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Sublime Text Editor for PHP - a love story

Mike Peters, January 24

Sublime Text is a fast, sophisticated text editor for code.

Over the years we've tested numerous text editors, including Notepad, Notepad++, PHPStorm, Eclipse, jEdit, NetBeans, phpDesigner and PHPEdit...

Up until recently, PHPStorm and Notepad++ were our two favorites.

PHPStorm has a very extensive feature-set: syntax highlighting, autocomplete, refactoring, html wysiwyg mode, a built-in debugger and file indexing. But it's heavy. Slow. Bloated.

Notepad++ is fast, but it's missing a lot of the goodies found in PHPStorm.

Introducing Sublime Text

Sublime Text 2 combines the best of both worlds:

* Blazing fast
* Sexy
* Syntax Highlighting
* Code completion
* Multi-select and multi-edit
* Goto Anything
* Find and Replace in files
* Customizable via extensive plugin library

Installing

Step 1

Download the latest version of Sublime Text 2 here

Windows, Mac OS and Linux binaries are available.

Step 2

Install the Sublime Package Control, by launching the Sublime editor, selecting "View" - "Show Console" from the menu, then pasting this code directly into the console:

import urllib2,os; pf='Package Control.sublime-package'; ipp=sublime.installed_packages_path(); os.makedirs(ipp) if not os.path.exists(ipp) else None; urllib2.install_opener(urllib2.build_opener(urllib2.ProxyHandler())); open(os.path.join(ipp,pf),'wb').write(urllib2.urlopen('http://sublime.wbond.net/'+pf.replace(' ','%20')).read()); print('Please restart Sublime Text to finish installation')

Package Control is now installed. Close Sublime text editor and restart it for changes to take effect.

Step 3

Open Sublime text editor, click Ctrl-Shift-P and type "Install Package"

Search and install these packages, one by one. Simply type the package name and click it to install.

* SublimeCodeIntel
* SublimeLinter
* WordHighlight
* jQuery
* Prefixr
* Clipboard History

One other thing you're going to want to turn-on is the "Auto save" feature. Off by default, you can turn it on, by opening the "Preferences" - "Default" and setting save_on_focus_lost to true:

"save_on_focus_lost": true,

Step 4

Sublime PHP linter relies on PHP being installed on your machine.

If you haven't installed PHP earlier, grab it from windows.php.net

You'll want to get the Thread-safe ZIP version. Extract the ZIP file to a new "C:\Program files\php" folder.

Open Sublime editor Preferences menu, select the SublimeLinter Settings under "Preferences" - "Package Settings", locate the "sublimelinter_executable_map" block and enter the full path where PHP is installed.

For example:

"sublimelinter_executable_map":
{
"php" : "C:\\program files\\php\\php.exe"
},

Step 5

Install Soda-Theme to give Sublime a sexy dark look

Once installed, update your default theme under "Preferences" - "Settings" with:

{
"theme": "Soda Light.sublime-theme",
"soda_classic_tabs": true
}

Restart Sublime editor and you're good to go

Sublime Cheat Sheet

Open Folder: Opens list of all files on a left pane
Ctrl-P: Quickly find any file under your project
Ctrl-F: Find
Ctrl-H: Find/Replace in current file
Ctrl-Shift-F: Find/Replace in files
Ctrl-M: Jump to closing bracket
Ctrl-Shift-M: Select all content of current bracket
Ctrl-Z: Undo
Ctrl-Y: Redo
Ctrl-G: Goto line
Ctrl-S: Save current file
Ctrl-R: Goto symbol / function definition
Ctrl-Shift-D: Duplicate line
Alt-Shift-2: Split to two panes (shift-1 back to one)
Ctrl-2: Jump to pane 2 (Ctrl-1 jump to pane 1)
Ctrl-Shift-L: Multi select
Alt-F3: Select all occurrences of current word for multi edit

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Bing and Yahoo PPC Webinar

Adrian Singer, November 18, 2010

Free introductory webinar that covers the basics of Microsoft AdCenter and how you can drive traffic to your site from msn.com and yahoo.com.

Agenda

* An overview of advertising on Bing and Yahoo! Search with the Microsoft Advertising adCenter platform.
* Tips for setting up search, content, and mobile advertising campaigns.
* Bidding and budgeting best practices.
* Guidance on selecting keywords that will give your ads a better chance of reaching your target audience.

Date: Thursday, November 18, 2010
Time: 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time
Duration: One hour
Cost: Free

Signup here: https://swrt.worktankseattle.com/web...5/preview.aspx

Recommended Web Shows

Adrian Singer, September 6, 2010

Happy Labor Day!

Got some time on your hands?

If you love technology, entrepreneurship and the world of online business, there are a few great web shows I'd like to recommend.

