To read article Gerry wrote click here.

Here is Gerry’s interview with CNN

Mad Joe Swooshes The Pie Shop – Written By Gerry Cullen, February 18, 2010 Continue Reading »

The Image Extra module by ADS does not come with a stock export utility so I have written instructions to export the Image Extra settings to a file using phpMyAdmin

These instructions assume you have access to your Miva Merchant database via phpMyAdmin.

1. Open phpMyAdmin and select your Miva Merchant database
2. Select the ‘SQL’ tab
3. Copy and paste the following text into the text area (If your store is not ‘s01’ then you should update the query to reflect the correct store). This query checks to see that there is information in the Image1 URL. If there is no data in that field then it will not export the data

SELECT *
FROM s01_ADS_IEProdImgs,s01_Products
WHERE s01_ADS_IEProdImgs.id = s01_Products.id
and s01_ADS_IEProdImgs.img1 > '0'

4. When the results are displayed scroll to the bottom and click ‘export’
5. If you use Excel then use the following settings:
   • CSV for MS Excel
   • Check ‘put field names in the first row
   • Check save as file
   • Click go
   • Save the file to your computer and you can then open it in MS Excel, edit it, then import it using the ADS Image Extra Import utility.

Affiliate Hosting Program Details

Refer someone to us and we will give you the first month’s hosting fees as soon as that site goes live on our servers. We pay referral fees on all of our hosting accounts. Signing up is simple and free.

If you are a web master, developer, or web designer then this is a great way to make extra money. Morditech’s hosting services are fast, secure, and reliable so you can rest assure that the clients you refer will be very happy with the service they receive here. At your request we can even transfer the website files for you and place them all under the same PLESK control panel login.

Use this secure application form to apply

Matt Cutts, from the Google “Search Quality Team”, officially denies that google uses the meta keywords tag in its algorithm that creates web rank. According to Matt you could leave the meta keywords tag out of your page and it would not make a lick of difference. Even though those are my words and not his that is certainly what he meant.
The video below was posted on the Webmaster Central Blog. According to the article and logic there is no way to overuse or under use a keyword in that tag. Matt Cutts says, “At least for Google we do not use that information in our ranking even the least little bit”. I beleive him.
Check out the video below and check out Google Webmaster Central  Blog.

Up until now it seems that even non PCI Compliant versions of Miva Merchant were not getting flagged by some PCI Compliance scannig agencies such as SecurityMetrics. We came across a site that was being flagged as having ‘Possible blind sql injection’ and it was followed by a bunch links to the merchant Miva Merchant store.  Often times the PCI Compliance scanners do raise false positives and in fact this is one of those times but  simply running the latest streaming update from Miva within the Miva Merchant admin allowed this site to pass the scan. Your other option is to contact your PCI scanning company and alert them that this is a false positive and hopefully they comply. You should check with a Miva specialist to make sure the streaming updates will not conflict with any modules or customization that have been made to your store. It is also good practice to check that your additional modules are updated to the latest versions as well.

ALERT: Security Metrics PCI Compliance Scanning is now picking up on non-compliant versions of Miva Merchant.

SOLUTION: Stream the latest Miva Merchant updates from the Miva Admin (If it has been a while since the last time you ran the updates and your store is customized you may want to check with your web master or Miva Specialist before running the updates).

Problem Summary per Security Metrics:
Possible blind sql injection on http://www.domain.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Category_Code=100&Current_Product_Code=&Store_Code=NTFL&Screen=OINF&Offset=&Attributes=Yes&%3FAction=ADPR style=”display: none;”> wp –bsql “http://www.domain.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Category_Code=100&Current_Product_Code=&Store_Code=NTFL&Screen=OINF&Offset=&Attributes=Yes&%3FAction=ADPR” “http://www.domain.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Category_Code=100&Current_Product_Code=&Store_Code=NTFL&Screen=OINF+and+1%3D1&Offset=&Attributes=Yes&%3FAction=ADPR” “http://www.domain.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Category_Code=100&Current_Product_Code=&Store_Code=NTFL&Screen=OINF+and+1%3D0&Offset=&Attributes=Yes&%3FAction=ADPR” POST cat <<EOF > bsql.sh curl -L -d “Category_Code=100&Current_Product_Code=&Store_Code=NTFL&Screen=OINF&Offset=&Attributes=Yes&%3FAction=ADPR” “http://www.domain.com/Merchant2/merchant

Google has a downloadable PDF titled ‘Google’s SEO Starter Guide’. It explains many of the basics and fundamentals that every website owner, web developer, and web designer should know. This is the official Google SEO starter guide by Google and not some SEO firm that claims to have the magic bullet.
Download it print it, grab a cup of coffee sit in a nice comfy chair and read away and of course make sure you apply these principles to your Miva Merchant Store.
Google SEO Starter Guide PDF Download
In case you would like to read this in another language use this link Google SEO Starter Guide in other languages

On January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. Join recovery efforts mobilizing around the world to assist earthquake victims. Your donation will help disaster victims survive, and rebuild their lives and their communities. With this link you can donate money to appropriate organizations specifically for “Haiti Disaster Relief” Google is also donating $1 million to help organizations provide relief.

This link on CNN gives you a list of organizations that you can send donations to or volunteer.

Please be kind and compassionate to your fellow human beings. This money will go to prevent people from dying RIGHT NOW from simple infections and other preventable causes.

You can allow customers to use their email address and special characters in their login name. Continue Reading »

There are many misconceptions about search engine optimization. It seems that anyone that has ever worked with a website has theories on how to rank well in search engines like Google. Remember just because someone claims to be an expert in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) does not mean they really are. There are far more misconceptions and unproven theories about SEO than you might think.

You should really consider the source when taking advice from so called SEO experts, be skeptical, and always research before spending time and/or money making changes on your website for SEO value.

An engineer from Google, Matt Cutts, answers some questions about Google search engine SEO basics and some misconceptions in this video. You should also check some of the other videos I posted of Matt Cutts.

Check out our Miva Merchant SEO Tune Up on Sale for $399 – Let Morditech Make your Miva Merchant SEO Friendly

Finally, there is a list of SEO recommendations to implement on your Miva Merchant store to make it more appealing to search engines when they crawl your site. Miva Merchant is not completely search engine ready straight out of the box. The Miva Merchant SEO recommendations made here are my opinions based on 10 years of experience working with hundreds of Miva Merchant stores. There is no guarantee that implementing these changes on your site will get you top search engine listings because that is mostly dependant on you and  your content and of course your competitors but I will guarantee that using these techniques will get you better search engine rankings than you have now. Continue Reading »