Google Knows What You Did Last Summer

Google’s brain power is growing… and their goal of organizing the world’s information is giving them the ability to track the world’s people - including you!

While the Big G claims they’re not really into the whole data mining thing, there is no doubt they have the ability… and it is growing every day in both parallel and perpendicular industries.

They already dominate search and a fling with Yahoo could have them controlling 80% of the web’s Pay Per Click advertising. They recently purchased DoubleClick, one of the web’s most dominant affiliate marketing networks and the name already reflects new ownership with the Google Affiliate Network. TechCrunch is reporting they’re dangerously close to purchasing Digg for around $200 million dollars.

Combine this will all their other fledging initiatives and huge brands such as GMail, YouTube, Google Docs, Lively, etc… and if you’re on, Google can pretty much know exactly what YOU are doing. Before the year is over we’ll see Android Phones and before long they’ll be able to connect your online habits to your mobile habits… phone number, GPS and all (with your permission, of course).

So how is this affecting web publishers? Well, you could say its somewhat dangerous when your #1 source of organic traffic is Google search, your #1 source of paid traffic is Google Pay Per Click, you’re monetizing your traffic with Google Affiliate Network and Google Adsense and are monitoring traffic with Google Analytics.

Chances are Google knows a LOT more about your revenue, profit, ROI, etc… than YOU do. Not only that, but they know about the ROI of the advertisers you’re sending traffic to via Adsense. They know your business inside and out… and they can pummel you in seconds with a mere algo change.

This happened to me yesterday. Two of my top sites went from between ranking Top 5 in Google for top keywords for over 3 months to falling off the face of Google Earth (not literally). PPC advertising via adwords that was costing me 4 cents a click for 3 months straight? Suddenly $5 minimum via quality score on adwords.

The QS thing REALLY is upsetting since if I was bidding on “green widgets” my domain name was GreenWidgets.com, the ad text was all about green widgets and the entire site was about green widgets and I ranked at the top of Google for Green Widgets. I won’t say anymore about this because I explained it in regards to another one of my sites in this post

The point is, even if you’ve got a GREAT white hat site with organic traffic and yada yada yada… you still have to worry about who you’re relying on. Because chances are you’re leaning heavily on Google. And whether or not you like it, Google is unreliable. One small change and you’re entire business model could go kaput.

So this is just a warning: build a stronger foundation to your business model. Here are some quick ideas:

Unfortunately you, like most everyone else, are probably relying too heavily on Google. This is exactly what they want… start diversifying your model now before you get reminded the hard way.

It’s not that Google is TRYING to screw people over, but they certainly aren’t looking out for you and me. They are looking out for their profits and consumers who use Google search and other Google products/services. Make sure that you don’t become necessary collateral damage that is nothing more than an afterthought at the Goog.

Oh… and while you’re at it…. back up your data.

Google Affiliate Network

Double Click Performics just sent out an email explaining that they will now go by the name Google Affiliate Network:

We are pleased to introduce Google Affiliate Network . Effective Monday, June 30, 2008, DoubleClick Performics Affiliate will operate as Google Affiliate Network. The integration with Google’s brand is a reflection of efforts to quickly assimilate our business and teams, as well as reinforce Google’s commitment to the Affiliate channel. Together with our new colleagues at Google we are creating new opportunities for monetization, expansion and innovation in Affiliate Marketing.

 

Within the next couple of weeks you will see some exciting changes to the user interface reflecting the new brand. The platform will continue to be hosted at www.ConnectCommerce.com, but will eventually migrate to a google.com product url.

 

As noted in earlier communications, DoubleClick Performics’ Search operations are being spun off and sold to a third party. While many advertisers have relationships with both DoubleClick Performics’ Affiliate and Search, there have always been separate account teams and product-specific specialists servicing clients’ search and affiliate programs. These teams remain intact. While the formal separation will occur when the Search business is sold, the businesses are functionally separate today.

We are proud of what we achieved as Performics and this name change signals a new milestone. Google provides world-class resources and enables us to continue to attract the best talent to support our advertisers and publishers. Now as part of Google we have an exciting and unprecedented opportunity to advance our industry.  We remain committed to ensuring you receive the quality service you have come to expect from us.

We appreciate your business and look forward to doing great things together.

Sincerely,

Chris Henger

Group Product Manager
Google Affiliate Network

WOW!

 

This should be an exciting development. If you’re not already a member of DoubleClick you’ll probably want to join as things will only get bigger and  better over there with the Google Brand being thrown behind the brand.

Yahoo Raises Domain Prices 350%

Even with Yahoo execs departing by the dozens, the company CEO ruining a buyout by Microsoft and a partnership allowing arch enemy Google to take partial control of them… Yahoo isn’t doing themselves any favors.

Today, the company sent out an e-mail to domain owners saying:

“If your billing information is up-to-date, there’s no need to do a thing (except keep enjoying your service). *Important note:* Beginning on July 1, 2008, Yahoo!’s annual domain renewal price increases to $34.95 per year. “

Are you freaking kidding me? $34.95? Dotster raised my dot com prices from 6.95/year to 9.95 a year and I nearly lost it.

Whats worse is how they decieve the reader by comforting them and telling them everything is alright. People may assume they can just stop reading. And then they tell you, “oh yeah, and we’re going to charge you a ridiculous amount for domains in hopes that you’re not reading this and we can just auto charge your credit card!”

Yahoo FTL. Earlier I was hoping they would pull away from this Microhoo and Yoogle thing and make it on their own - competition is going - but seeing irresponsible decisions like this make me hope they die a slow, painful death.

[Via BoingBoing]

Why Adwords QS is BS: An Open Letter to Google’s Adwords Team

Google prides itself in displaying the most relevant search results for selected keywords. And as a search engine, Google is incredibly successful, because they DO show the most relevant search results in the most user friendly manner.

Take for example my site about Street Fighter 4 which, at the time of this post, ranks #3 for the search term Street Fighter 4… with or without quotes.

sf4.jpg

This ranking is well deserved - it is a REAL fan site that I’ve been building for months and months in anticipation of the game. I loved Street Fighter a decade ago and have enjoyed building this site. I haven’t used any tactics to try and get it ranked… I’ve simply tried to build a great resource for other Street Fighter Fans looking for all the information in one location. I’ve even got some e-mails and comments thanking me for putting the site together.

This is a case of the Google Algo working fairly for searchers and wonderfully for me. I create one of the best resources online for Street Fighter 4 and Google recognizes my effort by sharing it with their searchers.

Many, many months ago I also started an Adwords campaign to get some additional visitors to my site. I wanted people to find it so they would check it regularly and eventually, join my Street Fighter 4 forum when I had time to add it (I just recently did).

So, I made a contextual advertisement sending traffic to the homepage (streetfighter4.org) with the exact keywords people would be searching (street fighter 4, “street fighter 4″, etc). At first I had minimum bids of about .04 or .05 cents…. be reminded this was in October of 2007.

