Melissa's Corner

Many people create websites for many reasons. It may vary from a business purposes to a hobby. When I first had a website, I didn’t know a whole lot compared to what I know now. Like everyone, my very first website was a free one until one day I decided that I needed more control and now I run a site that has its own domain name and webhosting. In fact, I currently have a total of three sites running concurrently under one host.

A little about Free Websites

Free websites do have their place if you are only starting out and you don’t typically need a lot of advanced features like having a forum included in your website. More than likely, you would have to go a domain name and webhost to take advantage of that. Most free hosts do not have the stuff you need in order to install a forum.

What Do You Need to Develop a Website

In this section, I am going to discuss what is needed when it comes to paying for a website.

What you need is this:

A domain Name

Webhost

A little About Domain Names

Buying a domain name is cheap. When I first bought my first domain name, I was spending $15 dollars a year only because I didn’t know of any other sites that charged less for the money. Now I spend less than $10 per year per domain name.

When you do buy a domain name, come up with a name that suites what your website is all about. The key to a good domain name is one that is easy to remember.
A little about Webhosts
A domain name is only just a name so you need some sort of host. Most people I know these days use hostgator. I’ve used them for a couple years and I have hardly had any problems with them. A little about webhosts, they usually meet what you need.

The webhosting Options
There are many different options that you can choose when choosing the webhosting options.

Here are a few options you have:

• Shared
• Reseller
• Dedicated Server
• Virtual private server

Most people will start out on a shared server as that is usually all you need when first starting out. A reseller account is where you can sell hosting to other people to choose. Its great for that, but its also a good way to divide your own websites up. Its the more expensive option than shared. Resellers are typically on shared environment. Then the next step would be the virtual private servers as that is right in between a shared environment and a dedicated server. What it basically is, is where you share a particion with other people on that server. Finally the last option here is Dedicated server where its only you on there and if you are hosting other people.

Lets get to the Fun Part

Now it is time to start building a website once you have done all that I had said before.
Now you have to decide if you want to build a site from scratch or not. You can build the site with only just html and css or using a cms.
If you decide to create a site from scratch, you really need to learn how to create a site from scratch. The other option is that you can install a cms and it will do most of the work for you. Still it will be helpful for you to learn html in order to do everything you want to do to make the site look good.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that it does take time to learn everything. If you are willing to learn new things, this is for you and it will be well worth it once you start building your own website. You will be happy on what you had created and as time goes on you will keep on trying to improve it. I have had my website for quite a few years and have never looked back since.

Introduction

Many people who are new to having a website want to have either a content management system or a forum. What are the steps to getting them installed?

Step 1: Get a host

If you have a free website, typically that is not going to cut it unless you have a sql database included in your package.

Step 2: Download it.

Find what CMS or Forum you going to be using and download it. Usually they are zipped up so once you download it, please unzip it. You can use winzip or 7 zip to accomplish that.

Step 3: Download your ftp client

In order to batch upload you need a ftp client. I use ftp core.

Step 4: Set up your database

Most host have a cpanel. Go in there and you will need to set up your database. You will find a icon that says database and you should double click it. There create whatever name you want for your database. After you do that, you will have to set up a username. It should be near the bottom the database screen. There you may choose whatever username and password you like. Once that is done then you need to connect it to your database. Where it says add user to database, pick the username and database you want to add and click add. Then you should be coming to another screen which gives you the option to set privileges. There I set all of the options.

Step 5: Upload your files

The next step is you have to upload your files. Usually your username and password you use to log into your cpanel is enough for the ftp program. Once you have your ftp program loaded there will be some setting you need to add

website name: whatever you named it.

host ip/url is usually something like this ftp.yourwebaddress.com

then it will ask for your username and password. Use what you use to log into your cpanel.

Once you get logged in via your ftp program. Make sure that you are in your public html directory at least otherwise whatever you load will not show up on the internet. Load up your files.

Step 6: Install your CMS or Message Board

By now you should have all your files uploaded to your webserver. Most forums or cms you can go to the main website that you installed your files up to and it will havew an install page. If not and you get a white page then there is a install directory or install/index.php. Either case follow the directions.

