Automated CPanel Backups for multiple sites

I’ve just discovered a very useful tool for all website owners and hosting resellers, read on…

Someone has finally made it easy to backup your website files and databases without needing to log into your cPanel control panel every single time.

Backup Smart is the name of this incredible time saver, check out the free fully-functional 7 day trial and see for yourself why this is one essential tool you should have.

Gone are the days when you forget to backup or run out of time to backup your precious data.

Think about this for a moment…

What happens when your web host has a failure and your account get’s damaged or worse case scenario, the web host loses everything.?

Do you rely on your web host to take backups for you? Check the fine print of most web hosts terms of service and they will state that they are not responsible for your data, even if it’s their fault. Great isn’t it.

So what’s the solution. Simple. Backup your data regularly.

Let me tell you how to do it on cPanel web servers, it’s quite labour intensive.

a) Go to your http://yourwebsite.com:2082 and enter in your login credentials.
b) Go to the Backup icon (will look different depending on your cPanel theme)
c) Click on the link to download the home directory backup (this will take all your files)
d) Click on the links to download your databases
e) Click on the links to download your email filters or email aliases

Now do that once a week or month for your home directory (files) and everyday for your databases like Wordpress, Forums, Shopping Carts, Email Lists.

No thanks I have better things to do with my time.

That’s where Backup Smart comes in. It’s a desktop software application that runs on Windows and MAC OSX. It automates the whole backup process I’ve just outlined for you.

You just set it and forget it. Backups are done on a schedule set by you, it’s just so easy.

If you even have just one website with a database then you need this software to protect your assests. But if you have more than one website on different servers with multiple databases then this software is a huge time saver and you’ll wonder how you ever did without it.

Check out all the details at www.backup-smart.com

Hope you find this useful!

Using CSS to Generate Footnote Links for Printing

When generating stylesheets for print purposes one problem is that by default a user would not be able to see links included in the content. However we can use a script to detect all links present in the content and then present footnotes with the linked pages so users printing your page will still have the possibility to see where you are linking to from your content.

This article is probably the best tutorial / script to help you achieve this effect.

How to Create Snippets with Adobe Dreamweaver CS4

This video tutorial shows you how to make use of Dreamweaver CS4’s Snippet capability. I will be showing you how to create a Doctype snippet.

How to Auto Update the Year in your Website Footer

Just use the PHP date function to return the current date, then use echo to display it. You now have a self-updating year displaying in your footer.

Example:

 © Copyright 2009 - < ?php echo (date("Y")); ?>

Planning Your Website

You’ve decided to create a Web site, excellent, you’ve done the right thing! Next up is thinking about what kind of Web site you are going to need. Just like everything else, in order to create the best possible web presence for yourself or your business you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. Let’s take a look at some of the things you should be thinking about.

1. Deciding what you want to say

One of the most crucial concerns you want to tackle is that of stating as clearly as possible the purpose of the Web site in one sentence. You need to be as specific as possible here, something like “Creating the best looking website in the country” is not going to cut it. Focus on the real purpose of your Web site. Some excellent examples:

• To advertise music lessons offered by a collective of piano teachers in Malta
• To chronicle my trip to India working with orphan children
• To provide a showcase of all the products and services our company offers

That gives you a starting point that will lead you in the right direction for tackling the next question.

2. Targeting your audience

Defining the site’s intended audience is another determining factor in planning your Web site successfully. A site’s visual style and functionality is considerably influenced by its expected audience. When thinking about your audience, you should consider factors such as their age, experience in using the Web, sex, equipment they are using and educational background. Clearly a shopping site will have a more straightforwand and simple look and functionality compared with a technology magazine site, for example. While the shopping site has a very wide spectrum of potential users, a technology magazine website has a much narrower target audience and can probably afford to be more complex and snazzy.

3. Determining your resources

The final step is to thinkg about monetary, time and also bandwidth resources. Great websites don’t get done for free, and neither are they done in a day or two. The process of building a Web site does not only involve development resources but also the creation of materials and content, as well as ongoing maintenance.

It is also important to think about what bandwidth you can expect your users to have, if most of your users will probably have limited internet speeds it is probably not a good idea to include alot of bandwidth gobbling videos and animations, although they can be used sparingly where relevant.

Giving yourself the time to go through the ideas presented above will go a long way in ensuring that you start off your Web site venture on the right footing, with a clear idea of what the final Web site should work and how it will look like.