I understand what ur saying but i dont have a regular domain. HEres exactly
what i have 2 do:
SBI! Integration Guidelines.
HTML Editor Compatibility gives you the best of both worlds... the
productivity and complete design flexibility of your HTML editor, and the
suite of SBI!'s powerful integrated site promotion and management tools.
To get the best of both worlds, your HTML pages must meet SBI! Integration
Guidelines. Otherwise, all you'll be doing is regular Web hosting.
Think of it as putting a key into a lock. Your page (the key) must have a
format that duplicates the way SBI! structures sites. Get the key right and
you'll turn the lock ( SBI!'s back-end software) and open the SBI! door to
success.
Let's review the guidelines for duplicating SBI!'s format on your own
computer (i.e., as you build your site locally) now.
Please take your time and proceed through this material thoroughly. Please
understand that, like any Web host, we cannot support HTML errors or problems
with your HTML editor. We do, of course, support any technical glitches with
the actual page-building/editing process.
Since we cannot support your own HTML ("Why does my page look funny?"), it's
critical for you to know the SBI! Integration Guidelines, before you begin
building your pages.
Ready? Here is a brief synopsis of the guidelines to be followed when you
create your site locally (i.e., on your computer) using your HTML editor (to
be followed by detailed instructions)...
* All HTML files must use the ".html" extension (not ".htm").
* All HTML files must be at root level.
* Place all your images in a folder called image-files.
Supported file types: .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png
* Place all media files in a folder called media-files.
Supported file types: .avi, .mov, .mp3, .mpeg, .mpg, .qt, .wav, .wma,
..wmv
* Place all other supporting files in a folder called support-files.
Supported file types: .js, .css, .swf, .pdf, .txt, .xml
* Directory guidelines:
i) When you build your site locally, the above three directories must
be at the root level (i.e., at the same level as your index.html and other
..html pages) ii) Do not create any folders, other than the three listed above.
* If you want to use SBI!'s automatically created NavBar, insert the
"<<NAVBAR>>" tag (no quotes) into your page, in the spot that you want it to
appear.
* Navigational options selected in the Navigation Options of Site
Central will still function on SiteBuilder-created pages and HTML editor
pages that contain the "<<NAVBAR>> tag."
* SBI! features built-in click-through tracking for all links on your
uploaded pages -- it automatically formats your outgoing links accordingly.
See below for more information.
Now, here as promised, are the detailed instructions for duplicating the
SBI! site structure on your computer...
1) The Root Folder and Your HTML Files
On your computer, create a "root folder" and label it the name of your
domain (ex., "anguilla-beaches.com"). Create and edit all HTML files (please
use the ".html" extension for all your HTML files) in this folder. This is
the same "root level" that SBI! builds all HTML pages in. And it is where
your HTML files go when you upload them.
2) Images
On your computer, create an image folder labeled image-files and place that
folder inside your "root folder." Put all your images that you will use on
any page created by your HTML editor into that folder.
As you will see, you will upload, one page at a time, all these graphics
using the Step 2 "Upload" tool. This tool will upload your graphics into a
folder labeled image-files on our computer. We reserve this folder purely for
this use, so as not to confuse it with our other "internal" directories that
we use for images...
* "imgs" for logo and look-and-feel and NavBar images, and
* "images" for your regular SiteBuilder-related Image Library images.
Do not upload an HTML file until you have verified that all references
(images and links) are correct.
Please note: if you Absolute-reference your links, like so...
<a href=
"
http://www.yourdomain.com/image-files/img.gif">
.... you will not be able to test & preview your page properly in your
browser, since your supporting files will not yet be present on our SBI!
servers. For that reason, we recommend you Relative-reference your links,
like this...
<a href="image-files/img.gif">
.... to ensure proper previewing.
3) Media Files
All media files (.avi, .rm, qt, .wmf, .mpeg, .mp3), must be placed in a
folder called media-files. On your computer, create a new folder labeled
media-files, and place it inside your "root folder." Place all your media
files into that folder. When you upload these files, SBI! will automatically
place them into a folder labeled media-files on our servers. Please
Relative-reference all your media files for easy previewing.
4) Other Supporting Files
All other supporting files (JavaScript, Flash, CSS,and PDF), must be placed
in a folder called support-files. On your computer, create a new folder
labeled support-files, and place it inside your "root folder." Place all your
supporting files into that folder. When you upload these files, SBI! will
automatically place them into a folder labeled support-files on our servers.
Please Relative-reference all your supporting files for easy previewing.
Special Note: Please do NOT create any additional folders, or any nested
folders (i.e., do not create a new folder called "baby-movies" and place it
in your media-files folder). SBI! will not accept them. All supporting files
must be called from one of the three folders listed above!
