As many people know, Drupal 7's database is a combination of content and configuration information. Migrating a site from Dev to Staging to Production isn't the easiest process. 

I found this great article discussing what each of the tables are and are they configuration or content. There are some great tools developed to assist in this process, like features, node export and the like but they are not fool proof. Fingers crossed Drupal 8 lives up to the hype in making this separation easy and so the development work flow a lot easier.

This maybe a slighly unusal post for some of my readers but I wanted to put this solution out there for anyone else who is suffering with what is a potentially great module for Drupal 7 called rotating-banner. The problem is the file in the projects directory needs to be patched. With forum help for others I hand patched the correct file and it now works like a charm.

I post it here for anyone to download who needs it. Download, unzip and replace your previous rotating-banner.module file.

There is no warranty expressed or implied. I used it and it worked for me. Good Luck

Update

This post has caused quite a discussion on LinkedIn. Why not see what people are saying…

The announcement of the "new iPad" or the iPad 3 was made this week by Apple. I thought it was about time to review how iPads are being used in the small business world. Will I get excited enough to buy the new iPad? Not sure as my iPad 1 is still working well. Sure it's a bit heavier that the new version and it doesn't have a camera or LTE – though it did load iOS 5.1 and runs just as well as it did before.

I have loaded the new iWorks tools, Pages, Numbers and Keynote all connected via iCloud which is fine for the limited amount of content creation I do using the iPad. 

After all the last couple of years using my 1st generation iPad here are the business tools I use most:

• Evernote – because it captures notes easily, sound records meetings as I take notes and then auto syncs when I am next in a wifi zone
• 1Password – for all those passwords I need to find when I use Safari (I have 1Password on all my devices and find it saves my memory on a daily basis for all those login id's and passwords)
• Safari – for all those browsing needs
• Mail – all accounts are IMAP and so sync up and I don't care which device I use to read my emails
• GoodReader – the companion program I use to read all those attachments on emails too big for Mail and for syncing my documents from Dropbox and a plethora of other servers

In my first article on the iPad I spoke about jailbreaking and loading Frash for running flash apps on the iPad. I discovered an even better solution where going down the jailbreaking path wasn't required

iSwifter – built to play games it can load ANY Adobe FLASH site I have visited. It loads the site very quickly, sometimes awkward to use but it is usable.

Many of the tools I use are also available on the iPhone and for my desktop and so I am always in sync with my data. A great way to ensure you're backed up.

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of useful specific apps you can load and use on your iPad. This is just a list of the ones I use almost every day. Every business has different needs for their work tools and processes. 

Contact KIX to let us help you bring tools like the iPad into your business to make you and your staff work even better.

I trust this has been useful for you. If you find other tools useful for you in your business then please let me know via the comments section.

There’s a lot of hype about the iPad. Great marketing from Apple about its latest wonderful hardware creation. A technological marvel for sure BUT is it useful for business professionals?

To get an understanding both of the tool and its capabilities, I had to get one, which I did after a lot of research on the net, reading magazines and visiting Apple shops. I am writing this article on the iPad on one of the many downloaded tool (apps). I bought a 16GB WiFi model not the 3G model. The base version to my mind has to be capable of delivering a business result. If its not then it doesn’t matter which version you buy, the outcome will be the same.

There are some basic functions that you want on the road:

• Email
• Browser
• Access to your documents
• Create, edit documents
• Access to the internet without the 3G version and now wifi

Before we get too fancy in our requirements lets examine each of these basic needs.

Email:

The built in email system, similar to Apple Mail and the iPhone version, is a good email client. Sure it misses some features from desktop clients but it works well. Especially if you combine it with GoodReader / QuickOffice / DocsToGo or similar programs to work with attachments. There are free versions of these programs which have some restrictions.

There are some paid for email apps, I’ve tried Altamail and found it to have good features. EXCEPT for send mail where it got stuck more often than not. The ability to flag bulk changes is a real bonus in this app.

