Ben Compton, Web Developer

Forwarding Traffic To WWW Domain

Ben Compton — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:12:12 +0000

You can alter the way your URL is displayed. By adding a snippet of code into your .htaccess file you can automatically rewrite the URL entered by the user. For example if a vistor goes to the address “yourdomain.com” and you have specified in your .htaccess to rewrite it with the www. then the .htaccess file will automatically change it to “www.yourdomain.com”.

The .htaccess file can be located in the root of your website and can be modifed or created in an unformatted text editor such as notepad or Dreamweaver.

Add the following snippet of code into your .htaccess file:

#Turn the RewriteEngine on.
#You will need to add these rules to the top of your .htaccess file
 
RewriteEngine on
 
#The following code will add a leading www to a domain if it is missing.
 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

Customise Your Website Icon

Ben Compton — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 06:11:38 +0000

You are able to customise your websites icon by using a favicon.ico file. Web browsers will check to see if your website has a Favourites Icon, this icon allows your users to easily identify your site from another in their list of favourites. More modern browsers like IE 7, Firefox and Chrome show the icon in their tabs for easy identification.

This is what a favicon looks like in your browser:

Ben Web Developer uses an image that is 16px*16px and was created in Adobe Photoshop. I generated the favicon file using Dynamic Drive. However there are a few sites that give you the tools to create this file:

Dynamic Drive
“Use this online tool to easily create a favicon (favorites icon) for your site. A favicon is a small, 16×16 image that is shown inside the browser’s location bar and bookmark menu when your site is called up. It is a good way to brand your site and increase it’s prominence in your visitor’s bookmark menu.”
Favicon.co.uk
“This tool will allow you to generate a favicon.ico file from any image on your computer.”
Favicon.cc
“Favicon.cc is a tool to create or download favicon.ico icons, that get displayed in the address bar of every browser.”

Once you have generated your favicon.ico file, you will need to upload it to http://www.yourdomain.com/favicon.ico, your favicon should work straight away. However if it doesnt work or if you have stored your favicon in a different file path then you will need to add the following XHTML code into your section:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.yourdomain.com/path/favicon.ico" />

Alternatively you can use the HTML code:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.yourdomain.com/path/favicon.ico"><link/>

If your website audience is using Internet Explorer 6 or lower then you may want to include the shortcut icon meta data.

Linking Your Blog’s RSS Feed To FeedBurner

Ben Compton — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:10:47 +0000

I have installed FD Feedburner Plugin on my WordPress blog, this enables me to redirect all my RSS feeds to a Google Feedburner site.

You will need a Google Feedburner account before you are able to redirect your RSS feeds, please sign-up here.

Upon installing and activating the plugin, visit its settings page under Plugins >> Feedburner Configuration. In the “Redirect my feeds here” textbox enter the link of your Feedburner site, i.e. http://feeds.feedburner.com/benwebdeveloper. Your sites feeds should now be redirected to your Google Feedburner site, however you may need to edit or make a new post before it takes effect.

Choosing The Right Password!

Ben Compton — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:55:34 +0000

Your password is a secret word or string of characters and is used for authentication, to prove identity or to gain access to a secure area.

It is important that you keep your password a secret from those not allowed access.

You should select a password that is easy to remember but at the same time hard for someone else to guess, below is a list of common guidelines for choosing good passwords:

Include numbers, symbols, upper and lowercase letters in your passwords if the system allows you to.
Your chosen password should be about 12 – 14 characters long, can be longer if you are able to remember it.
Avoid repetions, letter or number sequences, names, pet-names, dictionary words and biograhpical information. i.e 1234, abcd.
If the system allows you to use both upper and lowercase letters and recognises them as signifcant, then you should use this to your advantage.
Your password should be easily remembered and kept secure. (Don’t write your password down!)

What Makes A Good Blog Post?

Ben Compton — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 21:05:19 +0000

Have you ever been wondering what makes a good blog post?

Make Your Opinion Known
People like blogs because they are written by individual people who want to know what other people think.
Add Lots Of Links
Support your post with links that are relevant to your to your post.
Short And Sweet
Try keeping your posts to say 250 words, people will find this easier to remember and it won’t take as much time to read as a long post will.
Snappy Titles
People will often read a blog or post just because it has a simple but effective title.
Lists
Lists provide a simple format for the points you want to get across.
Write With Passion
The more passionate you are about your chosen subject the more likely the user will read the post and other areas of your website.
Keeping Your Style The Same
Once you find a nice design, stick with it, people will then get acustomed to how your site looks and works.
Editing Your Post
Check your posts before you publish, minimise the spelling mistakes and make sure you’ve written what you want to write.

I hope these help you write your own blog. Feel free to write your own blog writing tips!

How To Change Your WordPress Avatar!

Ben Compton — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:29:28 +0000

Ever wondered how to change your WordPress Avatar? You don’t have to anymore!

If you want to change your avatar then you should already have a wordpress account. If you don’t then you can sign up here.

- Go to http://en.gravatar.com/
- You should already be logged in, however if your not then click here to login.
- You should now be shown a page with your email addresses on.
- Click “add a new image”.
- Click on the appropriate button depending on where you are getting your image from.
- Find the image you want to use and press “next”.
- Click “Crop and Finish!” after you have cropped your image to get the bits you want.
- Choose the appropriate rating for the image.
- Select the email addresses you would like to use the image for.
- Finally, click “Use for selected addresses”.

Your avatar should now have changed. If your avatar hasn’t changed then you may need to clear your cache.

Welcome

Ben Compton — Sun, 30 May 2010 06:31:56 +0000

Welcome to my blog. This is my first ever blog entry . I’ll be posting regularly!

I’ll be happy to help anyone if they need with any coding issues..