Subscribe to RSS FeedAMR #5 - A Lengthy Process
So after my last post, I had decided to provide less hosts on my site but provide more details for each host. I sort of ran into a problem at first. Most hosts (at least all the big ones) have more then just one type of server. The way I had my pages setup weren’t providing me to list more then one type of server. For example, 1and1 hosting has shared hosting plans, and each of those plans can either be on Linux or Windows. So as I started to enter in the first plan’s details I realized this. I guess some planning ahead of time would have made this more productive, but it’s my first run and I am still learning.
So I had to come up with a strategy to be able to show all the hosting plans along with all the servers available for each host. Luckily a couple days ago as I was browsing the WordPress plugins I saw a listing for a Collapsible Elements plugin. Basically you can create links that when clicked on will popup a table/div or whatever else you might need without having to reload the page thanks to Javascript. So I installed the plugin, tried it out and found out that it didn’t work exactly how I wanted it to. So, I found myself stuck at this point as what to do. I read the blog johncow.com and after I spent about 5 minutes thinking of how I would go about doing what I needed to do, I remembered a certain feature I had seen on John’s blog. So I headed over to do some more research. If you head to his site, you’ll notice that in the main body of the page where the post is, at the top are tabs. When clicked on, each of these tabs loads up a different section displaying different data. Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for. So after digging around in the source code, I found out what script was running that was able to do this. The script is called Tabber and it employs the use of Javascript. I’ve messed around a bit with PHP before, but never really Javascript.
Fortunately, there isn’t much you have to do to modify the script if anything at all. All you have to do is provide the content and the styling. As most of these things go, it takes some trial and error to get things just right and most of the time not everything goes exactly how you wanted it to. So after messing around with it for about an hour, I finally got the styling figured out and proceeded to setup the tabs. Like I said before, the tabs were exactly what I was looking for and it allows me to keep a bunch of different information on one page while only showing a limited amount of it at once.
Now that I have the basic configuration and layout of the hosting page, the rest of the host’s pages should go pretty easily. I’ll pretty much just be using the first host’s page as a template. Fortunately, not all of the hosts have as many options as 1and1 so it won’t be quite as much work as 1and1.
Previously when I had first started this site up a couple months ago, I had signed up to just about every hosting provider on Commission Junction that I could find which ended up in me having around 40 hosts in my list. I decided in my last post that I was going to reduce the amount of hosts listed (for right now) and just provide more details for each host. I went through the list of hosts and wanting to make as much money as I can, looked for the hosts providing the most payouts. Plus, along with offering higher payouts most of the hosts provide a performance incentive. That is, when you hit a certain amount of sales they will provide you with some extra money.
After coming up with a list of 10 hosts, I came up with a basic layout of what details I would be providing for each host. So now that I had a plan, next was to enter the information. As I went through the first host, I had to tweak things a bit when I encountered the virtual and dedicated server plans. All of this took me about 1 1/2 hours. 1and1 has quite a bit of options available for hosting, I think they might have the most out of all the hosts that I picked. So now that I am done with 1and1 I get to start all over again on the next host.
At least now I have a basic idea and a template of what I am doing so it should go a lot smoother and quicker this time around. Once I get the other 9 hosts done, I still have to write a few guides as well as come up with some frequently asked questions. Although, that will be the easy part, I already have a lot flying around in my head about what guides I am going to write about.
Ok, thats enough for this post, still have to save some content for the rest of the week ;)
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