When you get database server hostname thats is usually localhost. Then it should be asking for database name. That is the database you made up. A lot of cases its a mix between your cpanel username and your database name so I usually copy and paste that. The same idea goes for the username and then obviously you have to put your password in. Once that is all in, just follow what the screen tells you.

Originally Posted November 12, 2012

What To Look For From Your Host

You really have to look into a lot of things before you choose your host. You do not always know how the service is before you even try it. If you can find one that is month to month, that is the best for when you are starting out. Some of them even have a money back guaranty. Those are usually the best ones to try out.

Some things you really need to know outside of price

What is their uptime? Uptime is where the server is actually running. You would want something at around 90 percent. Most offer 99.9%. All servers do have downtimes at times, so you really can't expect 100% due to servers having to be restarted up or having to be fixed.
How much space are they giving you when it comes to hard drive and bandwidth?
Most webhosts do oversell and in those cases, you get unlimited space and etc. What I have found is that usually the unlimited has the better deal than ones that give you so much of diskspace. This only applies to shared webhosting usually.

What are their terms of service?

Please read their Terms Of Service. You would hate to go with someone to find out what you are trying to do is against their rules. Many of the different hosts, I have used, have similar policies like no adult content.

What Kind of Hosting that is available?

Shared - This is usually the type that most people would start out. You share the same server as other people.
Reseller - This is usually on a shared host, but also can be on a dedicated server too. There is less people on this type of sever.
Virtual Private Server - You have your own section of a server and have root access to your section.
Dedicated server - The server is all yours with root access.
Most people usually go with a shared server when starting out. Most webhosts will help you out if you have a problem or question. I use Hostgator and I am very happy with them. There have been times I have been annoyed with them, but they seem to be the best for me for what I need to do. For a while I went from one host to another until I found hostgator. What I like about them is I am able to pay ahead of time so there is always money in my account so when its time to pay each month, there is money and I just let them take it that way. I make sure I always have plenty of money. They even do have all of these services available.
Hostgator worked for me, but that does not mean it will work for you. You have to look around and see what each hosting provider has and if it fits for you. Its all about what you want to do with your own website.

Originally posted November 12, 2012

There is quite a few different forum software out there, so here I am going to explain the different ones that I have used and tested out. If you want to to learn how to install it, check out my hub on Steps to Installing a Message Board or a Content Management System

Invision Power Board

Invision Power board is the one that I like the best of them all, but the downside of it all is that you have to buy the license and it is not cheap. In my mind it is well worth it as it is a good quality product.

Simple Machine

Simple Machine has been around for a while. One thing that is good that IPB and PHPBB don’t have is that the mods install its self. In smf, they call it packages. You do not even have to unzip the files. Just leave them as is just like you would do with the themes.
I noticed one thing that smf has that IPB don’t is that there is the ability to have tables in posts. PHPBB don’t have the table capabilities either. Like phpbb, the rank sets have to be in certain directory. In fact before there was a rank modification. Every theme you had to download the ranks to the theme rank directory.

I found phpbb rank system a tad easier for ranks, but smf rank system is the way I like it where it actually has groups and it has where you can have a member title.

Phpbb

Phpbb is probably one of the oldest message boards out there and its also very popular. Personally I do not really like it. With the latest version, it has gotten better, but still needs improvement.
Which one should you pick?

Its really up to you as you are the one whom has to use it anyways. Not everyone likes the same things. I like IPB the best, but some people do like the free boards better. These are not even all the boards out there, but there is plenty of different boards out there. The best way I have learned what is good is by testing them out if I could.

Originally Posted November 12, 2012

Search & Win
I have been using swagbucks for quite some time now. Like clockwork, I get those gift cards. They come normally when I do searches and other things on swagbucks.

The easiest way is by doing searches as I am always looking for something. I do not always get points for searching, but I do get points. Those points that I do make can be turned in for many things. The best value for points for me is to get the gift cards. I could easily go for paypal, but for the same $5 I rather get the gift card as the gifts cards are worth less points than paypal. The same can go for the higher denomination of gift cards. Come check swag bucks out.

Originally posted November 12, 2012

Search & Win

I have to say that there is one thing that I really do not like is taking surveys and filling out offers. The main reason is because when you do, you will get spam in your inbox. The surveys, are not an always a sure fire way of actually qualifying so you are wasting your time. I know there are people that are all for this, but it is not something I like.

