Little background

If you had visited my blog a few weeks back, it must have looked different, loaded slowly and there was a ton of crappy ads and it was having only basic security features.

Old setup

Before this transition, the blog was using a Self-hosted version of Wordpress on a 10 USD/month Digital Ocean droplet (2GB RAM, 1 CPU, 50GB SSD disk) served via an Apache server serving over https using free TLS (or as people generally say, SSL) certificates provided by LetsEncrypt.

In this article, we will see step-by-step instructions to setup AWS EC2 Instance Monitoring Alarms using AWS Cloudwatch and CloudWatch Agent. The purpose of this post is to create a unified guide document to implement CloudWatch alarms as I couldn’t find any such documents when I tried to implement this for the first time.

Assumption:

This guide is written with the basic assumption that you want to implement Cloudwatch alarms in Linux based operating systems and the instructions are given for Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 operating system, however, it will work for other Linux variants also but commands like “apt” or “apt-get” must be replaced with command like “yum” relevant to the operating system.

Changing the hosting servers of WordPress sites is always tricky because of the WordPress files and folder permissions differ from that of a normal shared web hosting and a dedicated / VPS server.

The site may work properly but the updates won’t install or you can’t upload your image files and I have faced this issue when I moved from shared web hosting to my private VPS from DigitalOcean. I have built the hosting server from scratch on top of Ubuntu and I’ll tell you about the proper Wordpress files and folder permissions required for the smooth running of your website.

Lesson 9 - Integrating Payment Gateway with Opencart site

In this lesson, we will see how to integrate our payment gateway with our Opencart Installation.

1. Login to your Instamojo dashboard and click on API’s and Plugins.

2. Under available platform plugins, click on the relevant Opencart version of your installation and download the plugin.

3. Login to your Opencart admin dashboard and click on Extensions->Extension Installer.

4. Click the upload button and upload the plugin you have downloaded earlier.

Google has been launching a lot of Android apps lately and I’ll list 5 lesser known apps that they have launched.

Google Keep

Google Keep lets you take notes, create a checklist and has a lot of other features which are clearly explained in this article.

Google Fit

Google Fit lets you track your daily activity and your fitness and is explained in detail in this article.

Google Opinion Rewards

Google Opinion rewards let you earn free google play store credits for answering a few questions and you can know more here.

In the previous part, I have discussed how my relationship with computers started.

Even though I have tried Linux based operating systems from time to time, the terminal commands scared me and I have always gone back to Windows.

But when I started learning about how the Internet and websites work, I have started building websites and I have always preferred Linux based Shared web hosting because they had CPanel to manage your web hosting, which is easy to use compared to Windows-based control panels and Linux hosting is cheaper than Windows hosting.

Would you like to get a free payment gateway consultation for your business?

I have been in the e-commerce and Payments industry for 4+ years now and I have been running a free e-commerce course for those who wanted to get into the e-commerce business. I have been getting several inquiries from SME’s regarding getting a payment gateway for their business, hence I have decided to offer free payment gateway consulting for business as we have partnered with a startup-friendly major online payment gateway, we are in a better position to offer payment gateway consulting services.

Lesson 7 - How to Register Web Hosting for your Website?

In this lesson, we will see how to Register Web Hosting for your account and use it to host your domain.

Watch the below video to start the lesson. In the video, we show you different Hosting companies and their pricing and how to get special offers using coupon codes etc. Select One hosting provider, who you feel affordable and register hosting with them.

All of must be using some sort of App to take Notes on the go. But the best among them all is Google Keep.

Why is Google Keep the best?

Google Keep has a clean and simple UI with tons of useful features.

You can use Google Keep to take Notes, create Checklist, Set Reminders - both time based and location-based reminders, use it as a drawing pad, create image notes, scribble on images etc.

Lesson 6 - Create free Professional Business email with custom domain using Zoho mail

Welcome to the Lesson 6 of the Free e-commerce course.

In this lesson, I’m going to show you how to get a free professional business email with your own website (eg, [email protected]) using Zoho mail.

In order to complete this tasks, you must have already purchased a domain name and added it with CloudFlare to manage the DNS settings.

If you haven’t done already, please complete those first and if you don’t know how to complete those steps, please refer the “Learn e-commerce” page for help articles.

Lesson 5 - Managing your website DNS with CloudFlare

Welcome to the 5th Lesson of the Free e-commerce course.

In this lesson learn how to sign up for CloudFlare and change the nameservers accordingly to accommodate the change and also how to create an “A” record to point your domain name to your server IP.

Click the below video to start the lesson.

Once you have signed up and updated the name servers, you can manage all the DNS settings of the website from CloudFlare.

Are you thinking of Switching to Ubuntu (or any other Linux distribution)  from Windows but afraid to jump ship?

Maybe my story will help.

Before I tell you why I have dumped Windows for Linux, First I’ll tell you about my relationship with computers.

The First time I have touched a computer is when I was in my 5th Standard (2001-2002) in our school.

