We’ve had some of our web site maintenance customers since 1999, and boy, a lot has changed in the web world since then! One of our cleanup tasks is to help people get their sites onto updated servers, like we did for one of our clients this weekend. It went very smoothly except for the database. It turned out the original format of the database was no longer compatible with the new MySQL software. Support was able to fix it, no problem. So, that made me think of the important things you need to consider when you’re moving to a new web server.

• Email Addresses - Be aware that all of your pop3 users (people who pick up their email directly from the server) will need to change settings in their email programs. If the email addresses are forwarded, you probably won’t have to do anything.
• Server Name or Program Paths in Scripts - Many web site programs have configuration settings that depend on the internal settings of your particular web host. Chances are, these settings are not the same from server to server, so you’ll need to check your software for places to update server settings. A program path example would be the location of sendmail - this client has cgi scripts which use sendmail, and one of its settings is the location of the sendmail program files on the server. The old server had /usr/lib/sendmail, and the new host has /usr/sbin/sendmail. A subtle change but it managed to break every program that sends mail, which is no good! Just a few tweaks set it right, though.
• Database and Software Versions - Some features in older versions of software may no longer exist in the new software, like what happened to the database in today’s project. There was another small problem of the same sort, and that’s detailed below. So be aware - upgraded web software may break some of your programming… hopefully only things that are simple to fix!

The problem that brought on this post was a change to the htaccess handling on the new server. For the next time I have to do this sort of thing, here’s what had to be changed…

Old .htaccess:
Options +Includes
AddType text/x-server-parsed-html .html
AddType text/x-server-parsed-html .htm
AddType application/x-httpd-cgi .cgi

New .htaccess:
Options +INCLUDES
AddOutputFilter INCLUDES html htm

Oh, and one other thing of which you want to be absolutely sure of before you change servers - have a good backup copy of your site!! The importance of having a complete backup cannot be underestimated. Wacky things can happen, and if you’re prepared, chances are likely you could at least get back to where you were before the upgrade.

With a little preparation and planning, you can have a smooth transition from one server to another. As always, contact us if you need help upgrading your web hosting. We’re glad to help!

Today I found a fascinating article discussing the use of people images on your web site. It seems that where your model is looking can have a profound impact on where your visitor looks:

How a Pretty Face Can Push Visitors Away

Especially interesting is the “heat map” which tracks a visitors eye movements on a page - they compared a model looking at you and a model looking at the advertised product… guess which one performed better? Have a look.

If you blog on a regular basis, you may occasionally face the problem of wanting to post, but not knowing what to write about. Check out this list of blog topic suggestions from Chris Brogan. Pick a topic, or maybe it will kickstart your creativity and make you think of one on your own. I guess I’m working on #9!

Most of my ideas for blog entries come from my daily work of being a web developer. I like to share the techniques I find, especially the quick fixes that can give a big bang for your buck. Plus it’s nice to have a quick reference for the times I need to repeat a task… just do a quick search and I have the answer.

Other ideas come from the RSS feeds I have on the site and those I have delivered by FeedBlitz… when I find a site or article that’s particularly useful, I post about it. Probably my biggest source of fodder from RSS is via LifeHacker - they have tons of useful info for technology and life.

So, I guess all you need to do is look around, and write something about which you’re passionate. It’s likely if you’re interested, others will find it interesting, too.

One of the things I found on WebsiteGrader was a section which said my incoming links were possibly being diluted, because some of the links were for www.websitecleanup.com and some were for plain old websitecleanup.com (without the www). The problem is, the search engines don’t know the difference, so the total incoming links appear to be lower than they really are. The solution is to automatically switch the non-www links into www links. I did a little research and found it’s very easy to do! All you have to do is add three lines to your .htaccess file. This is what I added for our site:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^websitecleanup\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.websitecleanup.com/$1 [R=301,L]

That’s it! We’re up and running, and now all of our inbound links will be counted properly. If you want this installed on your site, please contact us. Thanks!

If you’ve been wondering how your efforts at search engine optimization (SEO) are going, try this site:

Website Grader

They analyze your site and give you a score (compared to other sites they tested) and also tips on how to improve your search engine rankings. Very nice!!

I'm constantly reminded how much programming talent is out there on the web, and it amazes me how much of it is freely given. The example that made me think about this is the overLIB library, a very nice popup script written by Erik Bosrup and Robert Boughner. You can see what I did with it here. Just click on one of the titles to see the nifty popup window. If you can think of a way to use this neat tool on your site, let us know!

For many years, I've been interested in saving the planet, recycling and conservation stuff. So I was happy to find this site which is gathering everybody to make a statement on October 15th, by writing about some environmental issue in their blogs. It doesn't matter what your blog is about - you can participate by writing something to help make people more aware of the issues the earth is facing. If you can tie it back to your blog's theme, great!

Blog Action Day

I'll be writing here and on my personal blog . Hope to see you then! If you plan on posting something, let me know in the comments or by email. I would love to check it out! 

I often get sidetracked by interesting web sites throughout the day. It usually starts by having to look up something for work, and then I see something and go "oooh that looks good", and then I find something else, and before I know it, half an hour has gone by and I haven't accomplished anything! Sound familiar? Here's a series of posts about productivity and what steals our time away. 

Biggest Time Waster at Productivity501

Lots to think about here, and many opportunities for improvement. How do you deal with loss of productivity? Tell us about it in the comments. 

Lots of us are using our hands for day-to-day business activities, typing away madly… whether it be emails or programming or blogging. It's important to take care of your hands, to avoid injury or long-term damage. Here's a site which offers information and various exercises for keeping your hands in tip-top shape:

HandHealth.com

They offer free exercises and also packages of instructional videos for hand exercises and different devices to maintain or rehabilitate your finger fitness. Neat!

We've been searching for a new place to refer people for web hosting, since the one we chose a while back has degraded in terms of site speed and customer service. I'm pleased to announce our new recommendation of HostMonster ! They have great support so far, and the account setup was easy, fast and trouble-free. Plus they have a really nice control panel with lots of good help. We'll be transferring our sites over the next few months - I'll report our results as we progress.

While researching, I came across this site which may be helpful if you're looking for a new web hosting company:

WebHostingUnleashed.com

They have reviews of hosting companies, and you can search according to your needs. Nice! I would take the results with a grain of salt, though… you never know who might be stuffing the ballot box with good reviews. It's a good starting point for research, though. Do you have a favorite host? Tell us about it in the comments.