OptinPop is a Great Wordpress Plugin

Have you seen those pop-ups on sites asking if you would like to subscribe to the site’s newsletter? Often called an Optin popup, these pop-ups are now very easy with this free plugin from the Wordpress.org extend directory called the OptinPop. You can find the plug-in here.Or you can install it right from your Wordpress admin area.

Examples

Examples of the plugin in action can be found of the developer’s website at http://www.bigsellingoptins.com/blog/download-optinpop-wordpress-plug-in/ or a different use can be seen while exiting the website http://freeacaiberry.org/. The plugin is used to show an advertisement on the second site mentioned. You will need to create a stand along html document to show in the popup window. The on exit or on enter options are very useful in addition to the light box effect used on the Free Acai Berry site. The popup will also not be blocked by popup blockers as a new window is not created.

One Fix After Installation

If you install the plugin automatically from the Wordpress.org website the plugin will not work after installation and activation. After reading through the developer’s instructions I found that the plugin needed to be installed into a directory called ‘optinpop’. This doesn’t happen with the automatic installation. After renaming the directory or the installation, the plugin will need to be reactivated and will work fine thereafter.

HelloTxt Offers One Stop Microblogging

HelloTxt (www.hellotxt.com) is a nice site I found while updating an RSS feed on TwitterFeed.com. HelloTxt is now an option to feed RSS data to from TwitterFeed. So you can have TwitterFeed submit all your site posts to HelloTxt automatically. And what HelloTxt does is then submit your status updates or TwitterFeeds to a vast number of social sites and microblogging websites.

HelloTxt has 59 different microblogging and social sites that you can automatically post to from their one interface. Some of the social sites are the most popular today including Facebook, Flickr, Hi5, etc. And there are a good number of international microblogging sites that you have not heard of before.

I currently have three sites posting to HelloTxt through TwitterFeed and have not seen a big increase in inbound links or traffic to the sites but it is fairly easy to setup and establishing your presence on these newer Web 2.0 sites is a good ideal. It is still quite early for many of the sites so attractive usernames and vanity urls are available. http://ohiostate.shoutem.com/ is an example of a vanity url that was not taken at Shoutem.com.

© 2009 CapturedTech.com – Not A Paid Post

Exporting SQL Server Records To Excel

We have a large amount of data that we want to provide to our users through Excel files downloaded from our website. We found that by using the Openrowset command in a stored procedure afforded us the most versatility and the easiest redundant execution than the other options. For a nice explanation of the process and a full listing of the variables available take a look at MSSQLTips.

The final code looks like this:

INSERT INTO OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0',
'Excel 8.0;Database=C:\testing.xls;',
'SELECT Name, Date FROM [Sheet1$]')
SELECT * From dbo.MyTable Where Date = GetDate()
GO

There was a slight error with this implementation at one point in the day where we received this error:

OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0" for linked server "(null)"
returned message "Cannot open database ''.

A number of sites point you to the temp folder of the Administration login on the SQL Server. This is a good place to check read/write privileges for the account you are logged in as. But we found that restarting the SQL Server Agent correct the issue.

Best Bookmarking Tool Available Online

Internet users are always looking for tools to reduce the amount of time it takes to accomplish tasks. Onlywire.com provides a great tool that allows users to bookmark a page to over 30 different social bookmarking sites automatically. They promote their service as auto-syndicating your content to millions of readers. Now I thought that was what the rss feed was for? But if you want to bookmark a page automatically, this is the best solution.

With their Wordpress plug-in or their java-script based widget, any website on the net can install a button to allow their users to bookmark your pages. And the Wordpress plug-in posts to the owners account automatically when a new post is published. Account information must be setup ahead of time and 5 services require a manual step to complete, but the service is great.

The price for an account with Onlywire.com is completely free if you install the bookmarking widget on your site. Otherwise there is a month fee $2.99 or a yearly fee of $24.99. Just to be FCC compliant, I want to disclose that this is not a paid post as I use the service and am not being paid to recommend this service.

Exporting a DataSet to a CSV File in ASP.Net

If you have the need to export data from a SQL Server Dataset to a CSV file through your website application, you can write to the response object in the Page_Init function of your page to produce the file. The user will not see the page at all but will be prompted to open or save the file on their desktop.

