GoDaddy has recently announced it will discontinue Godaddy ColdFusion Hosting Services as of November 2011. The lack of proper configuration options for ColdFusion Administrator, for ColdFusion debuggig support, and a shared schema that cannot cater to a serious ColdFusion customer has led GoDaddy ColdFusion into oblivion with some alternative options. This move from GoDaddy ColdFusion was anticipated, as ColdFusion Hosting is not a “Go Daddy” type of Service. GoDaddy Hosting works well with small Websites and Applications, but the ColdFusion Hosting platform is more demanding – simply because it’s more rewarding!

Looking into ColdFusion Hosting Alternative Services, when GoDaddy will turn the lights off on its GoDaddy ColdFusion Hosting Clients, you may notice that most other ColdFusion Hosting Companies charge more for CF Hosting. That is mostly because GoDaddy ColdFusion was cheap in comparison, and you do get what you pay for, right? But wait a second, now since you pay more, do you get more than GoDaddy ColdFusion Hosting? Yes, most ColdFusion Hosting alternatives will offer you more Services than GoDaddy CF, and the support is probably much better. If you are thinking about, or need Enterprise Level ColdFusion Hosting, look no further than… ANYTHING BUT GoDaddy ColdFusion.

In your quest for GoDaddy ColdFusion Hosting alternatives you will find a bunch of smaller ColdFusion Hosting providers, that could be a good fit for your needs if your ColdFusion Website or ColdFusion Application is not very demanding. However, if you are running ColdFusion, there is a big chance that you are looking to host intermediate to advanced ColdFusion Websites and Applications, and require Dedicated ColdFusion Hosting. Nevertheless, you probably won’t get it cheaper than GoDaddy ColdFusion Hosting, but it will be real ColdFusion Hosting, and will finally offer the appropriate tools and support for ColdFusion Developers to maintain your business. Just ask your ColdFusion Developer, they will agree !

Although both are subjects that have been greatly discussed over the years, confusion still sits with what the differences are. If an average person on the street should be asked, they may reply that they are the same thing, no matter what they are told otherwise. Although they are easy to confuse, there are differences. While the information below does not cover everything, it should nonetheless be put under consideration by the reader. Knowing the Difference between Web Design and Web Development can help a person in their pursuit to put together a website or simply educate themselves.

Web Designer

A web designer plays their own important role in how a website comes together. They are responsible for coming up with a visual design that is both appealing and professional, depending on the needs of the client. If an individual should choose to go without a designer, they may find themselves with a layout that others, particularly potential customers, will reject. A pleasant color scheme, along with suitable graphics and an easy to understand setup, catch the attention of the people that visit. They will want to come back again, additionally spreading the word to their friends and family members.

Web Developer

Web Development has a different place when it comes to making a website public. They do not spend hours drawing up a layout for the website. They do not take on worries such as what is an appropriate color scheme and what users will find visually appealing. A web developer simply focuses on the technical aspects of the project. In other words, they work behind the scenes to make sure that everything is running as it should. To them, the important part is making sure that people can navigate properly, and that links and forms work as they should.

The Difference between Web Design and Web Development has been a subject of discussion for quite some time, whether those wondering are average Internet users or a manager at a business. Because they are similar, or at least appear to be, many people confuse them. They do not understand how they could be two different things, regardless of what they may have been told. However, as the information above will show, there are noticeable differences. These two different jobs, whether a person is looking for Web Development or Web Design, they should consider choosing a company that has an understanding of both so they get exactly what they want from their website.

The Internet has taught people that instantaneous is best. Whether it is streaming music, movies, or television, purchasing items online and having them shipped to your door, or ordering a pizza for dinner in thirty minutes, the general Internet user’s attention span is extremely short. As such, it is important to have a well designed, interactive website if you want customers to stick around. You may be asking yourself “Why do people leave a website?” There are a multitude of reasons that people may choose to leave and this post will explore a few of those, as well as some simple solutions to retain your customer’s interest.