Yesterday I read on Kotaku.com, a popular gaming website, that the Street Fighter 4 Website was live! I was excited and quickly read up on all the new info. WOW… an AWESOME trailer was shown during the Kimbo Slice MMA fight on CBS and GameStop was now offering the game for pre-order at $59.99!

Craziness! I figured I’d head on over to Adwords and check up on the campaign for the first time in many, many months. To my surprise not a SINGLE AD had been shown since March 22nd, a span of over 2 months:

sf4-none.jpg

Well that sucks. Unfortunately, that’s not even CLOSE to the worst news. I assumed that my max bid was set to 3 or 4 cents and they wanted me to up it to 5, 6, maybe even 10 cents on the extremely high end.

NOPE… THEY WERE DEMANDING $10: DOLLARS

sf4-10.jpg

So let me get this straight….

Google, the greatest search engine in the universe, thinks my streetfighter4.org landing page is one of the Top 5 pages for the term “street fighter 4″ out of 1,550,000 pages of results? Yes… that is true and proven above.

And you’re also telling me that my Adwords Quality Score for the broad, phrase and exact match search term “Street Fighter 4″ sending traffic to the landing page streetfighter4.org with Street Fighter 4 in the ad text twice gets a POOR rating?

Surely there must be some mistake? Lets look at Adwords brilliant explanation of what might be wrong with my campaign:

sf4-qs.jpg

So.. my landing page is irrelevant? That’s funny because your own search engine said that there were only TWO pages in the whole UNIVERSE that had more relevance than mine out of more than 1.5 MILLION. How much more relevant can I possible get?

Google exists to deliver the most relevant results for searchers in terms of organic listings AND advertisements. Obviously, they run on two different algos. But, having every single factor remaining constant and yielding such diabolically opposite results illustrates a clear flaw in the system.

I think anyone visiting my site would agree that it deserves its #3 Google Ranking for the search term. And I also believe that anyone with half a brain cell would agree that forcing me to bid $10 in a situation like this is nothing short of ridiculous.

But wait… wait… maybe there IS a factor that I’m forgetting about. Perhaps there are other advertisers bidding on the same exact term that are forcing my minimum bid up?

sf4.jpg

Guess not… there are ZERO advertisers for the term. ZERO.

So not only is Adwords QS treating me unfairly as a hard working web developer providing quality information, which Google acknowledges as top notch yet Adwords tells me is poor, but QS is blatantly disregarding the interest of Shareholders.

Yes, I will be getting free, organic traffic for the term. But, I’m willing to PAY for traffic as well. But Google won’t let me. I guess they will, for 10 bucks, but thats like watching your friend pee in a pool and then inviting you to swim in it… it ain’t gonna happen.

If you ask me this is nothing short of an embarrassment on behalf of Google. Of course, they could exact revenge on me for vocalizing the inefficiency and contradictory nature of the Adwords QS algo y saying, “you’re right, the search engine shouldn’t have placed you so high, now you’re ranked 1 million for the term and your QS is still poor.”

But they won’t do that… the site IS worth it’s ranking and it will only get better as I devote more and more time to it. By the way, I’ll crush anyone here on XBOX Live once it comes out… Sonic BOOOOM baby!

Although I knew it would be a waste of time, I did an online chat with Adwords Live Chat Support. You can see the conversation pasted below. I just want to know… HEY, Mr. Cutts… anyone at Google…. can you explain this to me? Can I get a little justice over here?

Thank you for contacting Google AdWords. Please hold a moment while we route your chat to a specialist who will help you with your question: “I need a real response about a discrepancy: Google Adwords QS treats my site unfairly, forcing $10 bids while Google.com ranks the same landing page for the same keyword #3 out of all sites on the internet.”.
Chat InformationAll AdWords specialists are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. A representative will be with you shortly. You are number 1 in the queue.
Chat InformationAll AdWords specialists are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. A representative will be with you shortly. You are number 1 in the queue.
Chat InformationAll AdWords specialists are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. A representative will be with you shortly. You are number 1 in the queue.
Chat InformationAll AdWords specialists are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. A representative will be with you shortly. You are number 1 in the queue.
Chat InformationSujasha has received your message and will be right with you.
Sujasha: Hello Rob. Thanks for contacting Google AdWords. I’m happy to help you.
Sujasha: I see you’re concerned about a difference in your site evaluation for AdWords, and for Organic search.
Rob: Correct, I accidentally got disconnected before.
Rob: It makes no sense.
Sujasha: I understand.
Rob: if you search GOOGLE.com for “Street Fighter 4″ you will see that the URL - streetfighter4.org - ranks #2 out of all sites on the internet.
Sujasha: The main reason for this is that AdWords and Organic search are not related in any way, and run on completely different algorithms and different principles.
Rob: But Adwords is giving me a LOW quality score for the exact same keyword (Street Fighter 4) sent to the exact same landing page (StreetFighter4.org).
Rob: Well one algo thinks my landing page is amazing (Google.com) and the other thinks it is absolutely horrible ($10/bid)
Sujasha: I do understand that this might be confusing, but please believe me when I tell you that AdWords and Organic search ranking and quality processes have nothing to do with each other.
Rob: And, it is forcing $10/click when NOBODY is advertising for this term
Rob: Well, Google is sending mixed signals then.
Sujasha: It’s really not like that. If that would have been the case, then all sites which are listed high on Organic search would have had high ranking ads on AdWords.
Sujasha: Even though both appear on the same page, they have nothing to do with each other.
Rob: But don’t you think if a site ranks Top 5 for a keyword then the Quality Score for that keyword should be very, very good?
Rob: If not, then you are admitting that one of your algo’s is extremely flawed.
Sujasha: It’s not really the keyword that causing the nigh bid, Rob.
Rob: ?
Rob: Then what is it?
Sujasha: Like I mentioned, it is your website that has been ranked poorly, not the keyword.
Rob: Google already ranks my website amazingly for the same keyword.
Rob: How can Google, although different products, say it is amazing Quality with the search engine and Horrible Quality with the advertising platform?
Rob: Since ALL of the criteria are the EXACT SAME, one of them HAS to be incredibly incorrect in their analysis.
Rob: And that is a fact.
Sujasha: You’ve answered your own question here, Rob.
Sujasha: AdWords and Organic search are different products, meant for different purposes.
Sujasha: Hence, they run on different principles and guidelines.
Rob: I strongly disagree with that.
Rob: The fundamental purpose of Google is to display the most relevant websites for a keyword.
Rob: Assuming it does that, then by default, my landing page should be one of the most relevant possible for the same keyword which would equate to a great Quality Score.
Sujasha: You’ll have to keep in mind that the guidelines and principles by which the two programs are judging the two websites are not the same, Rob.
Sujasha: I can understand this is confusing, however, this is the most relevant response I can offer, to your question.
Sujasha: I am not aware of how Organic search ranks sites, but if you wish, I can give you our Site Quality Guidelines for AdWords.
Rob: But the CONCEPT of each is supposed to follow the same guidelines… and the results are so diabolically different that the system seems fundamentally flawed, if what you are telling me is true.
Rob: Is there a way to reset the QS to re-evaluate my landing page and keywords?
Rob: Perhaps it is saying my QS is poor from many months back, when it had less content
Rob: And it never updated?
Rob: Is that possible?
Sujasha: There is no way to manually request a review, but here’s what you can do. I’ll give you a link to our guidelines. Please review your site according to them, and see if you feel that changes need to be made.
Rob: I don’t need a link to the guidelines
Rob: I already know them
Sujasha: Once you’ve made changes, resubmit your website with your ads.
Rob: So I should delete my campaign
Rob: And resubmit it?
Sujasha: The point here is to make changes to your website according to the guidelines.
Sujasha: If the system has marked something as Poor, it is unlikely that deleting the campaign will change this rating.
Rob: Okay…
Rob: I mean, I guess there is nothing you can do. But, I’m sure you see based on this VERY specific example that your Adwords QS is supremely flawed.
Sujasha: I am sorry you feel that way, Rob. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, there isn’t anything I can really do to over ride the system.
Rob: Okay, well I apologize for taking my frustration out on you, if it seemed that way.
Rob: Not a fun way to start a Monday so I am sorry for that.
Rob: I am just frustrated
Sujasha: Not at all. I can understand how hard this must be on you.
Rob: Thanks for trying to help.
Rob: And have a nice week
Sujasha: I wish I had something more to tell you, or a way to help you.

