WL Professional Links Manager
Online Manual
Getting Started
What is WL Professional Links Manager Link Exchange Script?
First of all, I want to say that all the valuable features are hidden inside the software, you will see and understand them better gradually over time. It's not possible to cover all the features in this manual right now, I will be adding them gradually to answer the most of your questions.
There are lots of checks being done when you add a new link partner such as google Page Rank, Google Back links, Yahoo back links, Alexa Rank, duplicate entries of all possible variations, fraud link exchange schemes that I encounted myself in my own experience.
When WL Professional Links Manger check for backlinks it also checks all possible senarios such as javascript, rel="nofollow" in the link and meta tags, disallow of specific pages in robots.txt, if the page is cached by google and the time of the cache.
I must warn you, that you will have to spend some time in order to understand the main principles of the WL Professional Links Manger.
Always read the help [?] near the fields that you fill attentively, try to experiment at first, see how it works and in case you should not get it, contact me.
Now let's start.
Register new account with WL Professional Links Manger. It's free for the first month.
Confirm your registration checking your email box for the confirmation email. Click on the link in the email, if it doesn't work, copy it in your browser and click go.
You must confirm your registration within 3 days, otherwise your unconfirmed account will be deleted and you will have to register again.
Then login to your account
WL Professional Links Manger is divided into 2 parts. The 1st and the main part (Your account panel) is located on our server, the 2nd part is downloadable (you will get it after you add your website in your account panel) and is installed on your server. This is done in order to facilitate the process of checking back links and other procedures which require a lot of server time and load for the script to run and cannot be afforded by many webmasters.
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Adding your Website to your account
When you logged into your account, click on the Add own Website link in the top right bar.
Beside each field there is a [?] help link with a detailed explanation of its meaning and function. It always opens in a new window. We suggest that you use it every time until you get used to the our links managing software.
Our users often don't understand what the Name of directory field means on the "Add own Website" page.
If you put in this field resources and your domain is somesite.com, the "Name of directory" to your main links directory would be http://somesite.com/resources/directory.php
Do not use Capital letters, spaces or other special symbols here. Instead of spaces use - or _ (hyphen or underscore).
This will also be the name of the folder on your server where the 2-nd part of the WL Professional Links Manger will be.
Double check that this field does not have the name of one of the existing folders on your server in your website's main folder. Otherwise it will be overwritten by our Online Installer, if you use it.!
If you like to do one way or three way link exchange which involves at least 3 sites choose in the dropdown menu one of your other sites and make it Your Partner Website for one way link exchange.
What is one way or three way link exchange? If you have 2 sites related to one subject you can link them as Your Partner Websites and exchange links with other members in this way:
Your site A links to a member site C and site C in its turn links back to your other site B
It this is your first site in the system then there will be no Your Partner Websites in the dropdown list. But when you will be adding another site you will see in the list this currently being added site.
You can also change your patner webisite in Edit own websites page later.
If your site begins with www put it in the Domain prefix field like www. (dot included) or leave it empty. This prefix is important indeed since if you have redirect when your site is accessible without www. to www.yourdomain.com our robot may incounter a problem updating links on your site.
Type categories which will be displayed on your main directory and which will be your links pages. Later you can add or delete categories on the Edit own websites page.
Type each new category per line!
Do not use & or any other special symbols. Use only spaces between words if your category has two or more words.
Select Space Delimiter in your links pages. In other words choose how your links pages will look like. If the name of the category is Internet Services than the name of your links page will be either internet_services.html or internet-services.html
Choose either _ underscore or - hyphen.
In the The reciprocal link code fields place your html link code. This code will be automatically inserted into your link requests emails.
So it's up to you how it will look like in the emails.
If you have several of your sites in the system and press Send 1 or 2 Email, only one single email will be sent to a specific link parnter with All your sites link codes inside. This will eliminate the hassle of sending each link request email for each of your website. It also prevents the spam rist if you have lots of sites.
Special attention must be paid to the One way link code! It is usually the link code of your other site engaged as your Partner website for one way link exchange.
