The Future of Web Design What is DotNetNuke®?

The Future of Web Design What is DotNetNuke®?

by: Lee Sykes

Have you discovered that within months your website becomes out of date and becomes a headache to maintain? DotNetNuke is the answer to your problems.

DotNetNuke® Overview

DotNetNuke® is a portal content management system (CMS) ideal for creating any type of website from commercial web sites, corporate intranets and extranets, online publishing portals, to a personal blog.

DotNetNuke® is provided free, as opensource software. It allows individuals to do whatever they wish with the application framework, both commercially and noncommercially.

The Static Website Problem

So you’ve created your static website using Dreamweaver, Frontpage, or programmed it manually in HTML?

Your next job is to promote your website and keep it up to date with lots of fresh content that the Search Engines love.

You soon discover that keeping your website up to date with the latest news and articles is a lot of work, within a few months your website becomes out of date and the site becomes a complete headache to maintain.

CMS – The Benefits

Using the DotNetNuke® Content Management system enables you to:

Login to your website from anywhere in the world and update your content live

Quickly and easily publish articles, images, documents, news, important information and more

Save Money – Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) you no longer need to pay a webmaster to maintain your site

Support for an unlimited number of content contributors (ie. Give permission to members of staff to login and update certain sections of your website)

Easily change the look of your entire web site with just one click using skins

Extremely extensible admin interface to add and move content, panels and more.

Security Every element of your website can have specific security settings applied to allow or deny users from seeing, editing, or administering the different parts of your site

Once you have used DotNetNuke®, you will not look back your old web design programmes will gather dust!

What do you need for DotNetNuke®?

To run DotNetNuke® you need to use a web hosting package that provides ASP.NET and a Microsoft SQLServer database.

The DotNetNuke® Community

An advantage with DotNetNuke® being opensource software is the vast number of users out there. There are many developers contributing in the form of improving the DotNetNuke® core code and ‘modules’ which provide extra functions to your website, such as photo galleries. There are designers creating ‘skins’ which you can use to change the graphics of your website, and there is also a central forum area where you can ask DotNetNuke® related questions.

This community is rapidly growing by the day and it demonstrates how DotNetNuke® is the web of the future.

Where do you get DotNetNuke®?

You can download the DotNetNuke® code for free from: http://www.dotnetnuke.com simply register with the website to gain access to the downloads.

How do I learn DotNetNuke®?

There are many resources out there supplying documentation, videos and tips from installation and programming, to web design using DotNetNuke®.

You do not need to be a programmer to use DotNetNuke®; the hardest stage is installing DotNetNuke®. This is just a matter of uploading the correct files to your hosting provider and setting up your SQL database. DotNetNuke® will then automatically install when you open your website.

All you now have to do is add the content!

Beginner Resources

To see the functions of DotNetNuke® in action, there are two free beginners’ guides available from DNN Creative Magazine:

An Introduction to the principles of DotNetNuke®

http://www.dnncreative.com/Tutorials/IntroductiontotheprinciplesofDotNetNuke/tabid/75/Default.aspx

and

DotNetNuke® Quick Start Guide Video (25mins)

http://www.dnncreative.com/Tutorials/DotNetNukeQuickStartGuideVideo/tabid/73/Default.aspx

About The Author

Lee Sykes is the Director for DNN Creative Magazine. He is a professional web designer specialising in DotNetNuke® websites.

DNN Creative Magazine is a monthly online magazine providing tutorials, reviews and tips for web design using DotNetNuke®.

http://www.dnncreative.com

This article was posted on September 13

by Lee Sykes

What I Learned From a Womanกs Magazine

What I Learned From a Womanกs Magazine

by: David Leonhardt

Itกs amazing what you can learn about marketing if you can just find the time to spend in a dentistกs waiting room. I was reading a certain womanกs magazine, which will remain nameless because of my allergy to lawsuits. The magazine obviously has figured out what sells well, given that it operates on a consistent formula.

For instance, one cover proclaims: ก3 sizes slimmer by Memorial Dayก. Then, in one corner is a picture of กCookies กn Cream Cakeก, while in another corner is a picture of กกLollipupsก to brighten someoneกs dayก.

On another cover, the main headline is: กLose that BELLY FAT!ก, while a secondary headline asks, กCan’t stop binging?ก Just to make sure that readers can answer, กYesก, there is a nice picture in the corner of a กBanana Split Cookie Cakeก labeled กYum!ก, and the promise of กFamilypleasing Pasta dinnersก inside.

