Post by troyzone on Jul 19, 2007 3:43:13 GMT -5
One of the most frequent suggestions that we make to TOPS members working their way through the 3 Phase Profits program is to add their web site URL to their forum profile.
Why is this recommended?
It is helpful (and often necessary) for those answering your questions in the forum to be able to view your site. This is especially important when posting your web site for review to advance to the next phase, or when requesting assistance with web site issues. If we cannot easily view your web site then we cannot help you with it.
With your web site URL in your forum profile's Signature and/or Web Site URL fields it is always readily available, plus this way you don't have to remember to include your URL each time you post for assistance.
This enables people to easily check out your site for review and/or when you are having difficulties with your page. And once you add your URL to your forum profile it's there for good, as long as you don't remove it from your profile at a later date.
When doing this, also be sure to include the http:// part at the beginning of your link, as this makes it clickable as well so that people don't have to copy/paste your URL into a browser in order to view your site.
Your web site link should be in the following format: www.your-domain.com (Replace "your-domain.com" with your actual domain name.)
If your work-in-progress web page is named something other than index.html then be sure to include that at the end of your URL after a /
Here is an example using the page name mypage.html: www.your-domain.com/mypage.html
We recommend that you add your web site URL to your forum profile as early in the program as possible, then when you need help with your site later it is readily available for those who are responding to your posts. Of course, you will have to have the latest version of your web site uploaded to your web hosting account in order for others to be able to view it.
How do I do this?
You can add your web site URL to your forum profile by following these steps:
1. Click here or click on Profile at the top of any forum page. This will open a window showing your forum profile.
2. Click on Modify Profile near the top of your profile page.
3. Fill in the Signature and/or Web Site URL fields. Only one or the other is needed, but putting your URL in both is recommended since different people look in different locations for your URL.
Note that the Signature field shows up underneath each of your posts, while the Web Site URL field makes the little clickable house icon appear under your forum name on the left of each of your posts.
4. Click on the Modify Profile button at the bottom of the page to save your web site URL and any other changes that you made to your profile. If you don't click this button then your changes will be lost.
That's it! Once you have completed the above steps, your web site URL will be available with each forum post that you make.
Note that any changes you make to your forum profile also affect your past posts too, since whatever info is currently saved in your profile appears with each of your forum posts. So, if you just posted for web site help or a review but then realized that you didn't provide your URL, you can add it to your profile as per the above steps and it will then appear with your prior post.
Time to get fancy...
This is the bonus section
The following is not required reading by any means, but many people want to know how to do this so I included it here as well...
People often ask how to customize the text and links in their forum signatures or posts with hyperlinked words, different sized or colored text, bold, underline, or other special effects.
You can do this via what is known as BBCode (Bulletin Board Code), sometimes called forum code. It is similar to the HTML programming language used for web pages but is slightly different, as it is a special implementation of HTML specifically used for forum posts. For those interested, here is a link to a web page that has more info on BBCode:
www.phpbb.com/community/faq.php?mode=bbcode
You don't really have to learn BBCode however to make nice links in signatures and posts. One easy way to play around with your signature for the forum is to create a New Thread and enter whatever you want into the message edit window as your signature, using the post's Preview feature to see how it looks and adjusting the BBCode as necessary.
There are several buttons above the message edit window that you can make use of for bold, colors, etc. They will create the BBCode for you.
You'll still likely have to edit the URLs yourself though. For example, If you want to specify that a certain destination link has different hyperlinked words instead of just displaying the link itself, it can be done as follows (with no spaces of course):
[ url=http://link ] your linked text here [ /url ]
I had to insert extra spaces here to prevent the code from showing up as a real link. Here is an example using a link to this forum:
[ url=http://erichw33.proboards53.com ]Click here to visit the best forum on the 'net![ /url ]
The above code would display as follows after removing the extra spaces I had inserted into the url tags for demonstration purposes:
Click here to visit the best forum on the 'net!
The real key to doing this is to use =link inside the opening [ url ] tag as in the above example, replacing link with the actual web site link you wish to include. If you just put the [ url ] tag by itself without specifying a destination link inside the tag, it will just use whatever is in between the opening [ url ] and closing [ /url ] tags as the link.
For reference, the topic of creating a signature that displays hyperlinked words instead of just a simple link is also covered in the Forum Specific FAQ, #5.
Once you get your forum signature looking the way you want it, you can then just copy all of the code contained in the message edit window and then paste it into the Signature field inside your forum profile. You can then cancel out of the original New Thread message edit window that you were using as a "forum code editor"
As you've probably noticed, I have made heavy use of BBCode in this FAQ post to highlight key points, include relevant links where warranted, and to just generally make it more readable and easier to follow. BBCode works for all forum posts, not just for signatures
Troy
Why is this recommended?
