Category Archives: How To Do It

301 Redirect – Redirecting old pages to new pages with an .htaccess file

Date:
Author:
Categories: How To Do It

By Jon Burgess

301 Redirect – Redirecting old pages to new pages with an “.htaccess” file

Google wants to see quality content on your pages, so when you are changing your site and are forced to move pages and change their name, you’ll need to use a 301 redirect.  A 301 redirect is the preferred practice to preserve your search engine rankings and page rank.

What is a 301 redirect?

The 301 redirect is way to tell the search engine spiders that you have presently moved a file.  There are a number of ways to create a 301 redirect; I prefer using the .htaccess file, because it is nice and tidy.  You can write the redirect in PHP, ASP, JSP, or ColdFusion, but you’ll end up with all the files still needing to be hosted on your server.

The .htaccess File

  • The htaccess file only works on Linux servers that use the Apache Mod-Rewrite.
  • The file is really a .txt file, so you can edit it in notepad if needed.
  • You must save it with the (.) period in the file.
  • Writing the code is simple:

redirect 301 /old/old-page.htm http://www.newsite.com/new-page.htm

*Note, the spacing needs to be exact, and as long as you are in the same site, you can use the relative path of your folders.

  • Each additional page that needs to be moved can be added to the next line.

Posting the .htaccess File

The .htaccess file needs to be posted to the main (root) html folder of your site.  Sometimes the file may be hidden from view, so if you are using cloaking, make sure you un-cloak your settings.

Testing

Immediately test the file.  Simply type in all of your old pages URLs into the browser, and make sure they re-direct to the new page.  If you see a major error, like the site has blown up, take the .htaccess folder down!  Check you syntax for errors.

PHP Redirecting

<?
Header( “HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently” );
Header( “Location: http://www.newsite.com/new-page.php” );
?>

Extra help? Search http://www.google.com/search?aq=1&oq=301+re&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=301+redirect+htaccess

An Executive’s Guide to Using Linkedin

Date:
Author:
Categories: How To Do It Social Media & Networking

by Jon Burgess MBA – RedFusion Media, Inc. 7/24/12

What is LinkedIn used for?

In the simplest terms, LinkedIn is a Web 3.0 Rolodex, meaning it is a living document with social interaction.  It is a great place to keep your business contacts, so that when they move to a new job, you’re still connected. Of the social media platforms, LinkedIn is the most important for Business to Business (B2B), sales, industrial or niche market organizations.

In addition, LinkedIn is a great place to follow authoritative people in your industry.  Knowing what leaders and even your competitors are doing can sometimes be more valuable than the connectivity that LinkedIn gives you.  As you become more comfortable with social media, you too should focus on being a authoritative person, or “thought leader” in your industry.

What you SHOULD do in LinkedIn

  1. Only connect with people you have met.  I call this the handshake rule. There are two reasons: first you want to build relationships and connections, second, you don’t want to get spammed from strangers.
  2. Your profile needs to be up-to-date. Executives and board members have lifetimes of experience. You should put it in your profile. The more content within your profile, the higher your chances of being found by people searching within LinkedIn and you’ll build more personal authority.
  3. Professional Headshot. Don’t just put up any photo; but use one that is professional, that is consistent with your work or industry.  This isn’t Facebook, so no dogs, babies or booze photos.
  4. Spend Time in LinkedIn. Most business leaders start their day before breakfast, so make a point to spend 5 to 15 minutes a week looking at your LinkedIn.  You’ll find it is a great source for news and industry interaction while growing in your social media comfort level.
  5. Give People Recommendations. Employees and colleagues love getting a pat on the back, and by giving out recommendations, not only do you increase your connection with that person, but you build your own authority.
  6. Link to your profile. If you have public profiles or blog pages on the Internet, it is a great place to link to your “LinkedIn Profile”.  You should do the same for Twitter and Google+ profiles, so you can build your reach and public authority.
  7. Share your PR, News, Thoughts into LinkedIn. If you are creating content, leverage its value by making sure to link from your Social Media networks to your content.