Here is the Page_Init function with the Response Write that you will need:

    Protected Sub Page_Init(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Init

        Dim objData As System.Data.DataSet = New System.Data.DataSet

        Dim objCSV As String = BuildCSV(objData)
        Dim objFilename As String = "Excel" & Today.ToString("yyyy-mm-dd") & ".csv"

        With Response
            .AddHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment;filename=" & objFilename)
            .ContentType = "text/plain"
            .Write(objCSV)
            .End()
        End With
        
    End Sub

And here is the supporting function to return the DataSet as a String:

Public Shared Function BuildCSV(ByRef objData As System.Data.DataSet) As String

        Dim objList As System.Data.DataSet = objData
        Dim objCSVOverall As New System.Text.StringBuilder
        Dim objCSVRow As New System.Text.StringBuilder

        '*** Build the header row
        For intCount As Integer = 0 To objList.Tables(0).Columns.Count - 1
            Dim CurrentColumn As System.Data.DataColumn = objList.Tables(0).Columns(intCount)
            objCSVRow.Append(Chr(34) & CurrentColumn.ColumnName & Chr(34) & ",")
        Next

        objCSVOverall.AppendLine(objCSVRow.ToString.Substring(0, objCSVRow.ToString.Length - 1))

        '*** iterate through the rows
        For Each CurrentRow As System.Data.DataRow In objList.Tables(0).Rows
            objCSVRow = New System.Text.StringBuilder

            For intCount As Integer = 0 To objList.Tables(0).Columns.Count - 1
                Dim objValue As String = CurrentRow.Item(intCount).ToString
                Dim CurrentColumn As System.Data.DataColumn = objList.Tables(0).Columns(intCount)

                objCSVRow.Append(Chr(34) & objValue.Replace(Chr(34), "'") & Chr(34) & ",")
            Next

            objCSVOverall.AppendLine(objCSVRow.ToString.Substring(0, objCSVRow.ToString.Length - 1))
        Next

        Return objCSVOverall.ToString
    End Function

Google and Search Engine Ranking History

I went on a search this past weekend for an online service that would search all the major search engines including Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc for the ranking of my websites based on keywords. And I wanted the keywords that it searches for to be the most searched keywords for my sites even if I was unaware of them. Then I wanted this information to be saved into history tables which I could compare from one week to the next. I was hoping something like this was available that I just hadn’t found before.

SEOBook.com

Well, my searching led me back to a tool that I had already used but didn’t realize that it was keeping history. SEOBook’s Rank Checker from www.SeoBook.com has all these features except for one. The only thing it can not do is provide keywords that you should be tracking. But it can save as many websites with as many keywords, for as long of a period as you want to run the checker. And it has a built in scheduler so checking can be done automatically. I would suggest adding this add-on to Firefox and begin tracking your keyword rankings as soon as possible.

Alexa.com

I also found another tool that could provide the one missing feature that SEO Book does not have. www.Alexa.com has a keyword feature that provides the search terms driving the most traffic to your site and search terms with the most traffic that is driving some traffic to your site. These two lists combined with the terms you want to rank well for complete all the keywords you will plug into the SEO Book Rank Checker.

Adding Indexes to SQL Server 2005 Tables

I had the opportunity this week to tune a SQL Server 2005 database to improve the performance of a web application. I first created indexes on the temporary tables within a stored procedure that was causing much of the delay and later discovered through the execution plan, there was specific bottle-neck that could be cleared. Here is an illustration of the temp table indexing:

IF OBJECT_ID('#TempTable') IS NOT NULL
CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [#idxTemp_TempTable_Field1_Field2] ON #TempTable
(
[Field1] ASC,
[Field2] ASC,
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, SORT_IN_TEMPDB = ON, 
IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, DROP_EXISTING = OFF, ONLINE = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = OFF, 
ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = OFF) ON [PRIMARY]

But by executing the same stored procedure in a query window and selecting ‘Include Actual Execution Plan’ from the toolbar, I was able to see it individual query’s cost within the stored procedure. Then it is possible to look at the most expense queries, their most expensive operations, and add indexes to the permanent tables that reduce execution time.

Quite Possibly the Best Backlink Finder

After working with a number of Backlink Finders including several I have mentioned on CapturedTech previously, I have really grown to love LinkDiagnosis.com. It is not the 100% solution without imperfections but it provides information about Backlinks that I have not seen in other free and paid services.

Google Backlinks

Getting ranked in Google is still about having backlinks from relevant sites without nofollow rel tags for relevant keywords. Page rank and the number of outgoing links on the linked page are also very important. LinkDiagnosis.com combines all these factors into a Link Quality score which you can then sort report results by. Search someone else’s site backlinks and discover why they are ranked so high in Google and then duplicate their backlinks as much as possible.

