Month: September 2006

As I have a number of domains hosted on my own dedicated cPanel based server with Hostgator, I make sure I back them up every week or so.

But sometimes I forget. And sometimes I’ll forget for three weeks running, which means my last backups were taken a month ago. I think I’ve just been asking for trouble, and I’ve been lucky so far.

Actually, I did lose a sub-domain recently when I moved servers…

I forgot that I’d created the sub-domain using WHM as a completely separate account cPanel in it’s own right. It wasn’t part of the main domain account.

Maybe you didn’t know you could do that, I stumbled across it by accident, and it can be useful in certain circumstances.

So, I moved servers.

I leased the new server, then used WHM root access to copy all the accounts over to the new server. No I didn’t know you could do that either until I meeded to do it, and had a poke round in the WHM screens.

With a bit of trial and error, I managed to work out how it was done. I’m not a system administrator or a Linux geek / guru, so it was a bit of an achievement for me, and I was quite pleased with myself.

Well, I’d just set myself up for a fall hadn’t I?

While I was sitting there all pleased with myself, I forgot to copy a useful little test subdomain I’d set up as a separate account, thinking it would copy across with the main domain. Of course, now I know better.

It was a separate account wasn’t it?

Oh well.

I lost it all completely when I closed the old server down.

So what’s the point of this rambling? Well, I’ve just found a new bit of Windows software called CPSiteSaver.

It’s a little application that will connect to cPanel and fetch the latest backup of your web site, and more importantly also any databases you have.

A lot of web sites are driven by server side applications like this blog you’re reading now (WordPress). And everything is database driven.

For instance, this website could be restored from the original WordPress downloads in about 15 minutes tops from the original files, but all of the articles are stored in the database. If I lost the database, I’d lose everything.

And that’s where CPSiteSaver comes in. All you need to do is plug in your details – domain, cPanel userid and password, etc., then set a time you want it backed up and away it goes.

Of course it only works if you leave your PC on all the time. If you don’t want to do that, then it’s not suitable for your purposes.

As I do leave my PC on all the time (Windows Server), it’s perfect for me. I set up the domains once which takes a couple of minutes for the domain and then to look up all the databases that need backing up too. After that, it’s all on autopilot.

And this is what computers are all about. I shouldn’t have to manually take backups, it should just happen, and now it does.

I’m not going to go through all the features and benefits, I’ll let the sales page do that.

Equally as important though is the level of support. I’ve found the site owner, Manny, to be very helpful with the couple of issues I’ve raised with him.

I highly recommend it if you value your website at all. Here’s the link again, CPSiteSaver.

I’ve just completed part 1 of testing for my new digital delivery software, SmartDD. My developer partner Paul has done an amazing bit of coding in a very short time, and I’ve been going through the slog of testing it over the last 24 hours or so.

It’s turned up a few minor issues which are more to do with our understanding of what should happen under different circumstances rather than real bugs.

The fact that there are so few is a minor tribute to my initial spec., but mostly Paul’s incredible coding skills.

It just goes to show what you can do when you think something out properly before doing even one jot of coding.

Aren’t we clever? And aren’t I feeling smug at the moment?

Of course, I could have all that smugness wiped off my face if I can’t get the website up in time for the launch on 3rd October.

And there are a couple of things need coding in now, but the big hard part of making PayPal work is done. We now just need to decide how to handle the various payment_status types other than “Completed”.

I recently received an email for a product called Promo Code Secrets by Jordan Hall. It is a brilliant piece of work, and I had a genuine “ohhh, of course!” moment while reading his ebook.

Like all good ideas, it’s simple in concept and the advantages can be easily grasped by anyone in marketing. It’s a study of the use of promotional codes, otherwise known as digital discount coupons.

Nothing new there you might think, this has been used for as long as anyone can remember. And as I always say, “there’s nothing new under the sun”.

What makes this ebook worth reading is the description (with diagrams) of how you can use promo codes in the flow from your squeeze and sales pages. He also describes the “Paid Two-Phase Squeeze Page” and better yet the “Free Two-Phase Squeeze Page“, and it’s these methods which I believe are simple yet genius.

He also gives his twist on using eBay as a marketing vehicle, which is even better than the method I already knew about. Now that I think about it, combine it with my current method and it’s extremely powerful.

I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag here. If you want to know about how it works, you’re going to have to buy the ebook.

He also has on sale a script which you can use to implement the techniques described in his ebook. I didn’t buy it because I already have a script that will do most of what he describes, but it’s well worth considering as a tool to add to your arsenal.

This is definitely a set of techniques which I’ll be using shortly. I’d be silly not to!

You can get Promo Code Secrets by clicking the link.

I had The Secret pointed out to me a few days ago, and I was told it would be a good idea if I watched it.  And then to continue watching it again and again every few months.

I wasn’t told what it was, so intrigued, I took a look.  It’s very powerful stuff.

It’s a movie that you can watch online for $4.95, but you can also order it on DVD with the $4.95 discounted off the price of $29.95 plus shipping.

So I watched it, and straight afterwards ordered the DVD.

On the link above there’s a trailer.  I gave my wife the headphones and said "watch this trailer" and went to put the kettle on.  When I came back a couple of minutes later, she was almost in tears, it’s that strong.

"I want to see that" she blubbered.  "It’s on its way" I replied.

I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s based around the principles of the book "The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D Wattles, which you can download for free from various sites if you do a search, but it’s much better as a movie.

Enjoy.