How To Use iWeb SEO Tool & WebCrusher Together

February 15th, 2012

If you use both iWeb SEO Tool and WebCrusher, you might wonder what the preferred method of using both of these applications is. While there is no correct answer, we suggest that users optimize their site with iWeb SEO Tool, and then publish the site to a local folder and then optimize with WebCrusher. You would then publish your website to your server from WebCrusher’s built-in FTP client.

Here is a visualization of our recommended method for using both iWeb SEO Tool and WebCrusher.

Video Transcript:

If you use iWeb SEO Tool and WebCrusher, here is our recommended method for using both of these products.

First, load your website in iWeb SEO Tool, and make any necessary chances, or press the Re-Apply Saved Tags button. Then publish the site to a local folder on your hard drive by clicking on the publish button, followed by selecting the Publish to Folder tab. When you click on the Next button, the Finder window should appear with your website folder highlighted.

Drag and drop that Folder onto WebCrusher’s canvas. Click the Go button to optimize the site, and when the optimization is complete, click on the Export button, and publish the site to your server via WebCrusher’s built-in FTP client.

How To Password Protect Individual Pages On An iWeb Website

February 10th, 2012

With MobileMe, users were able to password protect their entire iWeb websites. Now that MobileMe is being discontinued, users need to find a new option for password protecting their sites. One of the biggest drawbacks to MobileMe’s password protection is that users must password protect the entire site, and not just individual pages. In this tutorial, I am going to show you how you can password protect individual pages on your site. This demonstration uses RAGE Web Hosting so be sure you have your cPanel username and password handy.

If you have yet to sign up to RAGE Web Hosting, you can do so now and follow along with the tutorial. If you have any questions, please feel free to let us know.

Video Transcript:

If you have a subscription to MobileMe, you are able to password protect your entire iWeb website. You weren’t able to password protect individual pages, but rather the entire website would need to be password protected. But now that MobileMe is being discontinued, this feature will no longer be an option for users. In this tutorial, I am going to show you how you can password protect individual pages on your website, and even create multiple usernames and passwords for those pages.

In order to do this and follow along with the tutorial, your website must be hosted with RAGE Web Hosting. You can sign up for hosting at ragesw.com

Another few restrictions to this that I want to mention is that we’re going to be creating a new page, which means that if you already have your page created, you will either need to re-create it, or copy and paste the content over to the new page. That is going to depend on the current setup of your page, but I have a feeling most of you will be copy and paste the content.

Another restriction is that this won’t work as well with a blog, or a podcast page.

One last restriction that I will mention is that we’re going to need to create links to the password protected page as opposed to having it being automatically placed in our navigation menu like other iWeb pages.

Okay so now that we’ve discussed those, let’s get right to it. First open up your website in iWeb. Click on the Add Page button, and select the My Albums page from the White website template. The default name for this page will by My Albums, but let’s rename it to something different. You can name it whatever you want, but I am going to name it login. This name will appear in the URL so make sure whatever you choose, you don’t mind other people seeing it.

The next thing we’ll do, is disable almost everything on this page. Our goal is to have this page be a blank white page. So you can highlight everything on the page, and hit the delete key. You will notice some things disappear while others remain.

The next thing we’ll need to do is click on the Inspector button and click on the Photos tab. Then deselect the option to Allow visitors to subscribe. This will get rid of the Subscribe button. Then with the Inspector window still open, click on the page tab and deselect the options to Include page in navigation menu, as well as Display navigation menu. This will take this page out of your main navigation menu, and also take away the navigation menu from this page which is exactly what we want.

In the end, all that you should see is the empty photo album that says Drag Albums here. If you see more than this, then you may have done something incorrectly.

Our next step is to add the page that will be password protected. Click on the Add Page button, and select Movie. You can choose this page from any of the templates. Make sure that this page is located below and slightly to the right of the page we just modified before. It should look like mine. This indicates that this page is going to be in my login page’s directory.

You can name this page whatever you want as well. This is the page that users will access once they type in the username and password you have provided the with.

