ZZ Tuel Owner's Manuel - by Kurt Melvin
Tuelz Forum || Tuelz Home

Requirements and Installation

!Quick Start for Experts

Introduction
-
!!!Warning about Using RSS
-How to Find Pheeds
-Adding RSS Pheeds to The Newz Tuel
---Most Common Newz Tuel Mistake

Getting Started
-Planning Ahead: Folders and Names

-Defining Project Types

Directory Project Set up
-Working with Directory Templates
-Template Folders and Destination Folders

Archive Project Set Up
 Template
 Saving Archived Pages

Page Naming System

Linking Strategies:
 1. Add links to newest pages
 2. Add links to pages at Random
 3. Add links to all pages in selected directory

FTP Config
-Auto Upload
-Upload All
-Enter FTP Info
-
!Server Directory Path

Using Tags In Page Templates
---Category Tags
---RSS Tags
---Random Parameter
---Keyword Tags
-----Three Search Modes
 --------1. Any  2. All  3. Exact

Formatting Template for RSS Content
-Replace Invalid or Empty Tags

Working with Existing Projects
-Generate Now: Makes pages no upload
-Test Mode: Makes pages and uploads
-Detailed Project List/List Details
---Load Balancing

Misc. Tips and Techniques

ZZ's Identifying Tags

Using ZZ with Other Tuelz

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Installing ZZ Tuelz on Your Windows Computer:

ZZ Tuel is a "plug in" for Tuelz  software and requires Tuelz to function correctly. Tuelz is a FREE Windows program you can download here that is like having a web server on your desktop to run browser based programs.

Requirements for Tuelz and ZZ Tuel:

Directions:

  1. Unzip tuelz-X.zip. (X = version number and may vary....)
  2. Click  tuelz.exe to start Tuelz.
  3. In Tuelz, click any ZZ Tuel link.

Remember, Tuelz is like having a web server on you PC, and all Tuelz use a broswer so switching from one tuel to another is as easy as clicking a link on a webpages.

To install  ZZ Tuel into ALREADY INSTALLED Tuelz:
(Only needed if you have Tuelz already installed and are now installing ZZ Tuel.)
1. Exit Tuelz - Clicking the link "should" quit Tuelz, if it is running.
2. Unzip Tuelz into the same folder that has tuelz.exe in it.
3. Restart tuelz.exe and click on any ZZ Tuel link.

Quick Start for Experts:
If you are an experienced webmaster you may be better off just "digging in" and going straight to ZZ Tuel, as most of it is self-explanatory. Just refer to this guide when needed.

1. Start tuelz.exe.
2. -A. Open The Newz Tuel and
 
  -B. Enter the URLs to some RSS pheeds.
 
3. Open ZZ Tuel.
 
4. Select Project Type: Directory or Archive. The Directory Project will modify and update a directory/folder of html, php, asp pages. An Archive Project will create a new page on a "schedule", based upon a single template design.
 
5. Create html template(s) using special tags inserted in html. For "Directory Projects Templates", you will use multiple templates, while you will only need one Archive template per project.
 
6. Set Scheduler and enter FTP info.

Part I: Usage

Warning: "RSS" does NOT mean Public Domain. Publishers still have copyrights when they offer RSS pheeds and the copyrights for each pheed may be different, and may even change. Just because it is RSS doesn't mean you can use it..

It is up to you to use RSS pheeds according to "Fair Use", as well as the wishes of the publishers. If in doubt, we recommend using RSS pheeds from affiliate programs that offer RSS pheeds and resources such as our own www.pheeds.com and Bo Scrivner's BuyItBomb.

See the Tuelz forum for more info on using RSS pheeds that PAY YOU to use them.

What's an RSS Pheed and Where to Find Pheeds
Of all the skills needed, the ability to find RSS pheeds is probably the most important for successfully using ZZ Tuel to its fullest potential. RSS pheeds will be the source of the content for your pages and creating good, interesting and unique pages.

Here's a brief "newbie guide to RSS pheeds".  RSS is a simple computer language and is used to transfer and format information from "one place to another".

Many webmasters write articles on their websites and blogs and offer to "syndicate" their content using RSS feeds/pheeds. Merchants and marketers provide RSS pheeds with content to increase your sales.

