I’ve been trying to post all of my WordPress thoughts over on the new blog at WordPressings but this post kind of treads the line between both sites.

I recently took on a small site project for a local client and we decided to save time and money and use WordPress as the site’s backend. Normally, I would use a stripped down version of my own custom-built CMS for this kind of site but I was interested in trying something new.

So far I have the basic template made and the next step is converting it into a WordPress theme. After that, we’ll have some brief WordPress training and the site should be live.

What’s interesting about this project is that we won’t be using any of the blog features associated with WordPress. The only portion of the WordPress admin we’ll be taking advantage of is the “Pages” interface. All of the site’s content will be controlled with pages, and not posts, because we don’t want this site to look or function like a blog.

I’ve debated in the past whether or not WordPress (especially the 2.5 release) was ready for primetime as a content management system. I’m still not 100% sure it is but I’ll learn a lot with this local client. I’ll report back in a few months on how this all worked out.

As a freelance web developer, a portion of my business inherently relies on other people doing their jobs for me to be a success. This is never more brutally true then when it comes to dealing with web hosting for a project. The trick is to find affordable web hosting that is at the same time incredibly reliable.

There are lots of companies offering cheap web hosting plans with outrageous guarantees about storage space, bandwidth and uptime. Of those three the most important is clearly uptime. Storage and bandwidth are getting cheaper by the day but a reliable server at a decent rate is becoming more and more of a rare commodity.

This lack of reliable web hosting is why I always stress to other web developers the importance of taking the extra time for research to compare hosting plans. It’s never, ever the wise move to jump for the cheapest web hosting solution. Instead, take your time and conduct due diligence before making a decision. Ask other people what hosts they use but keep in mind that every host is going to have horror stories. Make sure you ask a variety of people for their opinions before making a final decision.

It’s very important that you make the right choice for your web host. If you make a mistake and choose a lousy provider the downtime to switch hosts is going to drive you, and your client, insane and it might result in a lost job.

I’m sure a lot of you who read this blog have your own personal horror stories about web hosting companies. I’ve dealt with so many different web hosting providers over the years that I could probably sit down and write a dozen reviews of their services and pros and cons for you.

Luckily, thanks to Web Hosting Geeks, I don’t have to take the time to do that. This site is overflowing with unbiased web hosting reviews for all sorts of different providers. Anyone looking to switch hosts or just get started in the web development game might want to check the site out.

The most convenient part of their site, in my eyes, is the break down of hosts by theme or category. They’ve taken all of the hosts in their system and selected the best for such things as: blogs, forums, ecommerce, etc. There is also a breakdown for Unix and Windows hosting.

Web Hosting Geeks provides more than reviews though. They also have an entire section of their site dedicated to web hosting articles. This is a great resource for anyone struggling with picking a host, managing their current host or those just interested in how web hosting really works. In addition to host related topics, there are articles that cover standard web development subjects such as traffic, SEO and domain names.

Picking the right web host is sometimes a hit or miss proposition especially if you’re just starting out. It’s important that you take the time to do proper research before picking a web host. Remember that going with the cheapest option isn’t always the best idea and that many people have probably gone before you and have advice to give. That’s what makes a site like Web Hosting Geeks is so valuable. You can use it to learn from others’ mistakes and make the right choice for yourself.

When I first started getting involved in freelance web development the requests for building online stores were few and far between. In recent years this has totally changed, as people want more and more to begin selling their products and services online. This trend has increased just as quickly as people’s concerns and interests in Search Engine Optimisation.

I’ve used my fair share of Ecommerce Software in this time and, really, they’re all about the same. They come in two flavors: hosted and self-hosted. My preference is to always go with the hosted solution because while the costs are usually higher the headaches are few and far between. A lot of the hosted solutions also have really excellent hooks that let you tie into your own CMS or scripts.

The one big knock on hosted shopping cart packages is that you lose almost all control over the look and feel of the interface. This is unfortunate because the best Web Design firms out there didn’t exactly build most of these carts. This is where the hooks they provide or so important. With the right hooks and programming you can do as much as you can on your side of the equation to offset what’s lacking on the hosted side.

Yesterday, Erik Karey released phpBayAds, his eBay ads script, for free to the public. Think of phpBayAds as a self-hosted version of the old AuctionAds program. Erik was kind enough to answer some questions I had about his new release.

With the wild popularity of BANS and phpBay Pro these days it seems like you’ve hit a gap in the marketplace for eBay affiliates. Can you take a minute to describe what phpBayAds does for those that haven’t heard yet and who is most likely to benefit from using it?

I’ve noticed the increase in the popularity of the eBay affiliate program for awhile now and I’ve even started using phpBayPro on a few websites of mine and found great success with it. I also noticed a lot of press on AuctionAds (now ShoppingAds) and it’s shortcomings.

All of these things got me thinking about what type of products I could develop to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the eBay affiliate program which eventually led me to creating phpBayAds.

phpBayAds lets you create adsense-styled ads that feature images and links to eBay auction products using your own eBay Affiliate ID. So when a user clicks on the ad and either makes a purchase or signs up for eBay you get the commissions.

Although results will vary from site to site, I think phpBayAds can benefit every webmaster who tries it as it adds an additional source of income to your websites. phpBayAds are fully customizable from the color of the links to the color of the border to the size of the ads and can be made to blend well with any and all websites.

What was some of your reasoning behind releasing phpBayAds for free?

When I initially set out to release phpBayAds I planned to sell it for somewhere around $20. However when I got to thinking about it I realized that at least at the start of my development that releasing it for free and getting the largest amount of users using the script is to my benefit.

I truly want this script to succeed and to do that I need people to use it and I need people to provide me with feedback. I’m hoping that as the script gets more exposure and as I add features that I may release a low cost Pro version which would include more features and functionality.

What are some of the benefits/disadvantages to you as a developer in making people run the script on their own server?

I think the main advantage of being able to run this script on your own server is that you are in full control. Your ads will always be running as long as your own web host is running. You don’t have to rely on any 3rd party website.

In the future as phpBayAds grows in popularity I would like to offer a hosted version for a low monthly cost which would let those less technical users also use the script.

What’s in store for future releases?

I have a number of features that I’d love to add as long as phpBayAds grows in popularity.

One major feature that I plan to add in the near future is reporting. I want to be able to track all of the clicks going through the ads, show what keywords are performing, what ad sizes are working best and present it all in one useful control panel.

As I mentioned above I’d also like to offer a hosted version of the script and perhaps additional ad sizes.

Lastly I’d like to make the ads more configurable by allowing you to set whether or not the ads should have images, price range of the items, geotargetting and more!

The future is bright for phpBayAds as long as people find it useful.

I want to thank Erik for taking the time to answer my questions. You can learn more about phpBayAds and download it for free over at his blog.