Commission is an ugly word to many, but in the right circumstances a commission can be huge and worth your effort. As a service company you expect to be paid for your services. But sometimes you come across situations in big business where the economy is bad and the potential customer does not want to spend the money right now. Even if the possible return on investment makes sense.

This is the first post in the new unofficial script support category. I will be posting these unofficial script support blogs here and there. You can comment on the post to request assistance (knowledge) and we will do our best to help you out.

This post is about XZero Classifieds. The script is a classifieds php script from http://www.xzeroscripts.com

The reason for posting it here is because the script author has mysteriously vanished and not answering calls to verify customers on the forum. The forum is limited access hence the issue for new customers. This type of things occasionally happens when freelance developers come out with a commercial script. Maybe due to health issues or other personal matters they cannot tend to the product as much as they used to.

If you have any issues with the XZero Classifieds script such as install errors or anything feel free to comment below and we will answer as soon as we can.

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Comments

• August 2, 2008, mrk writes: Hi, I think this blog is a very good idea indeed!!! Will prove to be very helpful to non-technical people like myself... I am wondering whether anyone has ever tried to implement OpenX, previously known as phpAdsNew, and make it work with Xzero Script? I am interested in purchasing Xzero script but since I want to display banners on all the pages , I would like use OpenX to manage the banners....And I don't even know how to everything works actually!!! The other thing is, after purchasing Xzero Script, do i need any kind of verification in order to get on with the script?? If I am not being verified, does it mean that I won't be able to use the script or is it just an issue with the forum??? By the way, I am totally ignorant of programming stuff, so a rather 'non-technical' reply would be much appreciated!!! Thanks
• August 2, 2008, admin writes: Hi mrk, We have not done an integration of OpenX into X-Zero Classifieds, but it has been integrated into other sites. You would install the OpenX script as per it's instructions then to display the script you would insert the ad display code into the XZero script via the appropriate php file. For example the sidebar. OpenX and X-Zero would maintain their own admin though, unless you integrate OpenX into the backend files located in /admin/ as well. But that becomes more work and is probably not for a newbie to php. To answer your other question, the verification issue is forum only. Once you buy and get the script you can use it out of the box.
• August 3, 2008, MrK writes: Hi there! Thanks for the reply. I am wondering whether anybody has heard of Davis John recently?? I am quite worried since me and a friend of mine we would both like to purchase XZero and it looks like Davis John is not responding to any customer requests for some time now. The main issue would of course be to get verified for the forum, but also what can we expect regarding after sales service? How about future development of the script and updates on forthcoming security threats etc? Have any of you guys got a clue of what's going on at X-zero??
• August 3, 2008, admin writes: Well, we originally purchased the script back when it just launched and it was going for about $150. It has developed further so far, so we have no complaints. As far as the forum goes we do not go there on a regular basis and do not plan on visiting it much. Not sure where the developer is and do not know when he will be back.
• August 29, 2008, Curtis H writes: Hey, I need to know how to change the time zone for the script. Anyone know where i go to change it back 6 hours?
• August 29, 2008, admin writes: When you login your administration you will notice on the bottom left control bar that it shows server time. Your best way of changing that is to locate a hosting company with a server in the timezone you need it in. It is not programmed in the script any other way as far as we can tell at first glance. Or you can get a developer to add that functionality into the script so you can change the timezone via the admin.
• October 6, 2008, berainy writes: Guys, help me to install the nulled script
• October 6, 2008, admin writes: We do not work with illegal scripts here. Go buy the script and support the developer.
• October 16, 2008, Ben writes: Is there anyway some one can give me all of the mods for this script? would be much love for you!
• October 16, 2008, admin writes: The mods have to be obtained from the developers who created them. Most of them are commercial mods that require payment, but you can find some on the official forum that are free.
• January 18, 2009, Max Smart writes: About to pull what's left of my hair out. After a couple failed attempts installing, I left the config.inc.php file as generic as possible but still getting the 500 error "The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request. Either the server is overloaded or there was an error in a CGI script" when trying to run the setup script. Can't get on the forum (not that it would probably do any good) and I'm getting pi$$ed. Any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated.
• January 18, 2009, admin writes: Hi Max, do you have a URL where I can view your script? Also if you can send me the ftp information for your site I will be happy to check your code and see if there are any obvious errors. You can send that ftp information to admin@webdesigntaxi.com but DO NOT post it here to be viewed by everyone.
