Adding a tag cloud on your flash games portal

As you know, tag cloud is a popular navigation structure used in blogs mostly. But I see no reason not to have the same thing on a flash arcade website. Because it’s a simple yet effective way to represent the the entire games database to your visitors and keep the list of categories compact at the same time. This is why I’ve wrote this free addon. So, let’s get down to business.

First of all, you should download this archive containing all php code needed to set up this addon. Once you have it, please follow these installation instructions:

1. Edit your htaccess file located in the root folder of your site:
   • replace all [L] in the ends of the lines by [QSA,L]
   • add the following line in the end of the .htaccess file:
     RewriteRule ^tag/(.*[^/])$ docs/doc.php?page=tag.php&tag=$1 [QSA,L]
      
2. Create a new php block inside your CP (the "blocks" tab) with the following settings:
   ID: TAGCLOUD
   title: Tag cloud
   filename: block_tagcloud
   Pages: select all
   Max. elements: 40
   Sorting: random
   Code: copy and paste php code from the "tagcloud_code.txt" file
   Please note, the code contains some settings like cache ttl and useless tags, feel free to edit those settings.
   Click "Submit" button
    
3. Once the page block is created, go to the "pages" tab and create a new page with the following settings:
   Page filename: tag.php
   Meta title: !TAGNAME!
   Link to this page must exist in the…: uncheck both
   Menu Item Title: any
   Meta Description: Games by tag !TAGNAME!
   Meta Keywords: !TAGNAME! games
   Code: copy and paste php code from the "tagcloud_page.txt" file
   Click "Submit" button
    
4. Now you just need to insert our block in the pages: in the "pages" tab open (one by one) all main pages for editing and place the !TAGCLOUD! macro where you wish it to be.

That’s it.

How to integrate Google Analytics into your flasharcade site

I bet you know, Google Analytics is one of the best tools out there for analyzing traffic on your flash arcade website. Once it’s installed, it will give you an enormous amount of information about who is coming to your site, which games your visitors like, what they’re looking for, and from where your traffic is coming from.

Yes, my script contains a built-in stats module, but it has no chance to win competing with the Google’s stats web application. So, if you want to know everything about your players, it’s time to integrate Goggle Analytics on your site.

Step 1: Set Up Your Account

• Go to Google Analytics.
• If you have a Google account, sign in using your email and password, otherwise sign up using their form.
• Once you are signed in, create a new site profile to track its stats.
• Google will provide you with a block of code. Copy this code – you’ll need it to insert into your web site’s template.

Step 2: Insert Google Analytics JavaScript Into Your Pages

Now you should insert the javascript code you’ve got in your google analytics account into your pages. I’d suggest you to insert it in the last lines of html code in the "block_footer.html" – your footer’s template.

• Run your favorite FTP program and connect to your site’s FTP.
• Find the "block_footer.html" file in the "/templates/<your theme>/" folder.
• Download it and open in any text editor, for example in Notepad.
• Insert Analytics code in the end of the file.
• Save the file, close it and upload back to your site.

That’s it, Analytics is installed on your gaming site. Just make sure it’s active – you can check up the status in the site’s settings inside your Google Analytics account.

Arcade site monetization

Definitely a proarcadescript-powered flash arcade website can be highly profitable. There are wide variety of ways you can follow to monetize your gaming site and here I’ll describe you the most popular and promising ways. So let’s begin.

Google AdSense

Putting AdSense is the most common and simple way of a flash arcade site’s monetization. To start you just need to setup an account on google.com, get your AdSense code and place it on your site’s pages. You’ll find a short manual of putting an html code on your pages in the end of this article.

• Pros:
  • simplicity

• Cons:
  • low profit until your site is getting 1000s unique visits a day
  • low or no additional value to your players

TNX.net

Let me tell you about the tnx.net network which is called “Text Link Revolution” in some online and offline sources. As a TNX publisher you’ll be able to sell links on every page of your website, instead of just the main page so whenever link on your website is sold to one of the advertisers, you get paid. The more pages you have on your site, the more links you can sell. I think that’s cool, especially for gaming sites that contain 1000s pages in most cases. Have to say, you’ll need an invite to join this advertising network, but don’t worry, if you are one of my customers, just email me and I’ll send you an invite.

• Pros:
  • higher profit
  • easy to install
  • works well even for new sites
  • you can spend the money you have earned inside the network to promote your sites
• Cons:
  • low or no additional value to your players

Downloadable (shareware) games.

This way of monetization seems to be one of the most interesting and valuable to you and to your visitors. Why? You will earn money each time someone purchase the full version of the game downloaded from your site. This is good for you. From the visitor’s point of view your site will have more entertaining content and therefore is more interesting. But where can we get those downloadable games? The answer is pretty simple: bigfishgames.com. They have launched a great affiliate program called the Principal Network Partner (or PNP) that generates higher revenues than other comparable affiliate programs. The system allows you to set up an "out of the box solution" called "My Game Space" with reviews of games that you can share on your gaming portal. There is also the option to subscribe to an xml feed of their games to deeply integrate their system into your proarcadescript driven website.

• Pros:
  • profit even on low traffic
  • easy to install (basic portal)
  • works well even for new sites
  • additional value to your players
• Cons:
  • not so easy to integrate deeply into your site

Other affiliate programs

Of course, Principal Network Partner is not the only affiliate program you can join. There are wide variety of other programs that can add value to your site and/or bring you money. You can resell books, DVDs, memberships (online casino for example), etc. Take a look at these search results on google: http://www.google.com/q=affiliate+programs to find the right program for your flash arcade site.