This Week In Tech (Twit.tv)

DiggNation

This Week In Startups

This WeekIn Venture Capital

We're Hiring! Looking for Technical Account Managers, Team Leaders

Mike Peters, October 8, 2009

Software Projects, a New York based full-service Internet Marketing firm, is seeking a bright, articulate, detail-oriented, and technical applicant interested in joining our group of software professionals.

As a Technical Account Manager, you will work directly with clients, translating client vision into technical requirements, submit weekly plans, manage teams of engineers and oversee all software development work.

You will brain-storm with engineers, think outside the box, provide direction and leadership, while directly interacting with some of the best minds in our industry.

== Requirements:
* Excellent problem solving skills
* Leader, Motivator, Confidence, Energetic
* Superb communication skills with the know-how to verbalize ideas into technical requirements
* Minimum 2 years programming experience (PHP / C / Perl)
* Experience with FreeBSD/Linux a great plus

== Responsibilities:
* Translate client wants into requirements
* Plan projects, oversee software development
* Solve Problems
* Update clients on progress
* Maintain high client satisfaction

== Location:
You will be working from your home office for the first six months. After that time, you will have the option of relocating to one of our offices or continuing to work from home.

== Next steps:
Send an email to hr@softwareprojects.com with your resume and let us know when is a good time to chat.

Didn't update your resume in the last 2 years? That's fine. It's all about your experience and skills! Send us a quick cover-letter and we'll follow-up.

Basic Web 2.0 Website Template

Dawn Rossi, June 24, 2009

10 years ago, a typical website included about 6 pages, with a home, about us, contact, privacy policy, terms & conditions and FAQ page.

While these are still Must have pages, nowadays, every decent website is expected to feature a blog / forum, photos, videos, social network links and do a better job of "telling the company's story", showing the people behind the site.

I was looking for a simple "push-button" solution to create a skeleton of such a site, but couldn't find one.

SPI does offer thousands of pre-made website templates, as well as custom website development, but I wanted a simple fully-functional template to help new clients get a quick-start with their websites.

Since I couldn't find any existing solution, I went ahead and created one, that covers it all:

* a complete website with a clean "Web 2.0" look&feel,
* Wordpress blog,
* vBulletin Forum,
* Social-network links,
* Navigation menu and
* Contact form

You can use my template to get this setup live, in 30 minutes or less.

Step 1: Register your profile on the social networks

Signup for Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, TwitThis and FeedBurner.

Record your username (you'll need it later)

Step 2: Create Logo, Banner & Avatar

You're going to need a unique logo design and nice banner for your new website. Use these image specs and file names -

Top logo logo.png Dimensions: 240x88
Footer logo logo-footer.png Dimensions: 170x66
Post avatar post-avatar.png Dimensions: 24x51
Menu avatar menu-avatar.png Dimensions: 19x23
Top banner top-banner.png Dimensions: 728x90

Step 3: Install Website template

Download the web 2.0 website template

Extract it to your main website folder

The template includes easy to modify top.php, bottom.php and sidebar.php files, that control the header, menu system, footer and sidebar links. These three files are included on all pages.

Note: You can get the latest version of WordPress here. To keep this process streamlined, I've included WordPress as part of the zip file.

Step 4: Install Wordpress

WordPress is located under the /blog folder

Open the /blog/wp-config.php file and update it with your database settings (You'll have to change DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_HOST)

If you installed the latest version of WordPress (as opposed to use the version included in the zip file), you'll have to make these additional changes:

(a) Install WordPress by pointing your browser to http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php and follow the on screen instructions

(b) Update blog/wp-content/themes/default/header.php to:

require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/top.php");

require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/sidebar.php");
require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/bottom.php");

(d) Update blog/wp-content/themes/default/sidebar.php to:

return;

(e) Update blog/wp-content/themes/default/index.php to:

<?php
get_header(); ?>

<div id="content" class="narrowcolumn" role="main">

<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>

<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php
the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<small><?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> </small>

<div class="entry">
<?php the_content('Read the rest of this entry »'); ?>
</div>

<p class="postmetadata">

<ul class="foot">
<li class="alpha"><?php edit_post_link('Edit', '', ' | '); ?> <?php
comments_popup_link('No Comments »',
'1 Comment. Join the discussion »', '% Comments »'); ?> </li>
<li class="beta">
<ul class="liaison">
<li class="rss"><a href="<?=$RSSURL?>">RSS</a></li>
<li class="twitter"><script type="text/javascript" src="/js/twitthis.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">document.write('<a href="javascript:;" onclick="TwitThis.pop();">TwitThis</a>');</script></li>
<li class="email"><a href="/contact">Email</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

</p>
</div>

<?php endwhile; ?>

<div class="navigation">
<div class="alignleft"><?php next_posts_link('« Older Entries') ?></div>
<div class="alignright"><?php previous_posts_link('Newer Entries »') ?></div>
</div>

<?php else : ?>

<h2 class="center">Not Found</h2>
<p class="center">Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here.</p>
<?php get_search_form(); ?>

<?php endif; ?>

</div>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Step 5: Install vBulletin

Purchase a license to vBulletin ($180) and download it from http://members.vbulletin.com

Extract vbulletin to a /forum folder on your server, then follow these steps:

(a) Rename includes/config.php.new to includes/config.php and update 'dbname', 'servername', 'username', 'password' with your database details.

