Website Managers

Archive for November, 2008

In June, 2007 I added a WordPress blog to my marketing site using a sub-domain (learn.affref.com) instead of putting it in a folder (affref.com/learn). My reasoning was that it would be easier to organize the site and link to. Instead of “www dot affref dot com forward slash learn” I could just say “learn dot affref dot com”.

Ever since then, I have added keyword-rich articles to the site and have driven visitors to it from multiple sources. Looking at the logs, most of the visitors came from the main site, not the search engines.

When checking the search engines, Google in particular, for the keywords used in the blog, Google always points to my home page instead of the blog itself. I have seen other site get their sub-domains listed in Google, but those are very high traffic sites, such as pcmag.com and others.

Over a year has passed without getting the listing. I know something should have been done sooner, but I was busy promoting it. So I finally did something about it and made another choice: I put the blog on its own domain.

Yes, I could have used the folder method and kept everything on one site, but the shorter name does not include the keywords I am promoting. Now the blog domain has the full site name in it, AffiliateReferralSources.com

See, affref.com was initially started for creating shorter affiliate links, but evolved into marketing tips. The problem is spelling the name on the phone or in person. “A, F as in Frank, F as in Frank, R E F as in Frank dot com” is a real hassle.

Now to lead someone to the blog I can just say the name. The main site is getting some good traffic, so I left it there and will continue using it until all the contents are merged into the new site. Then the shorter name will be used for its initial purpose: not only creating short links, but also have the ability to manage them.

Ok, so you are probably wondering why this blog is still on a sub-domain, right? I can think of only 2 reasons right now: Moving it is not an easy task and besides, I like it there. Search engines are only part of the traffic generating equation. If Google does not like the way this one is structured, then fine, others will.

I learned some valuable lessons here:
1) Use a domain name that means something and is easy to say.
2) Use a folder for the add-on blog instead of a sub-domain.
3) If something is not working after a few months of honest effort, do something about it!
4) The easiest route is not always the best route to take.

I hope this helps others who are asking themselves which way to set up their site. What are your thoughts on this?

Widgets are generally meant for use in the sidebars, but what if you want to show an Amazon Store, eBay listings, or other content from another website, right in your page or article? WordPress does not allow inline frames and getting JavaScript to work requires another plugin. There is a way around this minor setback that requires little more than installing a plugin and setting up your options.

What I am about to show you may be a surprise to even seasoned bloggers. The trick is to install the AdSense-Deluxe plugin, if you do not have it already. You do not have to run AdSense or Yahoo! Publisher Network ads in your blog to use this wonderful plugin.

First, go download, install and activate the AdSense-Deluxe plugin from acmetech.com

When the plugin is activated you will see a menu item under Settings in your WordPress control panel. Click that and you will see a page with options to create and edit code blocks. Either click Add New or just scroll down the page. The first box is a name for your new ad block. Make it descriptive, but short with no spaces. This is the name you will call the ad block with later on.

In the AdSense Code box, get your Amazon, eBay, list of banners, or just about anything else you want and put it into the box. Remember though, the PHP code will not work unless you have the plugin for executing PHP installed along with this, such as Exec-PHP.

The next box is Description (optional). That is for your reference only. It can and should be used if you used a short name in the first step. When you are done, click the Add AdSense Block button. When the page reloads you will see your new ad block in the list. Remember to copy the code that it shows you on the left side.

That code will look like this: <!–adsense#sidebar–> The first part, adsense# calls the AdSense Deluxe plugin. What comes after that is the name of your ad block that you want to display.

Now go into the Manage section and either edit an existing page, or create a new one. Type an introduction to the page. You can do that in the Visual or HTML mode, but you must be in HTML mode for the next step.

Hopefully you still have the AdSense Deluxe code you created. If so, then paste it into the HTML box you are currently editing and click the Save button on the right. When the page reloads, click the Preview this Post button on the right. A new window will open with your temporary page so you can see how it will look.

