Automate Your Business

Posts Tagged ‘Software’

OK, as far as I can tell, there is one difference between 3.37 and 3.38 which will impact the scheduler. The creator of the plugin has added EzineArticles.com to the possible sources, which has also entailed a change to the previous articles source, ArticlesBase.com

As such, if you are using articles, please bear with me one more day as I get the upgrade package for the schedule ready. I’ve finished writing it, and will be testing & releasing it tomorrow.

If you are not using articles, you can upgrade the plugins whenever you like on your WordPress blogs, then just install the Scheduler update later in the week. Using the 3.38 plugin on a blog when the Scheduler thinks it is 3.37 shouldn’t cause any problems if you are not using articles.

Autoblogging is very popular at the moment. Having a blog updated automatically is obviously a fantastic tool, and as such there are a number of autoblogging tools to provide content for your blog:

• WordPress plugins like Caffeinated Content that take content from Yahoo Answers, YouTube, or an article directory.
• Other plugins can republish content from other site’s RSS feeds (assuming you have their permission).
• Software that generates fresh content based on a randomisation method (such as splicing bit of articles together)
• Software to upload PLR content to your blog on a scheduled basis.
• And many, many more.

But I’ve recently seen something else which could be another source of content to your blog. Imagine having a database of hundreds or thousands of entries, all around a common theme , all steadily feeding into your blog, day after day, week after week, without you doing anything.

Hmmmm….

Themed content  (eg. Martial Arts Facilities, or UK Restaurants, or  Pet Kennels and Boarding Facilities, or Private Golf Courses – and there are many more topics)….

Regular updates….

On a blog….

All happening automatically….

Does that give you an exciting feeling?

Well, you can have this very quickly – simply install WordPress via your hosting control panel; upload the database file that contains the hundreds or thousands of entries; upload a script I can provide; configure a few settings; and go back to your hosting admin to set up the script to run automatically on a scheduled basis. That’s it. Hands-free daily updated content.

The database will come from OdditySoftware. They provide a large (and growing) set of databases of various types, all formatted ready to use by software. But they don’t give you a method to upload it to your blog or site.

So that’s what I’m doing.

Once you’ve purchased one of OdditySoftware’s databases, my offer is to create a script for you that:

• Offers a template-based method to upload that content to your site.
• Integrates into WordPress (and later into Drupal, Joomla, and most other common content management systems, if there’s enough interest. I could even modify it to build a “static site” (ie, one with HTML or PHP pages, allowing you to customise your site even further).
• Will even create categories based on one of the database fields (eg, State or Town).
• Allows you to set up multiple templates, of which one will be randomly selected.
• Allows you to “spin” the template (both the title AND the main content) so that your posts can have varying text in them.
• Allows you to test the upload and your templates to see what the posts will look like before you actually start uploading the content for real.
• Allows you to upload one, two, or as many new posts as you like over the course of each day.
• Can even “loop around” the database, starting again from the beginning once it’s reached the end (with content spinning and multiple templates enabled this can be a fantastic way to multiply the pages generated from the database).

A few important notes:

• I’m not intimately familiar with all content management software, so if you want to integrate into something other than WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, or static pages, please let me know BEFORE you order, and I’ll check whether I can modify the script for that software.

• You can purchase the software once, and use with as many OdditySoftware database as you can purchase. Of course, you can’t share the software with anyone else, in any manner.

All this will be coming in the next day or two. As usual, a discount will be offered to existing subscribers and customers, so if you’re interested, remember to subscribe using the form to the left.

I need to come up with a better name for my forthcoming software than “SENuke Alternative”.

I was thinking something like “Underground Lead-Lined Bunker”, but that doesn’t explain what the product will do!  So I thought I’d throw open the doors to you, my faithful readers.

The competition: Suggest a name for the product (which – eventually – will provide the same set of functionality – approximately – as SENuke), but at a cheaper ongoing cost. Have a read of SENuke.com if you want to see what my software should eventually be able to do.

The prize for the winer:

1. A free copy of the software, for life.
2. $50 worth of credit into your captcha-breaking account once you’ve got the software installed (good for 25,000 captchas, which should keep you busy for a while!).
3. A 5% commission on all income generated by sales of the software (both the initial cost and the ongoing monthly fees) for the first year it’s available.

Just submit your suggestions as comments to this post, using the “comments” link below - they won’t get approved automatically, so they won’t be visible immediately. I’ll comment-out your actual name, then publish your comment, so you’ll know I’ve got your input.

The closing date for the contest is the 1st September.

If by some chance I think of a name myself that I actually use, or if I tweak the best suggestion slightly, the prizes listed above will still go to the best submitted name.

The winner will be announced here (unless you’d rather remain incognito).

[UPDATE: Competition closed. Winner to be announced in separate post in the first few days of September.]

I’m progressing well with the “SENuke alternative” software, with the result that there are a couple of features you might like:

- The browser remains invisible, and becomes visible if there’s something it can’t process normally. So you can carry on working with “real” work whilst it does it’s thing in the background.

- Get this: even the CAPTCHAs can be processed whilst the browser is invisible. Neat, eh?

- It’s got built in debugging that should (if your proxy and router allow it), let me debug “live” whilst you run the software on your PC, so I can more easily find out what’s happening if you encounter problems.

- It’ll have plugin functionality similar to WordPress. So if some clever programmer wants to write an interface to post bookmarks to (as an example) Delicious.com before I’ve had a chance to write one, they can take my template plugin, modify it, and make it available to download for users of my software.

- It’s actually two softwares in one: A web-based app to do all the stuff that it possibly can without you even having to have your PC on, be in the country, or even be awake. And a desktop app to do the CAPTCHA-specific stuff (and maybe a few other things in future, we’ll see how that goes). Both will have the plugin functionality.

- Virtually everything will be done via plugins (which will be free to users if I write them). So for example, the CAPTCHA breaking is done by one specific third-party service at the moment. If they close down, put their prices up to much, start performing badly, or otherwise cause me to look at other providers, I can fairly quickly write a plugin to work with another provider (if they support software integration, of course).

I must say, I’m enjoying this work!

Something that’s always annoyed me about writing web apps is having to write configuration pages. Each application obviously has different variables that need configuring, so it tends to be a laborious process of writing a unique configuration page per application.

However, I’ve had enough, so I’ve spent a massive amount of time (almost 8 hours!) and come up with something that’s pretty flexible. It’s not a totally user-friendly app, but if you know how to write XML files (to describe the settings that can be configured by the user), how to write custom PHP validation routines, and how to modify Smarty PHP templates, then it’s basically something you can drop in to an existing application.

Anyone interested?

[UPDATE. Later that day]
Here’s the code I now use to create a config page:

$config = new phpConfigWizard();

That’s it. Everything is is done via the XML settings file and Smarty templates.