Diaries of a Webmaster
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So you have your shiny new website, the layout is all set, all of your modules are working, now you need to spread the word to the masses so that they know about your awesome new slice of the internet. One inexpensive and effective way to start advertising is to leverage the web 2.0 and social media. There are a plethora of social networking sites out there, but we are going to focus on telling you how to integrate three of them and an RSS feed.
Up first we have the ultra-popular Facebook. Facebook used to be the underdog to the incumbent MySpace, this has changed however and Facebook has taken the lead in the social media arena. Facebook allows you to make a fan page for your blog or company that people can “like” to show their support. These likes show up on their wall, visible to their friends; which allows your fans to do your marketing for you in a way.
Next on our journey is Twitter, the micro-blogging phenomenon. Twitter allows you to post messages of up to 140 characters. There is a myriad of applications for personal computers and mobile devices that allow you to post to Twitter (called tweeting) from anywhere. This is useful for posting news updates or links to your blog posts for your users to digest quickly.
The new kid on the block is Tumblr, another micro-blogging site, similar to Twitter. The main difference is you are allowed more characters and are allowed to embed media such as images and movies directly into your posts. You can also add pages such as an about page or Contact page so your Tumblr can look a lot like a full site.
With all of these different sites you’d think that you will be spending all of your time just updating these sites and not getting any content done for your site. Not so young padawans, there is a way to get all of these sites updated with just one post. The key is an intermediate site called twitterfeed, which takes in an RSS feed and publishes it to a number of social media sites. Tumblr automatically posts to an RSS feed when you create posts on their site, all you need to do is configure twitterfeed to read your Tumblr feed. Once this is done you sign in with your twitter account and your Facebook account to set twitterfeed to publish to these two services.
The nice thing with its Facebook integration is you can set it to post do one of the fan pages you administer instead of to your personal wall. This will also allow you to have an RSS feed directly from Tumblr (I suggest setting up a feedburner account so you can keep track of stats) for yet another way to reach your viewers and fans.
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In our last article in the Internet Foundations series we will be talking about database technologies. The main four database technologies that power the web are PostgreSQL (Postgres), Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL. Postgres and MySQL can be obtained for free with certain limitations, but for most people these are the answer due to the price. The previous version of Oracle (10g) and Microsoft SQL Server can be downloaded for free as express versions only.
Databases form the data layer of the internet foundation. Without them, websites that have user accounts would cease to exist. Many web applications would not work; especially content management systems like Joomla! Many businesses rely on databases to store critical information and have developed web applications to display and enter such data.
Oracle is the big name in corporate databases. The company was formed in 1977 as SDL (Software Development Laboratories). Oracle is known for its robustness and scalability which makes it a favorite for large companies. The syntax for transactions and connectivity is not very user friendly so it has a fairly sharp learning curve.
Microsoft SQL Server is used mostly in conjunction with the IIS (Internet Information Services) webserver for Windows, and for programs to store information in. For instance, the Endpoint Security I use at work stores policy information into a MS SQL Server. MS Access makes good use of the MS SQL Server and is a powerful productivity and development tool.
Postgres is not released by a single company but rather managed by a community of developers under an MIT-style license. Postgres was started by Michael Stonebraker in an attempt to solve the problems of the database Ingres in 1985. The project was named Postgres at version 6 in 1997 and is currently on version 9.0. Some notable users of Postgres include Yahoo!, MySpace, Sony Online, and Skype.
The database you are most likely to encounter while developing websites is MySQL. Due to its free pricing structure and ease of use, it is almost ubiquitous on the internet. It is bundled in the popular LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) web server package. Most webhosting companies have this available if you sign up with their business plans. In 2008 Sun Microsystems bought MySQL and then in 2009 Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, thus making them the owner of two of the most widely used database platforms in the world.
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In The Internet Foundations part 2 I shall discuss different technologies for creating dynamic web pages. I shall discuss CGI (Common Gateway Interface), ASP (Active Server Pages), JSP (Java Server Pages), and PHP (PHP Hypertext Processor).
CGI is an interface between a web page and a script or program on a web server. These scripts are usually either a compiled C/C++ program or a PERL script. This was the first form of dynamic web interaction and has been powering user forms and the like since 1993. Most web pages have started migrating to full blown scripting languages like the next three that I am going to talk about.
