Just to let you know DirectoryPress version 6.1 has now been released!

Our popular directory script is now stable and has many great features, all existing members can download the full version within the PremiumPress members area at;

http://www.premiumpress.com

The demo for our directory script 6.1 can still be see online at;

http://beta.directorypress.net

Thanks and have a great weekend

Mark

280 cups of starbucks coffee, 173 ham snadwhiches, 1 roast turkey (under cooked), 64 bags of chrips, endless trips to WC and finally..DirectoryPress 6.0 is born!

Listening closely to feedback and suggestions from customers and the forum community i have really tried hard to improve and enhance the overall structure and functionality of the theme to benfit both website admin and enhance the overall user experience for your loyal visitors.

There are more than 50 new features and website changes found in the latest release which i sincerly hope you will enjoy as well as new child templates which will be revealed with the stable release in Febuary.

Download the beta version Tuesday 17th Jan

As with every software release i like to provide a beta download giving you the chance to test drive the new system and provide feedback before the final release date.

The beta download will be available to all existing DirectoryPress and VIP Club members and can be found in your VIP client area on Tuesday 17th Jan.

Note: This is a beta test version NOT an upgrade or live version, this should be used for testing only.

Beta to Stable Release

Due to the amount of code changes, i invision a period of 2 or 3 weeks before the stable version will be released with is estimated to be the 20th of Feb. As many of you may know i work solely on the development of all the PremiumPress themes to ensure they are developed to the highest standards possible however some bugs are envenitable and the beta version will enable everyone to help bring any kinks to my attention.

Sneak Preview

You can see a sample of version 6.0 using the link below, feel free to email me any feedback or comments regarding the new release.

Demo login details

http://beta.directorypress.net
username: demo
password: demo

Finally..Thank you!

i would like to take this oppotunity to thank everyone who has contributed with feedback and suggestions to help improve my PremiumPress products, myself and my team work very hard to ensure all customers recieve the same high level of customer support and satisfaction and we trutly apprichate your continue support and loyalty.

Kind Regards

Mark Fail

Current Change Log

Welcome back and i hope you’ve had a successful week in your online activities.

Picking the RIGHT domain name is VERY IMPORTANT to your online success.

I’m going to show you step-by-step how to pick the right domain name at the right price.

Let me start by giving you some advice;

Whenever possible, NEVER buy NEW domain names. It’s important to understand that new domain names index slower in search engines than existing ones and in my experience search engines give more ‘weight’ to older domain names.

What this basically means is that existing domain names that have already been registered for over 1 or 2 years will get high rankings in search engines faster.

Well luckily for you im here to show you where.

STEP 1.

Firstly you need to head over to Godaddy Auctions, click the link below;

https://auctions.godaddy.com/trpHome.aspx?t=12

You should be able to see the auctions pages and have a search box like the one below;

NOW what i want you to do is refer back to the Niche Market you picked in lesson one.

(If you didn’t catch lesson one here it is: http://markfail.com/lesson1/ )

Here is my list from lesson one;

What i want you to do now is take a look at the highest searched keywords you found for each of your 5 items and search for those within Godaddy Auctions website.

Here are the highest searched keywords i found in lesson one;

So for example, i would try searching for “college football” first, and see what i can find.

I then want you to REORDER the search results using the ‘traffic’ column header starting from highest first.

Now what you have in front of you is a list of existing domain names, some of them with traffic and google PR.

What we must do now is find out which of the domain names are most valuable and suitable for our website.

What i recommend you do is find the domain names where the keyword is at the BEGINING of the name.

For example;

This is because search engines will mostly likely rank domain names that match the keywords entered, if your domain name matches the keywords entered it will rank higher and provide you with more traffic.

Now write down 5 or 6 domain names that you like and and keep them in a list.

Now lets find out how valuable they are!

Head over to ‘DNS Coop’ using the link below;

http://www.dnscoop.com

for each of the domain names you picked do a search to find out their existing traffic, PR and back links.

For example, this is my search on the domain name: collegefootballfrenzy.com

So there you have it, repeat the same steps with other domains, find the best one and BUY IT before someone else does!

There are many other techniques i use to find even better bargains but this one im willing to share freely with you.