• January 18, 2009, admin writes: Max, another question. Do you have a .htaccess file in the directory? Back it up and then delete it. Then try to access your site by hitting refresh. Let me know if there is still an error after that.
• January 18, 2009, moni writes: Whenever a post is made, it always comes out like this >>> Max,********* another question. ****************Do you have a .htaccess file in the directory? ************************************Back it up and then delete it. ********************************Then try to access your site by hitting refresh. Whats wrong?
• January 18, 2009, admin writes: Hi moni, Can you make your post more clear. I am unsure of exactly what you mean about a post having arrows next to it.
• January 18, 2009, moni writes: Sorry. What i meant was whenever someone wants to make a post, instead of the post coming out like this : Hello My name is Moni. What is your name? It came out like this : Hello****************My name is Moni.************************ What is your name?********** I have that **** in between all words!
• January 18, 2009, admin writes: Check your bad word filter in the admin area. You may have something weird setup to be filtered like a space or something. Make sure you only have bad words filtered and make sure that there are no spaces before or after the filtered word in that area of the admin. If that does not work it may be some bad data in your database.
• January 18, 2009, moni writes: Thanks.. it was my bad word filter. I deleted every words in it because i wanted to not filter anything, instead it comes out like that.
• January 18, 2009, admin writes: No problem. What is the url to your site?
• February 12, 2009, Mike writes: Does anybody know if there is any way to include adsense in this script?
• February 12, 2009, admin writes: Of course. We recommend putting 1 adsense code in its own text file and name it adsense468x80.php for example, then you can just do a php include whereever you want it just in case you have to change that code in the future. That will minimize the amount of html edits you will need to do. As far as placement of your ads go that depends on where you want them.
• February 26, 2009, chrismoran writes: hi , I want to know how to install various cities or countries of this script under subdomains :)like for example for newyork ..like newyork.domain.com Iam a bit technical but not a professional :)
• February 26, 2009, chrismoran writes: hi , How do we change the link to cpanel ..if we are using shared hosting with dedicated ip .. Like from www.domain.com/cpanel to some other link of our choice :)
• March 19, 2009, ran writes: look at this guys http://www.angelescity.ph an xzero modded site it has comment integration and some other cool stuff it even have login for ads management any ideas how to do this
• March 20, 2009, ran writes: hi guys check this site out it has xzero in it with login and comment option how do you do that? http://www.angelescity.ph/
• March 20, 2009, admin writes: Hi Ran, That is done through an addon. I believe you can find a great addon by a third party that I saw in the official XZero forum. It is a membership modification which allows an account management similar to the Craigslist membership area.
• March 20, 2009, admin writes: Hi Chrismoran, you will have to figure out a way to integrate the script backend with the subdomain feature in c-panel, unless you can find a way to work it using the Apache mod_rewrite feature.
• March 20, 2009, admin writes: Chris, we have never run into that problem. You usually access c-panel with a :4-number set rather than a /cpanel link.
• March 20, 2009, admin writes: Hi Ran, These are all features that have been provided by third party programmers. Those mods can be found in the appropriate thread at the official XZero forum. Our company in the past modified the script to eliminate the posting dates because the client did not want the website to look abandoned while they tried to get traffic and posts to it.
• March 20, 2009, Andrew writes: I just purchased the script and read the instructions but I don't know yet how to create the mysql database? Also will this script run on a linux box only or can it also run on windows? Any suggestion for a good hoster? Thank you very much for your help.
• March 20, 2009, admin writes: Hi Andrew, the mysql database can be created through c-panel which is the easiest way if you have a host that provides it. We offer hosting for $20 per month or $200 total if you pay the year up front and save $40. In addition, we can install the script for $50 flat fee if you decide that is something you are unable to do. The script is PHP which runs on Linux. There are Windows servers out there that have modifications to allow for PHP but Linux is your best bet and c-panel runs on it.
• March 21, 2009, Andrew writes: I have succeded in installing the script. However when I try to access the admin section nothing happens altough I always enter the admin password which in the config.inc.php file. What am I doing wrong? Thanks
• March 21, 2009, Andrew writes: I have debugged my problem a little bit and noticed that when I enter the password that is in config.inc.php then $_POST['admin_pass'] is always empty. However if I enter any other wrong password that is not in config.inic.php then $_POST['admin_pass'] has the value of this wrong password. I don't understand this behavior. Please help
• March 21, 2009, Andrew writes: That's ok I solved my problem. The Session.save_path was not set for my account. It was set in php.ini and then everything worked fine. Thank you
• March 21, 2009, Andrew writes: How to remove the posting of events and images from xzero classifieds? Thanks
• March 28, 2009, admin writes: I think those are functions in the config file, but I will have to check later on to be sure. I know there was a place holder for a forum function also.
