Lone Star Media has a Newsletter – yay !

Hey guys,

Lone Star Media has finally set up a sign up form for everyone that is interested in signing up for our bi-monthly Newsletter.

The Newsletter is going to be fun with some business techy stuff in it. Tips, tricks and even some special offers  with a down to earth feel to it. We really would like our clients to know we are not robots programed only to work on web sites, but that we are loving, caring down to earth people who actually enjoy life away from our computers.

To sign up for our Newsletter visit this page:
http://www.lonestarmedia.com/lsm/index.cfm/newsletter/

Working with Coldfusion and .net

We are in the process of wrapping up a project for Redbird Flight Simulations in Austin which presented some unusual challanges for us.  Their website is hosted with GoDaddy and sets on a asp/.net platform.  Lone Star Media was hired to upgrade their client access section to provide a number of products and services to their members.  However, moving from .net to Coldfusion was not an option and they were also not ready to make the switch to <lonestart />.  Therefore, we needed to come up with a solution that would enable us to store sessions, authentication and user roles between CF and .net.  How did we do it?  Cookies

The top of the website has a loginbug where authenticated users can quickly access their managment page and also logout.  The most effecient way to share this information between Coldfusion and .net was by setting a user login cookie on the machine.  After all, they both can read the same cookies as long as they are both on the same domain.  The login bug simply pulls the data from the cookie to determine the current login state.

The actual client access area is still using CF session authentication as the information is private and secure but by setting a cookie on the client machine we were able to share the authentication state and basic user details between the .cfm pages and .asp pages to ensure a consistant client experience.

Screen Scraper

So we have been working on a new project for a client where we will be checking availability for an event for one of their vendors.  Without giving to much away, we basically are using an application called screen scraper to read the vendors calendar to determine availability.  In theory it sounds like a great idea.

It seems that the windows installation and setup is straightforward but we have been struggling with getting it working on our Linux webserver.   The first issue was really where to get started.  Most of the tutorials, etc. reference Windows using the Gui installers…..due to the fact that we are using only shell commands we found the documentation a bit light.  However, the support team at screen-scraper was very helpful and assisted us in working through the issues.  ** Make sure that you are using the most recent version of the software.  It seems that most of our initial frustration was caused by an old installation.

We are still working on implementing the system but will keep you updated with our progress.

Testing the waters

This is just a simple lil test to find out where this will post.

another words, Testing…1 …..2…….3……

HTTP 403 Forbidden Error

We installed Apache 2.2 on 64 bit Windows and received a frustrating 403 Forbidden Error when navigating to a website.  After attempting to update permissions, etc. we discovered that it was a simpmle fix that we needed to do in the vhosts.conf file.

If you are installing Apache on Vista and setup the httpd.conf file to include the vhosts.conf file, make sure that you removed the template virtual host.  You can comment it out by typing the comment charachter “#” on each line.  This will enable you to leave the sample virtual host in the file for future reference.  If you do not remove the sample you will receive the dreaded 403 Forbidden Error.

The Sargas Project v0.1 released

We are very excited to have finally released the first beta version of the Sargas Project.  Our beta version is currently active and being used by both the Austin Men’s Soccer Association and the Austin COED Soccer Association.  That you to everyone who is participating and helping us make this software the very best and useful software possible.

What is the Sargas Project?

We have been working on generating the next generation league registration system which will be a two way networking system between the league and it’s members.  We found that most registration software was simply sending information in one direction.  Players would register and pay their money,ie. send information to the league.  We thought that by finding a way to not only help the league manage its registrations but also provide more value to captains and players that we could provide an advanced and unique user experience.

Initially our system takes advantage of team networks and allows teams to develop communication with their network and rosters for each league.  Through a variety of member settings, certain types of features can be turned on and off.  We will be releasing more information and features in the coming months.

Rather than simply create new posts for each entry, we are going to be creating a feature page and will be adding new feature’s as we ad them.  Please check back here for details.