NEXT LESSON.

Until next week,

Mark Fail

http://www.markfail.com

Welcome back and i hope you’ve had a successful week in your online activities.

Today i want to quickly talk to you about the content pages, these are those pages you will write to advertise/promote or sell products and services online.

Every content page on your website is important, even down to the privacy pages or hidden pages you didn’t think anyone would find.

Follow my 10 steps below to search engine friendly pages and you’ll never go wrong when creating quality SEO pages.

Top 10 things you should do for every page on your website.

I hope by now i have drilled into you the importance of keywords, throughout my lessons i have explained how to research and collect keywords for your chosen market.

You will NEED those keywords in order to build SEO friendly content pages that work! If you haven’t researched your keywords then you will NOT succeed online.

Its really that simple, you MUST research your keywords first!

2. h1/h2 Heading Tags - Keep the title of your pages relevant.

This should contain at least 2 of the keywords that you will use for your page and should be short and snappy and to the point.

When designing my own website pages i take the top 5 or 10 keywords that generate the most searches via Google and use those as the bases for my page titles.

For example: <h1> WordPress Shopping Cart </h1>

Where ‘WordPress Shopping Cart’ is the number one keyword phrase searched when looking for a shopping cart theme for wordpress.

3. Meta Page Title – Use the same text as your page title.

Its common sense really, the page heading is first thing the reader will read once they view your web page, and the Meta Page title is the first thing they will see when searching your page from search engines such as Google.

4. First paragraph – keep it short and sweat! Less than 255 characters.

We are going to use this paragraph within the meta description tag so we need to keep it less than 255 characters (if possible).

Aim to include between 5 – 10 keywords within the first paragraph, i also recommend a link to another content page on your website with clever linking below.

5. Permalink

The permalink is the unique link to your website page, this SHOULD include the same wording as the title tag.

For example. My Title and number of keyword above is: wordpress shopping cart.

This therefore should mean my permalink for this page would be: http://…./wordpress-shopping-cart/

You can see this in action at:

http://shopperpress.com/wordpress-shopping-cart/

6. Description and Keyword Tags

The description and keyword meta tags are very important in getting a message to readers within search engines.

The description and keyword tags allow up to 255 characters so make good use of them.

I recommend you take the first paragraph for your website and use this as the description, if you have written a good description you will have the edge when it comes to enticing people to click and view your website.

7. h3 / h4 tags
- don’t forget these..

When every you can ensure you break your content up with mini headers using the <h3> and <h4> heading tags.

8. Link title tags

Your website links should be formatted as below;

<a href=’http://…./website-content/’>Website Content</a>

Notice how the name of the website link is also the text within the link itself.

9. Image alt tags – give your images relevant alt tags.

By adding relevant alt tags to your images not only could you be number one in text based searches but you can also be number one in image based searches as well.

Check the link below to a basic Google image search and see how well your images are ranking.

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=shopperpress&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Until next week,

Mark Fail

http://www.markfail.com

Welcome back and i hope you’ve had a successful week in your online activities.

Today i want to quickly talk to you about website hosting, the place many website owners go horribly wrong!

I can’t stress enough the importance of getting the hosting right, first time around.

Imagine you setup a retail store in your local high street, you spend thousands on the products and fixtures and open your doors for the first day of trading.

DOOM! CRASH! BANG!

The ceiling falls down and the doors fall apart!

This might sound extreme but it happens all too often online, people try to cut corners with free and cheap website hosting and end up throwing away months of hard work becoming victim to hackers, poor quality hosting or companies going bust!

All this can AND SHOULD be avoid!

Your hosting account is the back bone of your business, don’t waste time with free or cheap hosting accounts.

A little extra can make a big difference.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A HOSTING ACCOUNT

In my early days i worked for a local hosting company for 2 years with general maintenance and customer support so what im going to recommend isn’t just any old rubbish, it really makes a difference.

My recommendations for picking a hosting company.

1. 24 Hour Customer Support

Trust me, if you visit a hosting companies website and they DO NOT OFFER 24 hours support, FORGET IT!

They might offer you the biggest, cheapest prices you could ever dream of, if they don’t offer support when you need it, your wasting your time and money.

