Actinic quality link farm?

[delboy]

I know it's been suggested before, but I can see nothing but upside for Actinic, developers and site operators if an Actinic link area could be established - on the main Actinic site.

We all know that getting quality links to our sites is important for search engine ranking and if Actinic were to set up an area in a similar way to ishop - http://www.ishop.co.uk/shopping_source/shop_list.shtml this would be very helpful.

Apart from the link benefit to Actinic site operators, these link pages would serve as a useful reference area for potential new Actinic customers. It would also be a practical supplement to this excellent user community where anyone developing an Actinic site could gain ideas and tips about layout and techniques.

Other opinions?

Delboy
www.usedigital.co.uk

[buspassjohn]

Sounds good to me but I can't see Actinic doing it unless there's money in it, I cannot believe the time it takes them to sort out bugs, our Epos Software is updated aout once a month, how long does it take Actinic?
I think that such a directory would take Actinic so long to update, half the shops would be defunct before they got a listing.
In the meantime I'll gladly put a link to you on our site, email me details you would like and I'll try to fit it in in the next couple of days. Our site is not highly rated yet, but it will be!

[delboy]

Hi John,

Many thanks for the link offer John, take you up on that and I'll email you separately.

Whilst not speaking for Actinic I can understand their dilemma. Whenever software is modified to fix something in one area, you have to test extensively so that it doesn't cause a problem in another area - different type of browsers, operating systems and even the logic in areas such as shipping & taxation etc. All very time consuming.

The proposed Actinic link area, could be set up at minimal cost. If each site operator were to supply a logo image at a standard size, resolution along with a site description of up to, so many words, then Actinic would only have to inspect these submissions rather than create them. They could come up with a submission policy which all would then follow. If submissions were then made to an offline area which Actinic could approve before rolling into the live area, then there would be little risk to them.

I think that this addition would result in extra sales for Actinic software and as such should be self funding. The link area could even be cited as an added value benefit.

Delboy

[pinbrook]

Ok, I'm going to take this on. Although it won't be called a link farm, it will be a directory.

I don't think Actinic will create it as they have been asked before. So i'm going to work backwards, ie create a directory, invite people to add to it and then ask Actinic to link to it.

Give me a week or so to get something together.

[buspassjohn]

Ok, I'm going to take this on. Although it won't be called a link farm, it will be a directory.

I don't think Actinic will create it as they have been asked before. So i'm going to work backwards, ie create a directory, invite people to add to it and then ask Actinic to link to it.

Give me a week or so to get something together.

Thanks,
I think a comprehensive 'Actinic User Directory' would be a great asset (mainly to Actinic), would it not get a higher rating in Google etc if it was connected directly to the Actinic site?

[SusanF]

Jo, I think you'll get a huge thank you from everyone. This has been a regular request certainly since I joined this forum earlier this year (and no doubt long before). It has been frustrating that Actinic have never come back to us with any real response.

Best regards,

[delboy]

Hey Jo, I couldn't be more pleased!

Let me know what I can do to support you. By the way, you're right about not calling it a link farm, poor choice of phrase. We don't want this to get blacklisted by the Search Engine community!

Wow! Great news and many thanks for the initiative.

Delboy

[pinbrook]

I'm going to rely on you guys to test this, and make suggestions as to how it should work

[pinbrook]

Ok i've made a start see

http://shops.pinbrook.net/xoops/

there's still some tidying up to do.

I'd like a few people to add their shop, and others to suggest more categories (I took the categories from Yahoo shopping and a couple of shopping directories)

Any one can add a shop, all entries are moderated but the only moderation I plan on adopting is the shop has to be actinic and live

[wjcampbe]

Jo, excellent layout - can you give some hints about the logo dimensions you are using? Any restriction on number of words in the description?

I could use a category for artwork, ethnic and regional.

[pinbrook]

max 150px width, 200 height for the image, uploaded to your own site and referenced from there.

Not sure about the text limit. but include keywords in your description so the search feature finds you.

Wouldn't your products come under Gifts or Home&Garden?

Hopefully if Actinic approves the idea I can replace the image of the girl with the actinic logo.

the shop.pinbrook.net url will be masked in time too

[Mike Hughes]

I'm not sure I like what the links are doing. It looks to me as if the redirect is not telling the client what it's doing and is just letting the content be served up.

i.e. to explain a bit. Following this link

http://shops.pinbrook.net/xoops/modu...isit.php?lid=3

for 'optomist online' serves up the page with a 200 OK header. As far as I know, that means that the search engines will believe that the content served up is part of shops.pinbrook.net and will be indexed accordingly.

For this to function properly, and in the way people are expecting, you should be using direct links (which all the search engines can follow) or at the very least a 301 redirect which google can follow and understand (but I'm not sure about the other engines though).

Mike

[delboy]

Hi Jo, can see your warp drive's working well!

The submission form looks good, I suppose if someone's got a new category to suggest then they could do that in the "comment to admin" field.

Mike's point is crucial, but am I right in thinking that the sites you've listed ARE hosted by you at "http://shops/pinbrook.net" ?

Anyway, fantastic progress, following this post I'll submit my site for testing.

By the way, keep the girl (great ad for hair gel!), it always amazes me how a human image on a site brings life to the page.

Regards,
Delboy

[g11ary]

I have tried to submit but keep getting format error??
I am also not on your cat list as my sites are property and automotive?
Any help appreciated.

[pinbrook]

I'll look into the way the site creates links. I am using open source CMS. Xoops.org and utilitising their weblinks module. This way the whole project is automated. The only way this project stands a chance of getting off the ground it for it to be as automated as possible.

It is possible to add a link within the description: see the little Link icon- 2 pop up boxes one for the url (inc http) and the other for the text of the link. Quite useful for creating a keyword link. The link has to be within the first 250 chars. The description has no limit, but the first 250 chars only are displayed in the lists.

the 2 sites listed( optimist and surf-wax) are hosted at their own domains, not within pinbrook.net.

I've added the 2 links which were waiting moderation. I've also removed some of the data from these - the email link is a mailto thus open to spammers. I feel it is best not to have email as people can go to the site to contact the site owner. I've left company name, postcode, phone and fax - all of these fields are optional

G11ry - can you tell me more about your error? Other people have added their sites, so i wonder what you are doing