes you wonder what you will do when/if problems arise. When your company in Australia is awake and processing during business hours, the web hosting company could potentially be off-shift, meaning very limited support. Who wants to be caught at a very important time with no support? More importantly, if you do manage to catch them on working hours, it is being done with a very long-distance phone call.

Updates – In the same sense as above, working hours can greatly vary between your Australian business and the web hosting company. Because of this, updates to your hosting account, which run at the best time for the company overseas and the majority of their customers, can actually be run at peak times for you. That means there is a high potential for website downtime when it would otherwise be helping to make you money.

Speed – Consider the distance information must travel to get from your web host to you if starting from overseas. The transfer of data could come at a delayed speed, thus slowing down the processing of your website, as well as server uploads and downloads. Who wants to have a slow website, let alone visit one?

SEO – This is a debatable point, but still one worth making. By not choosing an Australian web host when marketing towards an Australian audience, Google, for example, may not rank your site as highly as it should. It is said that the IP address for your host can determine your website’s location, meaning it might not process properly in the Australian search engine if it is hosted in the US or UK.

Currency – Sometimes, choosing to buy products and services in another currency can have a very pleasing and positive outcome. This generally occurs when the currency of an overseas company gets you more for your money. The problem with choosing web hosting with this idea in mind, however, is that currency fluctuates and what is a cheap plan for you now could take a wrong turn and actually double in price in the future. Because of this, hosting packages purchased in your own currency can help provide stability for you and your website during shaky economic times.

As an Australian business or individual looking for the best way to market a website online to an Australian audience, it is wise to consider the above points when choosing a web host. With these five reasons in mind, it is truly hard to imagine choosing anything other than an Australian based provider.

Clearing Your Browser’s Cache

Digital Pacific — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:12:35 +0000

In order to speed up web surfing, web browsers will store pertinent website files, such as images and pages. This storage is known as the browser’s cache or temporary internet files, and allows for websites to load up quickly as these files can be pulled without the need of re-downloading. In this way, cache is a beneficial feature of web browsers.

On the other hand, the browser’s cache is like a paper trail of the websites someone has visited. Because of this, a web user’s privacy is at risk when the cache is left to build up. It also takes up space on the computer, as well as keeps changes from sometimes taking immediate effect. This is because the browser displays a previously cached version of an image or web page instead of downloading the most recent from the server.

To combat the negative features of your browser’s cache, it is a good idea to occasionally clear these stored files. The process is quite easy and can be completed with the following steps, depending on your web browser of course.

Clearing Cache in Internet Explorer 7 (IE7)
Clearing Cache in Internet Explorer 8 (IE8)
Clearing Cache in Firefox 3
Clearing Cache in Safari (Mac Users)

Clearing Cache in IE7

Click on “Tools” in the main Internet Explorer menu bar at the top of your browser.
Select the option to “Delete Browsing History”.

Select the “Delete Files” button next to the “Temporary Internet Files” section.

Click “Yes” when prompted.

Clearing Cache in IE8

Click on “Tools” in the main Internet Explorer menu bar at the top of your browser.

Select the option to “Delete Browsing History”.

Check the box next to “Temporary Internet Files”.

Select the “Delete” button at the bottom of the screen.

Clearing Cache in Firefox 3

Click on “Tools” in the main Firefox menu bar at the top of your browser.

Select the option to “Clear Recent History”.

In the “Time Range to Clear” drop-down box, select “Everything”.

Select the arrow button next to “Details” to view a list of options. Check only the box next to “Cache”.

Click the “Clear Now” button.

**There is also the option in Firefox to enable “Private Browsing”, which is a mode where Firefox does not cache or store any information about the websites visited during that time. It can be accessed and turned on in the “Tools” menu as well.

Mac Users – Safari

Click on “Safari” in the main menu bar at the top of your browser.
Scroll down and select the “Empty Cache” option.

Select “Empty” when prompted.

Find this article helpful? Let us know! Leave a comment below.
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Will changing web hosts cause any SEO concerns?

Digital Pacific — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:19:58 +0000

Many people often feel trapped with their web hosting company once they have established a website and built up a presence with it on the Internet. Basically their concerns lie in the question of whether a change of web hosts will affect their SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), and it is a phone call our sales department receives daily.