They bought a second hand Windows 95 computer with a Black and White CRT monitor. I have used it to draw a few rectangles using the LOGO language.

Lesson 4 - How to Signup for a Payment Gateway in India?

Are you a small business worried about getting a Payment gateway?

Are you looking for a payment gateway for a home business without company registration?

Do you want to collect payments online without having a website?

Are you looking for a payment gateway for your e-commerce store?

Are you worried about the initial cost of setting up a payment gateway?

Lesson 3 (Bonus) - What is Domain Name, Hosting and DNS?

Welcome to the bonus lesson of Free e-commerce course, in the last lesson I explained how to register a domain name for your website but seems people are confused about certain things….

If you are trying to understand How a website works and What is the difference between a Website and domain name, what is hosting, then it might be overwhelming at first.

Lesson 3 - How to Register your website domain name?

Welcome to the third lesson of the Free Online e-commerce course and in this lesson, we show you how to register your own website domain name.

Start the below video to watch it.

You can use other domain registrars such as Namecheap, GoDaddy, Google domains etc as well. The core concepts remains the same.

Lesson 2 - Business and Tax registrations required for an e-commerce business in India

Welcome to the Second lesson of the Free online e-commerce course and in this lesson, we discuss the Business and Tax Registrations required to run an e-commerce business in India and also how to do the said registrations.

Click on the below video to start the lesson, also you can subscribe to the youtube channel to get a notification whenever a new video is uploaded.

Lesson 1 - What is ecommerce and it’s types?

Welcome to the First lesson of the Free e-commerce course and in this lesson, I’ll be speaking about what is e-commerce and what are the types of e-commerce.

Click on the below video to watch it.

In the next lesson, we will learn about what are the legal registrations (such as business reg., GST, PAN etc) required to run an e-commerce business in India.

I have been into Internet/e-commerce/online payments for the last 5-7 years and I have been working in the online e-commerce industry full-time for almost 3 years now after resigning from my corporate job.

I have worked on my own as well as client e-commerce projects and that constitute my experience and I have learned all these things from my own research in the past 7 years and I must admit, it took a lot of time learning all these things and a still a lot to learn.

If you are a small business or a startup looking to collect online digital payments from Credit / Debit cards, net-banking and you couldn’t afford the fancy swiping machine or a costly payment account. Now you can simply share payments link via Whatsapp, Facebook, SMS, e-mail etc and your customers can pay online easily with the comfort of home and the amount gets settled in your bank account in 2 days.

If you are looking for a high-performance free VPS Server without any ads to test your application, host a website or evaluate VPS servers for your production environment, then you have come to the right place. For the uninitiated, let’s introduce VPS.

What is Virtual Private Server (VPS)?

Virtual Private Server (VPS) are virtual computers that are hosted on a physical server in the cloud, which can be accessed via the Internet. These servers have their own operating system, own server resources and functions like a normal server except that multiple VPS can reside in a Single Physical server but they will have their dedicated Storage and RAM.

Most of you must have used Google play store to download Apps, music, movies, books, games etc. Some of them are free, most of them are either paid or ad-supported.

At times you must have wanted paid products or premium version of products to remove annoying ads or you just wanted to buy a book or something but you don’t want to pay for them, so you search for pirated apk’s and end up installing malware on your mobile.

Amazon launched their Prime membership last year in India and I’ve been using it for the past 1 year and based on my 1-year experience if you ask me if it is worth paying ₹499 / ₹999 (You can get ₹500 Cashback in your Amazon Pay wallet), I would say, Absolutely yes. First, let’s see what are the benefits of Prime Membership.

Benefits of Prime Membership

• Free delivery on all products Fulfilled by Amazon and most of the high moving products are fulfilled by Amazon.
• Free One Day and Two day delivery on eligible products and pin codes, for which you have to pay extra if you are not a prime member.
• Early access to deals and special offers for Prime members.
• And my favorite, unlimited access to Amazon Prime Video which includes a lot of Hollywood movies and popular TV series

Should you go for it?

You should. If you are a heavy shopper and you are based in any of the metros, then you can get free fast delivery and it’s more than worth.

Few people have asked me about the tools and technical setup I’m using to run my blog and website.

It is difficult for me to explain them orally everytime but it is important because it will help them learn and do their own thing. So, I’m going to mention about the most of the tools and technologies I use in my blog and my business.

Web Services I use or have used in the past

Learn how to create your own free online store without any coding in under thirty minutes in 5 easy steps and also get Rs.500 in your bank account after completing your first sale.

We will show you an example with a hobby business called Prighu - Art crafts & Jewellery

Create a Facebook page for your business

First create a Facebook page for your business (if you haven’t done already) and post about your business and related images.

Being a Startup entrepreneur and service provider involved in ecommerce and allied fields, I know the importance of collecting payments online and the role of Payment gateway in it. There are lot of factors involved while selecting a Payment gateway especially when you are starting new.

After years of searching and analysis, I believe, I have a winner,

I’ll try to explain why Instamojo is the best payment gateway for startups in India and the factors I have considered while choosing the payment gateway.