We’re almost done in iWeb. So far, we’ve made our blank page, and our page that will be password protected. But now, how will our users know where to login? This is completely optional, but we can now make a login link. To do this, click on the Text Box button and type in some anchor text for your login link. Next, highlight the text and click on the Inspector button. Then click on the Link tab, and select Enable as hyperlink. Then select One of my pages from the drop down menu, and select your password protected page. Note, this is not the blank page, which for me is called login, but is the page beneath the login page which is called sign-in. Now I’ll just place the text box where I want it to go on my site, and then I will copy the text box. I am copying it because I want to place it on every page on my site. To do this, I am just going to click on each page and paste the text box.

Now we’re done with iWeb and onto our last step, which is to make the Login directory password protected.

When you signed up with RAGE Web Hosting, you were given access to what is known as cPanel. When you have logged into cPanel, scroll down to where it says Security and click on Password Protect Directories. In the pop up window, leave Web Root as the selected option, and click the Go button. You should now see various files and folders. My website is called Jeremy’s Golf Shop so I will click on the tiny folder image right next to that. If you don’t have a folder for your website, you can skip this step and continue with us on the next step.

Once in the folder, we will see all of the folders associated with our websites. Now we must click on the folder name that we want to make password protected. So we know I want to password protect the Login page so I will click on it.

To enable the password protection, check the box that reads Password protect this directory. Then give the protected directory a name and click Save. If you ever want to remove the password protection from this page, just uncheck the option to password protect the directory.

Now we can create usernames and passwords by filling out the fields in the Create User section. You can create multiple usernames and passwords that you can give out to different individuals or organizations. When you are done creating your users, click on the Add/Modify authorized user button. We can now visit our websites and test the password protection.

Click on the link for the page that you password protected, and a popup window prompting a username and password should appear. Type in a correct username and password, and you can now access that page. If you click cancel, you will be told that you are not authorized to view the page.

Creating & Embedding An Image Map On An iWeb Website

February 6th, 2012

Our popular tool MapDesign allows users to create images with certain areas, or hotspots, that when clicked will take the user to different destinations (links). Check out this tutorial for adding an image map to an iWeb website. Make your iWeb site even more professional with image maps made in MapDesign

Video Transcript:

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create an image map, and embed it on your iWeb website. If you are not familiar with image maps, imagine that you have an image on your site that allows users to be able to click on different areas of the image and be taken to different pages.

I’m going to show you how you can easily make an image map, and place it on your website in iWeb using RAGE Software’s MapDesign.

So the first thing we need to do, is drag and drop our image onto the MapDesign canvas.

Next, we can draw the link areas around certain sections of our image. These are known as hotspots.

On the left hand side, we will see all of the different hotspot locations that we just created. For organizational purposes, we can re-name these hotspots so we know where each one belongs to. Now comes the important part. We must link these hotspots so that when our users hover over them with their mouse, they will be able to click the hotspots to be taken to the page that we linked to.

We can do this by pressing the Edit button, which will bring up the Inspector window. In the Link To text box on the Behavior tab, type in the the URL that you want this particular hotspot to link to. You can also give some alternate text if you’d like. I also want you to check off the Open In New Window option. Don’t forget this step, otherwise it won’t work correctly.

When you are all done linking all of your hotspots, we must then press the Export To Web Site button. In this popup window, make sure that Simple Image Map is selected, and then press Next and save your image to a location on your hard drive that you won’t forget. I am saving mine to my Desktop. You will see that once I save it, I will have an index.html file, as well as an images folder.

Now, open up your web browser, and go to www.imageshack.com

Press the browse button and locate the image that you just saved. It should have the exact same name as the image you see on my screen which is rage_css_imagemap.jpg. Highlight the image, and then press Open. Then press the Upload Now button.

Once your image has been uploaded, you will then need to copy the URL in the Link text field. Paste the link in your address bar, and hit enter or return.

Next, hover your mouse over your image, and do a secondary, or right click and select Copy Image Location. Then paste that URL in your address bar and hit enter or return. Now just double check that only your image is shown using this address. If it is, proceed to the next step.

Locate the index.html file and open it in an HTML editor. I am using RAGE Software’s WebDesign.

Locate the code for the image which will read images/rage_css_imagemap.jpg.

