SimplePHPBlog is a great name for this script because that’s exactly what it is.  At version 0.49, it’s not the most mature script out there but it shows some interesting promise.

Pluses

• easy
• doesn’t require a DB for storage
• real time article access counts
• lots of potential languages
• development appears to be active

Minuses

• young so likely to change
• some logic-display leakage
• no plugin system
• article counts don’t appear to exclude search engine hits
• doesn’t produce friendly URLs

The script allows you to have both static and dynamic entries.  A static entry would be more like a traditional page, dynamic more what you would expect from a standard blog.  It comes with a contact form by default, includes a nice little calendar widget on the sidebar and the block style menus that have been popular for so long.

Appearance wise, you get four different themes out of the box, each with a couple of color schemes.  This makes selecting one of the standard looks pretty easy.  And adding a new theme is a matter of adding it to the “themes” directory.

Installation took a bit more time than I was looking for.  I had to create three directories and set the proper access rights on them and then choose a password.  When I choose the username and password, I apparently instantly forgot it, had to delete the password file and start again.  It worked the second time.

Verdict

Overall, I’d say the script is a good start.  It’s probably more appropriate for a hobbyist user at this point than a business.

Homepage: http://SimplePHPBlog.com

I’ve been surveying our customers.  The results?  Over 95% plan on using us again.  That’s great!  Thank you for your vote of confidence and your business.
Now the question is how to handle the just over 4% of respondents who indicated that we would not be their first choice.  Part of me says, don’t worry about it.  Part of me is very worried about it.

For now, the team and I will concentrate on doing more of what people said they liked: provide personal, knowledgeable service.

If you need advice, hit HotAdvise.com.  The site operator came to FastWebUpdates.com for a super inexpensive blogging platform that displayed his posts one at a time, offered a selection of recent articles, a contact form and some other small features.  We customized an existing WordPress template and a contact form plugin to create exactly what he was looking for.

The phone rang and the caller ID displayed “Pricester.com”. I picked up and the person on the other end started asking me questions. I answered them and asked, “Who’s Pricester.com?” Pause. “They’re an e-commerce company.” Pause. “I’m consulting here.” Pause. “I gotta go.”

Ya gotta love being priced by the competition.

Pricester’s gig is amortizing your web design over the live of a hosting contract or, it appears, taking some percentage of sales. I’m not sure. But here are a couple of things to watch out for.

First, all of their sample sites are using a technique known as frame forwarding. These appear to live sites. Frame forwarding is an absolute no-no in the world of search engine marketing.

Second, their construction techniques leave a little to be desired. The sites are generally OK graphically when you view them on Internet Explorer. However, many break when you view them on other browsers used by about 20% of visitors. Here’s a comparison of one site in IE7, Firefox 2.0 and Opera 9.0.

See those lines? Those are improper spacing between the images. That’s shoddy and the images are, from a search engine standpoint, almost as deadly as frames.

Anyway, I figure turnabout is fair play. If you have any experience with these guys, write me at reid@fastwebupdates.com.

We all look at our competitor’s websites.  We have to.  That’s just the way business goes.  But what’s the ethical way to do this research in the days of pay per click advertising?  It’s simple: you have to go out of your way to avoid clicking on their pay per click ads.

Why? Two reasons.

First, the only way to conduct ethical research into competitors you find via AdWords is to type their site address into your browser manually.  Yes, it takes more effort, but it doesn’t cost them any money which also means you’re not committing click fraud.

Second, and this is where the your best interest part comes in, when you click on their AdWords link, you make their site appear more relevant for the search criteria.  Essentially, in the world of Google, the clickthrough rate is one component of the ad’s quality score which is partially responsible for determining ad postion.  When you click on your competitor’s ad, you’re voting it ad as the most appropriate match to you query.  If you’re advertising under the same set of keywords, you’re voting for your competitor’s site as being a better fit than your own.

Isn’t that nice?  Your best interest and the ethical way of doing research are perfectly aligned.

Read about it in Google’s AdWords Help Center.