Swagbucks is the one site that I stand behind. Every month I earn amazon gift cards that I can over at amazon.com. I do not have to get amazon gift cards, but I prefer them and its more economical to get them.

Some of you may be asking what Swagbucks is. Swagbucks is a site that you can use to search the web and much more. You can earn points for you search, but you will not win points every time you search. When I first started it was just searching and polls which was good enough but they have added offers, surveys, tasks and even games. Still, for the most part I just do the polls and searching to get my points every month. It is rare that I don’t get a card in any given months. Obviously, there are months that I do better than others.

I know there are tips out there on the web to search for every site that you are going to in order to get a chance at getting points. You are best to use swagbucks if it’s something that you are genuinely interested in like getting tips on using swagbucks. They want you to use if for natural searches.

Originally posted November 12, 2012

On July 13th 2008, I had joined Squidoo. I was looking for ways to make money online when I came across squidoo and had started writing, From day one, I got hooked onto the site and in all honestly it really is not that hard to get caught up in the mess of things especially when you have a goal. My goal was to make it to Giant Squid which I made in January of 2009. At the time, I think I had 65 lenses and currently I have about 86 lenses.

Making Lenses

When it comes to creating lenses on squidoo, its all about creating ones that I am interested in doing. I'm more about giving out information than trying to actually sell. If anything sells on my lenses, that is great as you really do not know what is going to sell or not. My philosophy is to always have fun as I know I have to be passionate about what I am writing about.

Easiest way to make money

It only took a few months from the time I joined til the time that I started to make money. It was not much at first, but as I started writing my lenses, I started making more and more money each month. For most months I did go up. The way it pays out to you is that it is from the adsense revenue and its based off of lensranks. From the very beginning, I did manage to always keep one lens in tier 2, but recently I have been able to keep one lens also in tier one which is where you want to be. The payout tiers are pretty much steady.

Here are what the current tiers are as far as I know:
1-2,000 approximately
2,001 - 10,000 approximately
10,001 -85,000 approximately

Anything below that does not get any money. Tier one is the one that usually pays about $10 and they rank them based off of averages instead of where the lense ends up at the end of the month.

Affiliates

The other way to make money through squidoo is by affiliates. It can be either through squidoo or with your own affiliate links. Some people have made some real good money through this way. I have not really tried to hard through the affiliates but as time goes by,it may start picking up when you least expect it.

Originally Posted November 12, 2012

On July 13th 2008, I had joined Squidoo. I was looking for ways to make money online when I came across squidoo and had started writing, From day one, I got hooked onto the site and in all honestly it really is not that hard to get caught up in the mess of things especially when you have a goal. My goal was to make it to Giant Squid which I made in January of 2009. At the time, I think I had 65 lenses and currently I have about 86 lenses.

Making Lenses

When it comes to creating lenses on squidoo, its all about creating ones that I am interested in doing. I’m more about giving out information than trying to actually sell. If anything sells on my lenses, that is great as you really do not know what is going to sell or not. My philosophy is to always have fun as I know I have to be passionate about what I am writing about.

Easiest way to make money

It only took a few months from the time I joined til the time that I started to make money. It was not much at first, but as I started writing my lenses, I started making more and more money each month. For most months I did go up. The way it pays out to you is that it is from the adsense revenue and its based off of lensranks. From the very beginning, I did manage to always keep one lens in tier 2, but recently I have been able to keep one lens also in tier one which is where you want to be. The payout tiers are pretty much steady.

Here are what the current tiers are as far as I know:

• 1-2,000 approximately
• 2,001 – 10,000 approximately
• 10,001 -85,000 approximately

Anything below that does not get any money. Tier one is the one that usually pays about $10 and they rank them based off of averages instead of where the lense ends up at the end of the month.

Affiliates

The other way to make money through squidoo is by affiliates. It can be either through squidoo or with your own affiliate links. Some people have made some real good money through this way. I have not really tried to hard through the affiliates but as time goes by,it may start picking up when you least expect it.