Do not use UApache Mod_rewrite if you don't know it.
Then choose the name of your main directory. Default is directory.html. We suggest that you type some other unique name.
Important!
If you don't want to use directory links at all, but only our context links fill in any values in the above field.
Pay attention only to the Name of directory, the folder where our script will reside.
After you added your Website, you will have to download a zip archive or the script which must be uploaded to your server.
Unpack it and read the Readme.txt file inside it!
Remember, that this zip archive can be used only for the Website you just added to the database!
We have supplied you with ready to use Links Directory Pages which already have your Website name as a logo. The main categories are divided into 3 columns by default. You can change the look of your link pages, specifying the color of the header and footer. You can make the categories show in a table in 1, 2 or 3 columns, or without any table at all.
Read Customizing your link pages for more info.
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Installing WL Professional Links Manger on your server
The installation is very simple and automatic once you use our Online Installer which appears after you added your site into the system.
Browse to the main folder of your site and choose the index file of your site.
If you don't know what is index file, then choose any other file only make sure you are in the main folder of your site.
When manually installing the script, download the archive after you added your site, unpack it and read carefully the README.TXT inside. Follow the isntructions.
The process if very simple.
Upload the script's folder on your server into your sites main folder, usually it is public_html then give the entire folder 777 permission rights and open in your browser the url which will be in your readme.txt file.
It will be something like this http://yourdomain.com/path_to_your_directory/your_main_directory_name.html/install.php
You should see the message Script Installed Successfully
Important! If your server doesn't allow to set 777 rights to a folder you will probably see 500 Internal Server Error message.
Then reverse the rights of the script's folder to 755 and make sure all the files inside the folder have 644 rights.
Then open http://yourdomain.com/path_to_your_directory/your_main_directory_name.html/install.php link again.
You should see Script Installed Successfully.
If you have problems contact me. Include into your email your ftp or cpanel login details, your webmasterlagoon.com login, point out that you use WL Professional Links Manger (we also have other products, so don't confuse me, please) and describe your problem.
Important!
If you don't want to use directory links at all, but only our context links just upload these two file in the script's folder:
manual_links.php
ml_list_update.php
If you choose with mod_rewrite option when adding your site to the system, the istallation process will be a bit more comlicated.
Use our Online Installer and carefully read the README.TXT for instructions.
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Customizing your Links Pages
After you installed the script on your site, we suggest that you make your main directory and specific links pages look like the rest of your site.
By default the look of your link pages is made very simple and with no images.
To customize your link pages go to Edit own Websites page, choose your site and click Edit, then on the page that loads click:
Main Links Directory Format to customize the look of the main directory,
Category Links Page Format to customize the look of your link pages.
Our Links Managing Panel gives you the most flexibility to customize not only the design of the pages but also meta keywords, meta description, title and each links page Heading.
We offer several levels of customization starting from html novices to experienced webmasters.
Choose your Settings Level in the dropdown list. If you are a bit familiar with html, the best way would be to choose Advanced settings and Add your own template, then open one of the pages of your site in a text editor, delete the unwanted content, links and place the wildcard {CONTENT} where you want the links or categories to appear.
In this way you will embed your links directory in the main design of your site. This will look very natural both to your visitors and search engines.
Take care about images in your template!
If for example your image in the original template looks like <img src="images/some-image.jpg"> make the src="/images/some-image.jpg" with a preceding / slash or src="http://yourdomain.com/images/some-image.jpg"
The same applies to navigation links if you have any in your original template.
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Directory Links pages are not displayed. What's wrong?
I often get emails from users who complain that their link pages do not show. The most likely problem is that your server does not have Mod_rewrite enabled. Mod_rewrite is needed for only one reason - to make your link pages look Search Engines Friendly like:
http://yourdomain.com/partners/internet_resources.html instead of
http://yourdomain.com/partners/showdirectory.php?
category_url=Internet+Resources
Ask your server support to enable Mod_rewrite if it's not by default which is usually so.
Second problem could be that you haven't changed the (chmod) permission rights to the script's folder inside the archive after you uploaded it to your server to 777.