And shortly after we went our separate ways. By the way, I really liked the line “I can understand how hard this must be on you.”… I didn’t sound like THAT big of a baby, did I?

Hahahahah oh well… file this under the “will never get answered” category. Unfortunately, until they DO answer this question, EVERYone is suffering from missed opportunities, from the advertiser and stock holders to Google and Web Searchers.

Oh well… after venting I think I’m over it. But a response would still be nice.

PHPBay: Start to Finish Tutorial

This tutorial documents the process, from start to finish, of creating EddieBauer.org. Here is what the final product looks like:

homepage.jpg

Requirements:

Foundation Steps (Non-Beginners may want to skip this):

Step 1 - Modify the Nameservers for your Domain

Make sure your registered domain names point to the proper name servers designated by your host. Contact your hosting provider if you need help but usually you’ll use something such as NS1.YourHost.com and NS2.YourHost.com - you must use at least 2 nameservers and they usually always start with NS1 and NS2.

With Dotster, login using My Account and navigate to My Domains, click the box next to the domain whose nameserver you want to change and at the bottom select “Modify Nameservers”.

nameserver.jpg

Make the necessary changes and lets be on our way.

Step 2 - Add the Domain to your Hosting Account

Login into your hosting account. If you have Made2Own that means you also have cPanel. Once in cPanel click the Addon Domains button, do what ya gotta do and click Add Domain.

add-domain.jpg

Step 3 - Create a MySQL Database for Wordpress

In cPanel click on the MySQL Databases, give the database a name so you know what it is for future reference and click create.

If you don’t already have a User created, make one now and create a password. Then, in the same area (MySQL Databases) add the user you just created to the database you just made for Wordpress and make sure you give them ALL PRIVELEDGES.

Step 4 - Installing Wordpress

This should be easy enough if you follow the directions from Wordpress.org. But essentially, you’ll want to fire up FileZilla and connect to your website’s FTP. Again, you’ll want to contact your hosting provider if you don’t know how to do that but chances are it will be ftp.YourMainDomain.com with your cpanel login information serving as user/password.

Highlight the wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes and all the other files in the wordpress package from your home computer (left side of FileZilla) and drag them into the folder you created for your domain (right side of FileZilla).

ftpfiles.jpg

Edit the wp-config-sample.php file you just uploaded onto your server and change the 2 lines at the top containing define(’DB_USER’, ‘prefix_username’) and (’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘YourPassword’), changing them to the user/password you added to they MySQL database in the last step.

Rename the file from wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php (delete the -sample part for you whiz kids).

Visit http://YourDomain.com/wp-admin/install.php where YourDomain is filled in with (duh) your actual domain for this project. If you didn’t screw up, you’ll see something similar to this (click to enlarge):

wpsuccess.jpg

It should guide you through a few easy installation steps. As SOON as you gain access to the admin panel, create a new User with the login/password you prefer so you don’t get locked out by forgetting the ridiculous password they give you.

Okay… now we’ve got wordpress set up!

Most people can get to this point unassisted. Here is where we do a little more nitty gritty work.

Customizing Wordpress

Find a WP theme you like and copy it to your wp-content/themes folder using FileZilla. Then in Wordpress, click on the “Design” tab and activate it.

We’re using LimauOrange by Bob and think it’s awesome for the purpose of PHPBay… you can download it here. It was initially suggested to us by rgordon on the wickedfire forums.

Customizing and Replacing Image Files

The main things we want to change are the header and the colors but we also might want to mess with the index, page, post and category templates so they don’t show things like post/page date.

For this theme, we’ll want to edit the logo.gif, bullet.gif and hr.gif found in the theme’s images folder. Here is what ours look like after editing the files:

logo.gif

hr.gif

bullet.gif

Notice the second square dot is actually hr.gif which is the horizontal rule. It is the stripe below the logo and gets repeated horizontally. This is the color we want to base our theme on (personal preference).

We chose a forest green because Eddie Bauer is a more masculine brand image and borderline outdoorsy following… the forest green works really well giving that “official” look. It kind of just fits.

We want to use this green throughout our site with elements such as links, so we copied and pasted the hex code (#077721) for later use. This is how we can identify the color to be used in the style.css file within wordpress.

But first, here is a look at what we’ve got thus far:

ss1.gif

Editing the Style.CSS File

We decided, based on the above pic, to:

We accomplished this by editing the style.css file found in the wp-content/themes/limauorange folder and making the following changes:

The best method for customizing your style is trial and error. It’s also the best way to learn. For example, we also decided to change our sidebar headings by adding “color: #??????” to the beginning of the lines starting with “.left h2″ and “.right h2″.

I wasn’t completely happy with the color scheme but I didn’t want to get hung up on it. Here is what I have so far… I’ll go back and alter the colors later (maybe):

ss2.gif

Altering your Wordpress Templates

We don’t want that huge, default Text Link Ads banner in the way and things like date, posted by, time, categories, etc… might be good for a blog, but not for our PHPBay site.