You insert the URLs (web address) to the RSS pheeds into a news reader such as The Newz Tuel and it will check all your RSS pheed for updates automatically and saves you the trouble of having to surf to each site to check for new content.

Remember when you where a web newbie, learning to find websites?

Many content publishers offer their content both in web/html format as well as in RSS. Now, you need the skills to find RSS pheeds, just like you did when first learning about how to locate webpages.

Just like webpages have search engines and directories, so do RSS pheeds. Here's a good list of places to help you get started in your quest for pheeds:

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Adding RSS Pheeds to The Newz Tuel.
The first thing you need to do is add the pheed to The Newz Tuel. The Newz Tuel is your own custom news reader, also known as a RSS aggregator.

Think of The Newz Tuel as your own automated news reporter you send out to find news and articles. Once the Newz Tuel gathers some information, you can then use ZZ Tuel to convert the RSS pheeds into webpages.

To summarize:

  1. The Newz Tuel - Collects, stores, displays and updates RSS pheeds.
  2. ZZ Tuel then takes the content from the RSS pheeds you put in The Newz Tuel and creates pages and maintains the pages on a schedule you set.

There's a couple of different ways to add RSS pheeds to the Newz Tuel.

  1. By keyword. Just enter some keywords or phrases and select a resource from the drop down box. This method uses the three RSS search engines Daypop.com, Feedster.com and Newstrove.com. Be sure to check each periodically for ever-changing Terms and Copyright info.
  2. Adding the URL to a specific RSS pheed. You can enter one RSS URL at a time, or you can add a list of them, one per line. Don't add to many at once, as this can cause a traffic jam as they all need to update at the same time.  Try to spread out your updates for best results.

Most Common Mistake with The Newz Tuel
The most common mistake you'll make is to enter the URL to the html page, not the RSS page. If your pheed doesn't appear, double check to make sure you entered an RSS URL.

For more Newz Tuel help and tips, please visit The Newz Tuel forum thread.

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Getting Started

Planning: Folders and Names

Note: You can name your folders anything and put them anywhere, but by using this structure and naming method you will save yourself some headaches and help keep things well organized as you add more and more Projects. Learning and having a disciplined structure early will pay dividends later as you deal with thousands of pages on many different domains.

In your MyDocuments folder:

  1. Create a folder called:!ZZ-Tuel-Projects
    The exclamation mark (!) will make the folder appear at the top of the folders list in your MyDocuments folder.
     
  2. In the !ZZ-Tuel-Projects, create another folder using a naming system like this: domain-name.com-zz
     
  3. Inside this folder, create two more folders:
    1. templates-domain-name
    2. destination-domain-name

Summary:

MyDocuments=> !ZZ-Tuel-Projects=> domain-name.com-zz=> 1. templates-domain-name
2. destination-domain-name

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When you first click on the ZZ Tuel link, you should see a page similar to below. You will need to chose a name and "Project Type". Be sure to name your project with a something descriptive, such as a domain name, so you'll be able to easily tell it apart from other Projects in the future.
 


Make a New Project
Create New Directory Project or Create New Archive Project
Name:

Copy existing project:
 

Name:

Copy existing project:
 


Copy Existing Project:
If you have Projects already created, you can "copy" them to act as a starting point for a new Project.

Project Types: Directory or Archive?
There are two type of Projects you can create using ZZ Tuel, Directory or Archive.

  1. A Directory Project uses  any number of pages already in a folder/directory as "templates" and will use RSS as content and to update these pages.
  2. An Archive Project will create a new page at each scheduled update.

Simply, a Directory Project will update existing pages but not create new ones, an Archive Project will create new pages but won't update old ones.

Chose "Directory" if you already have pages on your site and want to add updating RSS pheeds. Also chose "Directory" if you want to create a number of pages right now.

Chose "Archive" if you want to automatically generate new pages as time passes. For example, maybe you want to create a daily archive of news about "new movie releases" and keep a history of each day's news and history concerning "new movie releases".

Another difference is A Directory Project uses any number of templates, whereas An Archive Project only uses a single template.

Setting Up a Directory Project

A Directory Project takes very little set-up. Most of the effort is preparing for the Project and creating your template pages.

Make sure you've created your two folders in your MyDocuments as outlined above.

