YOURLS is a URL shortening service you can run on your own server, and it comes with a Wordpress plugin called YOURLS Wordpress to Twitter. In the past I’ve used WP to Twitter, but since it doesn’t support YOURLS I’ve had to switch.

I’ve asked the author of YOURLS Wordpress to Twitter to add Google Analytics Campaign Tracking Code with a custom field for authors to add their own identifier, but he has been too busy updating the YOURLS scripts, so I’ve hacked the plugin code to allow us to use Campaign Tracking now.

Note: Only add this Google Analytics Campaign Targeting code if you are using YOURLS for your own internal web site links only. If you also use the short URLs for offsite links, those links will break because of the tracking code.

In the plugin go to the inc/core.php, and open it in a text editor. I prefer to use Notepad++.

On line 74 change the code from:

$url = get_permalink ($post_id);

to

$url = get_permalink ($post_id)."\?utm_source=your-identifier\&utm_medium=your-identifier\&utm_campaign=your-identifier";

On line 107 change the code from:

$shorturl = wp_ozh_yourls_api_call( $service, $url);

to

$shorturl = wp_ozh_yourls_api_call( $service, $url."\?utm_source=your-identifier\&utm_medium=your-identifier\&utm_campaign=your-identifier");

Change “your-identifier” to your custom campaign identifier.

That’s it! Now in your YOURLS reports you will see the Original URL appended with the Google Analytics tracking tag. It will take at least 24 to 48 hours for the Campaign tracking to be posted in Google Analytics. To see the report go to Google Analytics -> View report -> Traffic Sources -> Campaigns, and you’ll see a link with the identifier name you chose.

If you’re not interested in hacking the core.php file yourself, you can (right-click) click here and choose save as to download a copy already modified for tracking, then just unzip the file, and replace the old core.php file with the new one. If you use the already modified core.php file you will see the Google Analytics Campaign tracking labeled as yourls-camp-track.

Note: The core.php file available for download above will work for YOURLS: WordPress to Twitter Version 1.3.2.

© Copyright NerdGrind 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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Today YOURLS 1.4 was released, but the database upgrade script created some errors for some people, dead links, and the stats are not working. We can fix all that. Be sure to logout of the old version you will be upgrading from before starting the upgrade, or you might see the Install YOURLS page and link, rather than the Upgrade YOURLS page and link. First lets go over the changes in the config.php file.

Configuration

There have been some changes to the config.php file, which you will create from the includes/config-sample.php file. If you are upgrading you have a few unexpected steps to upgrade our config.php file. Open up the new config-sample.php to create a new config.php file, then copy the data entries for each existing field into the new config.php file. You will need to copy and paste the lines for YOURLS_DB_TABLE_URL and YOURLS_DB_TABLE_NEXTDEC into the new config.php file, then after upgrading the database you’ll need to remove the YOURLS_DB_TABLE_NEXTDEC entry from the config.php file.

Upgrade

Go to yoursite dot com/admin/upgrade.php, and if everything in your config.php file is correct your should see the following.

This is where the upgrade script creates new tables, but it failed to create a new .htaccess file for me, so I had to create it myself.

Once the upgrade process is completed you should see the following page.

Fixing Database Errors and Statistics Errors with .htaccess

During the upgrade you might run into an error that says something like:

Huho... Could not update rown with url='http://www.nerdgrind.com/ajay-bhatt-co-creator-of-usb-port-on-conan/', from keyword '77' to keyword '25'

The entry is in the database, but during the upgrade process the example entry above was changed from a url ending in 25 to a new short url ending in 77. To fix this problem you’ll need to add an entry to your .htaccess file. For the example above we would add:

Redirect permanent /25 http://ngurl.me/77

Notice how the old short url ending "25" comes before the new short url ending "77". We are redirecting from the old url to the new url. These redirect lines will need to come before the lines that run YOURLS. A properly listed code would look like the following:

#Redirecting database 1.3 to 1.4 upgrade errors
Redirect permanent /26 http://ngurl.me/78
Redirect permanent /24 http://ngurl.me/76
Redirect permanent /25 http://ngurl.me/77
#End database redirect url correction
# BEGIN ShortURL
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([0-9A-Za-z]+)/?$ yourls-go.php?id=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9A-Za-z]+)\+/?$ yourls-infos.php?id=$1 [L]
# END ShortURL

