TE3 - User manual

Using pages module you can display different index pages for non-unique visitors and even mobile visitors. This should spark interest in your non-unique visitors and therefore increase overall productivity on your site. You can also display or redirect to a different page based on the following filters: IP, trade, country and category.

Detailed statistics for each individual page is available. Based on the stats you can tell which index page is the most productive, which page is getting the most traffic and so on.

CAUTION: For performance reasons, try to keep number of pages below 100 and if possible even lower.

1. Add the standard "include" incoming tracking code to index.php as described in the incoming traffic tracking chapter.

2. Add one of the following code right at the top of your index.php page: include("/te3/te_redirect.php"); include("/FULL/PATH/TO/te3/te_redirect.php");

3. Open your TE3 admin interface and navigate to the Pages menu and click on the Manage pages button. Add page1 and page2 as an addition to the default page.

4. Physically create page1.php and page2.php using your CMS.

5. Add the standard "include" incoming tracking code to page1.php and page2.php as described in the incoming traffic tracking chapter. Right above the tracking code you have to specifiy page name in order to track statistics for that page, like this: $te3_page="page1";

6. Click on the Manage redirections button. Checkbox Index pages to enable them (last section in the popup) and add page1 like this: Redirect URL: /FULL/PATH/TO/page1.php Type: include Page name: page1 Now add page2 in the same way.

7. If you have done everything right, your index.php is now rotating two index pages. Point your browser to: http://www.yoursite.com/ and refresh your browser a few times. With each refresh a different page (page1 and page2) should be displayed.

• Always use relative paths. Use <a href="/te3/out.php"> instead of <a href="http://www.yoursite.com/te3/out.php">
• Content parameter (u= , purl=) must always be placed as the last parameter in the outgoing link

• u=[URL]
  URL to a content page (gallery, sponsor link...). For example: /te3/out.php?s=70&u=http://www.google.com/
  There is a 70% probability that surfer will be sent to http://www.google.com and 30% probability he will be sent to a trade.

• id=[domain]
  Permanent link to a trade. For example: /te3/out.php?id=mytrade.com
  This link will always send a surfer to mytrade.com's return URL.

• l=[link_name]
  Link label or link report. Find out where on your site surfers are clicking the most. Label certain categories of links on your site, e.g., toplist, thumbs, text links, sponsors and so on. For example: /te3/out.php?l=toplist&id=tradex.com
  Surfer will be sent to the tradex.com trade and +1 hit will be counted for link label "toplist".

• s=[skim_pattern]
  External skim / skim pattern can only be used together with u= and purl= parameters. You can either set a simple skim, e.g., 70 or an advanced skim pattern, e.g., 100,70,50. For example: /te3/out.php?s=70&u=http://www.google.com/
  There is a 70% probability that surfer will be sent to http://www.google.com and 30% probability he will be sent to a trade. You should also note that unless es=1 parameter is included in the link, external skim has a lower priority than internal skim. We strongly recommend you read more about skimming here.

• g=[niche_group]
  Send surfer to a specified niche group. For example: /te3/out.php?g=group1
  Surfer will be sent to the most owed unvisited trade in the group "group1". g= parameter can be used in a combination with u=, s=, l=, es=1 parameters.

• purl=[gallery_plug]
  Plug galleries using purl parameter. For example: /te3/out.php?purl=http://www.tradex.com/one_of_his_galleries.html
  Surfer will be sent to a gallery behind purl= parameter and +1 outgoing hit will be counted for "tradex.com".

• es=1
  If this parameter is included in the out link, internal skim will be ignored and external skim will be used instead. For example: /te3/out.php?es=1&l=sponsor1&u=http://www.sonsor.com/
  Imagine this scenario. You're using internal skim (set to e.g. 75%) on your site and you want to track clicks on sponsor links through TE (link report), but of course you don't want to skim those clicks. Surfer must be sent to a sponsor link each and everytime he clicks on it. Setting external skim (s=100) in the out link is not enough, because internal skim outpowers external skim (read more about skimming here). For this reason you will have to include "es=1" parameter in your out link to force TE to use external skim instead.

There are two skim types available, internal and external skim. Internal skim outpowers external skim. If internal skim is set, external skim gets ignored unless es=1 parameter is set in the outgoing link as an addition to the external skim (s=X).

IMPORTANT: If you are using Trade Expert in combination with Smart Thumbs and you would like to use "external skim", use dots instead of commas in the skim pattern, because commas don't work properly with Smart Thumbs. For "internal" skim pattern it doesn't matter whether you use commas or dots.

