|
Atanasis
Owner
Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 4284
Location: The Net
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:57 pm Post subject: Complete Starter Guide |
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
OK, first you need to understand that Links Organizer is multidomain solution.
That means that You install it once on a site and from it You can handle the
linktrades across all your sites. The linktrades are displayed hiddenly
via php includes, so the only thing you need at the server where are your sites displaying
the linktrades is php support.
Secondly let me clarify again the difference between the FREE TRIAL and PAID version
of the script, because I am many times asked about it. The Free Trial version doesn't
contain any feature limitations. It is exactly like the Paid one, just you have limit
on the sites and trades you can operate with it - 3 sites with maximum of 20 trades.
Here's step by step what You need to do once you just downloaded the script:
1. INSTALL
Installation is as easy as unpacking the script package on your computer and uploading
the files to your server. The only special thing here is that you need to upload in
BINARY mode (set that upload mode in the settings of your ftp client). Once upload
is done, launch the installer file like http://www.yourdomain.com/lo/lo-install.php
If your server is setup so that script can't write to the filesystem you will notice
a red warning text on the installer screen, so You just go and chmod those files and dirs
to necessary permissions. Then launch the installer again and if no warnings, fill in your
mysql info and thats it.
2. INITIAL SETTINGS
Right after you completed the install, login to the admin panel and in the main navigation
menu on top (admin menu), click on "Setttings->Configure". First make sure that the field
"PHP Binary Location" has proper location to your system command line php version.
Secondly, put your license key in "License Key" field, ofcourse if you purchased the full
version. Thirdly, fill in your email in the corresponding field.
Thats it for now at that screen!
3. CRONJOBS
The script requires 1 cronjob to be setup on your server, so that it does its automatic
functions, like Recip checking, trade templates regeneration, maintenance and etc..
By default script tries to install the cronjob by itself at install time, but nowadays
it fails mostly because of the new way servers are setup. So, go to "Settings->Cronjobs"
and on bottom of that screen where it says "Active Cronjobs List" see if it added the cronjob
automatically. If there's nothing in there.. you need to add the cronjob by yourself.
Little above in that screen there's an exact syntax of the cronjob, so just copy it
and add it to your server or simply ask your host support to do it.
4. GENERAL SETTINGS
Ok, before you get started using the script you need to make some general settings
to let the script know how you want it to work. Go to "Setttings->Configure" again
and browse through all the options in there. At each option there's explanation there,
so you will easily see what each option is about. There is one thing you should understand
when you are there! The script provides 2 signup forms for your sites where other webmasters
can signup for a trade. The 1st one is called "Combined Public Signup Form". As
you probably understand, on that form appear all Your sites accepting linktrades and
the webmaster can signup to any or multiple of them at once. The 2nd signup form is called
"Single Signup Form" and it is a form which displays just one of your sites and a webmaster
can signup only to it from that form.
Why are there 2 types of signup forms? Well, in the start Links Organizer had only the
combined one, but some people prefer not to list all their sites on one page, thats
why I implented and the single signup forms.
So, at this stage you need to decide how you will use Links Organizer. If you want to use
the combined signup form refer to the options under the "Combined Public Signup Form Settings"
on that screen. If you will be using sites' single signup forms, then close the combined signup
form and skip rest options under that section.
Besides that, Links Organizer offers and "Portfolio Page" at which are listed
only sites with enabled single signup forms. The Portfolio page doesn't show a trade
signup form at itself, but a link to the single site's signup forms. Why there's a
Portfolio page when combined signup form seems to do same stuff?? Well, and I don't know
exactly. When i made the option the combined signup form to be closed, and people to use
only site's single forms, i decided I need an automatic list with all site's single forms.
Thats why i created the Portfolio 
Ok, so you are still at "Setttings->Configure" screen. Scroll to its bottom
and take a look at the options under the "Link Checker Settings". As you probably
understand here you set options about the Recip checking feature of the script. Leave the
defaults for the start.
So, thats it.. now you are ready to get started using it!
4. ADDING YOUR CATEGORIES
To start using Links Organizer you need to create some categories to which you will
assign your sites accepting linktrades. Since Links Organizer can manage really lots
of sites and linktrades, it is good to think up some good way of organizing your sites
in categories so that you will be able easily to manage them in the future. For example
arranging your sites by Niche is pretty good way. For that reason go to "Categories->Add New"
in the admin menu and add your Niches as categories. From "Categories->Search" you
can anytime browse through your categories and perform various operations on them.
5. ADDING YOUR SITES
To begin actually using Links Organizer you need to tell it what sites you will be managing
the linktrades for. For that reason you need to go to "Sites->Add New" from the admin
menu and start adding your sites into the database.
There's nothing complicated of adding your sites. Just follow the form there, under each field
there's explanation about it. But let me tell you what are the mandatory fields you need to fill.
Actually, they are with red point infront of them on that screen. First you put your "Site URL",
then your "Site Anchor" (this is the visible title of your site as it will appear in a link),
then you fill your "Site Title" (this is the text that goes into title="" tag of A HREF link).
Then assign the site to a category. Little below in field "Trades Output Order" choose how you want
the linktrades for that site be ordered in the output. At the "Status" field You tell the script
should this site be listed and accepting new trades at the Combined Signup Form or no.
The "Site Autointerlinking" section of that screen refers to automatic ways of interlinking
between your own sites that are managed by Links Organizer. For a start you can skip it, but
at later state if you decide to use it, there's detailed explanation beneath each option there.
