Earn A Living Online » phpBay Pro

phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Inserting phpBay Code Into Theme Files

Keith James Lock — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:05:16 +0000

It's been about a week since my last addition to the phpBay extended manual. My intention was to post a new piece of the manual each day until completion, but you know how things go. I've been quite busy. And, well, I'm going a bit out of order as well. I was going to write about phpBay keyword tracking, and I still will, just not today. I'll get to it soon enough.

This post covers inserting phpBay code into theme files. I came up with a cool idea for using it and thought I'd share it. I have a couple blogs that are 99% hands off, and have automated content, and I wanted a way to insert some auctions to the end of the posts without having to do it manually. Doing it this way you will end up with exactly the same auctions at the end of each post, which won't be as targeted, but it's still proven to work.

You could add some extra php code to show different auctions based on the current category, but I won't get into that here. If I get enough requests in the comments I'll edit this post.

This will be handy if you have an auto-blog on one main topic. I'm sure you can think of some other applications for it, this is just one purpose.

Look through the table of contents below if you want to jump to a different section first. Below the TOC are the quick steps to add phpBay code to your theme files.

Table Of Contents

Remember, phpBay has a sidebar widget you can use, but if you want more control, and want to add auction listings to the bottom of all posts, follow these steps...

In your WordPress admin panel, go to Appearance -> Editor.
On the right side you should see a file called Single Post (single.php), click it to open up the file in the editor on the left.
In this file there should be a command to show the post content. Look for the_content(). Just below that you can insert the phpBay code.
You can use any and all parameters here just like you would in a post or page, the example below shows just the keyword and the number of posts.

EDIT (June 9th, 2010): Use the code below if you want to show different auctions based on Category ID or Post/Page ID...

First.. you want to get the ID, to do that for the catgeory, under the 'Posts' menu click 'Categories', hover over the category name and in the status bar (bottom of browser) you will see a URL. The URL links to a page that allows you to edit the category. Don't click it, instead just look at the end of the URL... the catgeory ID is after the 'cat_ID=' part.

It's a similar process for posts/pages. Go to 'Edit' under 'Posts' or 'Pages'. Hover over the post or page name and in the status bar at the end of the URL you'll find the ID just after the 'post=' portion.

Now.. for most themes you can use the Category ID and/or Post ID values in single.php. For pages, use page.php.

The code for showing phpBay ads for a specific category... (replace {ID} with the actual Category ID that you found using the steps above)

NOTE: I just remembered... you can also use the category name rather than the ID if you prefer.

Text File With Code

For displaying ads for a specific post you usually just add proper phpBay code to the post add/edit screen. However if you want to show ads for a specific post but have more control of where it goes (instead of just the body of the post) then you can do that by editing the theme. Just use the code above but instead of the 'in_category' command use 'is_single'.

3 WordPress Review Site Types, With Examples

Keith James Lock — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:13:36 +0000

I just wanted to put together a quick post to talk about a few different types of review sites that I use.

Also, I will give some examples and the tools that are needed.

You'd be surprised at how well these work. It takes a bit of work of course, but when they are up and running, you could potentially have a network of money-earners that run on autopilot.

Pick a type and go with it. They ALL work!

Typical 3-5 Product or Service Review Site; Still Works

1st you have the typical review site that you see all over the place. A marketer lists 3-5 similar products or services, gives a "review", or better yet, gives facts, about each one. Each review has links to an affiliate offer where the customer can make a purchase.

As an example, I built one of these sites about a year ago (I sold it recently) that did very well. I was simply running ads in the content network on Google to get traffic. Anyway, the site reviewed 3 software packages from RegNow.com that allow someone to convert DVDs into Zune-playable files. Here's the site: ZuneMovieConverters.com and here's one of the landing pages: http://zunemovieconverters.com/dvd-to-zune-review. The site just uses WordPress and I used an HTML table in the post to format the text properly. Make sure there is other content on the site besides the review and it will do better. That's why it's nice to use WordPress, it makes it easier to add other content.

Another review site that is apparently doing quite well... between $2,000 and $3,000 per month according to the owner is this one: http://www.specialonlinebusinessreviewauthority.com/

I'm not sure what the site uses but it can easily be done in WordPress if you know how to edit themes. The owner is trying to sell the site right now for $27,000! All sales come from organic traffic too! He used strictly article marketing to accomplish that. Do not underestimate the power of article marketing. To potentially accomplish the same thing (it'll cost you about $47 minimum per month), sign up with AMA, and submit an article or 2 per week for a year (1 article can translate into 100's of backlinks slowly over time). In the first couple of articles use the anchor text of your main keyword. In the rest, use varying anchor text. Find related keywords using the Google External Keyword Tool to use as the anchor text. Then sell your site for 10x monthly profit and break me off a slice!