Toplist is a collection of trades in your database that may be ranked in a number of different ways, e.g., by: raws, uniques, clicks, outgoing hits, productivity, value, owed ratio and so on. Number of the toplists you can create is basically unlimited.

To create a new toplist, navigate to the toplist / toplist menu and click on the + add toplist link. Pop-up window will open. There are two methods for adding toplist. You can add toplist directly through the web (form input method) or you can upload your toplist template file through the FTP and then specify input and output file for the toplist (file input method).

The rest of the fields should be self-explainable.

• ##name:x## - site name
  Example: ##name:4## will print "site name" for trade number 4.

• ##domain:x## - domain name (domain.com)
  Example: ##domain:6## will print "domain name" for trade number 6.

• ##desc:x## - toplist description
  Example: ##desc:3## will print "toplist description" for trade number 3.

• ##desc-x:x## - toplist description with a specified position
  This toplist tag is only useful, if you use multiple descriptions for each trade. Example: ##desc-3:5## will print "3rd toplist description" for trade number 5. Make sure you have at least 3 toplist descriptions entered, otherwise this example won't work as expected.

• ##img:x## - toplist image src
  Example: ##img:1## will print "toplist image src" for trade number 1. If there are multiple img srcs entered for trade number 1, toplist generator will randomly print one of them.

• ##img-x:x## - toplist image src with a specified position
  This toplist tag is only useful, if you use multiple images for each trade. Example: ##img-2:1## will print "2nd toplist image src" for trade number 1. Make sure you have at least 2 toplist images entered, otherwise this example won't work as expected.

• ##raw:x## - incoming raws
  Example: ##raw:7## will print "incoming raws" for trade number 7.

• ##uniq:x## - incoming uniques
  Example: ##uniq:3## will print "incoming uniques" for trade number 3.

• ##clk_t:x## - clicks sent to trades
  Example: ##clk_t:4## will print "clicks sent to trades" for trade number 4.

• ##clk_tg:x## - clicks sent to trades & galleries
  Example: ##clk_tg:2## will print "clicks sent to trades & galleries" for trade number 2.

• ##out:x## - outgoing hits
  Example: ##out:5## will print "outgoing hits" for trade number 5.

• ##out_uniq:x## - outgoing uniques
  Example: ##out_uniq:6## will print "outgoing uniques" for trade number 6.

• ##value:x## - value of a trade (Clk T / Out T)
  Example: ##value:2## will print "value of a trade" for trade number 2.

• ##owed:x## - owed (Outgoing list / traffic distribution is based on the owed ratio)
  Example: ##owed:13## will print "owed" for trade number 13.

• ##ratioraw:x## - ratio raw (Out T / Raw)
  Example: ##ratioraw:5## will print "ratio raw" for trade number 5.

• ##balanceraw:x## - balance raw (outgoing total - incoming raws)
  Example: ##balanceraw:3## will print "balance raw" for trade number 3.

• ##balanceratioraw:x## - balance ratio raw (incoming raws / outgoing total)
  Example: ##balanceratioraw:8## will print "balance ratio raw" for trade number 8.

• ##balanceuniq:x## - balance uniq (outgoing total - incoming uniques)
  Example: ##balanceuniq:3## will print "balance uniq" for trade number 3.

• ##balanceratiouniq:x## - balance ratio uniq (incoming uniques / outgoing total)
  Example: ##balanceratiouniq:8## will print "balance ratio uniq" for trade number 8.

• ##return_url:x## - return URL ( http://www.example.com/ )
  Example: ##return_url:7## will print "return URL" for trade number 7.

• ##nick:x## - webmaster's nickname
  Example: ##nick:2## will print "webmaster's nickname" for trade number 2. "Nickname" is an optional attribute. If you would like to use this toplist tag, make sure you have it entered.

• ##email:x## - webmaster's e-mail
  Example: ##email:8## will print "webmaster's e-mail" for trade number 8. "E-mail" is an optional attribute. If you would like to use this toplist tag, make sure you have it entered.

• ##icq:x## - webmaster's ICQ
  Example: ##icq:5## will print "webmaster's ICQ" for trade number 5. "ICQ" is an optional attribute. If you would like to use this toplist tag, make sure you have it entered.

• ##identifier:desc:x## - toplist description with identifier
  Example: ##short:desc:4## will print "toplist description" for trade number 4 with identifier "short". Make sure you have toplist description with identifier "short" entered in the "toplist descriptions" menu, otherwise this example won't work as expected.