Third problem: you have forgotten to delete .htaccess inside your script's folder. Our .htaccess file (or append its contents to the existing .htaccess, if you have your own .htaccess) must be in your site's parent directory, it is public_html as a rule. If you have several websites in public_html folder then our .htaccess file contents must be placed in the folder, where your current website is located.
Do not place our .htaccess file higher than public_html folder. It will not work as a rule.
Fourth: you have downloaded several of the scripts archives for two or more of your websites and mixed them up installing the wrong one to the server. I faced such an issue once.
If you checked everything, still the link pages do not open from the directory.php page, try the following:
type into your browser http://your_domain.com/path_to_link_directory/
showdirectory.php?category_url=Business
Make sure that the category Business exists on your directory.php page. You can chose any other existing category for this test.
For the slow-witted I'm explaining again:
If your domain name is somesite.com and the "Name of directory (Url) that will lead to your link pages" is partners,
type into your browser http://somesite.com/partners/
showdirectory.php?category_url=Business
If you see the message "No Sites added yet." it means either you don't have Mod_rewrite enabled on your server or you placed the contents of our .htaccess file improperly. Or your server has unique configuration settings regarding .htaccess file and you need to contact your hosting provider support to help you with this issue.
In case you don't have mod_rewrite at all but you still want to use our software, you have 2 choices:
1) You can make your link pages accessible as http://somesite.com/partners/
showdirectory.php?category_url=Business
Contact me and I will convert your link pages into this format.
2)You can use our unique and most flexible new feature: Context (Content) Links. See below for details. They do not need mod_wrerite at all.
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I want my link pages look like the rest of my site. But the graphics don't show.
In case you are a bit experienced in HTML and you chose to make your link pages inherit your website's look and design make sure to prepend a / slash in all of your <img src='/.... > tags. Otherwise graphics and images will not be displayed.
The instruction of making your link pages have your website design and look is written inside readme.txt. All you have to do is to insert your html code in our directory.php and showdirectory.php. Or you can copy the html code of one of your website's pages, then insert our php code in it from directory.php and save the page with the same name directory.php. Do the same with showdirectory.php file. Upload these updated files to your server and see what you have got. Make changes if necessary and update the files again.
The path (URL) to your main directory would be http://yourdomain.com/the_scripts_folder_name/directory.php
You can rename the directory.php to any name, only leave .php intact, otherwise the php code will not be executed and the whole system will not be working. In case you rename directory.php to, say, my_partners.php the path (URL) to your main directory will also be changed to http://yourdomain.com/the_scripts_folder_name/my_partners.php
Do not rename showdirectory.php!!!
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I want to do one way link exchange but I can't set a Partner Website.
If you choose to do a one way link exchange involving two of your websites, you will have to add the first Website and only when adding the second one you will be able to choose the first Website as your Website partner.
To change your Website click on the Edit own Websites link and choose among the existing Websites.
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How to add and manage Link Partners
To add a link partner to all Websites at once use the Add Dir/Context Link Partner link in the top right bar or Add Link Partner to all Websites link below the search box at the account.php page.To add a link partner to a specific Website, use Add Link Partner link below the Add Link Partner to current Website only beside a Website you wish to add a link to.
Our script's advantage is that you can add a link partner to all of your Websites simultaneously. There are common fields to all of your Websites such as Link partner title ("site title"), "Site URL", "Site description", "Webmaster" (link partner) Name and "email". So you can fill them only once at the very beginning.
These fields are added to all of your Websites provided you tick "Add site to your_domain.com database" checkbox beside a Website you wish to add a link partner to.
The common field serve only one purpose to facilitate the process of filling in the fields when adding a link partner. Since these fields are repeated on each of your Websites, they are made separate and have to be filled only once at the very top of the page.
Of course, you can make these fields visible beside each of your Websites, if you wish to put different values in them.