Customer Review Site

I love these customer review sites. I will be building more of these this year. You simply setup WordPress and write posts discussing facts or properties of several related products or services. You use a special plugin that will accept customer reviews in the form of comments. The customer can also rate the product based on any factor you wish. An overall rating will be shown next to the post. Here's an example of a site that reviews different hosting companies: http://www.awardwinninghosts.com/. I asked the author of the plugin the best way to get the reviews going initially and he said he just visits forums at the product/company web sites and, if allowed, asks other people in the forum (i.e. customers) to come over to the site and tell him what they think.

Check out the plugin site and you can see other cool examples.

Micro-Niche Review/Guide Websites

These sites are also very cool. They offer great value to your potential customer. You provide lots and lots of valuable content that the search engines will gobble up. The content will be guides, like "how-to" or "top 10" guides perhaps, and you will also add product reviews. The reviews will be for individual products that are available on eBay. You simple drop a few eBay auctions in the middle or end of your review of the product. Here's an example: http://forgedgolfirons.com/

These sites have long term earning ability. Don't expect any money too quickly. Wait a couple months and things should start picking up. And don't expect the money to stop flowing once it comes! Certainly, if you follow the plan in this 9-step guide you will have a well designed site that is ready for search engine love. The guys who wrote the guide have tried and tested the method and swear by it. They hardly do any marketing. They focus on content and site building and that's pretty much it. The tools used... phpBay and WordPress. You can get the exact details from this guide. I built about 5 of these sites since buying the guide last week. The way it's done is quite unique (at least from anything I've ever done). It's impressive. Also, try TextBroker.com for content. You don't have to worry about being stiffed by a writer on that site, plus you don't have to pay until you are satisfied. Had I known that last year I would've saved lots of money!

Have you used any of the above methods in the past? What do you think?

phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Replacing WordPress Search

Keith James Lock — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:30:16 +0000

We've come a long way in the extended manual for phpBay, but there's still a lot of good stuff coming up. We've already covered what I think are the basics, features that I believe should be part of the core. We got into phpBay geo ip targeting and of course making the images link over to the auctions as well.

Today I want to cover converting the WordPress search to a search which shows eBay results using phpBay instead. It's not something you would want to do on all of your sites though. For example, on this blog, I still want people to find post content when doing a search, although I still use phpBay on some of the pages of this blog. This change is more for sites that are strictly designed as eBay stores. Also if you use the Search2Post plugin from psp-tubes.net, then you will already have a plugin that performs this task, and then some. In addition to showing eBay results, Search2Post also creates a post on-the-fly with the search results. That way, new content is created over time. Anyway, let's get into it...

Table Of Contents

Replacing WordPress Search With eBay Search

You may want to replace the WordPress search function to show eBay listings rather than regular search results for the sites existing content. To do this you just have to replace some text in your theme's search.php file. Note: This doesn't work for all themes, so be sure to do a backup in case it doesn't work for you. Here are the steps...

Go to your theme folder with your FTP program (FileZilla). The theme folder will be located here: '/wp-content/themes/{theme name}/' where {theme name} is the name of your theme of course :)
We want to edit the search.php file but we should make a quick backup first. One way is to download the file to your computer. Rename it. Upload it again. Now you have a backup on the server in case you need to fall back to it.
Go to your Theme Editor (Appearance > Editor) in your WordPress Control Panel.
Open the file 'Search Results - search.php' from the right side.
Locate the line:

and then scroll down near the bottom and look for:

You will need to remove all the code between (and including) those 2 lines and replace it with:

Click here to get this code in a text file.
Click 'Update File'.
Go test the search function on your site. You should see a list of auctions as the result of a search. If not, and you get errors, check back through the code. Worse case scenario you can just restore your backup search file. To do that, go to your theme folder in your FTP software. Delete the file search.php. Locate your backup file (the one you renamed earlier) and rename it back to search.php. You can rename it right on the server. Just right-click and click 'Rename'.

That should do it. The next step is going to cover keyword tracking for SEO. In other words, you could see which keywords are used in the search engines to find your auctions, and that ultimately end in a sale. This upgrade is also FREE!