For those people, like myself, who the script failed to create a new .htaccess file, we were pointed to a the .htaccess example page for help. That’s where I noticed the reason my new stat links were resulting in a 404 error page. A new line pointing to the stats script (yourls-infos.php) needs to be added to the .htaccess file. The new line should be:

RewriteRule ^([0-9A-Za-z]+)\+/?$ yourls-infos.php?id=$1 [L]

You can see in the example above exactly where the new line should be listed in the .htaccess file.

This new line to make the statistics work was not mentioned on the Install/Upgrade YOURLS page, but now you know.

Click here to learn how to backup your YOURLS database.

© Copyright NerdGrind 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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Most people use URL shortening services like Bit.ly, TinyURL, Awe.sm, Su.pr, and the list goes on. There has been a lot of concern over the long term stability of these services, since they aren’t profitable business models, so they can’t be relied on over the long haul. One popular service, Cli.gs announced it will shutdown on October 25. Tr.im sudently shutdown, and then reopened just as suddenly, so it’s hard to trust short URL services. One effort will be to provide an independent directory service for URL mappings through 301works.org, but that isn’t going to solve the problem of reliability.

Sometimes the only way to solve a problem is to do it yourself. I’m talking about setting up your own URL shortening service using YOURLS: Your Own URL Shortener, which is a set of PHP scripts written by Lester Chan and Ozh Richard. Let’s go through what YOURLS offers and how to set it up.

YOURLS features include:

• Public (everybody can create short links) or private (your links only)
• Sequential or custom URL keyword
• Handy bookmarklet to easily shorten and share links
• Awesome stats: historical click reports, referrers tracking, visitors geo-location
• Neat AJAXed interface
• Developer API
• Friendly installer

In the next version there will also be charts for statistical data. The best feature is not having to rely on any other service except your own. The second best feature is setting up YOURLS is as easy as installing Wordpress.

YOURS also has a Wordpress plugin to make it easy to integrate YOURLS into your Wordpress blog.

Requirements:

• A server with mod_rewrite enabled
• At least PHP 4.3
• At least MYSQL 4.1

Let’s get started setting up the ULR shortening service using YOURLS.

1. Register a short domain name.

It’s important to know that the maximum number of characters for a URL that Twitter will display is 30. If we used our domain name:

http://www.nerdgrind.com/

That would total 25 characters. It’s best to choose a short domain name, and leave off the www. at the start to save another 4 characters.

A service like domai.nr can help find a domain name easier than using a regular whois.

2. Get a web hosting account

YOURLS cannot be installed and run in the same directory as Wordpress, so it must be setup in an account of its own, that supports PHP 4.3 or above, and has MYSQL 4.1 or above.

3. Download YOURLS

4. Configure YOURLS

The configuration file is located in include/config.php. If you only see the config-sample.php file, then rename it to config.php. The config file is self explanatory. The part that says YOURLS_SITE is where you put your newly registered domain name. NG chose ngurl.me for our domain name we’ll be using for our shortened URLs. For the encrypted cookie key we suggest using the Wordpress key generator for a more secure key. Refreshing the page generates a new set of keys. Ignore the labels, just grab any key since they are just long strings.

In the config file you can choose private or public. There’s no money in having a public URL shortening service, so choose wisely.

5. Upload the YOURLS files and directories to your web host account.

6. Create database

You can use your control panel to create the database or the command line.

To create the database from the command line use the following:

mysql -u root -pyourpassword
create database yoururlshortener;
grant all on yoururlshortener.* to ’username’@’localhost’ identified by ’password’;
show grants for username;
quit

7. Install and Setup the Database

Point your web browser to http://yoursite.com/admin/ and you should see the following page if everything is setup correctly.

Once you click the Install YOURLS button the script will create the tables and fields in the database.

Now all you need to do is login.

The admin page lists the original URLs, Short URLs, Clicks, and more. A couple of great features are located in the Tools page. The next version will also have graphs, and a lot more features.