Go to "Edit Account" page and chose desired settings in:
"Show site title field for each Website on the Add Link Partner page:"
"Show site url field for each Website on the Add Link Partner page:"
"Show site description field for each Website on the Add Link Partner Site page:"
Individual fields are "Site category", the category in which a link partner will be displayed on a link page of a specific Website, "Send link exchange request Email field", "If BACK LINK to your site is already placed", "Show the site on your links page" and "Show the site on your links page".
These fields are specific to each of your Websites, therefore they must be filled in for each of your websites.
This is an example scenario of finding and adding link partners to the database.
Go to a major search engine and type in a key word related to your website. Or you can go to any site related to yours and find a links pages there. Look through the results and find suitable sites. This, as experience shows, turns to be the fastest and most responsive way of finding good link partners. Then read the "adding a link" instructions of a particular website that you like to swap links with and add the details to our database.
In the near future we are going to introduce something like a link auction among our users, with an option of instant link exchange, to reduce the time spent to find quality link partners.
Find the email of the link partner on his/her website and put it in the webmaster email field. If you can't find it, use the whois service to find the contact info by the link partner's Website.
If you can't find the webmaster name, leave it blank. You can fill it later, when he/she get back to you by email, you will find it in the email subject or bylines at the bottom of the message.
In case, you did not find any instruction of how to swap links with this website, you can find it's contact email using whois service, and fill in these fields: "site title", "Site URL", "Site description", "Webmaster" (link partner) Name and "email" either from a link page where you found that site listed, or just think up any link title and description that might be related to that site. You can even include a key word in the site title that the webmaster might be interested in to obtain good rankings in the major search engines.
You can always change this info if the link partner gets back to you and asks about it.
It's a good idea to add a link partner first to your Websites and contact him/her telling where their link is. This as experience shows makes your chances of making a swap much higher. This is what our link managing script is based on.
After you added, say, 10 link partners to the database, hit the "Invite New" button and all these link partners will get an email with your invitation to swap links, with the location of their links on all of your Websites that you chose to add a link partner, and with your link details.
If you don't want to send link exchange request Emails or if you add a link partner that has already placed a link to you, you can set "If BACK LINK to your site is already placed" field to "yes" and no link exchange request Emails will be sent to this link partner. Or you can set "Send link exchange request Email" to "2" or "no", which are the same.
If you want the back link of your link partner never be checked by our script and deactivated when not found, select "never check" option beside "If BACK LINK to your site is already placed" field. You may need this for placing your own links on your websites.
To find a link partner already present in the database use the "Find link partner site" search box. Read the help next to it.
Or you can look through the list of all existing link partners in the table below the search box. Click on the "List All Link Partners" link near your Website.
To add a link partner to a particular website only, you'd better use the "Add Dir/Context Link Partner" link near a Website you want to add to.
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How to add articles to your link pages
Some webmasters prefer to start their link pages with a preceding short article. How to do it?
You have 2 choices here:
1)You can make an article precede your link partners list.
2)You can make an article go after your link partners list.
This choice is determined by the "Choose the order in which link partner sites will be displayed on your link pages" field in your Website settings on the "Edit own Websites" page.
If you chose new sites be displayed on the TOP of the rest, your article will precede your link partners, provided you add it first, before adding any link partners. And vice versa.
To add an article, open the "Add link partner" link near a Website you wish to add the article to and do the following:
Tick "Cancel checking" box,
Leave blank the "Site title" field,
Fill in any bogus url in the "Site URL" field (it will not be displayed anyway)
Place your article text in the "Site description",
Chose the "Site category in which you want that article be displayed (this will be the links page having this Category name),
And necessarily select "never check" in the "If BACK LINK to your site is already placed" so that this bogus back link never be checked and your article never be deactivated.
That's all.
Note: Each of you link pages is Search Engines friendly and optimized, having a unique title, keywords and description. Adding an article to your link pages will make them unique and SE friendly even more.
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How the "Check new" and "Check all" work
"Check new" checks for your back link on all newly added link partners websites, that have "If BACK LINK to your site is already placed" = no.
If a back link to your website is found it sets "If BACK LINK to your site is already placed" = yes and marks a link partner as a successful link exchange.
note: It checks for backlink only on the "Back Link URL" pages (field in the "Add link partner" page).
