Magento is a complex piece of software designed to do just about anything you might want to do with an online shopping cart. And while it is possible to customize Magento without code, just using the backend, that doesn't mean it's simple. But who wants to read a 200 page manual to learn how to use a website. But 52 pages is more manageable. If you need to set up a Magento store, Instant E-Commerce with Magento: Build a Shop by Branko Ajzele will take you from installation to a live store and covers the following topics in only 52 pages:

My first suggestion when installing Magento for a live site is get a big dedicated server or use Amazon so you can scale quickly and easily. I mean, you are planning to make money right? So you might as well spend a little more. Magento is a beast. It consists of lots of code and a heavy database. But the best server won't do everything. There is still a lot you can do after you have installed Magento on your server to speed it up.

Well kind of at least. Just switched from Wordpress to Drupal. Got tired of using plugins I needed but never could trust to be safe and for the last 8 months or so, I have been working full time mainly building Drupal sites at VML. And for all of you out there spamming the shit out of this thing with comments: until I get Mollom working on this blog to replace Akismet, I run one MySql command every few days that deletes all unapproved comments, so have fun wasting your time.

It takes a while after learning to develop with Magento to even consider picking up any random Magento job that comes along. I have learned that every site has an issue and every site owner has one idea that is just that close to impossible. If you are a PHP developer thinking of working on a Magento site and you have never seen Java, you may try a few things at first, but eventually just wish had any clue what is going one in all those files. But I do happen to pick up jobs now and then where other advanced PHP but newbie Magento developers are pulling their hair out and I just see the fix right away. Just because I once spent 3 days trying to do something similar.

I was actually writing code to integrate Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools when Google just added the ability to mash them together. Long before that, when websites had less colors and were boxy, I wrote software to analyze gaps in supply and demand in Ebay's auction site right before someone came along and wrote something better. I thought I was over my paranoia and then...

I got an email from Scott Krager over at SERPS.com and a three month, free ride press pass. Yes, I thought a new toy. And I added a few sites, authorized Google and then added a few hundred keywords I was targeting. And then I starting playing around with what it can do... hey wait a minute. More on that later.

I'm Back Baby!

I am all about a new SEO tool. I have a bookmark folder dedicated to them, which has Competiton, Backlinks, Keywords and Content folders inside of it, because there was way too many links for one folder. And don't let me get started about the software on my hard drive. I have a lot of "just might use this sometime" software.

So when I ran into BacklinkMafia, I decided to check it out. BacklinkMafia is building combined SEO tool so new it's not even finished yet, but I wrote to find out the details.

BacklinkMafia now provides link building services but is adding a slew of tools to help you do your own SEO work.

The Site Health Tracker

English: Python logo Deutsch: Python Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A few day ago, I posted about a Wordpress .htaccess redirect hack that happened to me.

David Prowse as Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And you thought RSS was the best thing about blogs, the advantage they have over a standard website without a feed. But think about it for a second.

If your reader uses a feed reader, he may really never come to your blog. It is too easy just to read your post from their reader.

I stop myself from writing my thoughts so much any more. I have too many thoughts that I think would come out the wrong way. A filter built into my fingers to say, no you can't say that. Or maybe that is just right now or maybe it is holding myself to not wasting my time. It happened right about the same time I realized the internet was real. Before then, I wrote things and random messages came back from this box.