Any questions, please post below.

phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Making The Images Clickable

Keith James Lock — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:50:29 +0000

Continuing on with the phpBay Extended Manual... In this post I will explain how to make the images clickable (linking to the auction) in your phpBay eBay listings. If you are a bit more advanced and just want the answer: locate the html template files and edit the html adding in the proper tokens. If you need more help, please read on.

BTW, did you notice that I added a couple extra sections to the manual? I will also be covering SEO and PPC keyword tracking. Also, I will explain how to add phpBay code into your themes and give an example of when that might be useful. Those sections will be up in a few days. So far, I have had the luxury of having these posts pre-written because they exist already in a PDF manual I wrote. The new ones however have to be done from scratch, plus added to the PDF. I shouldn't be delayed too long, if at all, I still want to try and get a post a day out to you. Anyway read on for the steps...

Table Of Contents

Making The Images Clickable

To make the images in your auction listings clickable you just have to make a quick change to one or two of the template files that phpBay provides.

There is one file to change if you use columns and another file to change if you don't. It doesn't hurt to change them both in case you switch between a single column and multiple columns on occasion. Here's how...

Download the files 'template.ebay.results.html' and 'template.column.results.html' located in the '/wp-content/plugins/phpBay/templates/' folder, to your computer.
Open 'template.ebay.results.html' with a text editor. If using TextPad, right-click it and click TextPad and it will open with TextPad. If you double clicked it, it will likely just open in a browser and you won't be able to edit it, so you will want to open it like mentioned.
Locate the line with the code: (it's all on one line, it's just wrapped in the image below)

and change it to: (again, it's wrapped)
Save the file and re-upload, overwriting the existing file.
Now open 'template.column.results.html' with a text editor.
Locate the line with the code:

and change it to: (wrapped code below)
Go back to your test page and Refresh (F5) it to see your changes.

Next we'll replace the WordPress search with a search that displays phpBay results instead.

phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Geo-Targeting

Keith James Lock — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:01:14 +0000

This post is a continuation of the phpBay Pro Extended Manual. You can use Table of Contents below if you want to start from the beginning or jump to a different section.

Table Of Contents

There is a free plugin available that will automatically display auctions for the country of your visitor when they arrive on your site. Note: This is different than the WordPress Geo-Targeting Script that can be used for displaying any type of content to visitors from other countries. This one is specific to phpBay.

The plugin was created by Alan (a phpBay Pro user) and is available free (donation-ware) from his blog after opting-in to his newsletter. Let's get the plugin now...

Visit http://www.psp-tubes.net/wordpress/phpbay-plugin
Scroll to the very bottom because it is mostly an out-dated post.
Enter your name and email and click 'Send me the plugin'. You may be brought to a page that says 'Whoops! That Page Isn't Here'. Don't worry, there is just something funky going on with his subscription pages. Perhaps he should switch to Aweber ;) At any rate, you should quickly get an email with the Subject: 'ACTION REQUIRED: Confirm your subscription.'. Click the link in the email to confirm your subscription. You will again probably be brought to a page that says 'Whoops! That Page Isn't Here'. Again, don't worry. You should be receiving another email shortly with the link for the plugin.
Open the email with the Subject: 'phpBay plugin download details'.
Click the 2nd link in the email to download the plugin.

Now that we have the plugin, let's get it installed...

Unzip the file
Upload 'geo.php', 'combo.php', 'country.php' and 'geoip.inc' to '/wp-content/plugins/phpBay/includes/' on your server. Note: You will be overwriting 2 files, 'geo.php' and 'combo.php', so you may want to backup the ones on the server first. Renaming them on the sever before uploading the new ones will work.
Download the free database file from maxmind.com. Click here. Under the 'Binary Format' section, click the link 'Download the latest GeoLite Country Binary Format' to save the database to your computer. It will be compressed in .gz format. The free tool WinRAR can decompress the file, much like unzipping a file.
You will be left with a file called 'GeoIP.dat'. It needs to be uploaded to '/wp-content/plugins/phpBay/includes/' in Binary mode. If using FileZilla to upload, go to Transfer > Transfer type > Binary. You can check maxmind.com for a new version each month. I, myself, just update it every 6 months. When updating, just overwrite the existing file on the server.

That should do it! To be certain it works, switch the default country in the phpBay settings to one other than your own temporarily. Make sure the sorting options or the eBay logo is displayed (discussed earlier) because having one or both of those turned on will also turn on the country dropdown box. Now visit the test page that you created earlier. You should be now viewing auctions in your own country rather than the default country. If you still see the default country it might be because the page is cached. If using Firefox you can usually press Ctrl+F5 to fix that.