8. Backup the Database

There is no automated backup for the YOURLS database, yet, so we’ll need to setup our own. The easiest way is to setup a cron job that overwrites the backed up database file every day by using the following command:

/usr/bin/mysqldump --add-drop-table -h localhost -u username -ppassword database | /bin/gzip -c > /var/www/yoursite/backup/database.sql.gz

There are a lot more backup solutions here, here, and here.

9. Install Wordpress YOURLS plugin.

Below is a snapshot of how we configured our YOURLS Wordpress plugin:

10. Force URL without the WWW

By removing the www. from the URL you will eliminate 4 characters, which could be needed since Twitter only allows 30 characters total in a shortened URL. To do so add the following lines to the top of your .htaccess file, but of course replace ngurl.me with your own domain name in lines 3 and 4.

# BEGIN Without WWW
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.ngurl\.me$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://ngurl.me/$1 [R=301,L]
# END Without WWW

Let me know how YOURLS works for you.

© Copyright NerdGrind 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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Starbucks is a necessity for a lot of people, but it’s also quite expensive, and very fattening. A grande sized latte runs $4.12, and at two lattes per day that comes out to $41.20 for a 5 day work week, $164.80 per month, and $1,977.60 per year. I’m going to show you how to make the same latte for about $0.10 to $0.20 per grande sized cup at home, or in your office in about 5 minutes or less. At 2 lattes per day it would cost $96 per year, so you could save 1,881.60 per year by making your own lattes. Here’s how.

Here’s a list of the items you’ll need to make your lattes:

• 12 oz. Stainless Steel Blue Cup, which is found in the camping equipment section: $2 to 4
• 16 oz. Stainless Steel Cup, which is found in the camping equipment section: $5 to $9
• Mr. Coffee 4-cup Espresso Maker: $37
• 16 oz. Starbucks coffee cup, or an latte cup: $5 to $10
• Coffee bean grinder $12 to $26
• Pyrex (glass) container with lid, size should be 8 oz or greater
• Acrylic round cylinder clamp top storage container
• Starbucks Espresso Coffee beans: price varies. Note: Lattes are made with espresso beans, not regular coffee beans.
• Torani flavored latte syrup: $5
• Soy Milk, or other cow’s milk.
• Distilled white vinegar

Pictures of the items you’ll need appear after the article. These are the items I use.

The total equipment cost comes to around $100, but the equipment should last 10 – 15 years, or longer, which has been my experience. The equipment can be purchased at Walmart, Target, or most any store, but you’ll get the best deal on the milk and Starbucks espresso beans (marketed as Kirkland brand) from Costco.

First open your bag of Starbucks espresso coffee beans, and pour them into your acrylic round cylinder clamp top storage container, which will create an air-tight seal to store the beans.

Grind your Starbucks espresso beans in your grinder until they are ground similar to coffee, although they may grind even finer than regular coffee.

Pour your espresso bean coffee grounds into the Pyrex container that should have an air tight lid that comes with it to seal in the grounds so they don’t lose their potency, and flavor. Don’t grind more than one grinder full at a time, or the grounds will become stale.

Replace the glass carafe on the Mr. Coffee 4-cup Espresso Maker with the 16 oz (ounce) stainless steel cup. The carafe always breaks eventually, but the stainless steel replacement will never break.

Fill the 12 oz stainless steel blue cup half-full with water, then pour it into the Mr. Coffee 4-cup Espresso Maker. One note about water, the better quality water, the better the latte. Don’t use bottled waters, because they can add elements to the water that can damage an espresso maker, but filtered tap water from Culligan would work great.

Put about 1 level teaspoon to 1 heaping teaspoon of espresso grounds into the Espresso machine metal filter. This filter does not require a paper insert, which is why it has such small holes. To clean out the grains after brewing, let the filter cool, then remove and knock against the filter holder until the grains pop out into a garbage can. Whipe out the remaining grains with a clean paper towel.

Turn on the espresso machine.

If this is a brand new machine, brew some water, without the espresso grains, through the machine at least twice to clean it.