Template Folders: Enter the path to the folder you are using as your templates for this project. This folder should have pages with the tags in them.

Destination Folder:  This is the folder where the pages are kept that have had the last updates.

Working with Directory Project Templates

A Directory Project template is any "web page" (html, php, etc) that has these two qualities:

  1. The page is in a directory you have told ZZ tuel to use as a "templates directory".
  2. Has special tags inserted in the html to tell ZZ Tuel where and what content to add to your templates.

Here's how it works: You create a folder for your template pages, adding simple tags (see below). ZZ Tuel will copy all the pages from the "Templates Folder" into a new "Destination Folder", where ZZ Tuel will go through and "search and replace".

ZZ Tuel will look for the ZZ Tags , reading them and replacing them with the appropriate RSS info.

When it's time for ZZ to go to work on the project once more, it will again copy all the pages from the project's "Templates Folder" into the "Destination Folder". These pages will again have your tags, and ZZ Tuelz will start over, again replacing the ZZ Tagz with <hopefully> updated RSS info according to the ZZ Tagz.

To create Directory Project templates, you can use almost any design you want, allowing space for the RSS pheeds.

You can even use just about any "web page" type such as .php, .html, .shtml, etc. Just  include some ZZ tags and put all  your pages in your Project's Template Folder.

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Archive Function
Template for Archive Pages
Use ZZ Tuel's Archive Function to amass content about a particular subject over time.

The Archive Project function uses a single template containing ZZ tags that you put into the Template box. You can  use simple or complex web designs for this...

Note: The most common problem with Archive templates is getting your links to images and pages correct. You may want to use the full/absolute URL (ex: http://mydomain.com/image.jpg) instead of the relative URL (image.jpg).

Template for Archive Pages
Paste the html of your page's design into the box. Be sure to include the special tags in your template.

Select Archive Folder
Enter a folder path or browse to the folder where you want ZZ Tuel to save the newly created pages on your PC.

Page Naming System
You have a wide array of options when it comes to naming your Archive pages. While it may seem a bit complex, this system is designed to give your page as many combinations of naming options as possible, to help remove "fingerprints" or patterns the engines may detect.

# (The number sign) Adds numerical count to each page. For example, if you entered:
apple-pie-#.html

Your pages will be named:
apple-pie-1.html, apple-pie-2.html, apple-pie-3.html.

You may also use these attributes to add flavor and variety to your page names:
$year  $month  $day  $hour  $min  $sec  $random

($random will use a random number)

Here's some examples:
apple-pie-$day.html
$random-apple-pie-$day.html
#apple-pie-$random.html
applepie#.php

Note: The naming system is only for Archive Projects. Because Directory Projects use pages already created by you, there is no need for an automated naming strategy.

Tips: You can use hyphens (-) and underscores (_) to separate different elements of the naming system. Also, add keywords and log into your project from time to time to change the page names a little (or a lot).

Linking Strategies
ZZ Tuel gives you some potent linking strategies designed to be far more creative that basic site maps. You may chose more than one linking strategy.

1. Add links to newest pages - If chosen, any new page created will have a link to it placed on the 5 most recently created pages in the selected directory. 2. Add links to pages at Random  - If chosen, after a new page is created, ZZ Tuel will scour the selected directory and add a link to this new page at random to the number of pages you want.

3. Add links to all pages in selected directory  - If chosen, this will add a link to ALL pages. Note that this will create a pyramid of links, with the oldest page have the most links, and newer pages each having fewer.

Tip: You may also add links in the template to be added to every page created and to link to pages in other directories and on other domains.

Show RSS tags: Will show all available RSS tags entered into The Newz Tuel. Use this feature to list all the tags, pheeds and categories you have to use in your template(s).


FTP Config

Auto Upload: Select if you want your pages to be uploaded after project is run. If unselected, the project will modify (Directory Project) or create pages (Archive Project), but won't upload them to your website.

Upload All Files in Directory: If selected, all files in your selected folder, such as images, will be included in the FTP upload. If not, only the pages  recently modified with last project will be uploaded.

Enter Your FTP Details:

Host name: :
User name:
Password:
*Directory:

*How to Enter the Directory Path.