ASP is the Microsoft entry into the world of web scripting languages. Typically ASP can only be found on Microsoft Servers running IIS (Internet Information Services), the Microsoft web server technology. An ASP page can choose between 3 major scripting engines; VBScript, Jscript, or PerlScript. The latest two versions are ASP 3.0 and ASP.NET. ASP.NET is built upon the .NET Framework. My problem with ASP is that it often requires Internet Explorer to run correctly, and many pages built with ASP will not run at all unless the user is using IE.
JSP is Sun’s answer to ASP and PHP. JSP servlets must be run in a Java Virtual Machine environment like normal Java programs. This allows JSP pages to run on any operating system that has a Java VM installed (most operating systems come with Java already installed). The current JSP version is 2.0.
PHP is a free alternative to ASP and JSP that can be run on almost any web server. A PHP interpreter is installed on the web server and the results sent to the web browser are viewed as plain old HTML/CSS/JavaScript. The latest version, version 5, added better support for object oriented programming. Many popular web applications are written with PHP, such as Content Management Systems Drupal and Joomla! (IGT is run on Joomla!).
Of all of these I have had the most experience with PHP. Anyone who has programmed in Perl or C/C++ should be able to get the hang of it pretty easy. If you are stuck or need help, there are tons of guides online to read and lots of forums to answer your questions. Next week we will discuss different database technologies which, combined with these dynamic web page alternatives, allows for a fully function web application.
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Over the next couple of articles I am going to describe most of the technologies that run the internet in my new series called, The Internet Foundation Series.
This first article is going to cover the basics which detail how a webpage looks; HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These three technologies combine to form a generic basic web page. All other web technologies use these three to form their output for web browsers to display the page to the user.
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is the most basic part of a web page. HTML is used to describe where different objects are placed on the page, and some basic style information for them. This language was first created in 1990 by Time Berners-Lee, a contractor at CERN, and it is currently in its 4th iteration. In recent years, there has been a push to standardize HTML 5 which adds support for embedded video and audio so a third party plugin is not required to view media on the internet.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is used to further stylize HTML objects. With CSS you can change basic attributes such as font size and color, and object dimensions. More advanced CSS can create effects such as rollover menus and fancy placement of objects. It is preferable to style HTML objects using CSS over basic HTML as it is more standards compliant. CSS is currently on its 3rd iteration; however, not all web browsers support many of its features or support it the same way as other browsers. IE8 has the worst CSS support of all modern browsers; this is being fixed in the upcoming IE 9.
JavaScript has nothing to do with the programming language Java, even though they seem like they should. JavaScript is a way of adding interactivity to a web page. This has enabled the use of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) which is the driving technology behind Web 2.0 applications. An important part of JavaScript is how it interacts with the HTML DOM (Document Object Model) which allows it to programmatically change HTML elements.
These are the basic building blocks of the internet, at least the web page part of it. The next part in this series will discuss scripting technologies which are used to build web applications and dynamic web pages.
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So, you have your sparkling new website or blog. You are writing reviews on the stuff you love, in the hopes of someday making it big and living off of your work. While this is going to take some time and may not even happen, these are some things to think about as you write up your articles.
One of the things I have learned is that the people making or publishing your reviewed product love feedback. Whenever you write an article about a product, try and find the PR email for that company and send them a link to your review. PR people love seeing their product name out on the internet; it’s basically free advertising for them.
At some point in your site’s lifetime you may want to start interviewing people to go along with your reviews. Achieving this is much easier than you may think. Most celebrities enjoy sitting down and talking to someone and most will grant you an audience (or a phone call or email). Do not be discouraged if they decline your request, sometimes people are just too busy.
My friend told me the number one rule for interviewing someone is to listen. Do not ask too many questions or interrupt their train of thought. Just listen to what they have to say; sometimes you may get more from your question than you had originally hoped. The best interviews feel like the interviewer and interviewee are having a conversation; not just a question and answer session. Similar to reviews, the people being interviewed love it when you send them a link when you post it on your website.
Both reviews and interviews can help you with content for your website. Sending the links to the affected parties can also help generate more traffic to your site. And who knows, you may be able to get some free stuff from them if they like your reviews and want you to review more things (don’t hold your breath on this one).
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