"dump.tar" is name of file we want to save into, and "*" means we want to put everything into this TAR archive -- files, folders, everything.

You may get some sort of warning about not adding dump.tar to archive, that's no big deal because we don't want this file to add itself.

Your files are backed up. At this point it's time to move things over to next host. There's a way we can do this without you having to download whole thing, and re-upload it.

STEP 4: ARRANGE YOUR FILE FOR PICKUP

Remember how I said when you were in "wwwroot" or "public_html" not to browse into folder containing a domain name? Well now it's time to move that dump over into one of them so it can be picked up.

If one of your folders is, say, yourdomain.com, type:

mv dump.tar yourdomain.com

This moves "dump.tar" into folder "yourdomain.com".

STEP 5: MOVE THE NEW FILE OVER

Login to your new host. Browse to its "wwwroot" or "public_html" folder.

Most hosts include a program called "wget" which works sort of like a browser in that you give it a URL to pick-up that it loads. Only this browser also saves file you want to load.

If your old host was at yourdomain.com, you'd just type:

wget http://www.yourdomain.com/dump.tar

This will load that URL and save it as "dump.tar". You'll probably see some sort of progress indicator as it goes.

STEP 6: DECOMPRESSING THE FILE

Once you have file, you use that same TAR program to decompress it. Type:

tar -xvf test.tar

The "v" and "f" are still there, but instead of "c" (create) we use "x" (extract). This will unpack each file and let us know which one it's working on.

STEP 7: RESTORING THE MYSQL DATABASE

Before you can put mySQL dump back into database, you have to go into this new web host's control panel and create blank databases with same names as you had before.

You also have to create a mySQL user and make sure that user has access to all those databases you've created.

Once that's done find dump.sql that was unpacked with all of other files.

Instead of using program "mysqldump" to dump files, we use program "mysql" which let's us put commands into database. That's basically what a dump is, a file full of commands that, when run, will recreate old database exactly.

This time we don't type in database name right away. To get into mySQL from command prompt, type:

mysql -umyuser -pmypassword

Where "myuser" and "mypassword" are your mySQL username and password. Once you're in you'll get kind of a weird looking prompt. All you have to do at this point is type:

source dump.sql

This says, open up file dump.sql, read through it and do whatever it says to do in that file. You will see a bunch of lines telling you a command has been entered (0 Rows Affected, 1 Rows Affected, something like that).

If everything goes smoothly, type "quit" and you will be back in shell.

You've just moved one site (or a bunch of sites) over from one host to another in about 5 minutes.

Article by Robert Plank

The pop-ups I've been talking about are involuntary ones. The visitor has no control over them. But what about voluntary pop-ups? You know, you click on a small picture and a window opens up with a larger image of that picture. Or you click on a word or service and a window opens up explaining word or service. Now, you're dealing with something that visitors absolutely love. You have given them back control they want, and removed annoyance they hate. It makes using your site easy, your site is more informative and visitors will stay longer.

When designing these voluntary pop-up windows be sure to make them a convenient size, so they don't take over whole screen, and make them easy to close. You can have text, or a button, in window that lets people close it, or they can use X on top right of window. Again, you want to give visitors easy control over how they interact with your site.

Replace your pop-ups, or planned pop-ups, with page design that will guide your visitors to where you want them to go. Giving your visitors a pleasant experience on your site is an incentive to stay longer and come back often, which is what you want.

http://www.CreativeCauldron.com Jeff Colburn is a website designer and writer. His goal is to make process of creating or updating your website easy and simple for you, while creating a website that meets all your needs and expectations. Jeff can also create all of copy for your website.

To see a sample of Jeff's work go to The Creative Cauldron. It's an award winning site filled with information for writers, photographers, artists and other creative people.

Copyright 2004 Jeff Colburn