Frank Haywood

06
Oct
2008

SmartDD v3 Features

I know it’s been a long time in coming, but SmartDD v3 is ready to release apart from the docs.

I’ve been using it on a couple of sites, and although I haven’t used every new feature in earnest, everything has been tested to my satisfaction.  Even so, I guess we’ll find a couple of minor bugs here and there which we’ll fix as we go.

New stuff then.

o Kunaki integration with BOTH your web sites AND eBay.  No need to run two scripts, SmartDD will do it all for you.

In case you don’t know what Kunaki is, it’s a global Print On Demand (POD) service for CDs and DVDs.  Customers can buy from you anywhere in the world, and SmartDD will handle the sale and pass the creation and fulfillment onto Kunaki, who then send your customer the CD or DVD.

o Free sign up.  In response to many requests, we’ve added the ability to offer a product on a secure download page in return for a sign up to your mailing list.  The built in example is for Aweber, but you can use it with any self-hosted or service based autoresponder.

o One Time Offers.  Now you can sell a digital item via your web store or eBay, and then upsell via the use of a one time offer (OTO).  An OTO is a method whereby the prospective buyer sees a reduced price for just one time.  If they pass on the offer, then they will only ever get to see it at its full price afterwards.

You can of course use this in conjunction with a free sign up.  😉

o Affiliate scheme.  We’ve added in a simple affiliate scheme in the format of:-

http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/?e=PayPalEmailAddress

for any percentage commission, 0-100, variable by saleable item.  Even at 100% the admin always gets the first commission to prevent people from buying from themselves by using their personal and business accounts.

So if you created a saleable item at 100% commission, and an OTO item at 50% commission, the admin would get the full amount of the first sale for both items.  Thereafter, the affiliate would get all of the sales for the first item, and the sales of every other item paid directly into their PayPal account.

Affiliate cookies work across all products for an installation of SmartDD.  So if you’ve created a sales page for one item and your affiliate sends traffic to it, then the prospect buys something else from you, your affiliate gets the credit for that purchase too.

You can set by saleable item that only customers can be affiliates (why you’d want to do that I don’t know, but some people do), and you can also restrict individual customers from being affiliates.

o Web store.  Take almost any web template, and turn it into a completely database driven web store.  This was actually in v2, but was never documented.  I’m very sorry about that, believe me.

o Physical goods handling enhanced.

o Create a product and an item through a single screen.  The normal method of setting SmartDD up is to create your products first, and then link them to a saleable item.  If you only have one product though, you can now create the product and the item at the same time.

o Run ALL your sites through one central location.  This has always been possible with SmartDD, but we’ve made it a whole lot better by adding some additional template formats.

o The ability to copy all template types as well as amend and remove.  This makes it faster to take an existing template, copy and edit it.

o Three professionally designed built in template themes, courtesy of ECoverPalace.com.  One in red, one in green and one in blue.  The template designs have been added to all the template formats:-

– Catalogue Templates (web store)
– Cart Templates (web store)
– Download Templates
– Order Confirmation Templates (thank you pages)
– Free Sign Up Templates
– Item / One Time Offer Templates

Additionally, the templates are provided separately so that you can use them to create traditional sales pages, or for your web store.

o Friendly URLs.  This aids in SEO of your web store as SmartDD will create search engine friendly URLs for you, based on the category names.  You’ll need to be running your web site via Apache with mod-rewrite enabled in order to use this.  A good old cPanel server will allow you to do this.

o Finally, as usual there have been a lot of “under the hood” and plenty of other small changes all of which combine to make SmartDD the best delivery script on the market.

***

So when is it being released?

Thursday 16th October 3.00pm GMT.

If you purchased the full version (v2) after 1st March 2008 then you’ll get the upgrade to v3 for free.  Otherwise there will be a 24 hour special for the upgrade at $17.  After that it will be $27 – still an amazing bargain if you’re upgrading from v2.

And of course lets not forget all the people who’ve taken a couple of special offers I’ve made who will get the upgrade for free.  😉

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
04
Oct
2008

New Spam Format

Just recently I’ve been getting a lot of emails with the content and the format of something a marketer might write.  These emails suggest that I’m on their mailing list, which of course I’m not as I have a single email account for all my marketing emails.

At the bottom of every convincing sounding email is a convincing looking unsubscribe link, always on a private domain, and never from a service like Aweber or Get Response…

I’ve never clicked one, but my guess is if I did, all I’m doing is confirming my email address and adding myself to the spammers “good” email list.  That list will then likely be sold.

