I was wanting to add a span id in my product description, but the system was having none of it. To cut a long story short, after much digging around I have found a solution.

In your website directory wp-content/plugins/wp-e-commerce/wpsc-includes, download and open the file wpsc_query.php in notepad, wordpad or similar (always back up your file before editing). Navigate to line 278, or there abouts and replace the code:

return wpautop(wptexturize( wp_kses(stripslashes($wpsc_query->product['description']), $description_allowed_tags )));

with:

return $wpsc_query->product['description'];

upload your edited file to the same location, overwriting the old one, and job done. Your product description will now handle and display all html code on the front end of your shop.

For example: If your domain is mycompanyname.co.uk, anyone will be able to register the domain mycompanyname.xxx and launch an adult website using it.

We anticipate that the potential association between businesses/business websites and adult websites will be minimal, bit offer this information to you, and ask that you assess your own company/trading name and associated domain name(s) for potential risk.

Should you want to avoid the risk of someone registering a .xxx domain that could potentially conflict with your own domain name or company name, we would recommend having it registered yourself, in turn blocking anyone else from doing so.

We will be registering a number of .xxx domain names, associated with our own trading names, to avoid their use by others, and we would be happy to do the same for you. Should you prefer, we can even register the domains on your behalf, but maintaining them in our name, so to avoid any association with your own company at all.

.xxx domain registration application process will go through a variety of phases:

• Sunrise Pre-order, Sept 7th (For adult and non-adult companies owning a trademark – £250+ per application)
• Landrush, Nov 8th (For non-trademark owners, wanting to secure at the earliest opportunity – £150+ per application)
• General Availability, Dec 6th (Your order will be held and submitted to the registry the moment registration opens – £100)

All application fees during the Sunrise and Landrush stages are non refundable, and not guaranteed to successfully register your chosen domain name. Should more than one application be submitted for the same .xxx domain during the Sunrise or Landrush stages, the domain will go to auction, in which all applicants can bid.

Should your General Availability application not be successful, you will be refunded £75 of the £100 initially paid, £25 will not be refunded. General Availability applicants will be classified as non-members of the adult sponsored community, unless you request that we register you as part of the sponsored community.

Prices may vary, hopefully becoming lower closer to the time, as competition increases.

This is by no means a scare tactic, and we have no plans to make a significant profit from any .xxx domains we register on behalf of clients, but this is for informational purposes, making you aware of the potential for association between businesses/business websites and adult websites.

If you have any concerns, questions or want to discuss your own company/trading name and domain name(s), please don’t hesitate to contact us via info@realdrive.co.uk or calling 01223 911830.

QR Code for the Globe Travel Health Centre

From within the barcode you can encode:

• Text
• Website URL
• Phone Number
• SMS Message
• Other Data

This technology is frequently used in Japan (where it was created by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994), and now seeing increasing use around the world.

You can download QR reader software for iPhone, Andriod, Blackberry and other smartphones and devices. Many of which are completely free.

If you have any other questions about QR Codes, or want additional information on how you can make them work for you and your business both online and offline, don’t hesitate to contact us.

So you have to do it right. Blogs need to have better-than-average levels of content quality, publication frequency, personal interaction and search engine appeal to be successful.

I spoke with Nelly Roach of KimberMedia. Her new company offers blogging as part of its website maintenance packages. She stressed the importance of aligning your blog with your other marketing, saying, “Have a specific purpose and goal for your blog.”

10 TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL BLOGGING FOR 2011

1. Write often; be consistent. There’s nothing worse than a stagnant blog, so if you choose to blog for your business, make sure it becomes part of your routine.

As you might recall from my last column, the businesses that posted most often made the most money. But even if you can only blog once a week, do so regularly. As you develop a following, they’ll expect to hear from you.

2. Be brief. While there are not the forced length restrictions with blogs that are common in other social media (140 characters for Twitter, 420 for Facebook), you still need to be mindful of your readers’ time and attention span.