5) "<<NAVBAR>>"
Click here to review.
6) Navigation Options
You may still use all the functionalities outlined in Navigation Options
part of the All Pages section of Site Central. Remember... navbar changes
will take effect on all pages created by the SBI! SiteBuilder, and for those
created by an HTML editor that include the "<<NAVBAR>>" tag. A custom navbar
for your HTML Editor page will not update automatically because it does not
include this tag. Use your HTML editor's features to "globally update" things
like NavBars.
7) Outgoing Links
If you were to create an outgoing link using the SiteBuilder Link Block,
that link is created in such a way that it first passes through a script on
our computers. This allows us to track and report on the Click-Through Rate
of every outgoing link on all your pages.
And SBI! does the same with your HTML editor-created pages... and it does
not require anything extra from you to do so!
SBI! scans your uploaded HTML document for out-going links (i.e., links to
domains other than yours), and reformats them in such a way that it can track
and report the Click-through rates of each one.
For example, say you have an affiliate link set up to refer visitors to your
merchant partner's site at...
<A HREF="
http://www.abc.com/youraffiliateID">
And this link is on your SBI! Web page...
YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/referring-page.html
SIDEBAR:
When you are linking OUT to other Web sites, please enter the full, absolute
URL, starting with "http://". If you enter a partial URL, SBI! considers that
a relative URL and completes the URL with "
http://www.YOUR-DOMAIN.COM"
formatting, and considers it to be an internal link.
If you do a View > Source on your Web page after it is "live," you will see
that the above link (to "
http://www.abc.com/youraffiliateID") now appears
as...
<A HREF="
http://www.abc.com/youraffiliateID"
onClick="window.location.href=
'
http://www.YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/cgi-bin/counter.pl
?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.com%2FyouraffiliateID
&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.YOUR-DOMAIN.COM%2F
referring-page.html'; return false;">
Note: Actual URL is all on one line, NO line breaks.
This reformatting is normal. It applies to all links to outside domains
(ex., Value Exchange links to other sites, affiliate links to other sites,
etc.). It also applies to the subdomain of your Store Build It! store (if you
have one).
The counter.pl script (formerly known as "site.pl") allows you to both track
Click-Throughs to the linked-to URL ("
http://www.abc.com/youraffiliateID" in
this example) and from the originating page on your site
("YOUR-DOMAIN.COM/referring-page.html" in this example). These stats are
reported in the Click Data section of TrafficCenter in Site Central and Value
Exchange.
TECH NOTES:
1) Some browsers are no longer reporting referrer fields in log files. By
including the originating page of the link in the "referrer=" part of the
counter.pl script, we can still report how effective each outgoing link on
each page is for you.
2) You can "turn off" this reformatting by adding your own onClick
javascript into the URL (ex., onClick="window.status='Text in status bar';
return true;" -- this bit of javascript puts "Text in status bar" into the
browser's status bar). When you add onClick javascript, we assume that you
either do not want to track this link or that you have more important
functionality to accomplish.
One final point about links, just in case you were wondering... your Tracker
Library is not affected by any of this reformatting of OUTgoing links, since
the Tracker Library links only track INcoming links. Your custom HTML editor
page is just like any other SBI! page, so your Tracker Links can point to
this page, like any other, thereby tracking links to this page if you like.
8) Access To The <HEAD> Tag
With SiteBuilder, you cannot gain access to the <HEAD> tag. SiteBuilder
automatically creates the important META KEYWORDS and META DESCRIPTION tags,
for example. The goal of the SiteBuilder block-by-block approach is to
eliminate tech issues such as building META tags.
But since you are using your own HTML editor, you have access to the <HEAD>.
So you have some added flexibility. For example...
If you do not want to submit a page, all you have to do is add a "<META
NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW">" tag in the <HEAD> tags, like
this...
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW">
<TITLE>...</TITLE>
When we see that tag, we will not submit it. And if the engines somehow find
it, they will not spider it. This makes an especially useful landing page. It
can be an exact duplicate of another page that you may want to use as a
landing page for an e-zine ad you are buying, for example.
The point is that this exact duplicate will not make the engines think you
are spamming it with a duplicate page because we will not submit it, if it
has the NOROBOTS META tag in it. And if an engine does find this page somehow
(by following a link to it, for example), it will not spider it.
SiteBuilders (those who use the block-by-block SBI! cannot get into the
<HEAD> tags. And that's where engines check for a tag such as a NOROBOTS tag.
But this is a technical issue, so anyone with this need, should be able to
use an HTML editor and upload a page with this kind of requirement.
This way, everyone's needs are met.
