As you become more and more involved with your websites, you will begin to realise that simple HTML just isn’t enough to give them that something extra. No doubt you will have noticed the websites of other marketers, which have all manner of automated elements including name personalisation, embedded content, interactivity and so on.
I’ve visited a lot of sites that start off with something like “Hi Phil”. It’s that added touch of personalisation that makes some websites more successful than others. Similarly, there are sites with countdown timers, urging you to buy something before it’s too late. The seconds tick away, getting nearer to the time when that special offer will no longer be available.
Would you like to add that kind of functionality to your website?
Then there are the multitude of 3rd-party scripts that you can buy or download for free. Getting them up and running isn’t always that obvious to most people. If you get stuck, you might end up paying a programmer $30 to install it for you. Wouldn’t it be better if you could install them yourself?
Would you like to learn how to create your own or modify existing WordPress Widgets and themes instead of paying programmers to do it for you?
Almost all of these scripts are written in a programming language called PHP. Don’t let that scare you away, because anyone can learn enough PHP to install, configure and modify scripts, and even start to write some of their own. You don’t need to learn absolutely everything about PHP, so you don’t need to spend years training to be a computer scientist or programmer.
Robert Plank’s SimplePHP really is just what it says; a simple introduction to PHP that gets you creating useful PHP scripts right from page 1. It is a very easy-to-read book containing 148 pages of really useful information. It contains example source code of 22 working PHP scripts that you can copy and paste right into your own web pages and modify as you wish.
It doesn’t end with the eBook. Robert also includes videos that cover everything that is in the ebook. So if there’s something you don’t understand, simply watch over Robert Plank’s shoulder as he demonstrates exactly how to do it.
Additionally, Robert has included videos covering essential tasks for setting up scripts, such as creating and managing MySQL databases, using FTP to load your web pages and scripts on to your host server, editing the configuration files of some popular scripts, and setting up Cron jobs which can run your scripts automatically at pre-determined intervals.
This additional content covers 5 scripts in an astounding 18 videos.
Personally, I learned PHP the hard way by taking exisitng scripts and searching online PHP manuals to try and figure out how they worked. I then picked up some of Robert Plank’s instructional eBooks and videos and my knowledge of PHP went through the roof. SimplePHP lays it all out from the very start for the absolute beginner, and Robert comes across in a very informal manner, making it all easy to follow.