Browser:

The iPad comes with Safari, a perfectly adequate browser. It can sync bookmarks with its desktop brother and allows you to have many browser windows open simultaneously. Of course it can’t render flash content, the bug bear of many, Many, MANY iPad and iPhone users. I wont rant about this here, but its a major shortcoming from a business and end user perspective.

There area range of browser alternatives on the iPad becoming available from the App Store, Mercury and Atomic to mention just two. The 3rd party apps, all have their own tweaks and focus to improve your browsing experience. To help overcome the Flash limitation, I tried two approaches:

- Access to hosted desktop

- Jailbreaking and installing Frash

There’s a new app on the iPad called iSwifter which does the job very well, not a free app but with the money and even on my iPad-1 its performance is quite satisfactory.

To be continued…

The debate over the safety of mobile phones hots up again. New studies (reported in the Sydney Morning Herald) have shown just how hot the phones get when held to the head. The mobile/cell/handy is a tool we use daily, in fact since the iPhone came it's a way of life to some and with how hot the Blackberry get (maybe we should call it the "hotberry") those heavy business users might want to take head of the warnings.

The question then remains if this is such a great business tool how can we use it safely?

How about: – use it less – use a corded mike/earphone – use a Bluetooth headset (hopefully they are ok) – use your desk phone or IP phone with a headset/mic

Just be careful and like most things, use in moderation is rarely bad for your health.

In a recent article on short linking I spoke about how you can use Pretty Link, a WordPress blog plugin, to effectively be a bit.ly or other commercial short link service which YOU control.

The creator of Pretty Link, Blair Williams, has recently posted an article on how to make short linking even more effective.

Essentially, you register a very short domain name, point it to your top level site, add a small amount of code into you .htaccess file (and if you don’t know what that is then just contact me for more details) which you need and Blair explains clearly the how and where and why.

Magic, all done. Well apart from one thing there’s a very reasonable one of charge for the pro version of the pretty link plugin.

So, if you want to build your brand, have effective links used for your brand in twitter, facebook and all forms of social media and save space at the same time then this information will be very useful for you.

Do you have a strategy, for your business, for your technology that supports your business?

Lots of businesses do not have any strategy at all, or they get 'sold' something that sounds good only to find out that it really doesn't suit their needs.

In my experience you need to just do a few things to get you moving in the right direction!

• know what you want to achieve
• know how you will recognize that you've achieved it
• make sure the solution you implement supports your business goals / objectives
• set clear timeframes and responsibilities and hold people accountable and make sure they have the resources to achieve it (don't set them up for failure and them blame them)

Seems reasonable!

You would be surprised how often these simple things are overlooked. Are you overlooking them now in your business?

Contact us to help you get the best outcome possible for you business.

Want to know how you can have your own short link service like bit.ly, tr.IM or tinyurl, built in to your own WordPress posted website? I have spoken before about the importance of links to help build your online business presence.

If you have a WordPress site then read on to find out about the power you have in your hand.

What is a link shortening service?

Many links to your website, your articles might be very long. Not that suitable for advertising, or for use in Twitter or Facebook either. A link shortening service is used to reduce the length of the link, but still when someone clicks on it, it goes to the same place you orginally wanted.

The trouble is the search engines rank the short link and the user who's going to click on the link doesn't really know where it's going to go.

How to improve this situation?

Why not have a short link service that uses your own domain name. Now admittedly this isn't going to work so well if you have a long domain name, but if you have short one, it's a great opportunity for you to keep your website address visible to everyone including the search engines. While some sites like Twitter have the “nofollow” attribute set on links, at least your domain name will appear in the search engine rankings, but also in the eyes of the tweeps = twitter followers. This is a great bonus. I have been using this technique on a number of websites and it's showing great results.

To manage this service you just need to install the pretty link plugin. Configure it, there are plenty of tutorials on this, then use it.

This plugin has a free and paid for version, but for this simple task, the free version is enough.