• April 2, 2009, need help writes: so nice to see the unofficial support for xzero. i really need help here. my site gets many spam ads daily, include the pet sale, job, adult content, etc. any way to eliminate those spam? any mods that i can purchase? is there a way that all the ads need to be mannually approved by admin before go online?
• April 2, 2009, admin writes: You will have to check the official site forum to see if there are any mods for that. But admin approval before publishing is not an option in the script supplied by XZero. One of the most effective ways of reducing spam is to make all ads paid. I assume mods you will come across are those that allow ip and email banning among other things. I am not looking at the administration now but check to see if there is an ip banning feature.
• May 1, 2009, admin writes: For anyone having trouble installing the script, you have to go to the /setup/ directory. Insert your database information to install. If something goes wrong, make sure you .htaccess file has been uploaded in it's entirety.
• May 16, 2009, Michael writes: guys does anybody know the exact code that goes into config.inc.php in order to connect to mysql server. thanks
• May 23, 2009, ibraheem writes: Dear friend I'm about to launch my website.But I'm facing problem in translating the database variables like categories and subcategories?
• May 25, 2009, admin writes: Michael, did you not purchase the script with an existing config file? Or are you asking how to edit the file. You will need some basic knowledge of mysql databases in order to set it up.
• May 25, 2009, admin writes: Ibraheem we are unsure of exactly what you are asking for. What do you mean by translating?
• May 28, 2009, Ibraheem writes: I mean i want to run the website with two interfaces.one in english and the second in spanish for example with the same database.As you know after you translate the website when you start adding the categories from the admin account you still get the categories in one language in the both of the two interface.help please.
• May 28, 2009, admin writes: You would need custom programming to do that. Something similar to what oscommerce uses which allows you to add the categories in more than one language. It is not a simple fix.
• June 6, 2009, Carlos writes: Hi. I recently install the script. I really like to have a login mod. So that the user can login and edit ther ads. I saw some sites with this feature. It´s a module? How i can get it? Thanks in advance.
• June 6, 2009, admin writes: Yes, that is a module that was developed by a third party. You can find an existing one on the official forum, or you can have one custom developed to your needs.
• June 21, 2009, nc writes: seems like your running the xzero forum here behind the curtain. just is odd. You seen to know who is where and wont give out much info other than saying offical forum, third party, and know who is going what giving reference without giving out real info. just seems odd. whats the point. whats the deal here?
• June 21, 2009, chris writes: Hi. I have had script for awhile. I have two issues. I tried to email back for forum and no returns. So, have been stuck without help. Hate they sell script showing all and then cut out much of scripts to have you mod them. Its like buying half a shirt! lol I have two problems: 1) has membership and comment area in css, but I think i am missing script for it. I see it for images. If i want it under posting area can i just add it to the showads page under the post email for or before (whereever i want it to show? 2)The description tags only work for ONE input! Whats up with that. it is not picking up other pages other than the one config. no other pages. Whats up with its original script with that. What can I do or how can it be reworded in code or the correct code to pick up the site pages vs 1 page. (was not script good for that, for sure)
• June 21, 2009, admin writes: Hi nc, we are not associated with xzero in any way other than the fact that we are also customers of theirs. We own a copy of their xzero script. The official website is at http://www.xzeroscripts.com/ and the official forum is at http://www.xzeroscripts.com/forum/ . I know it is frustrating when you have no support. It is just a guess but I think that xzero has one developer who is freelance and they have no time for the script because of something else in their life. Just an assumption. Web Design Taxi is only in this because we decided that there was a lack of response at the official forum other than that of experienced developers who sometimes post there. So we have this page to help in ways we can. We are also a business though, and can only do so much and give advice for free when we have the spare time.
• June 21, 2009, admin writes: It is not a missing script. The membership area was a future development item according to the xzero developer. I believe I remember seeing that in a comment area of their config file in the past. It is NOT an integrated feature in xzero at this time, however I have seen 3rd party developers create mods for that functionality in the official forum at http://www.xzeroscripts.com/forum/ . I do not believe the script is entirely search engine friendly, so custom descriptions for the posts will not appear. You will need to develop that feature. We cannot provide code for that for free here.
• September 20, 2009, Alex writes: Hello, My site works fine for outsiders but suddenly, when I try to log into my admin page, after I enter the correct password, I get a completely blank page. My DB works fine. What do you think is the problem?
• September 30, 2009, admin writes: Unsure exactly, but you may want to try re-uploading the admin files. Do not write over any config files that hold your db connection information. One of your files may not have been uploaded completely.
• November 24, 2009, admin writes: WELL, it seems that this FREE support is no longer welcome by the xzero community. So, unfortunately we will have to move on and stop providing it. I am sorry for those of you who actually appreciated it.

