Appliedi.net Windows Web Hosting Blog

This error occurs when the App_Themes folder is missing from your “wwwroot” directory (or Virtual Directory / Application) and prevents you from logging into your Admin Area.

It can be caused by creating a new application under your ASPDNSF root folder, or by turning the “admin” folder into an application.

Here’s the partial error message (the one that is common to everyone):
[HttpException (0x80004005): Theme 'Default' cannot be found in the application or global theme directories.]

If you run into this issue on ASPDotNetStoreFront, please follow the steps below:

1. Download a copy of the App_Themes folder by clicking here.
2. Unzip the file and upload the whole “App_Themes” folder into your ASPDNSF’s root directory.
3. Reset your application pool.
   
   TIP: You can force a reset by renaming your web.config file to web.config2 and then renaming it back to web.config – this will force ASP.NET to reload your configuration file.

This operation should make your ASPDotNetStoreFront accessible again.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) in March, and although its deployment has been slow, the new browser has created a potential concern for designers and developers.

The new browser introduces a slew of fundamental improvements, including security, ease of use, and support for RSS, CSS, and Ajax. Most noteworthy in IE8, however, are the significant changes in the way pages are rendered. In contrast to previous versions of IE, Microsoft has made a gallant effort in IE8 to render pages in greater conformity to web standards.

Although standardization enables consistent development across browser platforms, sites designed for older versions of IE may not display as intended in IE8. (Learn about rendering in IE at Microsoft’s IE Compatibility Center.)

To mitigate display issues, Microsoft has introduced in IE8 a “compatibility view” that enables sites to revert back to IE7 rendering. It’s a quick fix that enables webmasters to punt on the IE8 rendering changes. To force display in compatibility view, simply add the following meta-element to your pages:

<meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=EmulateIE7″ />

Since other browsers will ignore this code, Microsoft suggests this approach has the best blend of allowing web developers to easily write code to interoperable web standards while not causing compatibility problems with current content.

You can also address this issue by adding HTTP Response Headers in IIS6 or IIS7 [read]. This is very convenient for any web developers that have static sites.

Popularity: 4% [?]

It has been widely observed that Google likes domains that are aged. You might have heard the term, ‘Google Sandbox’ thrown around in marketing and SEO forums. This term refers to the amount of time it takes from when a site goes live to when it begins to receive Google rankings. Wikipedia has a great explanation of this.

Here’s the Hot Tip!

Do you own domain names that are just sitting and not being hosted? Have you been wondering what to do with them? Maybe you’re currently building out a site for them? Maybe you’re waiting to build them out?  These domains are the perfect opportunity to utilize a blog!

By putting a blog on your domain while you are in the process of building out your site, you will cut down on the time you spend in the ‘Google Sandbox’. Then when your site goes live, you will be ready for ranking.

It is also a good idea to put up a splash page on your main domain, www.domain.com. You can say ‘Coming Soon’ or ‘About Us’ and add a link to your blog. (Don’t forget, be sure to place your blog in a subfolder with a keyword like: /keyword-blog/).

Remember, you must use the blog and post to it regularly. At first, the content does not matter so much as you are really using it to escape the dreaded ‘Sandbox’. This is a great way to use those domains that you have thought about but haven’t decided what to do with yet.

It’s Simple but Effective.

This tip is simple but it can make the difference between launching a successful site that starts to rank in organic searches or one that waits months for FREE traffic.

Where to go now?

In Conclusion, If you have a domain not being hosted it is not benefiting you in any way. Hosting the domain and putting up a blog adds value to the domain and gets it ready for when you want to use it. You can also monetize off this domain immediately. By implementing something like Google Adsense on your blog.  By building traffic, this also makes it much more desirable if you are thinking about selling the domain down the road as you can show revenue and traffic. We will take about buying/selling domains and monetizing your blog in future articles.

So what are you waiting for? Dust of those domains that are just sitting dormant and get them hosted! For the small investment in a shared hosting account will give you big returns in the future. Best of all your shared hosting account probably includes support for multiple domains already.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I wanted to provide links to a couple SEO videos that I thought everyone would benefit from. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a hot topic for every online business and often the most confusing. Hopefully these two videos will help point you in the right direction.

This past week at MIX one of the presentations I sat in on was Advanced SEO for Web Developers by Nathan Buggia, Lead Program Manager for Live’s Webmaster Tools. Although it’s titled Advanced SEO I think it provides a good introductory overview of certain things you should and should not be doing with your search engine optimization efforts and encourage everyone to watch the video (linked to below).

Another great video is by Matt Cutts titled, Whitehat SEO tips for Bloggers, given at wordcamp 07 in San Francisco and was recorded by Jeremy Pozadzides . The video is geared towards blogging but is a great overall video for solid, clean SEO advice.

Popularity: 3% [?]