It is helpful (and often necessary) for those answering your questions in the forum to be able to view your site. This is especially important when posting your web site for review to advance to the next phase, or when requesting assistance with web site issues. If we cannot easily view your web site then we cannot help you with it.
With your web site URL in your forum profile's Signature and/or Web Site URL fields it is always readily available, plus this way you don't have to remember to include your URL each time you post for assistance.
This enables people to easily check out your site for review and/or when you are having difficulties with your page. And once you add your URL to your forum profile it's there for good, as long as you don't remove it from your profile at a later date.
When doing this, also be sure to include the http:// part at the beginning of your link, as this makes it clickable as well so that people don't have to copy/paste your URL into a browser in order to view your site.
Your web site link should be in the following format: www.your-domain.com (Replace "your-domain.com" with your actual domain name.)
If your work-in-progress web page is named something other than index.html then be sure to include that at the end of your URL after a /
Here is an example using the page name mypage.html: www.your-domain.com/mypage.html
We recommend that you add your web site URL to your forum profile as early in the program as possible, then when you need help with your site later it is readily available for those who are responding to your posts. Of course, you will have to have the latest version of your web site uploaded to your web hosting account in order for others to be able to view it.
How do I do this?
You can add your web site URL to your forum profile by following these steps:
1. Click here or click on Profile at the top of any forum page. This will open a window showing your forum profile.
2. Click on Modify Profile near the top of your profile page.
3. Fill in the Signature and/or Web Site URL fields. Only one or the other is needed, but putting your URL in both is recommended since different people look in different locations for your URL.
Note that the Signature field shows up underneath each of your posts, while the Web Site URL field makes the little clickable house icon appear under your forum name on the left of each of your posts.
4. Click on the Modify Profile button at the bottom of the page to save your web site URL and any other changes that you made to your profile. If you don't click this button then your changes will be lost.
That's it! Once you have completed the above steps, your web site URL will be available with each forum post that you make.
Note that any changes you make to your forum profile also affect your past posts too, since whatever info is currently saved in your profile appears with each of your forum posts. So, if you just posted for web site help or a review but then realized that you didn't provide your URL, you can add it to your profile as per the above steps and it will then appear with your prior post.
Time to get fancy...
This is the bonus section
The following is not required reading by any means, but many people want to know how to do this so I included it here as well...People often ask how to customize the text and links in their forum signatures or posts with hyperlinked words, different sized or colored text, bold, underline, or other special effects.
You can do this via what is known as BBCode (Bulletin Board Code), sometimes called forum code. It is similar to the HTML programming language used for web pages but is slightly different, as it is a special implementation of HTML specifically used for forum posts. For those interested, here is a link to a web page that has more info on BBCode:
www.phpbb.com/community/faq.php?mode=bbcode
You don't really have to learn BBCode however to make nice links in signatures and posts. One easy way to play around with your signature for the forum is to create a New Thread and enter whatever you want into the message edit window as your signature, using the post's Preview feature to see how it looks and adjusting the BBCode as necessary.
There are several buttons above the message edit window that you can make use of for bold, colors, etc. They will create the BBCode for you.
You'll still likely have to edit the URLs yourself though. For example, If you want to specify that a certain destination link has different hyperlinked words instead of just displaying the link itself, it can be done as follows (with no spaces of course):
[ url=http://link ] your linked text here [ /url ]
I had to insert extra spaces here to prevent the code from showing up as a real link. Here is an example using a link to this forum:
[ url=http://erichw33.proboards53.com ]Click here to visit the best forum on the 'net![ /url ]
The above code would display as follows after removing the extra spaces I had inserted into the url tags for demonstration purposes:
Click here to visit the best forum on the 'net!
The real key to doing this is to use =link inside the opening [ url ] tag as in the above example, replacing link with the actual web site link you wish to include. If you just put the [ url ] tag by itself without specifying a destination link inside the tag, it will just use whatever is in between the opening [ url ] and closing [ /url ] tags as the link.
For reference, the topic of creating a signature that displays hyperlinked words instead of just a simple link is also covered in the Forum Specific FAQ, #5.
Once you get your forum signature looking the way you want it, you can then just copy all of the code contained in the message edit window and then paste it into the Signature field inside your forum profile. You can then cancel out of the original New Thread message edit window that you were using as a "forum code editor"
As you've probably noticed, I have made heavy use of BBCode in this FAQ post to highlight key points, include relevant links where warranted, and to just generally make it more readable and easier to follow. BBCode works for all forum posts, not just for signatures
Troy