GoodWebPractices

Linux hosting versus Windows hosting

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:18:36 +0000

In a world that is dominated by the internet and web-pages, choosing the right hosting service is a vital consideration for businesses. Web hosting is provided by a vast number of suppliers but the most common services used are those offered by Linux and Windows.

This means that choosing a web hosting service will often see you comparing these two services. With web hosting differing in terms of reliability, speed, support and format there is plenty for users to consider when making this decision.

Tools to help you easily unsubscribe from spam

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:00:00 +0000

With 2012 just round the corner, you might be planning on being efficient with the time you spend in your inbox in 2012. If that’s the case, today’s post should prove helpful! In this post, I’ll show you two free services (Unsubscribe.com and Unroll.me) which help you unsubscribe to unwanted email otherwise known as junk email, bulk email or spam!

New start-up offers innovative new way to consume media on the move

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:00:00 +0000

The ways in which we consume media have changed dramatically over the last decade; from the rise of the internet and online media that we use today, to the emergence of the Smartphone which has allowed us to stay in touch with global affairs – wherever we are.

Search Engine Optimisation for Non-Profits Training Seminar

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:10:53 +0000

On Tuesday 25th January, I spoke at Manchester’s ‘Net Tuesday’ (a Net Squared initiative), the title of my presentation was Search Engine Optimisation for non-profits 101. In today's post, I am following up on the presentation with an overview of what I presented.

If you run a non for profit website or charity website, this post should help you understand why traffic from search engines is something you should be thinking about when building your site and provide guidance as to how you can make your website more visible in the search engines.

5 Best Joomla Apps for the iPhone

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 06:00:00 +0000

Joomla is a powerful content management solution and the iPhone is arguably the most powerful smartphone on the market. In this article we reveal the five best ways to access and use Joomla on your shiny new Apple iPhone by looking at Joomla Admin Mobile!, BlogPress, JoomlaDo, SHPO and PlexiJmobile.

Joomla + VPS.net - This site is now hosted by VPS.net

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 06:00:00 +0000

I've have moved GoodWebPractices.com to hosting with VPS.net! Find out why...

Choosing a web host is never easy. I created GoodWebPractices in 2007 and over the past 3 years I have changed website host a number of times. In today’s blog post, I will be discussing why I have had to change hosts, and what some of the advantages and drawbacks of choosing a shared hosting provider like HostMonster and MediaTemple over more expensive hosts like VPS.net cloud hosting.

7 Firefox Extensions to Manage Your Life

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:07:26 +0000

Firefox is arguably the most powerful web browser available, partly because of its available add-ons, which include plugins and extensions. While these are commonly confused and misunderstood as synonymous, they’re actually different. Plugins help Firefox perform specific functions like playing various types of multimedia files and viewing special graphic formats. In contrast, extensions add to the existing functionality of Firefox, and range from adding another toolbar element to an entirely new feature. There are thousands of available Firefox extensions, but here are just 7 geared toward helping you manage your life.

Tools for Living your Social Media Life Efficiently

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 02:50:34 +0000

One of the things that I spend a little bit of time on each week is trying to find new applications to test out and integrate into my daily life. I want to be as efficient as possible with email, social networking, writing, and communicating in general. No doubt, after a few years of switching between applications, at some point I would be settling on one set of tools that allow me to perform all of my tasks very well and very efficiently.

Here is a list of those tools:

shopability' - Twintrview with Pamela Hazelton

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:23:57 +0000

Pamela Hazelton has a very simple focus when it comes to consulting clients on their eCommerce websites, and that focus is described in one word; Shopability. Now to me, shopability seems like a pretty broad topic of conversation, so I wanted to find out more from Pamela herself on what she does and how she helps her clients succeed.

The transcript below is from the interview that I had with her about eCommerce, Social Media and Mobile Devices. She has a lot of great insight into how people act when they use the web, and I'm very glad that she was able to have a talk with me about this.

If you have any questions for Pamela or if you would like to get in touch with her about your own projects, you can do so at her website or on Twitter, @pamelahazelton.

If you are interested in following other Developer Interviews, you can follow me at @twintrview or at the hashtag #twtv.

Twinterview with Kyle Ledbetter: New Joomla Template for iPad

Tue, 18 May 2010 06:00:00 +0000

I was recently given the opportunity to chat with Kyle Ledbetter in another great Twitter Interview about his latest creation for Joomla Administrator Templates, AdminPad for the iPad. You may remember Kyle from other Joomla news that we have written about here, including the original Joomla Administrator Template, AdminPraise, and a great extension, PraisePositions.

