Web Resources Update
I've found it difficult to keep this section of the site up to date. Especially the plan to keep adding links that I come across in my pursuit for knowledge. Therefore I have added them on the forum in a simple to add to post: Find it here:
I will continue to update this list as I find new resources. In the meantime if you have any valuable resources please post them so we can all benefit.
I've now set up my webmasters blog, check it out: http://webmasters-money-making-mission.blogspot.com/I've decided to try and earn the money to pay for my web hosting!
I never started this site to make money, Paula and I wanted to start up a parenting forum. Then my children took over and wanted the football, movies and gaming forum :). We have the forums and now I use the site to also help me learn about programming, websites, CSS, php, MySQL, forums and lately Javascript (offering the scripts for free - see last post) but still the web hosting isn't free so why not try and find some way of helping to pay for it.
Below is something a friend pointed me in the direction of that pays you £10 for signing up and £5 per month for adding just 3 banners to your website. You can also earn £10 for every new person you sign up (so obviously I would appreciate you using my link). The site mentions amazon vouchers but when you sign up you have the option of cash via paypal or amazon vouchers. Once my friend got paid I decided to join and as such I feel am I able to promote it. Below is one of the banners to show what they look like and here is the link to find out more and if you wish to sign up:
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I've now learnt Javascript :)
Its been a while since I updated this section of the site. I have lots to add so I won't get the chance to add it all right now. Apologies for that.
I've learnt to write some javascript! Someone on statcounter forum wished to add some ads to his site but wanted them to change randomly on each load. He couldn't use php which I would have probably preferred to use and as his site already uses javascript extensively this was the option I decided on but without knowing any javascript I had to google for it. I couldn't find anything that did what he required so I wrote something myself.
In the end he wanted something a little different so I had to rewrite the script which is why you'll find 2 scripts. Both working well and are going to be used on this site extensively over the coming months.
You'll find all the details here:
http://247mgf.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=32
I've also put up demo's here:
http://www.always24-7.co.uk/test/scriptsdemo.php
All the best.
Michael.
Changes, changes, changes
I hope you like the changes to the site. I learnt to make boxes and put things in them ha! Checking out .css on other sites and discovered how to create these type of boxes and put logo's in the top right hand corners. From there I made up some simple logo's to use and added them to the different pages.
I then had to fill the boxes, so I decided to embark on improving the content available from the forums. I used a mod available from phphacks.com called prefetch and used this to fetch the information from the forums and display it on the relevant forum home page. My next job is to fetch the post information and display it on the forum information page for all to see.
New logo's, a great lady named Sharron from the statcounter forum has created some stunning logo's for our site. Hopefully we will be able to use them soon. I'm not sure if Sharron is available for private work but if she is you'll find it very difficult (if not impossible) to find anyone that could do a better job.
Later on I am going to split this page up as I have loads more links that I have bookmarked and are worthy of sharing. I'm even considering starting up a proper blog page to add all this information to. Might make it easier for me in the long run.
Favicon: You may have noticed the neat little logo's that come up when you open up our webpage and are used when you bookmark our site. This are created using the following bit of code:
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" >
You add it within the head and /head tags at the top of your html page. You add a little logo 32x32 into your root directory and this is displayed for all to see. Check out any of our forum pages to see what I have done so far.
These I designed, Sharron has also done a better job designing one for our Always24-7.co.uk main page which I hope to add sometime very soon. To see her work check out http://www.designbyatfb.com/howto.html Thank you Sharron.
Date: 21st November 2006
I've been so busy lately with personal stuff, mainly to do with my son Bobby that I haven't had much time to spend on www.always24-7.co.uk. However I have learnt quite a bit more and plan on improving on the Web Resource pages by splitting it up into sections and giving you much more details and links. I have so much knowledge and the only thing to do with that is pass it on.
Last week I re-coded the site, not sure if re-coded is the right terminology but basically I reedited the code to make it even easier for me to make changes to all the pages and also improved the css. I now don't use absolute positioning with the boxes on the pages which makes it easier to make changes (I don't have to keep editing where the boxes are to be positioned). I've also been looking into different forum software and although I have decided to stick with phpbb for the time being I did discover that there is a lot of options. I am going to add a whole section on what I discovered later. I also learnt to use the .htaccess file to do redirects. Again I have a lot of useful links to help with this, I will add all these links and further details very soon.
