LINKS ARE BLUE NEWSLETTER Newsletter for Apr 21, 2006 --- Volume 1 Number 8
LINKS ARE BLUE NEWSLETTER
Newsletter for Apr 21, 2006 --- Volume 1 Number 8
This is the almost weekly newsletter from Joe. I sorta run these sites. Some of you know me pretty well and others know me from ebay and various conventions around the country.
As you all know by now I sell a lot of links and also do a good bit of SEO ... Search Engine Optimization... work. If your having a problem getting listed please let me know maybe I can help.
# Dynamic Web Pages and Apache Commands
# SEO work and Links
# Domain and ads for Sale
Dynamic Web Pages --- A lot of people ask me how my dynamic pages look like straight html instead of php and lots of strange characters in the url. I do it by just using the alias function on the Apache servers. This allows my pages to look like normal html and it doesn't put any STOP characters in the url.
When you combine this with an sql database you can do some interesting things. The most basic part of this is having the data you want in your database before you start. So here is the short course.
The Problem: I wanted more geographicly targeted hits on my dating sites. I did NOT want to put up a million pages, take up the server space and then bog down the drives and use up all my disk space. Here is what i did.
First I created a database that contained the United States Zip Code data base. It lists every State, county, phone area code, and zip code in the country. Roughly 70,000 records give or take several thousand.
Next I created a database that listed my sites name as in www.xyz.com and the key phrase I wanted to associate with that domain. On both these databases I also created some extra fields and left room for some future expansion.
To Alias or not to Alias
Well this one is a no brainer. What this allowed me to do was copy my images, php programs and static pages into a directory and when someone tries to pull a page it looks for the alias file first. If it finds it, it uses it. A simple example is the robots.txt on my servers. Since I host all my own sites and have way too many it lets me set up just one robots.txt file and when a search spider reqursts it at: http://www.joed.com/robots.txt it displays it like it was a file located in that site. By the same token if they try and pull it from http://www.freebeer.com/robots.txt they get the same file. So this means that when I need to make modifications to the robots.txt I don't have to change it in 1000 or so places. Just once on each server. In my httpd.conf or srm.comf it looks like this.
Alias /robots.txt "/home/sites/home/web/robots.txt"
In english this means that if anything calls the file robots.txt to look in the /home/sites/home/web/ for it and not in the local web directory where the call is made, but to display it as if it were in that local dir.
This also works for images. On my new geo targeted dating sites i didn't want to copy 16 images or so into each site so I used a command like this in my srm.conf file:
Alias /cut1.jpg "/home/levi/cut1.jpg"
Alias /cut10.jpg "/home/levi/cut10.jpg"
Alias /cut11.jpg "/home/levi/cut11.jpg"
Alias /cut12.jpg "/home/levi/cut12.jpg"
Alias /cut13.jpg "/home/levi/cut13.jpg"
Alias /cut14.jpg "/home/levi/cut14.jpg"
So now I have them taking up a small amount of space rather then duplicating them 200 times or so in every domain.
Changing Page Names Using Alias
I know.... I know ... .php files and cgi files get indexed now...or so they say.... however I am still more comfortable with .html looking files. So not only can I save space in duplicating files the ones that need parsed as php can appear like html. To do this I use the command this way:
Alias /rssfeeds.html "/home/sites/home/web/rssfeeds.php"
This lets that php file appear as an html. It will also work for xml files too
Alias /master-rss.xml "/home/sites/home/web/master-rss.php"
Remember the first filename is the way you want it displayed and the second filename with the path is where and what it really is.
This can also be used for certain STATIC files that you do not want to duplicate. My profile form for these dating sites, my members entry and my purchase pages are all exactly the same. So instead of copying them into each domain I set them up like this:
Alias /free.html "/home/levi/free.html"
Alias /members.html "/home/levi/members.html"
Alias /join.html "/home/levi/join.html"
This has saved me a ton of time in copying files. Now when I create a new Geo targeted dating site I only have to copy in one page. Actually on another server I have this solved to that I just set up the domain on the server and the entire site exists instantly. To do this you use a different part of the configuration file but it works like this:
DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.shtml home.html home.htm default.html default.htm index.php default.php index.asp default.asp
This is the order that Apache looks to decide which file is the DEFAULT displayed when someone doesn't call the actual filename like index.html but just goes to your domain directly like http://www.free-text-links.com/ if default.html was first on that list it would display that file and not index.html. What I have done on one server is put a filename first on that list that I know wasnt ever created there. I think I did make it default.html. Then I used the Alias command and made a php file that pulled data from my sql into it based on the domain name and my key words file and made it look like default.html. So now all I need to do to create an entire site is just activate the domain on the server. I don't even need to create a user for that domain.
Putting it all together --
Well what is better then a couple examples:
http://www.new.york.ny.marriedmatch.com/
http://www.alabama-al.marriedmatch.com/
http://www.pennsylvania-pa.marriedmatch.com/
Make sure if you take a look here that you click the county and area code links and watch the pages. The only real page at any of these sites is the index.html. I would have automated that too but I have so many different sites on this server it was easier to just copy that one file into each site then to try and redo all the existing ones.
SEO and Links -- I know you just paid your taxes, but it is summer now, while you are out enjoying all that you made over the winter, you need to really get in gear to take advantage of the fall when things on the net get busy again.
So email me or stop in at http:www.free-text-links.com and lets get your orders in now so that the search engines will have you ranked high by fall. We have most everything now from links to topical articles to full service SEO and even some dynamic hosting if your looking for that. The time is now don't put it off and miss out on the next busy fall season.
Domain for sale and banner ads -- My friend in England asked me to let you know that he still has http://www.itsallpc.co.uk/ for sale. The front page gets about 50k hits per month --- you should see all his front page ranks all over the search engines ---- and overall the site gets about 70k. If your interested in purchasing the domain or if you want a banner ad there. Banner ads are 200 a month for the top index page and 175 a month for the bottom index page, the bottom banners are on every page of the site so even though they aren't quite as visable they have almost twice the exposures and a cheaper price. There are 2 bottom slots available now and 5 top rotating banner slots. Email me if your interested and I will send you all the details.
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Well thats about it for this week. Have a GREAT WEEKEND!
Joe
http://www.free-text-links.com
posted by Joe @ 1:14 PM
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