PHP Programming and MySQL
PHP as a language is one of the most powerful on the web. Its roots are in C. C is the defacto computer programming language which gave rise to C++ and C#. What's more it is Open Source and so free to use.
When you combine PHP with a database such as MySQL and webserver data you can do an immense amount of useful stuff easily.
- You can record user behaviour and track the time and pages visitors have viewed, including where they came from. This allows you to analyse from what search criteria someone entered on Google, to what they purchased or enquired about. you can use this to refine your advertising and website to improve your profitability.
- You can automate many tasks such as link building, managing enquiries and so on to free up your time.
- You can create client only areas on your website and present special content for each registered visitor.
- You can build valuable email databases and use these to increase your revenue and profits.
Both Wrodpress and Zencart are widely used and based on PHP and MySQL. You can use other databases but MySQL is open source and totally scalable so there is no need to use any other.
Wordpress
This is the most popular blogging tool on the Internet. Writing and editing documents is very similar to Micrososft Word. When it comes to using it as a Content management System it is straightforward to do so.
Zencart shopping carts
Zencart is an open source shopping cart which uses PHP and MySQL to great effect. It is a product in its own right and can stand alongside any commercial offering. It's roots are in OS Commerce, the most popular open source shopping cart, but in my view it is better, because it is so easy to use and so powerful too.
AW Stats
An open source tool which graphically displays some information and shows other information in tables. It shows you very clearly where visitors come from, what they searched on, which pages they visited and what pages they were on when they left your website. It also collates which search engines or websites people came to you from.
Edwin’s Visitor Tracker
A simple tool which records the following information: Previous Page, Current Page, Date and Time, and Ip Address. This is all you need to comepltely track users. You can run a report against say everyone who visited your Thank You page. If they visited your Thank You page they filled in your Contact Form and have made an enquiry. You can then identify which search engine or website (back link) helped them find your website. This makes it easy to calculate the cost of each enquiry and which of your marketing campaigns are the most cost effective in order to maximise revenue streams. If you cross reference the IP address with the actual enquiry you can go one step further and analyse the cost per sale, since yuo can tie the information in the enquiry to a real customer. Again you can then modify your efforts to maximise reveue and profits.
Reciprocal Links Plus
These are a series of forms installed on your website. The first allows anyone wanting to add a link to your website to email you with the right details. This form provides a back link for them to add to their website. This ensures every enquiry wishing to add a link has first created a link to your website. You check it manually and if it is all okay then you approve their link and it is displayed on a page of your choice.
Reciprocal links (ie I link to you, if you link to me) are the bedrock of link building from the earliest days of the Internet. However so called "One Way links" are seen as more powerful. Reciprocal Links plus will suggest "sister Websites" for the person requesting a link off you to link to. These sister websites will in turn promote links to your website. You can use your own list of sister websites or join in with our lists.
Reciprocal Links Plus will run periodic checks to ensure the links that should have been created are maintained and highlight any failures. Due to the nature of the Internet (time outs), the results of failing these tests are not always conclusive so alerts are raised when necessary for you to check. It is good practice to maintain a list of websites linking to yours anyhow.
This is a realtively passive way of increasing links ot your website.
Auto Link Builder
This works in the oppopsite way to Reciprocal Links Plus, in that it actively looks for links on your behalf.
Many websites have links pages where you can submit link requests to. Auto Link Builder selects websites at random from our database and sends a polite request for a link. On sending the link request, a link is automatically generated on your website to theirs. If the recipient is willing to add a lik to you, they will reply and you can then set the link created on your site from TEMPORARY to FIXED. This is simpe and easy to use since you will periodically get emails off people confirming you have exchanged links.
The speed at which links are added is based purely on the amount of traffic your website gets. You can send say one email every ten views of your home page, or you can modify the frequency. This way emails a trickle out at a rate which matches your websites popularity.
Auto-Emailer
Building an Email marketing list is a very useful thing to do and the natural source of email addresses are contact forms on your website, however adding email address from the real world should always be done as well.
Whilst one off email marketing campaignders promoting a special offer, a particular servic or product are very powerful when sent to the right people. Such emails require a great deal of effort to manage and get the most out of.
The Auto-Emailer is a simple tool to remind cutomers of your various products and services. You can add as many email templates as you like, but rather than sending a bulk of emails out in one go, ad hoc emails are generated each time a page of your website is downloaded (or one in every 5 or 10 pages). Customers are selected at random based on simple criteria such as no email sent to them for over 4 months. As a result of this activity, customers are routinely reminded of things you do. The emails are infrequent and therefore not invasive. An opt out facility is also available.
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