Install/Set Up

There are two files for the script:
1. CGI
2. URL list - Enter the URLs you want to use for each day/date.

Open the cgi script:
1 Check/update path to perl

2 Line 29: Modify the path/file name that points to the URL file. If you put the URL file in the same folder as the cgi script you can just use the file name, such as:
my $file="botator-urls.txt";

3 Upload in text/ASCII mode

4 Set permissions to the cgi script to 755

Installing the Botator script is pretty easy. The toughest part is customizing the URLs for each date.

Accessing the script:
You can access the content by using the URL of the cgi script...Or, you can create a html or php page, then "include" the script to have it display the results from the rotator. You can use htaccess if you want to hide you are using a script, or to add content to other pages.

Using SSI, the include tag will look something like:
blenderbomb tag
<!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/botator.cgi"-->

Likely, you'll also need to add an htaccess file to the folder where your html/php pages are.
htaccess.

Create a simple text file and name it: .htaccess

Paste this single line of text in it:
AddHandler server-parsed .html

One use is to set the script up to display seasonal images and text. For example, create some simple html pages for the major holidays. Add some Christmas graphics and text and add the URL to this page to the URL list with dates around Christmas. Repeat for Halloween, New Year, St. Patty's Day, etc. Now, your site will automatically look "evergreen" and up to date.

You can also use the script to act like a "count down" script, changing sales prices according to the date. Or offer a special price for certain days of the month.

I'm sure you can think of a few uses...

However, we can also build something a little more black hat using the Botator, another version of an RSS blackhole, which we can use to create tons of links and can also be used for those that have an interest in Dave Kelly's "MSN Loophole" as a way to generate links.

Unlike the other blackholes which are usually dynamic, this one only changes once per day.

I've tried to make this as easy for you as possible. Instead of using html or php pages, we'll rotate through RSS pages, which I've already created and added to the list of URLs Botator needs.

You just need to add your own info.

1. Open the URL text file and change pheeds.com to your domain.

2 Open the RSS folder in the Replacez Tuel and make the following find/replaces to the folder containing the 366 RSS files:

maindescription : One main description for the pheed itself

mainlink : One main URL for the pheed itself. Can be a home page, or anything.

itemlink : Add a list of URLs you want to build links for. You can have 5000 links, but I suggest more like 100-500

itemtitle : Add a big list of keywords

itemdescription - Have at least 100 paragraphs, each on a single line.

3. Upload the entire "rss" folder containing the RSS pages to the root directory of your website, so the URL of the folder on your site looks something like this:
http://YourDomain.com/rss/

Now, just use the URL of the cgi script just as you would the URL of any RSS pheed. Or if you prefer, use htaccess to call it from a "page".

You now have an RSS pheed that updates once a day that you can submit and ping just like any other pheed. Yes, it's a little spammy/black hat, and is like making doorway pages except they're RSS pages...But it's also very effective.

is this pretty much the same script we used to use with pheeds to make a new page for every day of the year?

Kelvin

Hi Kelvin,

That's correct. Some of the long time members are probably already familar with this script.