Some Advice For The Newer Webmasters...
No matter whether you have been doing this for 5 hours or 5 years the one thing that you all need to start doing is getting your server organized.
Ive just spent the last few months sorting through all the crap we have accumulated over the years on our various servers and, apart from being an awfull waste of time, it made me realize just how badly things needed cleaning up.
When it comes to spending your time wisely, having a decent file / navigation structure in place on your server, whether on a free host, virtual plan or several dedicated boxes will save you a lot of headaches.
About 2 months ago i managed to get our content stored on the server all in one location:
/content/
/content/imagecontent/
/content/moviecontent/
Now, i no longer have to worry about where specific sets are on our boxes as i know they are all located under the imagecontent or, if they are movies, the moviecontent directory.
You might also want to get the sets renamed, thumbnailed and, optimized at the same time as putting them in a central location to save time later on.
By storing your content alone in one place and hotlinking to it from your other domains this is going to make such issues as the new 2257 regs much easier for you to keep control of.
A word of warning though, if you are going to store your content in a centralized location, make sure you have a good anti-hotlinking .htaccess file in place that will only allow domains that YOU own to link to the stuff.
In addition to having a centralized content directory, we now also have a central directory where we are storing all the scripts and applications we have purchased over the years again, this saves having to worry about where they are on your HD or, which CD or disk you burnt them to, zip each script and application up along with the registration paperwork and call it something unique for example, winzip.zip - You know by looking at that filename exacty what the application is.
Again though, in this directory make sure you have htaccess password protection in place so nobody else can access this directory on your server without authorization.
Anyway, just figured i would share that informaton with you, to some it may seem like common knowledge however, by getting used to putting your content and various other files in the same location from day 1, it will make things much easier for you as the days, weeks, months and years go on especially, as you start buying more pograms and content.
Regards,
Lee