Switch back to the other tab where your editing screen is and finish setting up the page with your additional options. When you are done, click Publish and your new page with the code you entered into the AdSense Deluxe box will now be visible to the public. Go ahead and view your blog to see what others see. You can always come back and edit it later.

To see a sample Amazon Store inside a WordPress blog, visit the Blogging Books section of Affiliate Referral Sources.

_______________
Jim Hutchinson
Author of How to Get Free or Low-Cost Website Traffic

Recent updates to the cPanel software have created some unexpected results when creating forwarding links, or redirects. Using the web-based interface to fill in a form, cPanel writes to a file named .htaccess. The problem is with the way cPanel writes those instructions to that file.

I noticed the last list of redirects that were added lead to my home page, not to the intended website. Looking into the .htaccess file I saw the problem. All non-alphanumeric characters like dashes (-), periods (.), equal signs (=) and forward slashes (/) all were escaped with a backslash (\).

The backslash is only supposed to be used in the rules that define the redirect, not the target website. You may be confused now, so an example looks like this:

This is what the code SHOULD look like:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^affref.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.affref.com$
RewriteRule ^sst1$ http://www.shortsaleholdings.com/$1 [R=301,L]

This is what cPanel does to it:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^affref.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.affref.com$
RewriteRule ^sst1$ http\:\/\/www\.shortsaleholdings\.com\/$1 [R=301,L]

Manually Editing .htaccess

Working around the problem is not as difficult as you might think. There are several ways to create the redirects without using cPanel. The first way, using a plain text editor such as notepad or one from notetab.com is the quickest. You can copy an existing entry and paste it on a new line, then change just two of the variables: The link name and the target website.

Be careful with this, because one mistake like a character in the wrong place, can break your site.

Safe Redirects

Another method is simpler and safer. Create a folder with the shortcut name you want to use and create an index.html (or index.php) file that redirects the visitors.

HTML Redirect

<html><head><title>Redirecting…</title>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=”refresh” content=”0;URL=http://www.YOUR-AFFILIATE-URL.com”>
</head>
<body></body>
</html>

PHP Redirect

<?php header(“Location: http://www.YOUR AFFILIATE URL.com”); exit;?>

Using any of those 3 methods can help you bypass the cPanel Domain Forwarders options and make sure your redirects are done the way you expect them to be.

Feedback Wanted

Do you know of a better way or other information that would help our readers? Let us know.

Allowing your current and potential customers to contact you is essential to providing customer service. Making that contact easy for them can be confusing for you because there are many ways to provide support.

Some of those ways include: Telephone – direct or toll free, online contact form, instant messaging, online help desk, site monitoring software like Crafty Syntax and of course, direct email. I provide most of those, but was hesitant to add Skype^™ into the mix because I thought it would just add to the confusion and possible cost of operating. After seeing the possibilities of Skype^™, I finally set up an account.

Now current and potential customers, family members and friends can contact me either by instant messaging, Skype^™ phone and video phone if they have a web cam. Skype^™ users can contact each other free of charge. You only get charged for calling to and from a land line or cell phone.

This addition to the contact methods is quick for those who want to speak with a real person without incurring the cost of calling, whether from within the USA or anywhere in the world that Skype^™ is available. It is like having a toll free call center separate from our regular phone.

Since I use a headset on all my phones including the cell phone, I thought this would be confusing to have another headset hanging in front of me. That turned out not to be a problem since the land line is on one side of the desk and Skype^™ headset on the other. It is a USB headset that plugs into the computer. Setting is up was easy too. I just plugged it in, installed Skype, created my account and clicked the Skype^™ Test Call icon to test the connection. It recorded my voice and played it back to make sure all was working.

Once that was done, I added link on the navigation menu on some of my websites, starting with Short Sale Holdings so others can call me or my JV Partner, depending on which service they are inquiring about. With that in place, customer service can be taken to another level and have more communications wrapped into one program.

Have you tried Skype^™ yet? What do you use it for and what do you think of it? Your comments are welcome.