Hi folks,
I want to have something similar to the LWP reciprocal link checker mod on my site, but have been advised that it will be less processor intensive to have the submitter put an image on their site, rather than check for the reciprocal link with LWP. I would like to understand a bit more about how this would work. I will have to hire a programmer for this, but before I do I need to understand the concept.
Does anyone understand this and know what I am talking about here? The info I have been given so far is very sketchy, so apologies. I would like to understand what the proceedure is, does the image get called from my server or does the submitter have the image on their server. Why is this less processor intensive than LWP and what is the gist of how it would work?
Any info or pointers to info simple enough for a newbie to grasp would be appreciated....
Thanks,
-V

 
Ah...This is quite easy. All you do is have a download page where people can download graphics of your site and instructions for adding a link to your site. For an example, check out:

www.anthrotech.com/resources/link.shtml


Hmm...If you are not comfortable with designing a web page, then I suppose you could hire a web developer, but why a programmer?


Sort of...You would like people to post a graphic and link back to your web site on their web page(s), right?


The best thing to do is have people download graphics/icons/logos from your site and place it in their local directory.


Ah...it doesn't use any of your server's CPU. All people do is download images and then link to your site. Using LWP to check all your sites to see if people are linking to your site would take a long time and also would be intensive on your CPU, which your Hosting Company may not appreciate or allow.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

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Eliot Lee
Anthro TECH,L.L.C
www.anthrotech.com
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Eliot wrote:

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Hmm...If you are not comfortable with designing a web page, then I
suppose you could hire a web developer, but why a programmer?

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I have already designed the page, that is not the issue.
What I want to do is have a reciprocal links area that checks a database to see if the submitter has a link back to my site before sending them to the add.cgi page. Just thought this would cut down on admin tasks, since only sites that already have the link installed can submit.
A bit more involved than I have a clue about how to implement though...

The general concept that I still don't grasp is how my web site knows the image is on the other site? I gather from what I read here that there is some sort of detection of the image every time the page with the image is accessed, and that this is sort of automatic, but I don't understand how and why this works? Something built in to html or Unix?
Really mostly just curiosity on my end, I would just like to grasp the concept.
Thanks!!!
-V

The only method available at this time to check other sites if they are truly linking back to your site is via LWP. There are some Net:Use and LWP codes that will allow you to check to see if images are being used on other sites. However, the only way that this can be done is having people link to an image in your web site.

You can also use InfoSeek's advanced search query language to check other sites that are linking to your site (and images), like the following:

link:http://www.mydomain.com/
link:http://www.mydomain.com/images/img.gif

However, the problem with this method is that InfoSeek does not update its directory very often, which will not provide you accurate results compared to running LWP script locally from your server.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee
Anthro TECH,L.L.C
www.anthrotech.com
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