Meta tags used to have a huge impact on rankings way back in the day. This is because even the now-a-day big search engines used to use meta tags in their algorithm. What happened afterwards is keyword stuffing and abuse of meta tags. Webmasters would post text in the keywords and descriptions that did not match the page content and redirect visitors to websites that were not relevant to their search.

Search engines quickly put out this fire. These days, big search engines do not go by the keywords and descriptions that websites use, but rather the actual content on the website. This brings up the question of whether or not to use meta tags.

It shouldn’t really be a question. Search engines do look at your meta tags, and if it matches the page content then search engines sometimes use your meta description in your listings. However, if you are listed in the DMOZ directory then your description may default to the DMOZ version. It does not always happen but you will see it happen a good amount of the time.

I have come across so-called seo experts who argued that meta tags make no difference in rankings whatsoever. Well guess what buddy… you are a moron. Through my many YEARS in the seo business I have tested the theory. My findings show that if you DO create meta tags and match it to page content 100% then you will achieve better rankings than a website with the same exact content as you without using meta tags. This does however depending on other factors on your website. Factors such as cluttered javascript, validation issues, div versus tables, etc. But if you build identical websites and one uses while the other doesn’t then the one WITH will win the fight in the end.

When you create a website using a dynamic cms you are able to update your website regularly with new information. For example this wordpress blog we are using allows us to post new blogs and pages any time we wish. We can even create a new post and delay it’s publishing until the time and date that we want. This specific post was written on Saturday night after 9pm cst, but it will not be published until Sunday around noon. This allows you to create posts constantly and by delaying the posts you are leveraging them as a frequently updated blog with original content.

By adding new content on a regular basis you are keeping search engine spiders on your website. Your posts will end up getting priority rankings over other websites with static content. It does not happen instantly, but you should see a huge difference in traffic within 90 days of this process. If you have analytics installed then you can keep traffic source statistics so you can see this process as it takes place.

Dynamic content allows your website to gain a high PageRank quickly because other websites link to your posts and content. This is because they read something they liked and wanted to share it with their visitors. You may also get inbound links from pingbacks as well if you use a blogging platform.

Your next step is to gain regular readers who comment on your content posts. This will keep spiders on old content and show that the old content is being updated for that page.

Using this process you can effectively avoid having to trade links with websites. Reciprocal linking is ok, but getting inbound links without trading them is much more effective and adds to your PR value faster.

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