The difficulty was mostly due to a bug in PHP 5.2.2. The bug causes Wordpress’s xmlrpc.php file to break down. For some reason I don’t quite understand, aLinks uses the xmlrpc.php. (Why aLinks uses this is a mystery. )

The fix was easy. I added this line to the top of xmlrpc.php in my blog directory.

$HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA = file_get_contents("php://input");

By “top”, I mean I placed it immediately after the <?php. ( If you cut and paste from a blog, retype the double quotes. These are sometimes replaced with slightly different quotes which will not work. Just retype.)

I found both the solution and a description of the problem at hughesfamily.net.au and red-sweater.com.

Does this problem affect more than aLinks?

Yes. The ‘xmlrpc.php’ file contains some functions associated with pinging. So, if you are noticing difficulties receiving pings (which I was) you may be having problems with this file. (Presumably, my problems will be cured now.)

Do I have to fiddle with my xmlrpc.php file to fix the bug?

No. WP 2.2.2 includes the work around for the PHP 5.2.2 bug. When you upgrade, things will be fixed.

Thanks Lord Matt for noticing that aLinks was getting all bogged up trying to ping and ping and ping and…. Now I think I have the problem licked.

Evidently, aLinks not a cpu hog (that’s processing) it’s a memory hog. Or at least Dreamhost tells me my problem is memory.

The memory use issue is quite bizarre because the piggish behavior only happens when you are in the admin panel– that is when you write posts, publish, turn plugins on and off etc. It does not happen when the blog loads. (This means my visitors probably noticed nothing.)

When I finally turned off the plugin, my admin panel loaded quickly. The blog always loaded quickly.

I love the functionality of the aLinks. I looked at the calls, and I suspect the program can be salvaged fairly easily by making it do what it does much less frequently. (As in: do whatever it’s doing when the blogger makes changes at aLinks itself or possibly when the blogger publishes a post rather than every time we turn on any random plugin, edit our themes etc. There is no reason aLinks needs to do anything when I make a change to my style sheet! )

Because I love the functionality of the plugin, I’ll be communicating with the plugin developer. Meanwhile, if you are using ALinks, I advise you turn aLinks off. (Sigh. . . I make good money from Amazon using the auto-linking feature of that plugin. )

I’ll assume you know how to install a plugin, and then give a detailed explanation of what to do. So, go get aLinks and the aLinks module for clickbank. Install and activate aLinks. Unzip the aLinks Module for Clickbank and leave that somewhere easy to find on your computer.

So, you’ve installed aLinks and activated, right?

Now, here’s how to create an auto-link to a Clickbank product.

First, go to the administration area in Wordpress. You click “aLinks” to open the aLinks administration screen. It will look
sort of like this:

Next, click “modules”. That will open a screen that looks sort of like this:

Except, if you haven’t yet installed the Clickbanks module, it won’t be there. So, scroll down to the uploading area which I have outlined in red.

Click “browse” to find the Clickbank module on your home computer. Upload. It’s now installed– you’ll see it in the modules area.

Now, go back to the Clickbank administration area. This time click “General Settings”. That will open a screen that lets you set some permanent choices for various modules installed.

The ClickBank portion looks like this:

You need to add your Clickbank nickname. Oh my…now what is that?

Well, your Clickbank nickname is created when you join clickbank. You use the nickname every time you log in– and Clickbank greets you with “Hi XXXXXXX”. So, do remember that nickname when you join Clickbank. Enter that name in the aLinks text box and save.

You are now finished with the General settings. Go back to the main admin board and click “keyphrases”.

Notice you must enter three things: a Keyphrase, a product ID and a Description. Now, let’s figure out the Clickbank productID!

To do this, open a second browser window on your computer and visit Clickbank; log into your account and visit the marketplace by clicking “marketplace”. The screen will look like this:

Use the various pulldown menus and submit buttons to find something you’d like to advertise. Once you have, click the word “hoplink” underneath the opportunity.

A clickbank window will open asking for that nickname again — enter that. Ignore the other blank box and click to submit.

You will be shown the hoplink similar to this:

Notice that after the hoplink is in the form:

This hoplink contains the information you need to enter into the aLinks box product ID box! The productID for the product I want to create a link to is “bryxen1″.

To make aLinks create links to the product ID “brixen1″, enter “brixen1″ in the “Product ID” box on the aLinks screen.

Now, you’ll want to pick a “keyphrase” and a “description”. Both are entirely up to you. I decided that I wanted aLinks to automatically create a link to this affiliate product the first time I wrote “SEO Software” at my blog. So, I entered that as the keyphrase for this product.

Notice how my first mention of SEO Software in this article became a link? Alinks did that!

Oh… before I continue, don’t forget to save what you entered.

You can enter anything you want for the description. But, to find out what it does, why don’t you mouse over the link to SEO Software aLinks created above? I bet that just makes you want to click and buy that software, doesn’t it!

