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Wordpress is currently making it’s first venture into the Content Management System arena (CMS). They have turned their Wordpress Multi User (Mu) platform into a social networking apparatus, but will this be enough to ensure their foray into the CMS ring? More importantly is it what their audience really wants?

http://mu.wordpress.org/

Buddy press is the Wordpress contribution to the dozens of free CMS products that are on the market today including Drupal, PhP-Fusion, Jamoola, Mambo, Typo3, and many others. Can Wordpress pass muster and does it have a chance of standing up to it’s competition in the ring?

I think if Wordpress takes the time to really listen to what it’s user want it has every possibility of being king. Let’s look at some of the finer points of Buddypress.

I have used Wordpress MU before, but I have never used Buddypress. Part of what the average website owner is looking for is something that can run on their shared website hosting account. Many webmasters want social networking, but they want it on budget hosting. The other CMS products provide you with the opportunity to do so, many of them also come pre-installed in Cpanel. Does Buddypress do the same.

I checked several articles and they suggest that Buddypress does not work well in a shared hosting environment. Can it work in a reseller environment, again the articles that I came across suggested this is not the case and that Buddypress would best function on a virtual Private Server or full server environment. If this is the case, then this will be a very large barrier for the creators of Buddypress to cross.

http://www.howtospoter.com/web-20/wordpress/make-a-community-site-with-wordpress

Another obvious issue that I came across when researching information about Buddypress is the issue of privacy. As it stands now Buddypress is a very open social network. I checked at the forum to see what they had to say about this and Andy Peatling the creator of Buddypress, says that it’s meant to be for open networks. Meaning that there are no immediate plans to implement privacy settings on the future 1.0 release of Buddypress. I disagree with leaving a privacy implementation for later versions, because we all know that website such as Facebook have thrived on the privacy feature.

http://buddypress.org/forums/topic.php?id=128

Then there is secondary option and more favored by many webmasters, the option of using the core Wordpress application as a CMS. From what I am reading and hearing, many webmasters are saying they love Wordpress and they want that love affair to continue. This means that they want to use Wordpress as a CMS. If the creators of Wordpress are listening then they will realise that many people already have Wordpress installed, and what they have been saying loud and clear is that they are looking for ways, primarily plugins that will transform the core application into a CMS.

Many other CMS’s have this option. You start off with a basic core, and then add on, until you have what you need. In recent months many wordpress plugins have come along to make this near possible, but there is still a way’s to go.

There are now several nice directory plugins, forums, website management, forms, revenue sharing, article’s, video sharing, photo album, plugins that help make it easier than ever to turn Worpress into a CMS. There are even plugins that will allow you to create additional blogs, based on domains and sub-domains, and even a user profiles.

Where Buddypress provides instant Social Networking, some advantages will be lost if this platform can not function in a shared hosting environment which many webmasters thrive on, and which has helped other CMS’s to grow in popularity.

Where the basic Wordpress core offers comfort, familiarity and the convenience of working well in a shared hosting environment, it’s lacks several key components necessary to truly be considered a full featured CMS by some.

If Wordpress hopes to someday be CMS King, which I think is very possible, then in my opinion, it should listen to what it’s fans are saying and work towards bridging the gap that exists with it’s core product and it’s new social networking apparatus Buddypress.

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Feedjit.

http://feedjit.com/
I came across this really neat and very useful application on one of the many websites that I have been visiting lately. This very handy device will tell a website or blog owner some very useful statistics about their website.

Live Traffic Feed

 
The first application that is available from the Feedjit website is an application that tell you about the live traffic that is coming to your website. The live traffic feed will show you the flag of the country where your website visitors originate from and will also show you which landing page they arrived on. This is a great tool for showing you who is visiting, from where, and which pages they arrive in on. You can then use other Internet tools to see where those pages are linked, and use the feedback to maximize your traffic in the future.

Live Traffic Map

 
The second application offered on the Feedjit site is a map widget that will show you were your recent visitors are coming in from. There is a map of the world and for each site visitor a red dot gets added to the map. Again a very useful application for pinpointing where your visitors are coming in from. 

Recommended Reading

 
This is the third feed offered from this site and also a very good tool. It will give you a list of recommended pages that are linked to the page you are currently on. This way once your visitors arrive, they can find other pages within your website that they might wish to navigate to. I think widgets that help you locate related articles or postings are very useful and good applications to take advantage of.

Page Popularity

The last Widget on the Feedjit website is something known as Live Page Popularity. This will catalogue your ten most popular postings. This is useful for website visitors who want a quick run down of the popular pages on your website. The pages are rated by a percentile popularity. 
My favorite feature of this website was the fact that there was no need to register. After registering for about a dozen different websites, and access to various applications this was a nice change of pace. The code was available right away. It was just point, click, get the code. I added the code to one of my websites and website and I instantly had live statistics.

The code worked the way it promised to, and I was not the least bit disappointed.

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One of the most important points when undertaking any online venture is getting a good domain name. Sometimes this can be a key make or break point for your website, community, or venture. The idea itself has to be worthwhile, but if you don't choose the right domain name to start with, that can undermine the project.