1. Click the "Browse" button.

2.  The FTP  pop-up window will immediately appear. The FTP window has red borders so you can identify it and is similar to this example:

3. Wait a minute if needed. Connecting to a web server make take some time.

4. Once ZZ Tuel connected with your web host, you can select different directories by clicking on the links listed at the top of the FTP window. See image above.

Be patient, it could take a few seconds for each directory to load as you navigate through your site.

5.  When you have reached the correct directory for uploading, click the "OK" button and the FTP pop-up window will close.

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Note: ZZ Tuel is NOT a full scale FTP application. I will not create directories on your server, for example.


Using Tags in Page Templates for Both Directory and Archive Projects.

Category Tags
cat= This is the category. Use this tag in your templates if you want to include items in a specific category from The Newz Tuel.

Example use of Category tags:
{{cat=3}}
{{cat=16}}

items= Use this attribute to tell ZZ Tuel how many results from the category you want it to use.

Example use of "Items" in Category tags:
{{cat=1&items=5}} Will display 5 items from Category 1.

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RSS Tags
rss= Use this tag in your templates if you want to include items in a single RSS pheed from The Newz Tuel.

Example use of RSS tags:
{{rss=1}}
{{rss=24}}

items= Use this attribute to tell ZZ Tuel how many results from the category you want it to use.

Example use of "Items" in RSS tags:
{{rss=1&items=5}} Will display 5 items  from RSS pheed #1
{{rss=4&items=7}}  Will display 7 most recent items in RSS pheed #4.

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random= Will display items of a specific category or RSS pheed at random .

Example Random Tags:
{{cat=1&random=5}} - Will write 5 items randomly from all RSS pheeds in Category {{rss=4&random=7}} - Uses  7 items from the specific RSS pheed #4.

{{cat=1&random=5}} Displays 5 random results from all pheeds in category 1
{{cat=1&items=5}} Displays the 5 most recent items in a category
{{rss=1&random=5}} Displays 5 random results from designated pheed
{{rss=1&items=5}} Displays the 5 most recent items from designated pheed

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Using the Keyword Tag:
{{keywords=britney spears&items=5&mode=exact}} Uses the NewzTuel search feature. Mode= exact, any, all This tag will add content based on the search results from The Newz Tuel.

There's three modes for the keyword tag:

&mode=exact - If selected, only the RSS items containing your phrase exactly how it is typed will be used in your pages. This mode will return the most relevant RSS content, but will have the least results.

&mode=any -Use this mode if you want RSS items that contain ANY of your keywords. If you enter "New York", any pages containing "new" will be included. This mode will have the most results but be the least relevant. If you're having trouble getting results, try this mode.

&mode=all - Will use RSS items that contain all of the word, but the words don't have to be in the same order. This is the "average" selection and will usually strike a balance between number of results and relevancy.

&cat=1 -You can also limit your keyword searches to a particular Newz Tuel category:
{{keywords=britney spears&items=5&mode=exact&cat=1}} (Will limit search to category #1)

&rss=1 - Uses the search on a specific RSS pheed:
{{keywords=britney spears&items=5&mode=exact&rss=27}} (Will limit search to RSS pheed #27)

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Formatting Template for RSS Content

For each project you can control how the RSS pheeds will be displayed on your pages through use of the RSS Template.

Normally, we think of templates as being a blueprint for creating a webpage. This RSS "template" controls how the RSS will look within your pages, not how not how your whole page will look.

You can use <almost> any html you want combined with these special tags that tell ZZ Tuel where to put the info., just inserting these tags to help control the formatting and length of these tags:

{url} - The HTML url of the RSS item.

{title} - This is the title of the item.

{description} - The description or "content" of the RSS item.

Some tags have attributes so you can control how long each is:

{title=50}

In this example, the title tag will be 50 characters in length. If you want everything in an item, set these numbers to something very, very high, such as {title=9999}.

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Replace Invalid or Empty Tags
If there's an error or one of your tags doesn't have any results, you can use whatever is entered here to act as a substitute on your pages for any problems. You can use just about anything you want, text formatted with html, a search box, graphic, SSI tag, etc.

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Working With Existing Projects

Generate Now: No Upload. Makes or Modifies Pages. ZZ Tuel will run the Project and if using the Directory Mode makes modifications and in Archive Mode will creates pages,  but does NOT upload them. Use this mode if you want to perform your own custom modifications to these pages such as using other Tuelz to perform linking and SEO strategies.