Once the espresso has brewed, and you cannot hear hissing from the machine any longer, pour the espresso into the 16 oz coffee cup. Turn off the espresso machine. Note: Turning off the espresso machine while it is still hissing can trap steam in the machine, and damage it. The espresso coffee cup must say it is microwavable and dishwasher safe. If the cup heats up in the microwave a lot, replace it with a better cup. Poor quality cups may contain lead, which causes them to get much hotter than the liquid in the cup.

Now that the espresso is in the cup we add about 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of Torani flavored syrup. I used Torani syrup with Splenda so it is sugar free to keep the latte less fattening.

Now fill the remainder of the cup with Soy milk, or cow’s milk of your choice. I found that soy milk, particularly the Kirkland vanilla soy milk from Costco makes the latte smoother and creamier, plus soy has a whole bunch of healthy fats, and other good stuff.

Now put the cup in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds, assuming you have at least a 1,000 watt microwave.

Remove the cup from the microwave and stir. Let it cool a little, then enjoy. I leave off the whipped cream because the sugar is fattening, but you can make it however you like.

You may have noticed I didn’t steam the milk. Small espresso machines, like the one in this example, will become damaged if steam remains trapped, and is not released fully. It’s impossible to know exactly how much extra water to add to steam the milk, and the microwave does the same thing quicker, and without any concern of damaging the espresso machine. Plus you’d have to stand there and switch the machine over to steam once you’ve estimated you have enough espresso to make your coffee. Steaming will add a level of difficulty that simply isn’t necessary.

Be sure to brush your teeth after your coffee. The PH of coffee is 2, so it is very acidic, and will damage the enamel on your teeth.

I still grab a grande sugar free hazelnut soy latte from Starbucks on occasion, but not often, because they aren’t as smooth and delicious as the lattes I make at home. The huge savings per cup also helps make homemade lattes a much less guilty pleasure.

I’d like to hear if you like your homemade lattes more or less than the one from Starbucks using my recipe.

Every 6 months you’ll need to brew a full 12 oz cup of distilled white vinegar, twice, and then brew water the same way twice to rinse out the vinegar. Espresso machines build up mineral deposits that can damage the machine, and clog it up to the point it slows down the brewing time considerably.

Keep reading to see the pictures of the items you’ll need.

Mr. Coffee 4-cup Espresso Maker: $37 (Walmart or anywhere)

12 oz. Stainless Steel Cup: $2 to 4 (Walmart camping section or anywhere)

16 oz. Stainless Steel Cup: $5 to $9 (Walmart camping section or anywhere)

16 oz. Starbucks coffee cup, or an latte cup: $5 to $10 (Sold at Starbucks sometimes for half off. Can use any mug though.)

Coffee bean grinder $12 to $26 (A less expensive grind does the same work for less money.)

This is the Soy milk I buy from Costco, but you can use whatever you like.

The espresso beans at Costco come from Starbucks, but are sold as a Kirkland brand at a huge discount compared to anywhere else.

Torani syrup can be found anywhere. The quality of the syrup can affect the taste, which is why I use Torani.

A Pyrex glass container seals in flavor and maintains potency. Should come with its own lid to seal it. (Walmart or anywhere)

If you buy the Costco Starbucks espresso beans you’ll need two of the acrylic containers.

I’d use glass but I could not find a clamp top container that would seal properly. Maybe you’ll have better luck.

You’ll need distilled white vinegar to clean your latte machine twice a year.

© Copyright NerdGrind 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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• Campaign Tracking YOURLS in Google Analytics

A robots.txt file is the gatekeeper for your web site or blog that either allows or disallows search engine spiders from indexing your web site. If you don’t have a robots.txt file the spiders and bots make an assumption about how they should access your web site. We want to send clear instructions as to what we want spiders and bots to do.

Assuming you want maximum traffic to your web site you’ll want to allow all spiders and bots access to crawl and index everything on your web site. Sometimes the names of spiders and bots change, so it’s a good idea to allow them all. Some instructions will have a bunch of lines for a robots.txt file listing all the spiders and bots they know of, but again we just want to cover all of them without having to keep modifying the robots.txt file in the future.

Part 1

Create a text file called robots.txt and paste the following lines into the file:

User-agent: *
Disallow:
Sitemap: http://www.your-domain-name.com/sitemap.xml

That’s it if you want maximum traffic!

