Webmaster Pro Guide

Just got and email from vBulletin to say version 3.7.0 is finally stable:

vBulletin 3.7.0 is now available for download from the vBulletin Members’ Area by all customers with active vBulletin licenses.

In this new release, we have concentrated on improving features for visitors to your vBulletin forum by implementing social networking tools such as extended user profile pages with visitor messaging, user picture albums, user-created social groups and reciprocal friendship creation. We have also taken steps to help forum staff deal with the growing problem of bulletin board spam by improving our human verification tools to prevent automated systems from registering and posting, and putting in place a one-stop-shop tool for dealing with spam and spammers in the inline moderation system.

Here is a brief but far from comprehensive list of some of the new features making their debut in vBulletin 3.7.0:

* Inline spam management & prevention
* Thread tagging
* Search cloud / tag cloud
* Thread prefixes
* Reciprocal friendships between users
* Public visitor messaging on profile pages with ‘conversation’ feature
* User picture galleries with user comment facility
* User-created social groups with invite only and moderated membership options
* Extended member profile pages
* Customizable member profile pages with admin-controlled styling abilities
* Inline editing of custom user profile fields
* Lightbox viewer for attached images
* Viewable and comparable history maintained for post edits
* Extended re-authentication for inline moderation actions
* Notices system for navigation bar
* New human-verification tools including reCAPTCHA, and question/answer
* User change history
* Social bookmarking integration

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

Hi all

I just got paid by Widgetbuck , so  it s is officially paying.
I got paid for October Yesterday .

My payement methode was Paypal . Checks have a shipping delay :

As a reminder, if you select the paypal option, you will receive
November earnings much quicker. To do this, please go to your
WidgetBucks account > “My Settings” tab and select the paypal option,
you will receive your next WidgetBucks payment faster than by manual
check. Especially for non-US accounts where we do not have a timeline
on how quickly the check will be delivered. Paypal payments were
received yesterday and today.

My earning for October was 399$ …

Payment From Mpire Corporation Dec. 6, 2007 Completed Details $399.05 USD $0.00 USD

It seem that this is a trustable and reputable company especially when they will release the new International CPM Ads for the international traffic . so I suggest you Widgetbucks and earn 25$ Bonus.

Earn Real Money from WIdgetBucks

WidgetBucks features pay-per-click shopping widgets that help customers make money fast. They instantly display the most popular products based on buying trends of 100 million shoppers. Thus they are highly engaging, which means instant dollars for our customers. Our widgets see $3-$6 CPM — pretty good compared to traditional ad networks that deliver less than $2 CPM.

The idea is simple; you embed the widget code into your blog / Your site web and it acts as a product feed based on your sites content or a chosen category, you then get paid for clicks and hopefully make billions… hopefully.

The widget itself is fully customisable, and actually looks quite nice, although I wish they’d allow for a slightly smaller size, as it tends to dominate the page. I signed up so you can see the widget but I refuse to put this behemoth into my sidebar until they make it smaller.

Gripes aside, I do really like this idea, and the signup
process is quick and easy, so if your blog / Site web has a sidebar with plenty
of space, give it a try, You Will not regret.

Here is screenshot of WidgetBuck member who made over $140
within 1 day!.

Get $25 signup bonus when you register with   WidgetBucks Today

Adsnese is an extension of the adword program that allows any website owner to place adwords ads on their site . However , the ads come from the content of your site .

As an adsense uset , google give you a piece of a JavaScript that has your unique ID embedded within it , This enable theme to track the performance of the ads on your site , You simply past this code into html of your website .

Yes, you can make money with Google Adsense. It’s pretty much effortless. Once the ads are set up, it’s fire and forget. You just get a check every now and then from Google. Cool huh!

You have probably seen Google Adsense ads many times, maybe not noticing them.

How much you can make all depends on your site, how busy it is, what the topic is, things like that. The amounts vary greatly. I have known forum owners who make in excess of $10,000 a month! But dont get your hopes up. That usually happens only on very large forums. In most cases, you’ll make enough to pay for your hosting, and maybe a nice dinner or two. Most medium size sites or forums make anywhere from $300 to $1500 a month with Google Adsense. Regardless, its basically free money since you dont have to do anything different.

First you need to sign up for the Google Adsense Program :

AdSense optimization tips for sites

Effective Ad Positioning

Placing the Ads in the places with greater visibility and maximum probability of clicking, yields best results. See the images below with colored blocks which kind of tell us that those are the areas with maximum visibility and higher chances of getting clicked. Placing your AdSense in the areas as per the images below may increase the chances of your visitors clicking on the Ads but remember there are other things also which must be kept in mind to increase the click ratio, such as color blending of Ads, keywords in content, number of impressions, visits etc,. And since every website is different, you may experiment and determine the best Ad position yourself.

Layout #1. Ad positioning for a web site with header[top], footer[bottom], navigation bar[left], content in the middle. Good for either static or dynamic content on the page.

Layout #2. Ad positioning for website with lengthy article/content on the page. People when scroll down after reading the article will see an Ad and chances of clicking it to navigate out of the page is quite high.

 Layout #3. Another way of placing Ad in the site with the skyscrapper placed on left. It more or less looks will like a navigation bar with links, right blending of colors increases click rate

AdSense optimization tips for forums

. Format is important for multiple ad units
Placing a skyscraper above the fold on the left side of your forum seems to produce slightly better performance than other positioning. However, when using multiple ad units throughout the page our horizontal bias still favors the leaderboard. See the Forum Heat Map below for more details.

2. Display your ad units where repeat users will notice them
A leaderboard at the very top fits nicely next to the logo, but forum regulars tend to skip the header and go straight to the meat of the thread. Placing your ad unit above or below the first post can be more effective.

3. Place a leaderboard immediately after the last post
This provides users who make it to the end of a thread with a ‘next step’ when the content ends. If you place it after the footer, though, folks will move to the next thread before they even see the ad!

4. Use horizontal link units
Link units offer a wider range of relevant topics for users to browse. A horizontal unit can be placed near the top of your forum just below the header.

5. Opt-in to image ads
Supporting image ads increases the pool of ads –particularly cost-per-thousand-impression (CPM) ads – bidding to display on your site. Since forums tend to have lower click-through rates (CTRs) than other types of sites, CPM ads can improve revenue without the need for clicks. Please remember, however, that CPM ads come in both text and image formats.

6. Be sensitive to your forum community
Forums are highly interactive, so be sensitive to your users when implementing your AdSense ads. Be sure to blend the ads nicely, so they don’t appear overly intrusive – but don’t blend them so well they mislead your users! Every forum site is different and you know your community best, so as always use your own judgment to create the most positive experience for your users.