Scrolling below, you will see tons of options under "Your Site Single Signup Form Settings"
and "Trades Verification Settings". Those options are most likely rules for trading.
You can define Minimum PR accepted, only ABC trading and etc.. really lots of options, so
just pick the ones that meet your trading requirements.
Finally hit the "Add" button and thats it! You have your first site(s) added to the script.
6. MAKING YOUR TEMPLATES
Templates in Links Organizer are used for defining how you want the script display
the trades at each of your sites. Templates are damn easy and flexible. Each of your sites
can have its own template(s), so you can be assured you can fit in your trades list to any
kind of site design!
So, to actually display any trades on your sites you need to make a template for each of your
sites added to Links Organizer. Go to "Sites->Search" from the admin menu and in
the sites list there click on "Templates" button for the site you wish to manage
templates for. On next screen you will see two things, the "Add New Template" form
and beneath it the "Templates List" which lists the templates for that site.
In the "Add New Template" form you will see explanation about the available variables.
To make your template first give it some name. I give names so that somehow i understand from
them where are the trades being displayed on my site - like 'index-sidebar', 'index-bottom-page' and etc..
For the "Template Content" field, you need to put variables with which you will tell
how the script should format the trades links and how many trades to print. For a start i would
advice you to click on the "template quick load" dropdown there and select the Default Template
which will make 10 trades displayed, one per line.
Click the "Add" button and you are done with your template.
7. ADDING YOUR TRADES
Ok, we are getting to the sweetest part - start adding trades.. First you are going
to add one TEST trade to the system, to understand how it works and finalize the
setup of your site using Links Organizer.
Go to "Trades->Add New" from the admin panel and simply follow the form
to add your first trade. There's nothing complicate in there really, until you get
to the ABC or ABCD types of trading at later stage. I won't explain it here, because it will be too long.
Instead read it at my support board tutorial
Basically, to add a new trade you need to fill its info like URL,Title,webmaster name and etc..
and finally in the "Trade With" field select with which of your sites it will trade.
For now select the site to which you just created a template!
Finally click "Add" button and thats it, you have your first trade added manually!
8. CALLING YOUR TEMPLATES
As I previously said, Links Organizer uses templates to display the linktrades. Now,
after you completed all these steps you are 90% done on fully integrating Links Organizer
with one of your sites. You have created a template and added a trade, but it is still not
appearing on your site!
For that reason you go back to "Sites->Search" from the admin menu and click on
"Templates" for your site to which you just added a trade. Scroll to bottom of page
and in the "Templates List" click on "View" button first for the template
you have created. It will open a new page which displays the ready output of your template
and it should contain 1 link with your first trade you have added. If all looks fine, you
are ready to proceede.
Now click on "Linking" button and you will see a page with pretty detailed explanation
how to call the template to your site, so that the trades will be displayed on it. All works
with php includes. There are 3 linking methods there, so pick the best one for you. If the
site you will display the linktrades on is on same hosting server as the Links Organizer
installation, pick the first linking method "PHP Include (LOCAL)". If the site you
will display the linktrades on is on other hosting server, best is to pick "PHP CURL Include (REMOTE)"
So, once you decided which linking method you will use, you simply copy the code as printed
on the screen there and go paste it at your site source design, in the place where you want the linktrades
displayed exactly.
Thats it. If everything is fine till here, when opening your site you will see the 1st linktrade
you have added displayed in there.
9. ADDITIONAL INFO
I know this tutorial looks big and you have a feeling there's lots of work,
but actually the whole thing i explained takes about 2-3 minutes once you get used.
It is normally when you pick totally new program to have some learning curve!
Once you get used and integrated Links Organizer across all your sites doing linktrading,
you will benefit from complete ease of managing the linktrades across all your sites,
you will benefint from about 70% of the work being automated, You will stop worrying
about recip checking, you will save time from installing and setting up a script
for each of your sites and updating it on a regular basis.. It all adds up and saves you
really lots of time and efforts in the long rum!
Here are some more tips about good and reliable use of Links Organizer:
- Generally, there's no need of checking for recip links more frequently than
once per week or every 5 days. Setting up your linkchecker to check 10000's of linktrades
for example, every day is complete waste of server resources!
- Configure your sites to require "Minimum Pagerank" with the Dynamic option.
It is funny to see someone asking for PR3 recip when his site is currently PR1. Having
the Dynamic option enabled will automatically adjust the Min.PR requirement based
on your site's current PageRank, and you won't need to go and edit that requirement each
time your site PR changes..
- If you will do ABC and ABCD types of trading, it is necessary to enable "Allow Duplicates"
option in the "Settings->Configure" screen. Otherwise lots of trades would be rejected
by the scipt, when a webmaster tries to make couple of ABC trades using one of his sites multiple
times.
- If you are paranoic about Search Engines visiting your Combined Signup Form or Portfolio,
simply enable "Human Verification" options in the "Settings->Configure" screen.
- Best action of your Linkchecker when it finds bad trades is either
"Do Nothing (Just Save Report)" or "Just Email Trader". That way the trades
not having a recip link still show on your sites, but you give the trader a chance to fix it.
If next time Linkchecker reports the trade bad again, then kill it or whatever you decide
doing. With simple words, if you directly set the script to disable/delete trades
you might be loosing good long term trade without the chance of resurecting it!
- To prevent spammers have the "Image Authorization" Captcha featured enabled
across all your public signup forms.
- To prevent bad trades being listed on your sites always set "Require Approval"
to the "New Trades" option.
_________________
Thanks,
Kaktusan
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
