Webmaster Pro Guide

Archive for March, 2008

Surfing on the official forum of Vbulletin , i found this interesting article about the new version of VB . Vbulletin 4

Preface

Evening everyone. Here we are on the eve of vb 3.7 which promises to be the last member of the vbulletin 3.x branch (security patches not-withstanding). The software has come along way to become one of the strongest PHP software packages of all, and it is backed by one of the best communities online, both user and programmer side. Jelsoft should be justly proud of their accomplishment.Before I begin I’d like to introduce who I am and a bit of my background. vBulletin brought me back to programming after I’d given it up in college, and for that I am thankful. For all intents the programming staff of vbulletin were my teacher and much of my coding style is owed to them. I would not be doing the job I do today where it not for them, and for that I’m grateful. I mention this because in this post I’m going to take a hard look at the 3.x codebase, particularly 3.7beta6 and while much of this look will be with a critical eye I want to establish now that I have nothing but the highest level of respect for the minds behind this code - where it not for their efforts I would not be in a position to do this analysis and make these suggestions. (more…)

It appear the most waited version of SMF is released . and here is the offcial announce :

Simple Machines is extremely proud to announce the long awaited release of the first public beta of SMF 2.0.

SMF 2.0 has now been in development for over 18 months, and in beta with our Charter Members since August last year. Feature complete, and having undergone considerable testing and bug fixing, we are now ready to put it into the hands of the public for wider testing.

Importantly, this is a beta - and the first public beta at that. We strongly recommend that you do not use this package on a production site as it will contain bugs and issues. In addition whilst we’ll do our best to support people running the beta our support team’s primary focus will remain 1.1 during this period - so please be patient if you do experience a problem. Also, we request you note the following caveats:    

• All existing mods and themes are almost certain not to work until their authors have an opportunity to rewrite them.
• The upgrader will do its best to upgrade previously installed themes. However, this is not fool proof and you are likely to need to tweak old themes and update them to take full advantage of SMF 2.0 functionality.
• Language packs for 1.1 will be out of date and need updating - this might take some time.
• Users who currently integrate SMF into their site using any of the non-standard SSI functions (Such as using the db_query function) will need to change their integrations to use the new query system in 2.0. More information on this can be found here.

The changes in this release from 1.1 are immense - and we can’t list them all here. We recommend you take a look at the changelog on the download page - some of the highlights include:    

• Database abstraction including support for PostgreSQL and SQLite
• Post and attachment moderation - setup through board permissions.
• Additional group management features such as group moderators and joinable and requestable groups
• Comprehensive user warning system.
• Paid subscriptions to allow people to make a payment with PayPal to get additional group access
• Personal message labeling system and new viewing options
• OpenID support - to enable users to login and register with their OpenID account
• Custom profile fields to enable admins to setup new profile fields in addition to the default
• WYSWIYG editor, to improve the user posting experience
• Ignore boards and ignore user functions - so users only see what they want to see
• Scheduled events and mail queuing systems to add additional functionality to the forum
• Admin and user logs to track who makes what changes to a user’s profile
• A moderation center to bring together all moderation functionality into one place for all people with moderation abilities

The download packages are the same as for 1.1 - simply choose the install or upgrade package depending on your requirements. If upgrading please, please remember to backup first. Please do not use this topic for support questions - use the dedicated 2.0 Support Board. Guides for installing and upgrading can be found on the Online Manual. Note that downgrading is not possible.

On a quick note to mod and theme authors, we are currently working through the templates to move towards more semantic HTML layout. Unfortunately we didn’t complete this in time for this beta, but this will make the next release, so please bear this future change in mind when looking at updating your mods and themes.

Finally, we thank you for your patience and hope you enjoy using this software as much as we have enjoyed making it.

To doanwload it check the official SMF site .

enjoy

I have decided to publish my long awaited
top 20 web directories list based on various criteria like

* Age
* Page Rank (PR)
* Site Quality & Design
* SEO friendly pages
* Google Backlinks
* Google Indexed Pages

The following web directories are rated as top 20 directories without any bias or any self-promotion. The list contain the best directories on the net . with respectable reputation and ll are seo freindly ..