To assist with this issue, we are going directly to the source and pulling information from Matt Cutts. Matt Cutts is a very important man over at Google, first making himself known by signing on as a software engineer with the company in 2000 and now working for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimisation issues. He takes the time to spell out the answers to common SEO and Google related questions in a series of blogs and videos. The video below addresses the question of whether changing a web host will affect a website’s SEO.

Long story short, moving web hosts should not cause any major issues with SEO whatsoever.

Matt explains that the domain name and information for the website remains the same. The main change will be with the IP address for the website, but even that is generally not a problem – especially if your hosting in the same country. In order to make the change to a new web host as smooth as possible, he suggests to decrease the DNS time to live (TTL) to about 5 minutes to make up for any caching that might be done to the old IP address. After that, the DNS can be changed to point to the new hosting.

Customers can contact us to decrease the TTL, and it is a common request by many that we are happy to process. We hope this helps to answer the question a bit better, and for those that still have questions, feel free to leave a comment below and we will be happy to address this further.

Gravatars – Globally Recognised Avatars

Digital Pacific — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:29:10 +0000

Anyone that has left a comment on a blog or participated in an online forum has probably come across the word “Gravatar” before. If that word seems unfamiliar, then you actually might be more familiar with this little gray image of a mystery man that is so commonly displayed when no Gravatar is available. Either way you know it, there is no doubt about it that a personalised image in that location most always looks better.

So, what’s a Gravatar?

A Gravatar is simply a Globally Recognised Avatar. This avatar is an image that you upload to the Gravatar.com website, which is then tied to your email address. From that point on, whenever you leave a comment on a blog or forum using that specific email address, the avatar picture from Gravatar.com will show up as your image. The avatar is globally recognised meaning that any website (as most WordPress blogs and others are initially set up to use) that has the Gravatar system in place will automatically display your personal Gravatar.

How can a Gravatar help me?

Everything on the Web these days is about promotion, promotion, promotion. Your personally selected Gravatar can help you to build an online presence, which is especially important for online businesses. Do you plan on leaving comments on popular blogs and forums? Then definitely get a Gravatar! Web users will be able to know at a glance who is taking part in the conversation, and that says a lot when working with online marketing.

Tip: Think about using your business logo as the image. This definitely helps in the branding process, but if you are looking to make your business appear a little more “personable”, a photo of the person in charge of using the Gravatar can feel more inviting.

To set up a Gravatar of your own, simply register a free account on the Gravatar.com website. Once logged in, upload your chosen image and crop to reach your desired target output. Just save and start commenting!

What if I want to have Gravatars displayed on my website?

If you don’t already have the Gravatar system activated on your own website or blog, you’re in luck because a number of popular platforms and content management systems have plugins available to help get it up and running in no time at all! There are plugins for WordPress, Drupal, Joomla!, Blogger, Movable Type and Ruby on Rails to name a few. Just access the Gravatar plugins page to start the process of integrating Gravatar into your website.

Let us see your Gravatar!

We would love to see what kind of Gravatar you are using, and you can do so by leaving a comment below. Tell us a bit about why you chose that one specifically if you have a few minutes to spare.

How to Integrate Twitter With Your Website or Blog

Digital Pacific — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:51:49 +0000

In order to get the most out of Twitter, it is a good idea to integrate it with your current website or blog. While using Twitter on it’s own is a method for building up your online brand and making business contacts, integration helps to increase awareness of this other forum for web visitor and website owner interaction. There are a few great ways to make this Twitter integration happen, but using them will depend on the type of website or blog you have.

Twitter Widgets

If you log in to the Twitter website and click on the link in the footer called “Goodies”, you will reach a page that links to Twitter widgets. In this section, widgets can be created that you can then embed into your website’s code. This will automatically update as your Tweets update, meaning you can possibly gain more Twitter interaction if a website visitor sees the widget and becomes interested.

Below is an example of our twitter profile widget. You can easily change the appearance and dimensions using the online customisation settings.

These widgets are able to display either your latest tweets, search results, favorite tweets or list of tweeps. After choosing your preferred method of display, there are various options to customise the look and feel so that it can fit into the website without being overwhelming to the overall design. The widgets work for HTML and CSS based websites, as well as blogs and those sites driven by a CMS.