As with the last twinterview with Andrew Eddie, I have copied the transcript below for those who were not able to follow along live. If you are interested in following other Developer Interviews (with both Joomla and Palm webOS Developers), you can follow me at @twintrview or at the hashtag #twtv.

Twitter Interview with Andrew Eddie about Joomla 1.6

Sat, 15 May 2010 06:00:00 +0000

If you have been following all of the latest Joomla news on Twitter, you may have recently seen my Interview with Andrew Eddie about the upcoming release of Joomla 1.6 Beta. If you didnt get a chance to see it, I have copied all of the transcript here to Good Web Practices for your viewing pleasure.

If you liked the way that this interview went, you can follow me for more Joomla and Palm webOS Developer Interviews at @twintrview or #twtv.

SAScon Manchester 2010 - Live blogging

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 06:00:00 +0000

I am attending SAScon in Manchester today the 28th of April. Following on from the success of live blogging at Think Visibility 2010, I will be live blogging from SAScon in Manchester today.

SAScon stands for Search, Analytics and Social Media Conference. It is Manchester s first major not-for-profit search marketing conference and looking at the speakers list, it has the potential to be one of the best search conferences in 2010.

Today, I will be covering the following sessions: The Online Video Revolution - How Video Is Taking Over the Web, Search and Social Media, Black Hat/White Hat - does it matter any more?, Who is best positioned to exploit the social media opportunity, Running a Pan-European Search Campaign, Advanced Link Building and The Evolution of Search

Think Visibility 2010 - Live blogging

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:00:00 +0000

I am attending Think Visibility 2010 in Leeds today (March 13th) and will be blogging live from the event.

Think Visibility is a conference for people working in online marketing and covers topics like SEO, viral marketing, conversion optimisation and affiliates.

I will be covering 8 sessions today: Local SEO strategies by Tom Critchlow, SEO case studies by Judith Lewis, Conversion rate tips and tricks by Stephen Pavlovich, Building a successful presence for your website in social news by Andrew Burnet, Making more hours with outsourcing and automation by Al Carlton and When the BBC met SEO by John O'Donovan

BuyMobilePhones.net: My Cashback Experience

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:00:00 +0000

You might have been surprised recently to see mobile phone offers in the UK which look too good to be true: a free phone with an 18 month contract with free line rental via cashback! So the total cost of the phone and the contract after cashback is nothing!

Are deals like this actually too good to be true?

In this post, I reveal my experience of buying a mobile phone contract with cashback redemption from buymobilephones.net...

SAScon Manchester, UK - Search, Analytics and Social Media Conference

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:48:07 +0000

It is an exciting day in the North-West of England for Search Marketers as today marks the launch of SASCon, a Search, Analytics and Social Media conference in Manchester. The conference will be on the 28th of April 2010 at Manchester s Bridgewater Hall.

4 tips to starting your keyword research with SEM Rush

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Keyword research is a must for those that are keen to be extra efficient in with the potential of their website. For competitive niches, it is a must.

You can get great visibility without keyword research and competitive analysis, but trust me, it becomes a whole lot easier!!

So, there are a number of keyword research and competitive analysis tools that could help you, but here I am going to focus on SEM Rush - a tool that tries to visualise the market place beyond a keyword-by-keyword basis.

What do you measure in SEO?

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:00:00 +0000

The inspiration for this post came from a conversation I had earlier this week with someone working in a finance job. He asked me the question "What do you measure in SEO". When carrying out SEO work, there are two relevant measures: measures of productivity and measuring results...

Interview with Nicholas Patten: Designer Extraordinaire

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:55:48 +0000

I recently was able to have a chat with Nicholas Patten, a designer and video editor out of New York City, about the work that he does. The guy has a lot to say about the web, design, video and work in general, so I thought it would be of great value to the readers at GWP to get a first-hand look into his life and skills.

After you are done reading the interview, be sure to grab the twitter background that he made exclusively for us. It is 1900x1440 and looks fantastic - which is right in suite with everything else he has done.

AnotherGuys Writing Experiment - A Lesson on Content

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:00:38 +0000

When it comes to writing good quality content on your website or blog, nothing beats having a lot of experience.

Practicing writing on a daily basis allows you to develop a stronger ability to communicate your ideas in word, a unique writing style that draws people in, and most importantly the power to influence your readers into taking action.

The Ultimate FireFox setup for SEOs

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:30:38 +0000

The beauty of FireFox is the fact that you can install extensions to adjust it to your needs... As an SEO, an SEO-tuned FireFox is an important tool in my job.

In this post I reveal which FireFox extensions I use.

iPhone Speaker Reviews built with Joomla

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:18:29 +0000

We have recently had contact with Steven Johnson at Intown Web Design.