1. Yahoo Directory (Paid) - http://www.dir.yahoo.com

2. DMOZ Open Directory Project (free) - http://www.dmoz.org

3. Business.com (Paid) - http://www.business.com

4. BOTW Best of the Web (Paid) - http://www.botw.org

5. Uncover The Net (Paid) - http://www.uncoverthenet.com

6. JoeAnt (Free/Paid) - http://www.joeant.com

7. Link Centre (paid) - http://www.linkcentre.com

8. Alive Directory (paid) - http://www.alivedirectory.com

9. Aviva Directory (paid) - http://www.avivadirectory.com

10. Webdiro (Free / paid) - http://www.webdiro.com

11. Wow Directory (paid) - http://www.wowdirectory.com

12. SevenSeek  (paid) -http://www.sevenseek.com

13. Starting Point (paid) - http://www.stpt.com

14. Skaffe (paid) - http://www.skaffe.com

15. GoGuides (paid) - http://www.goguides.org

16. Ezilon.com (paid) - http://www.ezilon.com

17. Incrawler (paid) - http://www.incrawler.com

18. LinksJuice (paid) - http://www.linksjuice.com

19. 2Yi.net - http://www.2yi.net

20. Haabaa - http://www.haabaa.com

I hope that this list will help you in your directories submissions .

Free phpLD 3.3 Themes

here are some themes for php link directory ( phpld 3.3 )

The themes can be used for free, the only thing we ask in return is that you keep the designer and sponsor links in the footer intact.

Downloaded themes come with the image, style and .tpl files needed, and also a short text file with details of the theme and basic instruction for installation . ( check the post to Download) (more…)

AdBrite offers a way for publishers to convert their site’s traffic into advertising offers. By posting “Your Ad Here” spaces on their sites, publishers can link site visitors to the advertising opportunities that they are currently offering and therefore generate more interest in the site’s ad spaces than would have been possible through only AdBrite’s marketplace.AdBrite also allows publishers to set their own ad rates and to approve and reject ad offers, giving them more power over what goes on their site and for what price than many other networks allow. With 547 million impressions per day on 20,758 sites and numerous advertising and customization options, AdBrite is a large network that offers flexible and innovative ways for publishers to monetize their ad spaces. (more…)

When you are buying a website from someone for the sole purpose of putting AdSense on, it can be a catch-22 about whether to ask the site owner if he or she has ever used AdSense on the site, and if the site has been banned from AdSense. But you don’t exactly want to outlay the cash and then discover the site has been permanently banned from ever running AdSense.

On the one hand, you don’t want to invest in a site that you can never show ads on. But on the other hand, you don’t want to give a struggling hobby webmaster who might have never heard of AdSense think about signing up and trying AdSense before he goes ahead and sells it to you… because you want the best possible deal on buying the site. And yes, there are still publishers scooping up websites for a song and making back the purchase amount within days after putting on AdSense. (more…)

To increase your conversion with pey per click engines :

You should try different landing page variations and different ad variations. Do some split testing on your ads and see which ones work the best and which ones you can do without or modify.

Note everything you do so you can benchmark and track your gains or losses. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of ad modifications and different landing pages to tap into the best conversions. Also keep a close eye on your competition and their marketing tactics. If its working for them it should work for you.

Logging into analytics this is what I saw.

In order to improve your experience with google products, google analytics is updating its data sharing policy. You now have the ability to share your analytics data with other google services. This will improve integration, enable additional features in google's advertising services (including google analytics, AdWords and AdSense) and improve your experience with these products.

i got two choices. one for sharing for google products and the other for anonymous sharing across google and benchmarking with promise of info for verticals etc. i chose the second.
the first may help adwords users though

Some members have chosen NO , to not sharing their secrets ….

Recently on ReadWriteTalk, we interviewed Scott Switzer, the CTO and Founder of OpenX. Until recently they were known as OpenAds, but they’ve since rebranded as OpenX. Shortly after the interview was recorded, Google announced a competitive product called AdManager. Scott responded on the OpenX blog by saying that “Google’s announcement of a free ad server, Ad Manager, validates our marketplace”. But he also cautioned: “as a publisher, I would find this a dangerous cocktail and I would worry that it may marginalize my revenue.”

I agree that publishers who let Google serve all of their advertisements via AdManager, even the non-Google AdSense ads, are taking a big risk. This was already a risk with Google’s Acquisition of Double Click, even before Google’s announcement of Ad Manager. See our post last year, Google’s Potential Vulnerability: An Open Ad Network, for more on this topic.

If you agree that a viable alternative is important to the marketplace, an interesting question is: what will OpenX’s business model ultimately be? We’ll focus on this question for the rest of this post. (more…)

With the recent introduction of Kontera in text link advertising, many WordPress bloggers have been switching to or adding the new service. Kontera is a publishers advertising system based solely on contextually relevant in text keywords that are discovered in real time on a web site. These keywords are then automatically turned into links to the most relevant ads found within the Kontera network of advertisers.

Through the use of Kontera ContentLink™ on a web site or blog, publishers can generate additional revenue while advertisers reach their most targeted audience. All on a Cost Per Click basis.

In the following sections, I explain how to Optimize the Kontera ContentLink™ text link code by adding or changing a few key elements to suite your WordPress blog or web site. (more…)