Highlight the text within the quotation marks, just like I am doing here. Press the delete key, and then paste the URL that we had copied from the previous step.

Next, highlight all of the code located within the body tags, and copy it. Next, open up your site in iWeb, and drag an HTML Snippet onto the page. Paste the code that we just copied.

You should be able to see your image, and you will be able to move your image wherever you want on your page

Your image map is now complete, and when you publish your site, you will be able to test your image map by clicking on the hotspots you created.

RAGE Web Hosting Video Tutorials

January 30th, 2012

The tutorials below will help you with signing up to RAGE Web Hosting, as well as some things you may want to do after you have signed up.

Transferring A Domain

1. How to obtain an EPP code for transfer
2. How to transfer multiple domains (new hosting signups)

Post-Transfer

1. Updating Name Servers (example shown using GoDaddy)
2. Publishing to RAGE Web Hosting in iWeb
3. Publishing to RAGE Web Hosting using iWeb 08 or earlier
4. Publishing to RAGE Web Hosting using CyberDuck

 cPanel

1. Installing WordPress
2. How to setup your additional domains (must have purchased them already)
3. Password protecting pages
4. Setting up a mobile friendly iWeb site

Email

1. Setting up e-mail addresses
2. Configuring your e-mail address in Apple’s Mail client
3. Configuring your e-mail address in Sparrow

Troubleshooting

1. Publishing from iWeb to RAGE Web Hosting – What you might be doing wrong
2. iWeb Publishing Error – There was an error communicating with the FTP server. Try again later, or check with your service provider – Alternative solution

SEIntelligence : Adding Google Analytics and Statcounter.com Codes

January 19th, 2012

SEIntelligence allows you to add analytical codes such as Statcounter.com and Google Analytics using the Site Settings feature. The tutorial below will show you where you need to go to get these codes and where in the Site Settings section to paste them.

Video Transcript:

A great feature of SEIntelligence is the ability to add codes such as Google Analytics and Statcounter to a website. This is done by clicking on the Site Settings button, followed by the Header & Footer Code tab. You would then paste the code, or codes into the header code box, or the footer code box.

So which codes do we recommend you paste into these boxes, and where do you obtain them from?

We recommend placing a Google Analytics code in the header code box, and a Statcounter code in the footer code box. Let’s go get those codes.

Go to google.com/analytics. You will need to have an Analytics account, so if you do not already have one, click on the SIgn Up Now button. Otherwise, click on the button to continue.

Now I’m not going to go through the process of obtaining the code by filling out the short forms as Google changes their interface quite often. So to avoid confusion, I am just going to get to the last step which has the code generated for me. Generating the code will be pretty easy for you. If you get lost, just look for a button that says New Account as that will usually lead you to the form for generating the code.

So when you see the code, highlight the entire code and copy it. Then go to the Site Settings window in SEIntelligence, and paste it in the Header code/Google Analytics box that we mentioned earlier in the video. Then click the Apply to Entire Site button, which will stick the code on every page of your site.

Now, go to statcoutner.com and either sign up for an account, or login with your existing account if you have one.

Once logged in, you should see a link that says Add Project. Click on that link. Fill out the information that is required. When you get to a section that asks you about a counter or a button, select the option for Invisible Tracking. This will make it so that the code generated does not include a hit coutner that would appear on your website.

You can select your preference for being emailed reports, and then click on the Add Project button. On the next page, click on the link for Default Installation Guide. Now highlight the code in in the Standard tab, and copy it. Now go back to SEIntelligence, and paste this code in the footer code box, and click on the Apply To Entire Site button.

When you publish your site, these codes will have been added. Keep in mind that it may take a few days to begin seeing anything in your Google Analytics account, but you should be able to see activity in Statcounter right away.

MailShoot 2.5 Makes it Easier to Send out Newsletters

January 17th, 2012

Do you want to create an online subscription form and send out newsletters to your website visitors?

MailShoot 2.5, our fully featured email newsletter software lets you quickly and easily create a double opt-in online subscription form to collect your visitors email addresses. Then it lets you send our personalized and targeted emails to your potential customers. No technical skills are required.

