Adbell Blog Network

Requirements

Installation

Step 1 — Create Database

In cPanel → MySQL Databases:

1. Create Database

   e.g. youraccount_blog

2. Create Database User

   Use a strong password

3. Assign User to Database

   Select All Privileges

Step 2 — Upload Files

Upload all files to your domain root. Enable "show hidden files" in your FTP client to ensure .htaccess is uploaded.

Step 3 — Run the Installer

Visit https://yourdomain.com/setup.php in your browser and follow the 5-step wizard:

1. Requirements Check

   Automatically verifies PHP version, extensions, and folder permissions

2. Database Configuration

   Enter your DB host, name, username and password — tables are created automatically

3. Create Admin Account

   Set your username, email, and password for the admin panel

4. First Site Setup

   Enter your domain, brand name, niche, and choose a theme

5. Complete

   Installer self-deletes and redirects to admin panel

Configuration

The installer creates core/db.config.php automatically. Add your API keys to it:

// core/db.config.php
define('DB_HOST',       'localhost');
define('DB_NAME',       'your_database');
define('DB_USER',       'your_username');
define('DB_PASS',       'your_password');

// AI Content Generation — get at console.anthropic.com
define('AB_CLAUDE_KEY', 'sk-ant-api03-...');

// Images API — optional, free at pexels.com/api
define('AB_PEXELS_KEY', 'your-pexels-key');

// Your license key — from purchase email
define('ABN_LICENSE',   'ABN-A-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX');

Admin Panel

Access the admin panel at https://yourdomain.com/admin/

The admin auto-detects which domain you're accessing it from and pre-selects the correct site. All management is done through the admin — no database editing required.

Managing Sites

Admin → All Sites → Add New Site. Each site needs:

• Domain — without www, e.g. myblog.com
• Brand Name — shown in header and emails
• Niche — used to guide AI content tone
• Theme — select from installed themes

Posts & Editor

Admin → Write Post. The editor has four tabs:

• Write — HTML editor. Use standard tags: <h2> <h3> <p> <ul> <strong>
• Preview — live rendered preview
• SEO — meta title (50–60 chars), meta description (140–155 chars), focus keyword, excerpt
• Image — upload featured image or paste URL

AI Queue & Automation

How It Works

1. Add Topics

   Admin → AI Queue → paste topics one per line

2. Set Up Cron

   cPanel cron hits generate.php on a schedule

3. AI Generates

   Claude API writes full article with title, meta, content, image, and schema

4. Auto-Published

   Post appears live on site immediately

Cron Setup

In cPanel → Cron Jobs, add:

# Every 4 hours — 3 posts per run (~18 posts/day)
0 */4 * * * curl -s "https://yourdomain.com/generate.php?site=1&limit=3" >> /dev/null 2>&1

Categories & Keywords

Categories

Admin → Categories → Add. Every post can be assigned a category. Categories appear in navigation, breadcrumbs, and sitemaps automatically.

Keywords Bank

Admin → Keywords → add keywords one per line. When the AI Queue runs out of topics, the cron automatically picks unused keywords from this bank to generate new topics. This creates a self-sustaining content engine.

Ad Zones

Admin → Ad Zones. Click any slot card to configure it. Paste your AdSense or GPT code, tick Active, save.

Google Ad Manager (GPT) Setup

Step 1: Admin → Site Settings → Custom Head Scripts → paste your GPT script:

<script async src="https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js"></script>
<script>
  window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};
  googletag.cmd.push(function() {
    googletag.defineSlot('/YOUR_NETWORK/UNIT', [320, 50], 'div-id').addService(googletag.pubads());
    googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest();
    googletag.enableServices();
  });
</script>

Step 2: Admin → Ad Zones → select zone → paste the display() div → tick Active.

Email Leads

Leads are captured automatically from six placements: popup, footer newsletter, inline post form, end-of-post form, sidebar widget, and homepage widget.

Brevo Integration (Recommended — free up to 300 emails/day)

1. Sign up at brevo.com

   Free plan included

2. Get API Key

   Brevo → Settings → API Keys → Create

3. Create a Contact List

   Note the List ID number

4. Add to Admin

   Admin → Settings → Brevo API Key + List ID → Save

Mailchimp Integration

Admin → Settings → Mailchimp API Key + List ID → Save. Subscribers are automatically added to your list on sign-up.

Export Leads

Admin → Email Leads → Export CSV. Exports all leads for this site with email, name, source, and timestamp.

Site Settings

Themes & Customisation

Themes live in sites/themename/theme/. Two themes included:

Creating a Custom Theme

1. Copy the default theme

   cp -r sites/default sites/mytheme

2. Edit CSS variables

   Open sites/mytheme/theme/theme.css and change the :root colour variables

3. Customise templates

   Edit home.php, post.php, partials/header.php, partials/footer.php

4. Activate

   Admin → All Sites → Edit → Theme: mytheme

Multi-site Setup

1. Point domain to same folder

   In cPanel → Addon Domains, point all domains to the same document root as your main installation

2. Add site in admin

   Admin → All Sites → Add New Site. Enter domain, brand, niche, theme

3. Add categories and queue

   Set up categories and add topics to the AI queue for the new site

4. Set up cron for new site

   Add a cron job with the new site's ID: generate.php?site=2&limit=3

Cron & Automation

The cron runner at generate.php is standalone — no authentication required. Call it with:

https://yourdomain.com/generate.php?site=1&limit=3

Parameters:
  site=1   ← your site ID (Admin → All Sites)
  limit=3  ← posts to generate per run (max 10)

Monitor Generation

Admin → AI Queue shows all jobs with statuses:

• pending — waiting to run
• processing — currently generating
• done — published successfully
• failed — error occurred, click Retry

SEO Features

License & Support

Activating Your License

Add your license key to core/db.config.php:

define('ABN_LICENSE', 'ABN-A-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX');

The system validates against license.adbellmedia.com and caches the result for 24 hours. Your site continues working even if the license server is temporarily unreachable.

Changelog

Troubleshooting

500 Error on all pages

Check core/db.config.php exists with correct database credentials. View the PHP error log in cPanel → Error Logs.

404 on all pages except homepage

The .htaccess file is missing or mod_rewrite is disabled. Re-upload .htaccess (it's hidden — enable "show hidden files" in your FTP client).

Posts not generating

• Visit yourdomain.com/generate.php?site=1&limit=1 directly and check the output
• Verify AB_CLAUDE_KEY is set in db.config.php
• Check the Anthropic account has credits at console.anthropic.com
• Check Admin → AI Queue has pending items

Images not showing on posts

If AI generated posts with broken image URLs, run the content fixer:

https://yourdomain.com/install/fix-content.php?key=fix123

Delete that file immediately after running.

Admin login not working

Reset password via phpMyAdmin. First, generate a hash by creating a temporary file on your server:

// Create /reset.php temporarily
<?php echo password_hash('YourNewPassword', PASSWORD_BCRYPT); ?>

Then in phpMyAdmin:

UPDATE ab_admins SET password_hash = 'PASTE_HASH' WHERE username = 'admin';

Ads not displaying

• Verify the GPT/AdSense initialisation script is in Admin → Settings → Custom Head Scripts
• Verify the ad zone is set to Active in Admin → Ad Zones
• Open browser DevTools → Console and check for JavaScript errors
• AdSense can take 24–72 hours to start serving after account approval

Emails not sending

Check your Brevo API key and List ID in Admin → Settings. Test by submitting the popup form and checking Admin → Email Leads for the new entry. If it appears in leads but Brevo shows nothing, verify the API key is correct.