The key feature is that instead of hosting all of your domains on one IP address, as is the norm for web hosting, your hosting account offers numerous different IP addresses.

What this allows you to do is have website X on one IP address and to link it to website Y on another IP address. The idea is that by appearing to be owned by different people there will be a boost in the value of that link.

If, on the other hand, Google were to view the link from X to Y as being from the same person because the websites are located at the same address, the thought is that Google would devalue the link.

That argument is not important here. Rather, for those looking for SEO hosting to find a good service to use. Many SEO hosting companies have very similar names and urls, so you need to pay close attention to who you are dealing with:

Recommended:

seohosting.com – This is a HostGator service I have used for many years. The only problem is that the cost per each IP address in your account is expensive. Starting at about $7 per address. It is the most expensive service I have seen. But it is dependable and HostGator is highly recommended.

skynethosting.net – Another service we are trying. SkyNetHosting has received good reviews elsewhere, offers comprehensive hosting packages, and it is only $2 per IP address. However, you need the $99 per month plan to get whm features that let you quickly add websites to each IP address. Otherwise, you need to submit a ticked to get this done. I’m not sure why this is not standard for all of their hosting plans.

seohost.com – I have not tried this but it has had good reviews and is only $2 per IP. The reason I chose SkyNetHosting over SeoHost is because SeoHost does not list its hosting features on its website. Very odd. Reading their website carefully it looks like the hosting may not be full featured, such as having a cpanel, to save money.

Not Recommended:

These sites are about universally condemned on the web as places to avoid:

seo-host.com – Terrible record keeping websites online.

cclassiphosting.com – Absolutely hilarious postings of sales and support refusing to provide any information about the company, where it is hosted, what is offered, etc.

After testing this feature on different web hosting accounts let me suggest you do not waste you time.

Half the time the autoresponder message is not sent. When it is sent it may very likely be missing chunks of text.

This is completely unacceptable, and I suggest learning from my wasting my time and to avoid using the cpanel autoresponder.

Instead, I recommend using the vacation response autoresponder in Yahoo mail. It is much more dependable. Instructions for setting this up are here.

What you do is add certain JavaScript to your site. The original code is at http://sizzlejs.com, but there is a faster way to implement it and to see where it goes in your web pages.

Here is a link to an article at EzineArticles: http://ezinearticles.com/?Antique-Avon-Barbie-Doll-Collection&id=1333199

If you copy some text, copy and paste, you will see a reference to EzineArticles has been added.

Looking at the source code for the web page you will see a JavaScript reference to this file:

/min/file/c7e14123ed8568e6a0b4b4c88806433f1316613090.js

You can click on the link in the source code to see the JavaScript text. Do a search for ‘Ezine’ to see where the EzineArticles text has been added to the script.

Add to your website and of course change as appropriate.

.

They will sent multiple emails per day. The content is questionable.

Most importantly – there is no opt-out.

Thank goodness I have a practice of using one-time throw-away email addresses and not my primary one to sign up for lists like this.

Trust me – run away from this company as fast as you can.

And remember, when you sign up for a list never use your primary email. Use an email you can immediately discard if need be, but from which you can forward messages to the primary email.

You can change the page, such as sending them to an offer page, by changing the redirect url at:

amember | plugins | protect | php_include | logout.php

Here is how you can use aMember with just 1 install, on multiple domains, and staying within the terms of the product license.

Presumably, you already have aMember installed on a domain if you are reading this.

For your second website, in your cpanel create your second website as an add-on domain for the same web hosting account as your first domain. (If you only have one web hosting account this is your default situation). This tip only works within the same web hosting account.

Within aMember create a new product. For the new product the script asks for a url. Give it the full url of your second website and subdirectory you want to protect.

Example: domain2.com/membership/

Now, within aMember you need to protect the folder.

Typically, the option used will be new_rewrite, which presents users with a nice login form to login to your membership area. That will not work.

Instead, choose the htpasswd protection option. This will give users a popup box to enter their username and password. Not nearly as nice looking as the new_rewrite created screen. But you’re also saving $180 and only needing to update and use one script install, instead of juggling multiple script installs.

The protected url to enter on the Protect Folder screen will be

/home/YOURWEBHOSTINGACCOUNTNAME/public_html/YOUR2NDADDONDOMAIN.COM/MEMBERSHIPFOLDER/

Example: /home/bob/public_html/domain2.com/membership/

That’s it. Very easy.

Since the aMember script stays installed on only 1 domain you are not violating the software license agreement:

“aMember license grants you the right to run one instance (a single installation) of the Software on one web server and one web site for each license purchased. Each license may power one instance of the Software on one domain. For each installed instance of the Software, a separate license is required.”

Depending on your setup, you may want to modify some of the default emails sent by the script so they are generic and do not refer to a specific site. This can be done in the admin area under Global then Email.

