SPECIAL SPECIAL NOTE: There is coding in this article
that MUST APPEAR as shown or you'll be running this
article for nothing. DO triple check yours against this
original prior to publishing please!
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MONSTER OR MIGHTY MOUSE? SOLVE THOSE URL PROBLEMS!
by Theresa Cahill
All Rights Reserved
© Copyright 2002
You've heard the expression, "The Great American Novel?" If
not, a short explanation is in order before I continue.
The "Great American Novel" is that "quick email" you start to
write that goes on for two screens. Or the short memo that turns
into a business letter, or the solo that takes three complete
window scrolls to read. Or an article that runs on a tad too
long... or... oops, sorry! I guess I've made my point.
Anyway, the newest of my own personal expressions is "The Great
American URL."
If you haven't created your own website yet, and are promoting
affiliate programs, you'll have to make do with using one of the
"short url" services. http://tinyurl.com is a popular choice
lately and free to use. However, everyone's link ends up showing
"http:tinyurl.com/whatever" and loses a bit of its own uniqueness
in the process. Don't get me wrong, if your url is the size of
Brazil and you don't have your own website, run don't walk, to
shorten it now!
However, if you do have your own website, there is a quick, easy
way to hide those long, ugly links and make them appear to come
directly from you.
And it's not hard to do!
Take for example this fictious link:
http://www.applesforsale.com/cgi-bin/bananas/waytoobig.html
Looks suspiciously like an affiliate link, doesn't it.
So, how do you turn the above monster into that mighty mouse?
Click on My Computer. Open your C drive. Highlight the folder to
your website pages (you do have a backup of your website on your
hard drive, right?) Create a new folder within this directory.
Give it a short name, like RD (for redirect). Close Windows
Explorer.
Now, open the HTML Editor of your choice. Begin a NEW webpage. No
doubt there's a bit of code already on your page, like a small
meta tag of sorts and the area.
Now you COULD do a standard redirect in the BODY of your new page,
but this type of redirect causes a pause as the system stops either
briefly or not so briefly on its way to its final destination.
It's like getting from one link to another via a "middleman." We're
going to take the middleman out of the equation and let your viewer
pass immediately to the page of your choice.
You will not enter anything into the BODY of this new webpage.
Instead all your redirecting code sits inside the
portion of the webpage you are creating.
Here's a sample code (do copy and keep it for your own use):
[Note: To double check that the code below appears the way it
should, you can see a text-only version of this article at:
http://www.mywizardads.com/article14.txt]
Apples For Sale
See where I've filled in the TITLE? And I've copied and pasted
the monster of a url from above just after the URL= portion of the
coding.
That's it. You do not add anything else to your webpage.
Now you'll save this page giving it a short name like "apples.htm"
inside the RD folder you created on your hard drive.
Next you upload it to your website.
However, before you FTP it, or publish it if you use FrontPage,
you'll need to create a new folder on the server side (the internet).
You'll also name this new folder "RD" (without the quotes). You then
upload your newly created page called apples.htm to this new
server-side folder RD at your website.
The final product? The url you'll use to advertise will reflect
YOUR OWN DOMAIN NAME and will look something like this:
http://www.mydomain.com/RD/apples.htm
No more worries about broken links when you advertise! Plus, your
link now has a more professional appearance. It takes your visitor
to where you want him or her to be, but does it with a lot more
style.
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About the Author:
Theresa Cahill has just released her new ebook, STEP-BY-STEP:
A guide to basic marketing tools. It's like having someone there
with you while you learn to setup and use several basic, yet
effective, marketing resources. http://www.step-by-step-guide.com
or mailto:info@step-by-step-guide.com
Her other websites include:
TheWizWorld MRC Newsletter http://www.thewizworld.com
My Wizard Ads http://www.mywizardads.com
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