Date: 7th November 2006
Up until today the site with the exception of the forums was all html. Today I uploaded my pages as php. I still haven't fully grasped php but with the help of Larry Ullman's excellent book (see below) I have been able to create the navbar (left hand panel), the global nav bar (panel above) and the footer (the panel at the bottom of the page, but i'm sure you already knew that). I was able to create different menu items in each section depending on the page you are viewing. This means I only need to edit one file if I wish to change any of my nav bars.
I have also been able to use php, to improve my games page. Intead of having to create a new page for every game I added, I now simply use php to choose the game and display the game within the same page (playgame.php). I'm sure there is an even easier way than what I have created but it works and I learnt along the way.
I'll try and keep this page updated as I update the site.
Date: 2nd November 2006:
While developing this site I had to learn lots (well everything) as I had very little experience with creating web sites. I had to learn website design, html, css, php and that was just to upload the sites. I then had to, and still do, learn about promoting my site. What I have learnt I could have kept to myself but i'm not a selfish man so I thought I would compile this list of helpful resources that I have found. I hope it helps you as much as it has helped me and i'm sure will continue to help me.
All the very best
Michael
Books and Programmes:
Dreamweaver 8: I could go along with the usual quotes. Its the best money can buy, you won't need anything else! but unfortunately I can't. Not because I don't think Dreamweaver 8 is brilliant because I do but because I haven't used anything else I can't tell you if it is better. Try it for yourself though.
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Dreamweaver 8 for Dummies Excellent book, the only book I read on using Dreamweaver 8. Went through html, css, web design. Everything you needed and much more. To find out more click the picture to the left. |
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PHP and MySQL: For Dynamic Websites Another excellent book, again the book I have read on PHP and MySQL. I am reading this book again at the moment and working through all the examples. Although the book goes into lots of detail and advance subjects it is all done in a very easy to understand way. It is also complimented by an excellent website / forum where you can post your queries and the Author himself Larry Ullman replies. To find out more click the picture to the left. |
HTML and CSS:
Learn HTML and CSS - Use our free tutorials
I used HTMLSource but both are excellent sources of information and i'm sure you'll find them useful as a beginner or advanced website designer. Personally I found them great because although I have an idea of what I need to do I can never remember the right coding.
Webmaster Tools:
Web Developer Extension: Excellent toolbar for every webmaster to help discover everything about your site and can be used on other sites.
Add your URL to Google: For submitting your site to the Google search engine.
Open Source:
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor: The open source programming language that many site is now built on.
PHP Hacks: Information and tutorials on using PHP.
phpBB.com: The open source bulletin board or forum software package that is built using the PHP programming language.
phpBBHacks.com: Information, Templates, Hacks, Mods & Tutorials on using PhpBB.
ImageMagick:: I've not used this yet or even downloaded but i've seen mentioned plenty and plan on using it in the very near future within at least one of our forums. Allows you to Convert, Edit, and Compose Images from a command line. Can be used on a server to automate the procedure using many programming languages including PHP.
Site Trackers:
StatCounter: Free invisible Web tracker, Hit counter and Web stats. We use it on Always24-7.co.uk.
Other:
UK-Muscle: Not your typical web resource site but many of the people on UK-Muscle have been very helpful in checking out our site and giving advice where needed. Also they have helped me lose weight and get fit..ish again, so they deserve more praise than most :).
Browsers:
Firefox I won't waste your time telling you about Internet Explorer as i'm sure you've already heard of that. I came across Firefox towards the end of October 2006 when someone kindly informed me that Always24-7.co.uk didn't show up correctly in Firefox. I had to download Firefox to find out why. It turns out it was my programming that was wrong and Firefox was showing the pages correctly. While using Firefox I found the browser to be fantastic, much better than IE. I especially like the tabbed browsing (meaning to open another web page I don't have to open another browser - all open in a new tab), saves precious computer resources. To find out more click the picture to the left. |
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Generate revenue from your website:
Google Adsense Place google code within your website pages. They display the ads. If anyone likes them and clicks on them you'll earn, not a lot but hopefully it'll pay some of your hosting fees. To find out more click the picture to the left. |
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Increasing Traffic to your blog or website:
Always24-7.co.uk Exchange Programme: The thing to do it swap a link with us. We have 4 different link sites so please let us know the one you think is best for you.
Once you've taken a look at the different pages and forums. Go to our Exchange links page and follow the simple instructions.
Quality directory of webmasters actively seeking link exchange. Improve your search engine rankings and link popularity the easy way. Work clever not hard.
Google Adwords Let Google help drive targetted traffic to your site. To find out more click the picture to the left. |
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Google Pack Google pack. To find out more click the picture to the left. |
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