The next thing is choosing the right hosting company. How long have they been in business, what's the Internet buzz about them? http://www.webhostingtalk.com is a good place to find out some information about hosting companies.

The next thing is to plan out your project. You want to make sure that you have everything in place before you start inviting your audience to the community, project or venture. An unplanned community can really undermine all your hard work. It's a good idea to have a testing faze, or to ask a few people who have some experience to review your project and see if there are any changes that need to be made before you go live.

Once you go live, it's a matter of plugging away at what you are doing until you get the right amount of exposure to get your project off the ground. That's where online advertising and marketing kick it.

Starting with the right virtual reality however is the key factor you want to look into before doing anything else.

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Recently I started a new project which I hope to turn into a community website.

After designing the website I wanted to find some interesting ideas or ways to promote the website. There are many ways to market a product or service online. I choose some very simple solutions which I found to be suitable for what I had in mind.
<strong>Write an article</strong>

One thing you can do is write an article. It does not have to be a very long article, just enough to explain what your group, company, organisation, individual project is all about. Once you have the article written there are so many places online that you can distribute it. One of the best place that I have found for distributing artiles are articles directories. If you do a quick google search there are many free directories online that will let you submit and publish your articles.

You can even submit your articles to some websites and they will pay you for your content. It’s a great way to get some exposure, and maybe even get paid along the way.

http://iamhereonline.com/VirtualPath/2008/10/22/i-am-here-online/
<strong>Create a video</strong>

Create a video. This sounds harder than it actually is. To create a video can be something as simple and easy as taking out your camera-phone and telling the world about what you do, make it interesting of course and then posting it online to sites such as http://www.Youtube.com, http://www.google.com, http://www.veoh.com, or any of the other dozens of video and file sharing websites available.

You can also use windows movie maker to edit your video, or create a new one from scratch. The service is free with windows XP. If you want something more professional looking, there are many websites online that will help you design a video and submit it, many of these services are inexpensive and do a reasonable job of create quick Internet ready videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSR9-j8b9u0
<strong>Post on other forums</strong>
There are so many online forums out there it’s impossible to know where to begin. A good place to start is with some of the webmaster forums. Many of these forums have webmasters just like yourself who are trying to find ways to promote their websites, or initiatives. You can find out what’s working, what’s not working, tips and tricks. In many cases these forums will also have a designated section where you can post your website. It gives their community members a chance to pursue new sites and see if there are any they might be interested in joining.

http://iamhereonline.com/Living/forum/
<strong>Create a Widget</strong>
This has to be the best thing since sliced bread. The ability to turn your website or blog into a widget or a bliget. You can visit websites such as http://www.widgetbox.com and they have an automated application that you can use to turn parts of your website, or entire blog into a widget. A widget is a mini portable application that can be implemented on other websites, blogs or social networks. They are a great way to reach a new audience. Create a widget is very quick and it’s also lot’s of fun.

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/forum-i-am-here-online

<strong>Create a survey</strong>

Use polls and surveys to find out what your visitors are thinking. It’s a great way to assess what their interests are, and their reasons for visiting your website. It can also be a good way to find out if there are any new products, promotions or features that they would like to have implemented at your website.
There are literally dozens of ways to promote a website online. Each website will have different methods that will work. Try one method to promote your website and if that does not work, try something else. The main point of promoting your website is to keep trying till your find what works best for you.

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Traditional bookstores have always existed on high streets, but in the digital age, the internet is proving to become a serious competitor to traditional brick and mortar stores. This article examines both sides of the coin and provides an appropriate insight into the phenomenon of shopping of books online.

The emergence and evolution of the internet in the last decade and especially over the past few years has made it an inseparable part of human lives. Ecommerce technologies have facilitated the opening of web stores; so that people can make their purchases directly on the internet and have them conveniently delivered them at home.

Popular items that have found favour with online customers include DVDs, videos, toys, apparel, and games, amongst a host of other items. Books have emerged as an extremely popular item over the web. According to a recent study by Nielsen online, more than 50 percent of internet users purchased a book over the internet in the last quarter of 2007.

The study also discovered that nearly 85 percent of the total online population had made at least one purchase over the internet in the recent past.

The emergence of books as popular online item has seen the rise of internet giants like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and EBay catering to book orders from around the world. Many of the customers come from developing countries like China, India, Vietnam, Brazil, and Egypt.

Traditional independent brick and mortar bookstores have always benefited from the ongoing demand for books. However, virtual bookstores are slowly making inroads into minds of people around the world.

Traditionally, customers browse through brick and mortar stores and search for books of their choice. Online bookstores replace the conventional bookshelves with highly structured websites. These website display a range of book categories and books in stock along with their prices, description and virtual browsing abilities.

Customers conveniently click on the category of their choice to select the books they want. These books are added to the virtual shopping cart, and the sale is completed using a secure ecommerce gateway that is linked to a bank or a credit card processor.