There may also be some membership related files you will want to put in a frame so it is not apparent the user is on a different domain.

Since the login page has a link to the main domain registration page, which may be odd for the second domain, you can delete the link under templates for the login page.

Note: due to the multiple domains there may be issues with staying logged in or accessing membership admin pages if the user’s web browser does not accept third party cookies

But hardly anyone helps their users bookmark their website.

This is a really easy fix to make.

Here is some easy to use JavaScript to insert into your pages to promote the bookmarking of your site.

You can see the implementation and how it works at the bottom of this Vandor Cookie Jar website.

Simple. Insert the JavaScript into your web page and that’s it.

Of course you can offer more options, such as social bookmarking, Facebook likes, and so on. But those are all third party sites. With a bookmark it is in the user’s web browser and always accessible no matter what website they are visiting.

config.php

There are 3 changes that can quickly be made:

1. Under the Preferred Country Section all of the country codes need to be updated. The entire section needs to be replaced.

2. Under Advanced Options the Default Sort Order has changed. Instead of a ‘0′ there are now various words to be used to select the sorting of the eBay listings. They are listed in the new file.

3. There is also now an option to show items only from top rated sellers. You may not need this in your config.php file if you do not care about this option. Most users won’t.

ebay.php

Many, many changes in this file. Which is a major pain in the butt if you are running a customized version of the script.

My best recommendation is to take the new ebay.php file and rework into the the customizations. Adding the customizations back in from the phpbay customization page takes only a minute.

auction.php

Again, 3 changes to be made.

1. Since the country codes in config.php have changed, near the end of auction.php those codes similarly need to be changed. You will want to swap out the entire ebayCountries array to have the new codes.

2. Then, at the very end where there is a ’switch’ command with various “cases” – those are all related to the country codes so they also need to be replaced with the coding. The new coding is actually a lot simpler.

3. The final url variable starting $url, almost at the very end of the file, needs to be updated with the new code.

Reasons why you do not simply want to copy over the new auction.php file:

- Custom IP blocks
- Custom page redirects for bad IPs/bots
- Custom coding for using QCT to track clicks

Other Files

New versions of these files are also included in the new download package:

forms/form.sort_by.php
includes/combo.php; country.php, geo.php, geoip.dat, geoop.inc
templates/template.column.results.html

Misc

The price provided by eBay includes the dollar sign. So if your template has $ followed by the price code, delete the “$” because otherwise the prices for your listings will appear as $$.

eBay defaults to showing listings sorted by a Best Match. The phpBay config file default is to sort by the soonest ending time. Stick with the default to help avoid the listings matching the order of the eBay listings. Also known as duplicate content.

The new phpBay also seems to be showing 10 listings per page, even if you change the number in the config.php file. Changing the number shown in the web page call to the script still works. So for customization that is now the place to put a randomizing factor for the number of listings shown.

That’s the problem with using a hosted, third party autoresponder like Aweber.

As this is written, Aweber is almost completely blocked from major email providers …

Yahoo
Gmail
Hotmail

But NOT one word to Aweber’s customers letting them know of the blocks.

This reminds me of when Aweber’s service was hacked and emails were stolen – no notifications were sent by Aweber to it’s customers.

A self-hosted autoresponder script like this one is what you need to have as a backup.

If anything else, as a backup and alternative to Aweber.

When you read the following, remember that you are PAYING Aweber for each subscriber on your list, monthly, even if AWeber is blocked and your emails are not being delivered.

Recent comments about AWeber being blocked:

“[B]asically Yahoo has closed their door to us, but we are working on it. We send the emails out, but Yahoo is blocking them.”

– As reported from an AWeber Customer Representative

“Here’s the REAL deal…

Aweber is currently having TONS of issues with their mail servers being blacklisted and this has been going on for whole month…

Recently – a live chat with an Aweber rep revealed the Aweber mail servers used to send your messages…

After they gave these – a quick blacklist check showed that ALL BUT ONE of the servers were blacklisted…”

– Coby, AWeber Customer

“Yes, Aweber must be having problems. I have a bad problem with getting yahoo people to change from unconfirmed to confirmed on my list. I just created a few yahoo accounts, and tested them. I also had friends with yahoo accounts test my optin also. Nothing was delivered.

My spam scores according to Aweber are 0 for each message.”

– ‘robsterhews’, AWeber Customer

“I don’t think this is restricted to Yahoo either. I’ve just logged in to my Aweber account and every single person who has not confirmed are Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail – nothing else.”

– Annie Pottinger, AWeber Customer

“Just exported my lists from Aweber then cancelled after five years of continued use. I’m going to start sending the emails from my dedicated server …”

– Kane Insurance

“This is one of the downsides to using a third-party autoresponder service to send out your e-mails.