One of the interesting facts about the Quality Link Score are that the nofollow tag isnt’ the end all to a quality link like many write. Numerous sites with good page rank on individual pages and few outgoing links score better even with nofollow tags. This is quite a gold mine as everyone searches and comments on pages without the nofollow, leaving endless nofollow pages without many outgoing links. Take a look at LinkDiagnosis.com today as they have just improved their server performance to handle the increased demand they are experiencing.

The Importance of the Landing Page for SEO

The Landing Page is a single page website where a visitor comes after clicking on your PPC ad or natural search engine link. The main objective of the page is to introduce the guest to your product or service. A prospect maybe in search of a service that has the ability to resolve his or her problem, and your lead capture page helps them to find this product easily.

The different gears of the landing page serve to educate the prospect, instill confidence in your service or product, and motivate them to make a purchase. For instance, the headline of the page not only grabs the awareness of the visitor, but also gives them a reasonable idea whether he has reached the right place or a site that does not contain what they are looking for. Likewise, the contents of the page enlist the significant features of the product as well as its benefits. This helps the prospect evaluate the goodness of the product, and to ascertain if the product is actually beneficial for him.

The basis of a successful online business is trust, and it is sometimes difficult to gain confidence with the client. The lead capture page makes this easier for you. It helps you to hold the prospect for sometime without him/her navigating away from your site; it talks to him about his problems, and provides him a solution to alleviate his troubles. In doing all these things, the confidence level of the guest increases. Moreover, by displaying such things as security icons (VeriSign) and testimonials in appropriate places, you can further build a good rapport with your prospective customer.

At this time, you may be wondering if all this can be done through a website. What is the need of a lead capture page? Well, if you bring your buyers directly to your company website, it is quite possible that they might get confused while navigating around. They might not be able to find what they are looking for and leave your site without making that needed purchase. Yet an additional possibility is they might find some other interesting product, and move from your site in search of more information. Thus, the prospect visited your location, but did not take any action. In nutshell, your entire SEO campaign failed.

A landing page helps you to be in command of your SEO campaign completely. It allows you to wholly showcase the product that you want to sell. You get an opening to familiarize the prospect with the diverse aspects of the product. The guest, on the other hand, gets all the vital information, including special offers and discounts, about the product in one place. Furthermore, the lead capture page should not have any navigational links, allowing the prospect to remain focused and not to wander away. It is surely easy to convince a knowledgeable prospect to buy the product from such a page.

The search engines today are accountable for almost 90% of the traffic to a site. A well-built landing page has the potential to capture all this traffic and make your online business venture booming.

Gagandeep Singh, is a Freelance Writer who writes on Landing Page Optimization and Internet Marketing.

Another Great SQL Server Grep Function

The first SQL Server Grep function I posted is one of the most popular items on the site to today therefore I thought I would share another great version of the MS SQL string search function you can use to search for terms within your database. This version uses a temporary table to store the results from a cursor and then displays the results to the output screen before dropping the temporary table.

create procedure searchforstring
@searchstring varchar(100)
as
begin
declare @SQLString as varchar(1000)
declare @TableName as varchar(255)
declare @ColumnName as varchar(255)
declare @Count as int

DECLARE C_SOURCE CURSOR FOR  
select sysobjects.name tablename,syscolumns.name columnname,'select top 1 * 
from [' + sysobjects.name + '] 
where ' + syscolumns.name 
+' like ''%' + @searchstring + '%'' ' SQL_String
from syscolumns , sysobjects, systypes
where sysobjects.xtype='U' and sysobjects.id = syscolumns.id  and 
systypes.xtype=syscolumns.xtype
and systypes.name <> 'sysname'
and systypes.name  in ('varchar','char','nvarchar','nchar','text','text')
order by sysobjects.name,syscolumns.colid

create table #result(outputstring varchar(500))

OPEN C_SOURCE  
FETCH NEXT FROM C_SOURCE INTO @TableName,@ColumnName,@SQLstring
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0  

begin
exec(@SQLString)
--print @SQLString
if @@rowcount > 0
        insert into #result values( '[' + @TableName + '].' + @ColumnName)

FETCH NEXT FROM C_SOURCE INTO @TableName,@ColumnName,@SQLstring
END  
CLOSE C_SOURCE  
DEALLOCATE C_SOURCE  
select * from #result
drop table #result
END