Long Load Time

The first point at which people may leave your website is before it even loads. Long load times, typically anything more than 2-3 seconds for text or pictures to begin appearing and anything more than 4-6 seconds for the entire page, including CSS formatting and Flash videos ready to play, will deter a user. This is where webpage optimization plays a role. Having a well designed website means that it is ready to actively use within a few seconds. We are past the days of loading screens for web pages. Rather, a simple, quick displaying page with the option to load resource heavy features such as a Flash demonstration applet separately will tend to retain customers. There is no need to have time-consuming e-commerce additions and the like on the front page. Rather, allow the user to settle in before pushing too much at them. Another area to watch along with load times is ease of navigation and design principles.

It’s Confusing

No one wants to load a webpage and see a confusing array of links, buttons, colors, flashing lights, and clip art. The modern aesthetic of the Internet tends to lean to a simpler, more elegant solution. Influenced by companies such as Apple and Google, sparse backgrounds are not necessarily bad. But the thing to keep in mind when looking at examples such as these is the form and function work together. Google has one job: search. It does its job extremely well with little to no distractions. Apple funnels people towards its new product lines and directly to specific information for what they are looking for. From there, a seamless transition moves the user from information to the ability to purchase with their e-commerce system.

It’s Ugly

When choosing a web page design, think as a user. What would be their first impressions? What is the purpose of the website? Take away the extraneous. Put it in a document or technical specification section. You dictate how your customer or viewer moves around your site through the placement of links, search features, and leading lines in pictures. Remember to take into account design and journalistic principles. While not everything from classic journalism translates well, the movement of a user’s interest is vital to be able to take into account and plan for. Keep a simple, streamlined service with exactly what the consumer wants and nothing more.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the reasons people tend to leave a website. However, if these principles are followed, a definite return on user experience will be noted. Giving consumers a fast connection to just the information they want, followed by a simple, intuitive relationship between pages and information will stop forcing you to ask yourself the question “Why do people leave a website?” because it will not be your website they are leaving.

For more information on this subject see part-2 of this post.

E-commerce sites need to be ahead of any technological curves to make sure that they do not lose customers to competing online stores. One of the most popular additions to hit Internet stores are video clips embedded into product pages. By using videos on a store page, it gives the visitor a chance to see the details of product in a way that a still image would not allow. It also can be used to make the product look more appealing, similar to how television shopping channels demonstrate products to make potential customers more interested.

If you are wondering “What can video do for e-commerce?” then take a look at what adding videos has done for many of the most popular online stores that have recently began adding video clips. For example, Zappos has seen a 24 percent increase on sales of items that have had videos added that feature a demonstration of the product being sold. Essentially, these videos allow users to see what exactly they are buying, which makes them more likely to follow through on their purchase. Create a video that shows the product being taken from its packaging and include clips of the product actually being used to get the best results.

Videos are very easy to add into your e-commerce development project. Many different hosting sites are available for videos, including YouTube, Vimeo and Oculu. After creating videos for your site, you can upload the files to one of these services. Once the file is uploaded, an HTML code can be generated to embed the clip directly to the page for the item on your store. Now, when a customer views the item, videos will also appear for them to watch.

Also, videos added to an e-commerce store will help in bringing more visitors to the website. Search engines like Google include a special section for videos when users are searching for a particular item and you can use search engine optimization tricks to make sure that your videos will appear before your competitors. This includes providing accurate title and description tags, backlinks to your web page, incoming links from other sites and RSS feeds and many other factors.

Once you get started in producing and uploading videos for your online store, you won’t be asking “What can video do for e-commerce?” and instead wonder “How did online stores manage without this fantastic promotional tool?”

Websites these days have tons of information and most of it is dynamic; a quick, easy way to adjust certain parts of the site without affecting others is needed. This is where Content Management Systems (CMS) come in. CMS provide a simple, intuitive way to manage a large collection of data with the ease of automation, built in functions, and other helpful tricks. One of the biggest names in this market is Mura.

Mura CMS is a management system designed to keep web pages up to date and simplified for both viewers and web masters. Complete with many different tools, having Mura development on your side is a definite advantage. Mura CMS offers an easy way to manage the various pieces of content on your site. It especially excels in dynamically updating information, such as databases or many blog entries. In these sorts of scenarios, a quick way to add links is needed, but without the pain of adjusting every single parent link on the main directory page. Rather, a system is implemented to keep various items at different priority levels pending on your requests.