The files we want to edit are found in the limauorange folder and are named:

First lets open the index.php file - the file that is loaded when you visit the site’s homepage. Find this at the top:

<script type=”text/javascript”>
/* <![CDATA[ */
function affiliateLink(str){ str = unescape(str); var r = ”; for(var i = 0; i < str.length; i++) r += String.fromCharCode(2^str.charCodeAt(i)); document.write(r); }
affiliateLink(’%3Ec%22jpgd%3F%20jvvr8–uuu%2Cvgzv/nkli/cfq%2Camo-%3Dpgd%3F%3B2407%20%3C%3Ekoe%22qpa%3F%20jvvr8–uuu%2Cvgzv/nkli/cfq%2Camo-kocegq-vgzv%5Dnkli%5Dcfq%5DC%5D64%3Az42%2Cekd%20%22%60mpfgp%3F%202%20%22cnv%3F%20Vgzv%22Nkli%22Cfq%20%3C%3E-c%3C’);
/* ]]> */
</script>

Delete it. That’s the Text Link Ads banner. Nice…. now it’s gone. A bit further down, after the h2 tags are opened and closed, you’ll spot this:

<p><small><?php the_time(’F jS, Y’) ?> <?php the_author() ?></small> Posted in <?php the_category(’, ‘) ?> | <?php comments_popup_link(’No Comments »’, ‘1 Comment »’, ‘% Comments »’); ?> <?php if(function_exists(’the_views’)) { the_views(); } ?> <?php edit_post_link(’Edit’, ”, ‘ | ‘); ?></p>

Delete that, too. That’s all the extra info about the post time and stuff. Yucky and gone. Man we’re trigger happy… and we’re about to delete more. Find this:

<?php if ( function_exists(’the_tags’) ) { the_tags(’<p>Tags: ‘, ‘, ‘, ‘</p>’); } ?>
<!– AddThis Bookmark Post Button BEGIN –>
<?php echo “<div class=\”addthis\”><a href=\”http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=blogohblog&url=”.get_permalink().”&title=”.get_the_title($id).”\” title=\”Bookmark using any bookmark manager!\” target=\”_blank\”><img src=\”http://s9.addthis.com/button1-bm.gif\” width=\”125\” height=\”16\” border=\”0\” alt=\”AddThis Social Bookmark Button\” /></a></div>”; ?>
<!– AddThis Bookmark Post Button END –>

Delete it all. That takes out the display of “tagged” posts and the stupid bookmarking tool that would look super spammy on a shopping site. Gone.

For sites with lots of posts, blog style, it’s nice to navigate between posts but no-me-gusta for this site. Soooooo…. delete this:

<div>
<div class=”alignleft”><?php next_posts_link(’« Previous Entries’) ?></div>
<div class=”alignright”><?php previous_posts_link(’Next Entries »’) ?></div>
</div>

Now you’ll notice if you click on the first post, Hello World!, you still get a bunch of garbage including the stuff we just deleted. That’s because the posts use the single.php template. Rather than go in and edit all that again, we’re simply going to copy our index.php and rename it page.php and single.php and overwrite them on the server.

We’re going to use pages rather than posts for our content, but change both just for the sake of it. It takes 2 extra seconds.

So that takes care of the first three. Now lets scan the sidebar templates to see if there are any changes we need to make. It appears that lsidebar.php is the only one we care to change, and the Google Adsense ads the designer pasted in are the culprit. Remove them by deleting the following:

<li>
<ul>
<script type=”text/javascript”><!–
google_ad_client = “pub-9312294701485395″;
google_ad_width = 125;
google_ad_height = 125;
google_ad_format = “125×125_as_rimg”;
google_cpa_choice = “CAEQ6fqXhAIaCO_mwRos0nIlKK2293M”;
google_ad_channel = “2887620906″;
//–>
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js”>
</script>
</ul>
</li>

That’ll do for now. We can tweak things as we like afterwards, but lets get the meat of this bad boy up and running.

Quick Search Engine Optimization

Oops… almost forgot to optimize WP. All you really need to do for the time being is change your permalinks. In your admin panel go to “Settings > Permalinks” and choose a custom structure. In the box type “%postname%” without the quotes of course.

Copy the code that it spits out at the bottom, paste it in a notepad file, save it as “.htaccess” without the quotes and, yes, with a period to start. Put this in the main folder for your domain.

Now download the “All In One SEO Pack” plugin and install that bad boy.

Installing PHPBay Pro

First you’ve got to buy it. Then all you have to do is copy the phpbay folder to your wp-content/plugins folder. Make sure it is copied as an entire FOLDER and you are not simply copying the files. Then, copy auction.php to your root… your actual domain folder.

In your admin panel go to PLUGINS and activate PHPBay Pro and All In One SEO Pack.

plugins.gif

Note: phpBay 3.0 was released. The installing/upgrading is a bit different than in version 2.5.1. Getting the files to your server is still simple but “verifying your license” might be somewhat confusing so I’m showing how to do this below:

Once you have bought phpBay you can login to your member area by visiting this link: http://www.phpbay.com/store/member.php

Find the text box as seen below and copy THE ENTIRE THING, INCLUDING the —-LICENSE FILE DATA ——- part and lines at the end.

license.jpg

Paste this into a blank notepad file and save it as “license.key”. Upload it to your /wp-content/plugins/phpBay folder.

If you were previously “locked out” of wordpress and getting error messages, this should fix the problem. But now you need to “verify” your license to make it work. Go back to your phpBay member area and copy the following code:

licensekey.jpg

Visit the phpBay settings page in your wp-admin panel and paste the code here:

licensepaste.jpg

Update your options and it should tell you that your license is verified. If not, stop trying to hax the systems and buy your freaking copy on the intarwebz!

Strategic Setup of Wordpress Pages Utilizing PHPBay

We want our website to offer a good user experience. Think about it… if you were shopping on a website how would you want to find and browse products to buy?

So that’s exactly what we’re going to do. The most important feature for us is the “popular products” section. Why? Because we’re going to use a keyword research tool to find the most commonly searched for Eddie Bauer products and make a separate page for each search term, optimizing our page for each individual one.

Keyword Research

So hit up your keyword research tool of choice, we’ll demonstrate using our preferred service: Wordze.

Do a broad search for your main term (in our case Eddie Bauer) and copy any keyword that sounds remotely good to a simple .txt file. Just make a list of the top 20 or so… you’re going to be creating a page for each one so you don’t want to get too out of hand. Eddie Bauer actually had less searches than we hoped for, but that’s another issue altogether.

Here were our top Wordze results:

wordze.gif

And here is the list of keywords we made:

POPULAR SEARCHES
Eddie Bauer Outlet
Eddie Bauer Outlets
Eddie Bauer Outlet Stores
Eddie Bauer Coupons
Eddie Bauer Promotional Codes
Eddie Bauer High Chair
Womens Eddie Bauer Blouses
Eddie Bauer Deluxe Convertible Car Seat
Eddie Bauer Strollers
Eddie Bauer Watch
Eddie Bauer Sport Shorts
Eddie Bauer Womens Swimsuits
Eddie Bauer Tents
Eddie Bauer Bicycle
Eddie Bauer Sunglasses
Eddie Bauer Clothing
Eddie Bauer Baby Furniture
Eddie Bauer Flannel Shirt
Eddie Bauer Car Seats and Strollers
Eddie Bauer Catalog

You might notice that some of the top keywords are missing… that’s because they fall into our “categories” rather than keywords.

Selecting your main “Categories”

Not to be confused with Wordpress Categories, we’re going to make a list in the same TXT file, right below the keywords we chose, of main shopping categories to browse.