People are busy. Yes, be personal, tell a story perhaps, but get to the point. Make sure content is easy to digest and easy to read online; short paragraphs, bulleted points and numbered lists all are helpful.

3. Monitor traffic. Pay attention to what readers care about and respond to. Use Google Analytics or other tracking software to discover where readers are coming from, what search terms they’re using, which post titles and content generate the most traffic. Plan future blog posts accordingly.

4. Share knowledge. Use your blog as an excuse to get and stay ahead of the curve in your industry; it’s a great excuse to do research that not only helps you but helps your readers, too. (That’s one reason I like writing this column; it gives me a reason to investigate topics that interest me personally.)

5. Focus. If your blog is too broad, you’ll find it hard to attract traffic. Pick a topic on which you’d like to be seen as an expert, and write about that. Know who you’re writing for, the search terms they use when looking for your expertise and the problems and issues that matter to them. Think narrow and deep rather than wide and shallow.

6. Integrate with other marketing/search engine optimization. Incorporate your blog into your overall marketing communications plan; use it with marketing intent instead of treating it as an afterthought.

Make sure your blog is integrated into your website and that you understand how blogs and SEO go hand in hand. For example, using top keywords in the titles of your blog posts helps you rank higher in search results.

7. Think of your blog as a publication. Rather than staring at your computer monitor and hoping for inspiration, adopt an editorial calendar and offer themed series and planned content.

8. Make it interactive and personal. A blog is a great way to show people what matters most to your company, what your values are and what your corporate culture is like. And “do not be afraid to blog about dreary news in your industry,” Roach said. Honesty, transparency and resiliency matter to your audience.

In practical terms, allow people to add comments and join email lists, include media in your blogs such as YouTube videos and streams of events, feature photos of customers and staff, etc.

9. Use technology to disseminate widely. Blog posts can be sent to email, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook (usually it’s a one-time task to set this up), so make it easy for people to find what you write. The more followers you have, the more your blog becomes a way to nurture and cultivate potential customers.

Adds Roach: “It’s also important to understand which platform is most appropriate for your particular business, based on your goals. Some platforms are better at SEO, and others are better suited for brand awareness.”

10. Importance of “curation.” All blog content doesn’t need to be original — thank goodness! You provide a very valuable service to your audience by finding and filtering content that will be interesting to your audience and offering your own opinion about it.

Very few of us can keep up with the research in our own fields, much less the latest data on mobile marketing or the hottest trends in home décor.

“In 2011, B2B blogging will be increasingly important as companies wake up to the fact social networks are low-hanging fruit and bring lower rewards as referral mechanisms. Blogging, on the other hand, allows brands to cut through the social media clutter, and this will become increasingly important,” said Yann Ropars of Extanz.com.

Article by: Diana Ratliff.

The standard xmlrpc.php script is quite commonly installed with many free blogs, including WordPress. Unfortunately, it is quite easy to exploit and often abused by amateur ‘hackers’ and spamming groups for malicious purposes.

However, most users that have the script on their sites don’t actually use it, therefore some hosting companies block access to that file name to protect those users.

How to get around this issue

Easy peasy. Using an ftp program go to the root of your install and download:

xmlrpc.php & general-template.php files.

Of course, back up these files, before you edit anything.

1. Edit the name of xmlrpc.php to xmlrpc_post.php or similar.
2. Open xmlrpc_post.php in Notepad/Wordpad and find the code xmlrpc.php
3. Replace with the code xmlrpc_post.php
4. There should be 6 snippets of xmlrpc.php to replace in that file
5. Save and close
6. Open general-template.php and replace the same code twice in this file.
7. Save, close and upload both edited files to the root of your directory

Now try and re-connect to your blog via XML-RPC and you should be good to go.

Usefull? I don’t think so……

There is an add-on to combat this which can be found: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5200/

Enjoy.