If you are a member of an organization which would like to demo the system, please click here to contact us today.

New Coldfusion Open Source Framework

This one looks like it has a HUGE potential.  It is easy to setup and even easier to administer.  Take a look:

http://www.savacms.com

Lone Star Media is looking to integrate this CMS into our newely released Lonestart website platform.  We’ll have more information soon.

It’s all about the title!

So it has become apparent that the title tag may be one of the most important tags that you can use. In some of the research that we have been reviewing lately we have found that if you don’t do any other SEO at least develop your title tags to contain relevant and catchy keywords. There are a few reasons for this:

1. Links are still the most important part of SEO. Whether you are working on your external link campaign or your internal site structure, links are the name of game.

2. As people start to focus more and more on internal links and the actual code between the <a></a> it seems as though there may be some room to deposit additional relevant keywords in the title tag.

So, What is a title tag?

The title tag is meant to describe what the link is. For example, if you have a link to your homepage it may look like this:

<a href=”http://www.lonestarmedia.com”>Home</a>

This would result in a link like: Home

A title tag is used to provide more details about the link. The title tag is also read by screen readers for disabled users and is required for your site to be w3 compliant. Using a title tag would result in the following code:

<a href=”http://www.lonestarmedia.com” title=”Lone Star Media homepage for Austin web design”>Home</a>

The link looks the same: Home

but the title is now included which gives you the benefit of more keywords. In this example, the keyword that we are targeting is ‘Austin web design’.

Try this with your site. You should see some nice results.

Lonestart Version 1.0 released

We have finally released version 1.0 of our new product, <lonestart />. Lonestart will change the way that small business approach the web. We combine custom website design with a feature rich content management solution add in a bit of search engine optimization and now small businesses will have enterprise level software and support at a small fraction of the price.

We are in the process of completing our online demo and will be releasing more details about Lonestart during the summer months. Please check our website for more information about our new small business web design product, Lonestart.

Calling all business owners…get out and start blogging!

It simply amazes me how important blogging can be to a business’s online success. As we have been working on our research regarding the effect that blogging has on SEO and SEM, we have found that some new posts are indexed in Google within 20 minutes. This is outstanding. Show me another way that you can get the word out about a new service, product or even an idea to the web in 20 minutes. This is simply not possible without blogging.

We have been using WordPress during this experiment although I am sure that the Blogger and other tools will have the same effect. The bottom line is that blogging tools, whether they are a local application or an online application, must be a part of any business’s online marketing plan.

Recently, clients I have been asked about blogging from a number of clients. I have heard questions such as:

“What is the point of blogging…what do I say?”

The point of blogging is to simply provide your site visitors with your expertise. Whether you are selling artwork or providing lawn maintenance services, if you provide a value to your site visitors they will return to read next time that are looking for information about the same subject. The point of a blog is not to duplicate the content on your business’s web page but to increase the amount of information you make available online. If you are looking for things to say start by providing your current customers with helpful tips, etc. If you customers are interested in this information, imagine what potential customers will think. Would you be more willing to call a contractor if you could read a history of their tips and resources regarding remodeling, etc.? It builds a track record.

“Should I just pack in a bunch of my keywords”

No. Save your keyword stuffing for your title tags.

Blogs are for readers. Besides, if you are blogging about relevant content won’t your keywords already be included? You never want to include keywords just for the sake of having more keywords on your page. You should, however, include your keywords in your category names and page names. Blogging allows you to build pages, which are a collection of blog posts.

“How will I make money from blogging?”

You will make money from your blog by increasing site visitors trust in you and your company. That should and will directly result in more traffic and more business….thus more money.

“Will my blog visitors be able to find my website?”

You need to make sure that the very first page that you create is an about page which will describes your company, service, etc. You must include all of your contact information and a link to your website.

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These are the very basics when it comes to blogging. Get started today by creating your account!

http://www.wordpress.com

http://www.blogger.com