Mura CMS development cuts down on time by streamlining the process. Much like an API in traditional programming, Mura provides a quick way to reuse code, augment existing web pages, and integrate with both front end and back end applications. This flexibility allows Mura to save precious development time and let resources be spent on new features and services, rather than on resource intensive back end operations.

Running on every major operating system, Linux included, Mura provides a solution no matter your preferred operating environment. Additionally, it integrates seamlessly with ColdFusion, so database heavy applications which may require more assistance can easily work with both platforms. There is also great Mura Support available to help with implementation and uptime maintenance.

Time saving, dynamic content upkeep, and database control are just some of the many services offered by Mura. Mura Support is always there as well to keep you and your website running in the very best shape. Time is precious in the development world. New products and websites come out every day, and without a fighting spirit, a company is doomed to be passed up by the competition. The best way to enhance that spirit is to spend time working on development, rather than exact implementations of previously done work, to keep a solid development cycle and faster time to market.

Social networking web sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been dominating most Internet users’ time when on the web. However, these sites are not just for social interaction, but can be used to help market your e-commerce store.

E-commerce and social media marketing are a great combination for making sure that your site gets seen by users on social networking sites. In fact, social media marketing will help boost your site’s visibility, traffic and e-commerce sales. Studies have shown that the link between e-commerce and social media marketing will provide just as much advertising results as traditional methods, such as print or broadcast advertisements. Also, because marketing through social media has become such a viable way to promote a brand or business, if you avoid doing the same, your store will suffer from being behind the curve of the competition.

If you are new to social media marketing, it is quite simple to figure out how to tailor it to your online store. The easiest way to start is to sign up for a Twitter account for your site. This service allows users to post short 140 character messages called “tweets” to anyone who is following them on the site. Many users even have Twitter connected to their mobile phone, meaning they get alerts of new tweets from any location. The convenience of Twitter is that you can quickly announce sales or new products for your store to a wide array of potential customers and they will receive the message immediately.

Facebook is another social networking site you can not avoid when marketing through social media, as it is the largest and most used social network on the Internet. Create a “page” on Facebook and users will be able to add you and get updates when you post them. Some online businesses have even used their Facebook pages for giveaways, exclusive sales and many other incentives that will make users want to check out their page. Also, Facebook has paid advertising deals that can promote your store to users who have not added your page.

Lastly, uploading videos to YouTube will make your store more visible on online searches and provide customers with a better look at your products. Because YouTube is free and digital video clips are quick and easy to produce, it is a perfect solution for working with e-commerce and social media marketing.

Cross-Site Scripting XSS is a common malicious online attack in which hackers inject harmful coding script into web pages in order to steal sensitive information. The Adobe ColdFusion programming language creates powerful web pages that connect seamlessly with databases. Wise businesses trust in ColdFusion experts to write, organize and maintain coding script to provide the best security wall so that XSS assaults will fail.

-ColdFusion Characteristics

ColdFusion enables web developers to “rapidly build, deploy and maintain robust Internet applications.” Each programming language has its own characteristics, which hackers will attempt to manipulate with malicious executable code in order to steal sensitive password, personal or financial information from customers. ColdFusion maintains interoperability with HTML, JavaScript and Adobe online architectures; web developers have experience preventing malware attacks against these systems.

-What is Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)?

Cross-Site Scripting, XSS, attackers use malicious executable code to steal sensitive information or the means to acquire that personal data from a legitimate site. With ColdFusion, typical XSS attacks will acquire the underlying template for creating customer information forms so that the criminals can create their own counterfeit form. Using this fake form, the hacker misdirects customers to the hacker’s site to steal birth dates, passwords or bank account information.

Long-term dangers include the ability of the criminal to impersonate customers after acquiring authentication and identification credentials. An XSS attack might occur due to flaws on the client side or server side. There are different types of Cross-Site Scripting attacks (persistent or non-persistent).

Sometimes, XSS is only one harmful tool amongst many elements of a malware attack that could include Trojan Horses, rootkits or worms. Complex XSS script attacks can be self-propagating.ColdFusion web development professionals know how to combat all of these threats preventing infestations.