Originally posted November 12, 2012

As many of you may or may not know, I was using beezag to make some money. I had not been with it very long and was starting to hit headway with it and make some money. The thing is, I was not going to post about it until I actually saw my first payment. I firmly believe in testing things out first before announce to the whole world about something that is not a sure thing. The thing is, is that I was very close to payout anyways. Still it’s a blow.
Here is what I received in my email:

Dear Beezagger, 
Over the past few years, we have really changed the face of video advertising. Our overwhelming success has meant that the technology behind Beezag is now being used by many large publishers and will be the reason you unlock content going forward. In order to support this major business growth, we won’t be supporting the Beezag product in its current form. We’re very excited about the new sites and we’ll let you know who they are soon! If you have used Beezag in the past 60 days and have a points balance over 2,000 then please go in and cash out. You’ll have until November 1, 2012 to do so.
Thanks and if you have any questions, mail us at support@beezag.com

Traci – Head of Customer Support.

I am sad about this, but this is not the first time a site has closed on me and I am sure it will not be the last. At least this one was not a huge blow due to not hitting payout until now. It was a slow but steady process. The thing is, this does effect some of the other sites I am on as they do use the same videos. This is exactly the reason why it’s great not to have everything all in one place. Diversifying is good.

Originally posted November 12, 2012

One of the most important things to me is making money online that is legit because if I do not believe in something, I do not put on here. I test these type of things out before I will post about it. I did in fact try clickbank, but I don’t feel that it really is worth it and you really don’t know what really is legit and what is crap or just plain spam. I may make less money, but I feel better knowing that I am telling the truth and not steering people in the wrong direction. I like being able to test a lot out.
So far, these are the places that I feel are legit and are worth checking out.

• Squidoo
• Hubpages
• Swagbucks
• Gather
• Webanswers

All of which, I have managed to get paid from. There are others, but these are the current ones that I currently working on. There is another thing I am testing out so I will let you know once I see my first payment. I want to make sure I get paid first before I even make it known here.

Originally posted November 12, 2012

One of the most important things to me is making money online that is legit because if I do not believe in something, I do not put on here. I test these type of things out before I will post about it. I did in fact try clickbank, but I don’t feel that it really is worth it and you really don’t know what really is legit and what is crap or just plain spam. I may make less money, but I feel better knowing that I am telling the truth and not steering people in the wrong direction. I like being able to test a lot out.
So far, these are the places that I feel are legit and are worth checking out.

• Squidoo
• Hubpages
• Swagbucks
• Gather
• Webanswers

All of which, I have managed to get paid from. There are others, but these are the current ones that I currently working on. There is another thing I am testing out so I will let you know once I see my first payment. I want to make sure I get paid first before I even make it known here.

Originally posted November 12, 2012

CMS

You may be asking what is CMS? CMS stands for content management system. Many years ago, I had always thought that it was for the lazy. Now I know it is not as it leaves more room for time to do what I need to do.

Before I started using CMS, it took hours to code in HTML and CSS for the website. Now that I had switched over to CMS, it only takes simple HTML. The only time you would be require to use CSS is if you need to code the skin or template to your liking. Depending on which CMS system you use there are usually some skins or templates to choose from.

So what does it really mean?

What I can really tell you that it can make your life easier. Instead of hand coding a website, the cms takes that factor away. In most cases you still have to code to a certain extent but most do not take the css coding except in the template part. So basically CMS is an application for your website that you have to load yourself. Most CMS are database driven which means it usually connected to a sql database or something simular.

Some Common CMS out there!!!

• PHP Fusion
• WordPress(Its mostly known as a blog software but doubles as a cms)
• E107
• Joomla
• Media Wiki
• Drupal
• Mambo
• php Nuke

Originally posted November 12, 2012

When it comes to Ebook Readers and the Traditional Bookstores, there are debates about if Traditional bookstores would become obsolete. I would not think it would be for a long time. There are some people that have gone with E-readers but yet others who won't go that direction due to the fact they like the feel of the pages.

In time, some of the bookstores may end up closing because they are not willing to go with the flow of things. Many have the potential to sell both ebooks and the tradition books, but some may not be willing to change with the times.

When it comes to the stores in itself, it probably be good to have stock on hand so people can take a look at the books before buying the book. The would be given an option of either paper or ebook.

Originally Posted November 6, 2012

Back when I first got out of high school, there were not as many choices as there is when it comes to college. There are choices about college, but there was no choices of what type of college you wanted to go to. The only choices we had were community or University. Now we have a choice between online or going to school in addition to the choices above.

