I got to thinking about affiliate marketing and wondering why many people have a negative view on it. I also wonder why Google has an issue with them. Most of the time Google will not allow you to run ads on their AdWords system if you are running an affiliate site. Let’s talk about Google for a minute. In my experience, Google does not allow you to run ads on...
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Do you need to integrate your Zen Cart with shopping sites like Shopping.com, Bizrate, Nextag, Pricegrabber, etc? This may be a good solution for you. This solution does not integrate with the Zen Cart administration area. This is a stand alone mini application of sorts that connects to your Zen database and would need to be placed in a password protected directory...
Read MoreI created a pretty cool little mini mod (of sorts) and I thought I’d share it here in case anyone is interested in using it. I have not prepared it for distribution because I’m not even sure if anyone is interested yet. But, I’ll put a zip file together for anyone that is. Here’s the scenario. Let’s say you have created categories and...
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Caching In When it comes to site speed, faster is always better. Did you know that Google now includes site speed when considering page rank? It’s also more likely that viewers will leave a slow page out of annoyance and impatience. As a site owner, it’s in your best interest to have a fast site in order to improve page rank and maintain viewership. To...
Read MoreI just finished reading an article about deceptive online marketing practices and felt the need to give my opinion on the subject. Especially since I have first hand experience with a former client that engaged in not only deceptive practices but unethical and down right dirty practices. Honesty and hard work used to be the cornerstone to building a successful...
Read MoreDoes your client make a lot of updates to their website? Like add/edit/update products a lot? Or, add EZ pages a lot? There is a Zen Cart plug in (SitemapXML (formerly “Google Sitemap”)) that generates a properly formatted XML site map for Google. You can get it here: http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=544...
Read MoreThere is much debate on whether hosting multiple websites within the same class C IP range will hurt SEO efforts. In my opinion, this something that Google needs to stop doing. FYI, Matt Cutts of Google claims this will not affect page rank. I sure hope this is the case. Consider the web developer, like myself, that also offers web hosting as a reseller. This is...
Read MoreI was having issues with the database locking up on the server. Each time Zen Cart makes a query of the database, it is locked and then unlocked when the query finishes. I have a lot of processes outside of Zen Cart also running on the server. Periodically, the server would lock up and I would need to manually restart SQL. This was becoming a pain. So, I...
Read More*** NOTE: THIS IS NO LONGER NEEDED WITH THE NEW VERSION OF THE MOD *** I managed to get Simple Google Analytics Version: 1.2.5 to work for me on Zen version 1.5 and added to the admin menu. I thought I’d share. The new GA version does not seem to have a language file to define one of the settings for the admin menu to appear. I created this file:...
Read MoreI am creating this post to help try and educate the public about the differences between a Creative Designer, a Web Designer, a Technical Designer, a Web Developer, and a Software Engineer. * A Creative Designer is an artist in the space. He/she is AWESOME at creative thinking, and at conceptual based design in the digital space, like UI, UX, Experience Design, and...
Read MoreIt took me a while to figure this one out. The Zen forum contains a more elaborate solution that includes removing a sidebar from the category pages as well as the product description pages. I just wanted to remove the sidebar from the product description pages. So far, this seems to work fine for me. I thought I’d share it with you. Simply copy and paste the...
Read MoreIt took me a while to figure out how to write my own MySQL query with the correct PHP syntax that Zen Cart likes. I thought I’d share it with you. For example. Lets say you want to find out how many reviews were made for a particular product and display the number on the product description page. You would use the following and place it on your...
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SEO tips and Search Engine Optimization tips from Embryo Design just may help your website rankings and exposure. Here are some practical SEO tips. There are so many SEO tips out there, it boggles the mind. Proper SEO is more an art than a science. There is no “one size fits all” approach. There are many on-page fundamentals however that all...
Read MoreBruce C. Brown asked me for an interview for a website design book he was authoring. He wanted some simple tips on how to get started developing quality websites that are HTML and SEO friendly. Below is that interview. Interview 1. How does someone begin the process of determining what they should put on their web site, what design elements it should have, how...
Read MoreThere’s been a lot of discussion about whether the default Facebook like button code is good or not for SEO. Not to mention all the errors on the Facebook side (Like button), that makes it too time consuming to deal with. To try and play it safe, I decided to add my own PHP code that should not have the same issues. But, it’s not going to show the number...
Read MoreDo you need to display someone else’s website on your website? How about displaying just a section of someone else’s website on yours? This is kinda tricky because you need to look for the HTML inside the source code of the website you want to display and decide on where you want to start and end. And, you should always keep an eye on this because if the...
Read MoreIt’s very easy to redirect all your old web pages to a new domain or URL using a .htaccess file. This can only be done on an Apache server which most of you should have your site hosted on anyway. Here is what you do. Download the .htaccess file in the root of your web server and paste the line below into it. If you don’t see one, (make sure these files...
Read MoreI recently received a letter in the mail, (yes, snail mail), from a company called Web Listings, Inc. Their website is www.web-listings.net. They are selling a bogus SEO service. Here is the scoop. Firstly, the mailing is made to look like an invoice. This is to fool the novice into thinking this is part of their new website agreement and they should pay it. It does...
Read MoreShould you build a website yourself? It’s certainly cheaper in the short run. Can you afford to take a chance? Don’t sacrifice your brand image. Your website IS your company and we understand the importance of first impressions. Do you have time to learn how to build an effective website? Wouldn’t you rather spend that time working on your...
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A great pet domain with a Google Page Rank of 2! This gives you a great head start. It’s live and is currently an affiliate site. I’m willing to sell with the Zen Cart installation or just the domain. Make me a reasonable offer and it could be yours!...
Read MoreIt’s sometimes useful and/or necessary to look up you viewer’s browser type. For example, Internet Explorer does not display the Twitter Profile Widget properly. It’s a bug in the Twitter widget and it works fine in Firefox. So, you should only display the Twitter widget if your viewer is using a browser other than IE. Here’s what you would...
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