The first line "User-agent: *" applies to any and all spiders and bots.

To block certain spiders you would add a line like:

User-agent: badbot

The second line "Disallow: " means no directories are off limits. If your web site, or blog, already has certain directories password protected then you don’t need to worry about limiting the spiders or bots.

If you did want to limit access to certain directories you would not leave "Disallow: " blank, but would instead add one new line for every directory you want to block access to like this:

Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /protected/

The last line is "Sitemap." This is new edition to the robots.txt file that was approved by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and others to allow them to easily find your sitemap file. It doesn’t have to be named xml, but it does have to in the xml format.

When blocking bots you want those listed first. Spiders and bots read the robots.txt file from top to bottom, so you might disallow one bot while allowing all others like this:

User-agent: badbot
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /protected/
User-agent: *
Disallow:
Sitemap: http://www.your-domain-name.com/sitemap.xml

In Google’s webmaster directions it mentions using:

Allow: /

This line is not understood by all bots and spiders, so it is not backward compatible. Google’s bot does understand "Disallow: ", so we’ll just leave out "Allow: / ", which would allow Google’s bot to read all files and directories starting at the root, but might actually stop another spider or bot from indexing the web site since it wouldn’t recognize the "Allow: /" command.

Part 2

Adding a meta tag is just for good measure. Bad bots can just ignore the meta tag, but good bots will following the directions you give. To insure your site is completely indexed for maximum traffic add these two lines in the header:

<meta name="googlebot" content="index, follow" />
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />

If you leave these lines out the spiders and bots assume the web site is set for "index, follow."

You can use the following combinations to direct bots on certain pages to not index and not follow, but again, bad bots will ignore the meta:

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, FOLLOW">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, NOFOLLOW">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">

The meta tags must be positioned as shown in the following example:

<html>
<head>
<title>...</title>
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">
</head>

Be sure to setup the robots.txt file above, and add the meta lines, if you want your site fully indexed for maximum traffic.

© Copyright NerdGrind 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

• Campaign Tracking YOURLS in Google Analytics
• Upgrading YOURLS and Database Upgrade Errors Fix
• How To Create YOURLS Own URL Shortener Service with Your Domain Name
• How to Make a Starbucks Latte at Home
• Google Analytics and Google Adsense Code Placement Order

There have been a lot of complaints that Google Analytics does not always track Google AdSense data accurately, and there is a reason for the errors.

In order for Google Analytics to track Google AdSense data properly the code for your Google Ad Manager, AdSense Analytics Code (ASAC), Google AdSense ads, and Google Analytics code, must be placed into your web site template files in the proper order.

If you use Google Ad Manager then that code will be pasted into the your template files of your website first in between the HTML <head></head> tags as shown in the example below.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  GS_googleAddAdSenseService("ca-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx");
  GS_googleEnableAllServices();
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx", "YOUR-Homepage-160x600");
  GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx", "YOUR-Homepage-300x250");
  GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx", "YOUR-Homepage-336x280");
  GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx", "YOUR-Homepage-728x90");
  GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx", "YOUR-Homepage-bottom-300x250");
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  GA_googleFetchAds();
</script>
	<?php wp_head(); ?>
</head>
<body>

Next you will past the AdSense Analytics Code (ASAC) right after the <body> tag. This is not required for the primary domain name, or web site, it is only required for additional domain names or web sites being tracked by Google Analytics.

<?php wp_head(); ?>
</head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
window.google_analytics_uacct = "UA-xxxxxx-x";
</script>

After the AdSense Analytics Code (ASAC) you will the paste your Google AdSense ad code. The example below uses the Google Ad Manager ad code. This code will be pasted after the AdSense Analytics Code (ASAC), which means it will also come after the <body> tag, but before the </body> tag. So the code below must be pasted between the <body></body> tags.

<script type="text/javascript">
  GA_googleFillSlot("YOUR-Homepage-336x280");
</script>

Last on the list is to paste the Google Analytics code. This code needs to be pasted just before the </body> tag as shown in the example below. Make certain you are using the new ga.js tracking code, and not the legacy urchin.js tracking code, otherwise your tracking statistics will be limited. Eventually the urchin.js tracking code will be retired.

