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20 Tips for Creating a Customer-Friendly Web Site
What annoys an Internet user the most? A quick unscientific survey of a local Internet café suggests the top three turn-offs are:
Sites that are very slow to download;
Ones that are confusing to use;
Sites that do not contain the...
GET INTERACTIVE AND GAIN CUSTOMERS!
According to a new survey carried out by Alliance & where ID_NUM=9270; Leicester, one in five small business owners view tax as their greatest concern. The Chancellor has announced in his last budget that companies with profits below œ10,000...
Good Web Design
One of the primary keys to a successful website is a good design. A poorly designed site actually discourages visitors from even getting to your site, and to leave quickly when (and if) they arrive. A well designed site encourages people to visit...
Good Web Design: Create A Custom 404 Error Page
As you know if you've spent any time at all surfing the web, sometimes you will see the dreaded 404 error condition. This often occurs because you've entered an incorrect link (perhaps added a ".html" instead of ".htm" at the end of the file) or...
Technology vs. Usability
Technology vs. Usability When JV Media Design was formed, the year was 1995 and the Internet was a very different place than it is today. The first websites we created used simple layouts, a modest amount of graphics, standard "web safe"...
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The Future of Web Design - What is DotNetNuke®?
DotNetNuke® Overview
DotNetNuke® is a portal content management system (CMS) ideal for creating any type of website from commercial web sites, corporate intranets and extranets, online publishing portals, to a personal blog.
DotNetNuke® is provided free, as open-source software. It allows individuals to do whatever they wish with the application framework, both commercially and non-commercially.
The Static Website Problem
So you've created your static website using Dreamweaver, Frontpage, or programmed it manually in HTML?
Your next job is to promote your website and keep it up to date with lots of fresh content that the Search Engines love.
You soon discover that keeping your website up to date with the latest news and articles is a lot of work, within a few months your website becomes out of date and the site becomes a complete headache to maintain.
CMS - The Benefits
Using the DotNetNuke® Content Management system enables you to:
•Login to your website from anywhere in the world and update your content live
•Quickly and easily publish articles, images, documents, news, important information and more
•Save Money - Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) you no longer need to pay a webmaster to maintain your site
•Support for an unlimited number of content contributors (ie. Give permission to members of staff to login and update certain sections of your website)
•Easily change the look of your entire web site with just one click using skins
•Extremely extensible admin interface to add and move content, panels and more.
•Security - Every element of your website can have specific security settings applied to allow or deny users from seeing, editing, or administering the different parts of your site
Once you have used DotNetNuke®, you will not look back - your old web design programmes will gather dust!
What do you need for DotNetNuke®?
To run DotNetNuke® you need to use a web hosting package that provides ASP.NET and a Microsoft SQL-Server database.
The DotNetNuke® Community
An advantage with DotNetNuke® being open-source software is the vast number of users out there. There are many
developers contributing in the form of improving the DotNetNuke® core code and 'modules' which provide extra functions to your website, such as photo galleries. There are designers creating 'skins' which you can use to change the graphics of your website, and there is also a central forum area where you can ask DotNetNuke® related questions.
This community is rapidly growing by the day and it demonstrates how DotNetNuke® is the web of the future.
Where do you get DotNetNuke®?
You can download the DotNetNuke® code for free from: http://www.dotnetnuke.com simply register with the website to gain access to the downloads.
How do I learn DotNetNuke®?
There are many resources out there supplying documentation, videos and tips from installation and programming, to web design using DotNetNuke®.
You do not need to be a programmer to use DotNetNuke®; the hardest stage is installing DotNetNuke®. This is just a matter of uploading the correct files to your hosting provider and setting up your SQL database. DotNetNuke® will then automatically install when you open your website.
All you now have to do is add the content!
Beginner Resources
To see the functions of DotNetNuke® in action, there are two free beginners' guides available from DNN Creative Magazine:
An Introduction to the principles of DotNetNuke®
http://www.dnncreative.com/Tutorials/IntroductiontotheprinciplesofDotNetNuke/tabid/75/Default.aspx
and
DotNetNuke® Quick Start Guide Video (25mins)
http://www.dnncreative.com/Tutorials/DotNetNukeQuickStartGuideVideo/tabid/73/Default.aspx
About the Author
Lee Sykes is the Director for DNN Creative Magazine
He is a web designer specialising in DotNetNuke® websites.
DNN Creative Magazine is a monthly on-line magazine providing tutorials, reviews and tips for web design using DotNetNuke®.
http://www.dnncreative.com
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