"Check all" work just the same way except that it checks all "old" link partners only that have "If BACK LINK to your site is already placed" = yes field.
If a back link is not found a warning message is sent to a link partner and his/her website is marked as having "If BACK LINK to your site is already placed = no". This website will still be displayed on your link pages for a period of time "Number of days after a link partner is disabled for all Websites" (10 by default) that you set up on your "Edit account" page.
So, you don't have to worry about these websites, if its owner gets back to you in response to a warning message and tell you where your back link is, you can always edit this link partner and set "If BACK LINK to your site is already placed" = yes field.
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How "Disable" works
When you hit "Disable" button, all link partners that have "If BACK LINK to your site is already placed = no" are deactivated, i.e. will not be displayed on your link pages. In other words, they are marked as having "Show the site on your links page" = no.
note: Link partners are disabled in a "Number of days after a link partner is disabled for all Websites" that you set in your account. This number of days is counted after the second link exchange request Email is sent, or in case of "Check all" since the time when a back link to you was not found.
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What are Context Links?
Context Links are a totally new approach to link exchange comparing to a conventional Link Directories.
We called this new type of link exchange Context Links because you have to chose manually on what page of your website you like your link partners to be placed.
Context links could come in handy when you want to place your link partners on the content pages of your website, not only in links directory. But, of course, you can even place them in your directory links :)
Now fancy the situation when you have a website with thousands of content pages generated by a one page of php code and you want to place your link partners on some of these pages, but not on all of them. In case you have 1000 dynamically generated pages and you provide a slot for, say, 5 link partners per every page, you can swap links with 5000 websites and your site won't be overcrowded with links as in an ordinary case often happens with link directory pages.
Now, you have to solve the problem of how to place certain link partners on certain content pages, since the pages are generated by just one php script page. You can't just place a link into this php page, since it will be displayed on every page of your site generated by this php script. Then comes a problem how to manage your link partners, delete inactive, check the back links and so on and so on...
We offer you a perfect solution to this problem!
Just place a peace of our php code into your php script page (from readme.txt file in the script archive that you downloaded from the "Edit own Websites" page) and enjoy placing and managing your link partners on any page of your site.
Then all you have to do is to open a Context Links page in your Account Panel and add a link partner into the system, specifying the location of the link (the place where you want that link to appear) on your website and the link code of your link partner.
We presume that some webmasters will ask us about the safety of our php code which they will have to place on their websites.
We can assure you it's completely safe. Read it yourselves and make sure that it is.
If you haven't found the answer to your question contact us.
Also contact us and tell what features you would like to see in the script. Your feedback is very much welcome!
Use "Contact" link in the top right corner.
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How can I place Context Links on html or shtml pages of my site?
If your website uses the Apache web server (as most Linux/UNIX hosting packages do), you can instruct the web server to treat .html (.shtml or .htm) files as PHP. Create a file named ".htaccess" in your root directory and add the following to it (or append it to the bottom of the file, if it already exists):
AddType application/x-httpd-php .html
(Note: if you use ".htm" files, replace the ".html" above with ".htm")
Then you can place "CONTEXT LINKS" code found in the script's README.txt on any html page of your site.
It should work. If not contact me directly I will see what else I can do.
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Flash movies tutorials
05/04/2008 WL Automatic Links Exchanger now supports any programming language: PHP, ASP, ASP.net, Ruby on Rails etc.
Installation is completely automated, very simple and takes less than 1 minute!
28/11/2007 We moved to new faster Dedicated Servers!
WL Automatic Links Exchanger
- 24/11/2007 WL Automatic Links Exchanger update.
Now our software is working on any server even if it doesn't allow opening remote files. We also added enhanced functionality and more speed.
Affiliate Program- 10/06/2006 launched.
Like our script? Just recommended it to others and easily earn $2000 a month in residual income just doing ordinary link swapping! We pay you Life Time commission for every user!
Stable 1.3 Version released- 11/03/2006 We released the Stable version 1.3 WL Professional Links Manager