MailShoot 2.5 provides an all new user interface which makes it much easier to create and send out newsletters. It also fixes a number of bugs and provides some small improvements to various features.

Download MailShoot and try it on your website for free.


Visit RAGE Software at Macworld iWorld 2012

January 9th, 2012

We are extremely excited to once again be at Macworld iWorld 2012 from January 26-28 2012 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

If you are going to be attending, stop by our booth at #228 – 20. We’ll show you what software updates we are working on, new features, and maybe even a sneak peak look at some upcoming products.

We have a few free exhibit hall passes to give out so if you need one, please get in touch.

We are looking forward to seeing everybody there!

MobileMe To RAGE Web Hosting – Keeping Domain At Current Registrar

January 4th, 2012

 

Follow the steps below to host your domain with RAGE Web Hosting.

1. Click here to have the sign up page open.

2. With the third option selected (

3.  From the Billing Cycle drop down menu, select the billing cycle you want. If you want to purchase any of the add-ons, place a checkmark in the boxes. Please note that all prices shown are monthly prices unless otherwise noted. When you are done click on the “Add to Cart” button.

4. Ensure your order is correct. If not, click on the “Start Over” button to begin the process again. If your order looks fine, click on the “Checkout” button.

5. Enter your information including payment information. [Note: If your credit card gets denied several times, your credit card company may be blocking it to protect you. Use PayPal as an alternative if you want the order to go through as soon as possible. When you are done, complete the order. You will then receive instructions in your email on what to do next.

MobileMe To RAGE Web Hosting – Transferring A Domain

January 3rd, 2012

 

Follow the steps below to transfer your domain and sign up for hosting.

1. Go to the website where you registered your domain. You will need to obtain your domain’s EPP or Authorization Code (this is a security measure, similar to a password that only the domain owner would be able to know). You will also need to ‘unlock’ the domain so it can be transferred. If you are not sure how to do this, you can e-mail your registrar and request that they do it for you. This video tutorial shows you how to do it using GoDaddy as an example.

2. Click here to have the sign up page open.

3. With the second option selected (

4. It should say your domain is available to purchase, you should see it with a checkmark beside it and the status saying ” Available! Order Now”. Select the “Click to Continue” button.

5.  From the Billing Cycle drop down menu, select the billing cycle you want. If you want to purchase any of the add-ons, place a checkmark in the boxes. Please note that all prices shown are monthly prices unless otherwise noted. When you are done click on the “Add to Cart” button.

6. Here is where you will need to enter your EPP or Authorization code that was mentioned in step 1. If you want ID Protection, check the box next to $10.00 USD. ID Protection protects the identity of the person registering the domain. When domains are registered, the personal information of the person registering can be accessed by the public. If you wish to hide your personal information, then order the ID Protection. When you are done, click on the “Update Cart” button.

7. Ensure your order is correct. If not, click on the “Start Over” button to begin the process again. If your order looks fine, click on the “Checkout” button.

8. Enter your information including payment information. [Note: If your credit card gets denied several times, your credit card company may be blocking it to protect you. Use PayPal as an alternative if you want the order to go through as soon as possible. When you are done, complete the order. You will then receive instructions in your email on what to do next.

MobileMe To RAGE Web Hosting – Already Own A Domain

January 2nd, 2012

 

If you already own a domain name, you have two options to choose from. Click on the link to get instructions for the option you want to choose. If you are not sure what these options mean, information regarding them is posted below these two links.

1. I want to transfer my domain to RAGE Web Hosting

2. I want to keep my domain at it’s current registrar, but have RAGE host the website.

What Does It Mean?

The first option, transferring your domain, allows you to take your domain from your current registrar and have it housed with RAGE Web Hosting. This means you will do all domain renewals through RAGE and not your old registrar. The pros to doing it this way are that you only need to deal with one company. In addition, any future issues regarding domain and hosting can be handled easily when both the domain and the hosting are with RAGE. There is only one extra step involved with transferring so it is not a difficult process.

The second option, keeping the domain where it currently is, allows you to not move the domain, but still have your website hosted with RAGE. A bit less is involved with this process, but this will leave you with having your domain and your hosting at two separate companies. In some cases, some users will need to use this option (depending on the domains extension).