WP Snowball: Overview
This page is a quick look into Snowball, and an overall glance at what it does. You can class this page as quick set-up guide, linking to other articles for you to see if you need a bit more detail.
WP Snowball is an auto-blogging plugin for Wordpress that creates posts and links, then monetizes it all, tracking along the way. It uses various filters to make the content more unique.
WP Snowball works by creating a post, then whenever a visitor lands on that post, it creates several more (you can change how many each time in the settings). This means that the snowball gets bigger and bigger until it reaches the max level. Using this technique makes a completely natural posting schedule - which combined with the unique content and links, can get visitors to monetize (automatically if you want)
An important note to add - is that you need to start the Snowball by giving it a post, then it'll 'roll that post down the hill', creating a huge network over time. This initial post you publish (like any normal post) we call the "Source Post". It's easier to describe in a picture, so here you are:
Make sure you've read through these help docs to ensure you're getting the best out of WP Snowball. You will find help tooltips in the plugin next to the relevant section, but you'll find everything in more detail here. (so you may want to give this page a bookmark)
Getting The Plugin and Installing
You can use the logins (the ones you got by email) to log into this page:
codexplugins.com/wp-admin
Here you can download the plugin and install it like any other (through the WP dashboard or FTP)
Click here for more information on downloading/upgrading the plugin
You'll also need IonCube Loaders on your server. Your host can set this up for you (a quick email and they can set it up) - you can set it up for yourself (here's the instructions) if you want.
(there's also some easy-to follow videos on Youtube, just search Ioncube installation +{your_host})
Set-up
When you've activated the plugin, you should see an icon at the bottom of the left-hand menu. When you click on this it will take you to WP Snowball's dashboard.
To familiarize yourself with the plugin settings, have a glance around the different tabs. I'll go through each one briefly here - linking to the more in-depth documentation for each.
Dashboard
You'll be looking at the dashboard more than any other page of the plugin as this displays all the key stats you may want to check every now and again (not required though).
The dashboard is split into three sections:
- Key Stats
This shows you totals for Snowballs, posts, links(that Snowball's made to your posts) and clicks (for your affiliate links) - Snowball Graph
This shows a visual representation of your most recent snowball (you can double-click on a post to trigger more posts) - Post Frequency
Here's a great way to see how many posts are going live each day.
For a more in-depth look at the dashboard - Click Here.
Sources
In this section you can choose which sources you want to use for Content, Media, Links and Monetization. You'll need to enter account information for Links and Monetization.
The important thing here is NOT to just click them all. Each source is different and may not suit your niche. For the most relevant results, you might want to spend a while seeing which are the best fit for you.
More info on the sources, and how to enter the accounts
Settings
This is where you'll need to go to enter which settings you want. Most of these are optional (you don't need to change them if you don't want to). The most important section here is the "core keywords". This is Not generic keywords for your niche, this is a backup feature for content relevancy. I would recommend everyone read the detailed guide for this page, as if you enter poor core keywords, you will get poor relevancy.
All mandatory settings are marked with an '*'(asterisk) if you want to get it up and running quickly.
Detailed Guide For Settings
Styles
On this page, you can choose the theme (style) of the snippets of post that link to another article. You can choose one of the built in styles - or make your own with the editor.
More info on Styles
Snowballs
In the Snowballs tab - you'll find a list of your most recent snowballs. Here you can see at a glance what level each snowball is (so you know how much more it's going to grow).
For each snowball (most recent first) you'll see:
- Date Created
- Post name (you can click this to see the post)
- The level that post is in the snowball.
More info on the Snowballs tab
Log
You can click on this tab to see what WP Snowball is doing.
Whenever WP Snowball does anything, it'll post an entry into the log. You shouldn't need to worry about this too much - as any major errors will be displayed on the dashboard. For those of you who want to know, The log section is split into 3 seperate logs:
- Main Log
This will show a general message displaying what it's done, and the outcome. This can be creating a new post, or getting a link etc. - Post Cron Log
This displays the last WPS post cron event that ran. This is mainly for debugging as it'll show the issue it ran into if there was a problem - Click Cron Log
This shows details of clicks through to affiliate offers - Link Cron Log
This shows the most recent WPS link cron, displaying much like the Post Cron Log, it'll show what happened, and how long it took for your server to complete it. - AD cron log
This shows details of when WPSB collected ads for posts
To have a look at exactly what gets displayed, and any error messages etc:
Detailed Log guide
Bottom Menu
Here you'll find links that you may find useful:
- Licence This will display the domains that your copy of WP Snowball is licenced for
- Portal This links to codexplugins.com/wp-admin, so you can login to your download area (for downloading plugins/adding licences)
- Features Clicking on this will take you to the support forum, where you can vote on features you'd like to see in Snowball - We'll be taking the top-voted each time we make an update (if it's do-able)
- Docs Clicking this will lead you to the support documents (here)
- Support You can click this if you want to shoot us an email, any problems that you have we'll try to sort for you.
- Version Number This displays the Version of WP Snowball that you're running, you'll see a message in the plugin if there's an update that you've not got.
Got a Problem? Want some help?
From time to time everyone needs a hand, whether you don't understand something or you're running into some problems. Most of the time, you'll find the answer in these support documents but if you can't find what you need there - don't worry!
We're more than happy to help you out - simply send us an email (codex AT codexplugins.com)
Or open a support ticket by clicking 'Contact Support' on the top right of the screen.