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WP Snowball: Sources

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Overview


On the sources tab - you can select the sources you want to use for content, media, links and monetization.

To enable any source, click it so that it's fully visible. For Content and Media - all you need to do is activate the ones you want.

When it's de-activated it'll show as transparent:



When you click and activate it - it'll become opaque. This is how you tell if it's selected or not:




For the Link sources, and Monetization sources, you'll need to add more info - like account details. To enter details, when the source is clicked on you'll see something like this:




You can then click the
icon (cog) to bring up another menu to enter the accounts.




When you've entered all the accounts you need you can click on the source again to minimize the menu. Once you've finished adding all the details to sources you want - remember to hit the 'save settings' button at the bottom of the page.

Content




Here you can select where WP Snowball will get content from. WPSB will collect from 1 random source per post, check for a relevant article - then post it to the blog with an image/video (see media section).

When WPSB is making a post - it'll pick a random content source from the ones you've got selected. Then it'll search for an article that matches keywords from the post that triggered it. Once it's found an article, it checks that against your core keywords. If it doesn't match any of your core keywords it disregards the article and tries again.

When it's got an article that passes the filters, it adds info stuffing to keywords of the article, then gets an image and posts.

You can see when content has been posted - and which source was used in the log, you can also see the recent snowball graph on the dashboard update with the changes.

Here's each content source and what you can expect it to produce. This is worth a glance to see which would be the best fit for your niche. You can click on any of the sources to go to their site to have a look.



    • Type: Q&A
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Press releases
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: News
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article/Book Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for: Science/technology blogs.

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Social
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: News
    • Suitable for:
  1. http://codexplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/examiner.png
    • Type: News/Social
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Q&A
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Press releases
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Article Directory
    • Suitable for:

    • Type: Social
    • Suitable for:

 

Media




When a post is being published - WPSB will randomly select one media source from the ones you've chosen. WPSB then searches for a relevant piece of media using the keywords of the post that triggered it. They'll only ever be 1 piece of media added to the article from 1 source (randomly selected)

When there's a matching piece of media, it's added above the content and published as a new post.

There are some circumstances where WPSB can't find a relevant piece of media (usually when it can't find anything for that keyword). When this happens, the post will get published without the media. You can minimize the chances of this happening by selecting more sources or making sure it's a 300+ word seed article.

Here's a list of all the media sources you can choose from.



    • Type: Video

    • Type: Image

    • Type: Video

    • Type: Image

    • Type: Video

    • Type: Social

    • Type: music

    • Type: Image

    • Type:Image

    • Type: Image

    • Type: Image

    • Type: Media

    • Type: image

    • Type: social/image

    • Type: image

    • Type: video

 

Links




Here you can choose the link sources you'd like WPSB to use. When a post is made - a random number of links between 0 and your maximum (set in settings) will be scheduled for the future. When it's time for a link to go live, WPSB will syndicate a portion of the post with a link to it. When it's got a link, it will make an entry in the Link Cron Log.

As most of the link sources are post-by-email you'll have to make sure WPSB doesn't send more emails than your host's limit (you can see common hosts limits and more info on the settings support page)

You can see the scheduled links and force the next one to be processed from the debugging box in the post.


    • Free/Paid: Free
    • Link-Type: HTTP
    • Additional Info:
      You don't need to enter any information for stat links. (just turn it on)
      When this is used - it will get a link to your homepage from various stat-type sites. This is great for getting indexed.


    • Free/Paid: Free
    • Link-Type: HTTP
    • Signup Link:  http://delicious.com
    • Additional Info:

      Just signup and enter your username and password in the following format:

    • Format: Username:Password

    • Free/Paid: Free
    • Link-Type: API
    • Additional Info:

      To get your API Key, when logged in, click on this link, fill in the details (doesn't matter what you put) and click 'Generate API Key'

    • Format: username:password:APIkey

    • Free/Paid: Free
    • Link-Type: HTTP
    • Signup Link: http://www.livejournal.com/
    • Additional Info:

      For Live journal you just need to enter username and password.

    • Format: Username:Password

    • Free/Paid: Free
    • Link-Type: XMLRPC
    • Signup Link: http://wordpress.com/
    • Additional Info:

      This is the free version of Wordpress where it's hosted at wordpress.com
      The endpoint is the xmlrpc url to send posts to - this is usually yourdomain.wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php - you can check this by entering it into a browser, it should say that it only accepts post requests.