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxx-x");
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}</script>
</body>
</html>

If all of your code is placed into your web site templates in the correct order the statistical data collected should be accurate.

© Copyright NerdGrind 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

• Campaign Tracking YOURLS in Google Analytics
• Upgrading YOURLS and Database Upgrade Errors Fix
• How To Create YOURLS Own URL Shortener Service with Your Domain Name
• How to Make a Starbucks Latte at Home
• Google Launches DoubleClick Ad Exchange Network

Bloggers, and web site owners, that have more than one domain name may be surprised to learn that they cannot track their AdSense statistics automatically.

Google purchased a web site statistics company called Urchin many years ago, and turned it into a free service called Google Analytics. Last year Google made it possible to link your AdSense account to Google Analytics. Domain name owners who had a single domain name, as well as owners of multiple domain names, linked their domains to Google Analytics so their AdSense traffic could be tracked, but there is an extra step that owners of multiple domain names may have missed.

First let’s check to see if Google Analytics is tracking your AdSense traffic. Go to the Google Analytics home page and login. You should see your domain name listed, so click the View report link.

Expand the menu on the left to reveal Content. If you see AdSense listed, then your AdSense account is properly linked to Google Analytics, if not you’ll need to link your Adsense account before continuing. If you see AdSense listed on the menu click it. If you see mostly zeroes where there should be statistical data on the right, then you’ll need to go another step for your AdSense data to be tracked for this domain name.

Go back to the Google Analytics home page, and to the right of the View reports link you’ll see an Edit link. Click the Edit link, and you should now be at your Profile Settings page.

Listed on this page you will see the category AdSense Data. If your blog or web site are setup correctly then you’ll see Receiving AdSense data. If you don’t see Receiving AdSense data, then you’ll need to continue to the next step.

To the right of Main Website Profile Information you’ll see an Edit link, which you should click now. You should now be at the Edit Profile Information page.

If this domain name is not the primary domain name (web site) for the account, and it is an additional domain name you will see AdSense Data. If it is not already, then check the box. Now you’ll need to copy the script in the box, and paste it into your web site pages. Although the instructions here say you can paste the script into the "top" of any webpage, it is critical that you paste the code in the correct spot, because how your AdSense and Google Analytics scripts are ordered in your web pages will determine if AdSense and Google Analytics record your information accurately.

The order with which to place Google scripts in your website is explained here.

The correct place to paste the AdSense Analytics Code (ASAC) below is immediately after the <body> tag, which is usually in your header template if you have a blog. The ASAC must be placed above the AdSense ad code and Google Analytics Tracking code for your AdSense account to be properly applied to multiple domains.

The AdSense Analytics Code (ASAC) is made up of three parts:

• User Account
• User Account Number
• Property Index Number

The primary domain name, or web site, for the Google Analytics account will not require a AdSense Analytics Code (ASAC). The primary web site will only require the Google Analytics code, and Google AdSense code, if you’re running Google ads.

© Copyright NerdGrind 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

• Campaign Tracking YOURLS in Google Analytics
• Upgrading YOURLS and Database Upgrade Errors Fix
• How To Create YOURLS Own URL Shortener Service with Your Domain Name
• How to Make a Starbucks Latte at Home
• Google Launches DoubleClick Ad Exchange Network

One of the biggest headaches for a new blogger is figuring out how to be productive without sitting in a chair more than eight hours a day. The most popular blogging platforms, including Blogger and Wordpress, use a control panel that includes a WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) editor, but it’s slow, and hard to work with. A much better alternative is to use Desktop Blogging Client software. These are programs you install on your desktop/home/office computer and blog remotely. You prepare the post with your software, then submit it to the blog from your desktop to the remote server.

The Nerd has prepared a list of the top 20 Desktop Blog Client software here. The Nerd’s two free favorites are Post2Blog, which is great, but is no longer developed or supported, and Windows Live Writer, which makes use of some great plugins to extend its functionality. Special mention goes to Microsoft Word 2007, which did not make the list, but is still a great Desktop Blog editor alternative. Click here to read more about using Word 2007 to blog.

