Reciprocal Linking - How The Hell Do You Do It?
- Date: 2007-05-27 - Word Count: 945
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At the beginning of this year I was thrown in at the deep end, well and truly. I bought an ebooks shop dirt cheap on Ebay, thinking at that time, what a good idea it was but I knew absolutely nothing about the business. I've got no regrets and I've loved every minute of it. However I wasn't fully aware how much my life was about to change. Countless hours spent on the computer, studying lots of new programming terminology, trying to understand the importance of keywords, Internet,Web Design,SEO, and linking.!! Probably sounds familiar to many of you.
The thing that came up over and over was to improve your search engine ratings by reciprocal linking. Seemed a good idea, and apparently so simple. "Just paste this piece of html code anywhere on your webpage" was the statement I got from prospective link partners and to cap it all, I had to do it first before they would accept my link.
I was stuck. Experienced website owners will probably laugh at this but to a new site owner with no programming experience that is trying to absorb html, php, dns, ftp and a multitude of other things, believe me this was a real obstacle.
I was particularly worried and confused because I was given explicit instructions not to put html on my php website because it might corrupt the system. If I wanted to link reciprocally how on earth was I supposed to do this?
The real challenge came when I affiliated to Amazon, I of course got the usual "just paste this script" I emailed Amazon for help and got a lovely rapid reply saying that they really couldn't help because there are so many different types of websites with their100,000 affiliates!!
Next step "Google Search". "How to paste html on php website" and a variety of other word combinations but although I got a lot of good information, none of it solved my problem. One idea was to use Windows Notepad to make a php file with the link information inside. I put the file on my site but of course it didn't show. Looking back this was because the file wasn't in the database.
Next I downloaded an html to php converter programme on free trial. No problem I converted the script to php. But where do I paste it?
I then searched the internet looking for web pages similar to mine. Then I used "view Source" in Windows Explorer to see just how these other pages were set up.
Then the penny finally dropped!!.
I went to my "website/cpanel" then clicked "File Manager" and public html/includes. Located here were four files Header, Footer, Left Column, Right Column. Now for the big decision - remember no programming experience!! - I pasted the php code at the bottom of the Header File leaving a large space between the existing text and my new text so I could remove it if things went wrong. I also took a copy of the existing text, complete, again in case of disaster. I saved the changes. I closed cpanel and logged into my site. To my amazement the Amazon graphic was on the page and functioning correctly, randomly changing the display. But it was totally in the wrong place
Obviously the next step was to move it by erasing my previous change and putting it in the "Left Column". It was still in the wrong place as it went to the top and I wanted it at the bottom. After a lot of study and experiment I inserted td align="center" above the new script and BINGO it was exactly where I wanted it.
That should have been the end of the task but I couldn't help but notice that in rest of the page text "echo php" was constantly appearing. If I can only use php why do I have to make this statement? Needless to say I took the original html script and pasted it, it worked just the same.
Now I know where to paste my reciprocal links. This time put them in "Footers" at the bottom of the page using html. It works fine and looks like it should do.
During my experimentation the worst thing that happened was that when I reopened my webpage after alteration I often got "syntax error" I found that it was no big deal I just erased what I had done previously and all returned to normal.
To me, messing with my php files was like messing with the "Holy Grail" at first.
One interesting point. I get dozens of emails every day from the internet gurus making all sorts of claims about how they can change my life etc with their superior knowledge so I wrote to every one of them asking for help on reciprocal linking and I never got one reply.
I have read that lots of websites never make attempts at linking. Is it because they are as hesitant, as I was, to interfere with their files? Maybe they don't know how to do it and more importantly where to get help on the subject.
In writing this article I will be over the moon if it helps just one person not to go through the trauma and time that I went through..
If you want to check the layout of my page go to http://www.cothivalebooks.com and see if it resembles your own web page. Take particular note of the sections:- header, footer, column left, column right. Now you will clearly see how the Amazon graphic was placed also how I decided to put my reciprocal links at the bottom of the footers section. I spaced them out using very basic html code
Good Luck!!
© 2007 Christopher Phillips - All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Related Tags: ebay, website, search, business, link, linking, engine, ebooks, web design, html, amazon, reciprocal, webpage, php
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