I’ve had emails like this before, but never as well written.  So well written that it’s clear they’re originating from an English speaking source.

The marketing format is probably because the spammers have realised that marketers are the ones that are sending most email out, and by adopting that format they’re working on the confusion that might arise in your mind.

“Hmm…  I don’t remember asking for this…  I’ll unsubscribe anyway as it could be something I did ask for but now no longer want.”

This is bad news for marketers, as while most are responsible and use double opt-in (also known as confirmed opt in), as people get more and more of this new spam format, then the publics perception of marketers will be that anything goes.

Just be aware, and don’t be tempted to click the link if it’s an email that you have no idea of where it’s come from.

The fewer people that click the unsubscribe link, then the fewer spammers will use these methods.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
01
Oct
2008

CB Ad Rotator Bonus Offer

Okay, here’s the deal on CB Ad Rotator

In 3 weeks time I’ll be releasing my own AdSense killer called AdSpurt.

It will allow you to create hover ads on the fly (double underlined links) and also regular links to products that you are promoting.

This method is much more effective than AdSense for all sorts of reasons, but my favourite reason is that people are immune to AdSense ads now as they’re in most people’s “blind spots”.

AdSpurt has full click tracking, Flash charts with statistics, and it works with ClickBank AND PayDotCom out of the tin (you can search both databases) and in fact you can create ads for ANY third party affiliate scheme.  The built in search is actually better than ClickBank’s own search method, and we’ve generally gone to town on the entire system.

So that will be happening on the 23rd October (my birthday), and we’re planning on releasing it at $47 and then increasing the price shortly afterwards as word spreads.

My special bonus offer on CB Ad Rotator is…

If you buy CB Ad Rotator using my affiliate link (below), then I’ll GIVE you AdSpurt for free when I release it on my birthday.

So effectively you’ll be getting TWO AdSense replacement systems for the price of one.  This offer will run for the duration of the 72 hour launch that is currently being run on CB Ad Rotator, so you have until Sunday at 3.00pm EST (8.00pm GMT) to take advantage of this.

But my advice is don’t hang about on this one – grab it now while it’s hot.

In the past I’ve missed out on very special deals like this just because I’ve forgotten about them until it was too late.

Don’t do that.  Get it now.

Here’s my affiliate link for CB Ad Rotator which I’m click tracking via Smart Link Cloaker.

http://www.frankhaywood.com/go/cbar/

When you click the order button on the CB Ad Rotator page, you’ll first fill in a membership box, and then be taken off to ClickBank to complete payment.

Check the secure payment page at the bottom to make sure it says “submitlink” as the affiliate.  If it doesn’t then you won’t qualify.  Try following the link above again.

After you’ve completed payment, then raise a support ticket on my support desk at:-

http://www.Vendiva.com/support/

against department “AdSpurt”, and leave your name, receipt number and email address.  I’ll then reply to tell you I’ve added you to the list to receive AdSpurt when it’s launched.

That’s it.

Here’s the link again.

http://www.frankhaywood.com/go/cbar/

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
01
Oct
2008

CB AD Rotator And AdSpurt Replace AdSense

At 3pm EST (8.00pm GMT) today, Dave Nicholson is launching his replacement for AdSense.

In case you didn’t know it, I’ve ALSO been working on a script that can either replace or complement AdSense. More on that shortly, and you can actually see it on action on this blog by looking for double underlined links.

Here’s the story.

Dave Nicholson, John Thornhill and Daniel Sumner have been working on this project for 6 months now. It all kicked off when Dave got his poorly performing AdSense account closed by Google for click fraud. We all know it’s nonsense, and it happens to a lot of people.

(I really don’t know what the problem is with Google at the moment, they seem intent on upsetting as many people as possible. A good company gone bad it seems.)

So understandably, Dave got a little angry about this, and decided to get his own back. So him John and Daniel started work on a replacement for AdSense.

It comes as no surprise to me to know that their replacement is way outperforming anything Google AdSense can do – I’ve seen similar results myself with AdSpurt. John Thornhill has quoted that using it on his blog for just last week alone, he earned $157 as compared to the usual $20 he makes via AdSense.

That’s a 785 percent improvement on AdSense.

As a result, he says he’ll be removing AdSense from all his sites shortly.

I think it’s fair to say AdSense is effectively dead. I also think a lot of people have known this for quite a while, but didn’t know what the alternative was.