See a pattern? Letกs try one more. The big headline reads: กLose 28 lbs by Thanksgivingก. How? Perhaps the big picture of a กOreo Cookie Cheesecakeก labeled กYum!ก will give us a hint. Or the promise of กBestever Potluck recipesก.

OK. By now I am sure you see the pattern. Thatกs right – poor grammar, punctuation and capitalization.

The other pattern is, of course, the secret success formula:

Offer you a way to lose weight

Tempt you to put the weight right back on

Offer you another way to lose weight

I pointed this out to my dentist, hoping he might decide to increase the quality of reading material in his waiting room.

The next week, I returned to find that my observation had obviously made an impression on him. There was all new reading material: Yummy Deserts Magazine, Best Cakes Review, and The Sugar Mountain Weekly.

I noticed the décor had changed, too. Gone were the bare beige walls. Up were largerthanlife posters of cookies, cakes and ice cream. And strategically placed around the room were candy dishes.

กWhatกs with all the changes?ก I asked.

กItกs all your idea,ก he said. กYou are a marketing genius. If I can get people to start working on their next cavities as they are walking out from my office, I can increase my business by up to 17%.ก

As he began to work in my mouth, I noticed a TV screen above. กDatz nuu,ก I said.

กOh yes,ก he answered, flicking a button. กSee? I have it set at the AllSugar Channel.ก

The dentist finished excavating and reassembled what was left of my mouth.

กHere you go,ก He said proudly, handing me a lollipop.

กDidn’t you used to hand out toothbrushes?ก I asked.

กShh. Don’t remind anybody of that. Toothbrushes are bad for business,ก he explained.

I just could not believe what I had seen. I headed over to the body shop to see how my car was doing. A few repairs were needed, thanks to some bozo on a cell phone who thought that a red light means กstop when you hit another carก.

กHowกs my car doing, Jack?ก I asked.

กItกs OK. You didn’t get hit too hard,ก he replied.

กGood thing he was only talking on a cell phone and not watching a game show on TV when he hit me,ก I remarked. กHey did you see whatกs going on at the dentist?ก

กYeah, whatกs he doing with all those cookie posters in his waiting room?ก Jack asked.

I explained how the womanกs magazine was building its customer base by tempting dieters with cakes labeled กyum!ก

กItกs the dentistกs new business development program,ก I said.

I was about to pay for the repair work when Jack held out a cell phone and a miniTV set. กIf you take the cell phone, I give you a five percent discount. Take the TV set and you get a ten percent discount.ก

กWhat are you, doing?ก I demanded.

กHey,ก replied Jack. กItกs my new business development program.ก

About The Author

David Leonhardt is author of Climb Your Stairway to Heaven

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?ISBN=059517826X

Read more humor articles:

http://www.thehappyguy.com/humor articles.html

Visit his liquid vitamins store:

http://www.vitaminsupplementsstore.net

Or his happiness website:

http://www.thehappyguy.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 30

by David Leonhardt

Lazy Man’s Way To Get Customers

Lazy Man’s Way To Get Customers

by: Christopher Kyalo

No matter how big or small your business is and no matter how high or low sales are right now, there is something you need, badly. And that is a selling system.

All firms are careful to have elaborate accounting, production and transport systems. And yet there is no system to handle the most important aspect of all – sales.

Nothing moves until a sale is made, remember?

Systems makes work easier. A selling system guarantees any business a steady flow of new and repeat customers. The introduction of a selling system has changed fortunes, literally overnight. Sample these brief case studies;

A struggling monthly magazine was on the verge of shutting down when they took on a consultant who introduced a simple system to sell advertising space (the main source of revenue for the business magazine.) Within 2 months, the magazine was turning a profit and within one year sales increased by over 500%.

In the mid eighties nobody believed it was possible to sell computers in cashstrapped Africa. People not only didn’t know how to use them but even if they did where would they find the cash? The result was that computer dealers sold very few computers, mostly to large companies, at obscenely high profit margins. A new company entered the market with a simple selling system that involved packaging a low cost entrypoint computer. They sold so well that they revolutionized the entire market forcing margins to come down dramatically.

A wellestablished energy firm specializing in solar was doing very well but wanted to do even better. They reluctantly hired a consultant, more out of curiosity because they did not believe what he was saying about selling systems. The consultant quickly discovered that the real ขhot buttonข for solar consumers was being able to run a Television. He thus created a selling system that linked solar to the most popular soap in the country at the time. Sales increased by over 50% in a single month.

