Different methods of publishing sites using Plesk control panel..

Here’s a brief documentation on creating & publishing sites using different methods. Once you add a Domain in Plesk control panel, you can create your site content (Web pages, scripts & graphic files that compose your site) on your home or office computer & then publish it to the web server in any of the following ways:

* Through FTP connection (most common & easiest way),
* Through Plesk File Manager,
* Through Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage software.

Let’s go through each of the following processes one-by-one.

1) Publishing Sites Through FTP:

1. Connect to the server with any FTP client program, using FTP account credentials that you specified during setup of hosting account or obtained from us in the welcome email. Ensure that the passive mode is enabled if you are behind a firewall.
2. Upload files & directories that should be accessible through HTTP protocol to the httpdocs directory.
3. Place your CGI scripts into the cgi-bin directory.
4. Close your FTP session as you’re done with publishing the site using the FTP method

2) Uploading Sites Through Plesk File Manager:

1. Log in to Plesk control panel.
2. Click the domain name you need.
3. Click File Manager in the Hosting group.
4. Create & upload files & directories.

Place the files & directories that should be accessible via HTTP protocol to the httpdocs directory. Place your CGI scripts into the cgi-bin directory.

* To create a new directory within your current location, click Add New Directory in the Tools group, specify the directory name & click OK.

* To create new files in the required directory, click Add New File in the Tools group, in the File creation section specify the file name, select the Use html template check box, if you want file manager to insert some basic html tags to the new file, & click OK. A page will open allowing you to enter the content or html-formatted source of a new file. After you are done, click OK.

* To upload a file from the local machine, click Add New File in the Tools group, specify the path to its location in the File source box (or use Browse to locate the file), & click OK. You can upload up to 3 files at once through three separate File Source boxes. If you are uploading an archive file (.zip or .rar), select the corresponding Upload archive & extract it check box to extract the uploaded archive contents in the folder where the file was uploaded.

* To view or edit an existing file, click its name. When editing an HTML file, Plesk opens internal WYSIWYG editor by default. If you want to edit the source code of the HTML file, click Html. To return back to WYSIWYG mode, click Design.

When you upload web content through File Manager or FTP, your control panel automatically sets the appropriate access permissions for files & directories.

* To rename a file or directory, hover on one of the icons which displays the ‘Rename’ text. Type in a new name & click OK.

* To copy or move a file or directory to another location, select the required file or directory using the appropriate check box, & click Copy/Move. Specify the destination for the file or directory to be copied or renamed to, then click Copy to copy, or Move to move it.

* To update the file or directory creation date, click Change Timestamp. The time stamp will be updated with the current local time.

* To remove a file or directory, select the corresponding check box, & click Remove selected icon. Remove Selected. Confirm removal & click OK.

3) a. Publishing Sites from Microsoft FrontPage:

Microsoft FrontPage deals with two kinds of Web sites: disk-based & server-based. In short, a disk-based site is a FrontPage Web site you create on your local hard disk & then later publish to a Web server. A server-based site is one you create & work with directly on a Web server, without the extra step of publishing. Here’re the instructions on publishing only disk-based web sites.

You can publish disk-based web sites either through FTP or HTTP. The server your account is hosted on is running FrontPage Server Extensions, hence you would publish your site to an HTTP location. For example: http://your-domain.com/MyWebSite. If your server supports FTP, you would publish to an FTP location. For example: ftp://ftp.your-domain.com/myFolder.

After publishing, you can manage your site through FrontPage Server Extensions.

To access FrontPage Server Extensions management interface:

1. Log in to Plesk.
2. Click the domain name you need.
3. Click FrontPage Management in the Hosting group.
4. According to the Microsoft FrontPage support settings of the domain, one of the following icons will appear next to Add New FrontPage Subaccount:
   • Click FrontPage WebAdmin to manage a site, which is not protected by SSL.
   • Click FrontPage-SSL WebAdmin to manage an SSL-enabled site.
5. Type your FrontPage administrator’s login name & password, & click OK.

For instructions on using FrontPage server extensions, see online help (FP WebAdmin > Help) or visit Microsoft web site.

3) b. Publishing Sites with Adobe Dreamweaver:

Before publishing a site from Dreamweaver, you need to define the site properties, that is, you need to tell Dreamweaver where your site files are located on your computer, & to specify the server to which you want to publish the site.

