** Note all variables should be defined prior.  Dbhost, cpaneluser, cpanelpass, etc..

$include 'xmlapi.php';
$xmlapi = new xmlapi($db_host);
$xmlapi->password_auth("".$cpaneluser."","".$cpanelpass."");
$xmlapi->set_debug(1);//output actions in the error log 1 for >true and 0 false

$xmlapi->set_output('array')
$xmlapi->set_port(2083);
//You will have to use 2082 if you don't have cURLSSL or OpenSSL compiled in you PHP binary;//set this for browser output

//create database

$createdb = $xmlapi->api1_query($cpaneluser, "Mysql", "adddb", array($databasename));
//create user

$usr = $xmlapi->api1_query($cpaneluser, "Mysql", "adduser", array($databaseuser, $databasepass));
//add user to db

$addusr = $xmlapi->api1_query($cpaneluser, "Mysql", "adduserdb", array("".$cpaneluser."_".$databasename."", "".$cpaneluser."_".$databaseuser."", 'all'));

Now I just want some damn peace and quiet

I’ve found that I really enjoy chilling out for 30 minutes or so a day with my headphones on watching something with my feet kicked up on the desk.  For a long time I’d pick something on Itunes, download it and watch a bit of it.  I don’t have the patience to actually sit and watch a movie, and I’ve got the same problem with the t.v.  Just can’t sit still that long and pay attention to it (ADD).  Always been that way if there is anything else to do.

Anyway, I was amazed when I discovered that I really really COULD sit and watch an entire video on something I wanted to learn how to do.  I’d get more out of it than I would a hard copy book and they are certainly cheaper.  A while back I picked up a nettuts+ premium subscription (for $9 bucks a month).  I watch about a video a day.

My “amazon” monthly spend has dropped several hundred dollars a month just from that $9 bucks and I think I’m actually learning better.  I can pick and chose what I’m in the mood to learn that day.

My design skills are getting better.  I’ve learned a few different frameworks.  My javascript/ajax abilities are improving, etc…

Working on-line really means you need to know a lot of different things (when you do what I do).  I can’t just focus on programming, design, etc… I do it all.

Got resources you like other than nettuts+?  Spill em – I’m interested in ruby, rails, python, php, and design(a little).

Warning:  You will be programming here.  There is a plug and play solution that costs money.  You can read about that here:  Plug in facebook aps.

Let’s get started making your own Facebook application!

Let’s start off by getting what we need to get from facebook.  Namely a developer account, and the PHP Software Development Kit.

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/

You will also need a developers account.

http://www.facebook.com/developers/

You’ll also need a domain name with hosting to set things up on.  For this tutorial I’ll be making an application where users get to decide if they are zombies or humans…. and of course do fun stuff like tell their friends they are planning on eating their eyeballs when they catch them.

(vision inspired by my teenagers who I think envision us making videos and my having a development firm the size of zango – hence we will be scaling down their vision a bit to be based on reality)

So go get yourself your domain, set up a developer account and get yourself verified.  I’ll be back shortly with the next segment of this tutorial.

For this to work, you need to have class-IXR.php loaded up on the server you are working on (or on your local machine).  I’ve always just hit up a WP install on the same server – but I don’t think it actually has to be a live blog either.  You just need to have that file.

In this example we are going to take the information for a blog that exists on another server.  It should have xml-rpc checked under settings so we can access it.

include_once('../path/wp-includes/class-IXR.php');
define('BLOG_ID', 0);
define('RPC_USERNAME', $busername);
define('RPC_PASSWORD', $bpassword);
$xmlblog = $blog;
$xmlblog .= '/xmlrpc.php';
$client = new IXR_Client($xmlblog);
		  $client->query('wp.getCategories', BLOG_ID, RPC_USERNAME, RPC_PASSWORD);
$categories = $client->getResponse();
foreach ($categories as $row) {
    $categories[] = $row['categoryId'];
	}
$categories= max($categories);
if ($categories[categoryName] != '')
{
echo 'The last category you created was:   ';
echo $categories[categoryName];
echo '<br>';
echo 'It\'s Id number is';
echo $categories[categoryId];
$cats_id= $categories[categoryId];
}
else
{
	die('you do not have xml-rpc enabled or your user information is wrong');
	$xmlcheck = '0';
}
?>

This will spit out the id number and name of the last category created on the remote blog you’ve specified in $blog, $busername, $bpassword.

(warning:  Wordpress does like to garble code and I’m to lazy to install a plugin to display it.  Watch out for quotes specifically)

// you have to include a path to a valid class-ixr.php file.  It’s included in every worpdress install.
include_once(‘/wp-includes/class-IXR.php’);

// if you aren’t working with multi site a blog id of zero is fine.

define(‘BLOG_ID’, 0);

// blog username and password
define(‘RPC_USERNAME’, ‘yourusername’);
define(‘RPC_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpassword’);
//  make sure the target blog has xml-rpc posting enabled under settings -> writting

$client = new IXR_Client(‘http://targetblog.com/xmlrpc.php’);

// O.k. we’ve got our client.

// what is our title, and the content of the post we want to send over.

That’s it.  Just add in some error checking and go to town.