Traditional stores are finding it difficult to survive the onslaught from online chains like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. However, several studies by the American Booksellers Association have discovered that traditional stores still contribute a significant proportion to the local economy.

It may be partly correct to assume that online bookstores are pulling away business from conventional independent bookstores, but the fact is that independent bookstores also keep up their businesses by inducing a loyalty factor amongst their existing clientele.

Many people still love to browse through books before they ultimately make a purchase. This is where most local bookstores benefit by proving amenities like ambience and space for reading and browsing within the store premises.

According to a recent survey, in San Francisco, independent bookstores accounted for 50 percent of sales compared to 10 percent across the United States.

There is yet another dimension to this entire issue. It may appear that online bookstores are taking away business from local stores, but there is extreme competition between online bookstores as well. For example, there are customers who would never go to Barnes and Noble to purchase their books if they are habitual Amazon users. Other online bookstores utilize a number of internet tactics to drive traffic to their websites.

To summarise, at present it is too early to say whether online sales will force independent bookstores to close down, but the present scenario makes it evident that both will compete for supremacy in the human mind.

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Show me the money Jerry.

Unless the internet is simply a hobby for fun chances are you are going through all this reading, researching, buying, chatting, building, in order to make money. So when do I show you the money. Well I’m sorry to say that you are the one who has to show yourself the money.

How do I show myself the money you say? Simple, by building quality content that brings traffic and customers. But once you have these customers, you need income streams where they can actually buy from you. If you only have one product that they can buy, well I’m sorry to say that you will be showing me the money but it will just about enough to go to the movies….alone. Be creative; find different ways to make money, even if this means re-inventing the wheel. Actually just off the top of my head here a few additional things that you can have on your site that can generate income: Google adsense, Affiliate Banners, Advertising, Think about potential income streams that might “fit” with your Site Concept before you commit to writing articles or creating a site name.

Basically your attitude in this business has to be, I want to try to make every visitor to my Web site or every reader of my articles contribute to my bottom line so that I’m are not wasting good traffic. The “niche concept site” is a flexible strategy that anyone can create and monetize. Bend it and twist it — add your own ideas! Traffic building (and lots of it) comes before Monetization. This is so obvious, but basically, nobody does it. Let me give you a nice piece of advice at this point. Diversification creates a stable online business and puts you in charge. However, multiple income opportunities should not be introduced at the expense of your main business.

Expand appropriately. If you are purely creating an “information” site and do not have a product or service to sell, no problem. You can monetize traffic several ways. For example, grow a list of good merchants with affiliate programs who have product lines that fit. Choose only the best ones and group them according to high-profitability keywords. Or monetize with Google AdSense, the perfect fit for a theme-based content site. Do not dilute your targeted niche just to expand your base of merchant-partners or to create a wider audience for monetization purpose because that is a direct path to a short Internet Career.

Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips & hints, Points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques & insights pertaining to Google Adsense,

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Today, there are many threats present on the Internet that could damage your computer system and could steal and abuse your personal information. With ever more viruses, Trojans, and various other threats appearing, the Internet it is becoming a very volatile and unpredictable. Simple antivirus products may not be enough to maximise your protection. It is not just viruses that pose a threat; hackers also cause lots of trouble for Internet users. There are steps that you can take like using a proxy website that will allow you to remain more safe online while your surf and will hopefully minimise any chance of your personal data being stolen.

The first thing you should make sure you do is to ensure the installation of a good, effective antivirus product on your computer or network. Always do your homework before parting with any cash though. Look on forums, newsgroups, yahoo answers and various other sites and you should soon be able to get an idea on whether a product is worth buying or not. Once you have purchased a good antivirus products make sure you get regular updates on it. When you connect to the Internet the updates may happen automatically, though with some products will require some manual input to get the updates installed. Updates once a month or even once a week is not good enough with all the threats on the Internet. Ideally, you should be looking at getting updates for your product twice or three times every week.

Having a good antivirus product installed with regular updates should give you some fairly good protection. If you want to remain more private when you browse then you should use a proxy website. There are many available on the Internet and you should have no problem finding one via Google or Yahoo. The proxy will act as an intermediary between your computer and the Internet and will handle all data requests that you make for you. This means that websites that you visit will not be able to trace you but will only be able to log the proxy details like its IP address etc.

You could try visiting a ninja proxy for some good reviews on some products and to find a good proxy for you to use. There are many out there so you may have to do some careful research before just using any old one you come across. If you can afford it, and want to take Internet privacy and protection to a whole new level then you could invest some money in a product that offers encryption as a feature. This will keep prying eyes away from your Internet activities and will keep them as private as private can be.

To summarise, if you want to maximise your protection from threats online then you should
1) Make sure you have a good antivirus product installed
2) Make sure you use a reliable proxy website. A ninja proxy is a good one to look at
3) Ideally, find a product which allows you to encrypt all of your Internet data so that it can be kept completely private and safe.

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About the Author:

The author resides in England. He owns his own proxy that operates on the Internet. You can view the site if you want to take a look. It provides some good reviews of current products on the market that should be helpful.