All we did was go to EddieBauer.com and pick some of the areas we thought would be best for users to browse:

ebsite.gif

And here are the categories we decided to use:

CATEGORIES
Eddie Bauer Accessories
Eddie Bauer Backpacks
Eddie Bauer Bedding
Eddie Bauer Business
Eddie Bauer Furniture
Eddie Bauer Handbags
Eddie Bauer Home
Eddie Bauer Jeans
Eddie Bauer Kids
Eddie Bauer Luggage
Eddie Bauer Men
Eddie Bauer Pants
Eddie Bauer Shirts
Eddie Bauer Shoes, Boots & Sandals
Eddie Bauer Socks
Eddie Bauer Sweaters
Eddie Bauer Swimsuits
Eddie Bauer Underwear
Eddie Bauer Watches
Eddie Bauer Women

Choose Price Ranges for Easy Browsing

Depending on the product, niche or whatever it is you’re promoting on your site, your product ranges are going to change. But for Eddie Bauer, we selected the following price ranges and put these in our .TXT file for easy reference:

Price Ranges
$1-$25
$25-$50
$50-$75
$75-$100
$100-$150
$150-$200
$200-$300
$300+

Making Your Wordpress Pages

It’s easy to lose track of things. If you count the above, we have our work cut out for us: we need to make 48 pages for each of our targets above.

We’re going to use our TXT file as our TO DO LIST, creating a seperate page for each item on our list. We’ll be using 3 Text Widgets to organize our navigation… one for Shop By Categories, one for Shop By Price, and one for Popular Searches. Each time you’ve completed a page, add a link to it from the appropriate widget using an unordered list with a hyperlink.

(Note: Before you start making pages, go to your PHPBay settings tab in WP Admin and make sure the settings are to your liking.)

Example: Making A “Shop By Category” Page

Create a new Page in WP and make the title the exact name of your category. Our Page Title is “Eddie Bauer Backpacks”. However, we’re going to CHANGE the permalink manually. Because we set the permalinks as %postname% it will default to EddieBauer.org/eddie-bauer-backpacks. But that seems spammy, especially for a category page.

So instead, we alter the permalink to read EddieBauer.org/backpacks:

change-slug.gif

Now, using your best gimmicky, salesy writing talent, write a paragraph about your category, explaining why the customer should click through and purchase right away! You’ve got 40+ more after this, so don’t spend your whole life doing it… make it snappy.

Here is what we came up with for Eddie Bauer Backpacks:

Whether you’re looking for a stylish backpack for school or you’re planning your next hiking expedition, an Eddie Bauer backpack will have you looking great while weathering the elements of nature. Check out our latest deals on backpacks and make sure to return frequently for updates:

Now add your PHP Bay code below this in the required format:

[phpbay]eddie bauer backpack, 10, “”, “”[/phpbay]

The first word is our keyword, the second is the number of searches to display and the two blank values WOULD have been ebay category to search and negative keywords.

Now scroll down to the All-In-One SEO Pack and fill in the details for the page. Usually, leaving the description blank will suffice since our paragraph at the top of the page is pretty much what we would use as a description anyways. The WP Excerpt will include this by default with All-In-One SEO Pack.

Not all the pages display perfectly with the exact products you want, but we kind of steam rolled through everything, understanding there would be imperfections that we could come back and fix later. Why spend more time on the site than we have to if it doesn’t get any traffic anyways?

After rigging up all of the Shop By Category pages, here is how the site looked while viewing the “Watches” Category:

category.gif

(Note: Screen shot was taken in phpBay 2.5.1 and our we’ve since chosen to use 3 column product display, a feature enabled in phpBay 3.0)

You’ll noticed the anchor text for our categories, seen on the left, don’t have “Eddie Bauer” in them. Some will claim this isn’t optimal for SEO but I think it’s important to find the balance between humans and search engines. All those redundant Eddie Bauer’s just look spammy.

Example: Making A “Shop By Price” Page

In our right hand sidebar we’re going to feature a Shop By Price section using Pages and a Text Widget as we did with Shop By Category.

It’s a repetitive process…. make a page for each price range, include a fun, marketing intro for each page… whatever hits your mind at the moment and move on. The code to only display products between price ranges is in the 7th and 8th variables of the PHPBay code.

So, to only display items priced $0 to $25, we used the following code:

[phpbay]Eddie Bauer, 25, “”, “”, “”, “”, “0″, “25″[/phpbay]

And our page for this section, after adding a text widget to the right hand sidebar, looked like this:

byprice.gif

(Note: Screen shot was taken in phpBay 2.5.1 and our we’ve since chosen to use 3 column product display, a feature enabled in phpBay 3.0)

Example: Making A “Popular Keywords” Page

We thought about including our “Popular Keywords” right under the search bar in the upper right, but it simply looks to unorganized since we plan on including “Eddie Bauer” in each search term.

Spammy isn’t the word because in reality, this isn’t spammy at all. Our records show that these OUR popular searches and we’re helping users find exactly what they’re looking for… who knows, perhaps our visitors have the same thing in mind?

Take out that list we made from Wordze and make a page for each keyword you recorded. Drop a link to each of these pages in the “Popular Searches” widget.

Some searches will yield very, very similar results and you’ll need to use your discretion. For example, “Eddie Bauer Outlet”, “Eddie Bauer Outlets” and “Eddie Bauer Outlet Stores” had decent search volume. Should I make a seperate page targeting each keyword?

Some would, but I won’t. Instead, make one page that targets all three keywords by creatively writing the content and adding the most inclusive term as the Page Title. I bet some of you are thinking, “How the hell are you going to sell an Eddie Bauer Outlet Store through PHPBay that makes no sense?”

Don’t fret. It’s all in spinning the content, directing the user towards your ultimate goal of showing them the awesome prices that EBay has to offer for the targeted Eddie Bauer products they’re looking for.

Here is our content from our page targeting the Eddie Bauer Outlet Stores as mentioned above:

outletstores.jpg

Wow… we’re done with pretty much everything now. Except our HOME PAGE.

Making a Sick Homepage

The product pages are great for just displaying phpBay listings, but it just looks straight up wack to use that as your homepage.

Go to any actual shopping site and the homepage is usually much more artistic, graphically appealing, etc… the downside is that the homepage has less monetization streams. I don’t really care. I passed on monetizing the homepage (besides a little adsense) in favor of making a home screen that looks legit, official and visually appealing.

In addition, I target some of the most searched for products (found using wordze) and display them to appear as “features” of the site. This is helpful for visitors because these are the areas they probably want to see anyways.

Take a look at the homepage we created:

homepage.jpg

Kind of sexy, yeah?

Making this page within wordpress would be a huge pain in the ass. So, instead, we chose to pop open Dreamweaver and use tables.

Make sure that your table width is a few pixels narrower than the width of your main content area. We just made one table, 2 columns and 1 row each, for each of the “features” above. Yeah, it might be a little heavy on code and we’re sure it could be done with less dead weight, but ask me if I care.

I don’t… k thx bye.