1. To define a site in Dreamweaver:
2. From the Site menu, choose New Site. The Site Definition screen opens.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. In the Local Info category, specify the following:
   • Site name. This will show in Web browser’s title bar.
   • Local root folder. This is the folder on your computer where all of your site files are stored. For example c:\My Site
   • Default images folder. Specify the folder where your site’s graphic files are stored. For example c:\My Site\images
   • HTTP address. Specify your domain name. For example, http://your-domain.com
5. From the Category menu, select the Remote Info item.
6. From the Access menu, select the FTP option. Most likely, your server supports publishing through FTP (File Transfer Protocol, commonly used for transferring files over the Internet).
   • FTP host. Type your FTP host name without the ftp:// prefix. For example, your-domain.com.
   • Host directory. Specify the directory on the server where your site will reside. In most cases, this is httpdocs.
   • Login & password. Specify the login name & password for access to the FTP account.
   • Use passive FTP. Select this option only if your computer is behind a firewall.

Specify the following settings:

7. To ensure that you specified the correct login & password, & that Dreamweaver can connect to the server, click the Test button.
8. To save the settings, click OK.

Now to publish your site:

9. Open your site in Dreamweaver.
10. From the Site menu, select the Put option (or press Ctrl+Shift+U simultaneously), this will make the files to be published over the server.

Importance Of Search Engines And Web Directory Submissions

There are millions of websites present on the internet on almost every topic today. To rank better among these, your website needs specific website promotional and search engine optimization methods like search engine submission and web directory submission.

You should, therefore, need to know the importance of search engines and directory submissions. For your website to be successful it should be on the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs). For this, you need to use different optimization methods to build your website in the correct manner.

One way is to submit your website’s URL to as many search engines and web directories as possible. Also, for the search engines to detect your website, you need to optimize it accurately according to the search engine guidelines.

Difference Between Search Engines And Web Directories

Search engines and the web directories actually have the same objectives. However, they are different to each other in some specific aspects. Web directories usually have smaller indexes and are maintained by human volunteers.

While submitting your website to a web directory, it is required to submit your website’s URL, your website’s Title, the category to which your website correctly belongs, its Description, and the webmaster’s contact information. Whereas, the search engines have relatively large indexes and use web spiders to add the website to its database.

There are different ways in which the different search engines function. Even if they share the same website details, the results that each search engines show may differ. Some search engines look for the usage of keywords only in Title of the web page, whereas some may look for keywords in the entire content of that web page.

Some search engines consider the number of back-links your web page contains, while some may look only for the information present in the Meta tags, and some may not consider Meta tags at all. So, if you want your website to be really successful, you need to study all the important search engines and the way they function; and make sure you optimize your website for all the top search engines before submitting it to all of them. Optimization is an on-going process, so you must constantly fine-tune your site very frequently.

Submitting Your Website To The Search Engines

The search engine spiders are constantly looking for new websites to index them. If your website is new, you need to submit its URL to all the important search engines and also try to get some important back-links in the initial stages. Also, include the URLs of all the important web pages in your site.

You need to check the search engines’ submission documents and be sure that submitting more that one URL of the same website is allowed. When you add the URL, it is put into a queue and the search engine spiders, also called crawlers, visit your website in due time to include your site’s pages in their database. When web surfer enters some keywords in search engine’s search box, the search engine searches its index for all the related websites and display them according to their rank and importance.

Every search engine has its own specific algorithms to rank all the websites its web spiders crawl, and then constantly re-index these web pages according to the changes that happen on these websites. If there is an increase in the back-links that your specific web pages get, those web pages get better rankings in the search engines.

Shift your focus now on the web directories. Web directories are generally handled by human administrators. Some of the important web directories are Yahoo!, About.com, business.com, looksmart.com, and the open web directory DMOZ.org, which is the best open web directory on the internet. If you submit your website URL to such open web directories, it usually takes quite a long time to get their approval because of the long waiting list.

To summarize:

Every web directory has their own specific guidelines for submission of websites, and search engines have specific website ranking guidelines. It is, therefore, very important to make a note of every guideline and based on those guidelines, optimize your website and all its web pages to rank well. Keywords, long-tailed key-phrases, using these keywords wisely in the content, title of the page, and using Meta tags prudently, and updating your content frequently are some of the basic methods that generate ample recognition to your website.

