AvantLinker First Steps

Go to AvantLinker Configuration and set up your settings from AvanLink. This assumes that you are already an affiliate with their network. Put a couple of keywords in the Related Products section that relate to merchants that you have signed up with.

Now go to Add Content and select the Avant content type and put up some content. The setup leaves other content types open for content that you don't want to associate with affiliate promotion.

Making AvantLinker Style Changes

It's real easy to change the look of the Related Products display. Just create a sub-theme of your main theme and make your style overrides in the sub-theme.zen_sub.png

If you have never done it a good way to learn is install the Zen theme and create a sub-theme using the STARTERKIT that comes with it. Then you add the CSS file and the avantlinker-block-item.tpl.php to your new sub-them.

The readme files in Zen and it's STARTERKIT will tell you how. It's very simple and will take you about 15 to 30 minutes.

Skout Organic Trailbars

Free Shipping on SamplerI'm using Skout Natural Foods here to show all the features of the AvantLinker module.

Skout sent me this sampler a while back for free in the hopes that I would promote their trailbars. My wife and I shared the Cherry + Vanilla and the Chocolate + Coconut. We both really liked them. I'm trying to save the other 3 bars for kayak trips to see how they be for energy fuel.

Now she is the hard one to please here being an organic and natural freak. I say that lovingly, but she cooks two meals every night. One for me that's regular good South Louisiana food, and the other for her that's "healthy".

The Skout trailbars passed both out tests. Her test was for quality organic food with all natural ingredients. My test is that it had to be good and not taste like it was good for you.

Menu Block Module Added

I added the Menu Block module to the GrandFoo Install Profile today. It gives some basic expanedable menu links like those seen in the Configuration Tips menu block on this site.

Drupal Modules

I inetend to organize a few quick articles to explain some of the Drupal modules set up here. They are intented for folks new to Drupal 7. The area will deal with some of the 42 modules that where installed with the GrandFoo Distribution Profile.

You will see little notes at the bottom of some marked "AvantLinker" and they will help users of that module understand how it works.  

Avantlinker: No action for AvantLinker as it's an Article content type here.

XML Sitemap Added Configuration

While the  XML Sitemap module for Drupal is installed you may want to go into the module settings and enable 3 other features. I have XML sitemap engines, XML sitemap menu, and XML sitemap node enabled.

The sitemap engines feature is needed to ping Google and other engines.

AvantLInker: Avant content type with global keywords triggering Related Products.

Look And Feel Evolving Here

The main purpose here is to get a demo site going for the AvantLinker tools and the GrandFoo Installation Profile. Remember as a demo site it can change at any time.

This is an Article content type and has no Related Products or Product Search along the side. My opinion is that if you overly commercialize these days you will loose favor with the search engines.

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