Links Management
I spent the last couple days setting up my new links directory. Sometimes things don't go as smoothly as you think they will!
I downloaded a copy of Duncan Carver's Link Management Assistant which is free. Thank you very much Duncan!
It wasn't that the instructions or the program was difficult to install, I just had to learn some new stuff, such as MySQL. It wasn't installed on my domain so I had to contact my web host to find out more about it.
They got back to me almost immediately, and said that I would have to upgrade as MySQL didn't come with the package I was paying for. But, it was only an extra $2 per quarter (I pay for my hosting every three months), plus I got more Disk Space and Bandwidth. That was not bad at all!
Once the MySQL was set up, I installed the links management program. Installation went OK, but I ran into some problems with setting up my templates. I was going to ask for help in the forum as a last resort. I like trying to figure things out myself before I ask for help. I couldn't get it working right so I re-installed the program and that fixed the problem.
So then I tested the program by adding a link. The program was supposed to send me an email to let me know that there was a link added that needed to be approved. I never received the email. I tried over and over adding links but no emails ever came. I thought I was going to have to break down and ask for help in the forum.
But then it occurred to me that perhaps my ISP's spam filter was blocking the emails from the links management program. So I set up a mailbox on my domain to use for the links directory. Sure enough, the emails came through immediately.
My old links directory is quite full of links, all supposedly reciprocated. I thought I would move them to the new directory so I started added them through the Linking Assistant. It would check for the reciprocal link to my site. I got many "no link was found" notices. So I went to the site myself to double check and sure enough they did not have my link on their site, so I removed their's.
Moving all the links from my old directory to the new one was too time consuming so I decided to just leave the old directory in place and direct new link exchange requests to the new directory.
The Links Management Assistant does have a way to add links from your old directory, but I didn't quite understand how to do and didn't want to bother with it anymore. I'll save that for another day.
Overall, the program works great and will save you a lot of time and hopefully get you a better listing in the search engines.
I downloaded a copy of Duncan Carver's Link Management Assistant which is free. Thank you very much Duncan!
It wasn't that the instructions or the program was difficult to install, I just had to learn some new stuff, such as MySQL. It wasn't installed on my domain so I had to contact my web host to find out more about it.
They got back to me almost immediately, and said that I would have to upgrade as MySQL didn't come with the package I was paying for. But, it was only an extra $2 per quarter (I pay for my hosting every three months), plus I got more Disk Space and Bandwidth. That was not bad at all!
Once the MySQL was set up, I installed the links management program. Installation went OK, but I ran into some problems with setting up my templates. I was going to ask for help in the forum as a last resort. I like trying to figure things out myself before I ask for help. I couldn't get it working right so I re-installed the program and that fixed the problem.
So then I tested the program by adding a link. The program was supposed to send me an email to let me know that there was a link added that needed to be approved. I never received the email. I tried over and over adding links but no emails ever came. I thought I was going to have to break down and ask for help in the forum.
But then it occurred to me that perhaps my ISP's spam filter was blocking the emails from the links management program. So I set up a mailbox on my domain to use for the links directory. Sure enough, the emails came through immediately.
My old links directory is quite full of links, all supposedly reciprocated. I thought I would move them to the new directory so I started added them through the Linking Assistant. It would check for the reciprocal link to my site. I got many "no link was found" notices. So I went to the site myself to double check and sure enough they did not have my link on their site, so I removed their's.
Moving all the links from my old directory to the new one was too time consuming so I decided to just leave the old directory in place and direct new link exchange requests to the new directory.
The Links Management Assistant does have a way to add links from your old directory, but I didn't quite understand how to do and didn't want to bother with it anymore. I'll save that for another day.
Overall, the program works great and will save you a lot of time and hopefully get you a better listing in the search engines.
posted by Sue Norrad @ 12:50 PM
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