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Important Pre Sale Questions Part 1

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Important Pre Sale Questions Part 1
Hi all:

I have been tasked with starting a web portal for a particular industry (industry withheld). The concept is not new; we want to provide people who work in this industry links to companies and individuals who support it. I have researched different products and read throughout the Gossamer website and the forums and still feel I don’t have a good grasp on some of the following:
  1. A redundant question: I have considerable experience with HTML and this has been primarily in a WYSIWYG environment. I have no experience with cgi, perl or php. To set up and maintain a Links SQL site is this going to be a problem? Between cgi, perl and php which would you suggest I learn the most in order to be a more affective Links SQL administrator.

  2. This site is intended as an income generator. As I have not been authorized the finances for the PPC module these question should center on the basic Links SQL product. We plan on offering our clients the following; basic listings (free), Top Spot listings, Highlighted listings, Sponsored Links, banner listings, etc.

    • Top Spot Placement: I intend to sale the top spots for each category to clients where their links appear at the top of the list? Can this also be done per search, I.E. keywords, context sensitive? Perhaps the top five of each category will be for sale. Is this possible with Links SQL? With or without major modification?

    • Highlighted Links: I also want to sale a placement or two that would be at the top of the search but perhaps separated by a line or something. These links would behave just as the regular Top Spots mentioned above but be highlighted (Different color, larger font?) Similar to the sponsored links that are atop of Google searches. Is this possible with Links SQL? With or without major modification?

    • Side Bar Sponsored Links: I would also like to sale links similar to the Sponsored Links on Google that reside on the right side of the Google pages. These would be related to the search terms and/or categories selected. Is this possible with Links SQL? With or without major modification?

    • Banners: Does Links SQL support banners that run atop of the pages? These banners would not have to be targeted to a search or category but if that is possible that is more desirable. Does this require a separate program? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

    • Detail Pages: I want to offer “mini web pages” (detail pages) for sale as a supplement to a clients main web page. These have been covered pretty well in the documentation however I want to allow one detail page to link or have multiple links (like a menu) to other detail pages, I.E. I sale a detail page to a consulting company. This page offers general information on their company. On this page there are links to other pages that offer info on the individual consultants that they employ. Is this possible with Links SQL? With or without major modification?



Thank you. There are more questions coming.
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Re: [rlesley] Important Pre Sale Questions Part 1 In reply to
Quote:
A redundant question: I have considerable experience with HTML and this has been primarily in a WYSIWYG environment. I have no experience with cgi, perl or php. To set up and maintain a Links SQL site is this going to be a problem? Between cgi, perl and php which would you suggest I learn the most in order to be a more affective Links SQL administrator.

"cgi" is a protocol, or process, not a language. It's a means of providing interaction between the client and host (in this case, a user and the website). I don't like PHP, as it's origins were a means of adding functionality to a site that had most of the functionality blocked by back-end security. PERL is a much better choice if you are going to use GT's programs.


Quote:
This site is intended as an income generator. As I have not been authorized the finances for the PPC module these question should center on the basic Links SQL product. We plan on offering our clients the following; basic listings (free), Top Spot listings, Highlighted listings, Sponsored Links, banner listings, etc.

Most people have the goal of generating income with their site. The methods are all different.

Quote:
Top Spot Placement: I intend to sale the top spots for each category to clients where their links appear at the top of the list? Can this also be done per search, I.E. keywords, context sensitive? Perhaps the top five of each category will be for sale. Is this possible with Links SQL? With or without major modification?

This is not an out of box feature. If you read through the forums, you can find code to do most of this. But, your best bet is a PPC plugin, or AdvertPro plugin, especially if you are trying to provide statistics back to the client.

Quote:
Highlighted Links: I also want to sale a placement or two that would be at the top of the search but perhaps separated by a line or something. These links would behave just as the regular Top Spots mentioned above but be highlighted (Different color, larger font?) Similar to the sponsored links that are atop of Google searches. Is this possible with Links SQL? With or without major modification?

This can be done with one of the priority mods. If you don't mind manually placing these ads, it would be _almost_ an out of the box thing. You just pick the link ID's, and <%include template%> for each of those links, with a simple call to a global that just loads the data for those links. Sounds tricky, but the code is already posted in the forums for that.

Quote:
Side Bar Sponsored Links: I would also like to sale links similar to the Sponsored Links on Google that reside on the right side of the Google pages. These would be related to the search terms and/or categories selected. Is this possible with Links SQL? With or without major modification?

