IndexU Support

When you ask for help, make sure someone can help you.

This is the biggest issues in support EVER. Yes the word ever is capitolized for a reason, because it’s true. Time and time again we get emails or posts on the message board that are so vague there’s nothing we can do. I’ve seen posts like

“It doesn’t work”

“It didn’t install”

“There’s no categories”

“There an error, why?”

I’m serious, and unfortunately, so are the users. Any support tech needs to troubleshoot an issue. And the first place you start is the product name. On the forum we only hope that users post in the right forum, but on the help desk we have no idea what product a user is talking about.

The second thing a support tech needs to know is the error. The EXACT error you are receiving right down to the period at the end of the line.

The last thing a support tech needs is the ability to fix the issue themselves if the user cannot do it. So if you decided you’d try and install the software on your home computer then the odds are you can forget having a support tech fix it for you.

When a user tells a support tech that they have their script running on XAMPP (or similar) we already know that the odds of the user having messed up the PHP, MySQL or apache config is tremendously high. Never mind the fact that the user probably bound the daemons to 127.0.0.1 (localhost) so it’s not viewable by anyone but him.

But it gets worse, because I’ve even had users tell me, and yell at me, that anyone can connect to their server because it has an IP address. If they can see it then anyone else should too.

XAMPP is great for someone who knows what they’re doing, but if you don’t have a clue, then please just get a hosting package and pay a few dollars a month to make your life, and supports life, a lot easier.

What are you selling?

Don’t tell me nothing, because you’re lying when you say that. Each and every website out there that is trying to make more than one cent in income per year is selling something.

No it doesn’t need to be an actual product, or even a virtual product.

What most directories try to sell is their content and exposure. By selling yourself as the best place to find what a users needs you will hopefully gain their trust so that they bookmark you and come back as often as possible.

Essentially you’re trying to sell yourself.

There are a few tips about selling which apply to any situation. And some of the main ones are;
Look appropriate
Be knowledgeable
Have a good product

To look appropriate you need to customize your website. Not just change the text or add an image, but really customize it. Spend a few hours changing the site and if you’re not able to do it yourself then hire someone to do it.

You must be knowledgeable. If you talk about things you don’t have a clue about then users are going to find out quickly that they know more than you. You have to educate yourself on the topic at hand and you should know as much as you possibly can.

Having a good product in this case will mean that what you have is well written, and backed up with content. Lots and lots of content. In the case of a directory you’re looking at having listings. You need to make sure you have more listings than the next site and you need to make sure those listings are all valid. This means constant checks and rechecks to ensure your site is up to date.

Just so that premium users are aware, the imagemap mod for 5.x works perfectly for IndexU Deluxe as well.

You can find the imagemap mods at the URL’s below

• USA Imagemap
• Canada Imagemap
• Custom Imagemaps

I hear from a lot of websites that “directories are dead”. If so, then why are they still popular and why do they make money?

The answer is simple, because directories using a script like IndexU are versatile and can be based on any subject or product.

Lets face it, the average directory has a few thousand general links and a few hundred or even thousand categories. These types of directories are everywhere on the internet, and they’re the examples people use when they state that directories are dead.

The facts are simple, if you want a general link you’re going to go to Google or Yahoo or MSN and search. However if you want specialized links then you’re going to find that a directory becomes highly useful.

For example I have a specialized directory that has just over 300 links. This is more links on this topic than Google, Yahoo and DMOZ put together have in their directories. It gets good targeted traffic and does well with advertising.

But IndexU can be used for so much more than just links. Some of the great directories I’ve seen don’t even include links. There is a coupon directory, a recipe directory, several product directories and with the new RSS feed tool it will be possible to populate a directory from any RSS feed you can find.

Of course a good directory means more than just using a stock template, but I’ve covered that in the past.

So are directories dead? The answer, if you have any imagination at all, is no.

This should be simple and basic knowledge, but today’s article is why you should customize your site.

On the Nicecoder website a statement says “Over 3000 Nicecoder Happy Customers”, there’s actually more than that but that’s not the point. The point is that with that many sites running IndexU, how many sites do you think all look the same?

One hundred? Five hundred? My best guess, and yes this is only a guess, is that there’s probably 1000 IndexU sites that all look the same out there. Now saying that, I’m sure some (hundreds?) of them have been shut down by their owners due to lack of interest or lack of knowledge.

Yes IndexU comes with six free templates. So lets assume 1000 sites are running Kosmos, that leaves 2000 running the other five templates. Well that means 400 sites are running portaldex, 400 running worlddex and so on.

But wait, that’s 3000 customers, not 3000 sites. Many users have multiple licenses, in fact I know one user who runs over 500 sites. Yes 500, you heard that right.

Now the numbers get astronomical. How many licenses are out there? 10,0000? That could mean 3-4000 users are running Kosmos!

How do you think users are going to act and react when they go looking at a few dozen sites and find that half of them all look the same? They sure aren’t going to stick around are they?

Yes IndexU is a complicated script. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to deal with. If you have a decent knowledge of HTML you can make IndexU look any way you want it to look.

How much does it cost to get a complete custom skin made for IndexU? It can cost as little as a few hundred dollars. This is pocket change compared to what a good looking, unique site with excellent content can make in a few months.

Of course some users will ask about paid templates. These are an excellent way to customize your site while maintaining a somewhat unique look. Since a lot of users do not want to pay for a premium template, and the pool of available templates is quite extensive, there is a great chance that a premium template will look unique to a user because not a lot users use them.

Honestly there is no replacement for a unique template, and there never will be. Perhaps you could buy a premium template and modify it. This gives you a good starting point and may mean less time overall in getting your final product.

So get off your butt, and start customizing IndexU today.