Decisions

Like anything, there are decisions when it comes to schools. Looking for the right school is always hard. Even if you do the homework, the school may not always be right for you either no matter how much work you did doing the research.

Things To Look At

• Academic Programs
• Price and what kind of financial aid programs that are available
• student life
• If living on campus, what is the dorms like?
• Know what type of academic programs that are available is very important. If they do not have the program you looking for, why go there?

The price of the school is very important too as you do after all have to pay for it even if its not right away.

Student life is important as you have to know what is available. Most schools have activities for the students.

If you are going to be living on campus, you need to know what the dorms look like. Some schools they do call them resident halls. If you have a choice of roommates, I would suggest go that direction. Some even have choices of what kind of dorm you get. When I went away to school, I really did not have a choice of which dorm I would live in, but for the following year, I did get a choice of where I wanted to live.

What Is Important

When it comes to schools, you want to go with one that fits you. Don’t go to one just because. You want to be somewhere that you will be comfortable with so that you will succeed. Some other things that you should do when it comes to choosing your school is if you know of others going to that school, ask them what they think of the school?

Originally posted November 6, 2012

Awhiles back, I started with Jingit. You may be asking what it is. Its pays you to watch videos. There is not many but its nice from what you get. When you start out, you are limited to $10 per week but if you refer people you can make up to $15 per week. Right now it does not matter as you may not hit the threshold as there is not that many videos. Still its nice to have some extra money. I really do hope it keeps up and they keep having ads that we can make money on. They are decent ads and I am glad I found it. After you make it to $3 you can ask for a debit card. They charge you that and you do have to have a facebook account to use jingit though. Try it out and see if you like it or not.

Originally Posted November 6, 2012

Ode To Lucky

On August 11th, 2010, I had lost Lucky at the age of 12 to causes that are unknown to me and my family. This is a dedication to him and the life he led and what he meant to me. He was a very special dog.  This post was moved over here from squidoo to this blog as it was not getting any traffic.

Lucky had came into the world on January 18th, 1998 and ironically, he also shared his birthday with my mother. When we brought him home, we knew that he was a mixed breed, but did not know what he was mixed with. As time went by, we realized that he was mixed with Border Collie. His other breed was in fact a spitz as we had seen what his mother looked like, so we knew he was part Spitz. He was a well trained little puppy. He was already trained when we got him and he quickly gained the knick name of cuddles due to his tendency to cuddle up with us. This is something he did to the very end.

More About Lucky

Lucky had a one of a kind personality. He did have many traits of a previous German Shepherd Mix we had, but he also had his own traits that I will miss dearly. The way he begged was very interesting, but this made him one of a kind too. He used to rapidly put his tongue in and outside of his mouth very rapidly to tell us he wanted whatever we had. It was not like licking his choppers or anything like that.

If he knew you were upset, he was the dog that came to you and took care of you. He loved to give out a lot of hugs. A lot of times he thought he was a lapdog.

Some Pictures of Lucky

Lucky And Toys
Below is a picture of one of the type of toys he would play with. He did like the colorful ones and it usually did not take long for him to break his toys. For some reason, he always did loved pulling the toys apart and pulling the squeaker out.

Lucky and Thunderstorms

Lucky had always hated thunderstorms. He always was scared of them and he usually clinged to someone for safety. A lot of times if it was in the middle of the night, he usually work someone up hugging and clinging to that person. Sometimes you used to go under the desk and most of the time, he would be shaking as he was scared of them.

Lucky Being Sick

Lucky as a rule has never been sick. It was exactly a week from the time he was sick to the time he managed to leave this world. We did everything we could to help him. He was throwing up and would not take any food. We even have been back and forth to the vet with him. He acted better that morning and was even eating that morning. By 10pm central time, he was gone.

Its hard to say what made him turn for the worse. It could been a combination of things. We live in the middle of the backyard. We have a neighbor that constantly harasses us. Basically Lucky got yelled at by the neighbor for being outside along with my mother. I just wonder if he got upset with it all and he gave up.

I do have to say that Lucky will be missed. He was my best friend. I will miss him waking everyone up in the morning and the dog that used to tickle me. He knew when I was upset how to make me feel better. I will miss his hugs and cuddling and thinking that he was a lapdog.

Originally posted September 12th, 2010