I've set up a cron job to automate LinkMachine but the cron job is failing or is returning an error message. How can I fix this?

The cron job should be set up to call your LinkMachine installation's auto.php script, which by default is located here:

http:/www.your-domain.com/linkmachine/auto.php

You can find the exact URL for your site's auto.php script in LinkMachine, on the Automation Settings page.

First you can check whether the auto.php script is working correctly by simply opening that URL in a browser (using your own domain name). It is working correctly if it returns a status message such as:

Checked reciprocal links (45% complete)
Finished updating rank tracker
Updated Rank Tracker to key 45, pickup 52
Sent 5 link exchange invitation reminders. Removed 2 sites that have not responded.
Command processed within past 60 seconds. Aborting.

If you receive this message:

Please upgrade to LinkMachine Premium to activate automation.

...this means you will need to upgrade your account to LinkMachine Premium before you can use automation.

If you receive an error message instead, then the auto.php script is not working correctly. If the error message text involves "permission" or "fopen()", then the write permissions of some of the files in your LinkMachine directory may need to be changed. For information about doing that, see this page.

If your auto.php script is working correctly but your cron job is still returning an error message or otherwise failing, your cron job may not be set up correctly, or may be incompatible with your web server. If this is the case, try changing your cron job to run the script auto_cron.php instead of auto.php. The script auto_cron.php works differently from auto.php and is compatible with some server configurations that auto.php is not compatible with.

If you receive an error message such as "No input file specified" when your cron job executes, this may be due to the cron job executing under a different user value from the FTP user. It may also be due to the auto.php script having a different owner value than the cron job user. Your web host's tech support would be able to help with this kind of problem, or having the cron job call the script auto_cron.php instead of auto.php may solve the problem.

Because cron jobs work differently on different web servers, we cannot tell you exactly how a cron job should be set up on your own web server. We recommend contacting your web host's tech support and letting them know the URL of your LinkMachine auto.php script or auto_cron.php script. They should be able to tell you exactly how to set up a cron job to regularly call that script.