If you would like assistance in setting this up then contact me!

If visitors to your website don’t stay and read what you have to say or offer, is that useful? You can spend money on advertising to get them there but if they don't stay then you are just wasting your money and time.

For your site to be successful, selling things or capturing the details of prospects you have to do more than get visitors (traffic) you have to get them to take action. You turn a visitor into a buyer from a tyre kicker. After all the internet is not different to other business, it’s a numbers game. So converting them is easy…right?

It can be easy when you do the right things. Here are twelve tips on how to convert traffic. You don’t have to be an expert to do this. Just follow the tips.

1. Know your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and really know why your service or product is different from your competition.  In what way is it special, special enough, different enough that it’s purchased? When you get this you know your USP and define it into a couple of sentences.
2. Remember you are building a relationship so put your message across in an appropriate way .  There’s no need for a pushy sales pitch. Treat your potential clients like you would like to be treated, telling a story about it. High pressure selling is a thing of the past.  
3. If you need assistance from your market, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Create a survey about what you currently do or about an area you would like to expand into. This will help develop the relationship and deepen loyalty towards both your company and the product or service.
4. Make the offer simple.  If you are selling four different products, advertise them on four websites.  Do not use one website to offer all products as this will be confusing for the consumer.  Whilst this might work for the bigger retailers they are already established in the marketplace.  
5. Make your page clear and easy to read.  Use wide margins and don’t feel you have to fill every inch of the page with copy.  If you leave white space it allows the reader to focus on reading the copy rather than being bombarded with too much information.  
6. Do brag about your product especially if it has received good endorsements and ratings from your satisfied customers.  Let them do the bragging for you. Testimonials are great and whatever you do – don’t make them up.
7. Writing good sales copy is an art. Give your audience plenty of reasons as to why to buy your product or service.  Use a sales letter and squeeze page that contains lots of valuable offers and repeat this over and over again.  It is much better to have too many offers, as long as they are valuable and reasonable, than too few and leaves your audience in no doubt as to what your offer is and its value.  
8. Look for problems and solve them.  Once you have completed your sales page, have a good think about any other issues your product could help to solve.  Asking buyers for more information might help as they might have found ways of using the product that you never considered.
9. Use moderate highlights in your copy.  These highlights help to attract the reader’s attention.  Don’t use too many though as too much colour or highlighting can just annoy and confuse your readers.  
10. Package deals are very popular.  Once you have presented your USP, offer a special package that includes a free bonus/gift when customers choose to ‘Buy Now’.  If you advertise the offer is available for a limited time this creates an air of urgency and entices the buyer to act immediately. Don’t just say it, believe it.  
11. Request an order.  One of the oldest principles of generating sales is never to ignore orders.  Ask for an order and keep asking.  You can never ask too many times. In Internet Marketing terms this is referred to as a call to action. Use them liberally throughout your sales letter.  
12. Be polite and say “Thank You” to your customers.  This is most important and good manners will get you a long way even on the Internet. Remember we are building a relationship. Your buyers will feel appreciated and will be more likely to come back to you. 

Here’s a bonus tip:

- Be genuine, offer a meaningful guarantee about your product or service, something you can stand behind. Make it something that you know you can do.

Selling online, whether the sale is for money or a persons contact details, remember it’s about building a relationship. Think not just about this sale but also abou the ones that follow and know the lifetime value of the customer.

For a limited time KIX is offering a website effectiveness survey for any business serious about knowing if their website is working for their business and provide the KIX Website Effectiveness Report.

Normally sold for $397^* and I am offering the report for a limited time at $97^*. To make this very effective for you all your answers must be totally honestly when you complete the online survey.

Just complete the survey after you signup below and I will get back to you with the report.

The report will cover:

• structure of your website
• effectiveness of your site with the search engines
• major omissions and problems of your current site
• ideas for how you could improve your online presence

This is more than an SEO report, it's about fine tuning your online presence with the rest of your business.

^* plus GST