Well here’s one for registered users only, it seems that Dody and the boys have been hard at work making a few things and in progress right now is Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

November was a good month for Nicecoder. There were a few releases and a few things in the works.

IndexU Deluxe v1.21 was released. Version 1.21 was a bugfix version to correct a few minor issues with 1.20. Fixes include
- Invoice bug fix
- German language files
- Spanish language files
- Youtube video plugin
- new payment modules (AlrtPay and Moneybookers)
- dozens of new hooks added to php and html pages including in the admin area
- enhanced sendmail function
- three new plugins (contact us, latest searches, power_search)
- improved user control (inactive and suspended users)
- updated and fixed sitemap
- auto update category path urls in admin area when admin changes or adds a new category.
- various bug fixes

With IndexU Deluxe 1.21 we are almost at the point where upgrades will no longer affect the templates. We’re working really hard on this ability so that upgrading your site in the future will be as painless as possible.
http://www.nicecoder.com/indexu.php

NiceMember v1.1 was released. New payment gateways were added which are 2Checkout, Alertpay and Moneybookers. Recurring payments are available for Alertpay, 2Checkout and Paypal. Fixes in this version include fixing payment currency, invoices, exporting the mailing list and discount coupons.
http://www.nicecoder.com/nicemember.php

IndexuTemplates.com had two templates released and now adds premium plugins. The two new templates are called Tool Shop and Temper and are both excellent templates that are easily customizable.

The premium plugins now at IndexuTemplates are
Banner Ads Plugin - Five locations to place ads
Page Rank Checker Plugin - Can restrict submissions to a minimum page rank
Yahoo Map Plugin - Display yahoo maps based on address
http://www.indexutemplates.com

Nicecoder has also been working on some new projects as well. These include
NiceBackup - Backup cpanel accounts from your desktop automatically
MegaRapid Search - Search for files on Rapidshare and Megaupload
NZB search - Search for binaries on usenet

These products will be released soon. NiceBackup v0.9 RC2 can be found on the forum today. It’s very stable and has been tested extensively. Give it a try today and let us know what you think.

Congrats to echo@ for winning the mod of the month contest! echo@ submitted Link Back Plugin and wins $100
http://www.nicecoder.com/community/f71/link-back-plugin-7776/

The Nicecoder Team
Bruce (co-owner/support)
Dody (co-owner/lead programmer)
John (co-owner)

In a few of the articles I’ve written already, I pointed out that it’s very easy to make a database using only URL’s and IndexU’s Fetch Meta feature. One of the biggest issues however is a lack of title, description and keyword meta tags.

So why is it that so many websites do not have proper title, description and keyword meta tags? They really aren’t necessary, and search engines no longer care if they exist because they will create their listings from content. But some search engines and IndexU’s Fetch Meta feature relies on these tags.

The title, description and meta tags can actually help you out. They help search engines to classify your site, they help directories sort your site, and they help major directories like DMOZ, Google and Yahoo sort your site as well.

You could very well be penalizing your site by not adding proper meta tags. Below are examples of these tags;

<title>the title of your website, without any html tags</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”a description of your website” />
<meta name=”keywords” content=”keywords and phrases, seperated, by, commas” />

They’re not hard to do, but I assume it is lack of knowledge that makes users not add them. If you are using IndexU you can edit the keywords and description tags on index.html and the title tag is edited from page_titles.php

So do your site a favour, add some meta tags today. You might find that you get indexed more often because of it.

Backups can save your life. Sounds scary does it? But it’s true. Think about it for a minute and come back and read that again.

How can backups save your life? Lets take the example of a hospital that has your records on file. Now lets assume you were allergic to latex. You get admitted to the hospital for appendicitis and tell them of your allergy. While a surgery room is being prepped for you the computers crash and there is no data backup. By this time the admitting staff cannot find you to make your file again.

A nurse comes in to prep you for surgery and she starts to clean the area where you are going to have the incision. But she’s wearing latex gloves. Do you get the picture?

Yes it’s a fantastic scenario that should never happen (which is why they still use paper files and bracelets to identify allergies). But that’s not the point. The point is that backups are necessary and need to be done as often as possible.

Yes backing up your website manually sucks. It takes time and effort and requires you to remember to run the backup.

You could have a backup server that runs automated backups for you. I have one, but of course there’s the cost and maintenance of the server. Just because it’s a backup server doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be updated.

So you’re looking for a cheaper solution.

Welcome to NiceBackup. NiceBackup works on the windows desktop and will download backups from any cPanel based server that you have.

So what if your server goes down and you want to move hosts? You have a backup.
What if your host decides not to pay their bills and the server gets shut down? You have a backup.
What if your host got taken away from the FBI or secret service? You have a backup.

All of the above scenario’s have happened. And some of them recently. Search on WebHostingTalk for the following horror stories regarding web hosts

- AlphaRed is a very large host who was down for over a week due to billing/legal issues. You can read some information about this host on Google News as well.
- Qoozz.com offered daily backups on their website. Their server crashed more than two weeks ago and backups for most clients were not available.
- Zone.net offered backups on their website. One of their servers crashed and due to issues, it took almost a week for some users to get backups. Some users were not able to get recent backups at all.
- SellWhm/grabyourhosting/RalphC closed up one host and denied service to his users, started another one and it crashed and was unable to provide backups and then attempted to start another host which was thankfully shut down due to bad publicity.
- ctn1.net just closed up shop and didn’t notify users.

These are real horror stories that could happen at any host. And if you wanted your data from any of them you would be out of luck. Your site would be gone and you would be left with nothing. It would be even worse if you ran a dynamic website like IndexU because any changes that were made online without a backup would be lost.

And a simple little program that runs in the system called NiceBackup could have saved you and your website.