It’s been a few months since I mentioned e-cigs to my readers here.  I had stepped back a bit because I was “sure” the FDA was going to kill them before now.  With an actual lobbying group running, and the obvious benefits of using electronic cigs – well it’s time to be an affiliate if you aren’t already.  If things keep going as well as they are I will be buying my own stock and distributing locally – that’s how good these sell.  And I do more locally than I do on-line.

The e-cig model is a great one, a nice payout on the initial sale, and then recurring income as they buy new cartridges, batteries, etc…  It’s recurring income with the ease of a one time sale.

Something like 25 percent of America Smokes – and a good portion of those are ladies.  I target them – and only them.  Why?  Well guys are different and eventually they stop using the cartridges and move on to more complicated (but cheaper) alternatives.  Women on the other hand don’t want to mess with vaping, or a bunch of techie crap  (maybe they are smarter than us).

That means I promote LUCI and just about nothing else.  They are based in the U.S., conversions are good, and the packaging is attractive (if a little feminine).

If you want to sign up to be an affiliate or a reseller here you go…. you can register from here.

Resell or Affiliate Link

Luci is paying out on a regular basis.  Conversions are good.  Tracking appears stable.  I’ve created a resource site for E-cig affiliates here:  E-cig Affiliate Center.  Head over there and opt in with the newsletter.  I’ll be sending you content, templates, tips, etc…

Make sure you are doing your job though and grabbing e-mails, and as much data as you can about the folks you are sending over.  I’ve got a sub affiliate who makes a small fortune because he bought a “local” domain, printed up flyers, and pays college kids to pass them out in bars.  (not nerdy kids but attractive jocks – seems to be important if you are targeting women for some reason).

Some of you may want to “TRY” these out before you promote them.  Since you aren’t supposed to order through your own affiliate link I’ve set one up for you with the lowest price available  (you get a few different affiliate urls with different price points).  http://promo.myluci.com/b/smokeless <— that link will let you try the starter kit out for less than $55.

This time though it was the database that was fubared.  Every single post had content injected into it. All 903 of them.

I’ve actually never run into this before so I figured it was worth at least a post since the fix was so easy.

So what I did was go into the phpmyadmin area.  Select the database table and go to the sql tab.

Enter in something like this:

UPDATE `wp_posts` SET post_content = replace(post_content,’A COPY AND PASTE OF THE INJECTED TEXT’,"")

That will ‘find’ each instance of the injected text, and replace it with nothing at all.  If I wanted to replace it with something about liking pie I would do this:

UPDATE `wp_posts` SET post_content = replace(post_content,’A COPY AND PASTE OF THE INJECTED TEXT’,'MAN O’  MAN DO I LIKE PIE’)

So anyway I get finished, shoot off a little bill and start thinking (dangerous).  I think on all my auto blogs I’m going to start injecting my own strange characters (or in this case ads).  Down the road when I want to add something I won’t have to write a bot or use a plugin to do it.

In fact I’m going to start every post off with a non spacing break or something so I can go back in and add in other stuff (links, ads, code, etc..) at the top of all my posts. 

You need to have a few variables set up prior to running this.

$message  (what you are posting to twitter — a day or so ago I provided the code to make tinyurls)

$twitter_user =  Your twitter Username
$twitter_password =  Your twitter password

If you have those three variables set you can call the code below and post to twitter with their api url and a wee bit of curl.  Here is the code to do it:

$twitter_api_url = “http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml?status=”.urlencode(stripslashes(urldecode($message)));
$twitter_data = $message;
$ch = curl_init($twitter_api_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $twitter_data);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, “{$twitter_user}:{$twitter_password}”);
$twitter_data = curl_exec($ch);
$httpcode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($ch);
//Let’s print out where we posted and what!

echo ‘Posting Message: ‘.$message.’<br> to <br> http://www.twitter.com/’.$twitname.”;
// Let’s print out an error message if things didn’t go well.
if ($httpcode != 200) {
echo “<strong>Don’t Panic!</strong> Something went wrong, and the tweet wasn’t posted.  You Failed.”;
}

That’s really it.  It will post your message to twitter.  You can store your variables in an array, or a database, or a text file.  Along with all your messages and have it go do it’s thing.

function ShortURL($ToConvert) {
$short_url= file_get_contents(“http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url=” . $ToConvert);
return $short_url;

}

Just call it with:

$newurl = ShortURL(‘http://www.linktoshorten.com/itsreallylong’);

(For example this snippet of code will return one random rss item from blackhatdigest – skipping the most recent entry)

function load_xml_feed($location)
{
global $value1;
$feedXml = simplexml_load_file($location);

$i= ’1′;
foreach ($feedXml->channel->item as $article)
{
$title[$i] = (string)$article->title;
$link[$i] = (string)$article->link;
$description[$i] = (string)$article->description;

$i++;

}
$randnumber = rand(2, $i);
$link = trim($link[$randnumber]);
$title = trim($title[$randnumber]);
$description = trim($description[$randnumber]);
$title = iconv(“UTF-8″, “ISO-8859-1″, $title);
$description = iconv(“UTF-8″, “ISO-8859-1″, $description);
$value1 = array($title,$link,$description);
return $value1;
}

$rss = ‘http://feeds.feedburner.com/BlackHatSeoDigest’;
load_xml_feed($rss);
$link = $value1[1];
$title = $value1[0];
$description = $value1[2];

echo $link;
echo $title;
echo $description;