Ravi’s Rants

1. Create a file called phpinfo.php




2. Enter these few lines of code in it: (you can copy-paste from below):
   
   <?php
phpinfo();
?>




3. Upload this to your root folder (where your home page (index.htm or index.html etc) lives.




4. Access this script via the browser like this:
   
   http://www.YourSite.com/phpinfo.php




5. You should see a nice page come up, with the PHP logo and headers, that shows all of your PHP configuration and settings. If you see it, then: Hurrah, you can run PHP on your site!




6. If you see some kind of errors, first try changing the file’s permissions (chmod) to 755. (CHMOD Tutorial)




7. If that still doesn’t work, then you’re probably SOL (S#!t Outta Luck). Confirm it with your web host.




8. If your web host doesn’t support PHP, don’t waste your time - or your web site - with your current host. Just switch to where I host my own sites.




9. WARNING: Don’t forget to delete the phpinfo.php file from your web site. Hackers can figure out a lot of stuff from this page!

At my MyWebmasterInABox.com site, I used to run a forum powered by phpBB. But phpBB turned out to be one of the most poorly designed, least secure, web-based applications I have ever used.

So, for the longest time, I had no forum software, and no official support system.

But recently, after a number of my customers had issues with sending/receiving emails to/from me, I embarked on a (rather brief) quest to find a good PHP application, and stumbled upon a brilliant, free, ticketing and customer support application called Maian Support.

I’ve installed it on my own site now at http://www.MyWebmasterInABox.com/support/.

Going forward, if you need support for any of my scripts, go here to enter a ticket.

And to download a copy of the application that powers this, go to Maian Support.

I’ve thought about selling my RSS Feed Publishing Script for a long time.

And then one day, I just decided to give it away.

All I want is for you to try out my free newsletter. You can leave any time. No questions asked. And you will never hear from me again.

Your permission to send you really good stuff (I think - You decide) is not asking for too much, is it?

My FeedMonster script will allow you to publish any RSS or XML feed from any web site - even my own blog feed from RavisRants.com - on any page of your web site. It takes under 2 minutes to install and set up. Publish either one feed on a page, or multiple blog feeds from multiple sources on a page.

Go here to subscribe and download the FeedMonster and 14+ other PHP scripts.

Once you download and install my scripts, don’t hesitate to send me your feedback.

The whole idea of podcasting is not to be just able to publish your audio files online, but to make your audio posts “subscribable” - i.e., your listeners should be able to set up their podcasting software (like iTunes) to subscribe to your feed, in which case the software (in this example, iTunes) will automatically download your newest posts to their hard disk, as soon (or soon after) you make your posts live.

Which means, when they next sync up their mp3 player (say, iPod), your newest audio posts will automatically be synced from your subscriber’s hard disk to their iPod.

That’s the real “subscription” model of podcasting.

So how to make your WordPress feed refer to your podcast? Simple:

1. Create your audio file (mp3, mp4, etc)
2. Upload it to your server (into a folder in your main directory, say “podcasts”)
3. Your post can have your usual text content, but make sure your post has a link to the actual audio file. Note: It has to be the full path.

   Wrong: <a href=”yourfile.mp3“>My podcast</a>
Right: <a href=”http://Example.com/podcasts/aug2007-vol1.mp3“>My podcast

4. WordPress automatically links your feed to your audio file, such that if someone were to view your blog posts in a feed reader, and clicked on the link for your audio post, then they won’t be led to your blog, but the audio file will start playing instead.
5. Once your listeners “subscribe” to your feed, their podcasting software automatically downloads new files (posts with your audio file in it) to their hard disk automatically.

WordPress is not perfect - not just yet. But there really isn’t any software out there that can do all it does: well written, open-source, extensible, has lots of plugins, and has a great community around it - like WordPress.

So, just make peace with the “comparison war” (which is better: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc), simply download WordPress (or sign up for a free blog online), and get going with your content.

Content is what makes money - not your blog software.

If you know what a “blog” is, you probably already know what a “RSS Feed” is.

One of the best (not to forget, cheapest and fastest) ways to get free content for your web site, is to display a third-party RSS Feed. Every time the feed’s content changes, content on your web site automatically changes, thus keeping the content fresh and ever-changing on your site.

This trick can be used for both legit and illegitimate purposes. Sploggers (those who create Splogs - “SPam-filled bLOGS”) often use it to generate thousands of “made for adsense” pages, whose primary intention is to increase PageRank, get ranked higher for highly competitive and high paying keywords, get people to visit their splogs, and manipulating the navigation that they end up leaving by clicking on AdSense (or other PPC) ads.

But if you use it for legitimate purposes, you will find that publishing RSS feeds on your site can be a great way to provide targeted, complementary content for your visitors.

Magpie RSS is a great open-source PHP script that will allow you to easily publish any third-party RSS feed on your site. I have personally tried many RSS scripts, and highly recommend Magpie. I have even used Magpie to create a pretty cool web-based feed-aggregator service, a la Google Reader and Google Personalized home page.

If you want a quick and customizable free script that is based on Magpie, and gives you sample scripts that show you how to publish one, two or more feeds on a page on your web site, go get my Free RSS Feed Publishing script, “FeedMonster”.

- Ravi Jayagopal