Now copy/paste that code to into the HTML writing portion of your Wordpress Page and you’ve got yourself a winner. Make sure you upload your pictures to your web host and that the code in your wp page points to the proper image location.

Each of the pictures is the same size (for the most part) to give a sense of organization and unity. The text is purposefully written at around the same length so the page flows smoothly. The images are offset so it looks somewhat more abstract and less contrived.

If you want to do the same thing, just look at the source code for the EddieBauer.org homepage and copy the content area with the tables, filling in your own information and pictures.

Damn, Gina… how you like the home page now?

Make this page your Homepage!!!!

Don’t forget to go to WP Admin > Settings > Reading to make this page your homepage.

Adding a Disclaimer

The inevitable question everyone is going to ask is about using Eddie Bauer in my domain name. Over and over and over again you’ll see questions about using trademarked words in your domain name.

I added a DISCLAIMER in my footer, seen on every page in the site, that explains I do not intend to infringe on the copyright or trademark of EddieBauer. I also let them know that EddieBauer.com is the official location name for the EddieBauer website.

This doesn’t guarantee anything, but it DOES show the people at EddieBauer (should they take a look at my site) that I’m not trying to deceive visitors, I DO tell them that the site is independently owned.

On at least 2 occasions I’ve been contacted by corporations asking me to transfer my domain to them. I keep my whois privacy open so they can contact me if they please. Instead of being combative, I kindly respond to their emails and explain my position.

So what is my position? Well, essentially I am an EddieBauer fan (I do love EB Gear) who put together a site helping others like me find Eddie Bauer stuff at a discount. I’m presenting Eddie Bauer in a positive light and when it comes down to it, promoting and marketing their brand at no cost to them.

This is all 100% true.

I’d also explain that if they have specific issues with the site, I’d be happy to comply with requests to alter it’s presence. Perhaps adding “Fan Site” somewhere in the header. Whatever. Make them feel good about what you’re doing. Show them you’re providing value. Explain that you don’t want to step on their toes and would be happy to work with them.

In the end, if they demand you turn over the domain, make sure it’s really someone from the corporation. The only way to really ensure that is to ask them to send a formal request in the mail that will properly identify them. I’ve had random idiots try to scam me out of domains before.

If EddieBauer really wanted my domain… I would give it to them… I’d probably have to, actually. But, I would love to have a conversation with them first to show that I’m acting in good faith. My Disclaimer at the bottom is a good first step in showing them that I have good intentions.

Other Notes

That was quick… you already get more:

Make Searches on your site display phpBay listings for the search term

It’s a simple copy/paste.

Open up search.php located in wp-content/themes/theme-you-are-using/search.php

Highlight everything from “” to “” and MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE THOSE TWO LINES in what you highlight. Paste the below code overtop of it:

<p align="center">Your search for '<strong><font color="#FF0000"><? echo $_GET["s"] ?></font></strong>' returned the following results:</p>
<p>
<?
function phpBaySearch($term) {
    $kw = trim(urldecode($term));
    # set the number of results to return here.
    $num = 20;
    $cat = "";
    $excl = "";
    if ($kw) {
      # turn error reporting off in case of a server timeout when connecting to ebay
      # if you are having troubles, set error_reporting to (1)
      error_reporting(0);
      include(ABSPATH . "wp-content/plugins/phpBay/ebay.php");
      $ebay = new ebay();

    # set the number of auction listings to display
    if (intval($num) > 0) {
      $ebay->eb_frpp = intval($num);
    } else {
    # if number of auction listings to display is not set, then default to 10
      $ebay->eb_frpp = 10;
    }

    # if there are words to exclude in the search, assign them here.  ie "word1 word2 word3"
    if ($excl > "") {$ebay->eb_exclude = $excl;}

    # Set all global options that are stored in the phpBay Pro Admin Panel
    $ebay->eb_saaff = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_aff_type"));
    $ebay->eb_pid = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_ebay_pid"));
    if ($cid > "") {$ebay->eb_custom_cid = "_" . urlencode($cid);}
    $ebay->eb_cid = urlencode(get_option("PB_ebay_cid"));
    $ebay->site_url = get_bloginfo("wpurl") . "/";
    $ebay->encode = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_encode"));
    $ebay->url_prefix = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_url_prefix"));
    $ebay->eb_salic = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_salic"));
    $ebay->eb_saatc = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_saatc"));
    $ebay->mod_rewrite = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_mod_rewrite"));
    $ebay->eb_aff_text = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_aff_text"));

    # Set Country Code Information
    $ebay->eb_siteId = get_option("PB_eb_siteId");
    if ($PB_eb_siteId == "") {$PB_eb_siteId = "0";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "0") {$ebay->eb_language = "en-US";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "15") {$ebay->eb_language = "en-AU";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "16") {$ebay->eb_language = "de-AT";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "123") {$ebay->eb_language = "nl-BE";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "2") {$ebay->eb_language = "en-CA";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "71") {$ebay->eb_language = "fr-FR";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "77") {$ebay->eb_language = "de-DE";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "201") {$ebay->eb_language = "";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "203") {$ebay->eb_language = "en-IN";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "205") {$ebay->eb_language = "";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "101") {$ebay->eb_language = "it-IT";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "146") {$ebay->eb_language = "nl-NL";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "212") {$ebay->eb_language = "";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "216") {$ebay->eb_language = "";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "186") {$ebay->eb_language = "es-ES";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "193") {$ebay->eb_language = "de-CH";}
    if ($ebay->eb_siteId == "3") {$ebay->eb_language = "en-GB";}

    $PB_sort_order = get_option("PB_sort_order");
    if ($PB_sort_order == "1") {$ebay->eb_fsop = "1";$ebay->eb_fsoo = "1";}
    if ($PB_sort_order == "2") {$ebay->eb_fsop = "2";$ebay->eb_fsoo = "2";}
    if ($PB_sort_order == "3") {$ebay->eb_fsop = "3";$ebay->eb_fsoo = "1";}
    if ($PB_sort_order == "4") {$ebay->eb_fsop = "3";$ebay->eb_fsoo = "2";}

    $PB_eb_fcl = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_fcl"));
    $PB_eb_fts = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_fts"));
    $PB_eb_saprclo = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_saprclo"));
    $PB_eb_saprchi = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_saprchi"));
    $PB_eb_sabdlo = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_sabdlo"));
    $PB_eb_sabdhi = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_sabdhi"));
    $PB_eb_fspt = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_fspt"));
    $PB_eb_fpos = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_fpos"));
    $PB_eb_sadis = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_sadis"));
    $PB_eb_sasl_cb = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_sasl_cb"));
    $PB_eb_sasl = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_sasl"));
    $PB_eb_fbfmt = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_fbfmt"));

    # search items with free shipping
    $ebay->eb_ffsh = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_eb_ffsh"));

    # ebay logo
    $ebay->logo = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_logo"));

    # sort drop down
    $ebay->sort_by = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_sort"));

    # alternating rows
    $ebay->row_alter = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_row"));
    $ebay->row_odd = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_row_odd"));
    $ebay->row_even = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_row_even"));
    $ebay->row_hover_cb = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_row_hover_cb"));
    $ebay->row_hover = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_row_hover"));