Steven has rebuilt his iPhone Speaker Reviews website, so we thought we would take a look at how hes done it...

The website was created with Joomla and optimised using a number of extensions. Steven heavily customised the Alledia Bolt Template to create a unique template for the site.

JAM to some Joomla on your iPhone

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:09:13 +0000

We have had a few articles written about the AdminPraise template by JoomlaPraise, and at last the team has done it again by releasing J! Admin Mobile (JAM) and J! Admin Mobile Lite (JAM Lite) for the iPhone. With these two apps you can use your iPhone or iPod Touch device to manage your Joomla websites.

While it may be a bit difficult to pay $10 to use JAM on your device, there is no excuse to not try out the free (but ad supported) JAM Lite asap. I am excited to be able to try it out on my iPod Touch soon, and also interested in reading what some of you think about the new Lite version.

Check out the feature list on the download page at CovertApps, and the come back here to tell us what you thought.

Using Windows Live Writer with Joomla

Sat, 09 May 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Windows! Windows Live Writer? You might be surprised to find us recommending a Microsoft product, but Windows Live Writer is brilliant desktop blogging application that is amazingly simple to use and outputs surprisingly clean code.

In todays post we will be explaining how to setup Windows Live Writer with your Joomla website by using the MovableType XML-RPC plugin.

Join us in Probloggers "31 Days to Build a Better Blog"

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:24:30 +0000

We've been having an awesome time working with this blog and several others in our spare time, but we also understand that there comes a point when things need to be stepped up a notch. The Good Web Practices team will be joing almost 10,000 other bloggers from around the world, and Darren Rowse from Problogger in "31 Days to Build a Better Blog".

It starts today, but it's not too late to sign-up, so please go do so now! Hopefully soon there will be a great increase in content coming from us, and we want to see how you get along as well, so be sure to let us know how things are going in the comments.

Hope to see you there!

Unlimited Online Backup from Mozy and Carbonite

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:00:00 +0000

What would happen if someone stole your computer, or if your computer got burnt to ashes in a fire? Would you lose all your data, or do you backup the contents of your hard drive using an online backup service like Mozy or Carbonite?

Today we are going to have a quick look at why it is important to consider using an online backup service and we will then discuss which solution we use.

Wordpress vs Joomla vs Drupal

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:00:00 +0000

It was only time that kept bloggers around the world from writing their comparisons of the three major Content Management Systems (Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal) - and that time is finally up. People everywhere are breaking out their laptops and logging into their blogs to share what they believe are reasons for choosing this software or that.... and yet most of them seemed to have missed the important reasons why someone might choose one CMS over another.

So I'm taking it upon myself to spread some much needed understanding of the three systems and hopefully help you decide which one is best for you.

Green Car Reviews from Greenobile.com

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:00:00 +0000

We wanted to share with you the news that Greenobile.com has officially launched today.

Looking at the Greenobile site, it will probably come as a surprise to learn that Greenobile is powered by the Joomla content management system.

The site shows what can be achieved with Joomla when a good Joomla developer puts in a lot of hours to build something truly unique!

12 Tips on Outsourcing Your Online Content

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:00:00 +0000

The key to driving traffic to your website, and to keep your regular visitors interested in your website, is to ensure that the content is interesting, up to date and refreshed on a regular basis. Feeding your readers' insatiable appetite for news, tips, reviews and articles is more than a full time job for serious bloggers - there comes a point when most decide to outsource a few articles a week.

However, this is a time consuming task and hiring a full time team of content writers may not be economically viable, especially if you run a small business.

Tips for Productive Email Use

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:40:57 +0000

The world moves faster today than it ever has before. In the past, postal mail (also known as snail-mail) was used to send messages to a distant relative, a business partner, or an old friend. Anywhere between several days and several weeks would pass by before the notice ever made it to the addressed person.

As time went on that amount of time greatly decreased with faster modes of transportation being invented, until finally in the early 1900's we found ourselves using telephones.

Almost overnight the system of choice for sending messages switched over from letters, to telephone. Still, though, important documents and signed legal notices were transported via the traditional postal method... that is until the fax machine was invented.

NinjaTheme - A Joomla template club with a Twist!

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:42:24 +0000

The majority of Joomla template clubs are similar in the way they operate as they design and create templates that you can use on your Joomla websites.

It looks like NinjaTheme are doing things differently by running a competition to get people to design templates, with the winning entry being developed into a Joomla template and released to the Joomla community...

To do this, NinjaTheme have received sponsorship to develop a user generated travel related theme from Mauritius Connection and Caribbean Connection.