[Method] How to manipulate text files for your advantage...

I've been twisting, spinning, and torturing plain text files for years. With the aid of a good free text editor, I'm able to create usable keyword lists, almost out of thin air. With some very simple PHP, I've built a personal online toolbox. I can sort, de-dup, extract, rework and change the case of keywords in my lists on the fly. Yet another set of PHP tools allows me to manipulate whole folders of articles in the blink of an eye. These are huge time savers, and often makes the difference between getting the job done, outsourcing it, or not bothering at all.

I'm not going to go into too many details in this thread. This is more of a fact finding mission. Is learning these techniques something that would be of general interest?

A simple thumbs up will do, or by asking questions. I invite questions in this thread only. Please do NOT PM me with questions, they will be deleted without reply. When I did something like this before, my inbox was flooded with questions that had already been answered in the thread by myself or other BHW members.

If there is interest, I'll develop a series of tutorials, starting with the basics, and then building on what I've already taught. I anticipate there being one thread devoted to one concept. That way, the basic concepts can be learned without the fog of off-topic commentary getting in the way.

It will be useful if you create a scraper as there are plenty of text manipulation tools available.

Definitely people who knows the coding will get the extra edge. But how can be used the same with by normal people will make the difference . Your tutorials are welcome mate.

Pavan Teja 1 said:

It will be useful if you create a scraper as there are plenty of text manipulation tools available.

Click to expand...

That's not the point of my tutorials... The idea is to learn some basic techniques that you can apply to your work. It's all about learning and building your own toolbox.

HTH

Glenn

Purush said:

Definitely people who knows the coding will get the extra edge. But how can be used the same with by normal people will make the difference . Your tutorials are welcome mate.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately there's not enough interest in these tutorials, so I'll drop the idea.

cloudzero said:

Unfortunately there's not enough interest in these tutorials, so I'll drop the idea.

Click to expand...

May be people are not understanding now. show them small tutorial that might give you fair idea.

Try scrapebox to play with large text files and you will be amazed by the capabilities of scrapebox.
With good RAM and computing power, I have manipulated files of size in GDs with scrapebox.

Php never really gained my interest, I don't doubt the usefulness but its an aged language for sure. I'd definitely give it a look since I've been using word press a lot more than coding recently so could use any advantage. I would really be interested in knowing how php is used to manipulate dynamic urls / content on pages that I've seen, matching with search keyword..

cloudzero said:

I've been twisting, spinning, and torturing plain text files for years. With the aid of a good free text editor, I'm able to create usable keyword lists, almost out of thin air. With some very simple PHP, I've built a personal online toolbox. I can sort, de-dup, extract, rework and change the case of keywords in my lists on the fly. Yet another set of PHP tools allows me to manipulate whole folders of articles in the blink of an eye. These are huge time savers, and often makes the difference between getting the job done, outsourcing it, or not bothering at all.

I'm not going to go into too many details in this thread. This is more of a fact finding mission. Is learning these techniques something that would be of general interest?

A simple thumbs up will do, or by asking questions. I invite questions in this thread only. Please do NOT PM me with questions, they will be deleted without reply. When I did something like this before, my inbox was flooded with questions that had already been answered in the thread by myself or other BHW members.

If there is interest, I'll develop a series of tutorials, starting with the basics, and then building on what I've already taught. I anticipate there being one thread devoted to one concept. That way, the basic concepts can be learned without the fog of off-topic commentary getting in the way.

Click to expand...

I always try to learn something new, so I'm definitely interested in your tutorials. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would like them.

cloudzero said:

Unfortunately there's not enough interest in these tutorials, so I'll drop the idea.

Click to expand...

Show what you have. Better to get interested when you can see it in action.

SyntaxG said:

Php never really gained my interest, I don't doubt the usefulness but its an aged language for sure. I'd definitely give it a look since I've been using word press a lot more than coding recently so could use any advantage. I would really be interested in knowing how php is used to manipulate dynamic urls / content on pages that I've seen, matching with search keyword..

Click to expand...

It took me a little time to get into PHP. But once I did, I liked it. You're right, it's been around the block a few times. But it's free, it's constantly being updated... and it's very mature. PHP sounds a little like the women I knock about with

WRT Dynamic URL's, I tend to build HUGE websites with static keyword focussed URL's. Typically I build locally focused, dynamically built Vertical Niche Websites with 2 to 3 hundred thousand pages. Not all the pages get indexed by the major SE's, but the once that do, stick very well. By locally, I mean all the cities towns, villages, hamlets here in the UK. It takes a few months for the pages to climb the hickey stick curve after the large initial surge... so patience is critical here. It takes about a day to put a vertical together, and it all appears white hat.

I'll dig into dynamic URL's, and if fits into the scope of what I'm planning, I'll add that to the list of stuff to cover... If it goes ahead of course.

Glenn

arpitagarwal82 said:

Try scrapebox to play with large text files and you will be amazed by the capabilities of scrapebox.
With good RAM and computing power, I have manipulated files of size in GDs with scrapebox.

Click to expand...

There are some things that Scrapebox simply can't do. That's why I prefer to code my own solutions.

Glenn

reuse said:

Show what you have. Better to get interested when you can see it in action.

Click to expand...

I don't have anything yet, and before I invest my time, I need to know that it's worthwhile.

If I do go ahead, I'll eventually compile all the lessons into an ebook.

Textmechanic is all in one place that you will ever need when it comes to manipulating text/lists

LemonAcid said:

Textmechanic is all in one place that you will ever need when it comes to manipulating text/lists

Click to expand...

Textmechanic is good by the looks of it... But there still lots of bespoke functions in my toolbox that Textmechanic doesn't go anywhere near.

i would like to learn how to do this since i do local seo too.

I would say that tutorials that show the practical applications and possibilities of text manipulation would be very useful...so yes, if you are willing to do them then please do share them.