    • Format: username:password:XMLRPCendpoint

    • Free/Paid: Self-hosted
    • Link-Type: XMLRPC
    • Additional Info:

      Like the free (wordpress.com) wordpress, it uses the XMLRPC endpoint. This may change depending on what theme you're using, but it's usually yourdomain.com/xmlrpc.php.

    • Format: username:password:XMLRPCendpoint

    • Free/Paid: Free
    • Link-Type: Post-By-Email
    • Signup Link: www.blogger.com/
    • Additional Info:

      When you've signed up to blogger, you'll need to make a blog. Then you can get the post-by-email address from the settings.

    • Format: PostByEmailAddress:BlogUrl

    • Free/Paid: Paid (14 day free trial)
    • Link-Type: Post By Email
    • Additional Info:

      When you've signed up and added a blog - you'll find the post-by-email in the settings.

    • Format: PostByEmailAddress:BlogUrl

    • Free/Paid: Paid
    • Link-Type: Post-by-email
    • Additional Info:

      When you've signed up and added a blog - you'll find the post-by-email in the settings.

    • Format: PostByEmailAddress:BlogUrl

    • Free/Paid: Free
    • Link-Type: Post-by-email
    • Additional Info:

      For onsugar you'll need to authorize the email address you're sending from. By default WPSB sends from 'admin@' the default set by your server (usually the domain) - on some shared hosts you may find this doesn't work - this is because Onsugar is disregarding due to headers from your host saying it originated from a php script.

    • Format: PostByEmailAddress:BlogUrl

    • Free/Paid: Free Trial (No CC)
    • Link-Type: Post By Email
    • Additional Info:

      For help setting up, here's their help article: Squarespace post by email

    • Format: PostByEmailAddress:BlogUrl

    • Free/Paid: Either
    • Link-Type: Post by email
    • Additional Info:

      You can enter any email in here for WPSB to syndicate an excerpt and a link to. All you need is the post-by-email address.

    • Format: email

    • Free/Paid: Either
    • Link-Type: XMLRPC
    • Additional Info:

      The endpoint is:
      The XMLRPC endpoint that accepts POST requests ('.xmlrpc')
      API types are:
      'wp', 'blogger', 'metaweblog'. These are types of XMLRPC and will be available in the docs of the service you're using.
      Blog ID:
      The blog ID is only applicable for the 'blogger' API type, this is the blog ID you wish to post to. For other API types, or if you're unsure - enter '0'.

    • Format: username:password:endpoint:apitype:blogid

 

Monetization




Here you can choose which monetization sources you'd like to use. When a post is made, WPSB collects ads from a random source selected here. When ad's are collected, they're added to the ad cache for that post. There will be a picture in the post from the cached ads (if WPSB can find one). You can see the ad cach in the debugging box on each post.

WPSB will cloak the links by having them as a url variable which forwards them onto the offer.

You can change the ads on your site by clicking 'force new ads' in the post debugging box.(on each post)




To enable Clickbank - you'll need to enter your affiliate ID, this is usually what you login to clickbank with (username).

Enter your Affiliate ID into the box, then there's two dropdowns for you to select which type of products you want to display.

Category
This is the category in Clickbank - WPSB will search in this category with the criteria in search type to find the ads.

If you select "all" then it will search in all sections, which can be beneficial if you've got a blog that fits into several catagories (If set to all, it's recommended that you select 'seed keyword' for the search type.

Search Type
WPSB will use this to search for ads in the category that you've selected above.







To use Commission Junction, you'll need to enter your developer key, and your website ID. WPSB will then choose relevant products to promote that you've been accepted for.

You can get your CJ developer key by clicking HERE

Your Website ID is found in your account settings.

Note: You need to be accepted to the affiliate programs individually on CJ or they won't show as ads. (this is done as you wouldn't get commission otherwise)






All you need to activate Adsense is to enter your publisher ID. You just need to enter the numbers.

WPSB will then display a block of adsense ads on posts.




For Amazon - you'll need to enter your Amazon Tracking ID. This is displayed in the top left of the screen when logged into your Amazon affiliate account.

Then choose a category for WPSB to pick a product from.

You'll also need to enter the TLD of the program you've signed up for.





You can also be an affiliate for WP Snowball - if you'd like more information, shoot me an email (support@codexplugins.com)

Just enter your Avangate affiliate ID and ad's for WPSB will show with your affiliate link.

 

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