Notice something about the auctions? The darn images aren't clickable. We'll get to that next.

phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Parameter Settings

Keith James Lock — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:41:51 +0000

Today in the phpBay Pro Extended Manual, we will cover some of the more important settings that can be set on the page or post level. I have already covered installation and configuration and explained how to add phpBay code, and therefore, eBay listings, into a page. You can use the Table of Contents below if you want to read from the beginning.

Table Of Contents

phpBay Per-Post and Per-Page Settings

There are a number of settings that you can specify on a per-post or per-page level. I will go over some popular ones. The phpBay manual can be referenced for more details.

There are 18 total parameters that can be set, with the only required one being the 'search term' which is the first parameter. phpBay will check the global settings for the settings to use for any unused parameters. All parameters are separated by commas and have to be used in the proper order, but again, not all values have to be set. In the previous example we used just 2 of them.

The 1st parameter as we know, is the search term. If you want to add multiple terms, just separate them with the pipe symbol “|” (above the Enter key usually). For example:

The 2nd parameter is the number of auctions to display.

The 3rd parameter is the eBay Category ID. This is a great way to add different pages to your site broken down by catgeory. Also, for example, if you want to search for 'jewelry' but only Wholesale Lots, you would need to add a category ID, otherwise you will get results from multiple categories.

Click here for the US Category list and their corresponding ID's. Don't worry, the correct results will still show up when looking at other countries auctions.

Here's an example for 'jewelry' auctions in the 'Wholesale Lots' category. I will leave out the number of auctions (2nd parameter), to show you how to skip parameters that you do not want to use:

The 4th parameter is for exclusion keywords. Add words separated by spaces, as a way to filter out some auctions that show up in your results that don't belong or that you do not want.

Another parameter I like to use is the 12th one. It is used to specify a Custom ID on the page (or post) level. That way you can fine tune your tracking. Now, in addition to tracking at the site level, you can now track at the page/post level.

If you turned on 'paging' in the global settings, and you specify a value in parameter 2 (number of listings to show), then you will need to turn off paging for this page/post. To do that, set the 17th parameter to a 0 (just the number zero).

Next I will get into setting up geo-targeting for phpBay which is a free upgrade that will automatically show auction listings specific to the visitors country.

phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Testing

Keith James Lock — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:26:13 +0000

At this stage in the phpBay Pro Extended Manual, we have been through the installation and configuration steps. Now let's test it out.

Table Of Contents

Let's make a sample page (it doesn't have to be published) with some auctions so that we can see the progress of the changes that we make when doing the upgrades (geo-targeting and image linking).

Just add a new page like you normally would...

Under 'Pages', click 'Add New'.
Add a Title.
Click the 'HTML' tab on the editor.
Click the 'phpBay' button that shows up in the editor. You should now see the following code:
Erase everything between the tags so that you have:
Insert a search term between the tags...use a term that you might use when searching eBay for the auctions that you want to display. Then put a comma and the number of auctions you want to display. Example:
Click 'Save Draft'.
Click 'Preview'.

Now you have a basic working example of eBay auction listings for the country that was set in the phpBay global settings. You can manually switch to display different countries' auctions if you like. I will explain shortly how to do it automatically.

In the next step I will go through some of the settings that you can specify at the post/page level.

phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Configuration

Keith James Lock — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:33:25 +0000

This is a continuation of phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual. Yesterday, I went through installation and activation. Today I'll explain some of the more important configuration settings.

Table Of Contents

Setting Up A Campaign On eBay Partner Network:

Setting up a unique campaign per site rather than using the default is a good idea because you will be able to track the sites that are making you sales and how much they are making.

Click 'Campaigns' from the top menu.
Click 'Create Campaign' from the secondary menu.
Enter a Campaign name and click 'Create'.
Make note of the newly created 'Campaign ID'.

Configuring phpBay:

Go to Settings > phpBay Pro

Enter your license number in the top box and click 'Update Options'.
In the 'Affiliate Settings' section enter the Campaign ID that you just created, and in the 'Custom ID' box, enter the name you gave the Campaign. Click 'Update Options'.

The rest of the options are a matter of preference but I will go through the settings that I usually choose.