Again, this is something that works best if you use one of the advertising programs, such as AdvertPro. Use your "sponsored links" as the banners, and insert them in an included file. Targeted advertising features, keywords, category targeting, etc are more available that way. Otherwise, this is a modification, that would require a plugin in, and possibly higher cost than one of the existing solutions.

The PPC or AvertPro system will do much of what you want, and is _probably_ a better, more integrated method of doing it, if this is your primary goal, and you know this up front.


Banners: Does Links SQL support banners that run atop of the pages? These banners would not have to be targeted to a search or category but if that is possible that is more desirable. Does this require a separate program? Any suggestions would be appreciated.


Detail Pages: I want to offer “mini web pages” (detail pages) for sale as a supplement to a clients main web page. These have been covered pretty well in the documentation however I want to allow one detail page to link or have multiple links (like a menu) to other detail pages, I.E. I sale a detail page to a consulting company. This page offers general information on their company. On this page there are links to other pages that offer info on the individual consultants that they employ. Is this possible with Links SQL? With or without major modification?


PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

The best way to contact me is to NOT use Email.
Please leave a PM here.
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Re: [rlesley] Important Pre Sale Questions Part 1 In reply to
Hi there,

If I am not wrong, I am having all the features that you talked about and more at my web site Need Scripts. Also, the best part is, anyone can use all these and tons of more features without any knowledge of programming. You don't need to be a pro in html either, just make sure that you have basic understanding of HTML tags/codes and have an attention span of 10 minutes or more and you can easily modify any template as you wish.

Hope this helps.

Vishal

Vishal
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Re: [pugdog] Important Pre Sale Questions Part 1 In reply to
Thanks pugdog for you quick response. You seem to be the resident expert as I see your name everywhere. Not that you haven't already typed enough on my behalf but what are your thoughts on the question below. I know you skipped it in your respnse and thought perhaps it was to vague. If you have nothing I still appreciate you time. Thanks.

Quote:
Detail Pages: I want to offer “mini web pages” (detail pages) for sale as a supplement to a clients main web page. These have been covered pretty well in the documentation however I want to allow one detail page to link or have multiple links (like a menu) to other detail pages, I.E. I sale a detail page to a consulting company. This page offers general information on their company. On this page there are links to other pages that offer info on the individual consultants that they employ. Is this possible with Links SQL? With or without major modification?[/reply]
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Re: [rlesley] Important Pre Sale Questions Part 1 In reply to
Hi,

1. No CGI, Perl, PHP experience is required to use and customize the program. A good working knowledge of HTML helps considerably (especially HTML outside of a WYSIWYG editor), as the templates are all in HTML. To be able to do small customizations to the program, a basic knowledge of perl can help (but it is definitely not required).

2. Top Spot, Highlighted, Side Bar can all be done with globals, and you can find many such examples on the forum. Banners can be implemented using either one of our AdvertPRO or Adcycle banner plugins. Detail Pages is a built in feature, and no customization is required.

Hope that helps,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [NeedScripts.Com] Important Pre Sale Questions Part 1 In reply to
Thanks for your response. You have a nice site. Would you say your site was done with a a lot of modification or a little? I am not against modifications I just am not sure of my abilities within this program. Thank in advance.
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Re: [rlesley] Important Pre Sale Questions Part 1 In reply to
In Reply To:
Thanks for your response. You have a nice site. Would you say your site was done with a a lot of modification or a little? I am not against modifications I just am not sure of my abilities within this program. Thank in advance.


Well, I just took AltaVista style template and edited almost all the pages. I believe if you already have a good design/layout in your mind then it might not take you more than a day or two to get it working, but it also depends on how much time you spend on it each day.

Also remember, if you are a new user, it is very much normal for you to take little more time to understand it, however I am positive that any person with average understanding can be a pro in using Links SQL within few days only if he/she spends enough time on it. And just by looking at your questions, I will say you are above average and it in no time, you should be able to work on Links SQL without any problem.

And remember to visit this board for any problems you encounter of modification you might need.

Vishal

Vishal
-------------------------------------------------------
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Re: [rlesley] Important Pre Sale Questions Part 1 In reply to
Hi,

You can do something like adding a field to the database "Paid_Site" and if "Yes" enable a link on the detail pages that links to the rest of their pages.

If you wanted to "hide" the sites, you could make "Paid_Site" a url, and rather than "Yes" just use <%if Paid_Site%><A href=<%Paid_Site%>>link to url page</A><%endif%> type of construct.


PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

The best way to contact me is to NOT use Email.
Please leave a PM here.