What NOT to do within LinkedIn

  1. Do not SPAM. Like all social networks, you should not spam your connections or send them unwanted emails.  SPAM is bad enough when you get it in your email box, but when you get it within the confines of LinkedIn, there is more offense taken.  SPAM will cause people to disconnect from you and lower your public perception.
  2. Don’t ask ALL your connections for recommendations. While you need recommendations on your profile, don’t have a cattle call.  If you’re a business executive, you may not enjoy all the comments employees or ex-colleagues may have for you, and you surely don’t want them public. Ask a few key relationships for recommendations, but in general, natural recommendations are the best.
  3. Proof your Writing. Make sure your secretary or PR person proofs your content.  I’m horrible at proofreading so I always have 2 pairs of eyes on anything I write.

Growing your Social Media Savvy

Jumping into Social Media can be an education process for anyone, let alone executives who have to weigh the value of their time.  Social Media is the real world, and you it is time to accept that it will not go away, and Google has said it will start emphasising social results in their algorithms. This means social interactions will effect your website search results. Often Social Media doesn’t appear that valuable, but trust me, anyone who wants to be in business in five or ten years will have to accept Social Media as a tool in the marketing tool belt.

So, I suggest a growth and educational approach to adopting Social Media.

  1. Set up your accounts and start “Listening” to what others say.
  2. Start to create a “Strategy” for what you and your organization should be doing.
  3. Start “Socializing” within the platforms.
  4. Start “Measuring” the stats that matter within your goals?
  5. Start “Organizing” your social efforts and those efforts within your organization.

 

RedFusion Media’s Next Internet Seminar Series

Date:
Author:
Categories: How To Do It RedFusion Trends

Things change in the Internet world so quickly. And we are fortunate to have the staff capacity to be able to research and keep up with the latest tools and techniques. We want to pass that new info on to our clients.

As we plan for our next seminars, we would like to hear from you, about what you want to hear. Please participate in our Internet Seminar Topics Survey.

Thanks for opening and reading all the way down to here. As always, call us if you have any questions or suggestions. We love to hear from you.

Hope all is well,

Molly

Creating and Sharing Photo Sets and Slideshows with Flickr

Date:
Author:
Categories: How To Do It

Once logged into your Flickr account, go to the “Organize” dropdown menu and select “Your Sets.” At the bottom of the page, there is a dropdown menu to select which photos you will be adding to your new set, e.g. “All your content” or “Content Uploaded on…” This is just helpful so that you don’t put duplicate photos in separate sets. Next, click the “create a new set” link near the top of the page. Drag and drop each photo that you want to include in your set, from the row of photos at the bottom, into the body of the page. For more information on creating sets, refer to this page: http://www.flickr.com/help/organizr/

Once you have created your set, and are ready to embed it into a webpage as a slideshow, click on the “Your Photostream” link in the upper right of the page. Once on the Photostream page, click on the set of photos to the right that you wish to embed.

Now you can either a.) Grab the direct link to your photo set, or b.)Create a Slideshow of your set.

a.)  If you want to send viewers from your webpage to your photo set, click “Share This” in the upper right and click “Grab the link” in the next pop up window. You can copy and paste the link into your webpage or an email so send viewer to see your photo set.

b.) To create a Sideshow, click “SlideShow” in the upper right of the page. A preview of your slideshow will open; click on the “Share” link at the upper right of the page. You will be given the option to “Grab the URL” (in the case that you wanted to link directly to your slideshow) or “Grab the embed HTML” (in the case that you wanted to have the slideshow appear within your webpage). If you are embedding the slideshow in a webpage, you will copy the HTML code and paste it into the body of the webpage that you want it to appear on. You can alter the size of your slideshow by changing the width and height in the beginning of the HTML code. This section of code looks like this: <object width=”400″ height=”300″>

For more information on embedding a Slideshow or sharing photos, refer to this page: http://www.flickr.com/help/sharing/