• ##identifier:img:x## - toplist image with identifier
  Example: ##small:img:4## will print "toplist image" for trade number 4 with identifier "small". Make sure you have toplist image with identifier "small" entered in the "toplist images" menu, otherwise this example won't work as expected.

• ##identifier:img-x:x## - toplist image with identifier & specified position
  Example: ##large:img-2:7## will print "toplist image" for trade number 7 with identifier "large". Make sure you have toplist image with identifier "large" entered in the "toplist images" menu, otherwise this example won't work as expected.

• PHP (.php pages)
  <?php
  include "toplist.html";
  ?>

• SSI (.shtml pages)
  <!--#include virtual="toplist.html" -->

Menu: toplist / thumb grabber

Thumb grabber module can be set to crawl trades in your database every x hours and to download a specified amount of thumbs from trader's web site. You can also manually trigger thumb grabber by clicking on the "Download" button. Thumbs are stored into the /te3/thumbs/ directory and can be manipulated from the toplist / toplist images menu. After thumb grabber has downloaded thumbs for all your trades for the first time you can create a thumb toplist. Thumb toplist gets much more attention and a higher CTR compared to the ordinary text toplist. It will increase productivity on your site. Another benefit is that a surfer who clicks on a toplist thumb will be sent to a page where this thumb is actually located and there is a much higher chance they'll click on it there as well and increase your external productivity.

Thumb grabber options: Set general options for thumb graber here. Hold mouse over the attribute names for tooltips to appear.

Menu: statistics / network

If you have two or more TE copies you will definitely want to link them together to take the advantage of the network features. Using the network features, you will be able to work faster and more efficient.

• Title: site2.com

• Login URL: http://www.site2.com/te3/index.php

• Security key: Enter security key from site2.com. Security key can be found by clicking on the "edit icon" for site2.com.

• Identifier: Leave empty.

• Statistics for all sites on one page: View statistics for all the sites in your network in the "statistics / network" menu.

• Switching between sites: You can switch between sites at any time using pulldown menu at the top of the admin interface. To make it more comfortable, we've added a feature that always positions you to the same menu when switching between sites.

• Exporting trades: You can export trades from one TE to another. Go to the "statistics / overview" menu. Checkbox trades that you would like to export. Bottom panel will slide up. Click on the "Export to network", select sites where you would like to export trades to (CTRL + left to select / deselect) and click on the "Export" button.

• Exporting trades directly from the new trade window: You can export trades from one TE to another, even directly from the new trade window when you are adding a new trade. Navigate to the "statistics / overview" menu and click on the "+ add trade" link at the top right side. "New trade" window will pop-up. Enter trade data, scroll down to the bottom, select sites where you would like to export this trade to (CTRL + left to select / deselect) from the "Export trade to the following sites" table and click "Save" button.

• Network export module: Navigate to "statistics / network" menu, checkbox at least one site in your network, (bottom panel will slide up) and click on the "Network export" button. You'll find several useful network functions here, such as: Export all trades, export new trades, export niches, export search engines, sync trading rules, sync "good / normal / bad", sync mailer settings, export blacklist, sync custom algorithm, sync new trade defaults.

Like it or not, hackers will try break into any script installed on your server and TE is no exception. After they gain access to the admin interface of the script, it is much easier to gain access to the server as well. Same goes for the opposite. If they gain access to your server they can change files owned by your user, meaning they can also overwritte legit TE files with harmful ones and often that can be tricky for you to notice.

You should use all of the available security measures to make that task as hard as possible for them. We will describe two measures how you can and should protect yourself. TE's allowed IPs module & .htaccess file protection. It is strongly recommended that you use at least one method. Of course .htaccess method might be better, it is bullet proof (IPs / IP blocks are blocked on the server level) and it is also more flexible (you can specify exactly which files you want to block), but for a novice user it might be a bit trickier to configure. For additional protection, you can use both methods simultaneously.

If you have a static IP (IP is never changing) on your home machine, it is very simple to configure "allowed IPs" module. Simply add your IP ( 3.17.154.171 ) into the textarea and press update button.

If your IP is changing all the time, you can still configure it, but it might be a bit tricker. Usually internet service providers will only change last or last two numbers of your IP. If that is the case, simply add your whole block. Even if you will add a whole IP block, you will reduce number of potential hackers to nearly zero. Users that are not listed in the "allowed IPs" module and/or htaccess, will get: "Your IP is not on the access list / Forbidden " message.

Here is a brief description of the PHP files inside /te3/ directory, so you can better understand what is their task and which of them should be IP protected.