Test Mode: Makes pages and uploads to your web host.

To use the Test Mode:
1. In SCHEDULER, select the Test Mode.
1. Enter "How Often" you want to generate the test, in minutes.
3. Click "Modify Project" button.
4. Click Either "Test Mode" or "Generate Now" buttons, based on your desire.

Caution: Running more than one Project in Test Mode at the same time may cause delays in updates to project.

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Detailed Project List/List Details
Clicking either of these two links will open a pop-up window containing details and schedule for each Project. This window is "printer friendly" and designed specifically for this purpose.

Load Balancing
We suggest you print the Project Details often and use it as a guide for nay new project schedules, to help balance the times ZZ Tuel will be working so that ZZ will be the most efficient.

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Misc. Tips and Techniques

ZZ's Indentifying Tags

When making modifications to pages, sometimes ZZ adds html "comment tags" to the code of your pages

For example:
<!-- Start ZZ oldest/newest tag -->
<!-- End ZZ oldest/newest tag -->

These tags help ZZ and other tuelz to be further modified. Also, using Tagz can often act as an "undo", letting you remove any modifications made that are inbetween two particular tags.

These comment tags are harmless in most cases. However, for SEO purposes, it is best not to leave patterns (fingerprints) in pages that other pages across the web may contain. It just makes things too easy for the egnines...

We recommend that you change these tags to something unique that you made up or remove them.

For the updated list of Tuelz tags for removal and changing, visit this Tuelz Forum Thread.

rtrt

Using other tuelz with ZZ Tuel to create Directory Templates and do massive SEO.

Needed Tuelz: ZZ Tuel, Pagez, Namez, Replacez, Keymapz (May not be included with your purchase).

If you have Pagez, you can make duplicates (dupes) of a template, then modify the pages (dedupe) using various tuelz to add navigation links, perform SEO and more.

1. Run Pagez: Create a "master" template, using the {tags} in strategic places on the page, and paste it into Pagez, follow the directions and create 100 (more or less) pages.

Also include unique strings of text in strategic location on your template, so you can replace them later.

For example, in your titles use a "word" like:
title3tag

Or in your header tags, use a "word" like:
header2keyword
header3keyword

Your goal is to use distinct words you can replace with important keywords later, without worrying about replacing text you don't want to change.

Planning ahead at this stage gives you a lot of flexibility later.

2.  Run Namez: Using a list of your most important keywords for SEO, run Namez to change elements of your pages' names to add a variety of keywords.

3. Run Replacez on ZZ Tags:
In this example, we want to use Replacez to add variety to our tags when inserted into our Master Template.

Here, we want to tell ZZ to use different amounts of items to vary the length of our pages from short and sweet to long and sassy, and all in the middle. Maybe engines like short pages this week. long next....This strategy means you're prepared for any changes.

Find: {{cat=&radom=5}}

Replacez:
{{cat=1&random=6}}
{{cat=1&random=7}}
{{cat=1&random=3}}
{{cat=1&random=5}}

Follow a similar strategy with other tags, for example if you use the keyword search {{tag}}:

 Find:
{{keywords=keyTAGword&items=5&mode=exact}}

Replacez:
{{keywords=apple pie&items=5&mode=exact}}
{{keywords=cherry pie&items=12&mode=any}}
{{keywords=apple cherry pie&items=25&mode=all}}
{{keywords=blueberry pie&items=3&mode=exact}}

Note how all attributes of the tag can be changed. Note only do we change the keywords, but we can also change the search mode as well as the number of results (items) returned.

This adds all sorts of variety to your pages.

4. Run Replacez on Your Special Words: Click over to Replacez and enter a similar, but preferably different set of keywords though Replacez, replacing each of your SpecialWords with appropriate keywords.

For example:

Find: title3tag

Replace with:
apple pie
apple cider
cherry pie
banana cream pie
blueberry pie

This will go though and change all your page titles to each of the keywords in the list. You can order them, repeat some, etc.

5. Run Keymapz: Now click to Keymapz and cross-link your pages based on keywords.

6. Run ZZ Tuel: Use the directory of these pages as your "Templates Directory" for your ZZ Tuel Directory Project and run ZZ on the project

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