How to Purchase a Hosting Account with Wild West

Date:
Author:
Categories: Hosting How To Do It

To purchase your website hosting account with Wild West, first go to the following address:  www.redfusionhosting.com. Next, click on the red “Web Hosting” link in the top navigation. You will see the available Economy, Deluxe and Unlimited hosting plans listed. Choose the hosting plan that is best suited for you website’s needs and click the red “Add” button. You can customize your order on the next few pages, but it is usually okay to skip these steps, as most websites do not require these extra add-ons. On the Secure Checkout page, review your order to make sure everything looks correct, select your payment type, agree to the Terms of Service and click the red “Check Out” button. On the next page you will enter all of your contact information. You will also create a Login ID and Password. It is very important that you remember your Login ID and Password. Make sure that you store them somewhere in your records. You will need these codes to login to your account in the future. Also be sure and enter your correct email address; this is where you will receive all renewal notices and receipts for your hosting account. On the next page, you will enter your billing and credit card information. Once this is complete, click the red “Check Out” now button. This will complete your domain hosting account purchase. On the final page you can print a version of your receipt. You will also be emailed a version at the email address that you listed for your contact information.

Email Box Full – Email Bouncing Back

Date:
Author:
Categories: Email Practices How To Do It

Email boxes do fill up.  Servers do not want infinite amounts of mail on their hard drives, so they will lock or stop receiving mail once they hit their quota.

Problems and Solutions.

Virus – Bad Coding – Server issues

It is possible to have virus, bad code, or server issues preventing your email box from receiving mail.  This does not happen often.  You would probably not be able to pull your email down, thus you should notice a failure warning.  Solution: contact your email provider to trouble shoot.

Not Deleting Email from the Server

This is by far the most common problem when we get email bouncing back.  Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express has a setting that allows you to “leave a copy” on the server, after you have pulled it down to your computer.  The parallel to this is, going to your P.O. Box, making a Xerox of your mail, putting the mail back in the P.O. Box and taking the copies home.  Eventually your email box is full.

The solution is simple, don’t turn on the “leave a copy on the server”.

Checking your “Live” email, online.

For the most part, our clients use one of two email services. In both cases, you can go online and check the live email to see if the box is full.

For Everyone.net customers, you should have a link to your online mail, something like

http://companyname.mail.everyone.net. (ask us if you do not know.)

If you are using our RedFusion Media Hosting, you may have our WildWest email service, you can log in here.

https://email.secureserver.net/login.php?clearcookies=1

Posting to your WordPress Blog

Date:
Author:
Categories: How To Do It

Posting to your WordPress Blog

At RedFusion Media we most commonly use WordPress to power your Blog. WordPress is a fairly straight forward program. Below are a few links to help walk you through the posting process.

Introduction to Blogging
http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging

Writing a Post
http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts

WordPress Lessons
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons

WordPress Login.  In most cases, we will have given you a username and password to login. If you have lost it, please contact support.

Forwarding a Domain Using GoDaddy

Date:
Author:
Categories: Hosting How To Do It

To forward domains registered through GoDaddy.com, first go to the following address: http://www.godaddy.com/default.aspx

Next, login with your username and password. Once logged in, click on the “My Domain Names” or “Domain Manager” link. This will open a page with all of your domains listed. You will do the following process for each domain that you wish to forward.

Click on the name of the domain. You will see all information for the domain listed on this page. Look for a section titled “Forwarding” with a link beneath that should read, “Domain is not forwarded.”  Click on this link. A box will open at the top of the page, select the “Forwarding” tab. Check the box that says “Enable Forwarding.” This will allow you to enter the URL that you want your domain to redirect to into the “Forward To:” field. Select the box that says “301 Moved Permanently” and click “OK.” These changes may take a bit to process so check back at the domain periodically.

How to Set Up an Email Account in Mozilla Thunderbird

Date:
Author:
Categories: Email Practices How To Do It

To set up an email account on Mozilla Thunderbird, begin by clicking on the Tools menu, and selecting Account Settings.

In the following pop up window, click on the Add Account button (near the bottom left).

Next, in the New Account Setup pop up window, select the Email Account option, and then click Next.

In the following Identity window, enter your Name and Email Address and click Next.

In the Server Information window, choose an account type, POP or IMAP.

You will then need to enter the name of your incoming server in the Incoming Server box and smtpout.secureserver.net in the Outgoing Server box (the Outgoing Server box may be set by default).

In the User Names window, enter your Email Address for incoming and outgoing username and click Next.

In the Account Name window, enter whatever you want your mail box to be named and click Next.

Finally, on the Congratulations window, it’s a good idea to preview your account information and confirm that everything is correct, then click Done.