    # columns
    $PB_columns_cb = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_columns_cb"));
    if ($PB_columns_cb > "0") {$ebay->columns = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_columns"));}

    # buy it now items
    if ($PB_eb_fbfmt == "1") {$ebay->eb_fbfmt = "1"; $ebay->eb_sabfmts = "2";}

    # items with photo only (if set to 4)
    if ($PB_eb_fcl == "4") {$ebay->eb_fcl = "4";} else {$ebay->eb_fcl = "3";}

    # search titles and descriptions (if set to 2)
    if ($PB_eb_fts == "2") {$ebay->eb_fts = "2";} else {$ebay->eb_fts = "";}

    # items by min/max bid price
    if ($PB_eb_saprclo > "") {$ebay->eb_saprclo = urlencode($PB_eb_saprclo);} else {$ebay->eb_saprclo = "";}
    if ($PB_eb_saprchi > "") {$ebay->eb_saprchi = urlencode($PB_eb_saprchi);} else {$ebay->eb_saprchi = "";}

    # items by min/max number of bids
    if ($PB_eb_sabdlo > "") {$ebay->eb_sabdlo = urlencode($PB_eb_sabdlo);$ebay->eb_fbd = "1";} else {$ebay->eb_sabdlo = "";}
    if ($PB_eb_sabdhi > "") {$ebay->eb_sabdhi = urlencode($PB_eb_sabdhi);} else {$ebay->eb_sabdhi = "";}

    # list items by zip code
    if ($PB_eb_fspt == "1") {
      $ebay->eb_fspt = urlencode($PB_eb_fspt);
      $ebay->eb_fpos = urlencode($PB_eb_fpos);
      $ebay->eb_sadis = urlencode($PB_eb_sadis);
    }

    # list tiems by specific seller id
    if (($PB_eb_sasl_cb == "1") && ($PB_eb_sasl > "")) {$ebay->eb_sasl = urlencode($PB_eb_sasl);$ebay->eb_fss = "1";} else {$ebay->eb_sasl = "";}

    # search items with free shipping
    if ($PB_eb_ffsh == "1") {$ebay->eb_ffsh = "1";}

    # pagination form
    $ebay->paginate = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_paginate_cb"));
    $ebay->paginate_per_page = unhtmlentities(get_option("PB_paginate"));
    $ebay->page = 1;
    # each instance of the paging javascript must be unique
    $js = $ebay->jsText($kw);
    $js = str_replace("-", "", $js);
    $js = "pagenum_" . $js;
    if ($_POST["$js"] > "") {$ebay->page = intval($_POST["$js"]);}

    # sort order form
    $ebay->sort_by_value = 1;
    if ($ebay->sort_by == 1) {
      $js = $ebay->jsText($kw);
      $js = str_replace("-", "", $js);
      $js = "sortnum_" . $js;
      if ($_POST["$js"] > "") {$ebay->sort_by_value = intval($_POST["$js"]);}
      if ($ebay->sort_by_value == 1) {$ebay->eb_fsop = "1";$ebay->eb_fsoo = "1";}
      if ($ebay->sort_by_value == 2) {$ebay->eb_fsop = "2";$ebay->eb_fsoo = "2";}
      if ($ebay->sort_by_value == 3) {$ebay->eb_fsop = "3";$ebay->eb_fsoo = "1";}
      if ($ebay->sort_by_value == 4) {$ebay->eb_fsop = "3";$ebay->eb_fsoo = "2";}
    }

      # call the main ebay function, receive the listings in html and replace the phpbay tags with the content
      $ebay->listings($kw, $cat);
      $text = $ebay->html;
    }
  echo $text;
}
phpBaySearch($_GET["s"]);
?>
</p>

That should work with most themes.

Revenge Using Adwords

Recently, I got into somewhat of an “war” with a competing website. The details aren’t that exciting… lets just say we went from friendly competitors to bitter enemies in a few days time.

Basically, we started as friendly competitors and even had eachother listed in our “links” section. They slowly but surely started borrowing ideas/concepts, organization, theme/design, until after awhile their site looked like a carbon copy of mine. But what really ticked me off is when they sent me an e-mail saying, “Thanks for your ideas. Sorry you’re mad but our site is better than yours now. We are removing you from our blogroll. Go fuck yourself.”

Really? Are you freaking kidding me? Fine… have it your way… assholes.

Goal: Return the favor.

Method: Use Google Adwords to advertise on their site using site targeting with the title “WebsiteHere.com Sucks”. Geographically target the entire world but exclude their state/country of origin so they never know it’s happening.

Step by step:

Step 1: Log into your Adwords account and create a placement-targeted campaign:

step1

Step 2: Fill out the two fields and then select to CHANGE TARGETING… this is important so they don’t see what you are doing and simply exclude your website in their Adsense panel.

step2.jpg

Step 3: Switch over to the bundles tab, scroll down to “All Countries and Territories (Bundle)” and check off the box. This will auto-select every single grouping and place them all underneath in your selected locations box as well.

step5.jpg

Step 4: Scroll down and click the text link below your Selected Locations box that says: “Exclude Areas Within Selected Locations”

step6.jpg

Step 5: Find out where they live and select the enemy’s location from the “Exclude Locations” tab. Google seems to think they are “customers” and we are going to serve them so nobody can complain.

As you can see, my customers are from Ohio. You can find their location using a whois lookup, googling them, reading their “About Us” page or something like that. If worst comes to worst you could always exclude their whole country if you know what country they are from and advertise to the rest of the world.

step7.jpg

Something to keep in mind… they might work in a different state than they live. There also might be more than one person contributing to the site. Be liberal with your exclusion ranges to avoid getting “caught”.

Step 6: Make sure that you can see they are excluded by looking in your selection list. If they are, click Done and Done and continue on, if not then you missed something.

step8.jpg

Step 7: Write a really harsh, eye catching ad and fill out the rest as you would normally create an Adwords campaign.

step9.jpg

Step 8: Sit back, relax and enjoy the proud feeling of serving your targeted customers.

Tyler Cruz on American Idol

I rarely watch TV. I don’t even have cable. But randomly flipping through the stations I did a double take as a passed American Idol.

I don’t ever watch the show but this kid, David Archuletta, looks a lot like Tyler Cruz. If he sung with a lisp, I think I would assume it was Tyler Cruz’s stage name and that was him.

A pointless tidbit but I thought it was pretty funny:

tyler.jpg

Twisting Wordpress Into A Local Area Guide/Directory

CONCEPT:

Create a local area guide and directory, using wordpress as the front housing articles and information integrated with a phpmydirectory (found in /directory) that would contain a complete area business directory. Monetize by selling advertising and sponsorships to local area businesses in addition to some other methods (adsense, travel affiliates, etc) and enjoy.