2. Business Phone Number and Valid Mailing Address

Hosting companies are not always what they seem, a lot of hosting companies are really affiliates. They offer hosting packages from other companies and add their own mark-up on top.

What this means is that you could be buying your hosting services from the 16 year old next door!

Ring them, make sure its a real company, ask obvious questions, can you visit their office if needs be? Do they have a valid mailing address, can you send them checks rather than paying online?

3. Automatic Daily Backup’s

This is a must, don’t fool yourself in thinking your hosting account is never going to break. IT WILL and when it does you need to be prepared.

If your hosting company DOESNT OFFER daily backups, ditch them and quickly!

A good hosting company will also offer you help in retrieving lost data, make sure you ask them if they will help you with this JUST INCASE you need it.

4. Unlimited Everything!

Most of the big, professional hosting companies can offered to offer their customers more that’s why you should always look for unlimited everything!

This is what i look for;

• Unlimited Web Storage

  Unlimited Data Transfer

  Host Unlimited Domains on 1 Account

  Unlimited E-mail Accounts

  Unlimited MySQL Databases

5 . Email Restrictions

This has to be number 3 for its also very import. MOST hosting company limit your email activity without you knowing. What this means if you send 50 or more emails in 1 hour the rest WILL NOT get delivered.

They get instantly deleted and you might never have known!

CHECK with your hosting provider BEFORE you buy what their hourly email restrictions are! Any less than 200 for a small website isn’t worth buying.

6. Admin Control Options – CPANEL not PLESK or anything else!

Make Sure you get an admin control panel with your hosting account, IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

I wouldn’t recommended anything BUT cpanel. Why?

IT costs the hosting company money for you to use, its very well supported, has built in website analytics and allows instant setup of popular services such as wordpress, joomla, phpbb etc.

7. Linux Hosting NOT Windows

Unless your familiar with website hosting and/or your an ASP programmer, DONT go for windows hosting.

Its a night mere for anyone getting started, most software applications you will work with online are PHP based software which work BEST on linux. Examples, wordpress, Joomla, phpBB, Vbu;iten etc etc.. ALL PHP Applications.

8. Money Back Guarantee

ALL GOOD hosting companies OFFER a money back guarantee.

If your thinking of trying a hosting company that doesn’t, STOP before you get ripped off. They should at least offer a 30 day refund policy incase what they say they offer isn’t actually what you get.

9. SSL certificates

Make sure that the hosting company CAN provide an SSL certificate for your hosting INCASE you need it. It doesn’t mean your going to need it right away but the more you work online some things like SSL can be useful.

10. Free Site Migration

what this basically means is the hosting company will help people who are having problems with this existing hosting company MOVE.

This is a very positive sign that the company is geared towards HELPING YOU with your website rather than just taking your money!

Where can you find a quality website hosting company?

After years of searching the one hosting company i recommend and use myself is GreenGeek.

Visit their Website

http://shopperpress.com/book/hosting/

Until next week,

Mark Fail

http://www.markfail.com

DirectoryPress Version 5.0 gives you more features, more control and even more directory website templates!

With over 5,000 active customers DirectoryPress is fast becoming the number 1 solution for all serious directory website owners!

Version 5.0 includes lots of great new features, admin control options and the long awaited ’3 column’ directory template layouts.

Combine the power of DirectoryPress and the SEO friendly nature of WordPress and you can see why its such a popular solution!

So what’s new in Version 5.0 ?

Let me start by saying that DirectoryPress is a product developed and supported by the PremiumPress community, we take all customer feedback very seriously with more than 90% of new features requested by our customers.

If your looking for a company that listens to it’s customers and grows with the community, then were here for you.

Social Media Tools

DirectoryPress 5.0 now includes social media tools allowing website visitors to share your website links with their friends and other community website

Article Pages with Sub Article Category.

DirectoryPress 5.0 introduces the new articles page allowing you to run your Directory website with normal WordPress blog posts which can be added to different article categories via the admin area.

Improved CSV import tools

The new CSV import tool now supports both file uploads and already uploaded files to help improve the performance for members import big CSV files.