Choose the country that you are targeting mainly. This setting won't matter much later because we will be setting up geo-targeting and the country will automatically be selected based on your visitors location.
Under the 'Basic Options' I always turn on the following: 'Use SEO URLs', 'Display Items with Images Only', 'Use mod_rewrite on eBay Images'.
Under the 'Visual Display Options' I always turn on the following: 'Display the eBay Logo?', 'Create Clean Product Titles?', 'Display Sort Options?'. You can turn on 'Display Listings in Columns?' if you want. I do sometimes. Most themes usually fit 3 columns. If the theme won't fit 3 columns, you may want to turn off the eBay logo and the sort options too because they likely won't fit either. You'd have to test it to be sure.
Under the 'Advanced Options' I always select 'Time: ending soonest' from the 'Select Sort Order:' drop down box. This setting won't matter if you didn't turn on 'Display Sort Options?' under the 'Visual Display Options' though. This is also the section where you can turn on 'paging' and set the max number of listings if you wish, but those values can be overridden on a per-page/per-post level.
Don't forget to change the URL to your affiliate URL in the 'Enter your affiliate link:' box, under 'phpBay Pro Affiliate Settings', or just remove the text altogether.
Click any of the 'Update Options' buttons and go through to make sure all your settings have been saved correctly.

If you turned on either 'Use SEO URLs' or 'Use mod_rewrite on eBay Images' under the 'Basic Options' as suggested, after saving your settings, you will see a box at the top called '.htaccess Code'. That code will need to be copied and pasted into your .htaccess file. Use the steps below:

Click inside the textbox and the code should all be highlighted. Right-click and click 'Copy' to get the code to the clipboard.
Go back to FileZilla. Go to the root of your WordPress install. You should see a .htacess file near the top. Download it to your desktop. If it's not there, press F5. If it's still not there, it may not have been created yet. A quick way to create it is to change your permalinks. You probably should change them anyways. Go to Settings > Permalinks and change the 'Custom Structure' to something like:
/%category%/%postname%/
OR
/%postname%/

and click 'Save Changes'. Now go Refresh (F5) FileZilla and download the .htaccess file.
Open the file in a text editor. Be careful, some text editors jumble this file and therefore screw it up when re-saved. I use TextPad which displays/saves it correctly.
The code from the phpBay Settings page should be still on your clipboard. If not, go back and grab it and paste it (right-click > paste) at the very top of the .htaccess file and Save it.
Upload the .htaccess file back to your server and overwrite the existing one.

phpBay is now configured and ready to be dropped into posts and pages. Now let's test it out...

phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Installation and Activation

Keith James Lock — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:37:11 +0000

Continuing on from phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual - Introduction...

Table Of Contents

phpBay installs just about like any other plugin for WordPress, but there are a few extra files.

Firstly...

Download the plugin to your desktop
Unzip it (free unzipper: WinRAR)

After unzipping the package you will see...

An 'images' folder, a 'wp-content' folder, an 'auction.php' file, the instruction manual and a troubleshooting text file.

Upload/FTP Steps (free FTP'er: FileZilla)

Upload all the images from the 'images' folder to the 'images' folder in the root of your blog. If you don't have an 'images' folder in the root, just upload the entire folder.
Upload the 'auction.php' file to the root of your blog.
Upload the entire 'phpBay' folder that is inside of the 'wp-content/plugins/' folder, to the '/wp-content/plugins/' folder of your blog.

Now, login to your WordPress Control Panel, click 'Plugins' from the left menu, and Activate 'phpBay Pro Plugin for WordPress'.

Now, phpBay is installed and activated! Good job! Move on to: phpBay Pro Configuration

phpBay Pro: The Extended Manual – Introduction

Keith James Lock — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 03:58:09 +0000

Want to learn how to get the most out of phpBay Pro for WordPress? This manual will provide, in plain English, thorough instructions for installing, configuring and tweaking the phpBay Pro plugin. There are multiple posts in this guide, scheduled to publish at one a day, that way there isn't just one gigantic post to read. Also, I will add a Table of Contents in each post, which will be updated daily to reflect the links to the new posts as they go live.

Table Of Contents

Assumptions

This guide assumes that you know what phpBay is, that you have a license for it, that you have an account with eBay Partner Network and that you have the latest version of WordPress installed.

If not...

Learn about phpBay here.
Use this link to buy phpBay and when prompted for a discount code, use: DA9CD69F42 to get 20% off.
Sign up with eBay Partner Network here.
Use the WordPress auto-install on your host if available or try the 5-minute install instructions here.

You may also want to check out this 9 step guide if you would like to start from the ground up.

Next post: phpBay Pro Installation/Activation