-ColdFusion Security

The complexity of Cross-Site Scripting XSS attacks requires assistance by a team of ColdFusion experts to prevent or remove malware script because there are many issues involved. ColdFusion security web developers know how to prevent hackers from stealing information using counterfeit forms. ColdFusion experts can review all manual code to retain the functionality and responsiveness of the web pages.

ColdFusion security professionals can ensure that posts originate from legitimate sites and not the hacker sites. They know how to write, organize and maintain coding script so that potential security holes are plugged. Don’t settle for second-rate when defending your website against XSS, trust accomplished ColdFusion web development experts.

Adobe is hosting a series of live ColdFusion webinars hosted by ColdFusion experts. These webinars will cover a wide variety of topics ranging from what cold fusion is, to advanced topics like ColdFusion Builder extensions. The ColdFusion developer week has something for everyone. For information on how to sign up. Checkout the adobe site

“Losing a visionary is really hard,” said Brian Barish, president of Cambiar Investors LLC, and if anything that is an understatement. Steve Jobs had been leading Apple over past 14 years, and you will find few people that said he did a bad job.

Jobs took Apple form being a company that was struggling to survive let alone compete, to a company that, briefly, was worth more than Exon Mobile. It is this accomplishment that people cite when calling Jobs one of the best businessmen of the 21^st century.

So what does Jobs resignation from his position as CEO of Apple mean for the company? As Matt McCormick, a money manager at Cincinnati- based Bahl & Gaynor Inc said, “The fortunes of Apple have been closely identified with Steve Jobs,”. This is a sentiment that is shared by most investors. According to Bloomberg when Jobs resigned he took almost 52 billion dollars off the S&P 500. This happens simultaneously as Apple’s own stock lost 17 billion.

It is hard to say what this means for the future of Apple, all we know at this point is that investors see the resignation of Jobs as a bad sign. People speculating on the future of Apple need to realize that Steve Jobs is the man that led Apple to the point it’s at now, but that he did not do it alone. This statement is reflected in the amazing products that Apple has introduced over the past years.

Now the question on people’s minds is whether Tim Cook is fit to fill Steve Jobs’ shoes. This is a question that will only be answered in time. For now it’s safe to say that the iPhone 5 will come, and the day-to-day business at Apple will continue as normal. The only thing that seems to be immediately threatened is Apple’s stock price.

Web applications are the future of Internet marketing. Building something in HTML 5 and distributing it to the whole web all at once is the fastest and easiest way to reach the most customers. Web software like Gmail is a good example of what web applications can do. Web application developers have the highest potential for getting hired on jobs because most business owners are developing for the web before they develop for isolated platforms like IOS and Android.

Any web applications are also visible on mobile operating systems because they all have access to the Internet. Even if web software does eventually make it to the native applications of mobile devices, they are usually built on the web first. Web software reaches all audiences regardless of the type of device they have. Web application developers also don’t have to learn new languages. Web application developers are usually proficient in HTML 5, CSS, Javascript, MySQL, and PHP.

One of the top strategies for business owners to utilize is to develop on the web first. Software that used to only be available as local applications is now migrating to the web. Sometimes, whole new browser-based interfaces have to be used. Other times, an existing application merely takes on a different form and presentation. These awesome applications allow the user to use the application for annual or monthly fees without ever having to download it. Application service providers, shortened with the acronym, ASP, are getting a lot of talk around them in business circles on the web.

Some of the benefits of these include that they don’t require hard roll out procedures because the only thing that’s needed to make them work is a web browser. They also require very little disk space. There are no upgrades because everything is done on the web. Web applications can also work easily with email and searching and work across most operating systems.

Business web application development is making its way into; email marketing, event management and marketing, video marketing, social media marketing, online sales, online presentation, and online payments. These are just some basic ideas of what custom web software can do. Every business is different, no off the shelf solution is perfect for all their needs, which is why businesses should consider having a custom web application developed for their business.

To find out how a business application can make your business run smoother, and more efficiently, contact the experts at EcomSolutions.