1. BlogJet

   

   • Platform: Windows only
   • Price: Free trial / €29.95
   • Supports: WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type, Blogger, MSN Live Spaces, Blogware, BlogHarbor, Squarespace, Drupal, Community Server, etc.
   • Website | Download

   Deepest Sender

   

   • Platform: Firefox, SeaMoney, XULRunner
   • Price: Free
   • Supports: LiveJournal, Blogger, Wordpress, MSN Live Spaces, meta Weblog
   • Website | Download

   Flock Browser

   

   • Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux
   • Price: Free
   • Supports: Blogger, Blogsome, LiveJournal, Wordpress, Xanga, Moveable Type
   • Website | Download

   Windows Live Writer

   

   • Platform: Windows (XP or Vista)
   • Price: Free
   • Supports: Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress Type
   • Website | Download

   Ecto

   

   • Platform: Windows, Mac
   • Price: Free Trial / $17.95
   • Supports: Blogger, Blojsom, Drupal, MovableType, Nucleus, SquareSpace, TypePad, WordPress, and more
   • Website | Download

   Bleezer

   

   • Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux
   • Price: Free
   • Supports: Blogger, Blojsom, Drupal, MovableType, Nucleus, SquareSpace, TypePad, WordPress, and more
   • Website | Download

   BlogTK

   

   • Platform: Linux
   • Price: Free
   • Supports: Blogger, Movable Type, Wordpress
   • Website | Download

   Drivel Journal Editor

   

   • Platform: Linux
   • Price: Free
   • Supports: LiveJournal, Blogger, MovableType, Advogato, Wordpress, Drupal
   • Website | Download

   Gnome Blog

   

   • Platform: Linux
   • Price: Free
   • Supports: Blogger, Advogato, Movable Type, Wordpress, LiveJournal, Pyblosxom
   • Website | Download

   Newz Crawler (RSS/Atom Feed Reader and Blog Client)

   

   • Platform: Windows
   • Price: Free Trial / $24.95
   • Supports: Blogger, Metaweblog, MovableType or LiveJournal API supporting website
   • Website | Download

   Performancing ScribeFire

   

   • Platform: Firefox
   • Price: Free
   • Supports: WordPress, Blogger, Drupal, TypePad, LiveJournal, Windows Live Spaces and more.
   • Website | Download

   MarsEdit

   

   • Platform: Mac
   • Price: Free Trial / $29.95
   • Supports: WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, Drupal, and Vox and more.
   • Website | Download

   ThingamaBlog

   

   • Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux
   • Price: Free
   • Supports: LiveJournal, Blogger, MovableType, Advogato, Wordpress, Drupal
   • Website | Download

   w.Bloggar

   

   • Platform: Firefox, Internet Explorer
   • Price: Free
   • Supports:Wordpress, MovableType, TypePad, Drupal, b2evolution, Nucleus CMS, Squarespace, Community Server, BlogEngine.NET
   • Website | Download

   RocketPost2

   

   • Platform: Windows
   • Price: Free Trial / $49
   • Supports:Blogger, Movable Type, WordPress, TypePad, MSN Spaces, BlogHarbor, Drupal, dasBlog, .Text and SquareSpace
   • Website | Download

   BlogDesk

   

   • Platform: Windows
   • Price: Free
   • Supports:WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, Serendipity and ExpressionEngine
   • Website | Download

   Post2Blog

   

   • Platform: Windows
   • Price: Free Trial / $14.95
   • Supports:WordPress, MovableType, Blogger, Tyepad
   • Website | Download

   Qumana

   

   • Platform: Windows, Mac
   • Price: Free Trial / $14.95
   • Supports:Angelfire, Blogger/Blogspot, BlogHarbor, Blogware, Bryght, DiaryLand, Drupal, LiveJournal, MovableType, MSN Spaces, Tripod, TypePad, Roller, SquareSpace, Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org
   • Website | Download

   Zoundry Raven

   

   • Platform: Windows
   • Price: Free
   • Supports:Blogger, Movable Type & TypePad, Windows Live Spaces, WordPress, and more
   • Website | Download

   WB Editor

   

   • Platform: Windows
   • Price: Free Trial / $29.99
   • Supports:Wordpress, Movable Type, Blogger, MSN Spaces, Drupal
   • Website | Download

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