(b) Open www.YOURDOMAIN.com/forum/install/install.php in your browser and follow the on-screen instructions (you'll need your vBulletin customer number to continue)

(c) Update the fetch_gzipped_text() function under forum/includes/functions.php to:

function fetch_gzipped_text($text, $level = 1)
{
return $text;
}

(d) Open forum/global.php and locate this section in the file:

eval('$headinclude = "' . fetch_template('headinclude') . '";');
eval('$header = "' . fetch_template('header') . '";');
eval('$footer = "' . fetch_template('footer') . '";');

Replace these 3 lines with this section:

@ob_start();
require("../top.php");
$buf = @ob_get_contents();
@ob_end_clean();
eval('$header = "$buf";');
$header .= "<div><div><div>";
@ob_start();
require("../sidebar.php");
$buf = @ob_get_contents();
@ob_end_clean();
@ob_start();
require("../bottom.php");
$buf .= @ob_get_contents();
@ob_end_clean();
eval('$footer = "$buf";');
$footer = "</div></div></div>".$footer;
eval('$headinclude = "";');

Step 6: Update images

Update the images in the /images folder with the ones you created in step 2

Step 7: Update company name, links

Update config.php with your company name, tagline, keywords and social network usernames.

It's important to set all the usernames as these will get populated on all of your pages. If you don't want to use a specific network, make sure you update bottom.php and top.php

-

In the future, I will update this template to include a built-in image gallery, the SPI FAQ service, the SPI Helpdesk service, Customer back-office and a video links manager.

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Your Commitment to Reducing Chargebacks (Free Template)

Adrian Singer, June 2, 2009

About two years ago Mike posted a collection of tips to help eliminate chargebacks.

Every single one of those tips still holds true today, just as much as they did back then.

If you're accepting credit cads online, your merchant provider may ask you to provide a 'Chargeback Protection plan' or in lamen terms - explain what you are going to do to help reduce your chargeback rates.

Once you apply Mike's recommendations (or use SPI shopping cart + Call center), you can use the following template:

--[ CUT HERE ]--

To whom it may concern,

Re: Chargeback Protection Plan

[Company name] is committed to providing our customers with excellent value for the orders they place with us.

We understand that at times customers may experience a case of buyer-remorse or decide to cancel their orders. If and when that happens, we make it very easy for customers to contact our company to cancel the order and promptly receive a full refund.

1. As soon as an order is placed on our website, customers receive an order confirmation email, detailing delivery times, tracking number and our customer support phone number.

2. [Company name] website features a Contact-us page that provides customers with an online contact form as well as a toll-free phone number for our 24x7 customer support staff.

3. Our main business phone number (the one that shows up on customer's credit card statement) clearly states our business name and allows customers to route the call to the support staff.

4. Within 15 days from placing an order on our website, customers receive a follow-up email to verify the order was received and customers are happy with our product.

5. All orders come with a no questions asked 30 days money back guarantee [Update with your refund policy]. This refund policy is clearly stated on our website and we stand behind it at all times.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Company name]

How to give a Great PowerPoint Presentation

Mike Peters, June 1, 2009

As I was getting ready to do my presentation about Affiliate Outsourcing at Affilicon, I went online to look for resources about effective presentations.

While I have been giving presentations for over 10 years now, I'm always looking for more ways to engage my audience and get better at pitching to a huge crowd.

Some of my favorite presenters are:

* Gary Vaynerchuck - very animated, charismatic, loud, engaging
You will never fall-asleep in a GV presentation, no matter what the topic is

* Steve Jobs - master marketer
You'll want to buy his stuff half way through the presentation

* David Heinemeier - Brilliant bootstrapping entrepreneur
You're going to want to study and practice his business models

(Watch these three presentations to get inspired)

A few great resources about creating an effective PowerPoint:

* Matthew Dyer 8 tips about PowerPoint Presenting

* Guy Kawasaki 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint

* 70+ Powerpoint and Presentation resources and great examples

-

My top tips:

Be Passionate about what you're talking about

Passion is everything. You have to be excited about what you're talking about. Really excited. Be animated. Wow your audience.

Know what you're pitching

No matter what you're talking about, you are always SELLING something. Know what it is and structure your presentation accordingly.

10 words max

No more than 10 words per slide

No animations, no backgrounds, no bullet points

Keep it simple

Give away true value

Leave your audience with new insights, motivation, new ideas and specific calls to action

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