This restaurant had good décor and excellent food. But it was located in a good but outoftheway street. Too much had already been invested to shift location so they tried out a selling system involving a discount voucher for lunch targeted at office workers. Two days later, the restaurant was so packed that several customers just gave up and went elsewhere.

A struggling newspaper could hardly sell its’ minimal 1,000 copies print run. A selling system was set up to distribute the publication using flyers. Sales shot up to 120,000 copies within a very short time.

The examples are endless. As the world marketplace is continually shrunk by technology and as competition increases, businesses will find it more and more difficult to survive without an effective selling system that clearly lays out a strategy and procedure to attract leads and prospects and to then to turn some of those leads into paying customers.

About The Author

Christopher Kyalo is an international marketing and selling systems consultant with over 20 years experience. He has recently relocated to Daressalamm, Tanzania. He can be reached at [email protected]

This article was posted on August 03, 2004

by Christopher Kyalo

The Fall and Fall of the pZine

The Fall and Fall of the pZine

by: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

http://home.wuliweb.com/index.shtml

http://www.pshares.org/

The circulation of print magazines has declined precipitously in the last 24 months. This dissolution of subscriber bases has accelerated dramatically as economic recession set in. But a diminishing wealth effect is only partly to blame. The managements of printed periodicals from dailies to quarterlies failed miserably to grasp the Internetกs potential and potential threat. They were fooled by the lack of convenient and cheap ereading devices into believing that old habits die hard. They do but magazine reading is not habit forming. Readersก loyalties are fickle and shift according to content and price. The Web offers cornucopial and nichetargeted content free of charge or very cheaply. This is hard to beat and is getting harder by the day as natural selection among dot.bombs spares only quality content providers.

Consider Ploughshares, the Literary Journal.

It is a venerable, not for profit, print journal published by Emerson College, now marking its 30th anniversary. It recently inaugurated its web sibling. The project consumed three years and $125,000 (grant from the WallaceReaderกs Digest Funds). Every title Ploughshares has ever published was indexed (over 18,000 journal pages digitized). In all, the กwebsite will offer free access to over 2,750 poems and short stories from past and current issues.ก

The more than 2000 (!) authors ever published in Ploughshares will each maintain a personal web page comprising biographical notes, press releases, new books and events announcements and links to other web sites. This is the Yahoo! formula. Content generated by the authors will thus transform Ploughshares into a leading literary portal.

But Ploughshares did not stop at this standard features. A กbookshelfก will link to book reviews contributed online (and augmented by the magazineกs own prestigious offerings). An annotated bookstore is just a step away (though Ploughsharesก web site does not include one hitherto). The next best thing is a rightsmanagement application used by the journalกs authors to grant online publishing permissions for their work to third parties.

No print literary magazine can beat this one stop shop. So, how can print publications defend themselves?

By being creative and by not conceding defeat is how.

Consider WuliWebกs example of thinking outside the printed box.

It is a simple online application which enables its users to กsend, save and share material from print publicationsก. Participating magazines and newspapers print กWuliCodesก on their (physical) pages and WuliWeb subscribers barcodescan, or manually enter them into their online กContent Managerก via keyboard, PDA, pager, cell phone, or fixed phone (using a PIN). The service is free (paid for by the magazine publishers and advertisers) and, according to WuliWeb, offers these advantages to its users:

กOnce you choose to use WuliWebกs free service, you will no longer have to laboriously ‘tear and shareก print articles or ads that you want to archive or share with colleagues or friends. You will be able to store material sourced from print publications permanently in your own secure, electronic files, and you can share this material instantly with any number of people. Magazine and Newspaper Publishers will now have the ability to distribute their online content more widely and to offer a richer experience to their readers. Advertisers will be able to deploy dynamic and mediarich content to attract and convert customers, and will be able to communicate more completely with their customers.ก

Links to the shared material are stored in WuliWebกs central database and users gain access to them by signing up for a (free) WuliWeb account. Thus, the userกs mailbox is unencumbered by huge downloads. Moreover, WuliWeb allows for a keywordsbased search of articles saved.

Perhaps the only serious drawback is that WuliWeb provides its users only with LINKS to content stored on publishersก web sites. It is a directory service not a full text database. This creates dependence. Links may get broken. Whole web sites vanish. Magazines and their publishers go under. All the more reason for publishers to adopt this service and make it their own.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of กMalignant Self Love Narcissism Revisitedก and กAfter the Rain How the West Lost the Eastก. He is a columnist in กCentral Europe Reviewก, United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

This article was posted on February 2, 2002

by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.