Now, I bet you are wondering: How can this make you more money than just creating an ordinary link evertime I want to blog about this software? Easy!

This is the second time I’ve dropped a link to this product. The first time I dropped that link, I actually visited Clickbank and found the software. But, from now on, aLinks will do this for me; I don’t need to remember the hoplink. And given my niche, you can also be pretty sure I will be writing more posts about “SEO software”. Curious visitors may click that link, like the software and buy it.

What’s even better is that if this software company ever stops paying commissions, I can edit the hoplink to point to other software: All my old links will point to commission paying software.

So, four months from now, or 4 years from now, when people visit this blog post, the link will still be paying out big bucks to me!

I hope this paves the road to Big Bucks for you too!

You ask: “Why will auto-liking to Clickbank products make me money?” Well, first you need to know what “Clickbank” is: it’s an affiliate program that lets you make lots of money online by linking to other people’s products.

But now you want to know: What’s auto-linking? And why will that make you more money than normal linking. Well… autolinking is sort of like blogger designed contextual linking on steroids: it’s a great when Kontera poops out and doesn’t provide the links you need (like Andy Coates.)

Why is it great? You the blogger pick key word or phrases. Then you the blogger associate those words and phrases with highly profitable Clickbank products. Then, the first time you write that key word in any post at your blog, aLinks will create link to that highly profitable Clickbank product.

Here’s an example of a keyphrase that I’ve liked to a potentially profitable product:

If you click and buy the SEO Elite software, I get a commission! Whoo hooo! (By the way, SEO Elite analyzes your site for SEO effectiveness. At $167, it’s fairly affordable for webmasters who are serious about improving their SEO. Using this software,you can easily see if someone killed their link to you. You can figure out if people promising do follows actually nofollowed. You can do loads of useful stuff! So, it’s software that can help boost your profit margin. )

But, I digress… back to aLinks and how it can make you money by making it easy to hawk product.

Here are the important points! I didn’t hand code the link to that phrase; aLinks did. Better yet, from now on, whenever I type “SEO Software” for the first time in an article, aLinks will automatically drop the link to the affiliate link I specified. I don’t need to remember or anything. Plus should the person offering me the commission ever withdraw their commission offer, I can modify the entry in aLinks to point to someone else who sells decent SEO software (and who will give me a commission.)

That will cause every single old link in my blog to point to an affiliate program that makes me money. You can do the same at your blog.

I bet you are wondering if this works? I’ve used this aLinks for Amazon affiliates at my knitting blog, and these sorts of links do work. I simply create aLinks to items that I actually have purchased and I would want to let knitters read about even if I didn’t get paid. Visitors do click and buy. I make about $500 a year on Amazon sales. It’s not a zilliions–but remember. That’s a knitting blog that was never intended to be a big money maker!

Now you’re wondering how difficult it is to drop these aLinks? It’s easy!

Once I after I set up the Clickbank module, I entered the “key phrase” Seo Software in aLinks, and I entered the product code in a little user interface box similar to the one shown below:

To get the aLinks Module, visit aLinks Clickbank Module. Of course, the way this works, you’ll need to install aLinks first.

Now, go install both, and if you ask nicely, I’ll give a detailed tutorial on how to install and use both. ‘Cuz installing and using is “the hard part”– if you can call it that. I took screen shots to help newbies get up to speed.

So… ask nicely, and I’ll blog about how to do this so you can make money too.

So, you know what I did? I added both Tricia and PayPerPost my keywords in the “aLinks” Wordpress plugin which is available at Headzoo. I also added appropriate links. Now, the first time I write “Tricia” or “PayPerPost” in an article, it’s automatically linked. Now, I don’t have to write the html!

Handy, huh?

Plus, if Tricia or PPP ever change their domain names, I can just edit the aLinks keywords and automatically fix every dead link in every article I ever wrote. Even handier!

Guess what else? I have an Amazon account, and aLinks has a module that lets me enter my Amazon affiliate code. Then, later, I easily create automatic links to Amazon. (I use this at my knitting blog to link my favorite knitting books to Amazon, and I actually do make money when people buy stuff at Amazon.)

It’s a great plugin. If you use Wordpress, you should get it. Then, code Big Bucks Blogger, talk about me and send me traffic! (Heck, you never know, if I learn to love your blog, I’ll add you too. )

Update:
Two people asked me for tips on using this plug in. It has a zillion features and I use two only.

To create Keyphrases, go to your WP dashboard. Click “aLinks”.

Find Keyphases and click. (Just skip General Settings for now!)

Key phrases lets you do four things. But, the first one you want to learn is “General Keyphrases”. Scroll w_a_y down.

Now under “General Keyphrases”,

1. Enter the phrase you want to link. Say you want to link ‘The Best Knitting Blog in the World’. Enter that in the box.
2. Now enter the URL using the http://
3. Click Update