PROBLEM:

The scope of my project kept getting bigger and bigger as I wanted this guide/directory to generate a large amount of income. All of a sudden, I was unclear how to integrate the concept with Wordpress. Should I use posts/categories/pages? I just wrote about 15 more questions and deleted them for your sake… the point is… there were problems fitting my concept into Wordpress box.

THE DEBATE:

First of all, the best solution is probably to not use Wordpress. It might be best to have something custom made to my specs or use something a bit more flexible. But right now, I’m a one man show with limited resources, so I have to press on.

I started with a magazine style wordpress theme which makes obvious sense and I edited the index.php file to give it a static front look that is essentially a portal with “area overviews” that link to each given “category” or section. Take a few areas that ANY local area directory should have: real estate, entertainment and restaurants.

Unfortunately, if you have the “Real Estate” section as an actual wordpress category, there are some drawbacks.

  1. It will put all your posts in yourdomain.com/category/real-estate
  2. You can change the text “category” to read something like yourdomain.com/custom-word/real-estate but the problem is still the same
  3. We want our main areas to target main keywords and be sort and sweet, increasing the keyword density of the url: yourdomain.com/real-estate
  4. It’s also not as easy to set page title, keywords, description for categories and just creates another hassle.

Categories can’t do this, so we’re left with using either posts or pages. Which one should we use? Well… if we were to make the “real-estate” section simply a “post” and chose %postname% than our post WOULD look like yourdomain.com/postname.

Not so fast… this creates a heckuva lot of problems once we start building out our local area concept a bit more. Your posts have to go in SOME category… would you call it “main sections”? You wouldn’t be able to customize the sidebar for each “area”, extremely limiting your flexibility when it comes to including relevant, targeted content and perhaps more importantly… ad space.

And even further… what happens when our idea expands and we want to start making weekly posts about restaurants, real-estate updates or entertainment happenings around the community?

THE SOLUTION:

Turn your pages into categories. You can easily set each page to utilize a different page template in wordpress: read the tutorial here. Your sidebar templates get called up within the content of the page template, allowing you to call up a custom sidebar.php file you’ve created or embed the sidebar code directly in the page template.

Should you choose, your page could just include the title “Real Estate” and the content could be left blank. The custom page template you use for this page could house all the content, giving you flexibility in the design and allowing you to link out to other pages with more detailed information such as: “homes for sale”, “neighborhoods”, “school districts”, “demographics”, etc… whatever information you want to keep there.

Chances are you will just nest this other content as a page child of the “real estate” section, but if keyword density is important to you, it’s just as simple to make it have no parent and link it out like so.

The difference would be:

Of course, some keyword research might tell you what the best option is… but you should probably stick with a single pattern so you can easily navigate your various pages later on. While keyword density is important, all the links you’ll drive to the site will probably do just fine. Afterall, the density of the “real-estate” section is the most important.

Using this “page” you can also use your custom sidebar to have a “featured realtor” which you will sell in as an advertiser. Link directly to their site or let them have a page hosted on your site. Why not make THEIR page an actual “post” in a “sponsors” category? It will be easy for yourself and visitors to view the site’s sponsors, starting with the newest ones on top! Nonetheless, a customizable sidebar will let you list relevant content in the “real-estate” section without using a page or category… tremendously important.

Perhaps most importantly… this infrastructure will be set up to SCALE. If you want this site to grow and become more than static info, you’ll easily be able to twist it yet again to fit the needs of your growth. How? Thanks for asking…

Simply create categories that mirror the pages you created. I’d replace the “category” term with “articles” to give yourself more of a “fresh” sound. Change around the page template for the section you want, such as “real-estate” to accomodate dynamic content. This is so flexible because you can keep your static content in there, linking to more static content while using the wordpress loop to call up recent posts directly from this category in any format you want.

By any format you want, I mean take a look at the wordpress codex and what other themes do… you could just have your section home display the most recent article with a picture and excerpt as a “featured article”, list other “recent posts” in the sidebar for that section by calling up only posts in that category and have the rest remain the static content that is important to your users for their real estate needs.

It takes some legwork… you’ll be jumping through some hoops… but think about it… the work basically comes in three steps:

If your site grows to the point where you WANT a customized solution, you’ll probably have plenty of capital to pay for it by the time you reach step 3. That’s what I’m hoping for in my own venture. Just make sure your URLS stay the same so you don’t waste all that link juice you’ve built up!

IN SUMMARY:

This exercise has definitely proved to me that this approach is the way to go. I was really contemplating what was the best method and really thinking things through and getting your ideas down on paper helps. I knew this blog had a purpose!

A few more great ideas to get your directory up and running:

Now get off your butt and take over your local area before someone else does! Speaking of which, you’ll probably have a ton of competition to begin with but take a closer look. Usually, you’ll find that your competition has some soft spots. Combine the best elements of all your competition when making your own site. And… exploit the opportunities they haven’t taken advantage of… many of these competitors aren’t SEO savvy and you’ll have a huge edge!

Forums, Forums, Forums!

Ever since the “hard disc disaster” my forums have suffered pretty devastating blows. All the content, posts, member logins, etc… for the past 3 months disappeared. I was left with empty forums that looked dead. Mostly all of the returning contributors called it quits just for this reason - all the great discussion down the toilet.

If you’re interested in College Basketball or Politics (And 2008 Presidential Election) I’m hoping you’ll swing by one of these forums and join in (or start) some conversation back up. When we had the conversation buzzing a bit it was really fun… hopefully you can help me bring back the buzz!

Oh yeah… March Madness is right around the corner… I can’t wait for that! I don’t think my school is going to get in (for the 2nd straight year) and we have a killer team. We also won the national championship in the 2000s. Can you guess what school I went to?

I Hate Internet Explorer Less Than Yesterday

Internet Explorer can be a real S-O-B for web developers. You get your site working perfectly, shoot the link to a friend to check out and, “Uhhh… the site is all messed up looking.” Great…

Internet Explorer renders CSS rules and various commands differently than FireFox and the other browsers. But if that wasn’t enough, two more factors make the troubles even worse:

I had a HUGE problem with a wp theme I was using on several sites that I realized didn’t display properly in Internet Explorer 6. I tried to fix it for days and it took so long mainly because I had to ask other people what the site looked like. A REAAAAAL hassle.

Well, I found a site that helped me out which I think you’ll enjoy: http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/

Input your website and their “net renderer” will spit out a screen shot of your website in whichever browser you choose almost instantaneously. I’ve seen other services like this, but most were painfully slow. This is a tool you’ll find REALLY handle if you do a lot of wordpress hacking.

In general, people have suggested sending people browsing with IE to a different style sheet using a command in the header - but I’d rather just make it look nice on as many every browsers as possible. This tool was a HUGE help for me in doing that and I think it could help you, too.

If you haven’t tested your sites in other browsers, launch that site up and start checking them one by one. What could be worse than lost revenue to a large chunk of potential visitors simply because your website doesn’t display properly? Don’t shoot yourself in the foot, do the tedious work and fix it up now!

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