And let’s face it, we all get into a bit of a rut sometimes and it’s easier to do nothing than make changes for the better.

But now with the chance to increase your earnings by getting on for tenfold, is there any point in continuing with AdSense?

Dave’s new system is called CB Ad Rotator, and while there are similar products on the market, it looks like there’s nothing that is better than this UNTIL I release AdSpurt in 3 weeks time.

AdSpurt is the name of my own AdSense killer, and displays ClickBank, PayDotCom and any other third party affiliate ads you care to show. The ads are either displayed as hover ads, or as regular links.

Here’s the deal. Later today I’ll be another blog post to promote Dave’s CB Ad Rotator with my affiliate link in it.

If you buy CB Ad Rotator using my link, then when I release AdSpurt, I’ll give you a free copy.

As the launch price of AdSpurt is intended to be $47 (quickly rising to $67), you’ll effectively be getting both systems for the price of one.

Both CB Ad Rotator and AdSpurt are complementary products and can be used alongside each other, and even with Google AdSense too if you really can’t bring yourself to let go of AdSense just yet.

So for 72 hours, starting when CB Ad Rotator goes on sale later today, you can get both systems for the price of one, but ONLY if you buy through my link. I’ll be asking to see a copy of your receipt before I put you on the list to receive AdSpurt for free.

When the 72 hours is up, the price of CB Ad Rotator is going up to $67, and that’s when this offer to get AdSpurt for free ends.

Watch out for a post later today with more details and my affiliate link in it.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
30
Sep
2008

Affiliate Scheme For TicketDesk Pro

I’ll be sending out an email about this shortly to all the owners of TicketDesk Pro (TDP), but I thought it might be a good idea to note it here first.

The affiliate scheme for TDP is now up and running and the first few people to spot it have already signed up.  We’re paying 50% commission on a $47 price tag at the moment, but we’ll be putting the price up within a couple of weeks to $67, and then after another couple of weeks or so to $97.

That means your commission payments will rise from $23.50 to $33.50, and finally $47.50 per sale.

And you know what?  Because TDP is such a great application, you can be proud to promote it.

I mention that because just the other day someone told me they were promoting something that they didn’t think was as good as a competitor product, but the product they were promoting paid out more commission so it made more sense to them.

Personally I don’t do that, but I know it happens all the time, and it’s one of the thing many new product owners miss the point of completely.  If you’re too cheap, you’ll get fewer affiliates promoting for you.  That’s one of the reasons you get super launches with everyone and his dog promoting trying to get their fat affiliate commission.

I digress. 🙂

Sign up for TDP, do a promotion to your own list, and watch them thank you for letting them know that the price is going up.

BTW, any ads I show on this site for my own products do NOT use my personal affiliate links, including the AdSpurt ads you see that are under test.

So if you’ve sent a prospect and got them cookied, and they later visit this site, your cookies will remain intact and so will your commissions when they buy.  My success is tied closely to yours, and I always want you to get full credit for everything you do.

And on that note, as I add my other scripts to the same affiliate system, the affiliate ID you get when you register for the TDP scheme will also work for the other products too, you just change the site URL.  So if your ID is 95467, you’d just use that same ID when linking to my other products.

That’s all coming soon.

(The exception to this is SmartDD, which is stuck on the old affiliate scheme for quite a while yet.)

There aren’t any promo tools available for TDP at the moment, just your affiliate link, but I’ll get some put together and put them on the affiliates page when they’re ready.

And here’s a special offer as I always like to have an offer of some kind.

If you make a sale of TDP using your affiliate link by the 15th October when I raise the price to $67, I’ll give you a copy of AdSpurt for free when I release it.

AdSpurt is a keyword driven advertising system for ClickBank, PayDotCom (and any other affiliate scheme) that will allow you to monetise any web site you have with content on it.  You can see some of the hover ads it generates here on this blog, but it will also auto generate plain old single underlined key word links too.

It also has some distinct advantages over other methods of advertising, but I’ll let the cat out of the bag on that another time.

TOMORROW I’ll also let you in on another method you can get a copy of AdSpurt for free too.  Watch out for that, as I think you’ll like what I’m going to tell you. 😉

Finally, here’s the link to sign up as an affiliate for TDP:-

http://www.ticketdeskpro.com/affiliates.php

Go sign up now while it’s fresh in your mind, and then see if you can win yourself a free copy of AdSpurt.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business