Manual ad space trading

Last but not the least way of monetization for your flash arcade site. Everything here is up to you: the prices, the terms… if you’ll decide to sell text ad spots for $250 per month per spot, no one will blame you for that, no matter what is your site’s PR. You’ll just need someone willing to buy that advertising spots.

• Pros:
  • even higher profit
  • easy to install
  • works well even for new sites

• Cons:
  • low or no additional value to your players
  • it can be hard to find advertisers

YouTube video on your flash arcade site

I know, most webmasters do not consider arcade scripts as a good platform for video publishing, but that does not mean you can’t put a movie on your arcade site. After all, this will make your site a bit more interesting and I’m sure, your visitors will enjoy watching newest video game review or any other games-related videos.

Please note, ProArcadeScript v1.3 or higher is required to publish external media.

So, how can we publish a video file from Youtube?

We’ll do that in 4 easy steps:

• Go to youtube.com (or another site offering video movies) and find the movie to publish. Now take the thumbnail picture and give it any suitable name. You will upload this thumbnail to your own site later.
• Now open video page and copy the "Embed" code to clipboard.
• Finally, log in to your admin CP, click the "Add game" button and fill up the form as shown on the screenshot (embedded game code is pasted from the clipboard, width and height are taken from that code). Submit the form.

That’s it, you can also check up the result on this page

Comments and questions are welcome

Have a question or want to discuss this article? Feel free to visit this thread on ProArcadeScript forums

Video Sources

• YouTube.com
• IGN video
• GameSpot.com
• GameSpy.com

How to show the most recent games on your pages

Warning: since version 1.3 this block exists in default installation, so you don’t need to add it yourself. And in this case you can consider this tutorial as a tutorial about page blocks only.

So, let’s begin.
Step 1. Log in into your admin CP, open the "Page Blocks" tab and click the "Add Block" button. The form is quite simple, and you just need to fill it in as shown on the screenshot. I’ll just describe in few words what each value means.

• ID – this is a unique identifier or macro name you can use in any template to show this block. The script will replace it by the actual contents of the block, in our case by the list of games added recently.
• Block Type – simply choose what your block is – a php script or just a piece of static html code.
• Pages – on which page your block will be visible and on which it will not; you can quickly access these switchers on the list of blocks, I bet you saw a series of red/green buttons there.
• File Name – this is where your block’s code will be stored. Please note, you should not add file extension in this field, and of course, the filename must be unique.
• Title – in most cases this is used in the list of blocks in the admin CP only, but in this tutorial I’ll show you how to show this field as a caption of the actual sidebar block on your arcade website
• Max Elements – if your block shows a list of items, games for example, this field is very handy and lets you to define how many items it should show at once.
• Sorting – defines how to organize our list of items. The list can be sorted by date of addition, by gameplays, etc. In our block we (of course) should choose "By date added"
• Code – yes, this is the place for the block’s code – html or php.

Here is the values for our block:
ID: RECENT
Title: Added Recently
Block Type: PHP Script
Pages: Front, Category, Game
Filename: sidelist_sorted
Max Elements: 9 (or any other number)
Sorting: By date added
Comments: Anything
Code: Take the code from the code.php.txt found in the attached archive
Once all fields are filled, click the "Submit" button. The block is now created (but not functional yet.)

Step 2. Since this is a dynamic PHP block, it requires an html template to format the output. You should upload the "block_default.html" from the attached archive to your templates folder. The template has been made for "Toys" theme, but you can easity adapt it for using with other themes, just compare it with existing templates and make necessary changes in tags.

And the final, Step 3. We are almost done, the only thing we should do – place our block’s ID in the main pages’ html templates. To do that open the "Pages" tab inside admin CP (second screenshot) and edit all main pages as shown on the third screenshot – simply place !RECENT! where you would like to see them on your sidebars.

That’s it, now open your arcade site in browser and check how the new block is working

Download tutorial’s files

(You must be logged in to do that)

How to add "Sitemap" page to your flash arcade website

In this short tutorial I’ll show you how you can add a simple "sitemap" page to your flash arcade site.

Please note: ProArcadeScript v1.3 or higher version is absolutely a must!

First of all, log in into your admin CP, open the "Pages" tab and click the "Add Page" button.
I’m sure that’s not a problem for you to fill up the first few fields like page name, title, menu title, etc… I’ll just suggest you to name the new page "sitemap.php" and make it visible in the footer menu (mark the appropriate checkbox). Other fields’ content is up to you.

Now let’s take care about the php code for our page. What should it do?.. A simple thing: is should look through entire database, find all categories, all active games for each category and all pages you’ve published on your arcade site. Once everything is found, the script must output all that data as a plain list. That’s it.

Registered users will find the code in the following archive: sitemap.zip (You must be logged in to download it). Copy that php code, paste it in the "Code" field in the "new page" form and click "Submit". Everything’s done, the page is now created and you can find the link to it in your site’s footer menu.

One more thing, to make your sitemap page look better you can change the styles used in the list created by our php script. Here are the classes you can add in you theme’s styles.css file:

h3.sitemap (the "Sitemap" caption)
h4.sitemap (the secondary captions like "Games" and "Pages")
ul.sitemap (list of categories)
ul.sitemap li (a category)
ul.sitemap_games (list of games inside a category)
ul.sitemap_games li (a game)