If their servers get blacklisted (for whatever reason) your e-mail deliverability plummets too – even if you did nothing wrong.

Your deliverability is dependent upon what other list owners who are sending from the same IP block are doing….

For me, going the self-hosted route has little to do with pricing at all.

It comes down to one thing: CONTROL.

With my own self-hosted solution, I’m in control of the most important asset in my business – my list.”

– Shaun Oreilly

Keep in mind that email blocks come and go. Hopefully, this will go

The main point is, while Aweber can be a great service it is not necessarily the best service at all times, for every purpose, for any business.

Why be locked into one provider that controls your ability to communicate with your customers and subscribers?

At a minimum, get a cheap autoresponder script and you install and can use as an Aweber alternative when the need arises.

Insurance is always important.

Thin affiliate site + Panda is not a good combination.

This, then, is implementation with phpBay of the concept in this post about creating JavaScript links:

http://internetprofituniversity.com/blog/how-to-create-links-google-cannot-follow/

Step 1 – Make your javascript link file is writable using chmod.

Step 2 – In the phpBay template delete the standard link to the product. Now add a JavaScript link, but include a reference to an eBay item ID like this:

<div onclick=”javascript:link%%item_id%%()” style=”text-decoration: underline; color: blue; cursor:pointer”>Click Here</div>

Big tip: the link reference must begin with a letter. Not a number. So it cannot be javascript:item_id because eBay item id’s start with a number. You need to add at least one letter in front.

The item_id reference pulls the product id obtained by the script.

Step 3 – In the phpBay ebay.php file you need to open the javascript links file, add the reference ID and url for each product ID shown on a page, then close the file. This is the code:

$filename = ‘/home/webhostname/public_html/yourdomain.com/yoursubdirectory/yourfile.js’;
$somecontent = “function link” . $this->item_id . “() { location.href=’http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=YOUREPNID&toolid=10001&campid=” . $this->eb_pid . “&customid=&icep_item=” . $this->item_id . “&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229466&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg’; }\n”;
$fp = fopen($filename, ‘a’);
fwrite($fp, $somecontent);
fclose($fp);

Tips: You cannot use a direct file reference to the javascript file as the filename. That is: httpx://yourdomain.com will not work. At least it did not for me with HostGator. It had to an internal reference to the javascript file.

The references to item_id again pull in the reference to the particular product. eb_pid gets your EPN campaign ID number. You could hard code this if you only have one website, but this makes it easier to plug in this code for multiple script installations.

Step 4 – The code for Step 3 works for me after this line in ebay.php (your line may be different if you have already used some of the customization techniques outlined in a different post for phpbay):

$this->link_url = $this->site_url . $this->url_prefix . $this->urlText($item['title']) . “_” . $this->item_id . $this->eb_custom_cid . “.html”;

One downside is that although phpBay is being used, this method does not use phpBay seo links. It undoubtedly could be modified to work with the urls the script creates, but if the idea is to keep Google from seeing the affiliate link it really doesn’t matter. That’s why you’re doing this in the first place.

Also, the clicks do not show up in the QCT add-on because the JavaScript links are not going through the phpBay script code, but instead straight to eBay. Again, someone could modify this, but to simplify matters (and because my phpBay code is so heavily modified), for now it was easier to use pure eBay affiliate links. Since these links are generated by the EPN link generator tool they should be fine.

It remains to be seen if bad bots can click on these links, but I don’t think they will be able to as they will not ’see’ the links.

Step 5 – To avoid problems with JavaScript object not found errors because the eBay product link does not actually exist when the web page is accessed:

THE WEB PAGE JAVASCRIPT REFERENCE MUST BE AFTER THE LINKS FILE IS CREATED AND POPULATED. PUT IT IN YOUR FOOTER INSTEAD OF A PAGE HEADER

In addition,

- Create a javascript file
- Clear the contents with each page access
- Write the new product links
- Add in filler links if there are less than 10 products on a page
- Use a custom javascript file for each web page. This requires identifying the page name, passing that as the javascript file name, and passing that variable to the ebay.php file. (Note: this requires adjusted the API call in web pages and modifying ebay.php to accept the new variable.)

Update: Creating JavaScript Links and Working with the New phpBay API and eBay RSS feed

Here are my steps to ensuring the JavaScript links work, errors are fixed (step 5 above), and everything works with the new eBay feed rolled out before the end of 2011:

1. Add the customizations and JavaScript functionality into the new ebay.php file.

2. Update the template file.

3. Update all web pages to (1) obtain a javascript file name and (2) pass the new variable to phpbayPro.

I was doing the first in a meta includes file so it is easy to make the change sitewide – but running into JavaScript object expected errors. Moving the JavaScript reference to the footer solved the problem.

I do the latter by modifying the phpbay script call. This can be done with a global search and replace across html files. For WordPress look for a plugin called Search Regex. It is explained here.