New Bulk Category Setup

A lot of customers wanted the ability to import bulk categories and sub categories easily via the admin area, we have added this option in version 5.0 for everyone to enjoy.

New Database Import Tools

DirectoryPress 5.x now includes database import tools for other directory software providers meaning you can easily import your entire website from other software vendors into our DirectoryPress system.

New Package Options

The new version of DirectoryPress now enables up to 8 packages (instead of 4) and includes up to 20 custom fields which can all easily be setup via the admin area interface.

ShrinkTheWeb Admin Area Integration

DirectoryPress 5.0 now includes an admin area integration for ShrinkTheWeb making integration for this service quick and easy.

Image Manager

The image manager in DirectoryPress has now been updated to include a search tool allowing you to quickly find the images you want to include on your website.

New Email Manage System

DirectoryPress 5.0 now includes a new email manage system allowing the admin to setup welcome emails and send emails to different members based on their membership package.

Customizable Search Options

You can now easily customize the search options on your directory website via the admin area.

Ordering directory listings buy prices, packages, featured listings etc is so much simpler in version 5.0.

Home Page Sub Categories

Another popular request was for the sub categories to appear on the home page also, this has now been included in the version 5.0 download and can be turned on/off in the admin area.

And lots lots more…

The other main list of feature updates include;

How do i download this version?

DirectoryPress version 5.0 is available to all DirectoryPress and VIP Collection package customers, it can be found in the VIP area for download under the “beta downloads” menu.

Kind Regards

Mark Fail

Hi All,

Let me first thank everyone in the forum for their continued support and dedication, all of your feedback and suggestions have been well recieved and will help turn DirectoryPress into a seriously great application!

I have today released another major update which includes new features and bug fixes which i hope everyone will enjoy.

HOW DO I UPDATE MY CURRENT WEBSITE?
——————————————-

The easy way of doing it is to delete your current theme and simply upload the new version.

If you are familiar with FTP and/or have made changes to the theme you can simply see the changelog below and update the modified files.

WHERE DO I DOWNLOAD THE UPDATE FROM?
——————————————

The updates are always made available free to VIP/Developer members via the VIP Client area. If you do not know your login details or where it is please contact me and ill send them to you.

WHAT FILES/ FEATURES WERE ADDED IN 2.9?
——————————————-

Listed below is the current change log for version 2.9.

DirectoryPress 2.9 Updates
——————————————————————-

- [added] auto expiry feature
- [added] listing lenght options for submit packages
- [added] verification code to submit page
- [added] german language file
- [added] better support for link bid items

- [updated] Reciprocal Link feature for website checking
- [updated] website url validation checker
- [updated] default package selection so at least 1 package must be selected
- [updated] All language files with new text

- [bug] link url without http://

File change includes;

- /functions/langs/ [entire folder]
- /functions/_reset.php
- /functions/_ad1.php
- /functions/admin_options.php
- /functions/_ad5.php

- /tpl-directorypress_submit.php
- /index.php
- /_index.php
- /header.php
- /_item.php
- /style.css
- /functions.php
- /_item_gallery.php
- /_slider.php

I hope everyone enjoy their weekend and loves DirectoryPress 2.9.

Kind Regards

Mark Fail

I just wanted to let you all know iv been working very hard over the past few days to create some great updates for DirectoryPress.

The newly updated version 2.2 has just been released for all VIP members and includes some great new improvements, updates and css fixes.

The change log for version 2.2 is;

- New Gallery display option instead of list view (see the demo gallery http://vbulletindirectory.com/latest-forums/page/2/ ) both are optional and can be changed in the admin area.

- New custom ‘order by’ options allowing you to create search options for almost any type of directory, ie videos, music, images etc

- improved api options for custom field ‘image’ allowing you to override the image preview with your own custom preview.

- improve language file, updated with a few missing words

- speed improvement using global values.

- Small css fixes for IE6

there are many more features to come shortly however this update should allow a stable version of 2.x+ for everyone to use.

Mark

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Its been another busy afternoon and i managed to fit in some small updated to the first initial release of DirectoryPress.

The minor update of version 1.3 bring in some small CSS fixes and updates to the image preview.

You can download the latest version right now from the download page at;

http://directorypress.net/index.php?page=free&download=1