Plugins, Extensions & Modules for CMS

Content management systems have a number of additional features that can be added on through either plugins, extensions or modules, and it just so happens that there are some that work to integrate Twitter.

WordPress, for example, has a number of Twitter plugins available for blogs, such as:

The Joomla! extensions directory lists:

Drupal users can integrate Twitter using the:

Once installed and activated into the content management system, they should seamlessly display Twitter content on the website.

Classic Buttons & Icons for Any Site

If neither of these options works as your integration method, there are still the classic Twitter buttons and icons that let web visitors know you can also be found on Twitter. This method works for any type of website or blog. The “Goodies” section of the Twitter website features a list of these buttons in addition to the widgets, but many icon resources on the web provide much more fun and imaginative icons that really make a mark. The Twitter Icon Factory is one such resource, and it alone contains over 60 pages of unique designs to choose from. See below for some examples.

All three options are great ways to integrate Twitter into your website, but we’re sure there are many more. Let us know if you have any interesting methods for integrating Twitter with your website by leaving us a comment.

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

Digital Pacific — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:37:29 +0000

Many people phone Digital Pacific to ask if we can run a particular type of content management system (CMS), even ones not listed on our Extended Support page. 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.

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.

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.

SSL Certificates Explained

Digital Pacific — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:30:37 +0000

For the normal person looking to get online, searching through a web host’s website can simply be a confusing list of technological terms and abbreviations. Just one quick look at the Digital Pacific site and you will probably encounter a number of them, such as Gb, VPS and MySQL, right off the bat. Do you happen to know what all of these terms refer to?

If not, (it’s OK!) then there’s a good chance that SSL also makes that list of confusing terms, but it definitely doesn’t have to. That’s why we’re going to break it down and explain why SSL certificates are important to ANY website owner that wishes to exchange sensitive information with customers via their website.

What does an SSL certificate do?

Basically, an SSL (secure socket layer) certificate protects the information that is being transferred between a web user and the server. That information can be credit card details while making an online transaction, login details for protected pages of websites and file transfers. An SSL certificate sends the information in an encrypted form, up to 256-bit, so as to provide security to both the web user and website owner.

Do I need an SSL certificate?

If you are a website owner looking to take part in ecommerce or to provide a secure area in your site, then YES, you will need an SSL certificate!

What are the benefits of using an SSL certificate?

An SSL certificate authenticates a website, providing peace of mind to your visitors as well as yourself. The benefits of using an SSL certificate include the following:

• Website authentication and business validation proof for web visitors
• Secure transactions and information transfer
• Chance for increased web sales since customers feel more comfortable

You may not realize it, but the GeoTrust seal that comes with our SSL certificates says a lot to wary online shoppers. GeoTrust provides products for more than 100,000 customers around the world, making them more than just a company, but a household name when it comes to Internet security. There are seals to match each of the different SSL certificates available that can be displayed on your website to provide immediate trust to your customers; some even have an instant click-to-verify capability. With today’s online environment swarming with hackers, scammers and identity thieves, there is every reason to invest in an SSL certificate, and no reason not to.

Beyond the seals, an SSL certificate provides a “locked” lock icon in the bottom of your browser window that will display a certificate’s information when clicked. Some certificates go as far as providing a different colour address bar that also displays the lock icon and credentials.

If you would like to learn more about the SSL certificates on offer at Digital Pacific, please take a closer look at our SSL Certificates page. As always, our sales and support teams are ready to answer any additional questions you might have.

Hopefully this aids you in understanding the SSL certificate a bit more in non-technological terms. Please do let us know if you found this article helpful by leaving a comment below!

Creative Ways to Choose a Domain Name

Digital Pacific — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:31:07 +0000

1.Use Keywords

When a good domain name is taken, such as one matching your business name, then using a combination of keywords is a good alternate route. Make a list of words and phrases that web users might be entering into search engines to find a site like yours, and then come up with a catchy combination that you can still register.

2.Use Hyphens

Break up words in your desired domain name with hyphens if the name is already taken.

3.Different Extension

The .com and .com.au extensions are going to naturally be the most popular and well-known extensions to Australians, so the chance of your name being gone is more likely on these extensions. If possible, try choosing another extension, such as .net and .net.au if the registration requirements can be met.

