A page is created within your Website where visitors can go to look at a selection of links created by you. Typically, these offer complimentary information to your own Website. This page is linked to a Database back-end, created, specifically, to hold your directory of links. When new links are entered into the database via the Administration Consol, they are automatically updated to your Website and can immediately be viewed by visitors to your site. This is acheived by including some special code on the page that pulls in information from the database.

You can access your Administration Consol by logging into your Website and entering a username and password given to you at system set-up. Once you have administrator rights, additional users can be set up by yourself.

The first step is to create a directory structure by creating a list of categories. You simply create a category by completing a few fields and telling the system what level it reports to. For example, in the case of an Accountant, you may create a top level category for Taxation. You may wish to sub divide this category into Personal Tax and VAT, in which case, you simply have to create two additional categories for Personal Tax and VAT and tell the system the next level up is Taxation. With this information, the system automatically creates the directory. The category screenshot can be viewed at this link.

Once categories have been created, it is time to create your actual Website Links. Typically, you would have an initial list of links that could be manually inserted into the system via the Add Link page. A screenshot of this page can be found at this link. Thereafter, you may prefer new links to be recommended by visitors to your Website. In which case, no additional work is required on your part except authorising the new link to be updated to the Website. Links needing approval can be viewed via the reports page.

To enter a link via the Add Link page, the user enters 11 pieces of information;

• Select a category from the drop-down list to store the link.
• Enter a title for the link which may be the business name of the Website, or a brief one line description of the site or the page within the site.
• Enter the URL of the site or a specific page within the site.
• The link creation date is automatically inserted but can also be changed. A separate date is included for subsequent updates to the link.
• A full description of the link to give visitors enough information if the link is worth visiting.
• A site logo can also be included next to the description.
• The reciprocal link URL of a link to your Website on this links Website. You may have a policy of only allowing links if link to your Website in return. The system is able to use this information when running a report to find out if any reciprocal links are broken.
• The contact name and Email address of the main contact.
• If you wish to generate additional advertising revenue, the option is available to turn this link into a Premium listing. In which case, the link will always be shown at the top of it's particulat category in the visitor front-end.
• And finally, some check boxes are available to tell the system if this link is to be shown on the live site or to be suspended. There is also a box to tell the system if this listing is an Editors pick. This could give a link added importance and can be found in the visitors front-end by clicking the Editors Pick Button.

The administrator can edit any of the listing at any time and overide information entered by visitors. There is also a tool for checking broken links in both Reciprocal and outgoing links. This feature is a real time saver if your Directory becomes popular. 

In the visitor front-end, emails are automatically sent out to tell visitors their submission is under review and that you will contact them shortly to confirm. Once the link has been reviewed, the Administrator only has to set a system flag to generate an automatic email to be sent to the visitor telling them if their submission has been successful or not. A screenshot of the user preferences page can be found at this link.