The rewards of using the above techniques are getting back links to your site, growing web popularity, search engine high rankings, and a constant supply of quality web traffic to your website with a prospect of selling products and services and opportunities of making huge profits! Submit your website and content to the top search engine websites and web directories to get important back links and web traffic.

To be continued…

Make Your Visitors Return To Your Website

There are many simple things that make your website interesting and make your visitors return to your website. You need to learn these simple techniques and tips to make your website sticky and interesting so that you get massive web traffic.

Some of the techniques of making the website content attractive are having special web pages for “Daily News” and “What’s New” in your website. “What’s New” page can simply consist of anything new that you have added to your website which will update the users with interesting information. It is important that the “What’s New” page should be accessed through the homepage of your website. So, when the visitors come to your site, they don’t have to go through the whole site to check out “What’s New”.

Hereafter, you can influence repeat-traffic by sending out e-mail campaign to your regular website visitors with notifications of the latest additions to your “What’s New” section. If you are successful in doing this, you can send them the latest information via e-mail and, therefore, make your visitors return to your website and be a part of it.

Giving Away Gifts On Your Website

All website visitors are always looking for free gifts and awards. While giving away gifts like free e-books, coupons, and softwares, make sure that you are offering something interesting to the visitors you are targeting. Once you have the freebies to give away, your website also gets linked and listed on various sites on the Internet that suggests the people where they can get attractive gifts and goodies.

You need not give away gifts to each visitor to your site. You can have a lucky draw, may be once in a week. You can also give away some good and famous restaurant’s free coupons. Also, keep an expiration date on the coupons, so the visitors use it without any delay and comeback to your site for more coupons. This will attract more web traffic to your website. If possible, change the gifts that you give away after a specific period and let the visitors know about it.

You can also add some interesting trivia, calendar of events, and special news about the latest topics in your niche. You can even add blogs, podcasts, and RSS feeds to your website which makes it more interesting.

Advertising Your Products

Once people like your website and visit it more often, you can advertise your products. More the visitors, then more are the chances of them buying these products. Also, the brand that you are advertising gets reinforced more. The visitors also feel that they are a part of your website.

Once your visitors trust you and your website, they do business with you freely. They are more likely to advertise your website and the brands that you sell. This makes your website and products viral. Thus, your website will be most likely to be remembered when these visitors decide to buy products and become your loyal customers.

Contests And Competitions On Your Website

Adding a good an interesting competition or a contest on your website will boost your chances of getting more quality traffic. Keep a contest on your website once a week, or a month to get repeat visitors.

It is a good idea of giving out one of your products or a valuable subscription to your ezine with the gift to the winner. This will also advertise your product and if the customers like it, then they will definitely buy more products again. Keep your contest open to anyone and everyone. There should also not be any limit for number of times a visitor can take part.

Make sure, that there are no legal issues that may concern you in future. For example, you may not be allowed to hold lotteries on the website, even if your website originates in a country where it could be legal to have lotteries on your site. If you wish to target the US and UK readers, then you must follow the law of these countries. If you do not, then your website could get banned in these countries.

So, before continuing with anything, just research on the internet and be on the safe side while holding contests. If possible, notify every participant about the result of the contest and add a link to your website in the same e-mail about the latest news or new contests of the future. Therefore, the visitors return to your website again with great expectations.

Putting Proper Links On Your Website

You have to be careful about how to add and where to add links on your website. Any outbound links should not be placed on the homepage of your website. Place them in such a way, that the visitors cannot get to those link unless they see all the information on your webpage. Make your website’s own hyperlinks more prominent and include such internal links in the content.

High-Quality Content

Once you make visitors return to your website using several options listed above, the next step is to make your website sticky and convert them from visitors to customers. For this, you need to have high-quality content on your website as the first criteria. After all, a great website is something which exceeds the visitor’s expectations.

If your website has high-quality content, then your website visitors will see you as an expert leader in that niche topic. High-quality content will keep your visitors on your website for a longer time. The longer they stay, the more they trust you and your website, and more are the chances that they do more business with you. High quality content converts into high profits!

Images Sell Products

You need to show the images of your products on your web pages. You should have all the details of the products that you want to sell. These details will help your visitors understand the product, why do they need your product, and how your product can save their money and time.

Hence, you must always concentrate on not just getting visitors, but getting them to revisit your website more! Then, focus on converting them into repeat customers! Remember to do everything to make your visitors return to your website more often. If you have great content and help your visitors to get solutions to their problems, then making them return to your website more often will be an easy task!