4.Drop Letters

Flickr made a bold move by dropping that last vowel, but it has been something both innovative and marketable on their behalf. However, marketable is the key word here. If you do decide to drop a letter, you will need to make sure this name is marketed quite well in order to make sure web users are accessing the right page.

5.Domain Hacking

Domain hacking has become quite popular these days with the rollout of numerous new domain extensions. The extension .me, for example, has led domain registrants to choose cute domains like love.me and contact.me. It is also possible to split a word up to include the extension like in revie.ws. As with dropping letters, these types of domains need to be marketed well in order to ensure the web user will understand where the extension is involved.

6.Acronyms

Acronyms are a great way to break down long names and phrases into a short and memorable domain name. Of recent popularity are the acronyms brought about by texting slang, such as omg.com (Oh My God) and idk.com (I Don’t Know).

7.Subdomains

Subdomains easily open up a number of witty domain name ideas. Subdomains go in front of the main domain name and can combine with the main domain to both categorise and create something catchy. A quick example could involve the main domain of for-you.com. If this website sells different products, there could be subdomains tossed in like flowers.for-you.com and chocolate.for-you.com.

8.Merge Words

Creating new words from merging two keywords or descriptive words is yet another creative option. Wordoid is a website that specially helps with this process. All you do is enter in a word that you would definitely like to have in your name, and then it “automagically” presents you with various ideas.

9.Prefixes and Suffixes

The iPhone has now caused a trend of applications that are named starting with the letter “i”, so it is always a possibility to follow suit and try adding a prefix of your own. Fun suffixes can also turn a normal and used up domain name into something new. Take the popular –ster ending that can take a normal domain from blog.com to blogster.com and so on.

Five Fantastic Add-ons for Firefox

Digital Pacific — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:07:48 +0000

Firefox is definitely Digital Pacific’s web browser of choice, and we gladly recommend it to any of our customers. Like Internet Explorer, Firefox retrieves website files and then renders them together to present the website that you view on the screen before you. Mozilla Firefox works in true open source fashion by allowing users to customise its look, feel and functionality with the addition of numerous add-ons. These add-ons give the web browser the ability to do everything from social bookmarking your favourite blog posts to helping you edit a website’s code.

Here are five of our favourite Firfox Add-ons

1. Firebug

Firebug allows you to view, browse and edit a preview version of a website’s code as you look at it in your browser. Better yet, you get to do it without having to open up any other programs! Just click on the tiny little Firebug icon in the bottom-right corner of Firefox and a window will open up directly in your current browser with access to the code. This little add-on also allows you to try out different options on a live website without affecting the live code.

2. ColorfulTabs

ColorfulTabs does just what the name says; it makes each of your open website tabs a different colour. This can not only make your web browser prettier, but it can also help you with tab organisation and quick tab identification. ColorfulTabs is one of the simplest Firefox add-ons, but it is definitely one of the most popular.

3. Fire Gestures

Fire Gestures provides the ability to take its five different mouse gestures and link them to various commands. With this awesome add-on, you can make opening different browser tabs, or click the forward and back buttons, a breeze. The add-on’s homepage provides an entire list of mapping options to apply to each gesture including enlarging and reducing an image’s size, accessing Firefox options and translating a page’s language.

4. YSlow

Yslow is especially great for web developers, but anyone interested in web design can benefit by using this Firefox add-on. YSlow analyses a website’s performance, and the criteria with which it uses to determine this level can be customised. Besides that, it will provide a list of suggestions that can be used to make it better. This add-on works in conjunction with Firebug, so of course, that add-on should be installed as well in order for YSlow to function.

5. Delicious Bookmarks

Delicious Bookmarks is a Firefox add-on that helps you to quickly and easily bookmark your favourite websites and blogs. With the integration into the toolbar, you can even access and search your bookmarks, view and search your tags and share via the Internet. For those concerned about consistency between the web version and the toolbar version, you will be happy to know there is a synchronise feature to keep the both the same.

Last time I checked, there were a couple thousand Firefox add-ons to choose from in their add-on repository, and these are just five! So, even if there wasn’t anything in this entry that you would enjoy integrating with Firefox, it would still be worthwhile searching the add-on site for a desired feature.

As always, we want to know which add-ons you would recommend, and why. Leave us a comment below to add to this list.

If you would like to learn more about Internet Explorer and Firefox – the two most popular web browsers – please read more in Browser Compatibility.

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